Financial Times 17,955 by NEO

by

Thanks to Neo for this most enjoyable puzzle.

A few twists and turns, but I found this to be a steady solve with plenty of smiles.
EDIT: 29a should be TREMATODE – forgive the typo in the grid

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. Do away with mouser in decline after an age (9)
ERADICATE

CAT (mouser) in DIE (decline) after ERA (an age)

11. Ugly don sloshed becomes outrageous (7)
UNGODLY

(UGLY DON)* (*sloshed)

13. Act last from Art Pepper (3)
DOT

DO (act) + [ac]T (last from)

17. Female duck placed in vehicle by loch (5)
CAROL

O (duck) placed in (CAR (vehicle) by L (loch))

18. Wood turned this way — odd bits discarded (3)
ASH

[t]H[i]S [w]A[y]< (odd bits discarded, <turned)

19. Pipe up? (5)
RISER

Cryptic definition

A ‘riser’ is (among other things) a vertical pipe for gas/liquid that flows upwards

21/14. Oscar’s inside story? (3,6,2,7,4)
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL

Cryptic definition

This is a poem by Oscar Wilde; ‘inside’ referring to prison of course. You can read the full work here.

25. Wakes up in cot some rocked (5,2)
COMES TO

(COT SOME)* (*rocked)

27. Thrill boy on French island (7)
FRISSON

SON (boy) on FR (French) + IS (island)

28/23/12. Easy profit as made by oakum pickers? (5,3,3,4)
MONEY FOR OLD ROPE

Cryptic definition

Oakum was a gap sealer made from tarred old rope fibres which were ‘picked’ manually (i.e. the old rope was separated into strands)

29. Worm turning to red meat (9)
TREMATODE

(TO RED MEAT)* (*turning)

DOWN
1. Fertile supply around City (6)
FECUND

FUND (supply) around EC (city, from ‘East Central’ London postcode)

2. Tough German without neurotic fear (8)
GANGSTER

GER (German) without ANGST (neurotic fear)

3. Heroine recalled being beaten about at home (10)
CINDERELLA

RECALLED* (*being beaten) about IN (at home) – semi &lit

4. Zoo to start with some nuts (4)
ZANY

Z[oo] (to start with) + ANY (some)

5. Pulverised as shield with dome might be? (10)
DEMOLISHED

(SHIELD + DOME)* (*as might be, referring back to ‘pulverised’)

6. Great biblical king beheaded (4)
AVID

[d]AVID (biblical king, beheaded)

7. Plant artist raised in sunken spot (6)
AREOLA

(ALOE (plant) + RA (artist))< (<raised)

8. Mocking remark about thriving gem dealer (8)
JEWELLER

JEER (mocking remark) about WELL (thriving)

15. No matter what, a firm in High Street ultimately closes (2,3,5)
AT ALL COSTS

A + (CO (firm) in TALL (high) + ST (street)) + [close]S (ultimately)

16. Grid fairly reconstructed for general employee (4,6)
GIRL FRIDAY

(GRID FAIRLY)* (*reconstructed)

Originally the term was ‘man Friday’ named after the loyal and efficient Robinson Crusoe character, and then adapted for the 1940 film ‘Girl Friday’ starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell

17. Cruise perhaps in taxi circling a cold burial place (8)
CATACOMB

(TOM (Cruise, perhaps) in CAB (taxi)) circling A + C (cold)

20. Weakness not hard to see (4,4)
SOFT SPOT

SOFT (not hard) + SPOT (to see)

22. Fur or its wearer’s embarrassed admission? (6)
ERMINE

ER… MINE (fur wearer’s embarrassed admission?)

24. One calling for a double? (6)
RINGER

Double definition

26. Whisky exports involving Scots island (4)
SKYE

[Whi]SKY E[xports] (involving)

27/10. Hardly 21 14? (4,5)
FREE VERSE

Cryptic definition

A clever play on the word ‘free’ referring back to Oscar’s prison poem, which is also not free verse, having a defined rhyme scheme

30 comments on “Financial Times 17,955 by NEO”

  1. Agree this was very enjoyable although it took a while to work out my LOI – AREOLA (not helped by misspelling gaol as goal at first….)

    Also had to look up oakum as I had never heard of it but as soon as I had I got MONEY FOR OLD ROPE immediately – made me smile.

    Also liked THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL, JEWELLER, CATACOMB, ERMINE

    Thanks Neo and Oriel

  2. Another in agreement that this was a nice puzzle to solve. I did think it was going to be a pangram – especially with my last answer, the very neat JEWELLER, contributing both J and W. However, no X or Q. RISER held me up for longer than it should have – as with so many CD’s, I felt it had to be that but did not have the confirmation of wordplay so needed the crossers to be sure. GANGSTER, the delightful CINDERELLA, GIRL FRIDAY, CATACOMB, SOFT SPOT and ERMINE were my favourites. The two Wilde clues are nicely done and linked.

    Thanks Neo and Oriel

  3. 28, 23, 12 refers also to the Wilde poem:

    ‘We tore the tarry rope to shreds
    With blunt and bleeding nails;’

  4. [25a (COT SOME)*. 29a TREMATODE. 16d His GIRL FRIDAY.] Ashamed to say I’ve never read “Oscar’s inside story”. I will now. Thanks O (for the link) & N.

  5. Interesting as ever with the trademark wit.

    28 23 12 was fairly obvious from the enumeration, but probably the hardest one to ‘get’ due to the nautical reference. Faves the two Wilde clues.

