Financial Times 16,643 by IO

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A tough one from Io, but no surprise there! Thank you Io.

I always enjoy Io puzzles, but having to blog one add the extra dimension of facing public embarrassment if I fail to finish. I just about got there, but I’m not sure about 22 across.

ACROSS
8 SODIUM CARBONATE US can do cod with a bit more salt (6,9)
anagram (cod, false) of US CAN DO with A BIT MORE
9 OTTO Oil shaved buttocks? (4)
bOTTOm (buttocks, shaved)
10 TEEING AREA What precedes U in eg Du Nord, a place from which to drive (6,4)
TEE (T, what precedes U) IN then GARE (eg Gare Du Nord) and A
11 HOP PICKERS Essentials for beer, we gather loose poker chips (3-7)
anagram (loose) of POKER CHIPS – people who gather ingredients for beer
13 ARCH Like knave’s selection from deli-bar (cheese) or snack-bar (chocolate) (4)
found inside deli-bAR CHeese or snack-bAR CHocolate
14 PERSEUS Intrinsically American Greek hero? (7)
PER SE (intrinsically) US (American)
15 BELLIES Guts taking a turn for the worse among workers (7)
ILL (for the worse) reversed (taking a turn) inside (among) BEES (workers)
17 PORK Choice of ends for peacock meat (4)
P OR K (either end letter for peacock)
18 STINK BOMBS You won’t want them discharging Mafia contracts from behind empty bus (5,5)
MOB (Mafia) KNITS (contracts) reversed (from behind) then BuS (empty)
19 STUNTWOMEN Double shock for a couple of guys (10)
STUN (shock) TWO (a couple of) MEN (guys)
22 CHAT CHAP Crack jaw (4)
just a guess – double definition, both meaning to talk, c.f. craic double definition
23 BRANDY ALEXANDER Make locksmith cross – throne-room occupier’s shut in with booze (6,9)
BRAND (make) YALE (a locksmith) X (a cross) ER (Elizabeth Regina, current occupier of the throne-room) contains (shut in) AND (with)
DOWN
1 POSTCODE LOTTERY In which players hope for a home draw? (8,7)
cryptic definition
2 LIBOR PESEK Butcher out of initially lean 17 15, noted conductor (5,5)
anagram (butcher) of PORK BELLIES (17, 15) missing (out of) Lean (first letter, initially)
3 OMIT Do not include it with order (4)
IT following (with) OM (Order of Merit)
4 TAKE TEN To make XX X, break (4,3)
if yo TAKE TEN (X) from XX you get X
5 T-BONE STEAK Cut one’s wood consumption – it’s over the top (1-4,5)
ONE’S with TEAK (wood) following (…is over the top) TB (consumption)
6 INCA Peruvian royal visiting San Francisco, briefly? (4)
if you are visiting San Francisco you will be IN CA (California, briefly)
7 STRETCHER BEARER Three caterers in a tizzy needing BR employee to help carry the cases (9-6)
anagram (in a tizzy) of THREE CATERERS with BR
12 CRUISEWAYS Vintage “Wow!” moments astern when crossing east-west canals (10)
CRU (vintage) followed by (with…astern) I SAYS (wow! moments) containing (crossing) E W (east-west)
13 ALL MOD CONS It’s never Rockers that do you basic domestic comforts! (3,3,4)
to do is to con, so if you have all mod cons you have no rocker cons (see Mods and Rockers)
16 AIR MILE One’s right in angry e-mail: for this flier has a point (3,4)
I (one) with (‘s has) R (right) inside anagram (angry) of E-MAIL
20 NINA Name abbreviated in a cruciverbal Easter egg (4)
N (name, abbreviated) and IN A – a Nina is a hidden message (Easter egg) inside a crossword
21 NEXT What J Hepworth & Son became after that (4)
double definition

20 comments on “Financial Times 16,643 by IO”

  3. This was difficult and a DNF for me but great fun was had in the attempt. Loved the witty 13d for the image it conjured of Mods v Rockers in Brighton but 9a and 17a made me wince! Also really liked 21d and the surface for 23a. I had PICK at 17a and FIXTURE crossing it so a fail there.
    PeeDee’s blog was most welcome though I’m puzzled by 19a: should it be ‘stuntwomen’ or ‘stuntwoman’?
    Thanks, anyway, PD, and IO for the ride (a nice shiny Lambretta).

