Financial Times 17,058 by GOLIATH

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An enjoyable tussle from GOLIATH today.

FF: 9 DD: 9

ACROSS
1, 20 VICTOR HUGO
Writer’s champion getting a gesture of affection and love (6,4)
VICTOR ( champion ) HUG ( gesture of affection ) O ( love ) – liked this clue much !
4 JOYFUL
Glad of July revolution (6)
[ OF JULY ]*
8 FLEAPIT
Bound to appear in suitable cinema (7)
LEAP ( bound ) in FIT ( suitable )
9 BLIGHTY
Times coverage of fair Britain (7)
BY ( times ) containing LIGHT ( fair )
11, 12 STANDING AT EASE
Like more relaxed soldiers putting up with a tormentor (8,2,4)
STANDING ( putting up ) A TEASE ( tormentor )
13, 21 down, 26 CALL A SPADE A SPADE
Be blunt with soprano having reportedly settled with a flat in the outskirts of Scunthorpe (4,1,5,1,5)
CALLAS ( soprano, referring to maria callas ) PADE ( sounds like PAID, settled ) [ A { PAD ( flat ) in SE ( outskirts i.e. end characters of ScunthorpE ) ] – had to google the soprano reference.
14 THETFORD
Norfolk town available in black? (8)
cryptic def; read as THE T FORD , henry ford famously said you can have any color for the car as long as it was black
16, 18 INNOCENT PARTY
One’s done no wrong in historical 23 shindig? (8,5)
cryptic def; 23 refers to answer for 23a vatican – which had pope innocent in the 15th century. shindig means party.
20
See 1
21 SMOKING GUN
Incriminating evidence on smug misrepresentation involving royal (7,3)
[ ON SMUG ]* containing KING ( royal )
23 VATICAN
State of antivac movement (7)
[ ANTIVAC ]*
24 HEMLOCK
Unexpectedly choke, having eaten meal on vacation that contains poison (7)
[ CHOKE ]* containing ML ( MeaL, on vacation i.e. without inner letters )
25 YONDER
One dry cocktail there (6)
[ ONE DRY ]*
26
See 13
DOWN
1 VALET
Page 5 et al to be rewritten (5)
V ( 5, roman numeral ) [ ET AL ]*
2 CHANNEL
Parisian designer carrying the latest in fashion across this to London (7)
CHANEL ( parisian designer ) containing N ( fashioN, last letter )
3 ORIGINATE
Begin talk about one spirit (9)
ORATE ( talk ) around [ I ( one ) GIN ( spirit ) ]
5 OWLET
Towel wrapped round a little creature (5)
[ TOWEL ]*
6 FIG LEAF
Agile dancing in very loud and skimpy attire (3,4)
[ AGILE ] in FF ( very loud )
7 LET US PRAY
Endless psalm run? Yes, to be broken by this (3,2,4)
[ PSALm RUn YEs To ( endless ) ]* – had to scratch my head a few times to figure out the parsing
10 AGITATION
Stirring an idiot into a reshuffle (9)
A ( an ) GIT ( idiot ) [ INTO A ]*
13 CONTUMACY
Falsified my account in defiance (9)
[ MY ACCOUNT ]*
15 EMPTINESS
Attempt in essay to describe desolation (9)
hidden in “..attEMPT IN ESSay..”; so well-hidden that it took me forever to see this
17 OXONIAN
Stock unit many stripped from university (7)
OXO ( stock , referring to the company which makes the food cubes ) [ NI AN ( uNIt mANy stripped, i.e. without end characters ) ]
19 REGALIA
First class beer served up in fancy dress (7)
AI ( A1, first class ) LAGER ( beer ), all reversed
21
See 13 across
22 UNCLE
Cryptic clue about the introduction of nearest family member (5)
[ CLUE ]* around N ( Nearest, first letter )

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,058 by GOLIATH”

  1. This playful Goliath grid was just perfect for a Friday. I did wonder if there would be some sort of trick, or maybe I’m an April Fool for seeking a pangram which didn’t exist!
    The ‘writer’ clue was indeed great. My own favourites were the ‘skimpy attire’ and ‘first class beer’ but there was plenty of wit on display here with the use of ‘stock’ (17d), the Norfolk town (14a) and the 16/18/23 trio.
    I knew that soprano but definitely needed help from Turbolegs to parse the rest of that long clue and agree that 15d was so well hidden that I only spotted half of it, entering my answer from the crossers!
    Still, it was gratifying to complete a grid without cheats.
    Cheers to both setter and blogger.

  3. I had to concede defeat with two unknowns: the Norfolk town at 14A and the unknown word at 13D. For 14A I rely on my ignorance of obscure English towns (as I live in Australia) but 13D was totally unknown to me: it sounds like a stomach upset!

    Having being born and raised in England, I was pleased to dredge from my memory the stock cubes in 17D.

  4. Plenty to enjoy, though I missed the parsing of the best of the lot, THETFORD. As implied by copmus@2, where’s Diss when you need it? I couldn’t work out OXONIAN either and CONTUMACY went in from the anagram fodder and crossers; I have come across it before in crosswords but had forgotten what it meant.

    Thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs

  5. It is worth noting about the Model T Ford that it is an urban myth that black was the only colour. In fact black was the only colour they didn’t offer! As shown some years ago on QI..

  6. Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs. Despite having all the crossers, I had to google Norfolk towns for 14a THETFORD; even after that, it went in unparsed, as did OXONION. I’ve NHO the town or the cubes, so those two were my LOI and second-LOI. Otherwise a quick, smooth solve.

  7. Thanks Goliath, that was satisfying. I needed a word finder for THETFORD and OXONIAN and I guessed CONTUMACY correctly but all else eventually came into focus. I’m not sure how FLEAPIT and cinema are related so that drew a question on my part but the answer was obvious from the parsing. Favourites included VICTOR HUGO, YONDER. and the nicely hidden EMPTINESS. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog and ratings.

  8. Apart from checking CONTUMACY in Chambers and not fully parsing OXONIAN we found this a bit of a doddle. We guessed 13/21d/26 from the enumeration but saw the parsing as we wrote it in – helped, possibly, by Maria Callas having featured on Radio 3 this morning. FLEAPIT, SMOKING GUN and LET US PRAY were our favourites.
    Thanks, Goliath and Turbolegs

  9. Thanks for the blog, yes I agree CONTUMACY was a bit obscure but the clue was pretty fair.
    INNOCENT PARTY was clever , the clue for FIG LEAF reminds me of Friday nights.

  10. Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
    Done with a couple of short start sessions and a longer one to finish it off in just over average time – although I did resort to a word finder with a few clues at the end to get it completed in a reasonable time. Found the longer clues a little daunting at the start, but they were the ones that broke the puzzle open in the end. It was one thing solving those clues and still plenty of work to do to unravel the word play, especially with STANDING AT EASE, CALL A SPADE A SPADE, LET US PRAY and OXONIAN.
    CONTUMACY was a new term.
    Finished with words all around the grid – YONDER, FLEAPIT and that LET US PRAY.

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