Financial Times 16,180 by GOLIATH

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One for the adults?

I don’t think I’ve come across a Goliath puzzle before, but there are signs that he/she was inspired by Paul.  Some of the references were ones that American crossword editors would reject because of their arbitrary “breakfast test”, but I think that any word in the English language should be fair game if clued appropriately, so I enjoyed this puzzle.  It wasn’t perfect (see my comments for 21ac and 5dn and the use of “essentailly” twice in crossing lights was a bit lazy), but it produced a couple of laugh-out-loud moments.

Thanks, Goliath

Across
1, 4 POLICE STATIONS Parasites stay endlessly in libations and fuzzboxes? (6,8)
LICE (“parasites”) + STA(y) [endlessly] in POTIONS (“libations”)
9 ENMESH End of life, with me in NHS organisation tangle (6)
*(e me nhs) where E is [end of] (lif)E
10 ALLERGIC Sensitive girl working with lace (8)
*(girl lace)
12 SYPHILIS Narcolepsy: philistine’s disease (8)
Hidden in “narcolepSY PHILIStine”
13 PLASMA Part 2 of 7 in play, almost fluid (6)
(org)ASM (“part 2 of 7 (down)) in PLA(y) [almost]
15 RASH Hasty 10 reaction (4)
Double definition, the 10 in the second one refers to 10 ac – allergic
16 UNDERGO Early start in breaking ground experience (7)
E(arly) [start] in *(ground)
20  ELITIST No egalitarian is held with fists when stripped (7)
(h)EL(d)(w)IT(h) (f)IST(s)
21 MERE Pure water (4)
Double defintion, though “once pure water” may have been better as MERE is an archaic term for PURE
25 OPENED Started to write in reference book (6)
PEN (“to write”) in OED (Oxford English Dictionary, so “refernece book”)
26 HONOLULU Honour singer if, as they say, you are leaving capital (8)
HONO(ur) LULU (“singer”) with homophone of YOU ARE (ur) [as they say] leaving
28 KEEL OVER Fall for vegetable clue? (4,4)
KEEL OVER could be a clue for “vegetable” (i.e. LEEK)
29 CHILLI It’s hot and cold air essentially (6)
CHILL (“cold”) + (a)I(r) [essentially]
30, 31 ROMANTIC COMEDY Italian stuttering advance in neat film (8,6)
ROMAN (“Italian”) + C-COME (stuttering “advance”) in TIDY (“neat”)
Down
1, 22 PRESSURE COOKER Resources deployed in game stew here (8,6)
*(resources) in POKER (“game”)
2 LAMPPOST Pot palms may be a convenience for setter (8)
*(pot palms)
3 CASSIS Liquor drunk by domestic assistant (6)
Hidden in [drunk by] “domestiC ASSIStant”
5 TALK Lecture discussing twisting force (4)
Homophone of [discussing] TORQUE (“twisting force”)

I don’t like homophones like these which assume that an R is not pronounced, because as a Scot, I pronounce TALK and TORQUE completely differently.
6 THEOLOGY Divinity of people embracing our Lord, omnipotent God at first (8)
THEY (“people”) embracing O(ur) L(ord) O(mnipotent) G(od) [at first]
7 ORGASM Creature leaving Northern Ireland’s peak (6)
ORGA(ni)SM (“creature”) from which NI (Northern Ireland) is leaving
8, 19 SOCIAL SECURITY Roughing it occurs easily in welfare (6,8)
*(it occurs easily)
11 DIGNITY Being decent and tidying mess (7)
*(tidying)
14 SESSION Awful noise around Gestapo meeting (7)
*(noise) about SS (“Gestapo”)
17 BLUE MOON Rare occasion for adult to expose bottom (4,4)
BLUE (“for adult”) + MOON (“to expose bottom”)
18 SEQUELAE In Spain, what disrupts lease arrangement produces consequences (8)
QUE (in Spain, “what”) disrupts *(lease)
19   See 8
22   See 1
23 REDEEM Reconsider exchange (6)
Double definition
24 BOOHOO I’m crying as I don’t like this hospital food, essentially (6)
BOO (“I don’t like this”) + H (hospital) + (f)OO(d) [essentially]
27 YETI On the other hand, Goliath is a myth (4)
YET (“on the other hand”) + I (“Goliath”)

*anagram

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,180 by GOLIATH”

  1. 1a is LICE + STA(y) in POTIONS.

    20A parsing is missing. hELd wITh fISTs.

    Goliath occasionally appears in the Prize Crossword but I cannot remember when he(?) last appeared on a weekday.

    Nice to see double-light clues lining up in the grid.

    Thanks to Goliath and loonapick.

