Monday Prize Crossword/Jun 16
Some Falcon puzzles are easier than others and this one surely was.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WATER MUSIC | Novel collection of orchestral movements (5,5) |
| Double definition | ||
| Apart from being a well-known work by Handel, “Water Music” is also a 1982 novel by T.C. Boyle (which I didn’t know but luckily it didn’t stand in the way of finding the solution at all). | ||
| 7 | TAPE | Time to take off record (4) |
| T (time) + APE (to take off) | ||
| 9 | ALSO | What primordial soup contains as well (4) |
| Hidden solution (‘what … contains’): [primordi]AL SO[up] | ||
| 10 | STARRY-EYED | Gullible yesterday, stupidly accepting rupees (6-4) |
| (YESTERDAY)* around R (rupees) | ||
| 11 | PRAYER | Earnest request made by US artist in person (6) |
| RAY (US artist, Man Ray (1890-1976)) inside PER (person, abbreviated) | ||
| 12 | SHERIDAN | Irish dramatist shared in production (8) |
| (SHARED IN)* | ||
| 13 | SENT DOWN | Rusticated and imprisoned (4,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | APEX | Top copy plus ten (4) |
| APE (copy) + X (ten) | ||
| 17 | ECHO | Italian novelist storing hard copy (4) |
| ECO (Italian novelist, Umberto Eco) around H (hard) | ||
| 19 | SEASONED | Veteran, one of the best in tournament fencing a boy (8) |
| SEED (one of the best, think tennis) around {A + SON (boy)} | ||
| 22 | DOMINEER | Boss around pit cutting live wire (8) |
| MINE (pit) inside DOER (live wire) | ||
| 23 | ESCAPE | Flee European scene (6) |
| E (European) + SCAPE (scene) | ||
| 25 | APOSTROPHE | What Macy’s always displays (10) |
| In “Macy’s” there is an apostrophe – that’s it, I’m afraid | ||
| 26 | MERE | Only minutes before (4) |
| M (minutes) + ERE (before) | ||
| 27 | FREE | Under no obligation to deliver (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | RESOLUTION | Decision about compound (10) |
| RE (about) + SOLUTION (compound) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | AT LARGE | On the loose in the main (2,5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | EBONY | English youth skirting northern wood (5) |
| {E (English) + BOY (youth)} around N (northern) | ||
| 4 | MUSHROOM | Grow rapidly in Greek character’s hot conservatory, perhaps (8) |
| MU (Greek character) + H (hot) + ROOM (conservatory, perhaps) | ||
| 5 | STARS AND STRIPES | Standard achieved by famous names with bands (5,3,7) |
| STARS ( famous names) + AND (with) + STRIPES (bands) | ||
| 6 | CARMEN | Opera character’s lost love in Novel Romance (6) |
| (ROMANCE minus O (love))* | ||
| 7 | THE MIKADO | What may be on at the Savoy? Take him out on visit (3,6) |
| (TAKE HIM)* + DO (visit, as in “we do Japan in one day”) | ||
| 8 | PEERAGE | Lords and ladies look mature (7) |
| PEER (look) + AGE (mature) | ||
| 14 | TOOK ISSUE | Adopted children disagreed (4,5) |
| TOOK (adopted) + ISSUE (children) | ||
| 16 | FAREWELL | Food all right for so long (8) |
| FARE (food) + WELL (all right) | ||
| 18 | CHOPPER | Policeman arresting husband in helicopter (7) |
| COPPER (policeman) around H (husband) | ||
| 20 | ESPARTO | Grass from eastern region bedded in well (7) |
| E (eastern) + {PART (region) inside SO (well)} | ||
| 21 | TERROR | Three-quarter’s first mistake causes panic (6) |
| T[hree-quarter] + ERROR (mistake) | ||
| 24 | COMET | Heavenly body to arrive with tail initially howing (5) |
| COME (arrive) + T[ail] | ||
I couldn’t get 1a,7a,19a 7d, 8d ,16d and 20d so I’d say it was one of Falcon’s harder ones.
I think that the “do” on 7d is hard and I’d never heard of esparto. In fact if you’ given me a list of made up of words that do and don’ exist, I’d have included esparto as made up.
Thanks Falcon and Sil
Only just started doing the FT crosswords again recently and this is my first Monday prize one.
Relatively straightforward finishing up in the NE corner with the last twobeing last two being SEASONED and THE MIKADO – didn’t help myself by writing in The Rivals without too much thought apart from SHERIDAN crossing at 12a.
Some nice clues and I enjoyed it .