Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 23, 2020
For me, this was the most challenging puzzle from Mudd in a good while. My favourite clues are 14ac (SLOE) for its clever surface, 30ac (ROMAN GOD), the very Muddy 15dn (BARMY) and the playful 22dn (SITCOM).
| Across | ||
| 1 | DAMAGE | Before time, check cost (6) |
| DAM (check) + AGE (time) I have little sense of how common it is these days to use ‘damage’ to mean the cost of something but my father used it frequently. |
||
| 4 | SPECTRUM | Shortened shadow I’m not sure in range (8) |
| SPECTR[e] (shortened shadow) + UM (I’m not sure) | ||
| 9 | SALLOW | Pasty: every bit eaten by pig (6) |
| ALL (every bit) in (eaten by) SOW (pig) | ||
| 10 | PLEASANT | Friendly farmer holding animal’s tail (8) |
| [anima]L in (holding) PEASANT (farmer) | ||
| 12 | RARE | Very fine red (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | SPRAT | Fish traps all at sea (5) |
| Anagram (all at sea) of TRAPS | ||
| 14 | SLOE | Reportedly, tortoises and snails like this fruit (4) |
| Homophone (reportedly) of “slow” (tortoises and snails like this) | ||
| 17 | THEMATICALLY | Meek revolutionary in City Hall bullied, along with similar types? (12) |
| TAME (meek) backwards (revolutionary) in anagram (bullied) of CITY HALL | ||
| 20 | AMPHITHEATRE | Place of combat where a politician punched, intensity of feeling concerning (12) |
| A (a) + MP (politician) + HIT (punched) + HEAT (intensity of feeling) + RE (concerning) | ||
| 23 | ODIN | After reflection, party elected God! (4) |
| DO (party) backwards (after reflection) + IN (elected) | ||
| 24 | SPANK | Smack breaks back (5) |
| KNAPS (breaks) backwards (back) | ||
| 25 | MINT | Shade of green coin (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | PECULIAR | Strange individual (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | APIECE | Each dish’s stuffing terrific (6) |
| PIE (dish) in (‘s stuffing) ACE (terrific) | ||
| 30 | ROMAN GOD | Fruit collected by staff for Bacchus, say? (5,3) |
| MANGO (fruit) in (collected by) ROD (staff) | ||
| 31 | SNAPPY | Quick and smart! (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DISCRETE | South of Land’s End, is island separate? (8) |
| [en]D + IS (is) + CRETE (island) | ||
| 2 | MALARKEY | Replacement of alarm essential – it’s absolute rubbish (8) |
| Anagram (replacement of) ALARM + KEY (essential) | ||
| 3 | GLOW | Burn in green initially, then blue (4) |
| G[reen] + LOW (blue) | ||
| 5 | PULL A FAST ONE | Trick all done the wrong way, as often failing (4,1,4,3) |
| ALL UP (all done) backwards (the wrong way) + anagram (failing) of AS OFTEN | ||
| 6 | CIAO | Hear dog for so long (4) |
| Homophone (hear) of “chow”
Ciao is an Italian word for good-bye which I learned when studying the language in my schooldays. Then, the mid-1960s, I do not remember hearing it used in English at all but Oxford Languages tell us that it has been considered part of English usage for much longer. It started becoming common in the 1950s and its popularity has risen strongly and steadily until today. |
||
| 7 | REALLY | Jolly gathering popping ecstasy (6) |
| E (ecstasy) in (gathering) RALLY (gathering) | ||
| 8 | MOTHER | Male, different relative (6) |
| M (male) + OTHER (different) | ||
| 11 | UPRIGHT PIANO | Pairing up with hot drunk, is one hammered? (7,5) |
| Anagram (drunk) of PAIRING UP HOT | ||
| 15 | BARMY | Boozer Mudd’s bonkers! (5) |
| BAR (boozer) + MY (Mudd’s) | ||
| 16 | FLEET | Ships going at a rate of knots? (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | STRIKE UP | Industrial action finished, start playing (6,2) |
| STRIKE (industrial action) + UP (finished) | ||
| 19 | FEATHERY | Light bite he fed to small fish (8) |
| EAT (bite) + HE (he) in (fed to) FRY (small fish) | ||
| 21 | COPPER | Bobby or Penny? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | SITCOM | What’s so funny? Is it combat trousers? (6) |
| Hidden word (trousers) | ||
| 26 | CLAN | Relations, first of all, can leave at noon (4) |
| C[an] L[eave] A[t] N[oon] | ||
| 27 | SPIN | Pirouette pops up (4) |
| NIPS (pops) backwards (up) | ||
Thanks Pete and Mudd. A very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Mudd and Pete. I waited for this blog because I failed to get MINT and FEATHERY.
Many thanks to both. I held myself up for a while by tossing SPEED into 16d as I didn’t read the clue properly. Then I went looking for an obscure printing collective term for 17a. Sorted things out eventually. Loved BARMY. An enjoyable romp.
Mystogre, Thanks for commenting. I liked BARMY too and think I should have made better mention of it. I have remedied that now.
Despite a spectacular failure, I thoroughly enjoyed this crossword especially CIAO and MALARKY. I missed BARMY and had “rummy” instead; also missed was its crossing, THEMATICALLY — I thought “meek” was the definition and entered “cherubically” instead, with “che” as the “revolutionary” and “bully” scattered about. Don’t ask about the rest — I do a lot of partial parsing to get solutions but clearly that can come back to bite you. Thanks to both as always.
As usual, for me Mudd can do no wrong. I loved 29ac. Thanks, both
How does red = rare? Does it refer to the cooking of meat? Rare = very fine is also really pushing the boundaries of credulity too – unless it is an English expression with which I am not familiar
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Found this quite difficult as well, taking several sessions and then a bit of tidying up at the end to fix up 17a and 15d. There were no new words so the difficulty must have been totally in the trickery of the word play.
Initially had trouble with the spelling of AMPHITHEATRE (forgot about the H) – it was a pretty drawn out word play to unravel once it was in.
Finished with those troublesome crossers – THEMATICALLY (where I first wrote in THEATRICALLY … and just couldn’t get the ‘meek’ bit to work .. until finally it fell) and then had to fix up BARMY (where had originally written in an unparsed ITEMS, for the other sort of ‘bonkers’ !).