MPP 100 – Review – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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MPP 100 – Review

by crypticsue  

Monthly Prize Puzzle 100 – Review

September 2020

A Puzzle by Prolixic

 

Big Dave’s blog celebrates another milestone – congratulations to the winner of the 100th MPP  Kelotoph, who wins a Daily Telegraph Crossword Book of his choice

We were asked to find out what links every solution – the fact that you could add DE to each solution to make a new word was obvious reasonably early on in the solving process (well it was to me anyway, although reading the comments it would appear that others took a while to spot it.)  In my case, spotting the link certainly helped with the solving of my last few clues.

Across

5     Acclaim leader dropping charge (6)
IONISE – Drop the ‘leader’ from LIONISE (acclaim)

7     Fellow dancing in coarse cotton twill (8)
FROCKING – F (fellow) ROCKING

9     Government in Ontario organised petition (8)
ROGATION – G (government) inserted into an anagram (organised) of ONTARIO

10     Governor‘s exercise regime cut short (6)
PILATE – Cut short PILATES (exercise regime)

11     Checks note held by literary society (6)
LIMITS – MI (musical note) ‘held by’ LIT (literary) S (society)

12     Old EU leader’s long teeth (5)
TUSKS – Donald TUSK[‘]s

14     Choice of mains electricity (6)
SELECT – Hidden in mainS ELECTricity

16    Kidnapped sailor taken away through a channel (6)
DUCTED – Take away the AB (sailor) from abDUCTED (kidnapped)

19     Stop giving cold comfort – quite the reverse (5)
CEASE – C (cold) EASE (comfort) – the quite the reverse is because a Rookie who used “definition gives wordplay” would get a comment from Prolixic.  The wordplay gives the definition hence the quite the reverse.

20     Those who put away assault rifles (6)
FILERS – An anagram (assault) of RIFLES

22     In favour of established team (6)
FOREST – FOR (in favour of) EST (established)

23     Boasting about new covering (8)
CROWNING – CROWING (boasting) goes ‘about’ N (new)

24     Twist in roots containing small twists (8)
TORSIONS – An anagram (twist) of IN ROOTS ‘containing’ S (small)

25     One who examines a bed’s canopy (6)
TESTER – Double definition

Down

1    Give life to internal organs with drugs containing iodine (8)
VITALISE – VITALS (internal organs) with E (ecstasy drug) ‘containing’ I (chemical symbol for Iodine)

2     Strong points of state prison reviewed (6)
MERITS – ME (American state of Maine) and a reversal (reviewed) of STIR (prison)

3    Calm horse regularly ridden by Clegg’s friend? (8)
COMPOSED – COMPO (the friend of Norman Clegg in the Last of the Summer Wine) and StEeD (regular letters of horse)

4     Training butcher on board ship (6)
SKILLS – KILL (butcher) on board SS (steam ship)

6    Texan’s scented rose did nothing when cultivated (8)
ODORISED – An anagram (when cultivated) of ROSE DID O (nothing)

7     Clear about the answer – within limits (6)
FINITE – FINE (clear) ‘about’ IT (the answer)

8     Piece of music piano teacher discovered (4)
NOTE – Hidden in piaNO TEacher

13    Queen visits new centre with Higgins Trust leader (8)
TERRENCE – ER (The regnal cipher of our current Queen) ‘visits’ an anagram (new) of CENTRE

15     Trustee suppressing law suit leads to friction (8)
TRACTION – TR (trustee) ‘suppressing’ on going on top of in a Down clue, ACTION (law suit)

17     Mark is earl in Settle (8)
COLONISE – Misleading capitals time – COLON (mark) IS (from the clue) E (earl)

18     Guards criminals (6)
FENCES – Double definition

19     Fold edges of robe into luggage (6)
CREASE – RE (the ‘edges’ of RobE) inserted into CASE (luggage)

20    Weather system changing direction over Sweden brings wintery conditions (6)
FROSTS – Change the compass direction in a weather FRONT and you may get FROST, then add the IVR code for Sweden

21    Roman’s make new month before beginning of October (4) NOVO – NOV (November, month) before O (the beginning of October)

Thanks once again to the BDs and Prolixic

8 comments on “MPP 100 – Review”

  1. Congratulations Kelotoph.
    Despite what CS says in the preamble the answer to the question was not obvious for me and it was a long time between having a completed grid and the penny-drop moment of the connecting link.
    An enjoyable challenge.
    Thanks again Prolixic and CS.

  2. Thanks to CrypticSue for the review. A handful of commentators on the original post thought that they had found a tenuous connection between the solutions. I would be interested to know what people thought that connection was.

    Congratulations to Kelotoph on the prize.

    1. For me, it was the correct answer that seemed a bit tenuous – a case of not having sufficient vocabulary at my command.

  3. Many congratulations, Kelotoph, enjoy your prize puzzle book.
    Thanks also to CS for the review – yes, I did register the answer quite early in the solve but when about six of the ‘new’ words looked to be extremely unlikely, I lost confidence and instead of trawling through the BRB at that point, went on the hunt for an alternative. 21d was the final straw – Latin has never been my strong point and I kept thinking of the actor in the recent car advert! That will teach me not to ‘hold the faith’.
    Thanks again to Prolixic for the challenge – I should have realised you’d do your best to make us doubt ourselves.

  4. Congratulations to Kelotoph on winning the prize and many thanks to CS for the review.

    Although I eventually managed a full grid, I made a complete pig’s ear of the link by saying that the last letter of each clue followed by the first letter of the following clue was either a real two-letter word or a recognised two-letter abbreviation (even though a couple of those links were decidedly dodgy).

    Prolixic 1 – Rabbit Dave 0

    Thanks again Prolixic for the challenge.

  5. Thanks for the review, Sue, and to Prolixic for the puzzle and to Big Dave for the prize. It was a puzzle well worthy of being a milestone, although I have to confess to looking for a centenary-based connection for a long time, before some spously assistance pointed me elsewhere.

  6. Heartiest congratulations to Kelotoph on winning the 100th MPP and tonnes of thanks to Crypticsue for her splendid review. Although my grid was complete within an hour and a half, I could not trace out the link even after working on it a good number of hours. So, I decided to shift the research work to the last three evenings of the closing date. Incidentally, when I started my research at the scheduled time, I first decided to observe meticulously at the completed grid for some time. Within a minute or two, I had got the right prefix. So I immediately sent in my entry and that was my consolation. Thanks once again to Prolixic for the entertainment.

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