Financial Times 17,428 by GAFF

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An anniversary puzzle from GAFF for this bank holiday Monday…

The first (confirmed) ascent of Mount Everest, by Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary, occurred this day in 1953.

An excellent puzzle, with a few words that I'd never come across before.

Thanks GAFF!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8. Forces control centre to backtrack (6)
TROOPS

[con]T[rol] (centre) + (SPOOR)< (track, <back)

9. Song high with no weak points (8)
AIRTIGHT

AIR (song) + TIGHT (high)

10. Use hands desperately for protection (8)
SUNSHADE

(USE HANDS)* (*desperately)

11. Guide woman into spring (6)
SHERPA

HER (woman) into SPA (spring)

12. It’s vulgarity to mind your old ship (10)
EARTHINESS

EAR (mind) + THINE (your, old) + SS (ship)

13. Unfinished writing from experts (4)
PROS

PROS[e] (writing, unfinished)

14. Breathe and freeze regularly holding back tears (7)
RESPIRE

[f]R[e]E[z]E (regularly) holding (RIPS)< (tears, <back)

16. Mime topless drunk gripped by odd lunacy (3,4)
LIP SYNC

[t]IPSY (drunk, topless) gripped by L[u]N[a]C[y] (odd)

20. Formerly of higher status (4)
ERST

[high]ER ST[atus] (of)

22. Trip report turns pictures by the Spanish into fashion (10)
TRAVELOGUE

(ART)< (pictures, <turns) by (EL (the, Spanish) into VOGUE (fashion))

24. Observed odd soup in flask (6)
VISUAL

S[o]U[p] (odd) in VIAL (flask)

25. Vikings and not sailors lacking first aid (8)
NORSEMEN

NOR (and not) + SE[a]MEN (sailors, lacking A[id] (first))

26. Slow moving menu item (8)
ESCARGOT

Cryptic definition

27. Pretend to change (6)
AFFECT

Double definition

DOWN
1. Taking rust away using malic acid leads to damage (6)
TRAUMA

T[aking] R[ust] A[way] U[sing] M[alic] A[cid] (leads)

2. Spend time stuffing bear that’s raised the roof (8)
HOUSETOP

(USE (spend) + T (time)) stuffing (POOH)< (bear, <raised)

3. Method of training seal with ripe bananas (8)
ESPALIER

(SEAL with RIPE)* (*bananas)

4. Having planes destined to restrict church (7)
FACETED

FATED (destined) to restrict CE (church)

5. Upset extremely seductive assistant with bloomers (6)
IRISES

(S[eductiv]E (extremely) with SIRI (assistant))< (<upset)

6. With no alternative, ordered superior to rebel (4,2)
RISE UP

(SUPERI[or] (with no OR (alternative)))* (*ordered)

7. Work with cut-out displayed too much (8)
SHOPWORN

(OP (work) + W (with)), SHORN (cut) out

15. First to hear lies takes part (8)
EARLIEST

[h]EAR LIES T[akes] (part)

17. Hear Gaff shout at Neapolitan, maybe (3,5)
ICE CREAM

"I scream" (Gaff shout, "hear")

18. Be inclined to kill and leave quietly (5,3)
SLOPE OFF

SLOPE (be inclined) + OFF (to kill)

19. Marvellous little generator (7)
MAGNETO

I assume that this refers to the Marvel character Magneto

21. You can’t lose your head over bird (6)
TOUCAN

([y]OU CANT (lose Y[our] (head)))* (*over)

22. Turkish boat northbound with fashionable Indian (6)
TELUGU

(GULET)< (Turkish boat, <northbound) with U (fashionable)

23. Cultural body uses fluid ounces (6)
UNESCO

(OUNCES)* (*fluid)

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,428 by GAFF”

  1. Couldn’t parse TROOPS or TRAUMA — I really should have got the latter. Why is ear mind? Only one obscurity for me — TELUGU. Didn’t spot the nina.

    Fairly difficult but quite enjoyable. Thanks Gaff & Teacow.

  2. Thanks for the blog, a lot of very good clues here , a few odd words due to the perimeter I suspect, most very fairly clued. I found TELUGU a bit obscure in the definition and the word play but I have learned two things. LIP SYNC and SLOPE OFF my favourites amongst many.

    Geoff@1 the dreaded Chambers gives EAR and MIND as attention.

  3. Gaff is one setter that I have never twigged. I saw SHERPA and TRAVELOGUE but was unable to follow up
    My bad-it was very well constructed

  4. Thanks, Gaff and Teacow!

    Liked TROOPS, ESCARGOT, SHOPWORN and TELUGU.
    MAGNETO
    Marvellous=Of Marvel Comics (whimsically)? That’s what I thought too, Teacow.
    However, ‘marvellous’ as a cryptic def for the character ‘Magneto’ seems a stretch.
    I am missing something.

  5. Not quite as hard as Gaff’s last puzzle but still tough and after getting stuck, I was only rescued by the Nina. I didn’t know the ‘Marvellous’ bit of MAGNETO, and not knowing either the ‘Turkish boat’ or the ‘Indian’, TELUGU was destined to be unsolved.

    A fail, but a challenging puzzle and I look forward to Gaff’s next…, I think!

    Thanks to Gaff and Teacow.

  6. I am not getting the parse for TOUCAN. I take it ‘remove your head’ is supposed to indicate removing the Y but how is the T being moved to the front? The blog seems to be suggesting an anagram with the asterisk: is ‘over’ an angrind? Or is Y an abbreviation for ‘your’ and does ‘head over’ move the T to the front?

    With WP from def in PROS, def to WP in EARTHINESS and EARLIER and the repeated use of ‘odd’ in exactly the same way, I found this a slightly frustrating puzzle. Even before ending with MAGNETO and TELUGU. The good was very good but the quiblets rankle.

    Thanks Gaff and Teacow

  7. This was not easy, and guessing the nina helped a lot. I could not parse EARTHINESS past the “SS,” and I did not get the “marvellous” reference (but that makes sense). Good blog, good clues.

  8. Postmark@6
    TOUCAN (my understanding and I think it is the same as that of Teacow)
    Your head=Y
    (You can’t) minus Y=oucant (the anagram fodder)
    over is the anagrind.

  9. It is clear that only one letter changes its position. This type of change is normally indicated by the word ‘cycling’.

  10. MrPostMark@6 I had TOUCAN as the blog and yourself really .
    YOUCANT having lost Your head , I am not fond of “over” for an anagram but it turns up quite a lot. Only just an anagram but it is a mixture of OUCANT , one of the (6! -1 ) .

  11. KVa – thanks. Over as anagrind? Reversal for sure but I see no sense of rearrangement in ‘over’. I daresay it will be in an anagrind list but it’s in none of those I use.

  13. I just glanced at the George Ho database of past clues and, indeed, there are about 20 uses of ‘over’ as anagrind. Interestingly, all from the Telegraph, Toughie or Rookie Corner. I don’t do the Telegraph so it’s a new one on me – and I still don’t believe it conveys the sense of disruption I look for in an anagrind but each to their own.

  14. Having come across a reference to the Everest anniversary elsewhere we thought this might be the one in question and SHERPA seemed to confirm it but it was a while before we spotted the nina. Getting the nina was then a great help in finishing, although we didn’t completely parse everything.
    Plenty to like, including RESPIRE, LIP SYNC, ESCARGOT and ESPALIER.
    Thanks, Gaff and Teacow.

  15. Postmark@13
    Maybe Gaff will enlighten us as to why it is proper to use ‘over’ as an anagrind.

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