Financial Times 17,333 by IO

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A wonderful challenge from IO.

IO poses a real challenge as usual. I’ve done my best, with a couple needing some more clarification but at this stage I think I’ll hand over to you commenters who will no doubt be able to add fresh perspective. Otherwise I will return if anything new occurs to me. EDIT: thanks to all who offered insights in the comments. We got there in the end.

Quite a few sporty references dotted throughout. I do love seeing IO’s name on a puzzle, although, as blogger, it comes with a certain amount of trepidation. Worth the perseverance though. Thanks to IO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
5. Artist’s paintbrush not initially fit for purpose (5)
SABLE

[u]SABLE (fit for purpose, not initially)

9/22. “That was delivery No.6!”, wealthy Lord’s partner squeals (hers is 22dn 21dn 23) (3,3,4,5,3,3,4,5)
IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS

Cryptic definition

In cricket, an OVER consists of 6 DELIVERIES; a FAT LADY could be the partner of a wealthy Lord; SQUEALS = sings (esp. in the sense of being an informer)

10. Mr Harrison is devastating in audition (3)
REX

“WRECKS” (is devastating, “in audition”)
Referring to the great British actor

11. As passed by flimsy model on display in airshows? (6,5)
FLIGHT TESTS

Cryptic definition
EDIT: LIGHT (flimsy) + T (model) on display in FESTS (airshows?) semi &lit
Thank you KVa@2

13/1/16/19. Excited Kenneth Wolstenholme positively precipitates “Hoorah!” with it (4,6,3,2,3,5,4,5,3,3,4,2,2,3)
SOME PEOPLE ARE ON THE PITCH THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVER IT IS NOW

(KENNETH WOLSTENHOLME POSITIVELY PRECIPITATES HOORAH + IT)* (*excited) &lit

A most remarkable anagram – more info here

21. Be good enough for a spell (3)
FIT

Double definition

24. Crossword solution: a record number of competitors (5)
ENTRY

Triple definition

25. In a bad way: a medical officer wants Nil By Mouth (8)
AMORALLY

A + M[o] (medical officer, wants O (nil)) + ORALLY (by mouth)

DOWN
1. Fish, a Japanese delicacy — you shouldn’t have one (3)
TAI

TA (you shouldn’t have) + I (one)

2. Translation of 1924: alphanumerically the Only Way? (5)
ESSEX

Referring to the reality show “The Only Way is Essex”. Missing the rest at this stage.
EDIT: ESS (S – 19th letter of the alphabet) + EX (X – 24th letter of the alphabet)
Referring to the reality show “The Only Way is Essex”

Thank you Will@1 and KVa@2

3. Foul — or not? Nuts this man’s taken out (2-3)
IN-OFF

An IN-OFF is a foul in snooker, but a score in billiards. That’s as far as I’ve got with this one.
EDIT: INOFF[ensive] (or not? i.e. not a foul); (ENS (nuts) + I’VE (this man’s)) taken out
Thank you ub@20 and Tom_I@22

4. New boundary of experience’s pushed by cold sausage (7)
CHORIZO

HORIZO[n] (experience; N (new, boundary) pushed by C (cold))

5. European city government supports not drinking in the House (9)
STUTTGART

G (government) supports TT (not drinking, teetotal) in STUART (the House)

6. In hospital, woman dips into books on a king’s wife (9)
BATHSHEBA

(AT (in) H (hospital) SHE (woman)) dips into BB (books) on A

7. He’s evasive, the Bow Street Blackguard (3)
EEL

[h]EEL (blackguard)

The London (where Bow Street is) accent stereotypically drops the H

8. Vicious Prince Henry given authority to go ahead (6)
LETHAL

HAL (Prince Henry); LET (given authority) to go ahead

10. Dish picked up books for teacher (7)
RISOTTO

(OT (books, Old Testament) TO SIR (for teacher))< (<picked up)

12. Undershirt? A feature of this, not buttoned (7)
SINGLET

This (single T, i.e. a feature of THIS); buTToned (double T; not a feature of BUTTONED)

14. With boosting check most gentle nurses peak (2,7)
MT EVEREST

VET< (check, <with boosting); MEREST (most gentle, nurses)

15. Hole in one nameless gland (9)
PITUITARY

PIT (hole) + U[n]ITARY (one, nameless)

17. What’s seen regularly dropping from birch if colder? (6)
ICICLE

[b]I[r]C[h] I[f] C[o]L[d]E[r] (regularly dropping from) &lit

18. Afternoon spent just about managing to cycle round Spain? (7)
KINGDOM

M[a]KING DO (just about managing, A (afternoon) spent; to cycle round)

