Financial Times 17,479 by GUY

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A cracking puzzle from Guy.

My first pass yielded several answers, and I thought this was going to be a bit boring at first, but it turned out to be a cracker of a puzzle. The clue for REALITY TV alone "justified the entry fee", as they say. There were several other good clues, including the ones for INGRATE, CLEMENT, MACAROON, METAMORPHOSES, and HANGER-ON. I would also have included ROTHERHAM as a highlight except that Rotherham is not a city (it's a town).

Thanks Guy.

ACROSS
1 SPRITZ
Spray profanities on the outside around hotel (6)

<=(P(rofanitie)S) [on the outside, around] + RITZ (Hotel)
4 BLAST-OFF
Curse spoiled moment of departure (5-3)

BLAST ("curse") + OFF ("spoiled")
9 OFTEN
Covers taken off cushions a lot (5)

[covers taken off] (s)OFTEN(s)
10 MUSKETEER
Somehow from Turkey’s interior see Mt Athos? (9)

*(urke see mt) [anag:somehow from] where URKE is (t)URKE(y) ['s interior]
11 CLEMENT
Kind setter includes abbreviation for learner (7)

CEMENT ("setter") includes L ("abbreviation for learner")
12 INGRATE
Rude person given tie gran knitted? (7)

*(tie gran) [anag:knitted]
13 ECHO
Nymph from 10d, hot in green (4)

H (hot) in ECO- ("green")
14 IMITATOR
Current Russian space station orbits thanks to 13 (8)

I (symbol for electrical "current" in physics) + MIR ("Russian space station") orbits TA + TO

The 13 in the clue refers to 13 ac – ECHO
17 MACAROON
Chap eats Wagon Wheel and ordinary biscuit (8)

MAN ("chap") eats CAR ("wagon") + O ("wheel") and O (ordinary)

For non-Brits, a Wagon Wheel is a large round chocolate covered, jam filled biscuit.
19 GAGA
Joke and hat’s inside crackers (4)

GAG ("joke") and (h)A(t) ['s insides]
22 ANGUISH
Article with spout one has broken; that’s a pain (7)

AN ("article") with GUSH ("spout") broken by I (one)
24 GOLDING
Nobel laureate looking old in gangsta clothes (7)

Hidden in [clothes] "lookinG OLD IN Gangsta"

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies and Rites of Passage, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983
25 DINNER SET
China deters misbehaving outside hotel (6,3)

*(deters) [anag:misbehaving] outside INN ("hotel")
26 FOYER
Hall where queen impersonator meets queen? (5)

(Claire) FOY ("queen impersonator") meets ER (Elizabeth Regina, so "queen")

Claire Foy played a young Queen Elizabeth II in the TV series The Crown.
27 SUSPENSE
Doubt claim about swan on board ship (8)

SUE ("claim") about PEN (female "swan") in SS ("on board ship", where SS is short for steamship)
28 CRAVEN
Chicken caught by a large crow (6)

C (caught, in cricket) by RAVEN ("a large crow")
DOWN
1 SCORCHER
Nearly twenty Celsius here, almost a hot day (8)

[nearly] SCOR(e) ("twenty") + C (Celsius) +HER(e) [almost]
2 ROTHERHAM
Husband moved harem south of corrupt city (9)

H + *(harem) [anag:moved] south of ROT ("corrupt")
3 TANDEM
Tibetan demonstrators keeping one behind the other (6)

Hidden [keeping] in "TibeTAN DEMonstrators"
5 LOST IN THOUGHT
Sun up, but in shade, meditating (4,2,7)

<=SOL ("sun", up) + THOUGH ("but") in TINT ("shade")
6 SLEIGHT
Hollow steel cube which magician employs (7)

[hollow] S(tee)L + EIGHT ("cube" of 2, in maths)
7 OMEGA
Letter to end things, returning a diamond ring? (5)

[returning] <(A + GEM ("diamond") + O (ring))
8 FORGET
Ignore fashion model (6)

FORGE ("fashion") + (Model) T (early Ford car)
10 METAMORPHOSES
Long poem translated as short poem, by me (13)

*(as short poem) [anag:translated] by ME

Metamorphoses is a poem by ancient Greek writer Ovid.
15 REALITY TV
Entertainment diverting yet trivial, seeing one evicted (7,2)

*(yet trival) [anag:diverting] where TRIVAL is TRIV(i)AL seeing one (I) evicted
16 HANGER-ON
Follower of Just a Minute catching hesitation (6-2)

HANG ON ("just a mInute") catching ER ("hesitation")
18 CAIRENE
Egyptian in fury breaking walking stick (7)

IRE ("fury") breaking CANE ("walking stick")
20 TARDIS
ET disappears in latest spacecraft (6)

ET disappears from TARDI(e)S(t)
21 ALL FOR
Right behind floral sprays (3,3)

*(floral) [anag:sprays]
23 GENUS
Information on the FT group (5)

GEN ("information") on US ("FT")

27 comments on “Financial Times 17,479 by GUY”

  1. Thanks, Guy for a superb puzzle and loonapick for a high-class blog!
    Liked CLEMENT, DINNER SET and L I THOUGHT.

  2. Didn’t know Claire Foy, and never heard of Rotherham, otherwise pretty straightforward, and dare I say not as difficult as some of Guy’s recent offerings. The NW quarter was the most challenging.

