Financial Times 15,778 / Neo

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I’m a late stand-in for the scheduled blogger so this post has been prepared in something of a rush. If anything needs further explanation please say.

A rather tricky cryptic from Neo today and one which caused a bit of head scratching in places. I’m not sure if my parsing of 12ac is correct and I’m unable to explain the wordplay in 4dn, so I hope someone will help me out with this one.

Across
1 Inflexible two days in with men squabbling over weapon (6-6)
NARROW-MINDED – an anagram (squabbling) of DD (two days) IN MEN around (over) ARROW (weapon)

8 Clocked high speed in reverse with surface frozen? (7)
NOTICED – TON (high speed) reversed (in reverse) ICED (with surface frozen)

9 Uncultured bachelor interrupts short argument (7)
LOWBROW – B (bachelor) in (interrupts) LOW (short) ROW (argument)

11 While travelling north, hiding among Europeans (2,5)
EN ROUTE – N (north) ROUT (hiding) in (among) EE (Europeans)

12 Group in most natural surroundings (7)
ELEMENT – I think this is a cryptic def. alluding to the saying ‘they’re in their element’

13 Vote to exclude leader’s share (5)
ALLOT – [b]ALLOT (vote to exclude leader)

14 One joins Selecter playing for another 16 (9)
LEICESTER – I (one) in an anagram (playing) of SELECTER – Leicester Hemingway

16 Adventurous writer – he’s entitled to stay in with good wife (9)
HEMINGWAY – HE MAY (he’s entitled) around (to stay) IN G (good) W (wife) – Ernest Hemingway

19 Irishman seats daughter in large chair (5)
SEDAN – SEAN (Irishman) around (seats … in) D (daughter)

21 Flush / with success? The opposite! (4,3)
WASH OUT – double def.

23 Final word’s mine in each pub (7)
EPITAPH – PIT (mine) in EA (each) PH (pub)

24 12 of mystery finally revealed in full (7)
YTTRIUM – [myster]Y (mystery finally) is the chemical symbol for the entry (revealed in full)

25 Around knight find evasive person so polite? (7)
GENTEEL – GET (find) EEL (evasive person) around N (knight)

26 End the term on being displaced? (12)
DETHRONEMENT – an anagram (being displaced) of END THE TERM ON – &lit

Down
1 Logical / person sure to succeed (7)
NATURAL – double def.

2 Election event in detail (7)
RECOUNT – double def.

3 Peculiar chap is secret fraternal member (9)
ODDFELLOW – ODD (peculiar) FELLOW (chap) – a member of this fraternal order

4 Driver abroad leaves vehicle for brawl (5)
MELEE – ??? [ca]MELEE[r] – Thanks George & Eileen.

5 Two presents unlikely to be found? (7)
NOWHERE – NOW HERE (two presents)

6 Firm answer man accepts (7)
EARNEST – ERNEST (man) around (accepts) A (answer)

7 Wife left bed an aroused Athena, inspired by husband’s technique (4,8)
ANNE HATHAWAY – AN plus an anagram (aroused) of ATHENA around (inspired by) H (husband) followed by WAY (technique) – Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare and in his will he bequeathed her his second-best bed with the furniture.

10 Dog and Duck? That’s where real animals drink! (8,4)
WATERING HOLE – double def. – the ‘Dog and Duck’ is a fairly common name for a public house (or watering hole)

15 Roman historian discounting first class colleges (3,6)
IVY LEAGUE – [l]IVY (Roman historian discounting first) LEAGUE (class)

17 Folk instrument’s fixed in damper (7)
MUSETTE – SET (fixed) in MUTE (damper)

18 Ancient implement’s one tossed on fire, getting hot (7)
NEOLITH – an anagram (tossed) of ONE followed by LIT (on fire) H (hot)

19 Extremely sadistic niece perhaps requiring discipline (7)
SCIENCE – S[adisti]C (extremely sadistic) plus an anagram (perhaps) of NIECE

20 Make connection with European Court in local language (7)
DIALECT – DIAL (make connection) E (European) CT (court)

22 Work force in London seen over time (5)
TEMPO – OP (work) MET (force in London) reversed (seen over)

16 comments on “Financial Times 15,778 / Neo”

  3. Eileen missed a lovely crossword – well I thought so anyway.   I am grateful to George and her for explaining 4d as a cameleer would be the last person I’d have thought of.

