Financial Times 18,078 by GOLIATH

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An enjoyable start to the day.

A great puzzle with a good range of clue types. Many thanks to Goliath.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Bloke, when past his prime, diversified (8)
MANIFOLD

MAN (bloke) IF OLD (when past his prime)

5. Dresses for sessions at work (6)
SHIFTS

Double definition

9. Regularly annoy jolly friend in the usual way (8)
NORMALLY

[a]N[n]O[y] (regularly) + RM (jolly, Royal Marine) + ALLY (friend)

10. Stunned by a whacky adoption of a non-binary pronoun (6)
AMAZED

A + MAD (whacky) adoption of ZE (non-binary pronoun)

12. At first, the feeble make only minor changes (5)
TWEAK

T[he] (at first) + WEAK (feeble)

13. 10 considering zombies after a disappearance (9)
ASTOUNDED

AS TO (considering) + UNDE[a]D (zombies, after A disappearance)
’10’ referring to 10 across

14/16. The temperature of a Swedish sauna could be right (6,7)
NINETY DEGREES

Double definition

‘Right’ referring to an angle

19. As nice as can be, drinking right poison (7)
ARSENIC

(AS NICE)* (*as can be) drinking R (right)

21. Band’s tour is from the the 5th of August to the 2nd of September (6)
STRIPE

TRIP (tour) is from [Augu]S[t] (5th of) to [S]E[ptember] (2nd of)

23. Spread mostly rejected, with awkward true words of one betrayed (2,2,5)
ET TU BRUTE

BUTTE[r]< (spread, mostly, <rejected) with TRUE* (*awkward)

From Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ – these are Caesar’s last words as he is assassinated, and recognises his friend, Brutus, among his assassins

25. Falstaff, for one, is somewhat uncooperative (5)
OPERA

[unco]OPERA[tive] (somewhat)

26. In other words, rebuked for a bloomer (6)
ORCHID

OR (in other words) + CHID (rebuked)

27. Jane’s great misfortune? (8)
CALAMITY

Cryptic/double definition

Calamity Jane is a legendary historical figure

28. Flag dodgy engines that won’t start (6)
ENSIGN

[e]NGINES* (*dodgy, that won’t start)

29. Charm of Thailand’s first wild animals (8)
TALISMAN

T[hailand] (first) + ANIMALS* (*wild)

DOWN
1. Little time for tiny meeting note (6)
MINUTE

Triple definition

2. Manage rising group of childcare centres (9)
NURSERIES

RUN< (manage, <rising) + SERIES (group)

3. Side that’s honest? Switch sides! (5)
FLANK

F[r]ANK (honest, switch sides)

An instruction to exchange R (right) for L (left)

4. Left everyone from the South in buy-out of sleep aid (7)
LULLABY

L (left) + (ALL< (everyone, <from the South) in BUY* (*out))

6. Speaking of nosh, the wrong way is to support meat and fast food (9)
HAMBURGER

(RE (speaking of) + GRUB (nosh))< (<the wrong way) is to support HAM (meat)

7. Confused footballers with the last letter (5)
FAZED

FA (footballers, Football Association) with ZED (the last letter)

8. Team I would back, quiet as vegetables? (4,4)
SIDE DISH

SIDE (team) + I’D< (I would, <back) + SH (quiet)

11. Saint Jude at heart a macho type (4)
STUD

ST (saint) + [J]UD[e] (at heart)

15. Raising status with flashy neon and gaudy jewellery (9)
ENNOBLING

NEON* (*flashy) + BLING (gaudy jewellery)

17. Perhaps Memphis follows Europe? That’s putting it mildly (9)
EUPHEMISM

MEMPHIS* (*perhaps) follows EU (Europe?)

