Financial Times 16,125 by JASON

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A more than usually diverting Tuesday puzzle.

A plethora of pleasing light-bulb moments, with 14a & 13, 19d as favourites. And 4d definitely my CoD. Thanks very much to Jason for the fun.

completed grid
Across
1 DISTANCE I should return bearing reserve (8)
  I’D (‘I should’, reversed) + STANCE (‘bearing’).
5 RESTED Relaxed dropping stone into marsh grass (6)
  ST[one] in REED.
9 EXACTING Demanding much – no longer acting (8)
  EX (‘no longer’) + ACTING. By a distance, today’s least elegant clue.
10 STARTS Opening from Saracens’ hooker (small) sets the ball rolling (6)
  S (1st letter of Saracens) + TART (‘hooker’) +S[mall].
11 SEAFARER Captain, say, is wise man hanging on to a remote (8)
  SEER (‘wise man’) surrounds A + FAR (‘remote’).
12 RADIOS Sends message from close to Gibraltar — cheerio (6)
  R (last of ‘gibraltaR’) + ADIOS (‘cheerio’).
14 STALAGMITE POW camp force, we hear, is rising in cave (10)
  STALAG (‘POW camp’) + homophone of MIGHT (‘force’).
18 GINGER NUTS Biccies spice up being out to lunch (6,4)
  GINGER (to ‘spice up’) + NUTS (‘out to lunch’).
22 SEASON Main offspring is mature salt (6)
  SEA (‘main’) + SON (‘offspring’) & double definition.
23 DECORATE Last month speak in court to confer award (8)
  DEC[ember] + ORATE (‘speak in court’, or formally, at any rate).
24 EATS IN Scoff at wickedness? Gets pizza, stays home, —- — (4,2)
  EAT (‘scoff’) + SIN (‘wickedness’).
25 CANONISE Saint Charlie before long is earl (8)
  C[harlie] + ANON (‘before long’) + IS + E[arl]. ‘Saint’ as transitive verb, usu. in past tense as in ‘my sainted old mother’.
26 LAYMAN Produce chap, parishioner who lacks expert knowhow (6)
  LAY (‘produce’, as a hen does an egg) + MAN (‘chap’).
27 REASSESS Have second thoughts about bums on seats finally (8)
  RE (‘about’) + ASSES (‘bums’) + S (last of ‘seatS’).
Down
1 DRESSY Elegant doctor, he’s so shy in every other case (6)
  DR + alternate letters of “hE’s So ShY”.
2 SCARAB Beetle succeeded with motor rating, eg (6)
  S[ucceeded] + CAR (‘motor’) + AB[le Seaman], naval ‘rating’.
3 ASTRAY Wrong smoker’s accessory husband’s flung out (6)
  AShTRAY.
4 CONCERTINA Harmony in a contract (10)
  CONCERT (‘harmony’) + IN + A. To contract as vb., obvs. Very neat clue.
6 ESTRANGE Make enemy of sergeant recklessly (8)
  Anagram (‘recklessly’) of SERGEANT.
7 TERRIFIC Fantastic artificer lacking lead: dreadful (8)
  Anag. of aRTIFICER without 1st letter. ‘Dreadful’ and ‘terrific’ both in their original, literal senses.
8 DISASTER Horror story is seen in dead flower (8)
  D[ead] + ASTER (‘flower’) around IS.
13 ALL THE RAGE In large lathe being refashioned (3,3,4)
  Anagram (‘refashioned’) of LARGE LATHE. Cute def.
15 EGGSHELL Food wrapper? Mine’s down there! (8)
  EGGS (WW1 slang for explosive ‘mines’) + HELL (euphemistiacally, ‘down there’).
16 INFANTRY Child given small railway and soldiers (8)
  INFANT + R[ailwa]Y.
17 SEMOLINA A lemon is lost in pud (8)
  Anagram (‘lost’) of A LEMON IS.
19 DODOES Party cheats conservative sorts blind to change (6)
  DO (‘party’) + DOES (‘cheats’), with long and wilfully misleading def. Nice.
20 MALICE Evil intent from maiden, someone who had adventures? (6)
  Cricketing M[aiden] + Carroll’s ALICE.
21 RECESS Fantastic cress sandwiches, English niche (6)
  Anagram (‘fantastic’) of CRESS surrounds (‘sandwiches’) E[nglish].

*anagram

21 comments on “Financial Times 16,125 by JASON”

  2. In 7d I thought “Fantastic” was the definition and “dreadful” the anagram indicator, but I suppose it works either way.

    9a is bizarre – it’s as if the setter left “acting” as a placeholder and forgot to finish off the clue. “No longer on stage” would be an obvious improvement, or, more indirectly “not playing any more?”

  3. Yes, EXACTING was very strange. Some good ones to make up for it though, especially CONCERTINA (which I missed unfortunately), the EGGSHELL def and DODOES. The second crossword outing in a day for ALICE made 20d a bit easier. Not sure I still completely understand EATS IN.

    Thanks to Jason and Grant

  4. To Andrew @2.
    I think yr right about 7d. Mine kinda works too, just seems less probable.
    And I felt the same re 9a. It’s a rubbish clue & there are many possible substitutes for ‘acting’, including even ‘substitute’ if you think about it (e.g. ‘acting manager’).

  5. I enjoyed this very much – as Grant says, lots of pleasing moments but a real shame about 9a – one of those clues where you look at it several times wondering if it really ‘could be…’ but sadly it was.

    Thanks to Jason and Grant

  6. To crypticsue (et al):
    Yup, a pity that the talk is all about the really rather awful 9a. Lovely puzzle otherwise.

