Financial Times 17,893 by GOLIATH

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Great fun from Goliath.

Lots to enjoy in this puzzle this morning. Goliath has included lots of little tricks which did quite well to trip me up solving them.

Many thanks to Goliath.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Poet hosting a good man and a bad one (7)
BASTARD

BARD (poet) hosting A + ST (good man, saint)

5. Help insert vehicle (7)
SERVANT

In SERT: VAN (vehicle)

9. Old music, French wine and luxury hotel at last (5)
VINYL

VIN (French wine) + [luxur]Y [hote]L (at last)

10. I’m unable to cure first person who begs (9)
MENDICANT

I + CAN’T (I’m unable); MEND (to cure) first

11. Bring back control, say (9)
REINSTATE

REIN (control) + STATE (say)

12. Note bobtail always flipping (5)
BREVE

[bo]B (tail) + EVER< (always, <flipping)

13. Clue for rude song, a minefield? (9,6)
DANGEROUS GROUND

Reverse anagram: (DANGEROUS)* (*ground) = RUDE SONG, A

17. It may enhance government call for more tree cultivation (9,6)
ELECTORAL REFORM

(CALL FOR MORE TREE)* (*cultivation)

18. Keen like a German, but not completely (5)
EAGER

[lik]E A GER[man] (but not completely)

20. Splendid bird of prey at sporting event (5,4)
SUPER BOWL

SUPERB (splendid) + OWL (bird of prey)

22. Tender about Scottish dress that’s not quite right (3-6)
OFF KILTER

OFFER (tender) about KILT (Scottish dress)

23. In the morning, I depart, my friend (5)
AMIGO

AM (in the morning) + I + GO (depart)

24. Tenancy vacated and managed by city’s oppressive authority (7)
TYRANNY

T[enanc]Y (vacated) + RAN (managed) by NY (city, New York)

25. Cars and properties (7)
ESTATES

Double definition

DOWN
1. Drink that led to the welfare state? (9,6)
BEVERIDGE REPORT

Reverse homophone: “BEVERAGE” (“report”)

2. Being aware of patient’s heart, in a few words (9)
SENTIENCE

[pat]I[ent] (heart) in SENTENCE (a few words)

3. Range of maps (5)
ATLAS

Double definition

4. Disparage the FT’s attitude (9)
DEMEANOUR

DEMEAN (disparage) + OUR (the FT’s)

5. One left out to burn (5)
SINGE

SING[l]E (one, L (left) out)

6. Polish uprising in French city on end of overtime pay (9)
REIMBURSE

RUB< (polish, <uprising) in REIMS (French city) on [overtim]E (end of)

7. Axiom from commercial era (5)
ADAGE

AD (commercial) + AGE (era)

8. Sad old men, as inclined initially to be dressed in rags (15)
TATTERDEMALIONS

(OLD MEN + A[s] I[nclined] (initially))* (*sad) to be dressed in TATTERS (rags) – &lit

14. Previous No 1 communist pulled up for blackmail (9)
EXTORTION

EX (previous) + (NO 1 + TROT)< (no 1 + communist, <pulled up)

15. Accessory that can’t be made from a porcine listener (4,5)
SILK PURSE

Cryptic definition

Referring to the saying “one can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”

16. Specialist doctor, you say, treating girls too (9)
UROLOGIST

U (“YOU”, “say”) + (girls too)* (*treating)

19. One fetches ball at last dropped by Tiger Woods? (5)
GOFER

[bal]L (at last) dropped by GO[l]FER (Tiger Woods?)

20. Stick around to eat a grilled meat dish (5)
SATAY

STAY (stick around) to eat A

21. Respond when dealing with a court (5)
REACT

RE (dealing with) + A + CT (court)

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,893 by GOLIATH”

  1. Happy to see this puzzle from Goliath today. Nothing too taxing and lots of fun along the way. My last one in was the splendid TATTERDEMALIONS which was new to me, not being a devotee of Marvel Comics, though its origins are much older. I had ‘tatters’ and all the crossers but still got in a pickle with the ‘sad old men i’ part so came here for confirmation.
    Thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  2. Faves: TATTERDEMALIONS, DANGEROUS GROUND, BEVERIDGE REPORT and SILK PURSE.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel.
    SENTIENCE
    Do we need the ‘of’ for the def?

  5. 1A is not a word that I would ever use myself, as I never swear, but its literal definition is a person (man or woman) born out of wedlock, not a male who is “bad”.

    Yes, I am a grammatic pedant. No apologies.

    Thanks to all contributors.

  6. Goliath on top form today!

    The four long clues were superb: BEVERIDGE REPORT was inspired; ditto for DANGEROUS GROUND (I’m a fan of reverse anagrams and of ‘ground’ as an indicator; ELECTORAL REFORM another gem and I’m struggling to remember the book on whose first page I first came across TATTERDEMALION (I’ve loved it ever since but seen it only very rarely).

    Other favourites were 5ac SERVANT (another pet device), 9ac VINYL (loved the definition), the self-referential duo 10ac MENDICANT and 2dn SENTIENCE, and 6dn REIMBURSE and 19dn GOFER (lovely word) for the construction (and surfaces – but that holds true for every one).

    Many thanks to Goliath and Oriel. (I’m feeling lucky today, with Qaos in the Guardian – and Eccles still to come: I was late starting this morning.)

  7. TATTERDEMALIONS – what a brilliant word, sounds Dickensian. I admired the many well-worked surfaces though 15D went against the grain, I thought. I particularly liked SERVANT and VINYL and MENDICANT made me smile when the penny dropped.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel for the blog.

  8. Echo Eileen with 5ac SERVANT, the lift and separate took a while to see.

    9ac VINYL – not convinced about “old” music, my 17-year old son now has more vinyls in his collection from contemporary artists than I have in the few oldies I managed to keep hold of over the years. The kids have rediscovered the joy of tangibility.

  9. A very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Goliath and Oriel.

    As an economist, BEVERIDGE REPORT came rather readily and the rest followed. Last one in was DANGEROUS GROUND, as for some reason I could not work it out.

    TATTERDEMALIONS was in the recesses of my memory, but I had neither used it nor seen it written for many years.

    Pace Annabelle @ 5, Chambers also gives one across as “a recalcitrant person or thing, an unpleasant person”. And the term is used quite often colloquially to describe such a person.

  10. @Gnomad Vinyl is ‘old’ in the sense of having been around for a long time. It has indeed made something of a resurgence in recent years.

  11. @Hovis I see your point, but you wouldn’t refer to cars for example as “old” vehicles even though they’ve been around for decades. Mr Tesla may have something to say about that.

  13. Thanks Goliath. Despite failing with the nho 1d and the nho 8d I liked this with BASTARD, MENDICANT, REINSTATE, BREVE, SUPER BOWL, OFF-KILTER, AMIGO, SINGE, and REACT being favourites. I couldn’t parse the clever SERVANT. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  14. I echo the positive comments. A wide variety of witty clues. The bottom half for me came quickly, with more time needed on the top.

    I had ticks against BASTARD, the great anagram in ELECTORAL REFORM, SUPER BOWL, ATLAS, DEMEANOUR, and SATAY. A long list

    I too stared at SERVANT for a while before getting it. I forgot L can be one, so I failed to parse SINGE. I agree with Gnomad about 9ac and “old”. The answer to 1d was somewhere in the back of my mind, but it was oh so remote for someone who has never lived in UK. And I am afraid that I will swim against the tide for 8d. When I finally parsed it, I felt a bit disappointed that the only way to make it work is for “initially” to work twice. All minor stuff though

    Thanks to Goliath and Oriel

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