Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 4, 2015
I made my way well through this puzzle until I got stumped by 16d (SLAPHEAD). My clue of the week is 25a (EMBARGO) and I also especially like 7d (BACCARAT).
ACROSS
1 Even gang arriving in pieces (4-4)
FLAT-PACK – FLAT (even) + PACK (gang)
5 Insect could prove annoying? (3,3)
MAY BUG – double definition
10 Tennis player’s skill, with shot gaining point on return (7)
TOPSPIN – NIP (shot) + SPOT (point) all backwards
11 Girl in novel starts to clown around on old instrument (7)
REBECCA – REBEC (old instrument) + C[lown] A[round]
12 In reserve, all nasty then? (2,3)
ON ICE – O (none) + NICE (not nasty)
13 Islanders a success in the conversion of saint (9)
TAHITIANS – A (a) + HIT (success) in anagram of SAINT
14 Modern poem turned into the opposite (12)
CONTEMPORARY – anagram of POEM in CONTRARY (opposite)
18 Romantic subplot nothing to be concerned about? (4,8)
LOVE INTEREST – LOVE (nothing) + INTEREST (be concerned about)
21 Very old Australian arrested by police, a suspect (9)
PALEOZOIC – OZ (Australian) in anagram of POLICE A
23 Eat before pocketing half of food (5)
ERODE – [fo]OD in ERE (before)
24 Beethoven’s Fourth interrupting his Third? That’s naughty! (7)
EROTICA – [bee]T[hoven] in EROICA (his third)
25 Red light for commercial trade turning amber, then green (7)
EMBARGO – anagram of AMBER + GO (green)
26 Mended socks, remarkably (6)
DARNED – double definition
27 Tureen is demolished, as hungry (8)
ESURIENT – anagram of TUREEN IS. I suspect ‘esurient’ is not a widely known word but it happens to be one that I do know well thanks to, believe it or not, Monty Python. John Cleese uses it in “The Cheese Shop”.
DOWN
1 Figure out the downward distance (6)
FATHOM – double definition
2 Nanny reciting poem dedicated to fruit? (2,4)
AU PAIR – homophone (“Oh, pear”)
3 Riddle regarding pig’s second pizza topping (9)
PEPPERONI – PEPPER (riddle) + ON (regarding) + [p]I[g]
4 Walk authorised by the state (14)
CONSTITUTIONAL – double definition
6 Initially, astonishingly befuddled brain offered therapy to get head in order (5)
ABBOT – A[stonishingly] B[efuddled] B[rain] O[ffered] T[herapy]
7 Card game where a club has the measure of diamonds, after bad lead (8)
BACCARAT – B[ad] + A (a) + C (club) + CARAT (the measure of diamonds)
8 One can’t see you supporting girl breaking sergeant’s heart (5,3)
GLASS EYE – LASS (girl) in [ser]GE[ant] + YE (you)
9 US biscuits with grain lacking in meat and nuts (6,8)
GRAHAM CRACKERS – GRA[in] + HAM (meat) + CRACKERS (nuts). Graham Crackers are a popular type of biscuit in America.
15 Arrest boy playing up in seafood restaurant (6,3)
OYSTER BAR – anagram of ARREST BOY. I cannot see why Mudd has ‘up’ in this clue; it seems to me that it plays no necessary role in the wordplay and the surface reading would be better without it.
16 Lick man in depressed baldie (8)
SLAPHEAD – LAP (lick) + HE (man) together in SAD (depressed). ‘Slaphead’ is a word I did not know.
17 Head of organisation in otherwise reviled criminal (8)
EVILDOER – O[rganisation] in anagram of REVILED
19 Pick up large animal, struggling to speak (6)
HOARSE – homophone (“horse”)
20 Answer that’s found in a laboratory (6)
RETORT – double definition
22 Duck on trailer of sheep (5)
OVINE – O (duck) + VINE (trailer)
Thanks, Pete.
Re 15down: I took “playing up”(misbehaving) as the anagram indicator, and I think for the surface, “playing up” suits “arrest” just as well, if not better.
Ah, thanks for explaining that, scchua. I had no idea that “playing up” meant misbehaving.
Failed on
5a even with ?a? b?g. If forced to guess I would have gone for rat bag .
22d I had o?i?e but couldn’t see vine =trailer and knew bovine but not ovine.
Thanks Mudd and Pete Maclean.
ESURIENT was a new word (so was SLAPHEAD, but can’t be bothered to try and remember it).
I did like FLAT-PACK, EMBARGO and AU PAIR.
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Only started this one today … and was my third JH puzzle in a row, so was right in the groove with his clueing. Only slight hold up was with SLAPHEAD that I hadn’t heard of before. Had to look up both GRAHAM BISCUITS and the laboratory RETORT. Forgot to parse AU PAIR after getting it from the definition.
Think that I may have seen it clued similarly before, but thought that EROTICA was very clever.
I believe I have seen that EROTICA clue before too, or one very similar.
I had trouble getting AU PAIR from the definition since I think of an au pair more as a general domestic helper than a nanny in particular.