Financial Times 15,833 by HAMILTON

by

Thanks Hamilton – although we aren’t confident we got all the answers right, we did enjoy solving this.

Some quite tricky but enjoyable clues – to mention a few FLIP CHART, ORIGINS and ARARAT.

There were a few which we thought to be clued quite loosely and why we say we aren’t 100% sure we actually got them right, including SILT, TEATIME and LUCK. Two clues requiring a new undefined first letter seemed a bit strange – unless we missed something. 1a and 27a both require TIME to be solved in the exact same way – just making us question whether we were correct.

completed grid

 

Across

1 Soon be free maybe? Hour perhaps, or is that too early? (6,4,4)
BEFORE ONES TIME
(SOON BE FREE)* (*maybe) + TIME (hour, perhaps)

9 Pedigree animal he took away, guzzling one drink (7)
ORIGINS
[h]ORS[e] (animal, he took away) around (guzzling) I (one) + GIN (drink)

10 Garment for good soul turning in (7)
BLOUSON
(SOUL)* (*turning) in BON (good)

11 Braveheart brings good fortune (4)
LUCK
[p]LUCK[y] (brave, heart of)

12 I presented unsettling order beforehand (10)
PREDESTINE
(I PRESENTED)* (*unsettling)

13 Trucker comes from Main Street but isn’t in (8)
TEAMSTER
(MA[in] STREET)* (*comes from)

15 Department returning advice about part of the body (6)
ARMPIT
ARM (department) + TIP< (advice, returning)

18 Put down roots in North Yorkshire town (6)
SETTLE
Double definition

19 Top civil servant ran admin atrociously! (8)
MANDARIN
(RAN ADMIN)* (*atrociously)

22 Our ambient re-recording of drum (10)
TAMBOURINE
(OUR AMBIENT)* (*re-recording)

24 New opening for charge on deposit (4)
SILT
[t]ILT with new opening letter

26 Marauder heard a bawdy song (7)
CORSAIR
Sounds like COARSE (bawdy) + AIR (song)

27 Drink today, maybe around 5? (7)
TEATIME
TEA (drink) + TIME (today, maybe)

28 Master invested recklessly in publicity (14)
ADVERTISEMENTS
(MASTER INVESTED)* (*recklessly)

Down

1 Charge for obstruction to minor work (7)
BOOKLET
BOOK (charge) + LET (obstruction in tennis terms)

2 Pam in the classroom? (4,5)
FLIP CHART
MAP (chart) backwards (flipped) is Pam

3 Storm over main road entering service (4)
RAIN
A1 (main road) entering RN (Royal Navy, service)

4 Keep an eye on Republican paper (8)
OBSERVER
OBSERVE (keep an eye on) + R (Republican)

5 Stand for letter by association (6)
EMBODY
EM (letter) + BODY (association)

6 Decently attired, having pocketed cash? (9)
TROUSERED
Double definition

7 Back in Tanzania, same people are found (5)
MASAI
(Tanzan[IA SAM]e)< (back in)

8 Eager to be occupying temporary accommodation? (6)
INTENT
IN (occupying) + TENT (temporary accommodation)

14 Sticky greeting changed at the outset on record (9)
SELLOTAPE
SELLO (Hello, changed at the outset) + TAPE (on record)

16 Average painter talked about segregation (9)
PARTITION
PAR (average) + “TITION” (sounds like Titian, a painter)

17 Spooner will pester associates who are tycoons (8)
MAGNATES
NAG (pester) + MATES (associates) – Spoonerism thereof

18 Even that is found in tasteless routine (6)
SHTICK
[t]H[a]T (even letters) in SICK (tasteless)

20 Girl adopted by fans of football trickery (7)
NUTMEGS
MEG (girl) in (adopted by) NUTS (fans)

21 Girl joins Royal Academy, going up to the original dry dock (6)
ARARAT
(TARA (girl) + RA (Royal Academy))< (going up)
ARARAT being where Noah’s Ark landed

23 Bogged down in Michigan with revolutionary (5)
MIRED
MI (Michigan) + RED (revolutionary)

25 Old man gets to the heart of Holmes’ bribe (4)
PALM
PA (old man) + [ho]LM[es] (heart)

*anagram

12 comments on “Financial Times 15,833 by HAMILTON”

  1. Quite enjoyed this. I am often critical of this setter for his looseness and agree with your preamble, Teacow, but have the same solutions and parsings as you. So, thanks to Hamilton and Teacow for today’s workout. New words for me were BLOUSON and TEAMSTER.