    I particularly liked 7d, not least because when the lady in question appeared elsewhere in a crossword, someone enquired as to who got the best best bed!

    Thanks to Neo for the fun and Gaufrid for standing in with the explanations

  4. Thanks Neo and Gaufrid, and to George and Eileen for the car in cameleer.

    Tickled pink by the imagery around that Hathaway clue. I suspect Neo is doing Shakespeare one hell of a favour!

     

  5. Thanks George & Eileen, blog updated. Like crypticsue, I don’t think I would ever have thought of that driver (though did briefly wonder if there is another name for a mahout).

  6. Yes, also had caMELEEr for 4d. Got stuck quite early on and used a thesaurus to find a word for ‘brawl’ with only the middle L at that stage. After that, everything fell fairly rapidly but didn’t know the ‘left bed’ part of 7d, so thanks for the explanation. Thanks to all.

  7. Hi Sue @3 – yes, it seems I did but I had limited time today so had to be selective: I always have to do the Guardian, whoever it is, because it’s my paper – and today it was Puck, anyway. 😉  I always like to read the blogs, though, to see what I missed.

     

  9. I’m with Cryptic Sue on this, an entertaining and, to my mind, amusing puzzle. Great surfaces I think are what does it here.

  10. I liked lots of this, such as WASH OUT, NARROW-MINDED, NOWHERE.  I liked ANNE HATHAWAY, too; I didn’t know about the bed bequest, but was happy with ‘wife’ as a definition.  I’m confused about ‘inspired by’ – I would have thought that worked the other way around, i.e. the aroused Athena is contained by husband (inspire = breathe/draw in?).  ODDFELLOW was a bit lame, but fair enough, I probably wouldn’t have got it otherwise.  Wouldn’t have got cameleer in a month of Sundays.  FWIW at this late stage, ELEMENT is a DD, I think, element being a faction in a larger group, plus the most natural surroundings.

    Thanks Neo, Gaufrid

  11. Thanks to Puck and Gaufrid. I did not parse MELEE-cameleer or ELEMENT and wondered about the NATURAL-logical connection, but I much enjoyed this puzzle.

  12. I’m with copmus on this.

    I’m not a huge fan of Neo, but do try to give him fait treatment.

    But today, to highlight but three:
    weapon > arrow > anagram component – how many weapons are there?
    man = ernest – really?
    dethronement is not the same as ‘being displaced’ (in my view anyway)

    I wonder what hedgehoggy would have said.

  14. I am a fan of Neo (and of Tees – watch out for him this weekend!). The reason is that I think he is one of the more precise setters in general – hedgehoggy would have loved him!

    Dear Simon, there are too many weapons in the world but I don’t see what’s wrong with the use of ‘arrow’ in 1ac.

    Ernest not a man? Is she a woman? Blond, or blonde? 🙂  Perhaps, Neo should have cross-referenced this clue with 16ac.

    Don’t worry, I know what you mean @12 but perhaps the problem is that these ‘there is too much to choose from’ devices were slightly annoying because the crossword as a whole was rather difficult. Well, I for one had real trouble to finish it anyway. It may (or might? 🙂 ) well be that the editor put him deliberately in the Friday slot (instead of the familiar Tuesday).

    Phi was an exercise in scraping the answers together, Neo ditto and only Puck gave me some indication that it wasn’t just me today.

    Or was it?

  15. I was wondering that re ERNEST. Maybe because it would be dbe it was rejected.

    OTOH ‘man/ woman’ is common in xwds for a full first name, and ‘little man woman’ for any diminutive.

    Anyway as I’m not 1a, I’ll side with cryptic sue’s camp. A nice puzzle.

     

  16. Thanks Neo and Gaufrid

    A tough offering from this setter, particularly in the parsing – I didn’t fathom HEMINGWAY or MELEE – and didn’t know about the ‘Dog and Duck’ pubs, that Ernest at a brother LEICESTER nor the will and testament of Shakespeare – I wonder who got the best bed !!

    Took several sessions to finally get it the grid filled but with all of the stuff that I found out in the blog, wouldn’t have marked this as one of my better efforts.

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