FINANCIAL TIMES 17583 by GUY

by

A nice workout from an unfamiliar setter on Fridays. Thanks Guy, for the treat.

FF: 9 DD: 9

ACROSS
1 CHUBBY
Well-rounded, constant married man (6)

C ( constant ) HUBBY ( married man )
4 TO DIE FOR
Change of editor highly desirable (2,3,3)

[ OF EDITOR ]*
10 REDBREAST
Robin uses Spooner’s toast rack (9)

spoonerism of BREAD ( toast ) REST ( rack )
11 INAPT
Bad form to snooze during sex (5)

NAP ( snooze ) in IT ( sex )
12 WARE
Women live for merchandise (4)

W ( women ) ARE ( live )
13 CROP CIRCLE
Mysterious figure with whip left bound by enchantress (4,6)

CROP ( whip ) [ L ( left ) in CIRCE ( enchantress ) ]
15 RAIMENT
Time ran differently in wardrobe (7)

[ TIME RAN ]*
16 STARCH
School claims rating ‘formality’ (6)

SCH ( school ) containing TAR ( rating )
19 NEWTON
Mathematician just discovered fashion (6)

NEW ( just discovered ) TON ( fashion )
21 SPLURGE
Extravagant display of Euphorbia around lake (7)

SPURGE ( euphorbia ) around L ( lake ) ; needed help to parse this
23 ANIMAL FARM
Guy’s Alfa Romeo collected by man converting 40’s classic (6,4)

[ I'M ( guy's ) ALFA R ( romeo ) ] in [ MAN ]*
25 LIMB
Scales sloughed, not one seen on snake? (4)

cLIMBs ( wthout end characters )
27 LIKED
Popular old president seen in Lidl regularly (5)

IKE ( old president, eisenhower ) in LD ( LiDl, regularly )
28 AISLE SEAT
Best ticket for someone who goes a lot? (5,4)

cryptic def
29 RENT ROLL
List of letters concerning Nationalist provocateur (4,4)

RE ( concerning ) N ( nationalist ) TROLL ( provocateur )
30 LESSON
Reading without working (6)

LESS ( without ) ON ( working )
DOWN
1 CAREWORN
Owner wriggles beneath vehicle, looking worried (8)

CAR ( vehicle ) [ OWNER ]*
2 UNDERLINE
Stress when writing articles abroad on policy (9)

UN DER ( articles, foreign ) LINE ( policy )
3 BARK
Protective coat saving king (4)

BAR ( saving ) K ( king )
5 OCTOPUS
Freak cops out, being heavily armed (7)

[ COPS OUT ]*
6 INIMITABLE
One tiny upset, league info having no match (10)

[ I ( one ) MINI ( tiny ), all reversed ] TABLE ( league info )
7 FRANC
Change pre-Euros managed within football club (5)

RAN ( managed ) in FC ( football club )
8 RATHER
Heart flutters after run more than usually (6)

R ( run ) [ HEART ]*
9 CARROT
Something to entice a bishop into bed (6)

[ A RR ( bishop ) ] in COT ( bed )
14 LEFT-HANDER
Boxer’s belt went with her trousers (4-6)

LEFT ( went ) [ HER containing AND ( with ) ]
17 CORKINESS
Bad quality of Rioja, say, that might make senor sick (9)

[ SENOR SICK ]*
18 VERBOTEN
Subject to ban in Germany over bent bananas (8)

[ OVER BENT ]*
20 NAFF ALL
Zip lover up when the weather cools in NY (4,3)

reverse of FAN ( lover ) FALL ( when the weather cools in NY )
21 SOREST
Extremely irritable reply to claim of exhaustion? (6)

cryptic def; read as SO REST ( reply to claim of exhaustion )
22 TAILOR
Trouble breaking through mounting garbage in sewer (6)

AIL ( trouble ) in reverse of ROT ( garbage )
24 INK IN
Make permanent home with partner, kids etc. (3,2)

IN ( home ) KIN ( partner, kids etc )
26 PELE
Man everyone loved at Number 10 somewhat hopeless (4)

hidden in "..hoPELEss"

23 comments on “FINANCIAL TIMES 17583 by GUY”

  2. With witty puzzles like this, Guy is fast becoming one of my favourite setters! So much to like today but I’ll nominate 6d, 7d and 26d as my top picks for their footy theme. Oh, 4A was rather neat too.
    Thanks to Guy and Turbolegs.

