Financial Times 15,808 by WANDERER

by

A superb challenge from Wanderer, thanks to whom for a riveting session of solving. Several favorite clues here, many of which had good misdirection without compromising on clue integrity.

A fascination with H, clearly. I was half way through the grid before I caught on to the nina which helped solve the remaining clues.

FF: 10 DD: 8

completed grid
Across
1 HORSES Bays perhaps with beaches, after moving south-east (6)
SHORES (beaches) with the first S (south) moving to the right (eastward)
5 PLUTARCH First of Lives in set by chief biographer (8)
[L (first of Lives) in PUT (set) ] ARCH (chief); wiki here
9 HEROIN Horse leading man home (6)
HERO (leading man) IN (home)
10 SKITTISH Nervous? Saint Christopher has this sorted (8)
S (saint) KIT (christopher) [THIS]*
11 HARDLINE Unyielding as Left or Right here? (8)
cryptic def, political stance [Also refers to the Left / Right columns of the grid – H (hard)  – Thanks Geoff]
12 YAHWEH God, you need to cut grass back (6)
reverse of HEW (cut) HAY (grass)
13 HI FI Reproductive system provided in human interest, originally (2-2)
IF (provided) in HI (Human Interest, first letters)
15 GUNSMITH Thin gums treated by someone with small arms? (8)
THIN GUNS*
18 HIGH GEAR Fourth, fifth or sixth rage, potentially (4,4)
cryptic clue; [GEAR = RAGE*; fourth fifth or sixth would be high gears in automobiles]
19 SASH Comets, as Haley’s band (4)
hidden in “..cometS AS Haleys..”
21 HEARTS Club suit? Yes and no (6)
double def; referring to the scottish football club and the suit in a pack of playing cards
23 INSOMUCH Assorted munchies? Nothing does for energy to the same extent (8)
MUNCHIeS* with E (energy) replaced by O (nothing,0)
25 HALF-TIME Interval that’s between two notes? (4-4)
cryptic clue – potentially splitting TI and ME (two notes)
26 RADISH Salad item has small girl covered in spots (6)
DI (small girl, diana) in RASH (spots)
27 HYDROGEN Huddersfield initially top of the table? (8)
H (Huddersfield, first letter) – symbol for hydrogen, first element in the periodic table
28 THATCH PM not the first lady in a wig, perhaps (6)
THATCHer (pm, without ER – first lady)
Down
2 OMEGA Great support for love letter (5)
MEGA (great) under O (love)
3 SWORDFISH His F-word’s upset a swimmer, in the main (9)
HIS F-WORDS*
4 SUNLIT Given light by setter? (6)
cryptic clue, the sun is a setter (something that sets)
5 PASSENGER PIGEON Pope’s gangrene is treated by former high-flyer (9,6)
POPE’S GANGRENE IS*
6 UNIFYING It’s making one distasteful, lacking editor (8)
UNedIFYING (distasteful, without ED – editor)
7 AITCH A long letter (5)
A ITCH (long)
8 CASSETTES Maybe film in these classes about film location? (9)
CASTES (classes) around SET (film location)
14 ITINERARY One can have a long time on railway in planned route (9)
I (one) TIN (can) ERA (long time) RY (railway)
16 MASS MEDIA Supply English maid service, primarily for those in press box? (4,5)
MASS (service) [ E (english) MAID]*
17 FEASTING Consuming a lot online? Consuming nothing outside of that (8)
FASTING (consuming nothing) outside E (~online, electronic)
20 ESPRIT High priest’s lively wit (6)
PRIEST*
22 REFER Pass on way up and down (5)
cryptic clue, palindrome
24 COSEC Raised Anglican society’s function briefly (5)
reverse of CE (anglican, church of england) SOC (society); short for cosecant

*anagram

11 comments on “Financial Times 15,808 by WANDERER”

  2. Thanks, Wanderer and Turbolegs.

    Yes, very enjoyable – favourites were HYDROGEN, UNIFYING and the Pope’s gangrene.

