Financial Times 17,208 by Rosa Klebb

by

Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 24, 2022

Oh what joy! Rosa is back.  After more than two years.  Rosa, we have missed you and are delighted to have you back.  Just take 20d (AKIN).  Oh joy!

ACROSS
1 DOMINION
Complete flunkey in power (8)
DO (complete) + MINION (flunkey)
5 ASGARD
Part of Vita’s garden is heaven for northerners (6)
Hidden word (part of)
9 BAD DEBTS
Spooner’s father gambles money that won’t be repaid (3,5)
Spoonerism of “dad bets”
10 TABOOS
Cheers state alcohol bans (6)
TA (cheers) + homophone (state) of “booze” (alcohol)
12 STRAY
Random fish on street (5)
ST (street) + RAY (fish)
13 PROXIMATE
Closest friend follows professional team (9)
PRO (professional) + XI (team) + MATE (friend)
14 STASIS
Inactivity of MI6 station coming to the fore (6)
STA (station) + SIS (MI6). MI6 is known also as the Secret Intelligence Service.
16 BANSHEE
Female dons curse female spirit (7)
SHE (female) in (dons) BANE (curse)
19 VERANDA
Gallery and museum welcoming monarch (7)
ER (monarch) in (welcoming) V AND A (museum, i.e. the Victoria and Albert)
21 OGRESS
Frightful female pair refused to go on (6)
[pr]OGRESS (pair refused to go on)
23 SUBMARINE
Lacking energy, Sue and mum tucked into pickle sandwich (9)
SU[e] (lacking energy Sue) + MA (mother) in (tucked into) BRINE (pickle)
25 TOOTH
Very discontented Turkish canine? (5)
TOO (very) + T[urkis]H
26 OUTWIT
Get the better of guy after university (6)
OU (university, i.e. Oxford) + TWIT (guy)
27 VAGARIES
Fancies retiring, a very good sign (8)
A (a) V (very) backwards (retiring) + G (good) + ARIES (sign)
28 SENIOR
I snore violently, being older (6)
Anagram (violently) of I SNORE
29 MONTANAN
Order revolutionary books and articles from Helena? (8)
OM (order — i.e. Order of Merit) + NT (books) + AN AN (articles). Helena is the capital of the US state of Montana.
DOWN
1 DEBASE
Lower seabed is churned up (6)
Anagram (is churned up) of SEABED
2 MODERATOR
Presbyterian minister married toreador, unwisely (9)
Anagram (unwisely) of M (married) TOREADOR
3 NEEDY
Originally called vacuous dandy insecure (5)
NEE (originally called) + D[and]Y
4 OCTOPUS
Company about to discharge army swimmer (7)
CO (company) backwards (about) + TO (to) + PUS (discharge) with a cute cryptic definition.
6 STATIONER
Novel in store at WH Smith? (9)
Anagram (novel) of IN STORE AT
7 AGORA
Silver and gold accepted in marketplace (5)
AG (silver) + OR (gold) + A (accepted?)
8 DISHEVEL
Lovely First Lady will ultimately mess up (8)
DISH (lovely) + EVE (first lady) + [wil]L
11 BOOB
Boss sobs, denying every small blunder (4)
BO[ss s]OB[s]
15 SAN MARINO
North America shuns Finnish PM over enclave (3,6)
SAN[na] MARIN (NA shuns Finnish PM) + O (over). The current Finnish Prime Minister is Sanna Marin.
17 HISTORIAN
Gibbon, perhaps? Wrong – it’s a rhino (9)
Anagram (wrong) of ITS A RHINO with the definition referring to Edward Gibbon who is best known for his book “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”
18 EVASIONS
Excuses girl and boy pinching one shilling (8)
EVA (girl) + I (one) in (pinching) SON (boy) + S (shilling)
20 AKIN
Like taking clothes off (4)
[t]AKIN[g]
21 OREGANO
Old ass pulled up herb (7)
O (old) + ONAGER (ass) backwards (pulled up)
22 CHOSEN
Picked nose rudely after church (6)
CH (church) + anagram (rudely) of NOSE
24 BATON
Staff keep getting the runs (5)
BAT ON (keep getting the runs — as in cricket)
25 TRACT
Reportedly followed plot (5)
Homophone (reportedly) of “tracked” (followed)

26 comments on “Financial Times 17,208 by Rosa Klebb”

  1. There have been a few advance comments leaking delight at Rosa Klebb’s return – add my voice to the throng. (Think this was my first).
    9a’s Spoonerism was the first of many I enjoyed. 19a was a slyly clever use of ‘museum’ and ‘gallery’ and the apt surface of 26a raised a laugh.
    6d was another great surface and I liked the charade for 11d.
    And it was fun to see one of the world’s youngest PMs referenced in 15d (must have been the saucy dancing).
    A really smooth solve. Thanks to Ms Klebb and Pete.

  2. The only point that initially confused me was the punning use of “army” to mean “multiarmed” in 4D. A delightful puzzle.

  5. Thank you Rosa Klebb. (It’s a joy just to type this on my keyboard.) I ticked TABOOS, VERANDA, SUBMARINE, OUTWIT, OCTOPUS, and AKIN as favourites but there was not a clue I didn’t like. Thanks Pete for the blog.

