Prize puzzle from the weekend of June 12, 2016
This puzzle struck me as a little easier than most of Rosa’s but with a typical complement of impressively clever clues. My clue of the week is the brilliant 10a (MACHINERY) and I also applaud 28a (NURSEMAID), 3d (ADRENALINE) and 14d (FATHOMING). I found 4d (TIMOTHY) challenging as I was unfamiliar with two meanings involved.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ORGIASTIC | Bacchanalian Borgia’s ticker-tape welcome (9) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 6 | GRUFF | Crusty tripe sandwiches lead to revulsion (5) |
| R[evulsion] in GUFF (tripe) | ||
| 9 | ABLER | More than competent Hedda blowing head off (5) |
| [g]ABLER (Hedda blowing head off) | ||
| 10 | MACHINERY | Can I rhyme “errant” and “plant”? (9) |
| Anagram of CAN I RHYME | ||
| 11 | ALIENATION | Estrangement from state after a deception (10) |
| A (a) + LIE (deception) + NATION (state) | ||
| 12 | EDEN | Place of bliss, ecstasy and retreat (4) |
| E (ecstasy) + DEN (retreat) | ||
| 14 | FRAILTY | Feel unwell on Friday, with extremes of torpidity and weakness (7) |
| FR (Friday) + AIL (feel unwell) + T[orpidit]Y | ||
| 15 | SHAPE UP | Primate in frantic push to get fit (5,2) |
| APE (primate) in anagram of PUSH | ||
| 17 | TITANIC | Enormous Conservative at home having sex in a reactionary manner (7) |
| C (Conservative) + IN (at home) + AT IT (having sex) all backwards | ||
| 19 | REUNION | Island gathering of the clans (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | OWLS | Nocturnal hunters regularly leaving for Wales (4) |
| [f]O[r] W[a]L[e]S | ||
| 22 | SEAMSTRESS | Reportedly spot female hair in sewer (10) |
| Homophone (“see ms tress”) | ||
| 25 | INAUGURAL | Maiden during summer month texting your boy (9) |
| IN (during) + AUG (summer month) + UR (texting your) + AL (boy) | ||
| 26 | AWOKE | Came to wonder about sanction (5) |
| OK (sanction) in AWE (wonder) | ||
| 27 | GRACE | Good will of good people (5) |
| G (good) + RACE (people) | ||
| 28 | NURSEMAID | Supply us with a minder or nanny (9) |
| Anagram of US A MINDER | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OSAKA | Oscar finally adopts alias in Japanese city (5) |
| O (Oscar) + [adopt]S + AKA (alias) | ||
| 2 | GALLIVANT | Travelling north in the shadow of Etna, villa-goers gad about (9) |
| Reverse hidden word | ||
| 3 | ADRENALINE | Medic in A&E beginning to need some cocaine in response to stress (10) |
| DR (medic) in AE (A&E) + N[eed] + A LINE (some cocaine) | ||
| 4 | TIMOTHY | Grass and tree infested with insects (7) |
| TI (tree) + MOTHY (infested with insects). ‘Timothy’ can mean a grass with long cylindrical spikes grown in northern United States and Europe for hay while ‘ti’, as used here, refers to a shrub with terminal tufts of elongated leaves used locally for thatching and clothing; thick sweet roots are used as food; tropical southeastern Asia, Australia and Hawaii. | ||
| 5 | COCOONS | Bill’s loving partner wearing fleeces and wraps (7) |
| COO (bill’s loving partner) in CONS (fleeces) | ||
| 6 | GLIB | Pat left to enter British territory (4) |
| L (left) in GIB[raltar] (British territory) | ||
| 7 | UPEND | Duo spy Wendy shedding clothes to stand on head (5) |
| [d]U[o] [s]P[y] [w]END[y] | ||
| 8 | FRYING PAN | Fire predecessor as things get worse? (6,3) |
| “Out of the frying pan into the fire” | ||
| 13 | BALUSTRADE | Getting jostled, but lads are coping with supporters (10) |
| Anagram of BUT LADS ARE | ||
| 14 | FATHOMING | Porky Pig limiting minutes working out (9) |
| FAT (porky) + MIN (minutes) in HOG (pig) | ||
