Financial Times 16,684 by GOLIATH

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An entertaining treat from GOLIATH this Friday. Thanks G.

FF: 9 DD: 8

ACROSS
1 MALICE Michael is heartless, twisted and evil (6)
 

[ MIChAEL (without H – heartless ) ]* – my FOI
4 HAD A STAB Tried bath with a sad result (3,1,4)
 

[ BATH A SAD ]*
10 DATASET A lot of information obtained from American lawyer with appalling taste (7)
 

DA ( american lawyer ) [ TASTE ]*
11 COFFERS Treasury announcement for smokers? (7)
 

sounds like COUGHERS ( smokers? )
12, 26 SOULMATE True love found in a US motel, perhaps (8)
 

[ A US MOTEL ]*
13 GUITAR SOLO Try to cover our tails: clumsy performance (6,4)
 

GO ( try ) containing [ OUR TAILS ]* – my LOI
16 LEEWAY Slack amateur about to turn 31 (6)
 

LAY ( amateur ) around reverse of WEE ( little, teensy, 31a )
17 CARAMEL Sugar and whipped cream overwhelming a novice (7)
 

{ [ CREAM ]* containing A } L ( novice, Learner )
20 ZESTFUL Lively jazz finale with flutes playing (7)
 

Z ( jazZ, last letter ) [ FLUTES ]* – nice surface
21 BLITHE Beethoven’s first, graceful and gay (6)
 

B ( Beethoven, first letter ) LITHE ( graceful )
24 UNFAMILIAR Strange and unexpected, I’m a fun storyteller (10)
 

[ IM A FUN ]* LIAR ( storyteller )
25 See 23
 
27 PICTURE One court appearance in immaculate movie (7)
 

[ I (one) CT ( court ) ] in PURE ( immaculate )
29 ENAMOUR Seduce one with a rum cocktail (7)
 

[ ONE A RUM ]*
30 DOWNTIME Inactive period when little money constrains town planning (8)
 

DIME ( little money ) containing [ TOWN ]*
31 TEENSY On vacation, the Englishmen say little (6)
 

[ThE EnglishmeN SaY ( without inner letters ) ]
DOWN
1 MODESTLY Youth subculture style evolved without ostentation (8)
 

MOD ( youth subculture ) [ STYLE ]*
2 LETTUCE LEAF Let us read out clue: “Half oddly gone for some salad” (7,4)
 

LETTUCE ( sounds like 'let us' ) LEAF ( cLuE hAlF , without odd letters )
3, 28 CASH COW Bully for Johnny’s nice little earner (4,3)
 

CASH ( johnny, singer ) COW ( bully )

5 ALCATRAZ Sale scam craze uncovered round the back of Parkhurst Prison (8)
 

[ sALe sCAm cRAZe ( uncovered , i.e without end characters ) ] around T ( back of parkhursT )
6 AFFORDABLE As an alternative, Land’s End comes in friendly and cheap (10)
 

[ OR ( alternative ) D ( lanD, last letter ) ] in AFFABLE ( friendly )
7, 8, 19 THE BOSTON TEA PARTY A boat protest then shaped history at last (3,6,3,5)
 

&lit ; [ A BOAT PROTEST THEN ]* Y ( historY, at last ) – i thought this was a super clue!
9 STOUT Beer makes us fat (5)
 

double def
14 OVER THE MOON Very happy with where 7, 28, 22 (4,3,4)
 

cryptic def; from the nursery rhyme 'hey diddle diddle' which has the line [ the (7d) cow (28d) jumped (22d) over the moon ]
15 TANTAMOUNT Silly man, to get taken in by tease or equivalent (10)
 

[ MAN TO ]* in TAUNT ( tease )
18 FULL TERM Mural left without a revamp for nine months (4,4)
 

[ MURaL LEFT ( without A ) ]*
19 See 7
 
22 JUMPED Surged left when Juliet took the lead (6)
 

dUMPED ( left ) with D replaced by J ( Juliet )
23, 25 TAKE A PEEP Go with Papa and look (4,1,4)
 

TAKE A PEE ( go ) with P ( Papa ) .. not entire sure if this should be TAKE or HAVE
26 See 12
 
28 See 3
 

9 comments on “Financial Times 16,684 by GOLIATH”

  1. Pleasant way to finish off the weekday puzzles. I agree THE BOSTON TEA PARTY was excellent and I also liked the Johnny CASH reference, particularly being next to the ALCATRAZ clue.

    Yes, I put TAKE A PEEP for 23,25, but I suppose HAVE would work just as well. One of those clues for which there should be two correct answers, even if that does make the computer spit the dummy.

    Thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs

  3. As WordPlodder says, a super puzzle to finish off a week of particularly fine specimens. Before I’d properly solved 23d/25d, I thought it was TAKE A PEEK which I then adjusted after finding that famous TEA PARTY (I’m another admirer of the latter). But then, since the sense is ‘to go’, is it ‘take’ or ‘have’? My instinct says ‘take a leak’ but ‘have a pee’ – maybe different for Americans? Both seem to work fine though.
    Like the little dog of the featured nursery rhyme, I laughed to see such fun in unravelling 14d, my favourite clue. MODESTLY and ZESTFUL were other highlights. My LOI was the tricky (for me) LEEWAY which I could only guess at. Very clever.
    Thanks very much to Goliath and Turbolegs.

  4. Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.

    What a super puzzle! THE BOSTON TEA PARTY is an absolute classic. I also had ticks for UNFAMILIAR, MODESTLY, ALCATRAZ, AFFORDABLE and TANTAMOUNT.

    I smiled at FULL TERM because it reminded me of one of Goliath’s (as Philistine in the Guardian) clues from several years ago, that’s in my little book of all-time favourites: ‘End of term party? (6) for LABOUR.

    I had HAVE in 23dn.

    Many thanks to Goliath for the fun and Turbolegsfor the blog.

  6. Excellent crossword — THE BOSTON TEA PARTY is genius and I liked DOWNTIME, MODESTLY, ALCATRAZ, AFFORDABLE, and OVER THE MOON as well. There wasn’t a bad clue in the bunch. Thanks to both.

  7. Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs. Excellent puzzle! THE BOSTON TEA PARTY, but also the series leading to the cow jumping over the moon and ALCATRAZ were great. I usually say “take a peep” but “have a” … so either works.

  8. What can we add to the general chorus of approval? Not much. We went for HAVE in 23/25 as relating to ‘pee’ but think TAKE might be slightly more usual in relation to ‘peep’. We’ll be interested to see the printed solution tomorrow.
    Thanks, Goliath and Turbolegs.

  9. Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
    This was by far the quickest and would have to say one of the best of the crosswords of the week – crowned by the two scattered clues – THE BOSTON TEA PARTY and OVER THE MOON.
    Went down to BLITHE to start off and finished off with the trickily clued ALCATRAZ. Had TAKE A PEEP (which I see was the published answer, but agree either solution fitted). Had JUMPED but didn’t see the [D]UMPED part of the word play.
    Thought that it was on track to be a pangram, but no Q or X

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