Financial Times 18,055 by SOLOMON

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Yet another solid challenge from SOLOMON

I believe we have a pangram on our hands here. A couple of clues could benefit from improved parsing methinks.

 

FF:9 DD:9

ACROSS
1 LITTLE
Minor league championship in which one takes the lead (6)
L ( league ) [ TITLE ( championship ) with I – one, moving in front ]
4 FEBRUARY
That which increases by 3.57% every 4 years (8)
direct def; 1 day increase on 28 days
10 GARIBALDI
Biscuit made of fish I originally bought at the supermarket (9)
GAR ( fish ) I B ( Bought, first letter ) ALDI ( supermarket )
11 CLUES
Puzzling specimens, including this sample from varicose ulcer, put on the counter (5)
hidden,reversed in “..varicoSE ULCer..”
12 REHANGS
Curatorial projects carried out — what’s inside the walls of galleries? (7)
cryptic def?
13 AT ISSUE
A matter in dispute (2,5)
A TISSUE ( matter )
14 BROWN
Colour of top? Navy (5)
BROW ( top ) N ( navy )
15 PRESERVED
Guarded, quiet and shy (9)
P ( quiet ) RESERVED ( shy )
17 EIGHTIETH
Anniversary of significance beginning to go badly — their king leaves (9)
wEIGHT ( significance, without beginning letter ) [ THEIr ( without R – king ) ]*
19 RUGBY
Game of grubby scrimmaging in which, initially, ball gets dropped (5)
[ GRUbBY ( without B – first letter of Ball ) ]*
20 ZAMBEZI
River’s current by which two Zulus carry a gong (7)
[ { A MBE ( gong) } in ZZ ( two Zulus ) ] I ( current )
22 CRYSTAL
Woman — Mother Theresa, perhaps? — wearing tight lycra (7)
[ LYCRA ]* containing ST ( mother theresa, perhaps )
24 BANJO
Plucky model with long neck knocking orange juice over on bar (5)
BAN ( bar ) JO ( reverse of OJ – Orange Juice )
25 EXCALIBUR
Sword of old Shakespearean brute dispatching an ‘uncrowned cur’ (9)
EX ( old ) CALIBan ( shakespearean brute, without letters of AN ) cUR ( uncrowned i.e. without first letter )
26 BRACKETS
They support bat and balls outside (8)
RACKET ( bat ) in BS ( balls )
27 XYLENE
Drug in Lynx sprayed close to face is an organic compound (6)
{ E ( drug , ecstasy ) in [ LYNX ]* } E ( facE, last letter )
DOWN
1 LAGER
Turning on girl that’s drunk (5)
reverse of [ RE ( on ) GAL ( girl ) ]
2 TORCH SONG
Cast starts to hum gently then croons sentimental ballad (5,4)
[ HGT ( starting letters of “..Hum Gently Then..” ) CROONS ]*
3 LEBANON
State censorship restricted by Trotsky (7)
BAN ( censorship ) in LEON ( trotsky )
5 ELIZABETH
Queen of Belize fidgeting with hat (9)
[ BELIZE HAT ]*
6 RECEIVE
Hear reverend choking on crushed ice before the start of evensong (7)
( REV ( reverend ) containing [ ICE ]* ) E ( Evensong, first letter )
7 AQUAS
Colours extracted from a peeled 16 (5)
A [ sQUASh ( vegetable, 16d, without end letters ) ]
8 YESTERDAY
Polyester dayglo trousers a thing of the past (9)
hidden in “polYESTER DAYglo..”
9 PLUS
Good point made by those on the margins of post-neoliberal America (4)
PL ( Post-neoliberaL, end letters ) US ( america )
14 BEELZEBUB
Flying insect with blue bum circling unknown, black, devilish creature (9)
BEE ( flying insect ) { [ BLUE ]* around { Z ( unknown ) B ( black ) } }
15 PRESIDENT
One’s elected to hand around documents (9)
PRESENT ( hand ) around ID ( documents )
16 VEGETABLE
Beagle vet operated on getting something to eat (9)
[ BEAGLE VET ]*
18 THE ROCK
Film starring Nicolas Cage and Dwayne Johnson (3,4)
double def
19 ROYALTY
Maybe the Prince of Lichtenstein will prepare to drive to the auditors (7)
need help to.parse this; referring to the tee on a golf course perhaps ( for the sounds like bit )
21 MANGA
‘Make America Great Again’ ripped into by newspaper’s leader and cartoons (5)
MAGA ( short for ‘Make America Great Again’ ) containing N ( Newspaper, first letter )
22 COCK
Bird’s tail removed from snowball? (4)
COCKtail ( snowball is a type of cocktail, without the letters of TAIL )
23 LARGE
Big bottom of 1 Down is raised (5)
LAGER ( 1d ) with the R moving up to the third place

18 comments on “Financial Times 18,055 by SOLOMON”

  1. REHANGS
    what=EH
    carried out=RAN
    walls of galleries=GS
    EH in RAN+GS

    Either a CAD or an extended def.

