Financial Times 17,631 by IO

by

Many thanks to IO for this morning’s challenge.

IO is a tough setter. Plenty to enjoy here and maybe not as tough as IO can be at times?

A tightly composed puzzle, something not always typical for IO. Very witty – definitely typical. Thank you IO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8. Wild fourth item in mythical narration, maybe (11,4)
ERYMANTHIAN BOAR

([myt]H[ical] (fourth item in) + NARRATION MAYBE)* (*wild) – &lit

From Greek mythology: The erymanthian boar was the fourth labour of Heracles

9. Contrary attitude, retaining bell edge with shells (8)
ESCALLOP

POSE< (attitude, <contrary) retaining CALL (bell)

10. Brave husband divorces without delay (6)
APACHE

H (husband) divorces – APACE (without delay)

11. Anxiously wait to use toilet? Finally! (5,2,3)
SWEAT IT OUT

(WAIT TO USE [toile]T (finally))* (*anxiously) – &lit

13. He wrote Spamalot while away (4)
IDLE

Double definition

  • Eric Idle wrote Spamalot (based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
  • To idle is to while away time
14. Dutch courage? It may be needed for serious theatre work (10,5)
ARTIFICIAL HEART

Cryptic double definition

  • Dutch courage is courage gained from consuming alcohol – and so artificial
  • In the second definition ‘theatre’ refers to an operating/surgical theatre
16. Tortoise — eventually — has got it! (1,3)
I SEE

[Torto]ISE E[ventually] (has)

17. Doch-an-doris for Kitty, perhaps, and straight home (3,4,3)
THE LAST LAP

Cryptic definition

A doch-an-doris is a Scottish drink ‘for the road’, and a kitty/cat would lap this up

19. Bloody fortune to Brahms & Liszt (6)
BLOTTO

B (bloody) + LOT (fortune) + TO

If you consider ‘bloody’ a swear word, and it is thus written as B*****, it can be abbreviated to ‘B’

Brahms & Liszt is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘pissed’

20. Textbook Left-handed Potter billiard pockets (8)
LIBRETTO

[P]OTTER BIL[liard]< (pockets, <left-handed)

22. Pair in the ring of course continually improving (6,3,6)
BETTER AND BETTER

Cryptic definition

Two people betting/betters might be found in the betting ring of a race course

DOWN
1. You row about clothes line (9,6)
CROSSWORD SOLVER

CROSS WORDS (row) + OVER (about) clothes L (line)

2. Flibbertigibbet after antelope in Africa (6)
IMPALA

IMP (flibbertigibbet) + A LA (after)

3. Obsessive about getting out of the groove (4)
ANAL

[c]ANAL (groove, C (about, circa) getting out

4. Abraham’s due date for treatment with morphine and LSD (3,8,4)
THE PROMISED LAND

(DATE + MORPHINE + LSD)* (*for treatment)

5. Tra-la-la tune frightfully posh? No (10)
TARANTELLA

(TRA-LA-LA T[u]NE)* (*frightfully, U (posh) no, i.e. exclude U) – &lit

The tarantella is a peasant dance, or piece of music for the dance, from southern Italy.

6. Aston Villa executive initially welcoming supporters close to Unai Emery? (8)
ABRASIVE

A[ston] V[illa] E[xecutive] (initially) welcoming BRAS (supporters + [una]I (close to)

7. Labourer turns avant-garde, supporting Baroque music functions (8,7)
BACHELOR PARTIES

PROLE< (labourer, <turns) + ARTIES (avant-garde) supporting BACH (Baroque music)

12. Name, say, robot aid for broadcast (5,5)
IDIOT BOARD

ID (name, say) + (ROBOT AID)* (*for broadcast) – &lit

An idiot board is a television anchor’s cue screen

15. This person refuses to adopt singer’s image (8)
IDENTITY

I DENY (this person refuses) to adopt TIT (singer, i.e. bird)

18. A teenager no longer worked for nothing in play (6)
TWENTY

WENT (worked) for O (nothing) in TOY (play)

If GO is WORK, WENT is WORKED

21. Pint-sized sailor’s boarding times (4)
BABY

AB (sailor, able seaman) boarding BY (times)

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,631 by IO”

  1. Thanks Io and Oriel!
    A great puzzle indeed. Sheer joy. And a matching blog (not easy, I feel) of high quality.
    Top faves: A whole array of them.