  3. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs. A superb crossword indeed with excellent surfaces.

    I missed the H theme!

  4. Great crossword. Should also mention the clever inclusion of the two black H’s in the grid. Liked the reference to Bill Haley and the comets in 19a. 21a is slightly iffy given the use of ‘hearts’ for a suit (ok) and also ‘club’ but not ‘clubs’ (bit iffy). Favourites were 9a, 27a and 16d.

    For 12a, I originally thought ISHTAR with wISH being ‘need to’ cut (losing first letter) + RAT< for ‘grass back’. Admittedly, I didn’t like wish for need though setters often use ‘want’ for need. Also, I would have used Goddess.

    Thanks to all.

  5. Spotted the theme part-way through which helped, having shortly before pondered that there were two Hs in the middle of the grid. So signposts as well as the theme itself.

  6. this was an interesting experiment for me. I solved the puzzle online using the new tool on my laptop and the format which I see has the clues visible but not the grid itself; just answer boxes which populate with the crossing letters as one enters them. In this way, the puzzle looks rather like a game of hangman more than a crossword and I have finished a few FT crosswords online in which I’ve never even looked at the grid.

    However, today’s was different when I came to enter what I assumed to be HARDLINE with its (at that point unclear) allusion to left and right lines, at which point I scrolled up to look at the populated grid and bingo!

    My take away from this is that although I’m tickled, er, pink that the FT has gone online I think on balance I prefer the Graun’s presentation of highlighted clue alongside the grid.

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, lovely puzzle and thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs

     

  7. Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs. Too tough for me. I did not get FEASTING and SUNLIT and sTruggled with THATCH and COSEC.

  8. Thanks Wanderer & Turbolegs.

    I do not understand the reservation to 21 across by Hovis @ 4, but may be missing something.  What is the significance of Yes and no?  The double definition would be clearer if the clue were just Club suit? (al la Dante).

  9. H-highly aspirational puzzle from Wanderer who, relative newcomer to FT cryptics (c/o the new interactive ‘site) that I am, is a most welcome new source of bamboozlement. Enjoyed this very much but found it largely tough going…as Turbolegs wrote in the intro, some good misdirection involved, but it’s quite a feat to do that in an economical, unwordy style. Apart from the H’s (once I noticed them!) PASSENGER PIGEON was a useful spine giving first and last letters. I flirted with sundog (a solar optical illusion involving refraction through icy clouds) until the penny dropped with HARDLINE and gave the crosser for SUNLIT to enlighten me. That pesky ‘setter’ and so much for overthinking. I must have lived a cloistered life as I had no idea that ‘horse’ was street slang for HEROIN, but it was fairly clued. All good stuff. May I overstay my welcome here by mentioning how much the new interactive puzzle is appreciated by those of us solving on tablets, and I hope the experiment becomes a regular feature online (many thanks FT).

    Thanks very much to Wanderer and Turbolegs for their excellent work.

  10. I found this very disappointing. It appeared to border on being rather self-indulgent setting – it certainly didn’t indulge the solver.

    E is not a acceptable synonym for ‘online’. E stands for electronic as in E-Cigarettes and E-books are read offline, not online.

    I’ve never heard Her Majesty the Queen referred to as the First Lady.

    I’ve never heard of a Passenger Pigeon or a cosec, and I don’t think 11ac works as a clue.

    Cassettes contain tape – audio or video – not film.

  11. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
    Thought this was very good even though by writing in an unconfirmed PIHI initially at 13 prevented me from seeing the line of H’s down the left hand side. Even after getting HIFI later, still didn’t notice it and didn’t consider looking down the right hand side. Also missed the football club associated at 21a.
    Not sure that one’s ignorance constitutes someone else’s ‘self-indulgence’ – the fact that a few of us didn’t even see what was going on actually meant we missed out on getting a helping hand with the starting or ending letters of every across clue – that would’ve been solver indulgence indeed !

Comments are closed.