Financial Times 14,997 by GAFF

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A really tricky one from Gaff that had me go from making steady progress to grinding to a halt five clues away from a complete solve. I tried to search for a Nina somewhere as is common with Gaff’s puzzles but without much success. All in all , a good work out – and a well-deserved thanks to Gaff for stretching me out today.

FF:9 DD:10

 

completed grid
Across
1 PRO FORMA
Perfunctory choice of academics (3,5)

cryptic clue / [See Muffy@1]
5 ANKARA
Bank Arabs use a lot for capital (6)

Hidden in “bANK ARAbs use ..”. Capital of Turkey. I read somewhere that a Greek fighter pilot flew his jet into Turkey to withdraw money since Greece has instituted a withdrawal cap of 60 Euros per day!
10 CUBIC
Measuring volume of disco regularly, putting youngster first (5)

IC (dIsCo, regularly) after CUB (youngster)
11 LAST VERSE
Lines indicating air is nearly gone (4,5)

Cyptic clue
12 ELICITING
Producing dramatic literary openings not unknown (9)

ExCITING (dramatic) with LI (LIterary openings) replacing X (unknown).
13 RODEO
Event where the winner gets the most bucks (5)

Cryptic clue ( bucks – here is used in the sense of horses/bulls kicking out. The winner of such an event typically lasts the most number of such attempts).
14 STRAIN
Mark pens first rate song (6)

STAIN (mark) around R (first Rate)
15  
See 6 Down
18 WHEELIE
Partial lift-off by Armstrong, maybe? (7)

The clue reference is  WILLIE, full name : William “Willie” Armstrong, a concert performer from the 19th century.  Clue reference is to Lance Armstrong. [Thanks Muffy@1]
20 OSMOSE
Take in old man with tablets back to front (6)

O (old) SMOSE (man with tablets = MOSES, with the last ‘S’ coming up front). I am not convinced that osmose and ‘take in’ are equivalent.
22  
See 4 Down
24 SATIN MOTH
Hot IT man’s corrected bug (5,4)

Anagram of HOT IT MANS
25 HOI POLLOI
People start hysterical cries about election (3,6)

H (starting character of Hysterical) [ OI OI (cries, plural, hence two of them) around POLL (election) ] – Another gem of a clue.
26 HAD ON
Wore ragged (3,2)

Double def
27 REMAND
Detention given by master during break (6)

MA (master) in REND (break)
28 PERFORCE
Play banned player out of necessity (8)

PERFORmanCE (play) without the letters of MAN (player, out)
Down
1 PUCKER
Fairy Queen’s purse (6)

PUCK (fairy) ER (queen)
2 OUBLIETTE
Strange, but étoile is black hole (9)

Anagram of BUT ETOILE – refers to a dungeon with only a trapdoor in the ceiling as means of entry. New term to me.
3 ONCE IN A BLUE MOON
Rarely heard solitary miscreant on display tonight (4,2,1,4,4)

[ Sounds like ONE SINNER (solitary miscreant) ] BLUE MOON (on display tonight – so get your telescopes out)
4, 22 MILLION TO ONE
Highly unlikely it could be Simba in the distance (7,2,3)

[Simba (from the Lion King, animation movie) is a LION TOON] inserted in MILE (distance) – I quite liked this clue !!
6, 15 NEVER IN A MONTH OF SUNDAYS
No way for Navy to demand sunshine without first dodging storm (5,2,1,5,2,7)

Anagram (storm) of FOR NAVY TO DEMANd SUNSHINE without D (first Dodging)
7 ACRID
Leads a choir rehearsing in D sharp (5)

Starting characters of “A Choir Rehearsing In D..”
8 ALEHOUSE
A rat claims he’s raised the bar (8)

A LOUSE (rat) containing (claims) EH (HE, raised, reversed in a down clue)
9 USAGES
A guess is bad manners (6)

Anagram of A GUESS
16 ABSCONDER
One’s trying to get away by 6 – pack anti-left-wing circular (9)

ABS (6-pack) CON (anti) DER (left-wing = RED, reversed)
17 TWITCHER
Hide lover’s desire during endless provocative dance (8)

ITCH (desire) in TWERk (endless provocative dance) – I now know that a Twitcher is a birdwatcher but dont quite get the “hide-lover” part. / [See Muffy@1]
19 EASILY
By far extremes of anarchy lies chaos (6)

Anagram of AY (extremes of AnarchY) LIES
20, 21 OUTSIDE CHANCE
Using second cue, hit a terrible long shot (7,6)

Anagram of SECOND CUE HIT A
23 ODIUM
Turnaround of character needed after cricket match disgrace (5)

UM (turnaround of character = MU ) after ODI (cricket match, short for One Day International)
*anagram

8 comments on “Financial Times 14,997 by GAFF”

  1. Thanks Turbolegs and Gaff,

    An excellent puzzle. The blue moon introduces a mini theme, which we don’t see that often.

    Twitchers conceal themselves in hides, to wait for rare birds to appear.

    1ac has a bit more to it – prof or ma

    WHEELIE references cyclist Lance Armstrong.

  2. Thanks, Turbolegs. Really enjoyed this.

    Loved the ‘man with tablets’ in 20a.

    If only he’d had them the right way round! History might have been a little different 🙂

  3. Thanks Turbolegs

    Crossword write-ins happen very rarely for me. However, today I was half-expecting Gaff to celebrate the lunar event and so the two long down clues went in right away.
    After that it was a reasonably quick solve.

    18ac: I thought the definition here was ‘by Armstrong, maybe’
    as a reference to the well-known the cyclist (who might partially lift his machine up into the air.)

    17dn: A twitcher loves to watch rare birds from a hide.

    Thanks for the fun Gaff.

  5. Thanks all for the comments. Have made the edits as necessary. Cant believe I goofed on 18ac – put it down to rushing a crossword while in the taxi on the way to the airport! 🙂

    Regards
    TL

  6. This would have been a really good crossword had it not been spoilt by poor clues at 20ac, 17dn, & 26ac.

  7. Thanks Gaff for an excellent puzzle and to Turbolegs for the blog.

    Some really tricky parsing here. I failed to parse Wheelie and Eliciting so thanks for the help. But was equally proud of myself for understanding Perforce.

    It’s always odd how we subjectivise. Horace saw 17 and 20ac as poor – I thought these two particularly good. It’s no criticism because we all see things in different ways.

    Being 10 days behind in the FT, I had already forgotten the Blue Moon – so nice to have the reminder.

    Keep up the good work!

  8. Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs

    Nice puzzle with a clever theme (did have to check to see if July 31, 2015 was a blue moon date). It led to an interesting mini theme of seldom occurring events.

    Finished in the SW corner with TWITCHER and WHEELIE the last couple in.

    Interesting the differences of people’s taste – thought that the three clues mentioned as poor by Horace were amongst the best – there was greater depth in them which made them so.

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