Financial Times 16,575 by ZAMORCA

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Very enjoyable pangram from Zamorca.

I found this morning’s puzzle thoroughly enjoyable – not overly challenging, but kept me on my toes throughout. Very neat and clear clues with some excellent surfaces. First time I’ve stumbled across this specific definition for 1a but all above board according to the dictionary. Plenty to entertain and mull over – many thanks to Zamorca!

image of grid

ACROSS
1. Make a fuss about extreme hike in tariff (6)
CREATE

C (about) + [hik]E (extreme) in RATE (tarriff)

4. Bypass work’s held back by lazy person (4,4)
SKIP OVER

OP< (work, held <back) by SKIVER (lazy person)

10. After cricket match will try out new car (4,5)
TEST DRIVE

After TEST (cricket match), DRIVE (will)

11. First class get special enclosure in US ski resort (5)
ASPEN

A (first class) get S (special) + PEN (enclosure)

12. Oddly comical sample of Tarzan yell (4)
ZANY

[Tar]ZAN Y[ell] (sample of)

13. Friend made error perhaps, or not, seeing fortune teller (4,6)
PALM READER

PAL (friend) + (MADE ERR[or])* (*perhaps, OR not)

15. Row about retired doctor is hurtful (7)
NOISOME

NOISE (row) about MO< (doctor, <retired)

16. Question’s dividing some running temple (6)
MOSQUE

QU (question)’s dividing (SOME)* (*running)

19. Bloomer showing when underskirt’s not pulled down? (4,2)
SLIP UP

SLIP (underskirt) + UP (not pulled down)

21. Aristocrat, losing head taking diamonds, has run into policeman (7)
OFFICER

[t]OFF (aristocrat, losing head) taking ICE (diamonds) has R (run)

23. Under threat of early finish, open-air DJ set goes ahead (2,8)
IN JEOPARDY

[earl]Y (finish); (OPEN AIR DJ)* (*set) goes ahead

25. Time to regret being honest (4)
TRUE

T (time) + RUE (to regret)

27. Vehicle guide picked up is a muddy colour (5)
KHAKI

Sounds like CAR + KEY (vehicle + guide, “picked up”)

28. One side gets help pursuing justice (5,4)
RIGHT HAND

HAND (help) pursuing RIGHT (justice)

29. Make a mess of translating “She-Devil” (8)
DISHEVEL

(SHE DEVIL)* (*translating)

30. Up for sex after final Jägerbomb drink (6)
BRANDY

RANDY (up for sex) after [Jägerbom]B (final

DOWN
1. Channel Islands School of Buddhism’s feeding its poor residents (8)
CITIZENS

CI (Channel Islands) + ZEN (school of Buddhism) feeding (ITS)* (*poor)

2. Circulating salient points in advance is crucial (9)
ESSENTIAL

(SALIENT)* (*circulating); ES (points (east, south) in advance)

3. Arrange minute with daughter instead of partner (4)
TIDY

TINY (minute), with D (daughter) instead of N (partner, Bridge reference)

5. I’m not sure what to say after spy’s set up by M so stay quiet (4,3)
KEEP MUM

UM (I’m not sure what to say) after (PEEK<) (spy, <set up) by M

6. Performance fades out before men stripped – didn’t risk it! (6,4)
PLAYED SAFE

PLAY (performance) + (FADES)* (*out) before [m]E[n] (stripped)

7. Suspect diva, soft at heart, is lacking charisma (5)
VAPID

(DIVA)* (*suspect); P (soft) at heart

8. Without water supply year after river under bridge finally disappeared (3,3)
RUN DRY

(Y (year) after R (river)) under (RUN (bridge) + [disappeare]D (finally))

9. Focus on chance to nurse rising team (6)
FIXATE

FATE (chance) to nurse XI< (team, <rising; referring to 11 players on a cricket side)

14. Commanding Officer with military police is more unlikely to negotiate (10)
COMPROMISE

CO (commanding officer) with MP (military police) + (IS MORE)* (*unlikely)

17. Not sure a French church has central heating during wet weather (9)
UNCERTAIN

UN (a French) + CE (church) has [hea]T[ing] (central) during RAIN (wet weather)

18. Kind of insect outside bothered diner (8)
FRIENDLY

FLY (insect) outside (DINER)* (*bothered)

20. Grassland in Peru regularly windy we hear (7)
PRAIRIE

P[e]R[u] (regularly) + AIRIE (“windy”, we “hear” (i.e. sounds like “airy”))

21. Good to leave gold and silver with last relative in final years (3,3)
OLD AGE

[g]OLD (G (good) to leave “gold”) and AG (silver) with [relativ]E (last)

22. Cool group of women on deck at sea (6)
WICKED

WI (group of women, Women’s Institute) on (DECK)* (*at sea)

24. Frenchman’s trousers? (5)
JEANS

Double definition

26. Inspire uplifting in spirits (4)
STIR

[spi]RITS (<uplifting, in)

12 comments on “Financial Times 16,575 by ZAMORCA”

  1. Some tricky parsing made this very enjoyable. For 8d, I had Y after R (river) + UND(e)R, where “e” is BRIDGE finally. Needed the pangram to get IN JEOPARDY and then JEANS.

    Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.

  2. As Teacow says, an agreeable Monday solve over breakfast with some lovely clues and a pangram to boot. MOSQUE, IN JEOPARDY and KHAKI flicked the pangram-detector early on which ultimately enabled me to fill in 9d.
    24d is probably a chestnut for long-time solvers but I liked it, along with 22d and 1ac especially (a favourite of my Mum’s, as in “Don’t start creating!”)
    Interesingly, I initially saw ‘gins’ as the hidden answer for 26d and thought ‘gin up’ could perhaps loosely mean ‘inspire’. However, that gave ‘r-g-g’ for 28ac, my LOI, which clearly was wrong and, therefore, ‘right’!
    Thanks for explaining 3d, Teacow – never get the bridge clues and also 4ac where I had ‘kips over’ -tuts loudly!
    And thank you, Zamorca -it was short but sweet.

  6. Paul @4. Please note that this has been mentioned. Teacow mentions it in the first line of the blog and I also commented on it @1.

  7. Having entered unparsed “SHANDY” for 30 ac  could only fit equally improbable “ITCH” for 26 d. Otherwise, good fun. Thanks Z and T.

     

     

     

  8. Looking back, had I been focused on the idea of a anagram, I would have really believed that 30 ac had to have the “B” from Jagerbomb.

  9. I missed the pangram as i was so busy admiring the nearness of the clues. Just shows that a puzzle doesnt have to be difficult to be classy

    Full marks

  10. Thanks Zamorca for a fine crossword. Though I failed to solve CREATE, all else fell into place nicely. Favourites included CITIZENS, UNCERTAIN, and FRIENDLY. Good surfaces throughout . Thanks Teacow for the write-up.

  11. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow

    All quite quickly finished but not without some really enjoyable unravelling of some really clever wordplay. I parsed RUN DRY as did Hovis@1, but it did take a long time to arrive at it – really quite a difficult parsing.  Thought that some of the definitions for the solutions and the component parts of the charade were well disguised – ‘performance’ / PLAY, ‘focus’ / FIXATE, etc.

    Liked the ‘Frenchman’s trousers”.   Finished with that one, IN JEOPARDY and the excellent WICKED as the last one in.

     

  12. Thanks Z and T. Needed blog for CREATE and parsing of KHAKI. WICKED and PRAIRIE very clever – I tried “pompous” (windy, sounding like “Pampas”) which held that corner up until I figured it out. Great puzzle and as copmus@9 said, great besides being a pangram!

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