Financial Times 18,077 by GOZO

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Well, then . . . Gozo presents us with a tour de force bonanza of cross-references today . . .

. . . with all of the perimeter solutions being anagrams of one another. Besides these 8 solutions, another 11 solutions also involve anagrams. Not a terribly hard solve once I finally got a toehold, but a remarkable feat of setting nonetheless. I have given my best guess for the parsing of 24D.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 ENTAILS
Necessitates alteration of 5A (7)
Anagram of (alteration of) SLÀINTE ([solution to] 5A)
5 SLÀINTE
Toast 27 spread (7)
Anagram of (spread) STANIEL ([solution to] 27)
9 SALMI
Hint of allspice lacking in sausage ragout (5)
SAL[A]MI (sausage) minus (lacking in) first letter of (hint of) A[LLSPICE]
10 RURITANIA
Land of Hope (9)
Cryptic definition, referring the fictional country in Anthony Hope’s “The Prisoner of Zenda”
11 LIONHEART
Troublesome relation with Henry and Richard (9)
Anagram of (troublesome) {RELATION + H (Henry)}, referring to Richard I.
12 ROAST
Severely criticise cook (5)
Double definition
13 NUDES
Paintings, new and used, under restoration (5)
N (new) + anagram of (under restoration) USED
15 IN-BETWEEN
Gamble little in pub. Halfway House? (2-7)
{BET (gamble) + WEE (little)} inside (in) INN (pub). Chambers defines this as “any thing or person that is intermediate,” of which a halfway house might be an example.
18 TURN RIGHT
Go round the bend to become a Tory? (4,5)
Cryptic (or whimsical) definition
19 SLIPS
Lapses by the wicket keeper? (5)
Double definition. The slip fielders or “slips” in cricket are positioned behind or arguably “by” the wicket-keeper.
21 NYLON
Last drop of bourbon only affected material (5)
Last letter letter of (last drop of) [BOURBO]N + anagram of (affected) ONLY
23 SCOUNDREL
Rat run closed off (9)
Anagram of (off) RUN CLOSED
25 IN A SECOND
Newly canonised, very quickly (2,1,6)
Anagram of (newly) CANONISED
26 OUNCE
Snow leopard carrying little weight (5)
Double definition
27 STANIEL
New 28 for the kestrel (7)
Anagram of (new) NAILSET ([solution to] 28)
28 NAILSET
Items for a manicurist obtained from 1D (7)
Here I think Gozo has gone slightly astray. This parses as: Anagram of (obtained from) EASTLIN ([solution to] 1D), but every reference that I can find defines “nailset” or “nail set” [two words] as something like this from Chambers: “a tool for punching the head of a nail below or flush with the surface,” such as a carpenter might use, and something that I think would be quite painful used on fingernails (but perhaps sometimes inadvertently used on carpenters’ fingernails).
DOWN
1 EASTLIN
Scottish direction out of 18D (7)
Anagram of (out of) TENAILS ([solution to] 18D), Scottish for “easterly”
2 TALL ORDER
Giant Carmelites, it seems, is too much to expect (4,5)
TALL (giant) + ORDER (Carmelites)
3 IRISH
Flag girl with husband from Galway, say (5)
IRIS (flag or girl, a double definition) + H (husband)
4 STREAMING
Worried 17 sending videos to a computer (9)
Anagram of (worried) EMIGRANTS ([solution to] 17)
5 SPRAT
Traps wriggling fish (5)
Anagram of (wriggling) TRAPS
6 ARTHRITIS
Complaint about 3 chewing tart (9)
Anagram of (about . . . chewing) {IRISH ([solution to] 3) + TART}
7 NINJA
Espionage expert opposing German votes with leading European abstaining (5)
N[E]IN + JA (opposing German votes, i.e., “no” and “yes” in German) minus (with . . . abstaining) first letter of (leading) E[UROPEAN]. According to Chambers: “one of a body of trained assassins and spies in feudal Japan”
8 ELASTIN
Protein extracted from 18D (7)
Anagram of (extracted from) TENAILS ([solution to] 18D}. I think that ideally this cross-reference should have referred back to 1A, so that the circle of cross-references would complete the circuit: 1A-5A-27-28-1D-18D-20-8- . . .
14 SERENGETI
Tiger seen wandering here? No! (9)
Semi-&lit and anagram of (wandering) TIGER SEEN. The tiger, being an Asian cat, would not be found in the Serengeti, in Tanzania.
16 BETRODDEN
Walked over injured Hun missing from round the bend (9)
Anagram of (injured) {RO[UN]D T[H]E BEND} minus (missing from) HUN
17 EMIGRANTS
Record company bestows those moving overseas (9)
EMI (record company) + GRANTS (bestows)
18 TENAILS
Rebuilt 20 for fortifications (7)
Anagram of (rebuilt) SALIENT ([solution to] 20)
20 SALIENT
Most noticeable sort of 8 (7)
Anagram of (sort of) ELASTIN ([solution to] 8)
22 LLAMA
Pack animal at a shopping plaza, turned up (5)
{A + MALL (shopping plaza)} inverted (turned up)
23 SPOIL
Damage ground, parking in it (5)
P (parking) inside (in) SOIL (ground and it)
24 NAOMI
Campbell from Isle of Man (5)
I think this parses as: Anagram of (from) {I (isle) + O’ (of) + MAN}, referring to the fashion model

