Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 25, 2015
Thank you to Mudd for another fine puzzle. My clue of the week is 14a (TIRED) and I also applaud 27a (CONTINENT). There were two answers I was unfamiliar with, 8d (EVENTER) and 24d (ELEMI).
ACROSS
1 To throw groom into tailored suit doable? (14)
DISCOMBOBULATE – COMB (groom) in anagram of SUIT DOABLE
10 Crisscross weave positioned on middle of lapel (5)
PLAID – [la]P[el] + LAID (positioned)
11 Overly elaborate raids gone awry (9)
GRANDIOSE – anagram of RAIDS GONE
12 English painter – don’t share his work with Holbein for a start (7)
HOGARTH – HOG (don’t share) + ART (his work) + H[olbein]
13 Possibly Top Gun getting screened by bloke (7)
GARMENT – ARM (gun) in GENT (bloke)
14 Worn out – like the wheel on an American car? (5)
TIRED – double/cryptic definition. Americans call a tyre, a tire.
16 Big noise always a criminal (9)
RACKETEER – RACKET (big noise) + E’ER (always)
19 Ending in nick, a beastly prison for priests, say, that’s in Michigan (9)
KALAMAZOO – [nic]K + A (a) + LAMAZOO homophone (“lamas’ zoo”)
20 One piercing classical chord (5)
TRIAD – I (one) in TRAD (classical)
22 Daily struggle to carry in organ backwards (3,4)
RAT RACE – CART (carry) in EAR (organ) all backwards
25 Free melody not beginning to inspire ladies and gents (7)
UNLOOSE – LOOS (ladies and gents) in [t]UNE (melody not beginning)
27 Comfortable housing in Europe, say? (9)
CONTINENT – IN (in) in CONTENT (comfortable)
28 Yellow puzzle for The Listener (5)
MAIZE – homophone (“maze”)
29 Distortion of “second”, Liberian minute (14)
INCONSIDERABLE – anagram of SECOND LIBERIAN
DOWN
2 Popular summer flower opening (9)
INAUGURAL – IN (popular) + AUG (summer) + URAL (flower, in sense of river)
3 Wood, broadcaster on the radio? (5)
CEDAR – homophone (“seeder”)
4 Heading for mountain, the gear changes variable for many cycles (9)
MEGAHERTZ – M[ountain] + anagram of THE GEAR + Z (variable)
5 Fruit cut for ape (5)
ORANG – ORANG[e] (fruit cut)
6 Experienced runner after run, wiping brow (9)
UNDERWENT – [r]UN + DERWENT (runner, as in a river)
7 Love an access to opportunity, might you say? (5)
ADORE – homophone (“a door”)
8 European victory on key horse (7)
EVENTER – E (European) + V (victory) + ENTER (key). An eventer is horse that takes part in eventing.
9 Winning, opportunity to get result (6)
UPSHOT – UP (winning) + SHOT (opportunity )
15 Stop people getting punishment (9)
DAMNATION – DAM (stop) + NATION (people)
17 Siren defining danger, ultimately, in fried food (9)
CROQUETTE – [dange]R in COQUETTE (siren)
18 Broadcast tie with radio link initially as commentary (9)
EDITORIAL – anagram of TIE RADIO L[ink]
19 Asian city, Asian capital lacking an eastern energy (7)
KARACHI – [an]KARA (Asian capital lacking an) + CHI (eastern energy)
21 Slimmer German chap? (6)
DIETER – double definition
23 First degree as a fillip (5)
TONIC – double definition
24 Resin in time, leaking from below (5)
ELEMI – reverse hidden word. One I did not know. ‘Elemi’ is a type of resin.
26 Theme ending in travel book (5)
LEMMA – [trave]L + EMMA (book). I am familiar with the meaning of ‘lemma’ in mathematics but did not know the meaning referenced here which is: The heading that indicates the subject of an annotation or a literary composition or a dictionary entry.
Thanks Pete.
Saturday a week ago, I couldn’t really get into this puzzle.
“Is this Mudd?”
I found the style of clueing atypical, very different from other Mudd puzzles.
The use of ‘might you say?’ in 7d made clear that it was indeed our beloved setter.
Ah well, perhaps it was just me.
Thanks Pete and Mudd.
Held myself up by putting Organised at 11ac – which works equally well for me – until the crossers made me back track.
Very much liked Tired and Croquette but agree with Sil that the style was less Muddy than usual.
All solvable in the end with Triad the only usage I wasn’t previously familiar with.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I got less than 50% . Just a few comments
3d I don’t get how a broadcaster is a seeder.
6d I don’t think I’ve come across a river being a runner -flower yes but runner no. The Derwent is hardly mainstream.
8d Enter =key is tough
20a I thought Triads were Chinese mafia.
23d & 26d both unknown.
Bamberger
To broadcast is a way of sowing seed in the old days when it was done by hand.
There are at least two Derwents in the UK so not impossible though I didn’t get it.
This for me was a stinker though I did get both 14ac and 8d… and three others after trying for six days. I gave up when then next weeks came along. My worst effort I can ever remember, and not helped by unfamiliar and unknown words such as discombobulate, elemi and lemma.
Might say clear as Mudd!
“The Derwent is hardly mainstream.” I like that!
20a I thought Triads were Chinese mafia. I believe they are.
I did notice that this puzzle was a bit different from a typical Mudd. Fewer double definitions than usual for one thing.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Found it hard to get started with this one … and also thought it very “un-Mudd-like” for some reason. Eventually got a start in the top with ORANG, ADORE (although I originally wrote in an unparsed AMOUR) and TIRED.
Was able to make my way through the rest of it without the usual fun and finished down in the SE with LEMMA (one of several new terms for me), MAIZE (hadn’t seen it as a colour previously) and DIETER the last few in.
TRIAD (in the musical sense), ‘degree’ (as a musical note) and KALAMAZOO were all new. Had come across both DISCOMBOBULATE and EVENTER before. I believe that the longest DERWENT river is actually in Tasmania.
KARACHI was very clever.
As I said, it did occur to me that this puzzle was un-Mudd-like but only vaguely. It seems this struck others in a much stronger way.
I too had not come across ‘maize’ as a colour. And, checking Derwent, I was also interested to find that there is one in Tasmania.
Took me all week to do this one. Never heard of lemma and Kalamazoo didn’t sound like lama’s zoo to me! Never mind did complete finally. Thanks all for explaining things.
How is tonic = first degree? The only first that I can find for tonic is the first note of a scale. And a degree is not a note. Presumably not first degree as in first degree murder etc.