Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 16, 2013
I am writing this blog entry on November 26, the day when John Graham, better known to us as Cinephile, died. His passing comes with no surprise but I am sad that such a legend is gone and that we will not be seeing any more of his puzzles in this space — well, unless there happen to be any already in the pipeline. I know well that not everyone was a fan but I have been doing his puzzles for close to 30 years and grew to enjoy his crosswords very much. Requiescat in pace, John.
And so to this week’s puzzle. As is often the case with Bradman, I found this one rather hard going. There is one clue, 2 down, that I still do not have a sure answer for. My favourites are 12 across (SPAIN) and the mighty clever 4 down (MILITARY POLICE). And I am curious about 9 down (BEDTIME READING) which seems barely cryptic.
ACROSS
1 In a bit of language this writer conveys men with soft edge (8)
MORPHEME – OR (men) + P (soft) + HEM (edge) all together in ME (this writer). OR here stands for ‘other ranks’, a cluing device often used by Bradman.
5 Economical floor covering with flower as border (6)
FRUGAL – RUG (floor covering) in FAL (flower). ‘Flower’ in the cryptic reading of this clue refers to a river and in particular the river that is probably much better known embedded in the name of the town at its mouth, Falmouth, than by itself.
10 In the side subsequently, getting goal having expended energy (7)
LATERAL – LATER (subsequently) + [go]AL
11 One Greek character or another gaining Latin in the course of long period (7)
EPSILON – PSI (another [Greek character]) + L (Latin) together in EON (long period)
12 Country home to the east of Cheltenham? (5)
SPAIN – SPA (Cheltenham?) + IN (home)
13 Great fussing aboard public vehicle on account of four-letter word (9)
TETRAGRAM – anagram of GREAT in TRAM (public vehicle)
14 See us impress with act out of the ordinary? We don’t think everyone’s equal (12)
SUPREMACISTS – anagram of US IMPRESS ACT
18 Applause when trapped animals can be seen rolling over? That’s mean! (12)
CHEESEPARING – APES (animals) backwards in CHEERING (applause)
21 Among other things provided by trendy retail – unusual article (5,4)
INTER ALIA – IN (trendy) + anagram of RETAIL + A (article)
23 Some minstrel going about – one with an eye for the ladies? (5)
OGLER – reverse hidden word
24 Huge fear when head is bitten off by bird (7)
TITANIC – TIT (bird) + [p]ANIC (fear when head is bitten off)
25 One man’s keeping collection of books in office receptacles (2-5)
IN-TRAYS – I (one) + NT (collection of books [i.e. New Testament]) + RAY (man)
26 About to go across the Channel as a visitor (6)
CALLER – C (about) + ALLER (to go across the Channel [i.e. in France])
27 Concerned with land management, a senior lady crosses a sort of valley (8)
AGRARIAN – A (a) + RIA (a sort of valley) in GRAN (senior lady)
DOWN
1 Plague of burrowing creatures, source of trouble (6)
MOLEST – MOLES (burrowing creatures) + T[rouble]
2 A horrible person, first to last, [one] not much good (6)
RATBAG – BRAT (a horrible person) with B moved to the end (first to last) + A (one) + G (not much good).
Like many people I had a very difficult time with this clue. I moved from being baffled by it to figuring I must have the correct answer but without being able to fit that to the wordplay, to learning from Bradman that a word was left out (‘one’), to thinking it was a workable but faulty clue, to seeing it (thanks to Wil — see comments below) as a rather clever &lit. It is debatable whether the use of a part of an &lit. to define something very close to the full solution (i.e. BRAT in this case) is a respectable mechanism. In any other type of clue I can think of, it would not be. In an &lit. however (where the whole clue serves as both definition and wordplay) I tend to think it should be considered okay. But I am not entirely comfortable in that conclusion. Comments?
