Financial Times 16,707 by REDSHANK

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Redshank is today's FT setter.

I started this puzzle with confidence, completing most of the bottom half immediately, and gradually completing the rest, but I found the top-right corner quite sticky, not helped by my not knowing TETHYS and ORCHITIS. Eventually, these were the only words that fit the wordplay, so I chucked them in and then went to the dictionary to check they were right, which they were. The wordplay for ORCHITIS was still a challenge, but once I worked out the OR bit, the rest fell into place.

A strange puzzle, then, with a good mix of write-ins (RAIMENT. NUTMEG, NAIlL, AMNESIAC etc) and headscratchers such as the aforementioned TETHYS and ORCHITIS. My LOI was ORCHITIS and my favourite clue was the clever anagram for WATER SOFTENER.

Thanks Redshank

ACROSS
1 SIMONY
Electronics firm covers writer’s trading benefits (6)

SONY ("electronics firm") covers I'M ("writer's")
4 ABUTMENT
Workers block a rear pier (8)

MEN ("workers") block A + BUTT ("rear")
9 ECLAT
Back story involving college’s flair (5)

[back] <=TALE ("story") involving C (college)
10 WHODUNNIT
Mystery doctor approaches horse with dope (9)

(Doctor) WHO approaches DUN (sandy-coloured "horse") + NIT ("dope")
11 RAIMENT
Clothing torn catching train (7)

RENT ("torn") catching AIM ("train")
12 EMPATHY
Understanding English writer’s engaging way (7)

E (English) + MY ("writer's") engaging PATH ("way")
13 NAIL
PIN number trouble (4)

N (number) + AIL ("trouble")
14 ORCHITIS
Problem for privates – pert girl is after other ones (8)

CHIT ("pert girl") + IS after OR (other ranks, so "other ones" where "ones" = "privates")

Orchitis is inflammation of the testicles.
17 DIPLOMAT
Papers back plan to nail mother, one in embassy (8)

<=ID ("papers", back) + PLOT ("plan") to nail MA ("mother")
19 TRAM
Transport first of modern paintings around (4)

<= ([first of] M(odern) + ART ("paintings")) [round]
22 BABYSIT
Watch kids gorge nonstop during scrap (7)

ABYS(s) ("gorge", non-stop) during BIT ("scrap")
24 TROUNCE
Thump counter furiously (7)

*(counter) [anag:furiously]
25 UNADORNED
Peacekeepers loved patrolling northern plain (9)

UN (United Nations, so "peacekeepers") + ADORED ("loved") patrolling N (northern)
26 UTERI
Our earliest homes found in the outer islands (5)

Hidden [found] in "oUTER Islands"
27 DILATORY
Time-wasting form of idolatry (8)

*(idolatry) [anag:form of]
28 MANIAC
PC arrests a Northern Irish nutter (6)

MAC ("PC") arrest A + NI (Northern Irish)

I think some computer geeks would dispute MAC = PC, although these days, they're pretty much the same thing.
DOWN
1 SWEARING
Bad language is ultimately tiresome (8)

(i)S [ultimately] + WEARING ("tiresome")
2 MOLLIFIED
Placated girl with hood, one left out of ground (9)

MOLL (gangster's girl, so "girl with hood") + I + L (left) [out of] FIE(l)D ("ground")
3 NUTMEG
Perhaps Hazel and Margaret do what dribblers do (6)

(hazel) NUT + MEG ("Margaret")

For the non-football fans – a footballer, while dribbling past an opponent, may slip the ball between his opponent's legs. This move is known as a "nutmeg".
5 BROKEN-HEARTED
Bitterly disappointed but apparently OK (6-7)

OK is at the heart of "brOK"en
6 TRUMPET
Proclaim bottom end of page in Times (7)

RUMP ("bottom") + [edge of] (pag)E in T + T (times)
7 ERNST
Surrealist stumped European sailors first (5)

E (European) + RN (Royal Navy, so "sailors) + St. (stumped, on a cricket scorecard)
8 TETHYS
Your old group put up hoarding in sea once (6)

<=SET ("group", put up) hoarding THY ("old" word for "your")

Tethys, named after a Greek sea goddess, was the name of the sea that separated the two great supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwanaland after Pangaea split in two, so was roughly the predecessor of the Mediterranean.
10 WATER SOFTENER
It stops scaling tree after snow flurries (5-8)

*(tree after snow) [anag:flurries]
15 SERENGETI
Golf interrupting calm – it upset African sanctuary (9)

G (golf, in the phonetic alphabet) interrupting SERENE ("calm") + <=IT [upset]
16 AMNESIAC
One forgets amateur cinema’s developed (8)

Am. (amateur) + *(cinema) [anag:developed]
18 PASS OUT
Old man’s son dismissed issue (4,3)

