Financial Times 17,591 by GAFF

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GAFF kicks off the week…

The puzzle has the instruction "A puzzle compiled rigorously and step by step", but apart from a few dance references I can't see anything else going on.

Apart from that, there were plenty of good clues with some nice surfaces.

Thanks GAFF!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Crowed about side being scratched (6)
CLAWED

CAWED (crowed) about L (side, Left)

4. Dances clutching qualification and sticky sweets (8)
RUMBABAS

RUMBAS (dances) clutching BA (qualification)

9. Disallow point of entry (6)
NEGATE

NE (point, North East) + GATE (entry)

10. Antique man I left in space (8)
HEIRLOOM

HE (man) + I + (L (left) in ROOM (space))

12. Having raised admission (6,2)
OWNING UP

OWNING (having) + UP (raised)

13. Could be a compact that I leave America in ruins (6)
CAMERA

(AMER[i]CA (I leave))* (*in ruins)

15. Mistake by fielder (4)
SLIP

Double definition

16. Competent leaders of British Olympics passed fit (4-6)
ABLE-BODIED

ABLE (competent) + B[ritish] O[lympics] (leaders of) + DIED (passed)

19. Rail logistics collapses with loss of oil marketing platform (10)
CRAIGSLIST

(RA[il] L[o]GISTICS (loss of OIL))* (*collapses)

20. Starts to sing creating a monstrous racket (4)
SCAM

S[ing] C[reating] A M[onstrous] (starts to)

23. Increase level of connection (4-2)
DIAL-UP

Double definition

25. Encouraging to find most of your gin gone (6,2)
URGING ON

[yo]UR GIN GON[e] (most of)

27. Pretended being topless at home was very exposed (8)
NAKEDEST

[f]AKED (pretended, being topless) in NEST (at home)

28. More nagging from expert about greeting ringleader (6)
ACHIER

(ACE (expert) about HI (greeting)) + R[ing] (leader)

29. Yank lots away from criminal reclamations (8)
AMERICAN

(REC[l]AMA[t]I[o]N[s] (LOTS away from))* (*criminal)

30. Be quiet about debatable flat (6)
SMOOTH

SH (be quiet) about MOOT (debatable)

DOWN
1. Preserve lots of divisions in country (7)
CANTONS

CAN (preserve) + TONS (lots of)

2. Party leader leaves a parenting problem for country (9)
ARGENTINA

(A [p]ARENTING (P[arty] (leader) leaves))* (*problem)

3. No longer care to stretch (6)
EXTEND

EX (no longer) + TEND (care)

5. Finally you guess he rewound second hand (4)
USED

[yo]U [gues]S [h]E [rewoun]D (finally)

6. Small tree cat raised by leader taken from capital (8)
BERGAMOT

(TOM (cat) by [z]AGREB (capital, leader taken))< (<raised)

7. British dribble alcohol (5)
BOOZE

B (British) + OOZE (dribble)

8. Danced as bad as me dancing (7)
SAMBAED

(BAD AS ME)* (*dancing)

11. Signal to start dance hit on table (3,4)
CUE BALL

CUE (signal to start) + BALL (dance)

14. Reseats loose tile (7)
TESSERA

(RESEATS)* (*loose)

17. In company, fool hemmed in to go unrecognised (9)
INCOGNITO

IN + CO (company) + (NIT (fool) hemmed in to GO)

18. Prayer for divine innocent (5,3)
AGNUS DEI

Double definition – or possibly a straight definition

19. Demanding passage for short ruler to surround port (7)
CADENZA

CZA[r] (ruler, short) to surround ADEN (port)

21. Ruler could be working in a month (7)
MONARCH

ON (working) in MARCH (a month)

22. Outnumbered maybe but heartlessly commits violation (6)
SITCOM

(COM[m]ITS (heartlessly))* (*violation)

"Outnumbered" being a British sitcom

24. Annoy with clip joint (5)
ANKLE

[r]ANKLE (annoy, with clip)

26. Countries like 1 across (4)
ASIA

AS (like) + I (one) + A (across)

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,591 by GAFF”

  1. Rigorously = Strictly
    CRAIGSLIST Revel Horwood
    CANTONS DuBeke
    TESSERA Daly
    Zoe CUEBALL
    Shirley CUEBALL ASIA
    BERGAMOT SITCOM Mabuse

  2. Thanks Gaff and Teacow

    9ac: It may be better to think of this as “north east gate” defined as a phrase by “point of entry”.