    ROYALTY
    Soundalike of
    ROY (Lichtenstein) ‘ll tee (will prepare to drive)
    Def: Maybe the prince

  2. Thanks Solomon. And of course Turbolegs. February beat me, to my shame. I think 12ac is eh (what) inside ran (carried out) then g and s (walls – each side) of galleries. Found that one a challenge to parse! Ah – beaten to it by KVa…..

  3. I found this difficult in several places with some very complicated clues (such as EXCALIBUR). I finished with a couple unparsed.

    Liked LEBANON, ELIZABETH, PRESERVED, and thought YESTERDAY was very clever. TORCH SONG and XYLENE were jorums. As I wrote yesterday, it is a good thing I pay attention to the blogs. This time it was GARIBALDI that I remembered, only knowing it from crosswords.

    I agree with the REHANGS parsing of KVa and Toto, and I also thought ROYALTY was royal tee. I cannot help feeling there is a better solution for 19d

    Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs

  4. Thanks Solomon for a great set of clues and a pangram to boot. My favourites were LITTLE, RUGBY, BRACKETS, LAGER, RECEIVE, and YESTERDAY (liked the surface). I had problems fully parsing REHANGS & ROYALTY (thanks KVA) as well as EXCALIBUR (didn’t know Caliban) and COCK (didn’t know the cocktail). Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  5. [Martyn @3: GARIBALDI biscuits are a great treat especially with tea. I order them by the case; they are 40% currants (1st ingredient) and very low in fat so they are much more nutritious than your average snack. I recommend them.]

  6. Apologies KVa@1 I was after a better parsing for ROYALTY and did not notice that you had already provided it

    Tony@5 – thank-you for recommending GARIBALDI biscuits. I will seek them out.

  7. Roy Fox Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style
    (When I Googled to check if there was a Roy Lichtenstein, I found this)

    As it is not Liechtenstein , dunno how the surface works.

    Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs!

    (No worries Martyn@6)

  8. Thanks as ever to Turbolegs for the blog, and to commenters.

    Sorry about 19d everyone. I’ll just have to take that on the chien. Thanks to KVa for providing enlightenment.

  9. If the clue for ROYAL read, ‘Maybe the Prince of Liechtenstein, say, will prepare to drive to the auditors’, would that work? Say, as a homophone indicator after ‘Liechtenstein’, would give ‘Lichtenstein’ or Roy.

  10. A bit of a challenge from Solomon, but we had no problem with 19dn as we saw Lichtenstein as a typo for Liechtenstein. Our main problem was with 18dn as we’d never heard of Nicolas Cage or Dwayne Johnson; we just guessed at ‘The Rock’ and fortunately Google confirmed our guess as correct. Elsewhere we couldn’t parse TORCH SONG, and in 26ac we weren’t happy with ‘bat’ for ‘racket’.
    Thanks, Solomon and Turbolegs

  11. Thanks for the blog , very good set of neat and concise clues .
    I agree with KVa@1 for the wordplay of REHANGS , the definition is just the first two words .
    Roy L just one of those things , hard to spell and I did not notice .

  12. Excellent puzzle. I liked FEBRUARY, GARIBALDI, RUGBY, CRYSTAL, YESTERDAY and COCK.

    Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs

  13. Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs

    I enjoyed that but unfortunately, to pour a little bit more rain on Solomon’s parade, the saint is actually Mother Teresa (no h).

  14. A most enjoyable grid from Solomon, satisfyingly complete with a pangram.
    My favourites included GARIBALDI (I agree, Tony@5), ZAMBEZI, YESTERDAY, BEELZEBUB and PRESIDENT. THE ROCK also made me smile as it reminded me of being in San Francisco when the picture was being filmed. Not knowing this, we were surprised when we took the cable car to pass a chaotic intersection of Pacific and Jones where another tram was overturned, seemingly the aftermath of an explosion. Later, the local paper told us of the ongoing film shoot – we were returning from Alcatraz that day!
    Thanks to Solomon and Turbolegs.

  16. I don’t live there, Martyn, but it made quite an impression. I have a good memory for useless things such as this…I love film too.

  17. I’ll enjoyed a lot of this, but there were a few disappointing clues which were impenetrable to me even though I managed to finish. They’ve been mentioned already. Low point was the actor clue which was basically a general knowledge answer. And where I didn’t have the general knowledge.

  18. This was challenging and also fun. For awhile I thought it could even be a double or triple pangram! But the pangram alone is worthy accomplishment. Thank you Solomon and all

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