Financial Times 13,716 / Gurney

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My first blog for Gurney. I found this very easy to solve, ideal for a beginner as a start into the world of cryptics (but not equally easy to annotate – the explanations for 2d and 29a eluded me for long).

I enjoyed the clues for short words like 9a, 13a more than the long one like 17a, 20a where I felt the surface was a tad forced. I don’t yet have a clear explanation for 23a – your inputs invited.

Across

1 CLASSY CLASS (students) [mutin]Y
4 ADORABLY ADO (fuss) R (rule) ABLY (skilfullly)
9 SCREAM S (Sweden) CREAM (the very best)
10 ASSASSIN cd; take a VIP out, as in, eliminate.
12 LORE hidden reversed in ‘numEROLogist’
13 ANGER ANGLER (fisherman) – L (line)
14 POPE POP (father) E (English)
17 ABSTEMIOUSLY (BEAUTY LISSOM)*
20 INCAPACITATE (IT AT AN ICE CAP)*
23 SLAP PALS (friend’s) reversed. But is slap = make-up? Not sure of this one.
24 TABLE TAB (bill) LE (‘the’ in French
25 POLE dd. A Pole comes from a country east of UK, and north and south are poles.
28 ATHLETIC H (husband) L[ov]E, in ATTIC (upper room)
29 CAREER CARE (like, as in ‘will you care to dance?’) ER (a suffix for someone in profession, like farmer). The word ‘profession’ led me to expect a dd and I had a question mark next to the answer; it’s only while writing the blog that the penny dropped.
30 THROTTLE (HOTTER L[ef]T)*
31 LESSEE LESS (not so) [k]EE[n]

Down

1 CASELOAD CAD (dishonourable guy) around (ALOES)*
2 AIRBRUSH BRIA[r] (prickly shrub, cut) reversed, RUSH (move quickly). BRUSH happens to be an anagram of “shrub”, and that’s what I was stuck with at first, trying with all might to fit AIR into the wordplay.
3 STAG S (small) TAG (monitoring device)
5 DISREPUTABLE (PARTIES BLUE D[isplays])*; with “wild” as the anagrind and “not proper or decent” the definition.
6 READ READ[y] (almost prepared)
7 BISHOP cd. A bishop is a chess piece, therefore ‘mover on board’. While other pieces move along a file (vertical row of squares) or rank (horizontal row of squares), the bishop moves diagonally on the chess board.
8 YONDER WONDER (surprise) – W + Y (unknown)
11 ANTIMALARIAL (AIRMAIL NATAL)*
15 MEANT MEAN (average) T (time)
16 PLAIN dd
18 BARONESS B (Belgium) (REASONS)*
19 REHEARSE HER (that lady) reversed, EAR (organ) S (singular) E (energy)
21 ASLANT hidden in ‘chinAS LANTerns’
22 RASHER RASH (hasty), RE (about) reversed
26 FELT dd
27 GAME dd

8 comments on “Financial Times 13,716 / Gurney”

  1. Thank you for the blog, shuchi.

    I agree this was quite straightforward but I did hold myself up initially by entering KNIGHT for 7dn.

    You’re right with your interpretation of SLAP. Coincidentally, Monk, in yesterday’s puzzle, clued MAKE UP with ‘Compensate for slap’.

    And I think you were right first time to take 29ac as a double definition: Chambers gives CAREER as an adjective:’having a career, dedicated to a career’, thus ‘like someone in profession’.

    Many thanks, Gurney, for the puzzle – I laughed at 28ac!

  2. Much more enjoyable than today’s Grauniad.
    All solved without aids except for the NW where I just couldn’t get a foothold.
    1a Tried pupils, learners etc but never thought of class
    9a While there was no way cheers would fit the wordplay, every time I looked at it, that was all that came to mind.
    1d Bit hard having to get cad AND make an anagram of aloes.
    2d Got fixated on cactus and messed about with sutca, utcac but to no avail.
    3d The one I should have got.

    Thanks Gurney and Shuchi

  3. Thank you Eileen. A new meaning of SLAP for me, wish I had Chambers alongside when I blogged this.

    29ac: I can’t think of a sentence where ‘like someone in profession’ could be replaced with CAREER. Help!

    @bamberger: STAG was also one of my last entries.

  4. Many thanks Shuchi & Gurney, this was a joy.

    However, I was initially puzzled by 25a because, in my version it appeared as … ‘north or eouth’ – YES: EOUTH.

    I had to wonder what the Fifteensquared Blogger NMSINDY – or should that be NMEINDY? – would have made of EOUTH.

    It was reminiscent of ‘The Strange World of Gurney Elade’:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053538/

  6. Many thanks, shuchi, for the blog and to all for their comments. I can confirm that the interpretation by Mike04 at comment #5 in relation to CAREER was what was intended.

  7. I’m planning to become an accountant for a profession.
    I’m planning to become an accountant for a career.

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