Financial Times by Gozo 13,975
Posted by PeeDee on April 11th, 2012
Another lucky week for me. I get to blog the Guardian Easter Special at the weekend and now this really super themed puzzle from Gozo today. I recomend having a go at this one, the puzzle can be downloaded here.
The theme is of couse birds. I had heard nearly all of them (except solan), but even so finding the solutions was still not easy. I made life harder for myself by incorrectly writing LINNET as the answer to 31 ac, which then had repercussions across the rest of the puzzle. Thank you Gozo for a very enjoyable morning.
Hold the mouse pointer over any clue number to read the clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PUFFIN | PUFF (biscuit) IN (is popular) – I think the ‘s following biscuit might be a misprint |
| 4 | PARAKEET | RAKE (tool) in TAPE* |
| 9 | AVOCET | CE (Church of England) in AV (Authorised Version, bible) OT (books of the bible) |
| 10 | NIGHTJAR | JAR (a pint of beer) following NIGHT (the dark) |
| 12 | TERN | winTER Nest – |
| 13 | SOLAN | ALSO* and Name |
| 14 | KITE | KIT (young ferret) Eating (start of) |
| 17 | MANDARIN DUCK | AND (as well as) A (one) RIND (outside) in MUCK (manure) |
| 20 | CAPERCAILLIE | CAPER (frolic) and CAILLIE sounds like “ceilidh”, a Gaelic evening of music and dance |
| 23 | HAWK | Henry A WK (week) |
| 24 | CAPON | CAP ON – wearing a cap |
| 25 | SMEE | SiMpErEd – oddly=every other letter |
| 28 | DOTTEREL | OTTER (a carnivore) in LED (was first) reversed |
| 29 | LINNET | TEN-NIL (crushing defeat at football) reversed (setback) |
| 30 | WHEATEAR | English in WHAT (which) EAR (listener) |
| 31 | ORIOLE | IO (ten) and L (fifty, Roman numerals) in ORE(aggregate).I originally wrote in LINNET here, which is an anagram (aggregate) of TEN L (fifty) IN. This seemed a pretty solid answer to me, which then messed up various other parts of the crossword, especially 29ac and 5dn. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PLAY TIME | double definition |
| 2 | FLOORING | sounds like “flawing”, making defective |
| 3 | IVES | LIVES (is) without L=left – Charles Ives (1874–1954), American composer |
| 5 | ANIMAL DOCTOR | I’m not sure on this one. I think by giving an extra E (a touch of expertise) to ANIMAL DOCTOR you get an anagram of TEND MACAw and ORIOLe (macaw and oriole being tailless) – the definition is &lit |
| 6 | ACHE | AC (account, bill) HE |
| 7 | ENJOIN | JOE NINety* (90 missing half) – definition is ‘impose on’ |
| 8 | TERCEL | LECTERn* (cut short) – a male hawk |
| 11 | MOBILE CAMERA | MOBILE (state capital of Alabama) CAME (arrived) before RA (artist) - updated: the capital of Alabama is actually Montgomery, not Mobile. Any ideas for an explanation anyone? |
| 15 | MACAW | AM (in the morning) reversed and CAW (squawk) – a sort of parrot |
| 16 | ACRID | ACRID or ACID – with or without R=right, both mean bitter |
| 18 | FLAMINGO | FLAMING (gaudy) O (circle) – wading bird |
| 19 | NEPENTHE | NE (direction) PEN (to write) THE (article) – fabled drug that banished sorrow |
| 21 | SHADOW | AD (advertisement, notice) in WHOS* – a member of the Shadows, Hank Marvin for example |
| 22 | SWATHE | SWAT (hit mercilessly) and HE (high explosive) |
| 26 | FEET | some of cofFEE Table |
| 27 | PIER | PIoneER (pathfinder) missing ONE |
*anagram
April 11th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Hi PeeDee. It is a non-working day for me today, so I had time to do both FT and Indy. This is not the type of puzzle I normally like, but it is good of its type, so thanks Gozo for the puzzle and PeeDee for the blog.
1ac: I am inclined to agree that the first “‘s” is a misprint, but the wordplay at least does work if you take “‘s” = “has”.
12ac: I could not account for “First” either.
13ac: Maybe I am showing my ignorance of the theme, but I class this as an obscure answer. The anagram does not really help, as LOSAN would also fit, although SOLAN seemed more likely, so that was my guess.
23ac: I wonder if Gozo forgot about the theme when cluing this one, as he has given us a non-thematic definition to go with the fairly straightforward wordplay. Nothing wrong with it whether it was deliberate or not.
31ac: Interesting that LINNET does fit here. I had already got NEPENTHE in place before I got to this clue, so was not misled.
5dn: I think your explanation must be correct.
27dn: This is the one where I had a wrong early guess. With ORIOLE in place, I guessed STAR (which I persuaded myself could be defined as pathfinder) with wordplay STAIR (landing-stage) missing I. When I got LINNET (in the right place), it became clear that PIER had to be right, but thanks for the parsing.
April 11th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
11a. Montgomery is the capital of Alabama, not Mobile. Do we think Gozo made a mistake or is there something clever we’re missing?
April 11th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
rulei @2 So it is! I thought the capital must be Mobile, but didn’t bother to check.
I spent a while trying to make POLICE CAMERA fit, but that seemed unlikely.
April 11th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for the nice full blog (clues & all) of a difficult, satisfying puzzle.
I see Mobile (11a) used to be the capital…
I wondered if some of 5d got lost somewhere:
“With a touch of expertise he may be ordered to tend…” (for example) would make it a comp. anag. but as it stands I can’t really see an indicator, or find a proper cryptic reading. Such a pity as it’s nearly brilliant!
April 11th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
I don’t think Mobile has ever been the captal of Alabama. Montgomery has been the capital since 1846 and before that it was Tuscaloosa.
April 11th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
I am in awe at the ability of the setter to put so many birds in one grid. Excellent work!
I think the TERN in 12 might relate to: ‘a prize for drawing three winning numbers.’ [Chambers]
Not sure I understand Pelham Barton’s remark about 23; surely HAWK is thematic?…… or have I missed the point.
April 11th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
…….. sorry, meant to thank PeeDee for the blog.
April 11th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
HAWK, SMEE (and possibly TERN) get a definition, whereas the other across clues are undefined. I wondered why HAWK got the extra definition too. Smee was a pirate in Peter Pan.
April 11th, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Thanks for the blog PeeDee.
I thought Gozo may have included the word ‘first’ in the clue for 12ac because there are two birds hidden in ‘winter nest’: TERN and ERNE (the sea-eagle). TERN is the first one of the two.
April 11th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Pandean @9; that sounds like the correct parsing.
April 11th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
According to Wiki: ‘Mobile, then known as Fort Louis de la Louisiane, started in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana.’
April 11th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Alabama didn’t come into existence as a state until 1819, so it couldn’t have a state capital before then?
April 11th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
I meant Louisiana state capital
May 12th, 2012 at 11:17 am
The Mobile/Montgomery error is pretty egregious, in my view. The editor shares culpability with Gozo.
Robi @13: Mobile was never the captial of the State of Louisiana.