Financial Times 17,754 by GOLIATH

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Unusually, I managed to whizz through this.

Some fantastic anagrams here. Goliath’s creative and witty clueing style made for a very enjoyable solving experience. Many thanks to Goliath.

We have two references to Hamlet, but if there’s more than that going on, it has gone over my head.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Happen to speculate and fiddle every now and then (6)
BETIDE

BET (speculate) + [f]I[d]D[l]E (every now and then)

4. Hope to be something in Oxford (6)
ASPIRE

A + SPIRE (something in Oxford)

8/9. Mum’s wise standard glare getting manipulated here? (7,7)
MASSAGE PARLOUR

MA’S (mum’s) + SAGE (wise) + PAR (standard) + LOUR (glare)

11. Not willing to cross right road (10)
INTERSTATE

INTESTATE (not willing) to cross R (right)

13/12. Episcopal damnation of drink (5,4)
PEPSI COLA

EPISCOPAL* (*damnation of)

14. Losing faith in a job, say, after reshuffle (8)
APOSTASY

A + POST (job) + SAY* (*after reshuffle)

16. There may be suffering from inflammation (8)
ERYTHEMA

(THERE MAY)* (*be suffering)

18. One into currency up for another (5)
DINAR

I (one) RAND< (currency, <up)

20. The woman would represent a traditionally male domain (4)
SHED

SHE’D (the woman would)

21. As a warning sign, hearing about gunshot before air raid starts (10)
TRIANGULAR

TRIAL (hearing) about GUN* (*shot) before A[ir] R[aid] (starts)

23. Come in half naked of the 3, 21 Down (7)
ENTERAL

ENTER (come in) + [h]AL[f] (naked)

24. Bully after Johnny’s profitable business (4,3)
CASH COW

COW (bully) after CASH (Johnny)

25. Horror or lost bad blood? (6)
ENMITY

EDITED: EN[or]MITY (horror, OR lost)

26. Agreed book & play need first half discarded (6)
OKAYED

[bo]OK & [pl]AY [ne]ED (first half discarded)

DOWN
1. Muscle fibre pierced by warhead (5)
BRAWN

BRAN (fibre) pierced by W[ar] (head)

2/13/17. Outrageously dear replacement cost? Hope it’s time to slip away (2,5,9,2,5)
TO SLEEP PERCHANCE TO DREAM

(DEAR REPLACEMENT COST HOPE)* (*outrageously)
A reference from Hamlet

3/21. Synopsis I have followed on the radio shows guts (9,5)
DIGESTIVE TRACT

DIGEST (synopsis) + I’VE (I have) + “TRACKED” (followed, “on the radio”)

5/15. Declare naked form needs work where there’s something rotten (5,2,7)
STATE OF DENMARK

STATE (declare) + (NAKED FORM)* (*needs work)
A reference from Hamlet

6. Writer’s going to part of Miami city that’s forbidden (7)
ILLICIT

I’LL (writer’s going to) + [Miam]I CIT[y] (part of)

7. This improves the sound and evens the score (9)
EQUALISER

Double definition

10. Chief of MI6 and a counterpart admitting first man’s nuts (9)
MACADAMIA

M[I6] (chief of) + A + CIA (counterpart) admitting ADAM (first man)

19. Nothing in New York is mischievous (7)
NAUGHTY

AUGHT (nothing) in NY (New York)

22. Given permission to speak audibly (5)
ALOUD

“ALLOWED” (given permission, “to speak”)

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,754 by GOLIATH”

  3. Thanks for the blog, great set of clues and I agree some wonderful anagrams . The split clues pretty much in the right order , which I like. INTERSTATE was very neat.
    DINAR not sure about UP meaning reverse for an Across clue, this does some to occur quite often .

  4. I agree with Roz’s comment about DINAR. I think ‘back’ in place of ‘up’ still works for the surface read. A great grid fill by Goliath.

  5. Liked APOSTASY, ENMITY and DIGESTIVE TRACT.
    Enjoyable puzzle and great blog. Thanks Goliath and Oriel!

    ASPIRE
    Shouldn’t the def be only ‘hope’?

  6. I was making no progress on this at first, but once I got the Hamlet clues, I blazed through the rest. I thought the structure of the clue for ILLICIT was unusual–discarding uneven pieces of words. It works OK, though.

  7. Tackled the two Hamlet clues first and once I had them went through this quite quickly for me.

    Lots of lovely clues, all of which save INTERSTATE I could parse which was very satisfying.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel

  9. Thanks Goliath (except for 18ac and of course the clues with an unsignalled requirement to split a clue word) and Oriel

    19dn: Collins 2023 gives us aught² or ought n a less common word for nought.

  10. Tackling the clues in order, as usual, I had only 20ac SHED entered until I reached 5dn STATE OF DENMARK and thought I was in for a tough time. However, I fairly soon cracked the long anagram at 2/13/17 and was only slightly disappointed not to find more Hamlet: this was Goliath, after all, and so there were lots of other goodies.

    My other ticks were for 8/9 MASSAGE PARLOUR, 13/12 PEPSI COLA, 16ac ARYTHEMA, 20ac SHED, 26ac OKAYED, 3/21 DIGESTIVE TRACT.

    Many thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  11. Up North, we often said ‘You never get aught for naught’ or, possibly, ‘ought for nought’ – I don’t think the spelling was ever too clear. Aught meaning “anything” is a lot more common than meaning “nothing”, which I’ve only ever seen in crosswords.

  12. I grew up in the north of England too and we used the same phrase to which Hovis refers, though spelt differently. We used to say “tha never gets owt for nowt”, with owt and nowt meaning aught and naught respectively. The terminology is also used in the Tyke’s Motto: “And if thy ever does owt for nowt, alus do it for the sen”. If any further translation is required I’d be happy to supply it!

  14. I’ll try again (third time). I’m with Hovis @11 re “aught”. I thought I had finished this one and that there was a typo in the clue for 24a – I entered POT (belly) rather than COW (bully)! So it goes.

  15. 19dn continued: I too agree with Hovis@11 that the positive meaning (given under aught¹ in Collins) is more common than the negative meaning (aught²). But is anyone claiming that as a reason not to allow aught²?

  16. Excellent crossword!

    Ashamed to admit, but I only knew one of the Hamlet quotations (re Denmark) but managed to piece together the other from the anagram material

  17. There is no “nought” in the USA. We use “ought” instead, meaning an “O” (zero). Eg, “four oughts steel wool”.

  18. Goliath up to his usual high standard. I especially liked the gutsy wordplay of 3/21 DIGESTIVE TRACT, the damn fine anagram for 13/12 PEPSI COLA, and both the definition (as a warning sign) and excellent surface/construction of 21a TRIANGULAR.

    Thanks Goliath for the superb puzzle and Oriel for the excellent blog.

  19. Much to like.. interesting local differences re “aught” etc.. up North its pronounced “out for nowt” as said by many, down south I seem to recall “ort for nort” (phonetically speaking), I prefer the up north version, more authenticity somehow, maybe because there’s always been more “nowt” up here? The penny drop for INTERSTATE was a joy, and enjoyed the anagrams greatly..
    Thanks Goliath n Oriel

  20. Extremely enjoyable puzzle by Goliath. As an outsider looking in, I also enjoy the discussions about phraseology differences in the UK.
    I asked on another post but did not receive a response—does anyone know why over the last week or so Guardian puzzles have come out 10-30 minutes after midnight instead of exactly at 12 AM? Thanks!

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