Financial Times no.14,380 by Gurney

I enjoyed this offering from Gurney. It seemed very fresh; that might be because I don’t blog Gurney’s puzzles very often, or it might simply be because this was a well-thought-out, witty and challenging crossword. So thanks, Gurney.

ACROSS

1. STREEP  Re [about] within reversal of pets [cats]

4. WOODLAND  Anagram of download

10. ALL-STAR  Cryptic definition

11. DESCENT  S [son] within decent [good]

12. WEED  Alternate (intermittent) letters of WeEkEnD

13. SEMICIRCLE  Anagram of clerics (r)emi(t)

16. ROSTER  Anagram of shorter minus H [hours]

17. BEELINE  Bee(f) [meat] + in [home] within le [‘the’ in French]

20. MATTHEW  Hidden in jerusaleM AT THE Window

21. GREECE  Sounds like grease [oil]

24. ABERRATION  Anagram of bareration [allowance]

25. PAST  Pa’s [dad’s] + t [tenor]

27. LAWLESS  Flawless [perfect] minus F [fellow]

29. FLORIST  Or [gold] within Fl [Florida] + Ist [first]

30. DETHRONE  Anagram of the [definite article] within drone [plane]

31. OPENER  O [old] + pen [writer] + er [expression of hesitation]

DOWN

1. STALWART  Reversal of awl [tool] within start [beginning]

2. ROLLER-SKATE  Anagram of talkers role

3. EATS  Heats [raises temperature] minus h [heat]

5. OLD-TIMER  Double definition, a clepsydra being an old-fashioned timing device

6. DISTILLERY  S [Southern] + tiller [farmer] within DIY [Do-it-yourself, independent work]

7. AGE  Sage [wise one] minus (contentiou)s

8. DUTIES  Du [Dutch] + tie [restrict] + s(tealth)

9. GREEN  Hidden in emiGRE ENgages

14. CENTENARIAN  Anagram of near ancient

15. YESTERYEAR  Yes [indeed] + anagram of rare yet

18. JETTISON  J [judge] + anagram of notes it

19. TESTATOR  Test [exam] + reversal of rota [schedule]

22. BALLAD  Bal(tic) + lad [young man]

23. CORFU  Co [company, firm] + anagram of fur

26. SOAP  Hidden in treviSO APpear

28. WET  Initial letters of Winter Evening Typically  

 

5 comments on “Financial Times no.14,380 by Gurney”

  1. Thanks, Ringo, for a nice blog. I agree with your assessment of this puzzle, which I enjoyed solving, although I made things difficult for myself in places. I’m obviously not at my brightest today.

    For some reason, I just couldn’t see the anagram at 4ac for ages and also spent a long time looking for a word including K at 12ac.

    Then, at 14dn, I didn’t bother to write the letters down to rearrange them and carelessly construed the anagram as REINCARNATE – I was only an R short and an N too many! 🙁 That, along with the clever hidden answer at 20ac turned out to be my favourite.

    Many thanks, Gurney, for all the fun!

  2. Thanks Ringo and Gurney. I wondered if there was a mini theme about the past: CENTENARIAN, OLD TIMER, AGE, DESCENT, YESTERYEAR and PAST. Maybe not.

    Nice crossword.

  3. Thanks to S and B. Like Eileen, I spent longer on 4a than I might have done – I think it was because of the neat bracketing of the anagram indicator (“dodgy”) between two possible eight letter sets, with the possibility of two different definitions. Nice one, Gurney!

  4. @mike anyone would think setters deliberately do such things, the horror 🙂 there does seem a mini age thing going on but our friend nms has a way to go yet to get his telegram or whatever you get these days. 30 took me a few seconds to unravel mostly due to me making a similar mistake to Eileen with 15d putting in yesterdays for yesteryear. Thanks Gurney and Ringo.

  5. Many thanks for the excellent blog, Ringo, and to all who commented. The kind remarks are much appreciated. Inclusion of the answers mentioned at #2 was pure coincidence and not even noticed till it was pointed out there!

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