My first Mudd blog in over three years
I don't often have to blog Mudd's puzzles as he doesn't appear very often during the week. I don't do weekend FT puzzles, so don't know how typical this is, but it was OK. There were some excellent clues and some mediocre, but everything was solvable and fair. I thought three homophones in the same puzzle was excessive, especially as two of them were indicated in the same way (by the sound of it).
Thanks Mudd
| ACROSS | ||
| BOTTOM |
Shakespearean character, is one in trousers? (6)
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BOTTOM from A Midsummer Night's Dream |
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| SERAPH |
Extraordinary phrase, being of the highest order (6)
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*(phrase) [anag:extraordinary] |
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| PINNACE |
Speed around local boat (7)
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PACE ("speed") around INN ("local") |
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| EDAMAME |
A setter after cheese for Japanese snack (7)
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A + ME (the "setter" referring to himself) after EDAM ("cheese") |
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| ALTOGETHER |
Good number by singer, on the whole (10)
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G (good) + ETHER ("number", as in "that which numbs") by ALTO ("singer") |
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| RUFF |
Trump coarse, by the sound of it? (4)
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Homophone [by the sound of it] of ROUGH ("coarse") |
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| BIDET |
Stay with jet at the rear – here? (5)
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BIDE ("stay") with (je)T [at the rear] I was going to give this an &lit,, but I don't think anyone actually "stays" on a bidet. |
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| IN PERSON |
Physically turning spinner, circle maintained (2,6)
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O (circle) maintained by *(spinner) [anag:turning] |
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| KICKBACK |
Pass on second illicit payment (8)
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PASS ("kick") on BACK ("second") I assume that the PASS referred to is a KICK in football, but not sure they're synonymous enough. |
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| ORBIT |
Course taken by world leader in research overwhelmed by final tribute? (5)
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[leader in] R(esearch) overwhelmed by OBIT ("final tribute") |
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| SHOO |
Get out, using pipe down middle of roof (4)
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SH ("pipe down!") + [middle of] (r)OO(f) |
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| GINGER SNAP |
Something sweet: minimum of Pernod served after alcoholic drink angers drunk (6,4)
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[minimum of] P(ernod) served after GIN ("alcoholic drink") + *(angers) [anag:drunk] |
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| PERIDOT |
Stone editor moved on to page (7)
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*(editor) [anag:moved] on P (page) |
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| CURATOR |
Article in short old and rusty, originally, for museum worker (7)
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A ("article") in CURT ("short") + O(ld) R(usty) [originally] |
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| TAGINE |
Alien eating African food (6)
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*(eating) [anag:alien] Having just returned from Moroccoa couple of weeks ago, this was a write in! |
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| TENDON |
Band that connects number with lecturer (6)
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TEN ("number") with DON ("lecturer") |
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| DOWN | ||
| BRILL |
Excellent swimmer (5)
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Double definition, the first being short for "brilliant", and the second a fish. |
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| TANGOED |
Reference under suspicion, took steps in Buenos Aires? (7)
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OED (Oxford English Dictionary, a "reference" book) under TANG ("suspicion") |
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| ORCHESTRA |
Players play with her actors (9)
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*(her actors) [anag:play] |
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| EIDER |
They say I used to own a duck! (5)
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Homophone [they say] of I'D A ("I used to own a") |
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| ADMIRER |
Lover married rogue (7)
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*(married) [anag:rogue] |
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| HOME FRONT |
For month bombs consuming England’s capital, civilians united in war (4,5)
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*(for month) [anag:bombs] consuming E(ngland) ['s capital] |
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| SHRINKING |
On the wane, hour in dropping (9)
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Hr. (hour) in SINKING ("dropping") |
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| BRIGHTEST |
Privilege claimed by elite, most incandescent (9)
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RIGHT ("privilege") claimed by BEST ("elite") |
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| PROSECUTE |
Try ordinary language, dear (9)
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PROSE ("ordinary language") + CUTE ("dear") |
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| KNOWING |
Shrewd leader wrapping the present (7)
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KING ("leader") wrapping NOW ("the present") |
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| BUSTARD |
Bird in shoot pumped full of lead (7)
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BUD ("shoot") pumped full of STAR ("lead") |
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| GROAN |
Beef fattened up, by the sound of it? (5)
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Homophone [by the sound of it] of GROWN ("fattened up?") |
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| ADORN |
Dress a little salad, or not? (5)
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Hidden in [a little] "salAD OR Not" |
Very enjoyable. Three new words for me — EDAMAME, PINNACE & PERIDOT. Despite consulting dictionaries I couldn’t link Trump with RUFF. “Cute” and “dear” are rather approximate synonyms, methinks. My favourite was TANGOED.
GDU@1 – sorry, should have added on my parsing of RUFF that Ruff (aka Trump) is a card game like whist. It is in Chambers.
Thanks loonapick and Mudd.
Quite liked this.
ORBIT, SHOO, GINGER SNAP, PROSECUTE, TANGOED, BIDET are my favs.
re 12a, I took trump as verb; to ruff in Bridge, is to play a trump card on a trick when that player has run out of the suit which was led.
For me this was as expected from Mudd, about mid-level difficulty with a few harder ones at the end. I didn’t notice the ‘by the sound of it?’ repetition, nor the total of three homophones; if anyone here has a record of the types of clues in a puzzle, it would be interesting to see the average number of homophones per puzzle.
I was delayed by initially putting in “backhand” at 16a which fits the wordplay, though an ‘illicit payment’ is really a “backhander”. CUTE for ‘dear’ at 15d didn’t immediately come to mind for me either. RUFF has a number of meanings – sartorial, ornithological and piscatorial – but I’d forgotten the card game noun and verb senses.
Good to see that the ‘Excellent’ synonym at 1d wasn’t “def”, though BRILL isn’t much better!
Thanks to Mudd and loonapick
By the way, I don’t know what happened to the numbers – they were in my source document?
A bit of a light breeze after yesterday’s hurricane!
I’m not too sure that “cute” and “dear” are synonyms.
Peter@7: “look at that cute little kitten” and “look at that dear little kitten” are virtually the same to me, aren’t they?
For 16a, I missed KICK = PASS and took “PASS ON” as meaning to die or kick the bucket.
Loved jet at the rear for bidet!
Thanks to all.
Mudd at his Pauline best, I thought. 13a BIDET was my laugh-out-loud clue-of-the-day.
Other favourites were the two puns (some of you call them homophones) at 12a RUFF and 21d GROAN, and the brilliant charade at 11a ALTOGETHER.
Thanks Paul and loonapick for the excellent puzzle and blog.
P.S. While I’m here I want to give a shout out to Rosa Klebb’s puzzle # 17,208. I’ve just finished it, and it was as great as I was expecting from this wonderful setter. It is so good to have her back with us.
I agree with you cellomaniac, that Saturday FT crossword by Klebb was a belter, I am still laughing out loud, almost every clue was a gem. Welcome back Klebb, I look forward to an Arachne in the Graun.
Thanks Mudd for the fun Loonapick for the blog. BIDET alone was worth the price of admission. And, yes, it made my weekend to see Rosa Klebb, one of my all-time favourites, setting gems again.