  4. Thanks Gaufrid. I was also confused by that one. I agree that 19a should be STUNTWOMAN and take two-man as in, for example, a two-man boat, so a boat “for a couple of guys”.

  7. I was victim to 2d which was a shame as I had PORK and BELLIES and all I had to do was take off an L and chuck it in the mixer

    I didnt know OTTO but would have got it with the above.

    Excellent stuff-also failed on CHAP-had CHAT.

    I managed the last Elgar so this wiped the smile off my face

  10. Shakespeare has ‘chap-fallen’ which I remember from my college days. The meaning is “with one’s lower jaw hanging due to extreme exhaustion or dejection” (Oxford dict)

    chap – jaw – talk/chat

  12. Had to look up the conductor, to my shame. ‘Chap’ was OK because I knew ‘Bath chaps’, v delicious pig’s cheek bacon.
    The grid looked good for a Nina, clue in main body, all those hanging chads round the perimeter and ‘plot’ in the top left, but ‘twas not to be.
    But what a fine puzzle. Thanks to both.

  13. (Adjusting my identity, sorry about this).
    But while I’m on, this seems to have been quite a meaty crossword, with Bath chaps, T-bone steak and pork bellies all to the fore.
    Must end, hungry now.

  15. We got off to a flying start with four of the first five acrosses straight off, but then things slowed down a bit.  We got there in the end, though, with some help and several penny-drop moments.

    We had CHAT for 22ac and think it a perfectly acceptable alternative – crack as an anglicisation of craic occurs in Walter Scott, and ‘Jaw, jaw is better than war, war’ is attributed to Churchill.  And we had STUNTWOMEN for 19ac

    Difficult to pick a favourite, but we liked HOP PICKERS, STINK BOMBS and T-BONE STEAK.

    Thanks, Io and PeeDee.

  17. Felt grumpy about this, though grumpy to start with, and didn’t appreciate all the convolutions for once.

    A couple of niggles: POSTCODE LOTTERY as a thing is not a game.  The name of the actual lottery called Postcode Lottery is a pun.  So this clue is a pun on a pun, it’s not a proper clue for what postcode lottery means; cluing NINA as a cruciverbal easter egg is cliquey and unfathomable. There.

    There’s a wiki list of 200 20C conductors on which Libor Pesek does not appear. Bah.  Then I remembered him.

    Thanks PeeDee, IO.

  18. Funnily enough, James, I thought this one was surprisingly normal for a John H puzzle.
    I didn’t think that much of it was convoluted and even I could explain everything (which I normally can’t), except that I was in the CHAT camp.
    Nine clues cracked within the first ten minutes without any problem, rather unusual, isn’t it?
    Prepare yourself for something else somewhere else this Saturday!

    I liked this crossword, all fairly clued and more conventional than usual.
    Many thanks to PeeDee and IO.

    ps, I have a box of Dvorak symphonies performed by Libor Pesek when he was at the helm in Liverpool. So 2dn wasn’t a problem at all.

  19. Thanks Io and PeeDee

    Found this one fiendishly tough (perhaps too hard for an intra-week one?).  It took multiple sessions, spanning a day and the next morning and in excess of 3 hours to get it finished.  And that was before I found the errors in STUNTWOMAN (see that the blog still has it wrong), CHAP (in the CHAT camp) and NINA (where I had NONE – N (name abbreviated)+ ON (in a) +E (cruciverbal Easter) to give a 0 (egg or zero)).

    Really enjoyed nutting out all of the other clues – especially liked 10a, 14a (when the penny dropped), 17a (COD), 23a (for the work out), 3d (close second COD), 5d (great charade), 12d (for the I SAY bit) and 13d (clever).

    New learnings with the conductor and the history of NEXT plc.

    Finally finished by getting LIBOR PESEK and PERSEUS.

  20. I enjoyed this puzzle but it was tough for me: DNF.

    I thought 14ac and 6d were excellent; and so was 4d, but I did not know the expression ‘take ten’ tp mena take a break.

    Thank you all

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