Financial Times 15,706 by HAMILTON

I struggled a bit with this, as I sometimes do with Hamilton. Some clues were a little unconventional…

Nothing outright unfair, I thought, but a few stretches and a lot of Americana today. Thanks to Hamilton for the challenge.

Across
1	YUM-YUM	Part diners are happy to be repeating (3-3)
		Double definition: Yum-Yum is a character (‘part’) in G&S’ Mikado, and happy diners may go ‘yum-yum.’
4	AGITATED	A fool picking the wrong date becomes distressed (8)
		A + GIT (‘fool’) + anagram (‘wrong’) of DATE.
10	GUNRUNNER	Criminal trader gives cue to Jock to get away (9)
		Cryptic def. In athletics, the starter may be said to GUN the RUNNERS to get away. In the US, athletes are known as ‘Jocks’. That’s my best shot, anyway.
11	NARCO	Informant spoken to finally by man from drug squad (5)
		Homophone of NARK (‘informer’) + O (last letter of ‘tO’).
12	OREO	Moreover, it contains biscuit (4)
		Inclusion in mOREOver. Another American word.
13	COFFEE SHOP	A new opening for sweets bound for cafe (6,4)
		tOFFEES (‘sweets’) with new (unspecified) opening + HOP (‘bound’).
15	REEFERS	Visionary official involved in about-turn on cigarettes (7)
		REF (‘official’) in SEER (a ‘visionary’), all reversed.
16	ECLAIR	Is this where Juncker is hiding cake? (6)
		Jean-Claude Juncker, official of E[uropean] C[ommunity] and his possible hiding-place or LAIR.
19	STOLEN	Hot stuff! Christmas cake reduced by £1 (6)
		STOLLEN (German ‘Xmas cake’), minus one L.
21	CUISINE	Fancy licentious lot being carried away by cookery (7)
		Anagram (‘fancy’) of lICENtIoUS, without LOT.
23	PITTA BREAD	Did it contribute to revitalised bap trade? (5,5)
		IT included in anagram (‘revitalised’) of BAP TRADE plus whole clue cryptic definition.
25	CHAR	Drink to Cockney individual; not a vocal actor (4)
		‘Char’ being informal (though I think not exclusively Cockney) for ‘tea’. An ‘individual’ might be a ‘CHARacter’: we subtract the homophone (‘vocal’) ‘actor’ from that.
27	LUNCH	It’s not half madness to take a little Cheddar at this time (5)
		LUNacy (half of ‘madness’) + CH[eddar], though ‘a little’ more usually subtracts just the one letter. Whole clue cryptic def again.
28	APPOINTEE	New incumbent Spike in “A Call of Nature” (9)
		POINT (‘spike’) in A PEE (one of two ‘calls of nature’ today).
29	SALES-TAX	Girl sent to Texas – trumped-up charge (5,3)
		SAL (a girl) + anagram (‘trumped up’) of TEXAS.
30	SHOWER	Undesirables at baby’s party (6)
		Double definition. A ‘baby-shower’ in another US notion, though becoming commoner here, it seems.
Down
1	YOGHOURT	Got you starting over, taking time for dessert (8)
		Anagram (‘starting over’, another Americanism) of GOT Y[ou] includes HOUR (‘time’).
2	MINCEMEAT	Pie filling scruffy team after getting the chop? (9)
		Anagram (‘scruffy’) of TEAM after MINCE (‘chop’).
3	UH-UH	No! (though “yes” when husband’s in the middle) (2-2)
		Becomes Uh-Huh, ‘Yes’ if you include H[usband].
5	GIRAFFE	Animal’s mistake lets in little bird (7)
		GAFFE (‘mistake’) includes ‘bIRd’, shortened at both ends (again, unconventionally).
6	TENDERLOIN	Cut red linen to different shape (10)
		Anagram (‘to different shape’) of RED LINEN TO.
7	TORCH	There’s a light in Brentor church (5)
		Inclusion in ‘brenTOR CHurch’.
8	DROOPS	Mess up in medics’ sinks (6)
		POO (a ‘mess’), reversed in DRS (‘medics’).
9	SNOOPS	Meddles with reversible implements (6)
		SPOONS reversed.
14	BELLYACHES	Complains of complaints (10)
		Double def.
17	IRISH STEW	Hi sir! (5,4)
		Reverse anagram (‘stew’). Easy enough, but some sort of def would have been nice.
18	NEAR BEER	Close to alcohol, but not enough (4,4)
		Duplication here, surely? And another US phenomenon.
20	NIRVANA	Ultimate enlightenment for rock band (7)
		Double def.
21	CHAMPS	Winners get Irish dish – and seconds (6)
		CHAMP (‘Irish dish’ of mashed potato with additions) + S[econds].
22	APPLES	Two soft drinks taken outside by Jonathan and Granny Smith (6)
		PP (2 x musical ‘soft’) in ALES (‘drinks’), Granny Smith & Jonathan both being apple varieties, the latter again Only in America.
24	TONAL	Starts the orchestral number, addressing lightness of sound quality (5)
		‘Starts’ (first letters) of 2nd to 6th words.
26	FISH	Swimmers want to have fresh start instead (4)
		wISH (‘want’) with first letter swapped for ‘start’ of ‘Fresh’.

