Financial Times 17,943 by GOLIATH

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Thanks to Goliath for a (mostly) breezy start to the day.

Overall an enjoyable puzzle with some great clues.
I’m not sure about 3d – is a first name a fair cryptic clue? (though I accept it’s not hugely common). I have commented on 11d as well. However I don’t want to detract from the overall, so many thanks to Goliath and hope to see you again soon.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1/4. Out there, fast-moving press (6,6)
FOURTH ESTATE

(OUT THERE FAST)* (*moving)
For more info on the term, see here

8. Times to embrace world order and throw the towel? (4-3)
BLOW DRY

BY (times) to embrace WORLD* (*order)
By = times in the sense of multiplication

9. But to begin with, leave out your sausage (7)
SAVELOY

SAVE (but) + L[eave] O[ut] Y[our] (to begin with)

11. Part of south London where south is north in part of north London (10)
KENNINGTON

KEN[s]INGTON (where S (south) is N(north) in part of north London)
As a Londoner, I certainly wouldn’t describe Kensington as part of North London; north of the river yes, but it is West London.

12. Primarily idiotic bigoted Eurosceptic xenophobic goat (4)
IBEX

I[diotic] B[igoted[ E[urosceptic] X[enophobic] (primarily)

13. American returns his flying fish (5)
SUSHI

US< (American, <returns) + HIS* (*flying)

14. Palace in Tinseltown left abandoned, right for whisky (8)
HOLYROOD

HO[l]LY[w]OOD (Tinseltown, L (left abandoned, R (right) for W (whisky))

16. Don’t touch workers on holiday (5,3)
HANDS OFF

HANDS (workers) + OFF (on holiday)

18. Secures marine life (5)
SEALS

Double definition

20. A stone rolled back is really big (4)
MEGA

(A GEM)< (a stone, <rolled back)

21. Cold storage liberates, one might say, after having spent a penny the wrong way (4,6)
DEEP FREEZE

“FREES” (liberates, “one might say”) after having PEED< (spent a penny, <the wrong way)

23. Booklet follower? (7)
RESERVE

Cryptic definition
LET FOLLOWER? 

24. Refuses to recognise drips occasionally and melting snow (7)
DISOWNS

D[r]I[p]S (occasionally) + SNOW* (*melting)

25/26. Badly damaged city centre gone quiet before communists (4,2,6)
TORN TO SHREDS

TOR[o]NTO (city, centre gone) + SH (quiet) before REDS (communists)

DOWN
1. Wrong note by university (5)
FALSE

FA (note) by LSE (university, London School of Economics)

2. Relaxes with new victory award finally secured by the FT (7)
UNWINDS

(N (new) + WIN (victory) + [awar]D (finally)) secured by US (the FT)
‘Us’ as in the pronoun, referring to the Financial Times

3. Quentin going off into a rant (9)
TARANTINO

(INTO A RANT)* (*going off)

5. Shock eggs (5)
SPAWN

S + PAWN = S + HOCK
Where pawn and hock are synonyms

6. Dated pliers discovered in workshop (7)
ATELIER

[d]ATE[d] [p]LIER[s] (discovered)

7/22. Zoo surgeon seen reshaping sensitive body parts (9,5)
EROGENOUS ZONES

(ZOO SURGEON SEEN) *(*reshaping)

10. Wanderlust or eczema? (5,4)
ITCHY FEET

Cryptic / double definition

13. ‘Good person was a cannibal!’ — Times leader assertion (9)
STATEMENT

ST (good person) + ATE MEN (was a cannibal) + T[imes] (leader)

15. Reluctant to accept safe settlement, I become a sceptic (4,5)
LOSE FAITH

LOTH (reluctant) to accept SAFE* (*settlement) + I

17. Turn it to ignore plan, start off panic (4,3)
DEAF EAR

[i]DEA (plan, start off) + FEAR (panic)

19. Filled with terrible woes, a compiler is magnificent (7)
AWESOME

Filled with WOES* (*terrible): A + ME (compiler)

21. Cover for 2 divided by 5 (5)
DUVET

DUET (for 2) divided by V (five)

24 comments on “Financial Times 17,943 by GOLIATH”

  1. Some nice clues here – I particularly liked TORN TO SHREDS and STATEMENT. I got RESERVE ok but couldn’t parse the ‘let followers’ but. Did I miss something?