  2. I found this tough at first but a steady solve brought me home in under 30 minutes with 29ac my LOI after struggling to get 18d.

    I do not think of the Gestapo as being part of the SS but it seems both organisations were under Himmler after 1934….

    I believe 1, 4 ac is actually LICE plus STA(Y) with POTIONS around.

    Thanks setter and blogger as ever.

  4. Like Steven @2, this looked tough for a start then everything started to come together. I had also thought that the Gestapo wasn’t under the SS (that’s the impression I got from the Bernie Gunther novels anyway), but I see that I was mistaken.

    I didn’t have any problems with TALK, but I’m a “non-R roller” and I can understand our blogger’s reservations.

    Favourites were BOOHOO, the reference to LULU and the answer-as-clue KEEL OVER.

    By the way, Goliath last appeared in a non-prize puzzle on Wed, Jan. 23rd this year.

    Thanks to Goliath and loonapick

  5. Thanks for the blog, loonapick – I think you’ve probably come across Goliath as Philistine in the Guardian.

    Re 21ac: I think you meant to write that MERE is obsolete / archaic for pool or lake – water [as given in both Collins and Chambers] rather than ‘pure’, where surely it’s still alive and kicking. MERE = water /lake has been a staple in crosswords as long as I’ve been doing them [which perhaps does mean it’s obsolete!] and, of course, it’s there in Windermere and Grasmere.

    A lovely puzzle, as ever from this setter. I loved the fuzzboxes in 1ac and thought 1dn was very clever, too. I’m also an admirer of setters [Wanderer’s another one] who can make multiple answers line up.

    2dn and 27dn made me laugh, along with several others – and no sensibilities were offended.

    Many thanks to Goliath – I really enjoyed it.

    [loonapick – re 5dn: years ago, I used to make comments on behalf of my late Scottish husband and the same point has been made many times since. ‘Older’ commenters, please forgive me if I quote again the clue that Shed devised for us: ‘Tenor in drunken choir fought for fort? – Not in this accent! (6)’.]

  6. The funny thing about 12 is that Goliath appears in the Graun as Philistine.

    And does cardiac surgery in his spare time.

    Very pleasant puzzle.

  7. Hi copmus @6

    I can’t believe I missed that at 12ac! I’m so used to thinking of them as the same person, I just didn’t notice.

  8. Eileen at 5 – I am not aware of MERE and PURE as synonyms and indeed Chambers claims the synonym is obsolete, so I stand by my comment. I am much more aware of MERE = WATER, and did not realise that was an archaic term. Can you give me a recent example of MERE = PURE. On the rhotic R, I think in example such as above the clue needs to reflect the difference by using terms as “to some” or “some might say”. Thanks for educating me on the setter’s identity – I normally only have time to solve on days when I’m blogging (and even then it’s a bit of a rush sometimes to get it done before leaving for work) so unless a compiler has appeared on a Thursday FT, I won’t recognise him/her.

  11. Thanks to loonapick and Goliath

    Overall good fun but I thought a couple of defs were a bit loose – BEING DECENT and MYTH

    My Chambers thesaurus  has MERE = PURE

    23a I think has to be read cryptically for the first def – RE DEEM

  12. Eileen-hi, I loved fuzzboxes-large tea tray

    Ok on dictionary (if its Chambers) but useless on Inky instructions

  13. I saw MERE as just ‘unadulterated’ e.g. ‘I’m speaking the mere truth’ and it didn’t worry me at all.
    But as the partner of a Scot (I’ve said this already this week) I’m with loonapick all the way on ‘talk/torque’. They aren’t homophones.
    Still and all, good fun & thanks to both.

  14. Thanks to Goliath and loonapick. Tough going for me, though eventually I did get through but without parsing several items. I did eventually get MERE, TALK, ELITIST, and ORGASM and had to look up SEQUELAE. I’m another who appreciated having the longer clues lined up.

  15. Thanks Goliath and loonapick

    A decent puzzle that kept me going for just under the hour early Sunday morning after waking up earlier than planned.

    I’m a fan of the connected two-word clues around the perimeter, more traditionally a Wanderer device but saw that the new setter, Velia, did it yesterday as well.  A couple of new terms in ‘fuzzboxes’ and SEQUELAE and until just now ‘convenience for a setter’ (which I just got and almost laughed out loud).  Had no grief with ‘torque’ and it was one of the early entries.  Interesting when saw the comment from copmus@6 with regard to the relationship to the setter (knew he was Philistine, didn’t know about the surgeon side of him).

    Finished with that one, DIGNITY (which shouldn’t have been so late) and ELITIST (that took ages to see the middle of words trick).

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