  8. Having just gone to read “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”, because the crossword piqued my interest, there seems to me to be more references – the sky, catacomb, frisson, riser, ring, ungodly, and etc.

    I’ve seen several TV programmes where families of hanged (often wrongly) men go to visit gaols to visit the graves, but there’s no marker – having read that poem, that’s no surprise. It might make good TV but, really, so misleading.

    Thank you to Neo and Oriel.

  9. Whilst I liked this puzzle I was also held up by 7d like Fiona@1.
    Is the definition of Aerola as “ sunken spot”accurate?

    Thanks Neo and Oriel.

  10. Thanks Neo and Oriel

    SM @ 9 From Chambers:

    areola /ə-rēˈə-lə/
    noun (pl arēˈolae /-lē/ or arēˈolas)
    1. A small space marked off by lines, or a slightly sunken spot (biology)

  11. We breezed through most of this, helped by the two long answers being write-ins from the enumeration, but then needed help for 2, 7 and 8 although they were obvious in retrospect. Favourites were ERADICATE and TREMATODE.
    Thanks, Neo and Oriel

  13. Thanks Neo. Unfortunately, I did not know the Oscar Wilde titles so this was a bit of a slog for me. I pieced the titles together to a point but eventually revealed the words GAOL and ROPE. (Cryptic definitions are my least favourite device because the solver has little to parse.) That aside I did enjoy clues like ERADICATE, CINDERELLA, AT ALL COSTS, CATACOMB, SOFT SPOT, and SKYE. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  14. Thanks Neo and Oriel. A bit of quite precise GK needed for ‘jail’ vs ‘gaol’, but otherwise a very good puzzle, especially CINDERELLA.

  16. It struck me that what is missing is an understanding of why the setter is interested in this poem. This goes for any themed puzzle – someone picks up the theme (rarely me) but no-one knows the reason for it.

    Unfortunately I am not sure there is a viable way for the setter to communicate his or her reasons – it would be easy to print a brief explanation, but that risks giving too many hints to the solvers.

    If Neo reads this blog, I wonder whether he would be good enough to provide some context.

  17. I missed Areola which is a word I’ve heard of, but didn’t know the meaning.

    I found this a bit of a curate’s egg; some of it very easy and quick to enter, but then I got stuck at the end with Gangster (which should’ve been easy. I could see that laughter and daughter fitted so I was trying to work out why either of these was the answer), and the aforementioned Areola.

    Thanks

  18. Thanks Oriel — perhaps a TREMADOTE is a tale told by someone who’s got the shivers —and to all for comments.

    Cheers
    Neo

  20. 27a: Could someone explain to me where ‘on’ fits into the picture? Why is ‘son’ at the end? (appreciating that ‘Thrill French island on boy’ doesn’t quite work!)

  22. 27ac: The use of “on” to mean “following” in an across clue can be justified by more than one of the meanings of on from Chambers 2016 p 1075 including “just after” and “in addition to”. My understanding is that some editors and setters insist that “X on Y” means “X after Y” in an across clue, but “X before Y” in a down clue. What happens with a clue for an answer positioned as 27dn/10ac is not clear. I can see no justification for this restriction and would be happy for “X on Y” to mean either “X after Y” or “X before Y” regardless of the position of the answer on the grid.

  23. Thanks Neo and Oriel for the excellent puzzle and insightful blog, and for teaming up to give us a great clue for TREMADOTE.

    I agree with PB@22’s analysis of “on” in across and down clues. Why shouldn’t it mean either before or after in both cases?

    My favourites included 13a DOT for the nod to the great alto sax player, 3d CINDERELLA for using “recalled” as anagram fodder instead of reversal indicator (and the excellent surface), 26d SKYE for the surface and allusion to one of my favourite single malts (Talisker), and 27/10 FREE VERSE for the witty comment on the Wilde poem.

    [Re the Talisker, we have seen Islay and Laphroiag clued recently, but has anyone come up with a clue for my favourite, LAGAVULIN?]

  24. Unusually for me, the big one (THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL) fell early–I think I only had one crossing letter at the time. But then the poem is quite familiar to me, key piece of LGBT history that it is. For each man kills the thing he loves…

    Anyway, I failed on AREOLA.

  25. Heather/Simon/Pelham @ 20-22:
    I agree with Pelham. In fact there are several well-respected setters who will use “X on Y” to mean either “X after Y” or “X before Y” as suits the sense and/or the surface of the clue.

  26. What a wonderful puzzle. I enjoy the many layers available to the solver and the quest to read the poem again. Everything I want in a good puzzle. Thank you all

  27. ac @ 25 I deliberately used the word ‘convention’ to indicate that it wasn’t a hard and fast rule.

    cf the oft-cited line “the fly is on the ceiling”.

  29. I do X on Y = YX (across) and X on Y = XY (down).

    That’s because regardless of which paper they’re working for, all the editors accept it. To my knowledge The Times and The DT require this convention, but I could be wrong. Some conventions are not particularly logical, but it’s boring to hear the old ‘why not’ arguments over and over again (because it’s come up myriad times). I think setters know what they can get away with in any particular publication, and that’s pretty much it.

    Would I require this formula were I an editor? Probably, as most solvers know it even if they don’t like it, and I’d consider it potentially confusing to allow other takes on it. And annoying.

  30. Paul B@29: Please remember the principle ascribed to the BBC: it is only a repeat if you have heard it before. This discussion was prompted by a question from someone who is comparatively new to the site. I take the point that allowing the wider rule can cause problems to people who are aware of the narrower rule, but I suspect that describing them as “most solvers” is a considerable exaggeration.

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