Financial Times no.13,988 by STYX

by

I’m writing this in a whole new postal district, surrounded by boxes of books that need unpacking… but the move obviously hasn’t helped my brainpower, as this engaging offering from Styx took me far longer than it should have. A nice puzzle, I thought; some unusual usages  and baroque definitions elevated it a wee bit above bog-standard for me.

ACROSS

1. REDUCTIONS  Anagram of discounter; a nice &lit

6. STUD  Stud(y) [research]

10. AMPLE  (S)ample(s) [specimens]

11. OBSTACLES  Anagram of constables is minus in

12. TEMPLATE  Temp [employee who sometimes comes in] + late [behind schedule]

13. TONAL  (Hym)n within anagram of alto

15. TRILOGY  I [one] + log [journal] within try [essay]

17. TARGETS  Reversal of rat [lab animal] + gets [achieves]

19. CONCEDE  Hidden in bloC ONCE DEfeated

21. PELOTON  P(edallers) + lot [set] within anagram of one; another lovely &lit

22. ICONS  I [one] + cons [kids, tricks, deceives]

24. ACRIMONY  Im [I’m, I am] within a crony [a friend]

27. GESTATION  Reversal of eg [for example] + station [transport hub]

28. TEETH  Tee [golfer’s equipment] + th(e)

29. PUSH  Pus [evidence of infection] + H [hospital]

30. TERRORISED  Err [blunder] within anagram of editors

DOWN

1. REAR  R [right] + ear [sensing ‘device’]

2. DEPLETION  P [power] within deletion [cut]

3. CHEAP  Anagram of ce(not)aph

4. ISOGAMY  Is + O [zero, love] + gamy [lively (in flavour)]

5. NASCENT  (Mountai)n + ascent [climb]

7. TALON  Al(l) within ton [weight]; ‘talon’ and ‘stock’ are both words for the playing-cards left over following a deal

8. DISCLOSING  Disc [record] + losing [unsuccessful]

9. PASTORAL  Past [history] + oral [not written down]

14. STOCKING UP  Double definition, alluding to the sort of stocking that is pulled up to cover a ‘member’ [leg]

16. OVERSEAS  O(des) + verse [poetry] + as [for instance]

18. EXTENDERS  Tender [loving] within anagram of sex

20. EXAMINE  Reversal of axe [hacker] + mine [explosive]

21. PARTNER  Par [typical score] + reversal of rent [opening]

23. OASIS  O(man) + as is [unchanged]

25. METER  Meteor [heavenly body] minus O [Oxygen]

26. SHED  Double definition

2 comments on “Financial Times no.13,988 by STYX”

  1. Don’t think it is just moving house, Ringo, as I too found this one hard to get into today. Thanks for the explanations and thanks to Styx for making me work.

  2. Thanks for the explanations, Ringo. Some very nice clues but I thought this was spoilt by some very over-stretched synonyms.

Comments are closed.