  3. I can’t see what is meant by the instructions either. But a fairly clued puzzle although INHO CRAIGSLIST or Outnumbered, the Sitcom.

    Thanks Gaff for a stimulating puzzle and Teacow for an excellent blog.

  4. I’m delighted to say I spotted the hidden names . I agree with comment 2 about 9a

    Thanks to Gaff and Teacow.

  5. Thanks for the blog. I had a very hard time with this overall and wound up revealing NAKEDEST (about which I remain unconvinced as a clue–surely, “most exposed”?). I was hoping that some explanation for the indication of a theme would appear. I don’t know. Maybe I was just tired, but I left this feeling pretty dull-witted.

  7. An enjoyable grid from Gaff and I realised the instructions were suggestive of a dance theme and so it proved. Even spotted the Strictly Come Dancing theme and the most rigorous of the judges on that TV programme referenced in 19a.
    However, until Frankie’s contribution, I couldn’t help thinking I’d missed something (a nina maybe) as, like Teacow, I could only find a few of the themed entries. No matter as in the end, it was a fun exercise to keep you on your toes.
    Thanks to Gaff for the inventive grid and to Teacow.

  8. FrankieG@1: Oh, well, no wonder I did not spot that theme. I don’t pay any attention to the US spinoff either, much less the UK show.

  9. I don’t know what others think but 6d didn’t work for me. The position of ‘raised’ in the clue doesn’t lead to (Z)agreb also being raised. I’ve never watched Strictly so thanks Frankie (and others) who spotted this.

  10. Hovis@9
    BERGAMOT
    I had the same issue to start with.
    Then I thought we could read it as TOM raised by (next to) AGREB.
    TOM wasn’t raised by AGREB. It was by a third party. 🙂

  11. I was completely theme-blind. No time wasted.
    Thanks, FrankieG and Diane (I didn’t know the full name of the show till you mentioned it) for the enlightenment.

  13. Thanks Gaff and Teacow

    In addition to the names highlighted by FrankieG, an AMERICAN SMOOTH (bottom row) is a dance.

  14. 4ac following Mark A@12: So far as I can see, Chambers 2016, Collins 2023, ODE 2010 and SOED 2007 all give rum baba only as two words.

  15. Thanks Gaff. I failed to finish and the theme was way beyond my orbit but I still found things to like such as HEIRLOOM, AMERICAN, SMOOTH, BOOZE, and MONARCH. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  16. Bravo – a theme completely unknowable outside a cross-section of people in the UK. Sorry, Gaff, I am sure you laboured hard over it, but I am glad to see that it really did not help in finishing the puzzle.

    I did enjoy the puzzle, although like Cineraria I felt I was struggling towards the end (I was also rushing to get it finished). There were indeed plenty of good clues and I liked the MONARCH, RUMBABAS (pity it may have contained an error) and ABLE BODIED the best. Like Cineraria @8, I did not find NAKEDEST convincing. And I confess, I still do not understand why “outnumbered maybe” is SITCOM. It is a bit of a weak definition anyway – just about everything I can think of is outnumbered in some way.

    Anyway, thanks Gaff and Teacow

  17. Martyn, I guess you need to add ‘Outnumbered’ to your list of UK-centric clues. It’s the name of a UK sitcom.

  18. Thanks for the blog, the theme passed me by but I did like the puzzle . Perhaps RUMBABAS was just a mistake in the enumeration. The COM bit of SITCOM for Outnumbered is being somewhat generous.

  19. Thanks Hovis@17 for the help with SITCOM. I take my comment about a weak clue back – it was more obvious than I realised

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