Financial Times 14,723 by IO

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Quite a puzzle from Io.

I don’t quite know how to summarise this one.  At first the complexity of cross references and the unusual “See 28”, “See 28 (a)”, “See 28 (b)” etc made it look like this was going to be a real struggle, and for a while it was.  Then when I cracked the theme it suddenly turned into a write-in entering Robin Williams films from the word-counts only hardly needing to look at the clues at all.  Then when my store of Williams films dried up it went back to being a struggle again.

I got there in the end with a couple of guesses at likely looking film titles, only getting stuck on JUMANJI where I had to cheat using Wikipedia.

So hard or easy?  I think that depended completely on your familiarity with Williams’ work.

Thanks Io, a greatly entertaining puzzle whichever.

completed grid

Across
6 JUMANJI Leap and dance endlessly in 19’s film (7)
JUMp ANd JIg (leap and dance, endlessly)
7 ALADDIN Boy gets into a row in 19’s film (7)
LAD (boy) in A DIN (row) – Robin Williams film
10 TAPERS OFF New spare parts gentleman gradually reduces (6,3)
SPARE* anagram=new inside (parts) TOFF (gentleman)
12 UP TO The responsibility of doing (2,2)
it’s up to you… and what are you up to?  Thanks to JH for clearing this up.
13 UNSTRIATED Ill-natured? It’s not like a zebra! (10)
(NATURED IT’S)* ill=anagram
17 TO A T Perfectly done brown bread’s not square (2,1,1)
TOAsT (bread, browned) missing (not) S (square)
18   See 31
19 ROBIN Take in flier (5)
ROB (take) IN
23 HOOK 19’s film shot at Lord’s (4)
a HOOK cricket shot (at the Lords ground)
24 ALL-TIME LOW I’m let loose to license stores in this record basement? (3-4,3)
(I’m LET)* anagram=loose in (stored by) ALLOW (license)
26   See 28 (b)
27 DYING SWAN In fable it sings extremely sadly – and wing broken (5,4)
anagram (broken) of SadlY (extremes of)with AND WING
30 ATE AWAY Wasted: did the reverse of drink at home? (3,4)
double/cryptic definition
31, 18 MORK AND MINDY Choice of thousands with DMY in 19’s show (4,3,5)
M OR K (choice of thousands) AND (with) (DMY IN)* anagram not explicitly indicated
Down
1   See 28 (b)
2 GARP 19’s viewer of the world sees river in space (4)
R (river) in GAP (space) – The World According to Garp, a Robin Williams film
3 AJAR Open – the pickled onions? (4)
double definitions – a jar of picked onions perhaps
4 CLEF Staved character off finally, after one’s left in church (4)
finallY (final latter of) following L (one’s left) in CE (church) – symbol on the musical stave
5   See 28 (a)
8   See 25
9   See 27
11 EAR The art of musical discrimination – or the reverse? (3)
I’m not sure about this, could “the reverse” indicate that is could also be “the musical discrimination of art”, or “the discrimination of the art of musical” or something similar?
Reversing “The art of musical discrimination” gives “musical discrimination of the art” – musical discrimination (the definition) found inside (of) thE ARt.  Thanks to AID and JS for this.
14 TRISKELIA Devices of Man, perhaps, might be star-like, I fancy (9)
(STAR-LIKE I)* anagram=fancy – symbols conststing of three ams (or legs) radiating from a centre point, an example being the flag of the Isle of Man
15 INDIA I radioed home help, heading north (5)
IN (home) AID (help) reversed (heading north, up the grid) – the letter I in the Nato Phonetic Alphabet, used in radio communication
16 DHONI Hampshire’s opener clashing with new ODI captain of 15 (5)
anagram (clashing) of Hampshire (opening letter of) and N (new) ODI – Mahendra Dhoni, captain of the Indian national cricket team
20   See 27
21 ALL IN Exhausted sergeant-major’s order’s not loud (3,2)
fALL IN (SM’s order) missing F (loud)
22   See 28
25, 8 MRS DOUBTFIRE Nuts disturb me for 19’s film (3,9)
(NUTS DISTURB ME)* (DISTURB ME FOR)* anagram=nuts
27, 9, 20 DEAD POETS SOCIETY Late post’s collected outside European community for 19’s film (4,5,7)
DEAD (late) POST* (is collected) containing (outside) E (European) SOCIETY (community)
28, 22, 5 GOOD MORNING VIETNAM About to ring doctor after medical accident, sailors go to restrain one liable to blow top in 19’s film (4,7,7)
GOING (about, on the go) contains (to ring) MO (doctor) following OD (medical accident) RN (Royal Navy, sailors) then VIM (go) containing (to restrain) ETNA (one likely to blow top)
28, 26, 1 GOOD WILL HUNTING Looking for benevolence in 19’s film (4,4,7)
double/cryptic definition
29 WAKE Come to funeral party, as do patients in 19’s film (4)
triple definition – Awakenings is a Robin Williams film – thanks to ernie