  3. Reading the blog I can see what a great puzzle this is, but after getting only 5 solutions after staring at it for half an hour I came here for help.
    Too tough for me, but maybe one day…
    Thanks IO and Oriel.

  4. I can’t do IO crosswords. I can get 4 or 5 solutions at best. But at least that frees up an hour or so of the morning for something else . . . .

  7. Sadly we solved this before getting home so have run out of crossword while still travelling. We normally rely on Io for both out and return journey.

    Really chewy, but my daughter really likes Io as I can’t race through answering things before she gets to read them.

    Thank you for the challenge and blog.

  8. I managed to finish this after a long car journey( passenger) . Many clues were very convoluted and tough. However, it would be good training for when I have easier setters. Well done Oriel for a great blog and IO for a first rate puzzle.

  9. As usual, Another Herculean/Heracleian task from IO.
    I could only remember ‘First: Nemean lion’ and ‘Fifth: Augean stables’ so had to research ‘Fourth: ERYMANTHIAN BOAR’. Loved it. Thanks IO&O.

  10. Thanks Oriel and IO.

    DNF, my loss: didn’t know 8a, and had ARTIFICIAL TEARS in 14a. Didn’t get 7, 17 and 18.

    Liked ABRASIVE, THE PROMISED LAND among the ones I got.

  11. I tried to make ARTIFICIAL BEARD work – no serious play is without one – but couldn’t quite make beard into courage. Same favourites as Ilippu.

  13. Super tough for me and didn’t quite finish but worth the effort for 6 down alone. Ingenious construction!
    Thanks all.

  14. Re 7d BACHELOR PARTIES, I have two quibbles. BACH is at best a definition by example of baroque music (and that’s pushing it). He is a baroque composer, and his music is baroque music (although, like Shakespeare his works transcend his period), but he is not baroque music.

    Also, I don’t equate avant-garde with ARTIES. The word “arties” refers at best to people with a strong interest in the arts, but more often to people with a pretentious and ostentatious interest in the arts. Avant-garde (as a noun as used in this clue) refers to people interested in, or more properly working in boundary-stretching or experimental areas of the arts. Some avant-garde artists and their followers may be pretentious, but pretention is not a necessary feature of the avant-garde.

    As with most of Io’s puzzles, this was beyond my level of competence. I managed about half a dozen clues before crying uncle. But instead of giving up, I revealed a couple of the long solutions, and then with the help of those crossers was able to fill the rest of the grid, albeit with 8 unparsed. The reason I persevere is that the blog and comments are so interesting, even if the puzzle is beyond me. So thanks Io for the lesson in humility and Oriel for the lesson in parsing.

  15. Thanks Oriel as, after a long but enjoyable struggle around the grid, I plumped for an Oramynthian Bear at 8A and thus failed, unless the classicists have been getting it wrong all these years.
    Funny but after puzzling over BACHELOR PARTIES for a long time I was so happy to arrive at a plausible (and correct, this time) answer that I forgot to check for fairness in retrospect and now agree with Cellomaniac. I wonder if the joy of solving some of these tougher clues means the setter gets away with more?
    No complaints though and echo gsolphotog as the Villa surface drew me in, its solution kept me interested, and all very worthwhile despite my failure (I had to look up doch-an-doris too), thanks Io.

  16. On the first pass through, all I got were the four four-letter lights: IDLE, I SEE, ANAL, BABY – and they were chewy enough.

  17. Congratulations to anyone who solved this. I got about half a dozen before giving up.

    Oddly, I completed a recent Io but this was a different league of difficulty.

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