*anagram

11 comments on “Financial Times 15,706 by HAMILTON”

For this american, the few americanisms were welcome as I struggled with spellings of pita bread and yogurt! 🙂

Didn’t care for this at all. Failed on several. YUM-YUM for part is too GK for my liking; GUNRUNNER doesn’t work for me; didn’t get CHAR (which I don’t associate with Cockneys) but a reasonable, but hard clue; don’t like wording for 27a (better perhaps without first two words but then a bit nonsensical); 1d seems to be using ‘over’ as an anagram indicator since ‘starting’ goes with ‘you’ but means a reversal to me (who spells yoghurt that way these days?); didn’t like 3d; don’t like ‘reversible’ to indicate a reversal in 9d; never heard of NEAR BEER, although it was my best guess. Also never heard of CHAMP for an Irish dish, but this was an easy guess and it’s nice to learn new terms.

I meant to add that I wondered whether little bird meant bIRd but, if so, this goes beyond “unconventionally”.

To Hovis@2
Yr right, not one of my favourites. Hamilton is quirky. In 1d, I took ‘Y’ to be an abb. for ‘You’ in general & now can’t think of a single instance (IOU, FYI, meh, ILY only ever used by Steve Ovett, far as I know). Everything a bit stretchy. But champ is very nice, cabbage the usual addition, think I’ll cook it tonight.Tenderloin, reefers, sales-tax and uh-huh were other Americanisms I didn’t bring up in the blog.

On second thoughts, I preferred Filbert!!!Must have been in a funk when I slammed it.

Thanks Hamilton and GB

I saw 1D slightly differently: anagram ‘starting over’ of GOT YOU plus HR (hour) for ‘TIME’.

I also thought it was a little unfortunate that IRISH appeared both in the solution of 17 and the clue for 21, and so near to each other as well.

Thanks Hamilton and Grant

Did find this a bit tricksy in places and ended up making the error with CHAR – had CHER (as the ‘vocal actor’) and had unsuccessfully looked for ‘acher’ or ‘chear’ that may have been a Cockney word for something before coming here!!! Found that a couple of the Americanisms were widely used down here – OREO and SHOWER (baby or bridal).

Didn’t get the parsing finalised with GUNRUNNER and had parsed 1d the same as Simon@6 but think that the blogged version is better.

Thought that both ‘a little Cheddar’ for CH and ‘little bird’ for IR was a bit of a stretch but not beyond the pale.

OREO was the last one in.

Thanks Grant. Top left beat me today. Oreo is a cookie here in the US so the clue of biscuit made me doubt it turning up in a British puzzle. I put it in lightly then never managed 1dn or 2dn to confirm. Yogurt a dessert?

Hamilton 17dn is sublime.

Agree with Pushkala. Pita and yogurt are spelled differently here. COFFEE SHOP is also American and used to mean a diner with a counter, not a Starbucks.

@Pete – frozen yogurt!

Some very challenging clues. Had to look at this blog for GUNRUNNER and CHAMPS. And ashamed I didn’t get OREO!

Thanks, Hamilton and Grant.

Late to the party as I didn’t tackle this till today, and didn’t have access to any aids. But it all came together in the end. OK, some of the clues were a bit unconventional but the whole thing was an enjoyable exercise in thinking outside the box, with several penny-drop moments, such as REEFERS, MINCEMEAT and, particularly IRISH STEW.

Thanks, Hamilton and Grant.

Only did this today so very late, but I thought there was a foodie theme- yum yum,oreo coffee shop, yoghurt, eclair, cuisine, apples, pitta bread,stol(l)en, mincemeat, lunch,champ, char, tenderloin, irish stew,fish.

Comments are closed.