Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 2, 2016
I continue to have mixed reactions to Goliath. On occasions he has wowed me but not this time. I solved this puzzle quickly and easily enough, and was struck by the cleverness of some of the clues. I liked some of the unconventional clues (5a, 27a, 29a, 21d, 26d) but not all. My clue of the week is 24a (EARTH) which has a fine if somewhat tautologous surface (surely heart failure is always terminal — well, unless you happen to be a time lord). I also liked 18d (G-STRINGS).
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHUT AWAY | Confined in rock, first outbuilding (4,4) |
| HUT (outbuilding) + A (first) together in SWAY (rock) | ||
| 5 | IBERIA | Leaders of African nation and Russian region vanish somewhere in Europe (6) |
| [L]IBERIA or [S]IBERIA | ||
| 9 | APERITIF | Back in profit, I repay with a drink (8) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 10 | FOUL-UP | Rising poultry prices reported in error (4-2) |
| Homophone (“fowl up”) | ||
| 12 | TRUCULENT | Lorry borrowed from you sounds hostile (9) |
| Homophone (“truck you lent”) | ||
| 13 | Y-AXIS | Years ago, at the very beginning, 6 turned vertical (1-4) |
| Y[ears] A[go] + SIX (6) backwards | ||
| 14 | MEND | Darn partner to make do (4) |
| Double definition (the second referencing the saying “make do and mend”) | ||
| 16 | BARONET | Noble start to Anne Bronte novel (7) |
| Anagram of A BRONTE | ||
| 19 | POSSESS | Have Nazis followed search party? (7) |
| POSSE (search party) + SS (Nazis) | ||
| 21 | GAPE | Stare and yawn at problem page (4) |
| Anagram of PAGE | ||
| 24 | EARTH | Terminal heart failure (5) |
| Anagram of HEART. ‘Terminal’ defines EARTH in the sense of an electrical terminal (and what Americans call ‘ground’) | ||
| 25 | TRAPEZOID | Figure this: I doze off after gin (9) |
| TRAP (gin) + anagram of I DOZE | ||
| 27 | DENUDE | Strip off in Dundee (6) |
| Anagram of DUNDEE | ||
| 28 | ADHERENT | A woman’s in depression becoming clingy (8) |
| A (a) + HER (woman’s) in DENT (depression) | ||
| 29 | DISOWN | Reject Diana broadcast: her private is sporting feathers (6) |
| DI (Diana) + SOWN (broadcast) DIS (her) + OWN (private) IS (is) in DOWN (sporting feathers)Three definitions in a single clue is one thing. Three sets of wordplay is another. I don’t recall seeing anything like it before. |
||
| 30 | FASTENER | Quickly Frenchman retracted zip? (8) |
| FAST (quickly) + RENE (Frenchman) backwards | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCANTY | Bare image temporarily vacant (6) |
| SCAN (image) + T[emporaril]Y | ||
| 2 | USEFUL | Expedient American fuel crisis (6) |
| US (American) + anagram of FUEL | ||
| 3 | ADIEU | Gold-plated cube is so long (5) |
| DIE (cube) in AU (gold) | ||
| 4 | ANISEED | Denies a change in flavour (7) |
| Anagram of DENIES A | ||
| 6 | BOOBY TRAP | Perhaps Tory slip up led to ambush (5,4) |
| PARTY (perhaps Tory) + BOOB (slip) all backwards (up) | ||
| 7 | RELAXING | At ease with bank endlessly applying cuts (8) |
| REL[y] (bank endlessly) + AXING (applying cuts) | ||
| 8 | APPOSITE | Meet to make a submission in copy (8) |
| POSIT (submission) in APE (copy) | ||
| 11 | STAB | Crazy creatures coming up? Try knife (4) |
| BATS (crazy creatures) reversed – with two definitions | ||
| 15 | EYESHADOW | What about agreed bill? It’s painful and cosmetic (9) |
| YES (agreed) in EH (what) + AD (bill) + OW (it’s painful) | ||
| 17 | SPLENDID | Emptied soup ladle and almost didn’t return – that’s brilliant (8) |
| S[ou]P L[adl]E + DIDN[t] backwards | ||
| 18 | G-STRINGS | Finally making ends meet, calls for minimal clothing (1-7) |
| [makin]G [end]S [mee]T + RINGS (calls) | ||
| 20 | SATE | Replete with fancy eats, up for some wine tasting (4) |
| Anagram of EATS and reverse hidden word | ||
| 21 | GRANDMA | Relative borders of Greater Mesopotamia (7) |
| G[reate]R AND M[esopotami]A | ||
| 22 | SOLEMN | Fish man gutted in earnest (6) |
| SOLE (fish) + M[a]N | ||
| 23 | EDITOR | If it’s sloppy, redo it (one might say) (6) |
| Anagram of EDITOR | ||
| 26 | ERECT | Upstanding vote in Japan? (5) |
| “ELECT” (vote) as it might be pronounced in Japan | ||
Thanks Pete and Goliath.
