Finacial Times 13,904 by Styx
Posted by PeeDee on January 18th, 2012
I really enjoyed this one, some of the clues were quite tricky so parse correctly. I have not seen Styx before, so this was a bonus for me, I hope he becomes a regular feature in the Wednesday FT. It was interesting to blog without the aid of Wikipedia today too.
CLUE OF THE DAY - my favourite clue was 2dn, clever &lit and well disguised construction. Click one of the ‘vote’ links to vote for your clue of the day. See the results so far here.
Hold mouse over a clue number to read the clue.
| Across | |||
| 1 | CASTLES | vote | CAST (company) LiES (with I removed=diminished by one) – definition is ‘moves on board’, chess |
| 5 | WALLAHS | vote | WALL (partition) and AS containing (divided by) Hard – definition is ‘workers’ |
| 9 | MERIT | vote | Men (leading letter of) and TIRE (flag) reversed (retrieved=brought back) – defionition is ‘good’ |
| 10 | MISGUIDED | vote | MISs (young lady) and GUy (fellow) both nearly finished with DIED* (horribly=anagram) |
| 11 | IMAGINARY | vote | A GIN (spirit) inside I (one) MARY (biblical character) |
| 12 | DWELT | vote | Died with WELT (a bruise) |
| 13 | PLASTIC SURGEON | vote | LAST (finally) inside PICS (pictures) with URGE ON (provide encouragement) |
| 18 | INTERMEDIARIES | vote | TERMED (called) I (one) following IN (fashionable) then ARIES (house, of the zodiac) – definition is ‘agents’ |
| 20 | ACORN | vote | A CORN (vegetable) – the fruit of the oak tree |
| 22 | MANHATTAN | vote | MAN (fellow) THAT* (mixed=anagram) AN – cocktail of whiskey, vermouth and Angostura bitters |
| 24 | TRIMESTER | vote | TRIM (balance) ESTER (organic compound) – a university term |
| 25 | TRADE | vote | conTRA DEal &lit |
| 26 | CREATES | vote | E (ecstasy) inside CRATES (shipping containers) – definition is ‘produces’ |
| 27 | THRONGS | vote | R (sounds like “are”, outspoken) inside THONGS (flimsy beachware) – definition is lots of people. I was planning some extensive research of ‘thongs’ on Wikipedia to find some informative images for this topic, but Wilkipedia is offline today as a protest against this bill, so sadly I am unable to help. |
| Down | |||
| 1 | COME IN | vote | ChOw (regualr servings of) and MEIN – definition ‘arrive’ |
| 2 | STREAMLET | vote | A ML (1 ml, a small amount of something, water perhaps) in STREET (passage) – &lit – a streamlet is a small body of water that flows (in passage=passing by) |
| 3 | LATHI | vote | LATH (strip of wood) and I (1 Roman numeral) – a long heavy stick used as a weapon (Hindi) |
| 4 | SUMMARISE | vote | SUM (quantity of money) and IS inside (invested=put into) MARE (horse) |
| 5 | WISPY | vote | W (start of whiz) I SPY (…with my little eye) – definition is ‘fine’ |
| 6 | LAUNDERER | vote | Left A UNDER (junior) ERr (mistake, with last letter deducted) |
| 7 | ADDLE | vote | pADDLEs (oars without the end leters) |
| 8 | SEDATING | vote | SEe (witness, shortly) and DATING (going out with) |
| 14 | STRINGENT | vote | STRING (cord) with NET* (anagram=twisted) – definition is ‘tight’ |
| 15 | SPINNERET | vote | Page and INNER (hidden) in SET (routine, stage act) – source of spider’s web |
| 16 | EYESTRAIN | vote | YES (definitely) inside (admitted by) England (head of) and TRAIN (coach) – definition is viewer’s problem |
| 17 | GIGANTIC | vote | GIGi (musical performance) with ANTICs (fantastic acts) both ended early – definition is ‘huge’ |
| 19 | ANGELS | vote | AN (one) GELS (begins to work with) – definition is ‘well-behaved children’ |
| 21 | OPINE | vote | ONE containing (punched by) PI (irrational number, figure) – definition is ‘say’ |
| 22 | MATHS | vote | MA (Master of Arts, academic) THiS (with I=one removed) – definition is ‘school subject’ |
| 23 | ACTOR | vote | fACTORy (works) without the end letters (limitations) |
*anagram
January 18th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Just a note to say you can use Wikipedia if you want to. Just hit the Esc key as the page loads.
January 18th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Thanks anax, though actually I’m glad I didn’t know that, it was more fun without Wikipedia.
It made me realise how lazy I was getting writing the blog. I think I might make a rule that in future I will only use Wikipedia to check the blog after it is written rather than using it as an aid.
January 18th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Many thanks PeeDee.
I’m very sorry to hear that your plans for today’s research on Wikipedia were scuppered.
Styx made 4 appearances in the FT in 2011. All of them were good fun
with plenty of excellent clues. W + I-spy really appealed to me today.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:07 pm
NB Styx made (at least) 4 appearances last year.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Thanks PeeDee, thanks Styx. On 2 down, my take was street = passage, and
a ml is a milli-litre, being a small amount, giving streamlet which is a small body of water.