18. The man’s back, wearing a strange cloak with double end opening (8)
CAKEHOLE

HE< (the man, <back) wearing CLOAK* (strange) with [doubl]E (end)

20. For a start, come help us, my friend (4)
CHUM

C[ome] H[elp] U[s] M[y] (for a start)

21. Composer in Paris met an artist (7)
SMETANA

[Pari]S MET AN A[rtist] (in)

22. Container over there in valley (6)
CANYON

CAN (container) + YON (over there)

24. Mexican food? Thanks! Served with lettuce (5)
TACOS

TA (thanks) served with COS (lettuce)

25. Arab coming up soon (5)
OMANI

(IN A MO)< (soon, <coming up)

22 comments on “Financial Times 18,078 by GOLIATH”

  1. Another of my favourite setters this week! Enjoyed this a lot. My top picks were CAKEHOLE, OMANI, EUPHEMISM and
    NINETY DEGREES, CALAMITY.
    An excellent antidote to the heavy rains expected today.
    Thanks to Goliath and Oriel for a great blog.

  2. I agree with Diane. Excellent and fun.
    I never knew that saunas were so hot.
    Thanks to both for a bit of cheer in a bleak world.

  4. Thanks Goliath and Oriel

    I saw 19 as one of Philistine/Goliath’s trademark “two definitions, one wordplay” clues: AS (the chemical abbreviation or arsenic) and POISON, with the wordplay being ‘nice as’ “can be” giving ASENIC ‘drinking’ R(ight).

  7. Another lovely puzzle from Goliath, one of my favourites, too.

    I particularly liked STRIPE, ET TU BRUTE, EUPHEMISM, SMETANA, OMANI and POISON, which I read as Simon S did.

    Many thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  8. Liked ASTOUNDED (does ‘disappearance’ work grammatically in the cryptic reading?), ET TU BRUTE, CAKEHOLE and ENNOBLING.
    Thanks Goliath and Oriel.

  10. I had quite a few solve first parse later clues (or parse never in a some cases)

    I am aligned with the positive comments from others. I ticked TALISMAN, ENNOBLING, STUD, and SHIFTS.

    Thanks Goliath for the puzzle and thanks Oriel for clearing up a few mysteries.

  12. Goliath has been in the top tier of my favourite setters for quite some time and this crossword only reinforces that position. My top picks include AMAZED, ARSENIC (brilliant), ET TU BRUTE, CALAMITY, NURSERIES, HAMBURGER, and STUD. CAKEHOLE is new to me (I’m more familiar with ‘piehole’) but answer was clear from the wordplay. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  13. Thanks for the blog , as classy as ever though I was waiting for the trademark fission clue .
    As = ARSENIC been in a few times recently .
    Tony @12 , CAKEHOLE is something you are often told to shut .

  14. For 1 across I was thinking of “I fold” after “man”, thinking of folding as in poker, retiring if you like, until “if old” dawned on my foggy brain …….

  15. zoRro @13: I’ve heard ‘shut your piehole’ more than once so I gathered that ‘shut your cakehole’ means the same.

  17. A puzzle with just the right amount of challenge for our afternoon break. We liked MANIFOLD, ARSENIC, ET TU BRUTE. OPERA (it’s by Verdi, incidentally) and SMETANA.
    In 10 we’d not encountered ‘ze’ as a non-binary pronoun but it sounds like good alternative to ‘they’. Incidentally we would spell ‘wacky’ withoput the h, bur Chambers has both spellings. And, not that it really matters, the clue to 21ac has a repeated ‘the’ before ‘5th’.
    Thanks, Goliath and Oriel.

  19. Thanks Goliath and Oriel

    10ac: Collins 2023 p 2307 has ze pron occasionally used as a gender-neutral third person singular subjective pronoun. The pronunciation given rhymes with see. I could not find it in either Chambers 2016 or ODE 2010, but I suspect that it may be too recent a coinage to make either of those volumes.

  21. Totally enjoyed this puzzle.
    I’m not sure how Dresses can mean Shifts in 5ac. Collins Dictionary wasn’t able to help me in this. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

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