Financial Times 17,758 by AARDVARK

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AARVARK kicks off the week…

A very enjoyable puzzle. Slightly more taxing than usual for a Monday I thought, but there's no harm in that.

Thanks AARDVARK!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Understanding group of oldies joining Sydney perhaps (8)
SAGACITY

SAGA (group of oldies) joining CITY (Sydney perhaps)

5. Image of mourner at a valediction reflecting (6)
AVATAR

([mourne]R AT A VA[lediction])< (of, <reflecting)

10. One that’s used to groom, Jack possibly made speech (5)
RAZOR

"raiser" = RAZOR (jack, possibly, "made speech")

11. Departs with spray, back to the front, rebuffing French city’s disorder (9)
DYSPRAXIA

D (departs) + YSPRA (spray, back to front, i.e. the Y goes to the front) + (AIX)< (French city, <rebuffing)

12. Fuel for vegetarian enthusiast with canal permit (3,6)
NUT CUTLET

NUT (enthusiast) with CUT (canal) + LET (permit)

13. Scrums regularly falling on hip bone (5)
INCUS

[s]C[r]U[m]S (regularly falling) on IN (hip)

14. Daily losing capital, being increasingly unproductive (6)
LEANER

[c]LEANER (daily, losing capital)

15. Middle Eastern territory’s small space heated (7)
EMIRATE

EM (small space, printing) + IRATE (heated)

18. Ulster community welcomes artist home? (7)
CARAVAN

CAVAN (Ulster community) welcomes RA (artist)

20. Beauty treatment they spy in Cornish water (6)
FACIAL

CIA (they spy) in FAL (Cornish water, river Fal)

22. Broadcaster’s charity event embraced by Bee Gee (5)
BRAGG

RAG (charity event) embraced by B G (Bee Gee)

Melvyn Bragg

24. Breed particular cat, when tortoises removed, to have kittens (5,4)
RAISE HELL

RAISE (breed) + [tortoises]HELL (particular cat, TORTOISES removed)

25. Old boy to move quickly, twice, for aesthetic item (5,4)
OBJET D’ART

OB (old boy) + JET DART (move quickly, twice)

26. Fabric that’s an irritation (5)
PIQUE

Double definition

27. Begin cladding posh house (6)
STUART

START (begin) cladding U (posh)

28. Quiet amorous behaviour, cuddling Parisian, nothing salacious (8)
PRURIENT

P (quiet) + RUT (amorous behaviour) cuddling RIEN (nothing, Parisian)

DOWN
1. Holy place psychiatrist detailed close to temple (6)
SHRINE

SHRIN[k] (psychiatrist, detailed) + [templ]E (close to)

2. Georgia, on sofa in Somerset maybe, reading reference book (9)
GAZETTEER

GA (Georgia) on ZETTEE (sofa, settee, in a Somerset accent maybe) + R (reading)

3. Globetrotter, around Ireland with Russian, repelled snappy reptile (15)
CIRCUMNAVIGATOR

C (around) + IR (Ireland) + CUM (with) + (IVAN)< (Russian, <repelled) + GATOR (snappy reptile)

4. Roof worker eats skin of deep-fried fish (small portion) (7)
TIDDLER

TILER (roof worker) eats D[eep-frie]D (skin of)

6. Climber’s state on peak in Caucasus: death personified, we hear (8,7)
VIRGINIA CREEPER

VIRGINIA (state) on C[aucasus] (peak in) + "reaper" = REEPER (death personified, "we hear")

7. Harmful stimulant, with unknown unsettling name (5)
TOXIC

TONIC (stimulant) with X (unknown) unsettling (i.e. replacing) N (name)

8. Register includes commercial vehicle (8)
ROADSTER

ROSTER (register) includes AD (commercial)

9. Flier prepares to enter periphery of turbulence (6)
TSETSE

SETS (prepares) to enter T[urbulenc]E (periphery of)

16. Scotsman in casualty’s queasy, with half wasted posture (9)
ARABESQUE

(RAB (Scotsman) in A&E'S (casualty's)) + QUE[asy] (half wasted)