  5. Not really enjoyed this.  I am so happy that I don’t have to blog puzzles like this anymore, so hats off to you Teacow!

    I failed hopelessly in the NW corner.

    I considered LUCK (11ac) but couldn’t see why that should be right apart from the obvious definition. And while the idea of 13ac was clear, “isn’t in” surely doesn’t tell us to remove “in”.

    A similar thing, for me, in 9ac. Does “he took away” really mean “remove HE”?  To take away as a verb is transitive, and I don’t like the past tense either.

    I saw (and liked) the FLIP CHART (2d) but as a long-time teacher I don’t think I’d ever saw one ‘in the classroom’ in recent years.

    Ah well, to each his (or her) own.

     

     

  6. The same ‘quite tricky and enjoyable clues’ as our blogger. I was surprised 21a didn’t have a question mark as it’s my understanding that there is no evidence at all that Noah’s Ark ended up on the mountain in question. I did like FLIP CHART. Maybe Sil @5’s comment justifies the question mark there.

    Generally pretty tough but I became so MIRED in a ‘this is really hard’ mindset that it must have taken me 10 minutes to get OBSERVER, almost the easiest clue of the day. I’m sure it won’t be the last time.

    Thanks to Hamilton and to Teacow

  7. Thanks to Hamilton and Teacow. I too was defeated by the NW corner. I did not get BOOKLET and ORIGINS and could not parse LUCK, Also BLOUSON and NUTMEGS (as trickery) were new to me.

  8. In 1 down, I though LET was clued by “obstruction” as in the archaic legal phrase “without let or hindrance”; the tennis idea doesn’t really work for me.

    Many thanks Teacow for the tricky explanations.  “Pam” being a flipped chart prevented me from finishing this puzzle today, but I thought it was a wonderful clue!

     

  9. I had the same thoughts about LET as Philip Prescott [at last someone using his actual name (I guess)].

    That said, I don’t think the charade BOOK (charge) + LET (obstruction) does fully work, as it means that ‘for’ is somewhat floating in the air.

    Therefore, I think Hamilton’s intention was BOOK LET (charge for obstruction), seen as a whole (which is fine).

    It’s only a tiny difference if at all but even so.

    In addition to what’s been said so far, I would like to say that the definition for TAMBOURINE (22ac) is rather odd. Even if it is in some dictionaries, a normal person wouldn’t call a tambourine a drum.

  10. Sil @ 9

    Just curious. If you wouldn’t call a tambourine a drum, what would you call it? After all, it’s a skin stretched over a frame, played percussively. Sounds pretty much like a drum to me, even if we wouldn’t normally think of it that way. 🙂

  11. I would call a tambourine a tambourine.

    But you can’t do that in a crossword.

    In the Sixties it was something green (according to the Lemon Pipers).

    By the way, I’m not complaining, strictly speaking Hamilton is right.

    But when I think of drums I think of Keith Moon, John Bonham or perhaps even that recently knighted guy who you can hardly call a Brit.

  12. Thanks Hamilton and Teacow
    Did this on the early hours of this morning in a night of disturbed sleep – got all except TEAMSTER (which I only know in the context of someone who drove a team of bullocks in the days of beast pulled wagons) in the first session. Had to wait tilll later to finish it off. It wasn’t helped by having CELLOTAPE confidently written in at 14d at first.
    Took an age to equate ARM with a department until the corporate meaning dropped!
    Was rather odd to have TIME clued by example in both 1a and 27a.

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