Financial Times Sunday No.21 – World by Hamilton

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The monthly globetrotting puzzle, available on the FT website to download and print or solve online, or via the smartphone app.

The preamble was as follows:

“A cryptic puzzle themed on one particular country. The name of the country should be inserted at 31 across. Work out the name of the country by solving the *asterisked clues, all undefined – their solutions have some relevance to the country, such as its places, famous people, culture, language”

Could the setter’s identity perhaps be a clue to the theme? I have to say the country leapt out at me from the enumeration of 31 across, and 1 across quickly confirmed it for me. But this didn’t really make it much easier – even when you know the theme, you don’t know if you are looking for a person, place, animal etc – so it was hardly a walkover.

Overall, a very enjoyable puzzle with some clever wordplay, particularly the reverse anagram and deceptive surface reading of 14 across. I was also pleased to be reminded of the great Richard Hadlee in 25 across – I’m just about old enough to have enjoyed the tail end of his career.

Thanks, Hamilton!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 WELLINGTON
* Duke’s going after wife! (10)
W (wife) + ELLINGTON (Duke Ellington, jazz musician)

The capital city of New Zealand
7 MINX
Mingle around new member of the Cheeky Girls? (4)
MIX (mingle) around N (new)
9 AFAR
Nadal’s back — from the other side of the world (4)
Reversal (back) of RAFA (Nadal, the tennis player)
10 MOA
* Consistently immoral (3)
Alternate letters (consistently) of iMmOrAl

A flightless bird native to New Zealand
11 POSTIE
* Original soundtrack in chart (in 31 and elsewhere) (6)
OST (original soundtrack) in PIE (chart)

A New Zealand clothing store chain, also found elsewhere
12 ARDERN
* Strange wanderer we abandoned (6)
Anagram (strange) of wANDeRER less (abandoned) WE

Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand
13 AREA CODE
* 64 goes with the territory (4,4)
Cryptic definition

64 is the international dialling code for New Zealand
14 LED ASTRAY
Del’s not on the straight and narrow! (3,6)
Reverse wordplay – an anagram (astray) of LED would be DEL
16 APSE
Shortened programs discussed in church recess (4)
Sounds like APPS, short for “applications” (computer programs)
18 AWOL
Missing law-breaker stole ring (4)
Anagram (breaker) of LAW containing (stole) O (ring)
20 J G BALLARD
Jack, good rector, overcome with folk song by dystopian writer (1,1,7)
J (Jack) + G (good) + [R (rector) inserted in (overcome with) BALLAD (folk song)]
24 DYSLEXIA
Lydia’s ex suffering such a disorder (8)
Anagram (suffering) of LYDIA’S EX
25 HADLEE
* Surprising lead taken by ambassador (6)
Anagram (surprising) of LEAD inserted in HE (His or Her Excellency = honorific for an ambassador)

Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer – an exceptional fast bowler and pretty good with the bat too, making him one of the game’s all-time greatest all-rounders
27 LOUCHE
Disreputable French King is out to get Marxist revolutionary (6)
LOUIS (French king) with IS deleted (out) + CHE (Guevara, Marxist revolutionary)
28 GEE
* 50% horse (3)
GEE-GEE (horse, 50% thereof)

I’m guessing this refers to Maurice Gee, who I confess is new to me but is regarded as one of New Zealand’s most distinguished authors
29 AMON
* Article about tick (4)
AN (article) about MO (tick)

Chris Amon, a Formula 1 racing driver from New Zealand, who despite being highly regarded by his peers, never won a race
30 ROSS
* No account for clue such as this (4)
ACROSS (clue such as this) less AC (account)

A town in southern New Zealand
31 NEW ZEALAND
* [See setter notes] (3,7)
The country that all other asterisked clues refer to
DOWN
2 ENFORCE
English Nature has the power to prosecute (7)
E (English) + N (nature) + FORCE (power)
3 LORDE
* Bachelor defends covering it up (5)
Hidden (covering it up) in bacheLOR DEfends