  4. I share our bloggers geographic confusion wrt KENNINGTON but it’s a crossword so I suppose the north/south of the river divide is just about OK – though I can imagine some well-heeled residents of Billionaire’s Row might take particular umbrage. My own raised eyebrow was the equation of SUSHI with fish but that’s a perennial issue. Rice is the defining characteristic of sushi; if fish is the key ingredient then it’s probably sashimi. I was OK with Quentin = TARANTINO; Tarantino is one of the (many?) Quentin’s, just like Quentin is one of the (many?) Tarantino’s so one can clue the other without need for DBE indication; if a more frequently encountered name was being used – a John or a Smith, then it might be fairer if the setter provided a bit more for solvers to go on. The only other Quentin’s I know of are Wilson, Blake and Crisp.

    I thought the L&S anagram for FOURTH ESTATE was neatly done and, likewise, the aforementioned RESERVE. ATELIER and FALSE my other big ticks.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel

  5. As another sort of Londoner, North Kensington covers the area up to Kendal Rise and the Scrubs, which is northwest London, and a far less salubrious area than the South Kensington I suspect is leaping to everyone else’s minds. (I’ve lived in both areas and there’s a fair schlepp between them.) Kennington isn’t that far south either – nothing compared to say Crystal Palace.

    Pleased to see Goliath this morning and impressed by the puzzle.

    Thank you to Andrew and Goliath.

  7. F2i: 11A KEN_INGTON, then 2d UNWINDS, to be sure, to be sure of 11a.
    LOi – by quite a margin – 23a RESERVE: It’s a combined Playtex (© Roz) of “Book let” with a hyphenation of RE-SERVE. Very Nice! 🙂 COTW.

  8. Seeing Goliath’s name on a puzzle is always a good start to the day and there was certainly plenty of fun to be had today.

    I grinned at 9a SAVELOY, 12ac IBEX, 21ac DEEP FREEZE, and 7/22 EROGENOUS ZONES and, like Gwynforsenior @1, I also liked 25/26 TORN TO SHREDS and 13dn STATEMENT.

    It’s also good to see Goliath up to his familiar tricks with RESERVE and SPAWN.

    Many thanks to Goliath for a most enjoyable puzzle and to Oriel for a fine blog.

  9. Google the whole clue for 3d “Quentin going off into a rant”, and you get, as expected, the Channel 4 News interview, where Tarantino tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy
    ‘I’m shutting your butt down!’ And 12a clearly referencing the Orange Man, who regards himself as the GOAT in debates. Great puzzle.

  10. Well I take my hat off to those who parsed RESERVE & SPAWN. I gave up after staring at them for half an hour.

    I’m proud of the fact that I managed KENNINGTON (after all the intersecting clues, admittedly), not being terribly familiar with the layout of London.

    I enjoyed this, and it was about the right level of difficulty with plenty of smiles. Thanks, Goliath & Oriel.

  11. Thanks for the blog , very good set of interesting clues , KENNINGTON probably easier if you do not know much London geography . I try not to accumulate cricket facts but there is a Kennington Oval in London and a Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.
    Geoff@10 Goliath/Philistine fairly famous ( in crosswordland anyway ) for these Playtex clues , neither quite pure today, the best are totally symmetrical .

  12. My early life in London and England helped with Kennington and Holyrood but not with Saveloy. So dnf . As others, I could not parse spawn (tried to believe the clue was a double definition!!!

  13. Some nice clues and a few I did not like so much

    Liked ATELIER, EROGENOUS ZONES, liked the way 2-word clues were in a straight line, and STATEMENT. Overall I appreciated the well-crafted, concise clues and meaningful surfaces.

    Like GDU and others I take my hat off to anyone that parsed RESERVE and SPAWN. I still do not see anything in the clue telling me to split the word in two, and find lack of an indicator unfair. Good to see Roz back, and thanks for the advice@11 that Goliath is famous for this sort of clue. I will try to remember this for future.

