Financial Times 16,861 by GOZO

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A puzzle with special instructions today which, depending on your general knowledge, you might find easy or very tricky. Fortunately I was on familiar territory here. Thank you Gozo.

The thematic answers are all birds of various sorts. Note that the instructions do not say that all themed clues omit a definition, only that if a definition is present it will not be thematic.

I will be out most of the day but leave a comment and I will get back to you when I can.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 REED WARBLER
Red rebel – war-torn (4,7)

anagram (torn) of RED REBEL WAR
7 HEN
Party-goer in the nude (3)

found inside tHE Nude – someone at a hen party (bachelorette party)
9 GREBE
Regularly seen in garden – bees! (5)

every other letter (regularly) of GaRdEn BeEs
10 PHALAROPE
P-Prince with a Cluedo weapon (9)

P then HAL (prince Henry, Shakespeare) and A ROPE (weapon from Cluedo, Clue in US)

11 TURNSTONE
Changes colour (9)

TURNS (changes) and TONE (colour)
12 GOOSE
Travel round the Home Counties (5)

GO (travel) O (something round) and SE (South East, the Home Counties)
13 OSPREYS
Cartographers’ acclamation is heard (7)

OD (Ordnance Survey, cartographers) then PREYS sounds like (is heard) "praise" (acclamation)
15 SHAG
Quid, perhaps, from small witch (4)

S (small) and HAG (witch) – a type of tobacco
18 RAIL
Track from the west of Cagliari (4)

I can't explain this. My best effort is found reversed (from the west ?) inside (of) cagLIARi, but a reversal should be from the east or to the west (right-to-left, as seen on a map)
20 RED KITE
Stop sign on RAF aircraft (3,4)

RED (stop sign) then KITE (aircraft, RAF slang) – I was surprised to find that Red Kite is not listed in Chambers
23 REEVE
Change course back to Edgbaston, first (5)

VEER (change course) reversed (back) then first letter of Edgebaston – a female ruff
24 GOLDCREST
Scored goal – not centre – curling to back of net (9)

anagram (curling) of SCORED and GoaL (not the centre) then neT (last letter, back of)
26 KITTIWAKE
Pool, we hear, has to stir (9)

KITTI sounds like (we hear) "kitty" (pool) then WAKE (to stir)
27 SNIPE
Smashed pie-tin first (5)

anagram (smashed) of PIE follows (with…first) SN (Sn, tin)
28 ROC
It’s said to be steady – and unsteady! (3)

sounds like "rock" – to be steady as a rock and to rock (be unsteady) – a fabulous bird
29 GOLDEN EAGLE
Gone – alleged to have crashed (6,5)

anagram (to have crashed) of GONE ALLEGED
DOWN
1 ROGATION
Go up into allotment before Ascension Day (8)

GO reversed (up) inside RATION (allotment) – the three days before Ascension
2 EYEDROPS
Tears? (8)

cryptic definition?
3 WRENS
Former naval officers run in all directions (5)

R (run) inside W E N and S (west, east…all directions)
4 RAPTORS
Transported by the middle of the floorshow (7)

RAPT (transported) then floORShow (middle letters of)
5 LOAFERS
Shoes for sale, imperfect (7)

anagram (imperfect) of FOR SALE
6 REARGUARD
Stern railway employee’s defence (9)

REAR (stern, of a boat) and GUARD (railway employee)
7 HOOPOE
Housework outside – outside! (6)

HO (house) OP (work) then outside letters of OutsidE

8 NEEDED
Two journalists from the north-east required (6)

NE ED ED is two editors from the north east
14 ENAMELING
Genial men resorted to coating fired on metal in the US (9)

anagram (re-sorted) of GENIAL MEN – using US spelling (only one L)
16 VIDEOING
Do give in, organising recording (8)

anagram (organising) of DO GIVE IN
17 AESTHETE
A dilettante – he’s taken in by fancy tea-set (8)

HE inside anagram (fancy) of TEASET
19 LEG BAIL
Part of the stumps I. Bell replaced with silver (3,4)

anagram (replaced) of I BELL and AG (ag, silver)
20 RELIEVE
Lessen intensity of real life events, all getting half-cut (7)