20. Again stitch up European runner (should it be Neckar in this grid?) (5)
WESER

RESEW< (again stitch, <up)
Presumably the rest of the clue is reference to the Neckar river’s location relative to Stuttgart

22/21/23. Biggest game of tournament, perhaps? That settles it! (3,5,3)
THE FINAL SAY

THE FINAL (biggest game of the tournament) + SAY (perhaps)

41 comments on “Financial Times 17,333 by IO”

  1. Thank you to Picaroon and Oriel.

    I can help with 2d – Translation of 1924: alphanumerically the Only Way? (5)

    It’s letter number 19 of the alphabet: S, then letter 24: X
    Then spoken out loud as it’s ‘translated’, perhaps?

    It seems a touch loose, but I liked it anyway!

    But 3d is a mystery to me as well.

  3. IN-OFF
    I took it this way…
    IN or not (not a foul)
    OFF nuts (crazy)

    Another aspects seems to have something to do with IO. IO is taken out it becomes NFF-no fault found (not nuts?)

    Maybe there is more.

    WESER
    Neckar flows South East of Stuttgart. It must be something to do with that. In the grid, WESER is South of STUTTGART.

  6. Another splendid crossword from Io, although I will admit to not working out the long anagrams, just writing in the well-known sayings

    Thanks very much to Io and Oriel

  8. Riveting but tough, especially for those who don’t follow sport. Couldnt get IN-OFF.
    Luckily, I follow the one that at least gave me a way in to this grid. The footy quote has also been referenced in pop music.
    I got nowhere with this though until I landed WESER. So much guesswork involved and help needed with parsing that I can’t claim a win.
    Even so, I found it really clever, especially the two well?known sports comments that reflect the exciting dying moments of a game.
    Thanks to IO and Oriel for navigating this with aplomb.

  9. Your parsing seems perfect Oriel regarding IT’S NOT OVER…SINGS
    A slight variation to consider:
    “That was delivery No.6!” -IT IS OVER
    wealthy Lord’s partner squeals -THE FAT LADY SINGS
    “It’s over’, the fat lady sings.
    In other words, IT’S NOT…..SINGS.
    Very minor variations in explaining the same idea (THE FINAL SAY).

  10. A 49 letter anagram which is also a &lit – pretty impressive! Well done to Will @1 and KVa @2 for working out ESSEX and for KVa @3 for explaining the WESER / ‘Neckar’ connection.

    I’m still not sure about IN-OFF and ended up parsing FLIGHT TESTS as a cryptic def despite the tempting LIGHT T for ‘flimsy model’; KVa @2 could be right about FESTS, but ‘on’ doesn’t really work as an insertion indicator for me.

    Thanks to Io and well done to Oriel for such an excellent job in working (nearly) everything out.

  12. Funny one, this – the quickest I’ve ever completed an Io puzzle by some margin, largely thanks to the two long ones giving away half the grid (unlike crypticsue, I went to the trouble of checking off the letters even though I spotted it almost instantly), and yet I was left with the same few unparsed as you, Oriel, so can’t really claim to have “finished” it, which is slightly unsatisfying. But I did enjoy it immensely overall, and easy or not, SOME PEOPLE… is a remarkably impressive anagram &lit.

    Thanks, Io and Oriel.

  14. Thanks for the blog, always good to see IO , some remarkable clues , especially 13Ac…..
    I have zero interest in football but even I knew the full quote, similar for 9/22, so while I admire the skill in setting I do think it spoils the solve.
    As Widdersbel@12 says , we have about half the letters without doing any work to get them .

  15. I agree with KVa’s further suggestions above on parsing, although I still do not understand “this man’s taken out.” “This man’s” could be IO, IO’S, HE, HE’S, ONE, ONE’S, HIS, MY, I’M, I AM–but I could not see any way to make any of them work in any wordplay.

    I parsed CHORIZO as C + HORIZO[N] (experience minus “N” [new, at the “boundary of” or last letter of “horizon”]), which may be what KVa is suggesting above, too.

    Really an extraordinary puzzle. I have seen a few similar ones before, with the long quotes, cross-references, PLUS a theme, but not in a regular daily.

  16. Enigmatist ( Guardian IO ) once used the Roger Miller song – King of the Road.
    Trailers for sale or rent ………… aint got no cigarettes . Quick count it was 79 letters all from one clue.

  17. Cineraria@15
    I took HORIZOn as ‘boundary of experience’ (different from what you and Oriel have considered).
    Horizon has pushed n (new). The resulting HORIZO stands by C.
    ‘New boundary of experience’s pushed by’ does not read well to me.
    Anyway, a minor technicality.