  6. Very cleanly clued throughout and deserving of the pair of 9’s bestowed by our blogger. I think I’m more of a fan of the BREAD REST parse: more elegant as a solution and more of a Thing. Though maybe a bread wrest is a roll in the hay. I’ll get my coat …

    But, before I do, a quick nomination of a few faves: CHUBBY, TO DIE FOR (apologies, Roger), ANIMAL FARM, CAREWORN, OCTOPUS (I’ve seen similar ideas and they always make me smile. This one, particularly nicely constructed), RATHER, CARROT, LEFT-HANDER (delightful clue) and INK IN.

    Very much in agreement with Diane – Guy joins the list of setters to look forward to.

    Thanks Guy and Turbolegs

  7. Eric @5: in Chambers –
    ton2 /t??/
    noun
    Fashion
    People of fashion
    Apparently it comes from the French but no more than that. It is a cruciverbal staple and catches somebody out every time. Well worth adding to the list of (hundreds of) things to squirrel away for future solves.

  9. Thanks Guy and Turbolegs

    10ac: I agree with the view that the Spoonerism is of BREAD REST. As (I think) hinted by PM@6, I would take it as a phrase defined as a whole as “toast rack” rather than as two separate words. That fits with the notion of a Spoonerism: ideally it should be a distortion of a pair of words that can be spoken in the same sentence. It would, of course, be a different matter with an indicator like “swapping starts” which could happily be applied to a pair of unconnected words.

  10. CHUBBY, FRANC and PELE (for the clever definition) make my podium today. I knew there was a common word for Euphorbia but I couldn’t remember it for ages.

  11. Thanks for the blog, very neat set of clues , many of them very concise which I like .
    NEWTON was a physicist , he did do a lot of mathematics but that is simply the generosity of physicists who like to help out the minor subjects.

  12. Roz @ 11, I love it.

    I also loved this puzzle, as did many others. Favourites included the Spoonerism at 10a REDBREAST, the delightful admonitory surface of 11a INAPT, and the neat reply of 21d SOREST.

    Thanks, Guy for the witty puzzle, and Turbolegs for the very clear blog.

  13. 19ac: When I saw the definition for Newton, I made a bet with myself that Roz would not like it. She is obviously joking with the rest of her comment.

  14. Agree with Roz@11 on NEWTON and her overall assessment of the puzzle. I will let the mathematicians comment on her last remark.

    I found this difficult in parts, particularly the SE corner where I struggled with two unknown words (surge and europhia), sloughing scales, lack of football knowledge, and lack of German knowledge (silly me thought VERBOTEN meant banned, not subject to ban). Or it could just be a bit of jet lag.

    Agree with all the positive comments on Guy’s concise style.

    Thanks Guy and Turbolegs

  17. 18dn: VERBOTEN: I had no problem with the definition in this clue. Take “subject” as an adjective, and I was happy that “subject to (a) ban” means the same as “banned”. The clearest definition of subject I can find for this is in SOED 2007, which gives “Foll. by to: bound by a law or jurisdiction”. I think you can take the ban as being the law in question in the SOED definition.

  18. This was enjoyable, with a good number of smiles, thanks Guy.

    I could find nothing in cyberspace to identify the TAR in 16a. Other head scratchers were SPURGE, NAFF ALL (British?) & RENT ROLL. I wasn’t aware of ton/fashion, nor the number on a certain footballer’s jersey. No idea of the wordplay for LEFT-HANDER or CROP CIRCLE.

  20. 16ac (STARCH): tar a sailor (marked “informal, dated” in ODE 2010); rating “a non-commissioned sailor in the navy” (marked “Brit.”). Possibly one of those cases where the word to search on is the clue word, not the word it defines.

    14dn (LEFT-HANDER): ODE marks trouser as a verb “Brit. informal” and defines it as “receive or take (something, especially money) for oneself; pocket: they claimed that he had trousered a £2 million advance“. Use of the word as a containment indicator seems to me to be far better justified than devices such as “oddly coloured” for CLUE.

    Geoff@18: I hope that I have covered the part you wanted for 14dn. I am not sure which part of CROP CIRCLE is still unclear, if any.

  21. From watching Dad’s Army I have learnt that sailors are called Jolly Jack TAR , Jack is also used in crosswords . Soldiers are called Tommy Atkins (Tommies) which does not seem to turn up.

  23. Paulus@22: I think I was helped on this one in that I have actually travelled on an aeroplane with a colleague who wanted the aisle seat precisely for the reason suggested in the clue. I preferred the window seat anyway, so that worked out perfectly. The plane was of a size to have two seats on each side of the aisle.

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