Financial Times 16,751 by ZAMORCA

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An enjoyable pangram.

Zamorca’s puzzle this morning is very enjoyable and, although relatively straightforward, not exactly a 12d. A pangram – though admittedly I only noticed this after I had completed solving the grid. I particularly enjoyed parsing some the longer clues, for example 11a, 21a, 2d, 15a, 27a. Thanks to Zamorca!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Second application for computer device (5)
MOUSE

MO (second) + USE (application)

4. Working model’s almost perfect, restricted by design (2,7)
ON PURPOSE

ON (working) + POSE (model), PUR[e] (perfect, almost) restricted

9. Share costs on condition daughter moves in with child (2,5)
GO DUTCH

GOUT (condition), D (daughter) moves in with CH (child)

10. Band has a couple of pints then starts off set (7)
QUARTET

QUART (a couple of pints) then [se]T (starts off)

11. Behave typically and nurture stray cat with efforts heartily welcomed (3,4,2,4)
RUN TRUE TO FORM

(NURTURE)* (*stray) + TOM (cat) with [ef]FOR[ts] (heartily) welcomed

14. Care about getting some land (4)
ACRE

(CARE)* (*about)

15. Without money for home, therefore allowed to borrow against investing (9)
INSOLVENT

IN (home) + SO (therefore) LENT (allowed to borrow), V (against) investing

18. Excellent book looks back describing family missing Italy (4,5)
BEES KNEES

B (book) + (SEE)< (look, <back) + (SEE)< (look, <back) describing K[i]N (family, missing I (Italy))

19. A fan of Not Going Out after third episode (4)
INTO

(NOT)* (*going out) after [ep]I[sode] (third)

21. Pay back kindness of clergyman framing fine art nouveau work (6,1,6)
RETURN A FAVOUR

RR (clergyman) framing (F (fine) ART NOUVEAU)* (*work)

24. Frustrating online game cut short by wifi connection failing finally (7)
ELUDING

E (online) + LUD[o] (game, cut short) by [wif]I [connectio]N [failin]G (finally)

26. No housing check on island shows lack of experience (7)
NAIVETY

NAY (no) housing VET (check) on I (island)

27. Moved snake-like and cut east penetrating group of animals (9)
SLITHERED

SLIT (cut) + E (east) penetrating HERD (group of animals)

28. Delay arising when not tellin’ the truth in hearing (3,2)
LIE IN

“Lyin'” (not tellin’ the truth “in hearing”)

DOWN
1. High aim to surround government with wise men (4)
MAGI

(AIM)* (*high) to surround G (government)

2. During rebellion, upcoming artist and revolutionary is taken by police (5,6)
UNDER ARREST

During UNREST (rebellion), (RA (artist) and RED (revolutionary))< (<upcoming)

3. Quantity of old camping gear (6)
EXTENT

EX (old) + TENT (camping gear)

4. Review to now include women’s groups in a different way (9)
OTHERWISE

(TO)* (*review) + HERE (now) include WI’S (women’s groups, (i.e. Women’s Institutes))

5. Put out summit broadcast (5)
PIQUE

“Peak” (summit, “broadcast”)

6. Continue to study student’s last essay which can’t be edited (4-4)
READ-ONLY

READ ON (continue to study) + L (student) + [essa]Y (last)

7. With zero exercise get plump (3)
OPT

O (zero) + PT (exercise)

8. Recklessly I steam into making a guess (10)
ESTIMATION

(I STEAM INTO)* (*recklessly)

12. Directing canoe child’s play in light sea wind (5,6)
OCEAN BREEZE

(CANOE)* (*directing) + BREEZE (child’s play)

13. Pork belly starter with egg on side is ultimate fast food (10)
HAMBURGERS

HAM (pork) + B[elly] (starter) with URGE (egg on) + R (side) + [i]S (ultimate)

16. Took legal action over disgrace suffered (9)
SUSTAINED

SUED (took legal action) over STAIN (disgrace)