  8. Funnily enough, my thoughts on 9a followed those of GB @4 but felt that “no longer vice” worked well with “demanding much”. As others have said, it does feel that this wording wasn’t Jason’s intention.

  9. Just maundering on but if my ‘fantastic’ is indeed the anagram indicator for TERRIFIC at 7d then Jason has used it twice (vide 21d) which rather reinforces Andrew’s view of ‘fantastic’ as the def at 7d.

    I’ll repeat that this was a jolly crossword spoilt only by what we all agree to have been an editing error at 9a.

    And CONCERTINA still goes straight into my Little Book of Favourite Clues

  10. Thanks to Jason and Grant. Aside from 9a I enjoyed this puzzle, though biccies and eggs=mines slowed me down.

  12. There has to be an explanation like Andrew@2 suggests as someone who sets a clue as brilliant as CONCERTINA wouldn’t intentionally write 9a. I thought DRESSY was an iffy synonym for elegant, but other than that much to enjoy. I finished the rest of the puzzle before I got anything in the NW corner which succumbed when MrsW got SEAFARER. Thanks to Jason and Grant.

  13. Thanks to Grant and Jason

    I usually (more or less), agree with most who have commented here, but today I must dissent. Much of this puzzle demonstrates what dismays me about many setters and crossword editors (if that fabled beast does indeed exist) lately:

    5a If that’s someones idea of a hobby they need to get in more

    9a see above

    10a can’t be bothered to work out a way to tag an S on to START so I’ll just put “small” in brackets, however bizarre that makes the surface

    11a is the surface suggesting that anyone with the foresight to secure the means to change TV channels should be awarded the rank of Captain?

    18a the cryptic reading is GINGER UP BEING NUTS, not GINGER NUTS

    23a I tried to find a justification for IN COURT, I really did, but I failed

    24a Is this wordplay plus triple def? Or this and this so this must follow? I don’t know and I don’t think anyone else does either

    4d As a point of interest, rather than a whinge, CONCERTINA can apparently mean EXPAND and CONTRACT – it is its own antonym, although I think a concertina door, for instance, would not be of much use if it couldn’t do both.

    BTW I would have gone for SHOW IN A CONTRACT

    I lack the will to bang on much further but one other clue stands out:

    20a Brevity is the soul of wit (I do realise I risk being hoist by my own petard), but why not MAIDEN ADVENTURESS?

    I really don’t mean to pick on Jason, but I detect a certain disdain, approaching contempt, being shown to solvers (customers) recently.

  14. Thanks Jason & GB

    Very much a mixed bag here. Other than agreeing with most of the previous criticisms, I thought EGGS was WW2 slang for grenades, not mines. But there y’go.

  15. I agree with White King @12 about 9 across. It’s almost certainly one of those unfortunate errors that creep in to crossword puzzles from time to time. Let the one among you who is without typos cast the first stone and all that!

  17. Thanks Jason and Grant

    Quite an easy puzzle for me that didn’t take up too much of my lunch time at all.  Some strange definitions that were sometimes a stretch from what you’d normally expect – EGG – mine, ORATE – speak in court, captain – SEAFARER, CONCERTINA – contract, etc.

    Finished in the NW corner with two of those SEAFARER and CONCERTINA with that EXACTING the last one in.  Kept it to last as I kept thinking there must be something, there must be something … and then there wasn’t !!  Even looked up in a word finder to see if there was another possibility that would fit in – but there was none that would.

  18. To Dansar (& Simon):
    Re surfaces.
    I don’ t share your view that these were particularly clumsy clues. You don’t come to crosswords for Deathless Prose. The rule is that if it even squeaks by grammatically then it’s valid. I usually only comment on surfaces if they happen to be good or ungrammatical. The good ones are certainly a bonus but there’s also a school of thought which says that smooth surfaces make for bland crosswords.
    Two specifics: Chambers gives ‘ginger’ as a transitive verb and Alice wasn’t an ‘adventuress’, with its connotations of (possible sexual) scheming. She was indeed a girl to whom unusual adventures just happened.

  19. PeeDee @16, “passed”? 😉  I think I read that the FT doesn’t have a crossword editor, at least in the sense of someone who checks the clues and gives the setter feedback. Jason probably meant to write eg “pretending” and got momentarily distracted.

    Further to Grant @18’s comments on grammar, I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on RECESS. To me, the comma (which has to be there grammatically) means the containment indicator doesn’t work. Am I being too much of a stickler?

  20. To Nila Palin:

    I was taught that as a rule-of-thumb one can ignore all punctuation in crossword clues. There is probably a convoluted way to explain why that comma MIGHT make sense were it to be a colon, full-stop or semi-colon but, on the whole, it’s probably easier simply to toss it aside and get on with the solve. I certainly did.

  21. Grant @18

    Thank you for your response.

    I’m not suggesting that these surfaces were particularly clumsy. If that were the case it would imply that the lack of care taken with this puzzle is an exception whereas my point is that it is becoming the norm.

    I don’t dispute that a clue is valid as long as it works cryptically, but for me it is very much improved if it reads well.

    I think the most difficult aspect of setting must be hiding the definition. A natural surface presents the solver with a challenge to isolate that crucial element. Surfaces such as this lay the definition on a plate and take the fun out of it.

    A silky surface takes effort, it takes time, it takes commitment. Those are the elements that I find increasingly lacking in many crosswords lately, and also in the editing department – I’ve just noticed what’s happened in the FT today.

    Anyway, I don’t wish to fall out with anyone here so I’ll just say

    “I look to the future with a much cherished mate?”

     

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