Financial Times 16,761 by WANDERER

by

A pleasant challenge from WANDERER today, to end the work week. Thanks WANDERER.

FF: 9 DD: 8

ACROSS
1 MOHAIR
What’s found in a nanny’s coat in second musical? (6)
MO ( second ) HAIR ( musical )
4 ODDBALLS
Rum served with forms of ice cream in Cranks (8)
ODD ( rum ) BALLS ( form of ice cream )
10 TERMITE
Back in Tibet, I’m returning 16 17 (7)
hidden , reversed in “..tibET IM RETurning..”; see 16,17 ac
11 SUCCOUR
Telephone version of Victim Support (7)
sounds like SUCKER ( victim )
12 RUMP
Bum US president, leader no longer wanted (4)
tRUMP ( us president, without leader i.e. without first letter )
13 GREAT-NIECE
Relative – not extremely nice teenager, sadly (5-5)
[ nICe ( not extremely, without end letters ) TEENAGER ]*
16, 17 SOCIAL CLIMBER
Party clothes initially paraded by agile upwardly mobile member of the Ant Hill Mob? (6,7)
SOCIAL ( party ) C ( Clothes, initially ) LIMBER ( agile )
20, 21 TRIUMPH HERALD
Limp and hurt head briefly, right after crashing car (7,6)
[ LIMP HURT HEAD R ( Right, briefly ) ]*
24 SUMMARISES
Provides potted version of 3s deadheaded at end of season, say (10)
SUMMA ( sounds like SUMMER – season ) iRISES ( 3s, deadheaded, without first letter )
25 ACHE
A revolutionary longing . . . . (4)
A CHE ( revolutionary )
27 EARNING
. . . . to lose the lead when winning (7)
yEARNING ( longing , from 25ac , without starting letter )
29 RESCIND
Cancel right decision, cruelly having exterminated 10 (7)
R ( right ) [ DECISioN ( without IO – ten ) ]*
30 TROTTERS
Food provided by first of the pigs? (8)
T ( The, first letter ) ROTTERS ( pigs ) – nearly an &lit?
31 DODGEM
Car from American brand, Michigan’s first (6)
DODGE ( american brand ) M ( Michigan, first letter )
DOWN
1 MATTRESS
Lover one’s abandoned for a time? Sleep on it! (8)
MisTRESS ( lover, with IS { one’s } replaced by A T { time } )
2 HARUM-SCARUM
Reckless, having drunk a hot drink on top of cathedral in Salisbury once (5- 6)
[ A in H ( hot ) RUM ( drink ) ] [ C ( top of Cathedral )  in SARUM ( salisbury ) ]
3 IRIS
“Blooming female” has upset online assistant (4)
reverse of SIRI ( online assistant )
5, 23 DISRAELI GEARS
Former PM rages about psychedelic rock album (8,5)
DISRAELI ( former pm ) [ RAGE ]* – album by cream
6 BACK NUMBER
Out-of-date issue for Eno, perhaps (4,6)
reverse clue; ENO = ONE reversed -> back number
7 LOO
Can see nothing . . . . (3)
LO ( see ) O ( nothing )
8 SORTED
. . . . classified as an anagram indicator? (6)
double def
9, 18 JERRY SPRINGER
US talk show host’s dog goes after a mouse (5,8)
JERRY ( mouse, from tom and jerry ) SPRINGER ( dog )
14 EYE-CATCHING
Ailing yacht in Greece, with no engineers noticeable (3-8)
[ YACHT IN GreECE ( without engineers i.e. without RE ) ]*
15 NATURALIST
One with nothing on, taking a stroll at last in Darwin? (10)
NATURIST ( one with nothing on ) containing [ A L ( strolL , last letter ) ]
18
See 9
19 ADDENDUM
Damn! Dude has burst appendix (8)
[ DAMN DUDE ]*
22 ASCENT
What 17 makes, following a trail (6)
A SCENT ( trail )
23
See 5
26 OSLO
Capital investment in 28’s 7 (4)
hidden in “..roO’S LOo“, 28d is ROO, 7d is LOO,
28 ROO
Short man in small jumper (3)
ROOk ( man, short, from chess )

28 comments on “Financial Times 16,761 by WANDERER”

  1. This offering from Wanderer was the best of the week, I thought, with lots of tricky wordplay and interesting connections between clues such as that seen in 25/27 and the ant-related ones. I was unsure of 7 and 8, however, and came here for confirmation/explanation. Really liked 20/21 and 5.
    4 amused me though I eat my ice scream in ‘scoops’ not balls – perhaps that makes me a crank!
    Thanks for the fun, Wanderer and Turbolegs for the blog.