New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, who wrote her debut single Royals when she was just 16. I remember quite liking it when it came out back in 2013
4 NOMINATE
Mention a criminal name (8)
Anagram (criminal) of MENTION A
5 TUATARA
* Initially there’s unlimited access to Margaret Mitchell’s plantation (7)
First letters (initially) of There’s Unlimited Access + TARA (the plantation in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind)

A lizard lizard-like reptile native to New Zealand (edit: corrected – see comment 5 below)
6 NAPIER
* Hurried up holding pastry item (6)
RAN (hurried) reversed (up) containing (holding) PIE (pastry item)

A city on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island
7 MUSIC HALL
Much is made of complete variety package (5,4)
Anagram (made of) MUCH IS + ALL (complete)
8 NAIADES
Beautiful maidens motor over main road heading north (7)
SEDAN (motor) containing (over) AI (A1, main road) reversed (heading north)
15 ALL BLACKS
* Utterly wretched on Saturday (3,6)
ALL (utterly) + BLACK (wretched) + S (Saturday)

The New Zealand national rugby team
17 CASHMERE
It’s trifling money first, but that’s material (8)
MERE (trifling) with CASH (money) first
19 WAY TO GO
What the satnav can tell us // hooray! (3,2,2)
Double definition
21 GLASGOW
* Incandescence hides presence of unstable gas (7)
GLOW (incandescence) containing (hides) anagram (unstable) of GAS

A mountain range on the west coast of New Zealand
22 RYECORN
* South Coast town puts on overly sentimental entertainment (7)
RYE (south coast town [in the UK]) + CORN (overly sentimental entertainment)

The internet tells me this is the main cereal crop of New Zealand
23 EXTERN
Al’s taken off outside work as hospital doctor (6)
EXTERNAL (outside) with AL taken off

I admit I struggled to see the parsing of this for a while, due to reading the L as a capital i – fiendish!
26 DRAWL
Protege rising to student’s speech a la James Stewart (5)
WARD (protege) reversed (rising) + L (student)

7 comments on “Financial Times Sunday No.21 – World by Hamilton”

  1. This was tough because of my slender knowledge of NZ. Most clues were quite gettable from the wordplay although new to me: TUATARA,RYECORN,POSTIE.GEE.
    Liked LOUCHE and AREA CODE
    I had to cheat for AMON.

    Enjoyed it so thanks to Hamilton and Widdersbel

  2. Realised how little I knew about New Zealand.
    Thanks for clearing things up for me.

    I tried googling Glasgow New Zealand and all I got was flight information.
    I tried googling naiades as alternative spelling to naiads and no joy.
    I too read 23D as AI not AL and I’d never heard of extern only intern – although it looked like it was probably the answer.

    I was relieved to see Richard Hadlee there as I had trouble with that corner.

  4. I wanted to see Phi, but it’s the wrong paper. Having toyed with Mixed Chum for “much is made”, I wasn’t LED ASTRAY by 14 across. These World puzzles get trickier as the more obvious countries get used up.

  5. Quite liked that one despite never having heard of Hadlee, Lorde, Amon or Gee. Sir Edmund Hillary obviously couldn’t be made to fit. The most unusual feature of the tuatura is that it is a reptile but not a lizard. It is the last surviving member of a separate evolutionary branch unique to NZ.

  6. I have found these geographic puzzles generally hard-to-unsolvable, in that they have been heavily populated with local lore and especially names of people and places that I have never heard of. I managed to finish this one with some guesswork by following the generous clues. Thanks for clearing up the remaining gaps.

  7. Petert @4 – I’m looking forward to the OUTER MONGOLIA puzzle…

    Newbie @5 – thanks for the correction, blog updated

    Cineraria @6 – yes, they are quite a test of your general knowledge and it does add an extra element of difficulty, but I quite like that about them. YMMV, as the kids say. In any case, I found I was able to deduce GLASGOW, RYECORN, GEE and POSTIE from the clueing (aided by the checked letters) then used Google to confirm that they really were things you’d find in New Zealand!

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