18 comments on “Financial Times 18,077 by GOZO”

  1. Liked SERENGETI (remember seeing the tiger trick before) and the thematic anagrams.
    NAILSET
    Agree with Cineraria.
    NAOMI
    I parsed it as the blogger. Yesterday, there was some discussion elsewhere about ‘from’
    being used as an anagrind.

    Thanks Gozo and Cineraria.

  2. 28a a nail set is a small box containing scissors, clippers and nail file which Mrs P regards as an essential travel accessory

    Good puzzle although some of the perimeter anagrams were rather obscure!

  3. I wasn’t so bothered by NAILSET for manicures – lots of variations exist if I Google, with either tool kits for doing nails, including electrical mini drill things with lots of different heads, or packs with stick on nails in different colours. It’s what the online riverine store suggested to me.

    Thank you to Gozo and loonapick.

  4. I honestly thought it was a silly puzzle. You spend all your time trying to get enough letters to figure out one of the corner pieces and then you basically have all eight and the puzzle is effectively over.

  5. Reminded me of those cheap and useless dictionaries…
    Look up Vexatious, you get [ see irksome ].
    Look up Irksome, you get [ see vexatious].
    It’s certainly a novel approach by the setter, and I applaud that: always a risk in crypto-land. And…19 anagrams!
    I wouldn’t like too many puzzles of this ilk, but it was actually quite enjoyable. Variety is the spice of life
    Away from the obvious, viz, back to the “normal” clues, they were pitched on the easy side, and a bit run-of-the-mill. I did like, 7(d), NINJA; and 10(ac) RURITANIA.

    Thanks, Gozo & Cineraria

  6. Thanks Gozo and Cineraria

    6dn: I do not think this works as anagram of (IRISH + TART) with the words in the order given. In my view, it could work as either:
    anagram of ((anagram of IRISH) + TART); or
    anagram of (IRISH + (anagram of TART)).
    In either reading, “about” indicates the outer anagram and “chewing” the inner one.

  7. Quick solve once the main anagram was identified. I enjoyed the novelty (congratulations Gozo) but wouldn’t want to encounter such a puzzle regularly.

    I agree with the IOM / Naomi construction.

    Thanks.

  8. As E.N.Boll& @5 says, variety is the spice of life and as soon as I saw Gozo’s name atop the puzzle today, I knew I was in for a bit of fun. Indeed, I enjoy Gozo’s puzzles precisely for their levity, wit and creativity. My only regret is that I couldn’t get to it sooner as I was busy all day. As it turns out, it didn’t take too long with SLÀINTE my FOI. BETRODDEN made me laugh.
    Anyway, I loved the perimeter clues, as well as NUDES and NAOMI.
    Cheers to Gozo and Cineraria.

  10. Thanks for the blog , a clever idea done well without spoiling the rest of the puzzle .
    Yes Peter@9 that would make nine in total although only seven allowed in Scrabble , no STANIEL or EASTLIN for some reason . These Scrabble lists do vary with location and change over time .
    Retains etc has nine allowed variants , maybe that will be next .

  11. I agree the loop could have been completed, a circular primrose path (or maybe an anilest path in this case). My first of the eight was ENTAILS and the anagrams were jumping out at me even before I’d read all the other clues. These did not include STANIEL, EASTLIN OR TENAILS but I got there in the end. Google was better for testing than searching. I agree with the group, it’s a bravo from me. Thanks all.

  12. Land of Hope, FT Gozo 17,574, funnily enough the puzzle with the faulty MEDOC clue copied from his Maskarade puzzle. 19 anagrams is certainly remarkable. I wonder how a new setter would fare sending this in.

  13. Thanks Gozo and Cineraria.
    My first comment in a while, though whenever I do a FT I usually read and appreciate the blogs. Thanks to all!
    Got the anagram concept and finished this but had to look up TENAILS and STANIEL. (Another anagram Gozo didn’t incorporate would be SALTINE!)
    My first two in were SPRAT and RURITANIA. James @12 and others – the latter I first came across many years ago in a paperback anthology of Times puzzles. They said it was a famous deceptive cryptic clue. You’re supposed to think of “Land of Hope and Glory” and try BRITANNIA. To be sure I solved 5d first and the “R” made the answer obvious.

  18. I too needed google (guess and check) for a few of the anagrams surrounding this enjoyable puzzle.

    Once again I got 10a RURITANIA assuming it was a country in one of the Hope and Crosby films.

    Thanks Gozo and Cineraria for the fun.

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