Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 30, 2013
I think the puzzle is a mixed bag. The fairly obvious theme made many of the clues easy but there are four answers that I was not familiar with including one, Atebrin a medicine, that I imagine very few people knew. The only exceptionally good clue I find is 5D (UNLOOSENED) and I have some reservation about 12A (CHAIN).
Across
1. HUGGER-MUGGER – HUGGER (bear) + MUGGER (crocodile). A mugger is an Indian crocodile.
10. HAGGARD – A (a) + GG (horse) together in HARD (adamant)
11. LUNETTE – NET (catcher) in LUTE (clay). ‘Lute’ can mean clay! I had not known that.
12. CHAIN – double definition. I needed help with this one because, while I correctly guessed the answer, I could make no sense of the “but not if you’re buying a house” part of the clue. Turns out it refers to a chain of people each of whom is trying to buy a house when the person at the end of the chain cannot find a buyer. Even for someone who knew this, I think the clue does not work well.
13. ZOOT SUIT – ZOO (animals) + anagram of TITUS
15. EVEN-STEVEN – EVEN (flat) + STEVEN (boy)
16,18. SHERLOCK – SHER (actor Anthony) + LOCK (security)
20. GREENSHANK – NS (poles) + HAN[dicapped] together in GREEK (language)
22. CLAPTRAP – CLAP (in praise of) + TRAP (gin)
24. CREEL – CREE (native American) + L (student)
26. ENTERED – anagram of TREE in END (last)
27. WEE FREE – homophone (“we three” in Cockney). “Wee Free” refers, I assume, to the Free Church of Scotland.
28. NIMINY-PIMINY – two words that rhyme with RIMINI (Adriatic city). I needed help with this clue too. I suspected that Rimini was the rhyming city but I had never come across this term, niminy-piminy — which means affectedly delicate.
Down
2. UPGRADE – anagram of A PURGED
3. GLADNESS – END (fine?) backwards in GLASS (barometer). ‘Fine’ can mean an end or conclusion (similar to ‘final’).
4. RIDE – double definition
5. UNLOOSENED – anagram of END ONE SOULS
6. GENET – E (English) in GENT (gentleman). A genet is a civet-like animal.
7. RETOUCH – anagram of HOUR ETC
8. CHICKEN-LICKEN – CHIC (has fashion) + KEN (knowledge) + LIC[ensed] + KEN (know)
9. HELTER SKELTER – double definition
14. BEER GARDEN – BE (live) + ERG (piece of work) + ARDEN (forest). An erg is actually a measure of work.
17. ISOCHEIM – anagram of I COME HIS. I was unaware of this term but guessed that it started with ISO which led me to find it in a dictionary.
19. CHASTEN – C[onspiracy] + HASTEN (don’t delay)
21. ATEBRIN – ATE (consumed) + BRIN[e] (a lot of salt). Atebrin is an anti-malarial drug. Which I had never heard of.
23. THRUM – double definition. At first I thought that ‘a bit of thread’ must clue THR — which left me with, UM, something missing. Turns out that thrum can mean a tail end of thread.
25. SWAP – PAWS (hands) reversed
Hi Pete,
Chambers gives daisy as “a general term of admiration”, and daisy-chain as “to inflate(prices)…” so not very good if you are buying a house. So I think the clue does work, albeit relying on (to me)less familiar secondary definitions. I suppose it is all part and parcel of a cryptic crossword.
Thanks for the blog, Pete. You have the same reservations about this crossword as me.
jmac, Thank you for commenting. That certainly expands my sense of what ‘daisy’ and ‘daisy-chain’ can mean — I had not known either of the meanings you cite — but it does not allay my doubts about the clue. As I see it, the first part of the clue, “could be daisy”, works very well as a definition for CHAIN. However the second part, “but not if you’re buying a house”, does not by itself clue CHAIN (or anything else that I can come up with). It only has specific meaning when understood in the context of a daisy-chain. So the clue is solvable but it does not work as a proper double definition. So, do we suppose it is a cryptic definition? I cannot quite see that either. Bottom line, it’s no big deal; it’s an okay clue; it’s a kind of clue we expect and accept from Cinephile; but it’s a weak clue.
Thanks for the blog, Pete. I have to agree with you (and Richard @2) about the weakness of 12a. Like you, I had not heard of ISOCHEIM or ATEBRIN but penciled them in based on the wordplay. Ditto for 28a. And I was not familiar with Antony Sher, though the crossing letters (and detective) led to the solution. Lute = clay was also new to me.
Hi Keeper, Anthony Sher is a fairly prolific actor although not a very big name. It may be that he sticks in my mind because I have a cousin who met him once.
Niminy-piminy will be familiar to anyone who knows Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience. It described one of the two poets based, I believe , on Oscar Wilde and Arthur Swinburne, though I do not know which is which.
Ah, so it must be a fairly old expression. Makes it all the more surprising that I am unfamiliar with it. I know The Mikado well and have seen a couple of other G&Ss but not Patience.