MPP 095 – Review – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

MPP 095 – Review

Monthly Prize Puzzle 095 – Review

April 2020

Where From? by Alchemi

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

Congratulations to Roberta Coffer for winning this month’s prize competition.  Many of you may remember Roberta, who used to post comments as Tilly many years ago.

The instructions were as follows:

Half the clues have misprints in the definition. The correct letters, read in clue order, give the title of a song and the original recording artists. That song mentions an itinerary of four American cities. Three of those appear in the grid, clued by wordplay only. What is the fourth city?

This led to Willin’ by Little Feat.

“I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah”

The sixteen corrections are shown below [inside brackets] with the misprinted letter in red. Three of the four cities are shown below in blue leaving the fourth city, TUCSON, as the answer.

Across

W

1a Finished off tearing clothes [Wearing clothes] (7)
DRESSED: two definitions

 

5a Heavyweight Winfrey maybe disheartened (7)
TONOPAH: TON (heavyweight) followed by OP[r]AH (Winfrey)

 

9a Physically escort amphibian protest (9)
FROGMARCH: an amphibian followed by a type of protest

I

10a Malt [MalI] possibly in bad taste (5)
STATE: an anagram (bad) of TASTE

L

11a Feat [fLat] the day before November (4)
EVEN: EVE (the day before) followed by the letter represented by November in the NATO Phonetic alphabet

 

12a Again familiarise oneself with charmingly old-fashioned race organised earlier (10)
REACQUAINT: a word meaning charmingly old-fashioned preceded by (earlier) an anagram (organised) of RACE

L

14a Put back pictures of French dears (sort of) [deaLs (sort of)] (5)
TRADE: ART (pictures) reversed (put back) and followed “of” in French

 

16a Broken water tap enthrals Yankee law enforcement officer (5,4)
WYATT EARP: an anagram (broken) of WATER TAP around enthrals the letter represented by Yankee in the NATO Phonetic alphabet

 

17a Workers’ organisation let me see around Rhode Island (9)
TUCUMCARI: TUC (workers’ organisation) followed by UM (let me see), the two-letter Latin abbreviation for around, and the abbreviation for Rhode Island

I

18a Remove lad [remove lId]winning round new chief accountant (5)
UNCAP: UP (winning) around N(ew) and the abbreviation for chief accountant

 

20a They soften some lentil soup (10)
EMOLLIENTS: an anagram (soup) of SOME LENTIL

N

22a Stakes [sNakes] small in backward resort (4)
ASPS: SPA (resort) reversed (backward) around (in) S(mall)

L

25a Come out on top, replacing centre of the coin [coiL] (5)
TWINE: WIN (come out on top) instead of (replacing) the middle letter (centre) of T[H]E

 

26a Explain bad clue I see (9)
ELUCIDATE: an anagram () of CLUE I followed by DATE (see)

 

27a Summaries of electronic way to open accommodation (7)
DIGESTS: E(lectronic) and ST(reet) (way) inside (to open) DIGS (accommodation)

I

28a Rams set to become little ravers [rIvers] (7)
STREAMS: an anagram (to become) of RAMS SET

 

Down

T

1d Burn away [Turn away] line crossed by fault (7)
DEFLECT: L(ine) inside (crossed by) DEFECT (fault)

T

2d Bring our [bring ouT] second person to embrace agreement (5)
EVOKE: EVE (second person) around (to embrace) OK (agreement)

 

3d Reservoir upset American politician (4)
SUMP: US (American) reversed (upset) followed by MP (politician)

 

4d Sad song climbing electronic network (5)
DIRGE: the reversal (climbing) of E(lectronic) and GRID (network)

 

5d The odd bloke in artificial intelligence (9)
TEHACHAPI: an anagram (odd) of THE followed by a CHAP (bloke) inside the abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence

L

6d Cruelly ruin a mutt’s edible heaves [edible Leaves] (10)
NASTURTIUM: an anagram (cruelly) of RUIN A MUTT’S

 

7d A chap Iris made out to be hypocritical (9)
PHARISAIC: an anagram (made out) of A CHAP IRIS

E

8d Man the Spanish eavesdrop on finds part of shot [part of shoE] (7)
HEELTAP: HE (man) followed by the Spanish definite article and TAP (eavesdrop on)

F

13d Lefty thinks about alien dishes [Fishes] (3,7)
RED MULLETS: RED (lefty) followed by MULLS (thinks) around ET (alien)

 

15d Securely fixing in branch or in gallery (9)
ANCHORING: hidden (in) inside the clue

 

16d They make feeble knees wear out (9)
WEAKENERS: an anagram (out) of KNEES WEAR

E

17d Sent massage [sent mEssage] with note in cloth (7)
TWEETED: TE (note of the scale in sol-fa notation) inside TWEED (cloth)

A

19d Hive [hAve] missing parts of dresses so patched up (7)
POSSESS: hidden (missing parts of) and reversed (up) inside the clue

 

21d Trump primarily embraces violent people (5)
THUGS: the initial letter (primarily) of T[rump] followed by HUGS (embraces)

 

23d Flow in Scotland starts to surprisingly cause awful panic attacks (5)
SCAPA: the initial letters of (starts to) five words in the clue

T

24d Row of seals [row of seaTs] that’s in Turkey (4)
TIER: IE (Latin abbreviation for that’s / that is / id est) inside the IVR code for Turkey

.

10 comments on “MPP 095 – Review

  1. Thanks to Alchemi for a very enjoyable puzzle and to BD for the explanations. Congratulations to Tilly (I hope that your victory will spur you into regular commenting once more!).

    1. Many thanks, Gazza. Lots of water gone under lots of bridges since I last posted, but I have always stayed around as a lurker, so it feels like I have never been away! Take care and stay safe everyone.

      1. Welcome back Tilly. Lovely to hear from you again. Your e-mail address has changed to the comment when into the in-tray to be approved.

  2. Congratulations Tilly.
    As the song, the group and the three places that are answers in the grid were all new to me Mr Google had to work quite hard on my behalf but I did get it all sorted and enjoyed the ride.
    Thanks again Alchemi and Prolixic.

  3. Heartiest congratulations to Roberta Coffer on winning the Monthly Prize Puzzle – 095. Once again thanks to Alchemi for the brilliant puzzle which was novel of its kind and which I heartily cherished. Thanks also to BD for the wonderful review. Last, but not the least, I owe my gratitude to Google for getting me that I was looking for. Incidentally, the name of Milvus, the last month’s winner, is now missing from the Roll of Honour of January 2019. Milvus won in April 2014 and January 2019, too. To all, please stay safe in the best possible way.

  4. Lovely puzzle, thanks Alchemi. The weird unlikely places were fun to unearth, but in particular I enjoyed the misprints which were so seamlessly incorporated.

Comments are closed.