PA'S ("old man's) + S (son) + OUT ("dismissed", in cricket)
20 ABSURD
Ridiculous American got up in an inferior way (6)

<=US (American, got up) in A + B-Rd (B-road, so "inferior way")
21 KORUNA
Round trip in Ford that’s exchanged in Prague (6)

O (round) + RUN ("trip") in (Ford) KA
23 BRAWL
Fight fine Scottish Liberal (5)

BRAW ("Scottish" word for "fine") + L (Liberal)

16 comments on “Financial Times 16,707 by REDSHANK”

  1. I did know TETHYS but there were several unknowns for me: KORUNA, ORCHITIS and wasn’t entirely sure of SIMONY (presumably “parsimony” is related) and ABUTMENT. CHIT was also unknown so had to use a word fit for 14a but the rest went in unaided.

  2. Hovis. The use of simony (the payment for reflief of sin) was one of he principal causes of the breakaway from the Catholic church. It is derived from the name of Simon who attempted to practise it.

  3. Thanks for blog loonapick-rather you than me. I did parse TETHYS even though it was unfamiliar-but I would have been all day on ORCHITIS-only word that fit spaces and def. And OK in the middle of BROKEN. My Scottish is about the same as my latin but I sussed BRAWL.
    So welcome having two juicy puzzles on a Thursday when a Quiptic setter was on duty in the Graun
    Thanks Duggie

  4. Thanks trenodia. I see “parsimony” comes from the Latin for “to spare” so the monetary link is coincidental.

  5. I did know the unknowns which I supposed helped to make this not as tricky as it could have been

    Thanks to Redshank and loonapick

  6. Lovely puzzle!

    I did know TETHYS but not ORCHITIS, although I guessed what the definition would be and that it would end in ITIS, so I had fun working it out! Similarly, with 21dn, I guessed and googled ‘Czech currency’ and got the answer – nice construction.

    Other ticks were for BABYSIT (lovely!), MANIAC, MOLLIFIED and WATER-SOFTENER.

    I knew BRAW from my Scottish husband – ‘It’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht’.

    Many thanks to Redshank for the fun and loonapick for a great blog.

  7. I believe that the correct parsing of 16d is A for amateur and CINEMA’S anagrammed. You need the S, not a second M. That was one of the few clues I got without help, unfortunately!

  9. Thanks to Redshank and loonapick. I did finally figure out and parse ORCHITIS, had a vague memory of TETHYS, and knew SIMONY but did not know the NUTMEG-dribble connection (the parsing was clear)

  10. Defeated by 1ac n thus 3dn, even though I had Sony in mind… knew ORCHITIS, thankfully not from personal experience, which helped in the middle.. loved NUTMEG… retrospectively, despite being addicted to the spice … many other great clues… TETHYS parsed but unknown..
    Thanks Redshank n loonapick

  11. A bit of a struggle but got there in the end. Several new words – Simony, Orchitis and Koruna. Also never heard of Braw.

    Favourites were Babysit and Trumpet.

    I spend a lot of time on Trumpet thinking the answer must be Thunder , esp with Times connection, and also with three of the crossers fitting.

    Loi was Simony, when I finally remembered Sony as an electronics company! Dooh.

    Thanks

  12. Too tough for me to finish — SIMONY, KORUNA, and NUTMEG as a football term were beyond my GK. I was able to figure out TETHYS from the parsing but I couldn’t come up with ORCHITIS even though I knew the word. I always wince at “PIN number” because of the redundancy involved. Still, I found a good bit to like including UTERI and TRUMPET. Thanks to both.

  14. Lemski. There’s no redundancy in the cryptic reading, as you point out but there is in the surface reading where PIN is Personal Identification Number.

  15. Tony, Lemski and Hovis: I used to wince at “PIN number” too, and I started to say “Pi number” instead, but nobody knew what I was talking about so I gave it up.

    Nice crossword, Redshank. I especially liked 10d BROKEN-HEARTED, the nicely hidden UTERI at 26a, and the semi-namecheck at 28a.

    Re 20a ABSURD is it interesting (or not) that “an inferior way” is a homophone for Abbey Road?

    And thanks loonapick for clearing up the dribble, and parsing ERNST, which stumped me.

  16. Thanks Redshank and loonapick
    Found this tough with the number of unknown terms – some of which I could piece together from the word play (3d and 21d) and others where I needed a word finder and then work through the word play (1a, 14a and 8d). Enjoyed the challenge all the same.
    Took a while to see why it was BROKEN HEARTED, but then thought that it was of the better clues of the day. Was nice to see TRUMPET without any reference to you know who.
    Finished with WHODUNNIT (with a lot in the word play), TETHYS (that I didn’t know, either the goddess or the sea) and SIMONY (which needed to be changed from SOMENY when checking the definitions).

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