Financial Times 14,121 by Alberich

by

Another smasher from Alberich

 

 

 

Across

1 MONEY-SPINNER (spider) and plan to make rich (rolling)

10 RETIREE (no longer working) RE (on) TIREE (isle)

11 DIGITAL (clock) GIT (stupid sort) in DIAL (face)

12 SIREN (seducer) SI (is<) [w]REN (jenny)

13 AGGRIEVE (upset) AGGR[o] (endless problems) I EVE (woman)

15 EXPERIMENT (trial) I MEN (international players) in EXPERT (pro)

16 ADIT (opening) M[inded] from ADMIT (allow entrance)

18 TOBY (fellow) T[he] O (old) BY (times)

20 INNUMERATE (number probs) O (ring) from (MOUNTAINEER)*

22 KISHINEV (Moldova) SHIN (beef joint) in KIEV (Ukraine)

24 AMOUR (affair) first R from ARMOUR (mail)

26 LOURDES (French spa) hidden in [va]LOUR DES[criptively]

27 DREAM ON (unlikely) RE A M (about a million) in DON (teacher)

28 TRANSPARENCY (slide) N SPA (northern resort) REN[t] (let) in TRACY

Down

2 OUTCROP (sudden appearance) [l]OUT (bumpkin) CROP (whip)

3 ERRANTRY (rambling) ERRAN[d] (assignment) TRY (go)

4 SUET (fat) SUE (girl) [die]T

5 INDIGENOUS (native) N (Norway) in (IS GUIDE ON)*

6 NIGER (country) REIGN< moving I

7 RETREAD (tyre – Michelin) [guid]E in (TRADER)*

8 DRESSED TO KILL (in top gear) S (son) in (TODDLER LIKES)*

9 ALBERT HERRING (Benjamin Britten) ALBERT H[all] ERRING (misjudging)

14 AMANUENSIS (literary assistant) A MAN (soldier) [l]U[c]E[r]N[e] SIS

17 LEGALESE (Bar talk) GALES (winds) in general (LEE)

19 BISCUIT (cracker) B (British) I C (clubs) in SUIT (match)

21 ANOSMIC (unable to smell) ON< in AS (when) MIC[rophone]

23 INDRA (god) [h]IND[u] RA[in]

25 IDEA (suggestion) I DEA[r] (costly)

( )* = anagram    <  = reverse    [ ] = omit

8 comments on “Financial Times 14,121 by Alberich”

  1. Thanks, Jed.

    A smasher indeed – it would be much quicker to list the clues that I didn’t tick!

    Some stunningly good constructions and surfaces, notably 20, 24,26,27 [as a former teacher, I really laughed at this one] ac and 2,7,8,9,17, and 21 dn. [I could go on!]

    Huge thanks, Alberich – I loved it!

  2. Thanks Alberich for a very enjoyable puzzle and Jed for the blog. As Eileen, has already said, large numbers of excellent clues. My favourite was 8dn.

    20ac: I cannot quite the cryptic grammar to work in this one. I would be happy with either “mountaineer mobile” (noun phrase) or “mountaineer’s mobile” (complete clause) as an indication for the anagram, but to me “Ring off from” only works with the former.

  3. Correction to 2 re 20ac: “I cannot quite get the cryptic grammar” etc. I cannot get the grammar to work correctly in my own comment otherwise. Apologies.

  4. I’m off out soon so an early thanks for the blog and comments so far. 20 is meant to imply that “ring off” from mountaineer, i.e. MUNTAINEER, is mobile, and the rest is definition. I think that does work though I can’t for the life of me remember why I felt it necessary to include the “off”. A good weekend to all.

  5. Thanks Alberich @4. I am completely happy to be put right about 20ac. It works perfectly if the omission is made before the anagram and I really should have seen that. I think it works equally well on both surface and cryptic reading with or without the “off”.

  6. Great stuff from the old boy (see Anax a few days ago), found this a pig to complete so thanks Jed for explaining some bits I just couldn’t see.

  7. Thanks Jed for the recommendation, I saw your summary on the 152 home page so decided to give it a go, very pleased I did!

    Thanks too for explaining KISHINEV, I thought of kiev, but coulnd’t make any likely sounding answers from that. Having seen the solution I’m not sure that I would have thought it promising enough to look up anyway!

    Thanks to Alberich too.

  8. Unfortunately, due to a new job, I have somewhat less time to do more than one cryptic nowadays. For that reason, I decided to start each day (ie before having a shower and, after that, while having my breakfast) with one of the non-Guardian puzzles. That is, if time allows.

    Flimsy’s very neat Thursday crossword was an easy victim, but Alberich’s offering left me with only 5 solutions before I went to work.
    So, this morning, I gave it a follow-up.
    This time I was more successful, although some words were unknown to me (ADIT, ANOSMIC, KISHINEV), but luckily clearly signposted.

    I think we all agree that this was once more a beauty.
    Indeed, a beauty!

    Many thanks to everyone involved (slogger and better)!

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