  2. Didn’t enjoy this as much as I normally would but still a fine crossword.

    I did find 8d a weak double definition and wondered if I was missing something. I don’t equate “naturalist” with “nudist” so 15d didn’t work for me. I have said before that I don’t care for ROO as “small jumper” (as opposed to joey say). It is short for “kangaroo” but “small” for “short” seems a little weak and could reasonably be removed from the surface altogether.

  3. Hovis @2: as the blog says, the nudist is “naturist” with A and last letter of stroll (L) inside, and he definition is Darwin?

  5. Me again. Just looked it up in Chambers and it seems I had the wrong idea of a naturist so ignore my issue with 15d.

  6. Found 3/4 of this puzzle thoroughly enjoyable but a grind for the final quarter.

    Liked the proper use of ellipsis for a change in 25 and 27a, is there a point to them in 7 and 8d that I’m missing or are they superfluous?

    Thanks wanderer and turbolegs!

  7. Went to download the crossword an hour ago and found it had been hidden behind a paywall – AGAIN! Is it just me, or have others found the same?

  8. Hamilton @7
    I had no problem accessing the pdf first thing this morning but now get the paywall. I will contact the crossword editor to get this rectified.

  9. Same issue with me for 7d and 8d. I found the ellipsis off-putting and don’t know what it’s doing other than to provide an improved combined surface for the two clues. Still, probably missing something.

    Apart from that an enjoyable way to pass the time on a car trip. Favourite was the TROTTERS “nearly &lit”.

    Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs

  10. Thanks for the blog, very useful. As already mentioned 25 and 27 AC are an excellent example of connected clues. 7 and 8 D not so good, perhaps meant to be read as one complete sentence saying there are no anagrams in either clue ?

  12. @10 Thank you Roz, I think I see it now. The answer completes the statement of the clue?

    “Can see nothing classified as an anagram indicator? Sorted!”

  14. It seems the FT has decided to monetize the crossword puzzles.

    Oddly (to me), in the U.S., subscribing to the print edition is much cheaper than subscribing online.

    Online edition is $40 per month (!) while getting the print edition delivered to my doorstep costs $25 per month.

    So, about $1 per day to get the crosswords … plus whatever argle-bargle the FT is reporting on that day thrown in.

    I’ll have to think about it.

  15. I got around the paywall by googling ‘Financial Times crossword 16761.’ Someone else suggested trying it this way when this issue cropped up last year.

  16. I agree with ub. I googled “FT crossword 16761” this morning and that is still opening this crossword this evening. Tomorrow I will only have to edit the previous Google search by changing the last digit to 16762.

  18. Goujeers
    Google “ft crossword 16,762”, without the quotes, and you will get a link to today’s Goliath pdf which can be saved or printed.

  19. I hit the paywall for the Goliath prize on my desktop but had no problem printing it from my phone (Samsung Galaxy). Go figure.

  20. Thanks for the tip, managed to get crosswords by googling. I wouldn’t mind if they offered a more reasonably priced crossword only subscription. I’m not interested in the rest of it.

  24. We’ve had the problem of the puzzle being paywalled a few times before: it’s always been fixed eventually, so I presume the same will happen again, rather than this being a deliberate change of policy. In short, Hanlon’s Razor applies (probably).

  27. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
    A gristy puzzle with a couple of new terms – the Cream album at 5d, 23d and the car at 20a, 21a. Some really innovative clueing and I especially liked the play to get OSLO at 26d, the clever use of the ellipsis at 15a / 17a and the complicated charade to derive HARUM SCARUM at 2d.
    Finished in the SW corner with ASCENT (needing the E and T crossers), SUMMARISES (twigging to the ‘summer’ bit earlier, but tricky definition ) and TROTTERS (nice misdirection with the use of ‘pigs’).

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