MPP 080 – Review – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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MPP 080 – Review

Monthly Prize Puzzle 080 – Review

January 2019

A puzzle by Radler

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Congratulations to this month’s winner – Milvus  – who wins a Daily Telegraph Puzzles book of their choice.

The question said:  Several answers contain alphabetical sequences of two or more letters. (E.g. Afghan has FGH.) All except two letters occur in at least one such sequence. What are those two letters?

All letters except Q and W form alphabetical sequences of at least two characters within the answers. (Though they are of course next to each other in QWERTY, another well-known sequence of letters.)

Dabchick Defer Tight Demijohn Tickle Amnesia Nordic Adopt Q Airstrip Bust Unsteady Wastage Duvets W Sexy Byzantine

 

Across

1a Introduce to family occasion, given suitable clothing (5)
ADOPT – DO (occasion) inserted into APT (suitable)

4a Close to zero, one point involved (9)
BYZANTINE – BY (close to) Z (zero) AN (one) TINE (point)

9a Special Ops train ordinary killer (3-6)
RAT-POISON – An anagram (special) of OPS TRAIN O [ordinary]

10a Wasted time, crew wasted energy (5)
TIGHT – T (time) eIGHT (crew without [wasted] E for Energy)

11a Second Champagne’s the stimulus for laughter (6)
TICKLE – TICK (second) LE (the French definite article used in amongst other places the champagne region)

 

12a Dutch courage seldom lasts, one needs can or bottle (8)
DEMIJOHN – D (Dutch) E and M (the ‘last’ letters of courage and seldom) I (one) JOHN (can in the sense of WC)

14a Sound of trendy fashion (2,5)
IN SHAPE – IN (trendy) SHAPE (fashion)

16a Long time departing Tipperary, running out of it (6)
TRIPPY – Remove the ERA (long time departing) from TIPPeraRY and an anagram (running) of the remaining letters will give you your solution

17a Over half a dozen signs from Greece (3)
XIS – A reversal (over) of SIX (half a dozen)

19a Key order used to be limited in quantity (6)
QWERTY – A truncated version of WERe (used to be limited) inserted in QTY (quantity)

21a Recall trouble with foreign seaman navigating current (7)
AMNESIA – An anagram (foreign) of SEAMAN ‘navigating’ or going round I (electrical current)

24a The Sunday roast: not hot, not safe (8)
UNSTEADY – An anagram (hot) of TE SUNDAY (not hot tells you to remove the H)

26a Scandi-noir crime drama originally directed (6)
NORDIC – An anagram (directed) of NOIR C D (crime and drama ‘originally’)

29a Kill order as espionage admitted (5)
ERASE – Lurking in ordER AS Espionage

30a Mathematician has story about accident, though no damage (9)
FIBONACCI – FIB ON (story about) ACCI (no dent or damage in ACCIDENT)

31a Shady, not hot, but wife got too hot (9)
SWELTERED – Change the H (hot) in SHELTERED (shady) for a W (wife)

32a Character from swamp, ignoring odds, charmed by end of flick (5)
SHREK – S (a character from Swamp) the even letters (ignoring odds) of cHaRmEd and the K at the end of flick

 

 

Down

1d Arrogance precedes fall, landing here (8)
AIRSTRIP- AIRS (arrogance) precedes TRIP (fall)

2d Is dramatically better where French understanding succeeded (7) OUTACTS – OU (the French word for where) TACT (understanding) S (succeeded)

3d Disreputable woman wanting work displays provocative poster (5) T
ROLL – Remove OP (wanting work) from a TROLLop (disreputable woman)

 

4d Nick picked up, transported by road (4)
BUST – Sounds like (picked up) BUSSED (transported by road)

5d Is last character Bet? (5)
ZANTE – Z (last character) ANTE (bet)

6d What s taken in turn, I sorted into groups (9)
NUTRITION An anagram (sorted) of IN TURN and another (groups) of INTO

7d Ring-shaped circle and elevated circle (7)
INGROUP – An anagram (shaped) of RING, O (letter that looks like a circle) and UP (elevated)

8d Go on having sex after the first tense climax (6)
EXTEND – EX (sex after the first letter has been removed) T (tense) END (climax)

13d Hot kiss granted when standing outside (4)
SEXY – A reversal (standing) of YES (granted) goes outside X (kiss)

15d Mike-wielding teenager freaking out in concert (9)
AGREEMENT – M (Mike) in an anagram (freaking out) of TEENAGER

16d Public authority cuts drastically reversed (4)
TSAR – Hidden in reverse in dRASTically

18d Rural base for fish, cold water dweller (8)
DABCHICK – HICK (rural) is the base or goes under DAB (fish) and C (cold)

20d Loss of art in past years (7)
WASTAGE – WAST (past tense of thou art) AGE (years)

22d Wolf hastily secured and another rescued (7)
SEDUCER – An anagram (hastily) of SECURED or another anagram of RESCUED

23d Couples keeping very warm in bed with these? (6)
DUVETS – DUETS (couples) keeping V (very) ‘warm’

25d Yield, as female’s stocking does? (5)
DEFER – F (Female) ‘stocking’ DEER (does being female deer)

27d Dividing common people, new racket from swine? (5)
OINKS – N (new) dividing OIKS (common people)

28d Adult touching up young lady gets sacked? (4)
ABED – A (adult) followed by a reversal (up) of DEB (young lady)

 

The usual thanks go to Radler and Mr and Mrs BD

 

2 comments on “MPP 080 – Review

  1. Congratulations Milvus.
    I remember this as being quite a tussle, (well it was by Radler after all) and very satisfying to get it all sorted.
    Thanks Radler and CS

  2. Many thanks for the review, CS, I remember enjoying the tussle with this one.
    Congratulations to Milvus – enjoy your prize.

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