REal LIfe EVEnts with half the letters missing (cut)
21 BROKER
Financial dealer is bankrupt – right! (6)

BROKE (bankrupt) and R (right)
22 HECTIC
Feverish fellow caught twice admitting sex is over (6)

HE (a male, fellow) C C (caught, twice) contains (admits) IT (sex) id reversed (over)
25 CASTE
Innocent husband leaves class (5)

ChASTE (innocent) missing (when…leaves) H (husband)

12 comments on “Financial Times 16,861 by GOZO”

  1. At last, a theme with which I too can claim some familiarity. Or, in the spirit of 29, ‘the [golden] eagle has [crash]land-ed’.
    A swift (!) and fun-filled solve which was a write-in till the last two: ROGATION and OSPREYS. For the latter I’d hastily penned in MAGPIES because it contained ‘maps’ but a quick check online got me back on track.
    Of the thematic clues, I liked 24 best for its surface, 7d just because its so striking and 5d for its neat simplicity.
    Thanks to Gozo for this twitcher’s delight and, of course, PeeDee.

  2. On the subject of OSPREYS, there’s a minor slip in the blog which should read OS for Ordnance Survey (don’t like to, ahem, grouse). I didn’t notice, however, as you did PeeDee, that RAIL (18) gives the wrong instruction. Thanks, too, for the tobacco note re 15 which was unknown to me.

  3. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
    I was not happy with the definition at 19dn. The bails are not part of the stumps, they are part of the wicket which is made up of three stumps and two bails. I can see no reason why the clue does not say “wicket” instead of “stumps”.

  4. I can’t find any mention of LEG BAIL being part of a wicket. I’ve only seen it in the expression to “give leg bail”, meaning to run for it or escape from custody. If it was part of a wicket, then whichever bail was the leg one would depend on whether the batsman was left or right handed, which doesn’t make much sense.

  5. I had trouble getting the less familiar birds such as PHALAROPE and HOOPOE (good clue) and took a while to see that some of the thematic clues also had a non-avian definition – very clever. I didn’t know ROGATION, so wordplay to the rescue. ‘Tears?’ Well I suppose so.

    I didn’t notice it when solving, but I agree with the comments about LEG BAIL and RAIL.

    Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee

  6. Thanks for the blog , I do like a bird theme, Pierre would have been busy with pictures for this one.
    I too did not notice the issue with RAIL or with LEG BAIL.
    I thought the down answers were very reasonable for a complete across theme, only ROGATION was pretty obscure.

  7. Tom_I@4: Chambers gives leg adj on the legside of a cricket field, from which both the phrases leg bail and leg stump can naturally be built up. Of course, which it is varies according to the handedness of the striker, along with all sorts of other phrases, but so what?

  9. Despite failing with LEG BAIL, HOOPOE, and ROGATION I had fun with this crossword and its theme. I was somewhat familiar with most of the birds; some themed puzzles require specialized knowledge of arcane subjects and those I just toss aside. My favourite clues included BROKER, HECTIC, and PHALAROPE. Thanks Gozo and to PeeDee for the blog.

  10. Another who was happy to find a bird theme – GREBE was my foi which gave the game away. I also didn’t notice the quibbles with RAIL or LEG BAIL – apart
    from never having heard of it. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.

  11. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
    An enjoyable puzzle with a theme, although containing a couple of birds that were knew – PHALAROPE and TURNSTONE – was interesting and with clues that were fair to derive all the answers. Got off to a wrong start when writing in an undefined AVE [R]AVE[R] in at 7a and thinking that it was going to be a prayer or Latin words. A not fully parsed KITTIHAWK at 26a didn’t help further along in the solve.
    Finished in the SE corner with AESTHETE, GOLDCREST and RED KITE (where I didn’t help myself by not taking note of the 3,4 enumeration).

  12. A belated word on LEG BAIL, if I may: didn’t have a chance to post yesterday. For those of us devoted listeners to Test Match Special (I am listening as I type) “leg bail” or “off bail” is absolutely normal: “the ball just clipped the leg bail” would be as clear as “the ball just clipped the leg stump”. However, I’m inclined to agree that “wicket” would have been better than “stumps”.

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