Financial Times 13,040 / Orense
Posted by Gaufrid on April 1st, 2009
A mix of easy and slightly less easy clues today with some good surfaces. I rather liked 25a which can be a dd or a cd depending on whether one separates the ‘light’ from ‘infantry’. 18a would have pleased me if I hadn’t seen a very similar clue previously and 2d is also worthy of a mention.
The unches on the top row and the start of the bottom row spell out ‘bête noire’ so I spent a little while looking for a Nina but couldn’t find anything further so this is either a coincidence or an attempt at an All Fools’ day prank designed to waste solvers’ time.
Across
9 IMPROMPTU IM PROMPT (ready) U (university)
10 PASSE PASS (amorous advance) [sw]E[et] (sweetheart)
11 COTERIE *(EROTIC) [pressur]E
12 CALIBRE dd
13 TIP dd
14 ANIMADVERTS *(MAIDSERVANT)
17 SUSHI S (south) US (American) HI (greeting)
18 ILK [m]ILK
19 LAIRD I (island) in LARD (fat)
21 ILL-TEMPERED ILL (bad) TEMPER (season) ED (editor)
23 PIE [soa]P I[nsid]E
25 BAYONET dd or cd
27 PATRONS PAT RON (two boys) S (sun)
28 NEARS N (unquantified number) EARS (listeners)
29 IN CONCERT [w]IN[e] CONCERT (musical performance)
Down
1 BIG CAT G (German) C (conservative) in *(BAIT)
2 EPITAPHS cd
3 TOURMALINE TOUR (trip) MA (graduate) *(NILE)
4 EPEE PE (exercises in E[laborat]E
5 NUTCRACKER cd
6 OPAL OP (work) A [leve]L
7 ISOBAR SO (like this) in I BAR (one pub)
8 REVERSED VERSE (output of poet) in RED (debt)
15 IDIOPATHIC IDIO[t] (fool almost) PATH (way) IC (ruling, in charge)
16 VALIDATING *(DATA LIVING)
17 SHINBONE B[r]O[w]N in SHINE (beam)
20 IMPROVED I M (one thousand) PROVED (tested)
22 LAYMAN LAY (put down) MAN (crew)
24 ERSATZ hidden in ‘playERS AT Zurich’
26 NOSH SON (boy) reversed H (hospital)
27 PACE P (pressure) ACE (expert)
April 1st, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Thanks, Gaufrid. I was unaware of the second meaning of “bayonet,” which makes the clue clever indeed.
Not sure about red=debt in 8dn. All I can find in Chambers is “in THE red” = “in debt.”
April 1st, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Hi Agentzero
I raised an eyebrow over debt=red as well. There was a discussion here some months ago about this very topic but I cannot remember in which post or what the final outcome was. In the end, this time I just treated it as a bit of setter’s licence.
I had a bit more of a quibble with the use of ‘display’ as an anagram indicator in 11a.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
It was to do with how compilers had been writing their clues for the likes of RE(VERSE)D so as to utilise the ‘debt’ gag.
At the time I mumbled something about there being no need actually to say ‘in the red’ or ‘in debt’ (which causes the problem observed by our blogger today) where a phrase like ‘experiencing financial difficulty?’ would probably do the trick.