17. Rough Liverpudlian briefly cut by barber, at intervals (8)
SCABROUS

SCOUS[e] (Liverpudlian, briefly) cut by [b]A[r]B[e]R (at intervals)

19. Country musician’s latest gold habit (6)
NORWAY

[musicia]N (latest) + OR (gold) + WAY (habit)

20. Battered food chip shop worker keeps dry (7)
FRITTER

FRIER (chip shop worker) keeps TT (dry)

21. Most indecent musical genre opening in theatre (6)
BLUEST

BLUES (musical genre) + T[heatre] (opening in)

23. European journal featuring French area once (5)
ANJOU

[europe]AN JOU[rnal] (featuring)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,758 by AARDVARK”

  1. An enjoyable puzzle to ease me back into my cryptic habit after a break!
    Favourites included NUT CUTLET (for ‘canal’ cluing ‘cut’), PIQUE (for its simplicity), PRURIENT, GAZETTEER (for the ‘sofa in Somerset’) and OBJET D’ART – though the enumeration is wrong.
    Thanks to Aardvark and Teacow.

  3. Would 11a DYSPRAXIA have been too hard with “back to front” without the “the”? (as in LEEK -> KLEE)
    For 22a BRAGG I thought of Billy before twigging Melvyn. For 26a I hadn’t heard of piqué fabric.
    For 2d GAZETTEER remembered a ’60s jingle: ‘Coates comes up from Zomerzet, where the zider apples grow’ and
    Adge Cutler and The Wurzels’ Drink Up Thy Zider! (1967)
    Thanks A&T

  8. Liked RAZOR (Jack dealt (with) another way! Wasn’t a smooth sail! Only after getting the last letter, got the word!!!), RAISE HELL (with tortoises around, it wasn’t moving much. Once they were out, the solution rushed to the lights like hell), PRURIENT (not the ‘stuck in a rut’ variety) and TIDDLER (great def! great! def!).

    FrankieG@3
    as in LEEK -> KLEE
    Oh! Yea!

    Thanks Aardvark and Teacow!

  10. I understand that these puzzles are UK-oriented, but at least six clues relied on some GK that might not be familiar to many of us “abroad.” I have never heard of Melvyn Bragg, for example, although he appears to be a fixture of UK entertainment. Nice puzzle, though, and eminently solvable.

  11. We thought it might be a pangram so were disappointed to find there was no K. An enjoyable puzzle, though, and we liked the clue for RAISE HELL.
    As for OBJET D’ART it seems to be a convention for crosswords generally that apostrophes are not indicated.
    Thanks, Aardvark and Cineraria.

  12. I got there but found this one quite difficult. Some very good clues – Emirate and Tsetse perhaps my favourites, but also rather too much general knowledge for an international newspaper. Bragg perhaps being the most egregious example.

  13. For someone in the States this puzzle had a little too much local flavor. The answers weren’t that tough but the word plays in several places needed knowledge I lacked.

  14. Cineraria and Jay speak for me. They’re are so many jargon bits from UK that half this puzzle was a puzzle to me. things is hard to know being from abroad: RAB, SCOUS, RAG, NUT CUTLET, FAL, ZETTEE (Somerset accent style), and SAGA. But live and learn! Thanks all

  15. What cineraria and Anil a said. Unnecessary for a global paper but good to learn

    Thanks Aardvark and Teacow

  16. Sorry, probably too late but I just checked back in to find much of my intended post missing. I wanted to say there were some nice clues – AVATAR for its cleverly hidden answer, RAZOR for its simplicity and using Jack a different way (in agreement with KVa), and NUT CUTLET for “cut” (in agreement with Diane. I did not like the local references and felt it was a stretch to call ARABESQUE a gesture and is RUT really amorous behavior?

    Anyway, challenging for its British GK but rewarding in the end. Thanks again to setter and blogger

  17. Thanks for the blog, I was running late yesterday , enjoyed this but I can see the point abouut UK references, CUT is Midlands dialect and the Somerset Z is even more localised. Perhaps BRAGG could have been William/Lawrence for a science clue.
    Martyn@16 , ARABESQUE is a specific POSTURE you have to learn in your ballet drills, I can still manage it. During the RUT the deer are very randy.

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