Financial Times 16,347 by AARDVARK

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Super puzzle, traditional in style and fun to solve and blog. Thank you Aadvark.

The grid is a double pangram, which helped getting the last few solutions.

I am away from home at the moment and won't be able to get back to answer any questions. Please help out anyone who has any questions while I'm away.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 FULMAR Seabird left mother when covered with hairy coat (6)
 

L (left) MA (mother) inside FUR (hairy coat)
4 DOORBELL Party with gold cracker announced – a guest might activate it outside (8)
 

DO (party) with OR (gold) BELL sounds like (announced) "belle" (a cracker)
10 TEQUILA Old writer mostly inside leaves alcoholic spirit (7)
 

QUILL (old writer) missing last letter (mostly) inside TEA (leaves)
11 TOBY JUG Man goes to prison for drinking (4-3)
 

TOBY (a man) with (goes to) JUG (prison)
12 ROOK Fleece jumper, the most common in Keswick? (4)
 

ROO (kangaroo, something that jumps) then KeswicK (the most common letter in) – definition 'to swindle'
13 ROSE BEETLE Plant-feeding insect ascended VW car (4,6)
 

ROSE ascended BEETLE (VW car)
15 SHIRAZ Soprano greeting academy member with unknown wine (6)
 

S (soprano) HI (greeting) RA (Royal Academician) with Z (symbol representing an unknown quantity)
16 JIGSAWS Inside skips, noticed tools (7)
 

inside JIGS (skips) is SAW (noticed)
20 BENELUX Regularly zealous on mountain, cross a group of countries (7)
 

zEaLoUs (regularly) following (on) BEN (a mountain) then X (a cross)
21 QUASAR Heavenly body’s attractiveness seen in middle of square (6)
 

SA (sex appeal, attractiveness) inside sQUARe (middle of)
24 REAPPEARED Father, turning over fruit in grass, became visible again (10)
 

PA (father) reversed (turning over) PEAR (fruit) all inside REED (grass)
26 PSST During training, sons call for attention (4)
 

SS (son, twice) inside (during…is…) PT (training)
28 MAZURKA Blue short consumed by Mark before a dance (7)
 

AZURe (blue, short) inside MK (mark) then A
29 INDEXER One creates list at home on RH side, given time off (7)
 

IN (at home) then DEXtER (right-hand side) missing T (time)
30 DECK SHOE Itinerant shocked by European footwear (4,4)
 

anagram (itinerant) of SHOCKED then E (european)
31 CLINGY Tending to stick Heather in periphery of company (6)
 

LING (heather) inside CompanY (periphery of)
DOWN
1 FUTURIST One looks ahead, following posh traveller missing nothing (8)
 

F (following) U (posh) then ToURIST (traveller) missing O (nothing)
2 LIQUORICE Alcoholic drink by freezer that’s used as a flavouring (9)
 

LIQUOR (alcoholic drink) by ICE (something that freezes)
3 AVID Greedy Victor claiming benefit? On the contrary (4)
 

AID (benefit) contains (claims) V (victor, phonetic alphabet)
5 ON THE AIR Awkward antihero being broadcast (2,3,3)
 

anagram (awkward) of ANTIHERO
6 RUBBER SOUL One deletes type of music which The Beatles recorded (6,4)
 

RUBBER (one deletes) SOUL (type of music)
7 EEJIT Imbecile deejay losing half computer equipment (5)
 

dEEJit (losing half its letters) then IT (computer equipment)
8 LOGGER One occupied, among trees, fierce boxer without lead (6)
 

sLOGGER (fierce boxer) missing first letter (without lead)
9 HAVOC Own contracting business overcoming disruption (5)
 

HAVe (own, contracted) then CO (company, business) reversed (overcoming, coming over)
14 TAKE UP ARMS Resort to fighting, without hesitation, a supermarket that’s dodgy (4,2,4)
 

anagram (that's dodgy) of A SUPerMARKET missing ER (a hesitation)
17 WEST SAXON Wife Tessa, confused, wrong about Old English dialect (4,5)
 

W (wife) anagram (confused) of TESSA then X (wrong) ON (about)
18 BULAWAYO Onward into the centre of fabulous African city (8)
 

away (onward) inside (into) faBULOus (the centre of)
19 WRITERLY With customary practice, lines like a wordsmith can be created (8)
 

W (with) RITE (customary practice) RLY (railway, lines) – 'can be created' is an instruction to the solver
22 FRAMED Set up force in company of US agent (6)
 

RAM (force) inside (in company of) FED (US agent)
23 SEPIA Old-fashioned tone of Private Eye in the main (5)
 

PI (private investigator, eye) in SEA (the main)
25 ANZAC Extremists around north joining current soldier (5)
 

AZ (extremists, of hte alphabet) contain (around) N (north) then AC (current)
27 IDOL Pop star perhaps disliking work in auditorium (4)
 

sounds like (in auditorium) "idle" (disliking work)

7 comments on “Financial Times 16,347 by AARDVARK”

  1. “It’s a nice day for a white wedding”. Dare say a few solvers will remember that.

    Liked the unusual clueing for the K in ROOK.

    WRITERLY? What an ugly word. Not in my dictionaries either.

    Good puzzle. Spotted the double pangram possibility quite early but it didn’t help me.

    Thanks all.

    PS small typo in blog for 7d. Deejay not deejit.

  2. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee

    Nice puzzle, spotted the first pangram early, then when a few of the more unusual letters cropped up again started looking for the second, which helped.

    Hovis: ‘writerly’ is in current Chambers.

  4. Thanks PeeDee for the blog. Not my best outing today as I was unfamiliar with TOBY JUG, EEJIT, MAZURKA, BULAWAYO, ANZAC, and WRITERLY. How the the U in FUTURIST mean posh?

  5. U is a term popularised by Nancy Mitford (novelist) and her sisters.  They were definitely posh and referred to others as either U (upper-class) or non-U (middle and lower classes).

  7. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee

    Workmanlike puzzle from this setter which took over the hour to get out.  Got wind of a pangram when my second in LIQUORICE was quickly followed up by SHIRAZ and when the second Q and X appeared the antennae went up for the double, not really that it helped with anything later on – well I didn’t make use of it anyway.

    EEJIT was the only new term.  Had to use a word finder to get the last couple in – BULAWAYO and BENELUX (and wished I’d just used the knowledge of the pangram instead).

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