Financial Times no.14,219 by Redshank
Posted by Ringo on January 24th, 2013
Whew. This was a severe test: what with the unhelpful grid, the four intractable twelve-letter solutions and a whole monstrous regiment of devilishly brilliant &lits, I was left tottering on the brink of an I CAN’T DO THIS! breakdown… but light dawned, at last. Only one or two corners were left unilluminated – help, as ever, much appreciated. Chapeau, Redshank.
1. MIMOSA MO [Modus Operandi, way of working] within anagram of aims
4. AMORETTI More [longer] + TT [time trial, race] within AI [A1, fit]
9. STOKER Stoke [hit, strike with a weapon] + r [right]
10. SNOWDROP The first of several masterly &lits in this puzzle: anagram of woods in spring minus I [one] sign
12. REED Repaired minus pair [two]; the allusion is to the clarinettist Acker Bilk
13. BRIBE I [one] + b [billion] within b(ank) + re [about]
14. SWAN S [small] + wan [white], alluding to the Mute Swan
17. ORANGE SQUASH Qu [queen, monarch] within orange sash [as might be worn by a Northern Irish loyalist on July 12, the date of Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690]
20. SEVENTY-EIGHT Event [thing that happened] + ye [you, once] within sight [view]
23. EZRA Z [algebraic variable] within era [many years]
24. FATWA Initial letters of For Arabs To Worry About; more inspired &littery
25. TWIN Tw(a)in [Mark, the American writer]
28. ABATTOIR Anagram of at it boar
29. MERINO Hidden in farMER IN Oklahoma
30. PLAYGOER Anagram of royal eg p [piano]
31. UNREST [riot] or possibly INTENT In tent [rained off, and so in a tent?] ?? HELP! EDIT: Unrestrained [abandoned] minus rained
DOWN
1. MUSHROOM Mush [slang for face, dial] + reversal of Moor [Moroccan]
2. MOOSE JAW OO [ducks, zeroes] within anagram of James W [Watt] to give the Canadian city (which is close to the city of Regina…)
3. STET Septet [seven-piece band] minus ep [Extended Play, record]
5. MAN ABOUT TOWN Man about to win [he's on the brink of victory] minus I [one]
6. ROWS (C)rows [birds]
7. THROWN Anagram of worth (comedia)n
8. IMPEND P [pressure] within I mend [I fix]
11. CROSS-EXAMINE Sex within anagram of is romance
15. AGREE Hidden in GretnA GREEn
16. USHER US [United States, American] + her [lady]
18. EGG WHITE Eg [for example, say] + G [German] + anagram of with + E [energy]
19. STAND OUT And within stout [courageous]
21. REVAMP Rev [reverend, minister] + amp [ampére, measure of current]
22. ARMADA Fun anagram of a drama
26. STAG T(ory) within sag [bow]
27. BEAN Bean(o) [comic]; the allusion is to the comic character Mr Bean
January 24th, 2013 at 11:41 am
It is such a comfort when one has spent what seems like hours staring in vain at the grid, to eventually finish it off and then find that the blogger had trouble too. I have done all today’s cryptics and this is definitely one of the two difficult ones. Thanks Redshank for occupying quite a lot of my morning and well done Ringo – not one I would have wanted to blog, and I have no idea about 31a either. I put UNREST but now you say it could be INTENT??? I am sure some clever person will turn up to explain all soon.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:45 am
AHA! Cracked it. See edit above at 31ac.
Sue: you have my sympathies!
January 24th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Well cracked that man!
January 24th, 2013 at 12:01 pm
Many thanks, Redshank and Ringo.
Agreed, Ringo, this is a wonderful puzzle.
As well as the ‘& lits’ you mention, the stylish, smooth wording in clues such as
the ones for STET and CROSS-EXAMINE craftily throws the solver off the scent.
SNOWDROP is just a delight on a cold January morning (well, here in the UK)!
31ac UNREST: abandoned = unrest(rained).
January 24th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
Beat me to it, Ringo!
Just thought I’d mention 9ac in your blog: hit = STROKE then move the R to the back.
Maybe that’s what you meant? Mike.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:17 pm
Where did you get stoke=”hit or strike with a weapon”? It’s not in Chambers. My parsing for 9a (“Fire tender hit right at the back”) is hit=stroke (e.g. in cricket), with r (right) moved to the back.
Thanks for the blog. It was a surprisingly tough one – especially 9a, 31a and 2d. 2d was the hardest by far; really had to stop and calm down for that one. On a pretty demanding day at the Indy (Klingsor) and Guardian (Araucaria) too, this was the toughest of all. Well done Redshank!
January 24th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
@mike – ah, okay, that makes more sense than my parsing. I struggled with this one (I’m not sure why, in retrospect); my solution only occurred to me as I was just about to publish the post.
My parsing does work, though, just about: the OED defines ‘stoke’ as ‘a thrust with a weapon, a stab’, though the definition is obsolete. But I’m sure STROKE with the R transposed is what Redshank had in mind. Many thanks for the clarification!
January 24th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
@Thomas – see comment #7 above!
January 24th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
This was pretty tough, but still just about in the daily range. And still good evidence for the FT being up there with the best, Yesterday’s too was rather good.
Cheers
Rowly.
January 24th, 2013 at 5:54 pm
Very demanding, especially the NW corner. I parsed 14a as S + W + AN ( and possibly such as in rock an’roll’ , fish an’chips)….much prefer yours though! Also had the TT in 4a relating to the Isle of Man motorcycling.
January 25th, 2013 at 12:49 am
Really good puzzle.
I know Redshank likes pangrams.
He missed an opportunity today.
LEAN instead of BEAN would have done the trick …
My favourites: 20ac (SEVENTY EIGHT), ABATTOIR (28ac), 3d (STET) and 11d (CROSS-EXAMINE).
January 25th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
SVDH…….playgoer completes the pangram?
January 25th, 2013 at 11:21 pm
Oops, Ferret, you’re absolutely right.
It was a pangram.
Mea culpa.
[and credits to Redshank]