I couldn’t parse SHUT AWAY so thanks for your help on that.
I marked 11dn as a triple – with Try and Knife (the latter used as a verb) both meaning STAB.
I also had 20dn as a triple or potentially quadruple – anagram of EATS, reverse hidden in winE TASting, and possibly eats up as a sort of &lit.
Enjoyed ERECT but unlike you find that G STRINGS chafe!
Thanks Goliath and Pete
1ac: I am not sure if this is what Pete meant, but I think it reads best if HUT A is taken in one piece as “first outbuilding”, followed by HUT B, etc.
6dn: Here I am sure that BOOB is simply clued as “slip”, leaving “up” as the reversal indicator.
Hamish, Thank you for the corrections. You are surely right about 11dn and 20dn; I have amended the clue descriptions accordingly.
Pelham, That is not what I meant about 1ac but I think you are probably right. Thanks. In the case of 6dn, I saw it as you do and just made a boob in writing up the clue.
Thanks Goliath and Pete
Not quite sure what your grievances were with this one, Pete. You’ve listed quite a few standout clues – I would’ve added Y-AXIS, RELAXING and ADIEU to your list.
Did find it a little easier than he can be here, but didn’t help myself by initially and confidently writing in COCK UP (with a laugh) at 10a.
Finished in that NE corner with Y-AXIS, RELAXING and the amended FOUL UP as the last few in.
Solved all bar 15d and 29a. If I’d got one, I might have got the other. I thought it was good.
Didn’t see Y axis or Iberia, but enjoyed the challenge. Thanks
Goliath’s crosswords are always a pleasure to look forward to.
One can be certain that there will be a lot going on, with several clues quite unusual.
I am afraid that I found this one less enjoyable than I had hoped for.
Perhaps, I found it a tad too easy as I rushed through it.
Clues like 29ac (DISOWN) and 20d (SATE) with multiple wordplay one may expect from Goliath (and/or Philistine, at another place).
I was therefore not surprised by what is happening in 29ac.
Whether I really like it is another matter.
For me, it is ultimately a bit over the top or, if I am in a negative mood, showing off.
I think the clue at 11d (STAB) has even four components.
Two are going down (‘try’ and ‘knife’), two are going up (‘crazy’ and ‘creatures’).
I am not a great fan of using the past tense to indicate that ‘A gives B’.
In 19ac (POSSESS) Goliath had perhaps no choice but in 6d ‘led (to)’ could easily have been avoided.
The blog tells us that IBERIA comes from either LIBERIA or SIBERIA – and rightly so.
But as you say, Pete, from either one or the other.
I was not really happy with the clue giving us: “Leaders of African nation and Russian region vanish”.
I think, I had every right to look for two leaderless things to fit in the solution.
Having said all this, there was still (of course!) a lot of quality clueing.
For some reason, I liked the more conventional ones best: 16ac (BARONET) or 24ac (EARTH), to name a couple.
Many thanks to Goliath and Pete.
Bruce, Ah, yes, I missed the COCK-UP possibility for 10a. Thanks.
Sil, You make several good points, thanks. I especially agree regarding 19ac (POSSESS) and 6d (BOOBY TRAP).