17. Both endlessly move round and stay away from hard battle (8)
SKIRMISH

(SKIR[t] (move round) + MIS[s] (stay away from)) (both endlessly) + H (hard)

20. Happy over half caught in jail break (6)
JOVIAL

OV[er] (half) caught in (JAIL)* (*break)

22. Series right to the end causes outrage (5)
ANGER

RANGE (series), R (right) to the end

23. Queen admits yen to have new anthem (4)
HYMN

HM (queen (i.e. Her Majesty)) admits Y (yen) to have N (new)

25. College informally has some continuing in retirement (3)
UNI

[cont]INU[ing]< (some, <in retirement)

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,751 by ZAMORCA”

  1. I normally expect Zamorca to be an enjoyable doddle but this took a lot more thought making it my favourite Zamorca puzzle so far.

    My only criticism is for 10a. As the blog suggests, “starts off set” gives T but the solution requires ET. Something like “starts off extra set” would have worked.

  2. I found this a pretty easy write-in: many of the solutions were so clear from the definitions that I barely looked at the wordplay, so got through it quite fast. As usual, completely failed to notice that it is a pangram.

    Thanks to Teacow for elucidating the ones I was too lazy to clarify. I agree that 10a doesn’t quite work: I did look at the wordplay for that one and didn’t get where the E comes from.

  3. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
    Found this a bit meatier than normal from this setter … and enjoyed it all the more for that. Lazily wrote in MODEM at 1a and ISSUE at 5d initially which made things harder than they needed to be.
    If latitude is given to setters on punctuation, then 10a works as ‘start’s off set’ = [S]ET – that was my logic anyway. Liked untangling some of tge charades and needed yhe pangram to sort out my last couple – JOVIAL and NAIVETY.
    Good end to the Easter break after getting back from the country.

  4. Could 10ac mean – start IS off set – leaving just et ? It should have an apostrophe of course so maybe not.

  5. We had doubts about 10ac, too. We also weren’t sure about here = now in 4dn but we see that Chambers does allow it. LOI was 24ac which was ELUDING us for a long time.
    We liked BEES’ KNEES, RETURN A FAVOUR and SKIRMISH.
    Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.

  6. My thanks to Zamorca for tempting me to doggedly pursue this one.
    I was pleasantly surprised when I finished it, and even more so when my answers were all correct! I had questions marks against nine answers so thanks to Teacow for the blog.
    Bit of a life buoy job but got there…

  8. I surprised myself by realizing the puzzle was a pangram before I finished it. However, by that time, I discovered I had already entered every letter but K and had only 18ac, 13dn and 17dn left to complete. I even got all the answers right, although I did need some of Teacow’s explanations to understand the wordplay. And plump meaning to vote and by extension to opt was totally new to me.

    So thanks to Zamorca for the fun and Teacow for the explanations.

  9. This took a bit longer than usual for a Zamorca crossword and that’s a good thing. I questioned 10a as well — an apostrophe in starts would have been grammatically incorrect in the surface reading. Something like “Band has a couple of pints before movie” would have worked. In any event this was enjoyable with PIQUE, JOVIAL, and HYMN being favourites. In the latter I liked HM for queen instead of the usual R or Q. Thanks to both.

  10. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
    10ac: I can sympathise with both sides of the discussion here, but I cannot accept the alternative from Hovis @1, which is using “starts off” in two different ways for the E and the T. Perhaps “… starts off extra tune” would work.

  11. Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow. Bruce@2, I also made the MODEM mistake but fixed it when I figured 2d.
    I was stumped by the NE corner; then I just looked at the subject line of Teacow’s blog, “pangram”, and realized I was missing only a Q; QUARTET then came (made sense to me), and the rest, except for OPT (EdK@8, likewise didn’t know the sense of “plump”).
    Liked figuring out the letter combos. INSOLVENT was the cleverest. I thought it was “in” (home) “solvent” (if you’re solvent, you’re allowed to borrow against an investment?) but the parsing makes much more sense.

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