Financial Times 17,418 by GUY

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Lap up this puzzle from Guy!

This one was definitely a marathon rather than a sprint. After my first pass, I had only four answers in place as well as a couple of possible solutions that I couldn't parse, but I gradually worked my way through and had a lot of fun doing so. There were many "aha' moments, such as when I worked out the parsing for NEONATE (brilliant) and the EMPIR part of EMPIRICAL. My LOI was CURATED, not because I wasn't 100% sure of the answer, but because I couldn't see the parsing ("brought up" as a reversal, but I couldn't see why?). The various uses of "lap" throughout the puzzle were inspired.

Thanks for waking my brain cells this morning, Guy!

ACROSS
1 LICKETY-SPLIT
Lap irregular yet lap time fast (7-5)

LICK ("lap") + *(yet) [anag:irregular] + SPLIT ("lap time")
8 OUTCROP
Rock up with unfashionable hairstyle (7)

OUT ("unfashionable") + CROP ("hairstyle")
9 LAMBETH
Predict hospital’s on strike in London borough (7)

BET ("predict") + H (hospital) on LAM ("strike")
11 POINTER
Signpost to Bury showing parking for the first time (7)

TO INTER ("to bury") showing P (parking) for the first T (time), becomes PO INTER
12 SIDEARM
Weapon made by Siemens, thought marines (7)

S (siemens) + IDEA ("thought") + RM (Royal "Marines")
13 AMEND
Change the last word and the first in dictionary (5)

AMEN ("the last word") + [the first in] D(ictionary)
14 CLOUDLESS
Conservative, flashy and not so uniformly blue (9)

C (Conservative) + LOUD ("flashy") + LESS ("not so")
16 SHAMBOLIC
Disorganised mob has woolly Liberal in charge (9)

*(mob has) [anag:woolly] + L (Liberal) + IC (in charge)
19 OSCAR
Huge Bentley, perhaps a director’s desideratum (5)

OS (outsized, so "huge") + CAR ("Bentley, perhaps")
21 NEONATE
Gas had child out for a short time (7)

NEON ("gas") + ATE ("had")
23 EFFENDI
Turkish gent forces butt into denim regularly (7)

F + F (forces) + END ("but") into (d)E(n)I(m) [regularly]
24 EDIFICE
Building over in the city provided fish (7)

[over] <=(EC ("the city" of London postcode) + IF ("provided") + IDE ("fish"))
25 TARNISH
Lake sort of muddy (7)

A TARN is a lake, so TARN-ISH would be like a lake, or "lake, sort of"
26 THIGH-SLAPPER
American’s funny story of one doing lap after lap? (5-7)

LAPPER ("one going lap") after THIGHS ("lap")
DOWN
1 LATRINE
Three occupying one runner’s space – where to go? (7)

TRI- ("three") occupying LANE ("runner's space")
2 CURATED
Organised judge has food brought up outside (7)

RATE ("judge") has CUD ("food brought up") outside
3 EMPIRICAL
Guy’s dead upset, I state from experience (9)

<=R.I.P. ME ("Guy's dead", upset) + I + Cal. (California, so "state")
4 YOLKS
They run until they get too hot (5)

Cryptic definition – yolks will go hard once they get hot enough.
5 POMADED
How dead mop might be treated? (7)

*(dead mop) [anag:might be treated]

The "mop" in the clue refers to a head of hair.
6 ITERATE
Some of quartet are Tippexing over repeat (7)

Hidden backwards [some of…over] in "quartET ARE TIppexing"
7 COMPLAISANCE
Coe keeps running manic laps, going along with others (12)

COE keeps *(manic laps) [anag:running]
10 HOME STRAIGHT
Part of lap showing Olympic 800m champion’s quality, in commentary (4,8)

Homophone [in commentary] of ((Kelly) HOLMES ("Olympic 800m champion") + TRAIT ("quality"))
15 ORCHESTRA
Short race involved team with one carrying a baton (9)

*(short race) [anag:involved]
17 ABOLISH
Violent crime holding Oliver’s axe (7)

ABH (actual bodily harm, so "violent crime") holding OLI'S ("Oliver's")
18 BEARING
Direction in which Russian icon laps circuit (7)

BEAR ("Russian icon") laps (i.e. overtakes) RING ("circuit") becoming BEA-R-ING
19 OFFER UP
Wrong virgin brought over for sacrifice (5,2)

