Financial Times 17,668 GUY

by

Guy is the setter in today's FT.

On my first pass, I thought I was going to be very late for work this morning, as I had maybe five solutions in place, but then the long answers all fell into place giving me enough crossers to get the rest fairly quickly, so that the whole thing (including the parsing and writing this blog) was over in less than 45 minutes, which I have to say, was far too quickly as I really enjoyed solving this puzzle. Every clue was worthy of comment, but as I'm still a working man, I won't have time to do that, and I honestly would struggle to pick a favourite. Bring on the day I win the lottery or am able to retire, so that I can have more time to priase puzzles as good as this one.

Thanks Guy

ACROSS
9 PUBLIC RELATIONS
Spin out yarns (6,9)

PUBLIC ("out") + RELATIONS ("yarns")
10 LEAST
Right angle, 90 degrees minimum (5)

L (letter shaped like a "right angle") + EAST ("90 degrees")
11 SLEEKNESS
Polish vegetable in tin, messy when peeled (9)

LEEK ("vegetable") in Sn (chemical symbol for "tin") + (m)ESS(y) [when peeled]
12 CENTRE BIT
Boring piece to do with cutting coins (6,3)

RE ("to do with") cutting CENT and BIT ("coins")
14 DATUM
Statistic quoted at umpires in the middle (5)

Hidden [in the middle] of "quoteD AT UMpires"
16 TITUS ANDRONICUS
Smear custard on suit in play (5,10)

*(custard on suit in) [anag:smear]
19 RIPEN
Become smellier in US state prison (5)

RI (Rhode Island, so "US state") + PEN ("prison")
21 FRYING PAN
Source of fatty food? Young popular doctor uncovered many (6,3)

FRY ("young") + IN ("popular") + GP ("doctor") + [uncovered] (m)AN(y)
23 BAREFACED
Weak coffee European put back on counter, unembarrassed (9)

<=(DECAF ("weak coffee") + E (European), put back) on BAR ("counter")
25 TASER
Stunner modelled again in retirement (5)

<=RESAT ("modelled again", in retirement)
26 CASH IN ONES CHIPS
Pass on cold, result of puffing over fish supper? (4,2,4,5)

C (cold) + ASH IN ONES CHIPS ("result of puffing" (smoking) over fish supper (fish and chips}"
DOWN
1 APPLICATOR
Clap Portia in play one puts on (10)

*(clap portia) [anag:in play]
2 OBTAIN
Boat turned inside out during purchase (6)

BOAT turned inside out becomes OBTA + IN ("during")
3 PICTURES
Detective smokes, perhaps around back of derelict cinema (8)

PI (private investigator, so "detective") + CURES ("smokes, perjaps") around [back of] (derelic)T
4 EROS
God ascended bottom first (4)

ROSE ("ascended") with its bottom first becomes E-ROS
5 ELLEN TERRY
Old actress allowed to take out boob in cathedral (5,5)

LENT ("allowed to take out") + ERR ("boob") in ELY (Cathedral)

Dame Ellen Terry was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
6 STOKED
Delighted nerds finally tried cannabis (6)

(nerd)S [finally] + TOKED ("tried cannabis")
7 DOMESTIC
Fight probably missed by police running Met disco (8)

*(met disco) [anag:running]
8 AS IS
American and British Intelligence no different (2,2)

A (American) + SIS (Secret Intelligence Service, so "British intelligence")
13 BENEFACTOR
Fresh face in Twin Peaks, an angel (10)

*(face) [anag:fresh] in BEN and TOR (two words for peaks, so "twin peaks")
15 MISANDRIST
Man’s dirt is turning someone strongly against men (10)

*(mans dirt is) [anag:turning]
17 TOP BRASS
Jumper, underwear and socks unpacked for executive (3,5)

TOP ("jumper") + BRA ("underwear") + S(ock)S [unpacked]
18 NANOTECH
Molecular engineering exciting to Chennai, but not India (8)

*(to chenna) [anag:exciting] where CHENNA is CHENNA(i) without I (India)
20 NO FAIR
American’s complaint of prejudice on turning blonde (2,4)

<=ON [turning] + FAIR ("blonde")
22 POST-IT
Note bird very quietly soaring (4-2)

<=(TIT ("bird") + SO ("very") + P (piano in music, so "quietly", soaring)
23 BUCK
4 quarters or 24 (4)

Double definition, the first referring to American money and rhe second to the answer to 25 down (DEER)
24 DEER
Unfinished act Romeo does? (4)

[unfinished] DEE(d) ("act") + R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,668 GUY”

  1. Consistently good setting from Guy!
    TASER (surface a leering throwback to ‘page 3’ days), BENEFACTOR (for the ‘Twin Peaks’), BUCK (clever) and 26 were my top picks.
    One or two befuddling moments in the parsing but Loonapick has done the honours admirably.
    Thanks to Guy and Loonapick.

