Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 3, 2013
I found this to be a fairly easy puzzle and one of Cinephile’s best. I count six noteworthy clues: 13A (APPLECART), 25A (ATLANTA), 26A (CREASE-RESISTANT), 5D (OBLIGATED), 17D (ASSANGE) and 21D (OWENS). That said, I also have reservations about a couple of other clues, especially 15D (TENTACLES).
ACROSS
1 Turn to the gaps in relating to sex in local health centre (7,8)
COTTAGE HOSPITAL – anagram of TO THE GAPS in COITAL (relating to sex)
9 Old stone tool shaped by the lion (7)
NEOLITH – anagram of THE LION
10 Playwright Henry’s benefices (7)
LIVINGS – double definition. I was unaware of the playwright Henry Livings and had to look him up. ‘Benefices’ are what provide clergy with an income.
11 Singer revealed by his body language (5)
DYLAN – hidden word
12 Pale-coloured tulip may be subject to changing (5,4)
LIGHT BULB – LIGHT (pale-coloured) + BULB (tulip may be)
13 Upsetting subject in wrong place in wrong part (9)
APPLECART – anagram of PLACE in anagram of PART
15 Seek terms for party? (5)
TREAT – double definition
16 End of French request for hair (5)
PLAIT – [s’il vous] PLAIT (end of French request)
18 Joiner opposed to one’s declining fairly slowly (9)
ANDANTINO – AND (joiner) + ANTI (opposed to) + ON[e] backwards. I was not familiar with this musical term and had to use a pattern-matching tool to get the answer here.
20 Painter out of front page on his guard: this bird won’t fly (9)
CASSOWARY – [pi]CASSO (painter out of front page, i.e. Page 1) + WARY (on his guard). I think ‘out of’ does not work perfectly here.
23 Allowed to be beheaded? That’s very bad (5)
AWFUL – [l]AWFUL (allowed to be beheaded)
24 Motor accessory perceived to include a note (3,4)
FAN BELT – A (a) + NB (note) together in FELT (perceived)
25 A model worker in US city, one twinned with Tbilisi? (7)
ATLANTA – A (a) + T (model) + ANT (worker) in LA (US city). Why is Atlanta twinned with Tblisi? Each is the capital of a Georgia!
26 Not needing press’s tears, since tears are faked (6-9)
CREASE-RESISTANT – anagram of TEARS SINCE TEARS
DOWN
1 Endless headache pills in prison bringing peace to railroad (8,7)
CANADIAN PACIFIC – ANADI[n] (endless headache pills) in CAN (prison) + PACIFIC (peace). A difficult clue, I think, for non-Brits who are likely to be unfamiliar with our brands of analgesics.
2 Bad fairy at work with loose woman (7)
TROLLOP – TROLL (bad fairy) + OP (work)
3 Food without gin? I’m off to be getting things straight (9)
ALIGNMENT – G[i]N (gin I’m off) in ALIMENT (food). I missed this in my initial write-up but, as a commenter points out, “I’m off” does not work properly to tell one to remove the I from gin. “I must be off” would be equally good in the surface reading and also fit the cryptic reading (because it suits both first and third person).
4 Old solver’s in railway with modifier for alcohol (5)
ETHYL – THY (old solver’s) in EL (railway, i.e. an elevated railway)
5 Tabloid, for example, may be in debt (9)
OBLIGATED – anagram of TABLOID EG (for example)
6 Centre point for four in vessel (5)
PIVOT – IV (four) in POT (vessel)
7 Result of shaving weight for certain (7)
TONSURE – TON (weight) + SURE (for certain)
8 Consoling assessment not applicable to descending series (4,3,3,5)
LAST BUT NOT LEAST – double definition
14 A flower scientifically produced from gypsum? (9)
ALABASTER – A (a) + LAB (scientifically produced) + ASTER (flower)
15 . . . . but the octopus has eight and Rugby League speaks of six (9)
TENTACLES – This clue is obviously a homophone of sorts but I cannot fully put it together. Let’s clarify the “Rugby League speaks of six” part. This refers to the “six-tackle” rule which says the the ball changes sides after six tackles. So an octopus has, homophonically, “ten tackles” while Rugby League speaks of “six tackles”. But these are not parallel; an octopus has eight tentacles, not “eight tackles”, while Rugby League speaks of six tackles, not “six tentacles”. Now maybe the odd ellipsis and “but” at the start are supposed to somehow make this okay but, if so, I do not see how.
17 Fool, nearly saint, that’s Julian (7)
ASSANGE – ASS (fool) + ANGE[l] (nearly saint)
19 Home supporter volunteers to get princess (7)
INFANTA – IN (home) + FAN (supporter) + TA (volunteers, i.e. Territorial Army)
21 Jesse who ran round all quarters (5)
OWENS – O (round) + WENS (all quarters)
22 Poetry ends with food for poet (5)
YEATS – [poetr]Y + EATS (food). I think that ‘poetry ends’ does not properly clue Y but this is a kind of thing we may have to put up with.
Thanks for the blog, Pete. Yes, 1d was tough for this Yank. I got it from the crossing letters, but was left wondering if there were headache pills called ADIAN (between CAN and PACIFIC). Further showing my ignorance of UK sports, I would kindly request some explanation of 15d, which seems to have been omitted from above. (I’m guessing TENTACLES sounds like “ten tackles” – But what does that have to do with six in Rugby League?)
Hi Keeper, Ah! I had intended to go back and say more about 15D…and then forgot! I have now added what I meant to say originally. This explains the Rugby League business (which was unknown even to me, a Brit who has played rugby) and sets out my doubts about the viability of the clue as a whole.
Back to commenting rather late in the day I’m afraid Pete.
At least two quibbles with an otherwise sound enough crossword: a) What is ‘his’ doing in 11ac? It is not part of the hidden and only seems to be there for the surface, and hardly necessarily either. The clue would read perfectly well without it.
b) ‘I’m off’ for ‘I must be off’ in 3dn was I thought a capital offence.
c) And yes I agree about the tentacles clue, unless everyone’s missing something: it seems terribly loose.
Wil, I see your point about 11ac but I am not so picky about it. In the case of 3dn however, I have to acknowledge that I missed something serious. Thank you for pointing it out.