    Thanks Guy & Loonapick.

  3. GDU@2
    Not sure if ‘The Crown’ tele-series is available on Netflix in your area. I really loved watching all five seasons twice. The third ‘revision’ is underway!

  5. I’d say this is Guy’s best offering yet. To the picks mentioned above, I’ll add GAGA, FOYER (clever!) and FORGET (succinct!).
    As Loonapick says, REALITY TV is a humdinger and though naturally ‘one evicted’ means removing an ‘i’ from ‘trivial’, it also aptly describes the nature of these programmes in which one competitor/inmate is generally ejected at the end of each episode. Whether that’s entertaining is another matter!
    Thanks both!

  8. Fantastic puzzle, absolutely top. I agree with the plaudits for REALITY TV but I had it in a dead heat with SCORCHER – what a surface. As a Sheffielder I did raise a bit of an eyebrow about our neighbouring town Rotherham. I have read recently that Doncaster is applying for city status, which seems wild enough.
    Many, many thanks to Guy & Loonapick

  10. Agree with everyone. Favourites were LOST IN THOUGHT and REALITY TV (though, as Diane says, I need to take the definition with a grain of salt).

  11. I don’t find REALITY TV entertaining either. I like biopics (they could be termed REALITY TV in a way!).

  12. Thanks for the blog , really good puzzle. I share the views of Diane @5 .
    ROTHERHAM is a minor slip, a city can be clued as a town but not the other way round.
    METAMORPHOSES is a very neat anagram. MUSKETEER was very misleading.

  13. Thanks Guy and loonapick.

    Another who thought this was a cracker (or possibly a scorcher). My only query is whether the Tardis is a spacecraft or a timecraft. I suppose its name being an acronym for Time And Related Dimensions In Space lets Guy off the hook.

  16. Very good as we’ve now come to expect from Guy. Didn’t know FOY for ‘queen impersonator’ and CAIRENE was a new word. Satisfying to work out the parsing of some difficult ones like LOST IN THOUGHT. ROTHERHAM not being a ‘city’ passed me by.

    I’ll join the chorus of praise for REALITY TV. This must bring out the best in our setters; here’s Goliath’s’s clue for the same answer in The FT on 22/09/2022:

    Awful tat, verily?

    Thanks to Guy and loonapick

  17. Fabulous puzzle. CLEMENT and REALITY TV had double-ticks from me, closely followed by SCORCHER, MACAROON, GOLDING and HANGER-ON.

  18. Agree REALITY TV a humdinger, but spotting VARIETY amongst the anagram fodder delayed me briefly. Nice misdirection in 10a, clever to work Mt Athos into the clue. And 10d was a belting anagram.

  20. Peter @16
    Indeed the definition of a city has greatly changed. Brighton was one of latest towns to
    be classed as a city.This link gives all the info:
    http://www.ukcities.co.uk/definitions/
    Ovid was indeed Roman but Metamorphoses told Greek as well as Roman myths.
    I fully endorse the praise for puzzle and blogger.. I found it very challenging but satisfying. Thank you Guy and loonapix.

  22. SCORCHER reminded me of the late Caroline Aherne as Poula Fisch in The Fast Show:
    ‘Don meteorologicos Republicca. | A Valle Portos, SCORCHIO! | Mi Nia Kuntera Interior, SCORCHIO! | Mi Nia Kuntera Exterior, SCORCHIO!
    Warzona Esta, SCORCHIO! | Warzona Sud, SCORCHIO! | Costa…SCORCHIO!’
    Thanks WordPlodder@17 – “Awful tat, verily?” sums up my opinion of REALITY TV far better than “Entertainment” – but both clues are excellent.
    The TARDIS is far more than just a “spacecraft” – it’s a living creature, according to Neil Gaiman’s take.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doctor%27s_Wife

  23. Recent cities – May 20,2022 – “Colchester has become the second town in Essex to win coveted city status in just a few months with the Queen granting it the civic honour. It was among six UK towns to be given the distinction, announced yesterday (May 20), to mark the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee year.
    Doncaster and Milton Keynes were the other English towns granted city status as part of the current jubilee celebrations. Bangor in Northern Ireland, Dunfermline in Scotland and Wrexham in Wales also won the honour, as did Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands and Douglas on the Isle of Man.”

  24. Nothing much to add to what everyone else has said except to echo that this is a top-drawer puzzle. Bravo, Guy! Excellent blog too, thanks, Loonapick.

  26. Not a doddle but all pretty straightforward. CAIRENE was new to us but easily got from the wordplay and crossing letters. ROTHERHAM not being a city led us to an unparsed ‘Rotterdam’ for 2dn until we got METAMORPHOSES and realised 13ac had to be ECHO. BLAST-OFF, MUSKETEER and SLEIGHT were among our favourites.
    Thanks, Guy and loonapick.

  27. Thanks Guy. I found this to be a cross between a tough Guy crossword and a nice Guy crossword — it was challenging and fun at the same time. I liked the use of ‘hotel’ twice without it being the letter H and I liked china being dishes for a change. I thought SCORCHER was an excellent example of weaving wordplay into a seamless surface. REALITY TV, CLEMENT, and ALL FOR earned ticks as well. I needed an outside source for ROTHERHAM and I couldn’t fully parse everything so thanks loonapick for the blog.

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