  2. Beautiful crossword. LEAST was my last one in.
    I had taken ‘turned inside out’ in 2d as just an anagram indicator but now realise it is much nicer than just that.

  3. Thanks Guy for such a lovely puzzle.
    Thanks loonapick for the excellent blog.
    Loved LEAST the most. Also, PR, CASH I O C, OBTAIN (for the ‘inside out’ device)
    and BUCK.

  4. Superb puzzle and the best of this morning’s solves. I totally agree with out blogger – pretty much every clue was worthy of praise. TITUS ANDRONICUS for the anagram, LEAST for pure brilliance, CASH IN ONES CHIPS for the humour, EROS just because Guy got a smile out of me with such a frequently-appearing word, BENEFACTOR for the cunning def and TOP BRASS for the surface get my votes.

    Hovis @2: last but definitely LEAST

    Thanks Guy and loonapick

  5. Very difficult – not least because I went up the garden path on the long clues.

    Absolutely nothing to quibble about – just wasn’t my day.

    Thanks Guy and loonapick

  7. Thanks Guy and Loonapick

    9ac: Collins 2023 gives us relation 6 the act of relating or narrating 7 an account or narrative.

  9. We, daughter and I on the tube, had a similar experience to loonapick, very little on first pass, and most of that down clues, but steadily filling from then on, then all in disappointingly early.

    Thank you to Guy and loonapick.

  10. Lovely crossword, just about every clue delighted, but absolute favourites, CASH IN ONES CHIPS and LEAST.
    Too many others to mention.
    Thanks to Guy and loonapick

  12. I enjoyed the crossword too and had a lot of enjoyable “aha!” moments.

    However, my experience was a bit different to some others. I got TITUS ANDRONICUS from the anagram, but needed plenty of crossers to get the other long clues. I was not overly familiar with CASH IN ONES CHIPS and would never have come up with ASH IN ONES CHIPS by myself. I needed the crossers to see RELATIONS = yarns and I spent time dwelling on St Bonaface and the different variants of his name before landing on BENEFACTOR. I think it is a real stretch to say a BENEFACTOR is equivalent to an angel – I know plenty of BENEFACTORs who are in it solely for themselves, the recipient be damned. Never heard of ELLEN TERRY and it took me some time to get beyond ELY.

    I fully agree with Diane@1 in that Guy seems to consistently set good clues and crosswords.

    Thanks Guy and loonapick

  13. Thanks for the blog, I agree with all the praise for this splendid puzzle.
    Martyn@12 one meaning of angel is a financial backer and I agree with you that they often have selfish interests.

  14. Thanks Guy for an excellent crossword. I missed CENTRE BIT and ELLEN TERRY as both were beyond my orbit. I had many favourites including BAREFACED, TASER, STOKED, BENEFACTOR, TOP BRASS, and NO FAIR. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  15. 13dn: One of the definitions of angel in ODE 2010 is “an attendant spirit, especially a benevolent one” with usage example “there was an angel watching over me“. That is near enough to benefactor for me.

  16. I found this difficult.

    I got there eventually but certainly not in 45 minutes. (A statistic which just makes me feel inadequate, incidentally – one of the reasons I don’t do the Times is because the blog is full of showoffs claiming have completed in 10 or 15 minutes. I hope we don’t start quoting timings here).

    I found it more of a curate’s egg than other commentators. Some ticks, for instance, for Benefactor, Barefaced, Least and Eros. On the other hand, I didn’t much like public relations or cash in ones chips, and I’ve never heard of Ellen Terry.

    Too many for me were solvable only once the crossers were in place. I don’t like crosswords where the word play is impenetrable, and for me today quite a lot of clues fell into that category. I figured out the answer from the definition or the crossers, and then set about unraveling the wordplay.

    Pleased others found it more satisfying. Sometimes I find Guy difficult while others I fly through. Today was at the difficult end.

  17. Moly@16
    Apologies for quoting my time – it wasn’t intended to be boastful, but to demonstrate how short lived my enjoyment was this morning. Sometimes when a puzzle is as good as this one was, you want the experience to last longer.

Comments are closed.