Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 4, 2016
We seem to get one Redshank in this space per year. (Maybe he is a migratory setter?) He has a style that makes his puzzles a good challenge. In particular, at least as exemplified by this crossword, he is clever at making his definitions non-obvious, and sometimes murky or cryptic, but also occasionally a bit off (as in 19a).
My clue of the week is 17d (IRONING) and I also especially like 16a (PHILANDER), 25a (LYING-IN), 2d (TWINKLE) and 20d (TONIGHT).
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANTICYCLONES | Rival acting in series gets highs (12) |
| ANTI (rival) + ON (acting) in CYCLES (series) | ||
| 8 | ARRAIGN | A rule, say, to bring up in court (7) |
| A (a) + homophone of REIN (rule) | ||
| 9 | LASAGNA | Food Turner set round sink (7) |
| SAG (sink) in LANA (Turner) | ||
| 11 | KNUCKLE | Bad luck breaking most of knee joint (7) |
| Anagram of LUCK in KNE[e] | ||
| 12 | SURREAL | County doesn’t finish a league? That’s weird (7) |
| SURRE[y] (county doesn’t finish) + A (a) + L (league) | ||
| 13 | FUDGE | Gangleader in feud compounded ambiguity (5) |
| G[angleader] in anagram of FEUD | ||
| 14 | ROTTERDAM | Swine block port (9) |
| ROTTER (swine) + DAM (block) | ||
| 16 | PHILANDER | Royal couple simply carry on (9) |
| PHIL AND ER (Royal couple simply) | ||
| 19 | VOTER | Person in Rolls very nearly steals books (5) |
| OT (books) in VER[y]. For the definition, “person in Rolls” needs to be read more like “person on rolls”. For Americans and probably some other non-Brits who do not speak of people being on voting rolls, this may have been puzzling. | ||
| 21 | DROPLET | Very little fluid allowed after surgery by doctor (7) |
| DR (doctor) + OP (surgery) + LET (allowed) | ||
| 23 | ALMANAC | A cutting sent back about male calendar (7) |
| A (a) + M (male) in CANAL (cutting) backwards | ||
| 24 | SMIDGEN | A little fly trapped in tin (7) |
| MIDGE (fly) in SN (tin) | ||
| 25 | LYING-IN | Confinement usually in ginormous cages (5-2) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 26 | AGE OF CONSENT | Reach this so one can get fresh with female? (3,2,7) |
| F (female) in anagram of SO ONE CAN GET | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AGROUND | Silver bullet lodged in bottom (7) |
| AG (silver) + ROUND (bullet) | ||
| 2 | TWINKLE | What stars do with wee curtains (7) |
| W (with) in TINKLE (wee) | ||
| 3 | CONFERRED | Awarded fine after trick went wrong (9) |
| CON (trick) + F (fine) + ERRED (went wrong) | ||
| 4 | CELTS | Old folk these days have regular bouts of flatus (5) |
| CE (these days) + [f]L[a]T[u]S | ||
| 5 | OBSERVE | Sunday finishes early survey (7) |
| OBSERVE[r]. ‘Sunday’ clues ‘Observer’ in the sense of a Sunday newspaper. | ||
| 6 | EGGHEAD | E for expert? (7) |
| Double definition. I think of an egghead more as a boffin than simply an expert. | ||
| 7 | JACK OF SPADES | “Bad” singer dies childless, cracking member of pack (4,2,6) |
| JACKO (“Bad” singer, i.e. Michael Jackson) + SP (childless) in FADES (dies). SP stands for “sine prole”, Latin for “without issue”. | ||
| 10 | ALL-EMBRACING | Comprehensive school can blame girl (3-9) |
| Anagram of CAN BLAME GIRL | ||
| 15 | TARPAULIN | Thanks to brief adjudication, father enters canvas (9) |
| TA (thanks) + PA (father) in RULIN[g] (brief adjudication) | ||
| 17 | IRONING | Trendy golf club starts decreasing? (7) |
| IRON (club) +IN (trendy) + G (golf) with a nice cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | ALLEGRO | Normal leg room more than adequate for old car (7) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 19 | VAMPIRE | Almost primeval, grotesque fly- by-night (7) |
| Anagram of PRIMEVA[l] | ||
| 20 | TONIGHT | Toddler hides nearby when it’s due to get dark (7) |
| NIGH (nearby) in TOT (toddler) | ||
| 22 | TONIC | Keynote transposed into C (5) |
| Anagram of INTO C | ||
Thanks Pete and Redshank.
Migratory indeed! I “waded” into this enthusiastically and had an enjoyable time of it.
You mentioned the on/in conundrum at 19ac and I also marked 1dn for the same reason – surely it should have been “on” in both cases.
But I’m not going to “snipe”. And I certainly wasn’t “dun(l)in” by this jaunt.
I did have to look up SP for Sine Prole at 7dn and it took a while to spot “Observer” for “Sunday” at 5dn – but overall a very well constructed puzzle with neat and elegant clues.
Philander made me chuckle as did the non-PC 26ac.
Good fun so thanks again.
Redshank is http://bestforpuzzles.com/people/a.html#Duggie-Anderson -don’t where he finds the time.
I couldn’t get 1a . If I had I might have had more success with 1d and 3d
16a is very clever but I don’t think I would ever have got it.
I’ll remember 17d the next time it crops up
Thanks Redshank and Pete
Pretty solid going with this … and well into the second hour to finish it. Was surprised with the number of truncated words used in the word play of clues (almost a mini theme) – I counted 6 ! Have seen PHILANDER before – but it’s a good ‘un !!
Hadn’t seen Sunday used as a synonym for a Sunday paper, but see the Oxford online has ‘the Sundays’ as a generic term for Sunday papers.
Left 26a as a clever cryptic clue – with the anagram now making it even better !!! Couldn’t fully parse JACK OF SPADES – had seen JACKSON as the singer of the “Bad” album but made childless take away the SON and then I was stymied.
Finished up the top with the well disguised ANTICYCLONES, CELTS (where I was trying to squeeze ADULTS in for too long) and OBSERVE the last in.
I thought 17d was great. Don’t really understand 7a,got it only because nothing else would fit. First saw sp and thought ho single person, thanks for the real definition will try and remember it. Thanks Pete and Redshank. Took me all week to complete.