Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 2, 2021
I found this Mudd fairly easy and nicely enjoyable. My favourite clues are 21ac (BALDERDASH) which taught me some Norse mythology, 24ac (OLIVER), 27ac (KNOTTY), 2dn (UNITE) and 15dn (THEN AGAIN).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PUT-UP JOB | Con, scaffolding work perhaps? (3-2,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | MISUSE | Wrong application is fuelling creative influence (6) |
| IS (is) in (fuelling) MUSE (creative influence) | ||
| 9 | TIDDLY | Happy minute (6) |
| Double definition, each of a mostly British usage as far as I know. (Happy as in tipsy and minute as in tiny.) | ||
| 10 | TASMANIA | Island like isle in Taiwan, oddly (8) |
| AS (like) + MAN (isle, as in Isle of Man) together in (in) T[a]I[w]A[n] | ||
| 11 | BEAR | Stomach exposed, by the sound of it (4) |
| Homophone (by the sound of it) of “bare” (exposed) | ||
| 12 | ICEBREAKER | Pick, for example, ship (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | STURGEON | Fish cutter perhaps with little time to cut through (8) |
| T (little time) in (to cut through) SURGEON (cutter) | ||
| 16 | TEAL | Starter unnecessary, poach duck (4) |
| [s]TEAL (starter unnecessary, poach) | ||
| 18 | BEAU | Macaroni pasta shape, did you say? (4) |
| Homophone (did you say) of “bow” (pasta shape). I had not known that ‘macaroni’ could mean a beau or dandy. | ||
| 19 | OVERRULE | Reverse across line (8) |
| OVER (across) + RULE (line) | ||
| 21 | BALDERDASH | Waffle: God has a little taste (10) |
| BALDER (god) + DASH (a little taste). In Norse mythology Balder is the god of light and peace, and is noted for his beauty and sweet nature. | ||
| 22 | ALSO | A group of players, what is more (4) |
| A (a) + LSO (group of players — i.e. the London Symphony Orchestra) | ||
| 24 | CARTLOAD | Character transporting a lot, extraordinarily large quantity (8) |
| Anagram (extraordinarily) of A LOT in (transporting) CARD (character) | ||
| 26 | OLIVER | Musical without organ? (6) |
| O LIVER (without organ!) | ||
| 27 | KNOTTY | Awkward – like granny? (6) |
| Double/cryptic definition | ||
| 28 | ETERNITY | Tiny tree struggling for a very long time (8) |
| Anagram (struggling) of TINY TREE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | UNITE | Link: roundabout in street in Uxbridge (5) |
| Reverse (roundabout) hidden word (in) | ||
| 3 | UNDERGROUND | Revolutionary reporting to base (11) |
| UNDER (reporting to) + GROUND (base) | ||
| 4 | JOYRIDER | Girl requiring qualification, reckless driver (8) |
| JOY (girl) + RIDER (qualification) | ||
| 5 | BETWEEN YOU AND ME | Where what separates us is to be kept secret (7,3,3,2) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | MYSORE | This setter’s wounded in Indian city (6) |
| MY (this setter’s) + SORE (wounded). Ah, my favourite city in India! | ||
| 7 | SPA | Only a little nauseous, patient well (3) |
| Hidden word (only a little) | ||
| 8 | SLIMEBALL | Hosting party the wrong way, I smell bad – a stinker! (9) |
| LAB (party) backwards (the wrong way) in (hosting) anagram (bad) of I SMELL | ||
| 13 | ALTERCATION | Change something positive in row (11) |
| ALTER (change) + CATION (something positive)
A cation is a positive ion while a negative ion would be an anion. |
||
| 15 | THEN AGAIN | On second thoughts, the horse isn’t needing bottom wiped (4,5) |
| THE (the) + NAG (horse) + AIN[t] (isn’t needing bottom wiped) | ||
| 17 | DETHRONE | Topple don with three rocks (8) |
| Anagram (rocks) of DON THREE | ||
| 20 | GROOVY | Wizard LPs like this? (6) |
| Double/cryptic definition | ||
| 23 | SHEET | Page in book and film (5) |
| SHE (book) + ET (film) | ||
| 25 | TIT | Bird that may soar, similarly? (3) |
| Palindrome (that may soar similarly) | ||
Seems long time ago now and, as always with Mudd, much to enjoy. The sneaky little SPA eluded me though. Really liked the double defs GROOVY and TIDDLY. Also liked THEN AGAIN and PUT-UP JOB, along with TASMANIA for no other reason than it made me yearn to be there, on Bruny perhaps or walking up The Nut in Stanley. Sigh…
Thanks Mudd and to Pete for imparting info on Balder and Beau… another feather in your cap.
I enjoyed it too.
Not as subtle as Diane, but I now know what “Yankee Doodle Dandy” means! CATION was new to me, too, and I think only the English would use “Wizard” and “Groovy” in the same way. I agree with Pete on favourite clues, and was proud of myself for spotting LAB backwards in 8 down.
Thank you Pete and Mudd
Thanks Mudd for another enjoyable prize. Favourites included BEAR, TEAL, THEN AGAIN, and DETHRONE. I needed a look-up for TIDDLY and BALDERDASH (Balder was unknown to me) so I learned a couple of things. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Another enjoyable and entertaining puzzle from this prolific setter. Interesting to see another Aussie state make it into the grid for the week – and probably the prettiest one of all of them. Diane, it was Cradle Mountain, Lake St Clair and the Walls of Jerusalem for me …
There was another instance of the fast-becoming crossword famous STURGEON with its trusty SURGEON offsider as well.
Missed the ALTER + CATION parsing – had lazily just gone with C in ALTERATION which doesn’t make sense. Hadn’t heard of the CATION before and it was my first meeting with BALDER, the Norse god.
Finished with SLIMEBALL (which took some untangling of the wordplay), OVERRULE (an early guess, but again took some time to unwrangle) and BEAU (with the obscure ‘macaroni’ definition and the remembering of the bowtie pasta).
Bruce,
Your picks are equally magical locales – was at Lake St Clair last December watching the echidnas burrowing under tree roots.
Thanks, Mudd and Pete. Getting back into doing cryptics as stay-at-home continues in Illinois. Finished it but used Chambers Word Wizard for some clues. UNITE for some reason puzzled me for the longest time – deceptively simple once you see it! THEN AGAIN was very clever. TIDDLY was LOI and I hadn’t heard the “happy” sense before but get it now. Thanks for explaining ALTERCATION also.
Thanks for the parsing on ‘ALTERCATION’. I also had the ‘C’ as being something positive to place in ‘alteration’ but my husband (a physicist) insisted that ‘C’ has a number of meanings and none appeared to be, strictly speaking, positive. So that one had me stuck.