Financial Times 15,967 by GOZO

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A super puzzle on a theme I knew well.  Thank you Gozo.

The undefined answers are all writers.  I spent a long while thinking there was a misprint in the instructions because they appeared to state that 18 down solutions were undefined but there were only 16 down solutions in total.  Then the penny dropped…

completed grid
Across
1 AUSTEN Australian university returns bags (6)
A (Australian) U (university) then NETS (bags) – Jane Austen
4 FIELDING In the slips, say, but competitors playing golf (8)
FIELDING (the slips are fielding positions in cricket) , also FIELD (competitors) IN (playing) and G (golf, phonetic alphabet) – Henry Fielding
9 ASIMOV Like one film that is forgotten (6)
AS I (one) MOVie (film) missing (forgotten) IE (that is) – Isaac Asimov
10 SALINGER From Northern Algiers (8)
anagram (from the letters of) N (northern) and ALGIERS – JD Salinger
JD Salinger
12 HUGO Boss of a fashion company! (4)
cryptic definition, Hugo Boss fashion brand – Victor Hugo
13, 14 ROALD DAHL Way round lake with boy returning holding hands, at first (5,4)
ROAD (way) contains (round) L (lake) then LAD (boy) reversed (returning) containing Hands (first letter of)
17 MARCEL PROUST Injure Scot, holding professional American (6,6)
MAR (injure) CELT (Scot) contains PRO (professional) US (American)
20 GEORGE ORWELL Key in ravine or shaft (6,6)
E (a key, in music) in GORGE (ravine) then OR WELL (shaft)
23 OVID Old tanner? (4)
O (old) VI D (six pence, a tanner)
24 KEATS Buried in Stoke, at Shelton (5)
found (buried) inside stoKE AT Shelton – John Keats
25, 31 ANNE BRONTE Near – bent on trouble (4,6)
anagram (trouble) of NEAR BENT ON
28 SMOLLETT Girl with hood entering Brock’s place (8)
MOLL (girl with hood, a gangster’s moll) inside SETT (the home of a brock, a badger) – Tobias Smollett
29 O’CASEY Sounds alright by the waters (6)
sounds like “OK sea” (all right by the waters) – Sean O’Casey
30 TURGENEV In France, you never go wild about German (8)
TU (you, in France) then anagram (go wild) of NEVER containing (about) G (German)- Ivan Turgenev
31   See 25
Down
1 ANATHEMA Alto in choral work – a thing one can’t stand (8)
A (alto) in ANTHEM (choral work) then A
2 STINGERS Choristers, including tenor – they can be painful (8)
SINGERS (choristers) containing T (tenor)
3 EPOS Collection of poems composed without metre (4)
anagram (composed) missing M (metre)
5 IN ALL HONESTY Then I’ll say “No!” for a change, without a word of a lie (2,3,7)
anagram (for a change) of THEN I’LL SAY NO
6 LAID Set down face up (4)
DIAL (face) reversed (up) – a super clue!
7 IN GEAR Dressed and ready to move (2,4)
if you are IN GEAR you have your gear (clothes) on
8 GURGLE Good length in drive making drain sound (6)
G (good) then L (length) in URGE (drive)
11 COPPER KETTLE Constable with heated singer found in Victorian kitchen (6,6)
COPPER (constable, policeman) and KETTLE (heated singer, a heated kettle “sings”) – something found in a Victorian kitchen
15 WEBER One composer cut another (5)
WEBERn (another composer, cut)
16 TSARS Leaders take some advice. Reduce staff, initially (5)
first letters (initially) of Tale Some Advice Reduce Staff
18 TENNYSON Announcing play at Roland Garros (8)
TENNYSON sounds (announcing) like “tennis on”, play is underway at the French Open (Roland Garros) – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
19 ALDEHYDE He worked with deadly chemical (8)
anagram (worked) of HE with DEADLY
21 DORSET County Down’s top store bombed (6)
Down (top letter of) then anagram (bombed) of STORE
22 RIGOUR Stiffness affected Igor – game’s upset (6)
anagram (affected) of IGOR then RU (Rugby Union, game) reversed (upset)
26 BLUE Depressed? Spend, spend, spend! (4)
double definition – sad and to squander
27 SCAR Mark from outside edges of scimitar (4)
found on the outside edges of SCimitAR

definitions are underlined

I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords.  If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.

9 comments on “Financial Times 15,967 by GOZO”

  1. Great fun. I bagged a few easy doiwns before sussing the theme with Keats 24ac. LOI 29ac with the tricky missing apostrophe causing me pause.

     

    Thanks seter and blogger

  2. Thanks for the pictorial blog, PeeDee.

    Not really my area of expertise, but got all the writers anyway. Quite enjoyed the challenge. So thanks also to Gozo.

    Despite having seen the clue twice before in the past, I still couldn’t dredge up WEBER(N) from the recesses of my memory.

    There’s a minor error in your parsing for 30a. The last bit is (NEVER)* around G(ermany). Also a typo in 4a. FILED -> FIELD.

  5. I thought there might be more to 18d involving French translation, because the homophone doesn’t quite work for me. Looks like that’s it, though.

    I always enjoy Gozo’s themed puzzles. In All Honesty and Dorset were the best of the non-themed clues for me. Thanks to G & PD.

  6. Ended up missing out on OCASEY, with my favourite bits of the themed clues being the ‘Girl with hood’ in 28a and the thought of Jane AUSTEN at an ‘Australian university’ in 1a. WEBER(n) reminded me of Gozo’s (in)famous ‘ordeal by obscure composers’ puzzle sometime last year. At least this one wasn’t as hard.

    A big thanks to PeeDee – the pics are great- and to Gozo.

  7. thanks gozo and PeeDee. In 26d, I would have preferred “spent, spent, spent” as Blue is the homophone of blew rather than blow.

  8. John @7, I don’t it’s anything to do with ‘blew’. ‘Blue’ is a verb meaning to squander or spend recklessly, although it seems to be getting rarer.

  9. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee

    Great puzzle who’s themed popped quite early with Isaac ASIMOV and Jane AUSTEN.

    Unfortunately I came here too early not realising that I hadn’t filled in the clue for WEBER – still don’t know whether I would’ve got it.

    Lots of clever clues with O’CASEY and TENNYSON being the last couple in.

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