OFF ("wrong") + <=PURE ("virgin", brought over)
20 CANNIER
Flyer is able to control flipping (7)

CAN ("is able to") + <=REIN ("to control", flipping)
22 EVENS
Quits rugby after having head knocked off (5)

(s)EVENS (a form of "rugby", after having head knocked off)

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,418 by GUY”

  1. Difficult but enjoyable and very satisfying to finish

    Lots to enjoy but I think 4d has to be favourite

    Thanks to Guy and Loonapick

  2. Great puzzle. I particularly enjoyed (esp. the definition in) 26 and 30. Thanks Guy, thanks Loonapick

  3. This followed on nicely from yesterday’s ‘fast’ theme. Alas, I found this a tougher solve and used a lot of guesswork. NEONATE was my last as I was fixated on ‘gas”. Thanks to Loonapick for clarifying a handful!
    Despite a DNF, I did enjoy this as I’ve always enjoyed athletics, particularly middle distances so I appreciated the nod to Coe and Holmes.
    Thanks Guy.

  4. Trucky but enjoyable puzzle packed full of great clues. Time for Guy to do a LAP of honour perhaps? Thanks G and L ?

  6. Well I did manage to finish but thought that a few were very suspect.

    12A – why does “Siemens” indicate “S”?
    26A – why does “Lap” indicate “thighs”?
    20D – why does “cannier” mean “flyer”? I’m sure that someone will tell me that it’s a cricket expression.

    10D – apologies to Kelly Holmes but I have never heard of you.

  8. Two very minor points:
    For TARNISH I parsed the TARN = “Lake” and ISH = “sort of” separately.
    Collins gives: ‘ish – SENTENCE SUBSTITUTE – slang – used to express reservation or qualified assent – “Things are looking up. Ish”
    And for BEARING I took “laps” to mean “lies partly over, overlaps” so that the R at the end of BEAR is overlapping the R at the start of RING.
    Loved the puzzle. NEONATE EMPIRICAL CURATED CANNIER. My loi was LICKETY-SPLIT
    Thanks G&l

  9. Peter @6. Siemens is the unit for electrical inductance, abbreviation S.
    If somebody sits in your lap then loosely they sit on your thighs.
    Flyer in the sense of being more fly/crafty.

  11. FrankieG @9 – both of my explanations concur with you but in a more concise way – I use my shorthand style of explaining as I don’t have enough time to expand on every clue.

  12. Thanks Guy for the challenge. I failed with HOME STRAIGHT (never heard of Kelly Holmes), YOLKS, LAMBETH (unfamiliar with much of London), CANNIER, and EVENS (my knowledge of rugby is as deficient as my knowledge of cricket.) I couldn’t parse ABOLISH, being unaware of ABH. Despite this miserable showing I thought the attempt was worthwhile due to clues like LICKETY-SPLIT, NEONATE, TARNISH, and EMPIRICAL. Thanks loonapick for a most needed blog.

  13. Hard going for me and I see I’m not alone. Couldn’t parse EMPIRICAL (v. good), BEARING or my last in THIGH-SLAPPER so thanks for the explanations. Lots of other hold-ups along the way, with the effort rewarded by some excellent clues like ABOLISH, NEONATE and TARNISH.

    Thanks to Guy and loonapick

  14. I retired injured early in this marathon.

    Couldn’t find the right tracks.

    For this humble plodder

  15. Challenging, but we got it all, albeit with several delayed penny-drop moments and a few parsings we couldn’t completely understand. Lots to like, though, including ORCHESTRA – yet another carthorse insearch of an anagram!

  17. Thanks for the blog, a very interesting puzzle with many clever clues and good variety in the use of LAP.
    Pedant’s corner – Siemens is the SI unit of conductance , symbol S. It is the inverse of the Ohm , used to be called the Mho. Inductance is the Henry (H) which pops up now and then.

  18. Roz @17. I did know that but had a bit of a senior moment. Used to lecture about electrical circuits, admittedly using Mho back then. Thanks for the correction.

  19. Loonapick@11
    I don’t think your parses “concur with” me “but in a more concise way”
    My parse of TARNISH avoids having to invent a word tarnish meaning lake-like.
    And my parse of BEARING suggests the setter might have been using yet another different meaning of “lap” – “overlie/overlap” rather than your “overtake”.
    If BEAR overtakes RING we’d get RINGBEAR.

  20. FrankieG@19

    Having reread your original comment, I concede that you’re right – my apologies.

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