  6. Can I do this online on my Android phone? (Meanwhile, I’m hoping to see some web-weaving over at the Graun 😉 )

  7. Like Diane, I am not sure I have done a Rosa Kleeb puzzle before. Similarly, I did enjoy it

    I made steady progress, but was unable to parse DOMINION (pretty easy, I know, but I just did not see it) and OGRESS – a word I am not sure I knew existed, and I did not know the abbreviation of pr for pair. Not being British, SIS was new to me, while MI6 is very familiar

    I cannot argue with any of Tony’s favourites @5, and add STATIONER for the way the clue hung together – very clever – and BAD DEBTS – at last a puzzle spoonerism that makes sense.

    I had the same question as Pete – accepted = a? And I cannot quite convince myself that closest = PROXIMATE. Most proximate perhaps.

    BTW, Rosa Kleeb is not listed among the FT setters on this website. I hope they fix that as I would like to know more about her or him.

    Thanks Pete for your great explanation, as always, and thanks Rosa Kleeb

  8. Yes, very good to have Rosa Klebb back after an absence of close to 3 years. Favourite clues already mentioned, especially the ‘army swimmer’ and BOOB. Defeated by the name of the Finnish PM and didn’t know TWIT could be a verb meaning to taunt or ‘guy’ at 26a.

    Thanks to Pete and Rosa Klebb – hope your next one appears before 2025!

  9. Martyn @7, if you follow the “Crossword Who’s Who” link near the top of the Setters page on this site, and then click on either “A”, “H” or “R”, or “Financial Times / The Guardian Crossword setters” you’ll find what you’re looking for. Our esteemed setter’s real name is Sarah Hayes and she is perhaps better known by her other crossword pseudonym Arachne in The Guardian, although I see that her last crossword under this name was also in 2019.

  11. Thanks for the blog, many fine clues here. SAN MARINO was very clever , fortunately the PM has been in the news a lot recently. I thought of Vita Sackville-West for 5AC but her famous garden at Sissinghurst is in Kent in the South, I suppose we are a Northern country.
    a=accepted is in Chambers along with numerous other words for A.
    Martyn@7 I did wonder about PROXIMATE but Chambers gives NEAREST as first definition, so close enough.

  12. Oldham@10 they have appeared but they are out of pattern because they are “Prizes”.
    On Sept 29 and 22. You need to go to the home page and back a few pages.

  13. Thanks, Rosa and Pete!

    Another ‘army-octopus’ clue some of us have seen elsewhere recently:

    They are, in the main, army or company retreats with first-class appliances (9)
    OCTOPUSES

  14. Thanks WP@9. I had never explored that hidden passage and found the articles about Rosa Kleeb very interesting

  16. Thanks Pete especially for the wordplay of OGRESS, Cineraria for explaining the Army pun sufficiently clearly for me to finally get it several days after solving, Roz for bringing this to my attention, Google for enabling me to check that 29a made sense having never heard of the town, and of course Rosa Klebb for all the fun, hope to see her again before too long.
    At work, I generally see PROXIMATE in conjunction with “cause” and this helped me to feel comfortable with its definition here.

  17. A wonderful reminder of what we’ve been missing – as if we needed it.

    I have twelve ticks, which I think is too many to list especially as, like Tony @5, there wasn’t one I didn’t like. (I’ll just mention the Spoonerism, as a rare example of how they should be done.)

    There should be no query at all about PROXIMATE: it comes directly from the Latin superlative adjective / adverb (proximus / proxime), meaning next or nearest.

    Huge thanks to Rosa – It’s so nice to have you back where you belong 😉 – and to lucky Pete.

  18. Eileen has said it all for me again so I’ll just repeat the welcome back and thank you to Rosa – lovely to have you back, and to Pete for the blog

  21. I’m not usually a solver of FT crosswords (I don’t like having to print them out), but will always make an exception for Rosa Klebb. Welcome back, you have been sorely missed.
    I worked out the Finnish PM from SAN MARINO rather than the right way round, and didn’t know MI5=SIS despite being British. Loved BANSHEE, OCTOPUS, HISTORIAN and SENIOR (yes, I snore violently too, these days, alas).

  23. Welcome back indeed Rosa Kleb. I was tipped off that you were back by a comment on a Guardian crossword so I visited the FT website for a change. Must do more often!

    More Arachne too please!

  24. I got to do this by following the same lead as Ed The Ball@23. What a lovely thing to have an opportunity to do a Rosa/Arachne puzzle again. Silky surfaces just as I remember characterise this much-missed setter. Thanks to Rosa Klebb and Pete Maclean.

  25. Came late to this after a tip-off about the return of the spider woman. What a beautiful puzzle, and a large-high-speed-wet-fish-across-the-face reminder that Rosa/Arachne is one of the very best setters around. A masterful (mistressful?) combination of accurate/elegant wordplay, rock-solid surfaces and a cheeky sense of humour. There’s no waste material at all in any of these clues. Too many greats to pick one out. Love it! Here’s hoping to see loads more web-based 😉 puzzles! Thank you Rosaand Pete.

  26. Also very late to add my own welcome back to Rosa. The most entertaining setter in my book. I’d not come across the army swimmer before and laughed out loud, sealing the joy.

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