Financial Times 17,957 by GUY

by

A fun challenge from GUY this Friday

FF:9 DD:9

ACROSS
1 MADAGASCAN
Islander’s large stove is between potty and toilet (10)

AGAS ( large stove ) in [ MAD ( potty ) CAN ( toilet ) ]
7 COWL
Hood left on to intimidate (4)

COW ( intimidate ) L ( left )
9 MAXI
Gnome shortened long garment (4)

MAXIm ( gnome, shortened )
10 MASTER PLAN
Spooner’s moulded chess piece dominating strategy (6,4)

spoonerism of PLASTER MAN ( moulded chess piece )
11 LESSON
Minus number inverted in maths, perhaps (6)

LESS ( minus ) ON ( reverse of NO, number )
12 IDENTIFY
Accident if youngster has trapped finger (8)

hidden in "accIDENT IF Youngster.."
13 PROPOSER
Ring presenter, perhaps, for difficult question (8)

PRO ( for ) POSER ( difficult question )
15 LARK
Great fun when gloomy poet drops in (4)

LARKin ( gloomy poet, without IN )
17 OGRE
Monster so twisted (4)

reverse of ERGO ( so )
19 DANNY BOY
Anybody swimming absorbs nitrogen as standard (5,3)

[ ANYBODY ]* containing N ( nitrogen )
22 CASANOVA
Don Juan nearly hired for play, a star (8)

CASt (hired for play, nearly ) A NOVA ( star )
23 UNISEX
Maybe Harvard’s no longer neutral on gender (6)

UNI'S ( harvard's, may be ) EX ( no longer )
25 KIDOLOGIST
Hoaxer using knockout substance punched by celebrity (10)

IDOL ( celebrity ) in [ KO ( knockout ) GIST ( substance ) ]; didn't know this word and needed help to solve
26 GOSH
OMG, try and keep quiet (4)

GO ( try ) SH ( quiet )
27 FRAY
Separate ends of scrap (4)

double def
28 TINSELTOWN
Let It Snow played around November in Hollywood (10)

[ LET IT SNOW ]* containing N ( November )
DOWN
2 AMATEUR
Laura unwrapped sandwiches Mike scoffed — ham (7)

AUR ( lAURa, unwrapped i.e. without end letters ) containing [ M ( Mike ) ATE ( scoffed) ]
3 ALIAS
Fake handle unfortunately one has broken (5)

I ( one ) in ALAS ( unfortunately )
4 ADMONISH
Warn handsome young man about maiden hearts (8)

[ ADONIS ( handsome young man ) around M ( maiden ) ] H ( hearts )
5 COSMIC RADIATION
Wandering on Mars, idiotic chap regularly waves from space (6,9)

[ ON MARS IDIOTIC CA ( ChAp, regularly ) ]*
6 NEEDED
Was massaging in interview essential? (6)

sounds like KNEADED ( massaged )
7 CAPITALLY
Limit sex with partner? Very well (9)

CAP ( limit ) IT ( sex ) ALLY ( partner )
8 WHAT FOR
Pardon instead of punishment (4,3)

cryptic def
14 PREFATORY
Kicking off , referee covered by assistant on the right (9)

[ REF ( referee ) in PA ( assistant ) ] TORY ( on the right )
16 UNSUBTLE
Use ‘blunt’, translating this? (8)

[ USE BLUNT ]*
18 GLAZIER
Tradesperson that’s good likely to finish work earlier? (7)

G ( good ) LAZIER ( likely to finish work earlier )
20 OVERSAW
Minister climbing into old cutter managed (7)

reverse of REV ( minister ) in [ O ( old ) SAW ( cutter ) ]
21 TO BOOT
Startling word penned by child as well (2,4)

BOO ( startling word ) in TOT ( child )
24 INGOT
Bar purchased with home above (5)

IN ( home ) GOT ( purchased )

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,957 by GUY”

  3. I assumed it was Larkin — I wasn’t aware he (she?) was gloomy. I’d never heard of KIDOLOGIST, but no wonder — Collins says it’s British informal.

    I don’t always click with Guy’s puzzles, but this was good fun. My favourite was PROPOSER. I concur with KVa, above.

  4. 8d: “WHAT?” = “Pardon?” | FOR = “instead of”. — [Edit: as KVa@1]
    LOi: 25a KIDOLOGIST [Oed.com and Wiktionary only have the -ology, not the practitioner. “It’s in Chambers“, of course.]

  6. I got most of these which is pretty good for me, although I’ve heard of Maxi as a long dress I’ve never heard of Maxi(m) being a Gnome.

  7. 9ac: Chambers 2016 p 652 gives gnome² “a pithy and sententious saying, generally in verse, embodying some moral sentiment or precept”, from a Greek word meaning an opinion or maxim.

  9. Agree with other commentators on WHAT FOR. But I would add that colloquially it can mean punishment, as in “if you don’t stop doing that I’ll give you what for”.

    See also:

    British Colloquialism Dictionary
    The phrase “I’ll give you what for” is an old British expression meaning “I’ll hurt you” or “I’ll punish you,” often used in response to disobedience. For example, if someone is told to do something and replies with “what for?” the speaker might respond with “I’ll give you what for” to indicate they will take action if the instruction is not followed. This phrase is not commonly used in modern British colloquial speech but is part of older, traditional British slang.

  10. 8dn: for the avoidance of doubt, the definition “punishment” for what for can be found in Chambers 2016 p 1782 and Collins 2023 p 2259, both marked informal.

  12. Took a while for this to grow on me. I seemed to encounter a lot of overly complicated charades to start, but then more variety emerged as I moved around the grid.

    Favourites were MADAGASCAN (although “is” becoming “‘s” was a bit cheeky), UNSUBTLE, TINSELTOWN, and OGRE

    I had convinced myself Maxim is the name of a TV gnome that I did not know. Thanks PB@7 for enlightening me. When I solved PREFATORY, I mused on what unusual words these setters find. I had no idea that WHAT FOR can mean punishment, so while I solved it from the crossers, I was completely flummoxed by the clue. Thanks RoginDC@9 and PB@10 for putting me out of my misery. I solved KIDOLOGIST from the clue, but was not familiar with it (nor is my spell check). I am convinced the setters do not even realise they are using words that are used exclusively in England or UK.

    Thanks Guy and Turbolegs

  13. Thanks Guy for a superb crossword. I missed MAXI and couldn’t parse WHAT FOR but everything else fell into place with LESSON, LARK (nice surface), TINSELTOWN (great anagram), AMATEUR, ADMONISH, COSMIC RADIATION, NEEDED, and INGOT being my favourites. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  14. Mostly straightforward but we struggled a little in the SW quadrant, eventually needing a wordfinder for 22ac where we thought we were looking for the name of a (celestial) star and kicked ourselves when we saw the answer. But there was plenty to like, particularly PROPOSER and UNSUBTLE.
    Thanks, Guy and Turbolegs.

  15. Thanks for the blog, Tony@13 has a good list and I agree with superb.
    COSMIC RADIATION seemed a bit odd , cosmic rays is the term always used but on further thought it is fine. It is also nearly always particles but some is electromagnetic so waves is fine . Cosmic rays were the early method for studying Particle Physics , many years before cyclotrons and even the LHC is nowhere near the highest energies of cosmic rays.

  16. I found this difficult and failed on the unknown to me “kidologist”. Probably should’ve got it but lost the will to live.

    Hmmm

Comments are closed.