Financial Times 15090 by HAMILTON

by

Couldn’t finish it!

Sorry, I don’t know the answer to 24 ac – any help appreciated!

As to the rest of the puzzle, it’s the usual Tuesday FT mixed bag.

See my comments to 12ac (where I may have missed something) and 8dn, 21dn and 22dn for the clues that had me wincing most.

I did like 17ac, though.

There also appeared (at least to my Ximenean mind) to be a few superfluous words in the clues, but that may be just me being pedantic and/or old-fashioned.

Across
1, 4 PUBLIC SPIRITED
Philanthropic Society is full of life (6-8)

PUBLIC = “Society” + SPIRITED = “full of life”
9 REDDEN
Flush unrepaired dentures to a degree (6)

hidden in unrepaiRED DENtures
10 ESPOUSAL
Championing Poles travelling around America (8)

*(Poles) around USA
12 STAB
Police officer sustaining wound (4)

The only way I can parse this is a leap of faith.

STAB appearing in conSTABle?
13 CUBIT
Middle class independent is into discount measure (5)

CU (B I)T

When classifying UK demographics, B is seen as “middle class” with A as “upper class” etc.
14 DEVA
Chester sounds like a singer (4)

Homophone of DIVA (“singer”)
17 THICK-SKINNED
Tend to revolve around countryman’s family, which is tough (5-7)

*(tend) around HICK’S KIN
20 PRESS RELEASE
Media report on a logical exit strategy (5,7)

Double definition, one of which is slightly cryptic
23 AXIS
Line of long dresses reduced by a metre (4)

(m) AXIS
24 ABRIM
Attempt to down drink after Mr Murray’s gone, filled to the top (5)
A(BR(andy))IM
See comments below – I couldn’t get this one without help from two fellow solvers.
25 ZING
Go drinking; no disapproval heard (4)

(boo)ZING
28 LITERATI
Less challenging art I flog to the well-educated (8)

LITE (“less challenging”) + *(art I)
29 ARDOUR
Enthusiasm for combat is diminished – it’s grim (6)

(w)AR + DOUR
30 WARINESS
Is answer uncommon caution? (8)

*(is answer)
31 ROADIE
Route that’s taken by one of the crew (6)

ROAD + I.E>
Down
1 PARASITE
Artist in Dad’s place is a freeloader (8)

PA(R.A.)SITE

The pedant in me thinks the apostrophe after Dad is superfluous.
2 BAD HABIT
No thanks to naughty Tabitha, that’s a vice (3,5)

At first I thought this was a reverse anagram.

(No thanks to Tabitha = (ta)BITHA, which is bad HABIT with bad as an anagrind.)

But that left me with “naughty” being superfluous.

So it would appear it is “naughty” = BAD + *(bitha).

Clumsy, in my opnion.
3 IDEA
Vision seen through wide-angle lens (4)

Hidden in “wIDE-Angle”
5 PASSION FRUIT
Produce an aphrodisiac? (7,5)

Double deifinition, one of which is cryptic
6 RIOT
Rave at display of lawlessness (4)

Double defininition
7 TASTER
Sample treats are set out (6)

*(treats)
8 DALLAS
Everyone’s inside in low spirits back in Texas (6)

ALL in <=SAD

“in Texas” – some editors may find that weak as a definition.
11 TURKISH BATHS
Sweat shops? (7,5)

Cryptic definition
15 SKIRT
Runner acquires the right apparel (5)

SKI + RT
16 HELLO
Welcome magazine publication (5)

Double definition
18 MARIGOLD
A doctor in Welsh town can bloom (8)

M(A RIG)OLD

Mold is a town in Wales

Not sure of the definition – if it’s “bloom”, the “can” is redundant, and only there to make the surface work.

If it’s “can bloom”, I don’t like it.
19 KEDGEREE
Anchor by rocks, mainly to get food (8)

KEDGE + REE(f)
21 SALLOW
She is depressed, jaundiced (6)

SAL (“She”) + LOW

Don’t like this at all.  Would have preferred “girl” or something.
22 WITTER
Go on social network though there’s no time (6)

(t)WITTER

Poor clue, in my opinion, as there is still plenty of time (the two Ts in the middle) in WITTER
26 GRIN
Laugh at the end of Wagner opera (4)

(Lohen)GRIN

Is GRIN synonymous with “laugh”?  “Smile” may have been better.
27 TRIO
3 rearranged 6 (4)

*(riot) (the anser to 6dn)
*anagram

5 comments on “Financial Times 15090 by HAMILTON”

  4. Thanks Hamilton and loonapik

    Similar experience to loonapik here, with minor queries on GRIN = laugh and the reverse anagram of [TA]BITHA (although didn’t go that next step – just remained with a ‘hmm’).

    Did manage to eventually find ABRIM, although wasted a lot of time trying to find a word with SH rather than BR for a start. I liked TWITTER and forgave the handling of the other times – maybe having ‘initially’ at the end would have removed the problem.

    Finished in the SE corner with ZING and MARIGOLD the last couple in.

  5. Thanks loonapick and Hamilton.

    I read BAD HABIT as ‘naughty’ (i.e. Anagram of) Tabitha without the ‘ta’ being itself a ‘bad’ (i.e. Anagram) of HABIT. Not so convinced now.

    Had similar concerns to those above and wasn’t sure why a Turkish Bath should be a ‘shop’.

    I nevertheless zipped through most of this – including ABRIM – but then had a lot of difficulty finishing off in the SW corner – last in was ZING.

    I think that 18dn works OK so long as you think of a MARIGOLD as a plant – not necessarily as a flower.

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