    I had the same experience as others with KENNINGTON, and I know he was attempting humour, but I did not like throw in the towel = BLOW DRY. On the other hand, I did like ITCHY FEET. Very subjective, I know.

    Thanks Goliath for an enjoyable puzzle and thanks Oriel for a splendid blog

  14. Thanks Oriel.

    In line with comments I have made on previous occasions, I share with Martyn my dislike for the unsignalled requirement to split a clue word. I know lots of people like it, but I am not one of them. As it happens, I got SPAWN but not RESERVE. Something I do not think I have said before, or at least not very often, is that I actually switched from solving the Guardian to the FT more than ten years ago precisely because of the difference in attitude to this device. Perhaps next time Goliath is on here and Pasquale in the Guardian I will go back to the Guardian for that one day.

    One thing I definitely like about Goliath is the way he lines up answers that go across two different clue numbers, often compensating for what would otherwise be a poorly linked grid. Thanks to him for that and the vast majority of the clues.

  15. My loi was RESERVE. I share Martyn and Pelham’s aversion to the device.
    Otherwise a most enjoyable puzzle and illuminating blog.
    Many thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  16. Felt very smug about getting SPAWN from the wordplay (the name of the setter alerts you to the device, as Roz said) but then let myself down by parsing RESERVE as a triple definition.

  17. These days I pick & choose among setters and Goliath/Philistine always gets chosen. No regrets, I liked this a lot. Favourites were FOURTH ESTATE, SUSHI (though PostMark is correct about the definition), HANDS OFF, EROGENOUS ZONES, AWESOME, and DUVET. I revealed the nho SAVELOY and only guessed at RESERVE and SPAWN. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  18. I came to hold forth on 11 across, but glad to see it’s already in hand. SW7 is not “North”. Or, what, are crosswords not for pedantic people now?

  19. Further to Bobtato@18, by counting squares in my London Mini A to Z, I reckon that the straight line from High Street Kensington to Kennington Tube Stations is less than 12 degrees South of Due East. Kensington is actually north of Kennington, but not by much.

  20. South Kensington is SW7, North Kensington is W10 and includes Grenfell Tower. Kensington is more than one place, unlike Kennington. You’re all thinking of South Kensington. Having lived in student halls in South Kensington and a lodging in Kensal Rise, just over the canal north of North Kensington, I wondered which bit of Kensington, and didn’t quibble about it being north.

    (and apologies to Oriel for misnaming them)

  21. Came to this a day late but enjoyed it as I enjoyed most Goliath puzzles. KENNINGTON was exactly the sort of clue I enjoy from this setter but I agree it may have been tough for those with no knowledge of the city (or too much! ). Had to laugh, my last one – for no particular reason – in was SEALS; I’ve just spent the afternoon walking through a seal colony, or rather, the shore near to where they loll.
    Great fun as per usual (and the puzzle wasn’t half bad!)
    Thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  22. I almost always enjoy Goliath crosswords.
    This one had some absolutely stand-out entertaining clues, so it’s such a pity that 5 & 23 were so utterly crap and spoiled it.

  23. KarenC@22, 5 & 23 are lift and separate clues which, as Roz@11 notes, are trademarks of Goliath/Philistine, so if they spoil his puzzles for you perhaps you (and Pelham Barton) shouldn’t do them – why irritate yourself unnecessarily?

    FWIW, I share FrankieG@7’s opinion of 23a RESERVE. It was my clue of the day or week. (Anything but crap.)

    Thanks, Goliath for the pleasure you supply so dependably, and Oriel for your equally dependable blogs.

  24. Cellomaniac@23: My overall feeling for this puzzle was one of enjoyment, as expressed in the final paragraph of comment 14. I would enjoy Goliath’s puzzles even more if he would avoid clues using what I consider to be a ghastly device. Having said that, I hope that I will never forget to acknowledge the fact that other solvers like that device. I have continued to attempt the Goliath puzzles in the hope that he will again produce a puzzle such as this one from just under a year ago, for which my pleasure was unalloyed:
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/02/03/financial-times-17640-by-goliath/
    I could not see any comments, at least on this site, complaining at the absence of the offending clue type.

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