*anagram
definitions underlined

21 comments on “Financial Times 14,723 by IO”

  1. Re-reading my preamble “greatly entertaining” is not the most tactful phrase in view of Williams recent suicide. But then he spent his life making people laugh so hopefully, if he is looking down at us from up there, he won’t mind.

  2. I think for 11D, the answer is contained within the first two words.
    In reverse, it means musical discrimination of the ear

  6. Waste of time. Themed crosswords pathetic and not in the same league as proper cryptics. Surprised at the FT for wasting newsprint

  7. The theme blew it to bits but there was still a lot of fun left to be had. Especially enjoyed post-parsing 28-22-5.

    Thanks Aid @#4 – I see what you mean now – I couldn’t fathom that one at the time.

    @Peedee #5 – The containment indicator must just be “of” – after the wording has been re-arranged.

    Plus thanks for the blog – also to the setter for the fun and for letting us of lightly this time.

  8. I don’t normally do this crossword but I was alerted to it by the great man, himself. No, not RW (RIP), the other great man – IO.

    First two clues I looked at were 19 (obviously) and 25. MRS. DOUBTFIRE jumped straight out at me and, like PeeDee, the rest of the thematics were pretty much plain sailing though I confused myself with the two 28’s – I kept convincing myself I had solved the second one.

    Never heard of DHONI and I admit to using electronic help to solve UNSTRIATED and TRISKELIA as they’re not in my every day vocabulary. 😉

    Good fun. And I’m sure Robin Williams would have approved.

  9. Thanks IO; great setting to fit in so many theme words.

    A nice tribute to a great man. I don’t think the write-ins of a few clues spoilt a very enjoyable solve.

    Thanks to PeeDee for a good blog.

  10. Come on, Wagonman@6, it was a glorious romp, and a first-class cryptic. Great surfaces, lots of ingenuity. Great blog from PeeDee, lovely brain-scrambler from Io.

  11. Re 11 down, I took the the containment indicator to be “or the reverse” [of discrimination] = inclusion. Thanks PeeDee and Io.

  12. Great achievement to fit all these references to the late Robin Williams into this grid.
    Believe it or not, 19ac (ROBIN) was actually my first one in.
    Now, I am not a cinephile (nor will I ever be 🙂 ) but all titles went in quite smoothly as they are so well-known.

    Of the non-thematic clues I particularly liked 13ac, 27ac and 11d.

    Yes, it was easy (for an IO) but very satisfying because of the classy clueing.

    BTW, no Williams in the grid.
    Even if he’s almost there starting at 26 and then going down.

  13. 29A could possibly be a triple definition
    come to = wake (verb)
    funeral party = wake (noun)
    plus the cryptic bit.

    There is a small typo at 3D – AJAR

    Thanks to PeeDee and Io

  17. Thanks to (nearly) everybody for comments, and to Colin for publishing at quite short notice a puzzle which I felt moved to write, firstly for the influence Mr Williams had on the comedy part of my life, and secondly because depression became – for all the wrong reasons – one of my research interests in my clinical psychology days.

    Cheers for the blog, PeeDee. To clear up some loose ends, 12ac is 2 meanings (as in “What are you doing?”); 31ac DMY is “M in DY”, not an anagram; and “the reverse” in 11dn leads to “musical discrimination of the art”.

    Cheers,

    John

  19. Thanks for dropping by Io.

    I have to come clean and admit that I couldn’t parse 12ac – TO DO. I hit upon “it’s up to you…” as an admission of defeat disguised as an explanation of the clue. Rumbled!

  21. Thanks Io and PeeDee

    I think that the name in the banner scared me off to a weekend – and last weekend was just too busy – therefore only got to it yesterday. As it turns out, it wasn’t so bad and a fitting tribute to Robin Williams, I thought.

    Having said ‘not so bad’, I had no clue with the parsing of GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM and didn’t see the clever ‘DMY’ = M in DY

    Plenty to like here – especially 15 / 16 and the double use of 28.

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