3 Has anger spreading round university to be manifested in rants? (9)
HARANGUES – U (university) in anagram of HAS ANGER
4 Three times I tell army cop about his organisation (8,6)
MILITARY POLICE – anagram of III (three times I) TELL ARMY COP
6 Religious type appears as a saint when captured by artist (5)
RASTA – A (a) + ST (saint) together in RA (artist)
7 Frenzied attempt to make money from natural mineral or plant (4,4)
GOLD RUSH – GOLD (natural mineral) + RUSH (plant)
8 Huge area with millions traversed by girl (8)
LANDMASS – AND (with) + M (millions) together in LASS (girl)
9 It may involve work late in the evening (7,7)
BEDTIME READING – ??? Is this intended to be a cryptic definition? It seems to me to be a fairly straight definition. Am I missing something?
15 Alliances being supported by type to infiltrate spies (9)
CONSORTIA – ON (being supported by) + SORT (type) together in CIA (spies)
16 Bit of film within film starts to interest cinema circle (8)
ECLIPTIC – CLIP (bit of film) in ET (film) + I[nterest] C[inema]
17 Peg wants dram, Albert’s not touching the stuff (8)
TEETOTAL – TEE (peg) + TOT (dram) + AL (Albert)
19 What could make the ruddy paper change? (6)
ALKALI – cryptic definition referring to Litmus paper
20 Cooler individual disposing of drug, one getting caught (6)
PRISON – I (one) in P[e]RSON (individual disposing of drug)
22 Maybe princess is born after a king’s ascent (5)
RANEE – A (a) + R (king) backwards + NEE (is born)
Thanks, Pete. I also struggled to parse 2d. The best I could come up with requires making “a horrible person” do double duty: BRAT (a horrible person?) becomes (first to last) RATB, “not much” = A, and good = G. Thus, RATB + A + G. Yes, tenuous at best.
20d is more straightforward: I (one getting caught) in P[e]RSON (individual disposing of drug, i.e., ecstasy).
Keeper, Much obliged re 20d. Thanks! I have corrected the blog.
Your analysis of 2d is clever indeed. It works at a stretch but that’s a big stretch.
Thanks Pete and Pasquale,
I was also puzzled by 2dn.
I wondered whether there was a mistake in one of the others (?12 ac) and 2dn was meant to be ROTTER (rotten, with the r replacing the n).
Seeing Keeper’s suggested parsing at 1, I wonder if both the the “A” and the “B” from “A Brat” (A horrible person) are moved “first to last” and are then followed by “G(ood)” for “not much good”.
ROTTER was my first guess for 2dn as well — that was before I solved 12ac.
Well I am glad that I was not the only one who was flummoxed by this clue.
I used to do quite well with teh Don in his various guises but recently I have really struggled and this was no exception. I get the impression that he has made his clues harder.
1a I have never heard of this and would never had got it even if I’d had m?r?h?m?. That state of affairs was not reached as I couldn’t get 1d or 2d.
I also failed on
10a
12a -do I not like spa for Cheltenham even with a ?
22d Who?
26a Guessed Calais even though couldn’t really see why.
Well done Pete
Bamberger, thanks for commenting.
1a. MORPHEME is a good word to know. It means an atomic piece of language.
12a. I had some deliberations with myself about this. Using simply ‘Cheltenham’ to clue SPA seems a little off. Either it would be a definition by example without a ‘by example’ indicator or intended as a ‘complete the proper name of this town’ thing. However I finally decided that with the question mark it worked okay.
22d. RANEE is an Indian word for a princess; goes along with RAJAH.
I had expected that someone here would come up with a convincing answer to 2 down but, since nobody did after more than a day, I sent an email to Don Manley (“Bradman”) asking if he would fill me in. It turns out that he is on holiday, does not have his notes with him, and cannot figure it out either!
Thanks Pete@7
Please let us know if you hear any more from Bradman!
Perhaps it was meant to be Rotter after all.
The published solution confirms that the answer to 2 down is RATBAG. And I think, both from comments here and a couple of private communications I have received, we have a consensus that this clue must work as explained in the updated blog entry.
I have had another communication from Don. A word was left out of the clue somewhere along the line. It should have been:
Horrible person, first to last, one not much good (6)
So this reveals how the second A is properly clued but still leaves us with the unusual case of ‘horrible person’ playing two roles.
I don’t think the double duty etc in 2dn is a problem. Surely the clue is an &lit., the whole clue acting as both definition and wordplay.