    IN-OFF
    I agree that my parsing@3 doesn’t quite work. This man could be someone other than IO. It could refer to a fielder/player like ‘off man’ or ‘in off man’ (a wild wild wild guess).
    ‘nuts’ could be OFF.
    IN indicates that (the) ball is in play and therefore, I just guessed ‘or not’ could mean ‘no foul’ or ‘IN’. Quite a stretch, I feel.
    Missing something for sure.

  18. An early Guardian Genius quoted an entire famous literary definition, 94 letters, recast in the clue as a comprehensible thematic anagram.

    I was not familiar at all with the “well-known” soccer quote in today’s puzzle, but worked it out from the theme (from the “fat lady” quote) and “THINK IT’S ALL OVER,” from which Google pulled up the actual clip. That must have been a thrill to watch.

  19. KVa@17: I think the latter portion of 3D must be a double definition, but I just don’t get it. IN (not foul) + OFF (nuts) is correct, and the rest is too clever for me.

  20. My take on 3D: ‘In-off’ is short for ‘inoffensive’ — with ‘ens’ (nuts) and ‘I’ve’ (this man’s) taken out. Def. is a foul. ‘Or not’ is part of wordplay because ‘inoffensive’ is the ‘or not foul’ part. Wonderful puzzle as usual from Io. Thanks to him and Oriel.

  22. I was about to post, but Ub has got there already. Found that “nut” can mean an en in printing, and it suddenly made sense.

  24. Thank you so much everyone for your comments and input! A bit of team effort required to finish this one off completely but we got there in the end. Phew!
    I will amend the blog with your corrections / additions for future visitors. Thanks again.

  25. Well done, ub, that makes sense. I should have remembered that meaning of nut but it just didn’t come to me.

  27. ub@20: Well-spotted on 3D. Fair enough clue, I guess, but at a certain point, the amusingly cryptic transcends over into the bafflingly recondite. Good heavens.

  29. When I saw the setter, my heart sank.

    But I got there, helped by the two long clues.

    The bottom half was completed fairly quickly, but I struggled in the top. Many clues remained unparsed.

    Thanks for solving the mysteries.

  30. I am just starting to solve this crossword online and I am having trouble with the solving order of 13a as the clue does not give the order, or am I missing something?

  32. I always reckon that JH WANTS you to get it but doesnt want to give the game away too easily(see Tomiyasu!)
    I remember watching that match!
    Thanks all!

  33. Sorry to come late to the party. Struggled mightily with this. Read the parsing suggestions for 3d with interest but how can “inoff” be 2,3? An “in off” is a foul shot in snooker but a good one in billiards. Does that take us anywhere?

  34. Nick the definition is just “Foul” , an IN OFF is a foul shot as you say in snooker , the rest is the word play .

  35. Sorry again! See Oriel already said this. But maybe he was right. Afterwards ‘nuts’ as in cores/hearts of ‘this man’s’ (mine) gives us ‘in’ and ‘out’ gives ‘off’. As in ‘off the pitch’ ‘out of the game’ maybe?

  36. Nick I think Ub got this right . INOFFensive is not foul. ENS = nuts a printing term , IVE = this man’s ( the setter) both removed to give INOFF.
    Word play only has to give the letters of the answer in the right order, I N O F F , it does not have to give two words like the definition.

  37. For example LETHAL is just a one word definition, the word play is two LET HAL but the letters are correct and in order.

  38. Thanks Oriel and everyone else who contributed to the tricky parsing (Ub to the fore) – solving this was a bizarre experience, with the wonderful 13 etc it is easy to overlook the witty and clever tricks elsewhere eg I really like the INOFF-ensive trick even though I didn’t get anywhere near understanding it, though I thought 9/22 didn’t quite work. Thanks Io.

  39. Roz @36 but LETHAL is defined by ‘vicious’ whereas there’s no definition for IN OFF just wordplay in your parsing. I thought that was against the ‘rules’. Plus ‘out’ can be ‘off’ for lights for instance. But well I guess the future of Ukraine doesn’t depend on it.

  40. Oh ok so FOUL is the definition then kind of does double duty by being sucked into the wordplay. Well ok that works. Kinda still have a soft spot for my alternative.

  41. Only discovered this tonight (after a 10 hour drive back down from Scotland…) and so glad I did! 13a is masterful – you can see who IO studied at the feet of.
    @Nick, I like your idea of ‘foul or not’, it has a good feel to me.

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