| 16 | EMILE ZOLA | French writer recollecting a 50 ounce English fruit (5,4) |
| A (a) + L (50) + OZ (ounce) + E (English) + LIME (fruit) all backwards | ||
| 18 | CHEVRON | V-sign from revolutionary facing Reagan briefly (7) |
| CHE (revolutionary) + V (facing, as in versus) + RON (Reagan briefly) | ||
| 19 | RAMBLER | He likes to walk, run, walk, run (7) |
| R (run) + AMBLE (walk) + R (run) | ||
| 21 | LLAMA | Everyone turned up to welcome a male camel’s relative (5) |
| A (a) + M (male) together in ALL (everyone) backwards | ||
| 23 | SPEED | Career of small, wee daughter (5) |
| S (small) + PEE (wee) + D (daughter) | ||
| 24 | OGRE | Bogeyman of Greeks, 50% unemployed (4) |
| O[f] GRE[eks] | ||
Agree, much easier than previous crosswords by Rosa Klebb.
Lacking any form of deviousness.
My (I must say: our) last one in was TIMOTHY (4d).
Good surface but you need a bit of knowledge of biology or botany, don’t you?
Couldn’t be anything else, though.
22ac (SEAMSTRESS) is only a partial homophone: “see” + MS (female) + TRESS (hair).
No doubt that is what you meant to say.
Thanks for the blog.
And, of course, thanks to our beloved setter for an enjoyable puzzle that was, unfortunately, over too quickly.
I’d forgotten this bit remember loving it at the time.She’s a great setter.
Ha! Sil has let a cat out of the bag. I have always found that two heads with a crossword are more that the sum of their parts. Doing one on ones own is a real challenge as was this one – I only managed half. I didn’t get, for instance, 19d but seeing the answer I do like it.
Thanks Pete and Rosa.
I enjoyed this and particularly liked GRUFF and FRYING PAN.
I had to check “TI” at 4dn too – apparently it’s a woody agave – but had already heard of Timothy grass.
Good fun.
I finally finished it but not sure about 14en! Couldn’t see what tells you to put min into pig=hog! Had to Google Timothy to check it was grass. Pleased to have completed a Rosa Klebb crossword in 2 days. I know most thought it was an easier Rosa one, which is probably why I managed it. Thanks Rosa and Pete.
I usually attempt the Saturday FT on Saturday morning while listening to David Mellor and Ken Livingstone on LBC from 10-noon though recently it has been David and Michael Crick due firstly to Ken being judged to have an electoral interest and then being removed for making remarks that were either true or untrue.
I fully expected to come on here to read that it was the hardest Rosa ever and was staggered to read otherwise-the lhs was blank after the two hour slot apart from 20a and 21d and the rhs had been a titanic struggle.(and that is defining rhs as 5d and 19d eastwards as 4d and 18d were not solved)
To misquote Oscar Wilde , to miss one hidden word (1a) is forgiveable but to miss two (2d, albeit reversed) is not.
Would never have got 4d or 9a -had to google hedda to make sense of the answer.
I like the smutiness of the PE and Viz crosswords but somehow seeing pee and at it in the FT crossword makes me think “O tempora o mores”
Thanks Rosa and Pete
Later than normal to do the Saturday prize and for some reason didn’t feel the same drop off in difficulty as a few of you did. Perhaps it was just me after a busy weekend.
Lots of her typical classy tricks hidden amongst the clues here, including a couple of well hidden ones and the dinky 7d and 24d.
Thought that the pick of them was ABLER with the very apt surface reading, if one is familiar with the play. EMILE ZOLA was also very clever to get a full reversal of the charade components.
Finished all over the place with the cryptic FRYING PAN, REUNION and OGRE.