Financial Times 16,955 by STEERPIKE

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My first Steerpike puzzle, though I see this setter has been blogged a couple of times by others.

I really enjoyed this – neat and simple but never dull. Many thanks to Steerpike, and hope to bump into this setter again soon!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Former student taken aback by announcement of Scandinavian scientist (6)
BOFFIN

OB< (former student (old boy), <taken aback) by FFIN (“announcement” of Scandinavian)

5. Flipping bad smell? Fish stew’s contents out of date (8)
OBSOLETE

BO< (bad smell, <flipping) + SOLE (fish) + [s]TE[w] (contents)

9. Muck football team about (6)
MANURE

MAN U (football team) + RE (about)

10. Dove father caught with one hand (8)
PACIFIST

PA (father) + C (caught) + I (one) + FIST (hand)

11. Hairs found on rug and bedding (8)
MATTRESS

TRESS (hairs) found on MAT (rug)

12. A city street is all the same (6)
ANYWAY

A + NY (city) + WAY (street)

13. Time to wake up (4)
STIR

Double definition (the first referring to time in prison)

15. Bad vibes holding English boy back in colonies (8)
BEEHIVES

(VIBES)* (*bad) holding E (English) + HE< (boy, <back)

18. Festival of dunces dancing around a pole (8)
SUNDANCE

(DUNCES)* (*dancing) around A + N (pole)

19. Some advice about bread (4)
PITA

A TIP< (some advice, <about)

21. Helicopter’s acceleration rate maintains height (6)
APACHE

A (acceleration) + PACE (rate) maintains H (height)

23. He strips off for fashionistas (8)
HIPSTERS

(HE STRIPS)* (*off)

25. Present study by retired doctor about universal supplement (8)
ADDENDUM

AD (present) + DEN (study) by MD< (doctor, <retired) about U (universal)

26. Harem guard from Europe roughly abducted by retreating barbarian (6)
EUNUCH

EU (Europe) + C (roughly) abducted by HUN< (barbarian, <retreating)

27. Records broken by international poetry events (8)
EPISODES

EPS (records) broken by I (international) + ODES (poetry)

28. Pass by protective gear in port (6)
DIEPPE

DIE (pass) by PPE (protective gear)

DOWN
2. City boss unveiled a mounted assault weapon (5)
OSAKA

[b]OS[s] (unveiled) + A + AK< (assault weapon, <mounted)

3. Confused FBI agent accepts erroneous result (9)
FLUSTERED

FED (FBI agent) accepts (RESULT)* (*erroneous)

4. Manipulated reports as required (6)
NEEDED

“kneaded” (manipulated, “reports”)

5. Plump babe shoots drunk in gripping adaptation (9,6)
OPPOSABLETHUMBS

(PLUMP BABE SHOOTS)* (*drunk)

6. Famous Greek cardinal makes speech about head of church (8)
SOCRATES

S (cardinal, south) + ORATES (makes speech) about C[hurch] (head of)

7. Haughty socialist embraces love having dropped ecstasy (5)
LOFTY

L[e]FTY (socialist) embraces O (love), having dropped E (ecstasy)

8. Witness part-time soldiers fording river (9)
TESTAMENT

TA MEN (part-time soldiers) fording TEST (river)

14. False note undermines top political party (7-2)
TRUMPED UP

E (note) undermines TRUMP (top) + DUP (political party)

16. Setter’s politically correct about Eton- schooled earl’s inadequacy (9)
IMPOTENCE

IM (setter’s) + PC (politically correct) about (ETON)* (*schooled) + E (earl)

17. Home provided care for fiancée (8)
INTENDED

IN (home) + TENDED (provided care for)

20. Initially propounded concerns in depressing newspaper article (6)
SPREAD

P[ropounded] (initially) + RE (concerns) in SAD (depressing)

22. Soprano’s overwhelmed by revolutionary musical (5)
CHESS

SS (sporano’s) overwhelmed by CHE (revolutionary)

24. Run over military police officer’s missing daughter (5)
RECAP

RE[d]CAP (military police officer, missing D (daughter))

18 comments on “Financial Times 16,955 by STEERPIKE”

  1. Very enjoyable. I liked the use of OB< & then BO< in the first two clues.

    My only query was “testament” for “witness” in 8d. I can see “testify”, or even “testimony” perhaps.

  2. I liked the BO and OB to start with as well. Overall not too difficult, but in my ignorance I hadn’t come across ‘cardinal’, part of the wordplay for 6d, as one of the four main points of the compass before. ADDENDUM and the apparently simple-looking word SPREAD both took a bit of working out.

    Interesting what you have to say about TESTAMENT for ‘Witness’, Hovis @1. The OED (OK, not the usual crossword dictionary) entry for TESTAMENT has one sense as ” erron. = testimony; witness” so you may be on to something.

    Thanks to Steerpike for number three and to Teacow for the blog

  3. Another very good puzzle from Steerpike.
    I was unsure too about TESTAMENT in this sense but nothing else would fit.
    I did like SUNDANCE among a bevy of good clues and (as a Liverpool fan) couldn’t help but smirk at MANURE!
    Thanks to Steerpike and Teacow.

  4. Yes, a nice puzzle. I, too, wondered about TESTAMENT, but what about ‘a testament to his courage’? It’s not exactly right, but maybe close enough?

    Thanks Steerpike and Teacow.

  5. Thank Teacow, thoroughly concur with your assessment.
    I think you can bear testament/witness to something so that was fine, but have a Finnish colleague who does not consider himself Scandinavian – any other natives or experts on that part of the world with an opinion, or maybe it’s not a cut and dried issue?
    Anyway thanks for plenty of perfectly pitched amusement Steerpike.

  7. Haven’t encountered this compiler before. An enjoyable experience, but I was flummoxed by all the Britishisms (Test River, Redcap, DUP). Why is U a football team?

  9. Geoff@7: I had similar problems with BOFFIN and CHESS. I guess that boffin means the same in Oz as in the UK, but not in the US. And apparently Chess was a successful musical in London, but it played only two months on Broadway, completely under my radar.

  10. Thanks to Steerpike for a satisfying puzzle -generally neat and amusing. If I had to raise a quibble, it’s that the use of “dancing” as the anagram indicator in the clue for SUNDANCE is arguably a bit clumsy: would eg “cavorting” or “reeling” have been better?

  11. Sorry Gazzh @5 but I think this is a case of what WordPlodder mentioned @2. The correct phrase, as I understand it, is to bear testimony.

  12. Thanks Teacow for the blog and kind comments, and my apologies to our non-British solvers. I am not yet used to setting for an international audience, but will try to be less UK-centric in future.
    As to the question of WITNESS/TESTIMONY, when I looked up TESTIMONY in the online Chambers Thesaurus it gives WITNESS as the second alternative. It is also in the Collins online thesaurus. Unfortunately, as I discovered upon checking now, neither list TESTIMONY under WITNESS.
    Anyway, many thanks to all the people who have taken the time to comment on my first 3 puzzles, and for the warm welcome I have recieved.

  14. Thanks Steerpike for a well-crafted crossword. As a non-British solver I look forward to accumulating bits of the mother tongue that are uniquely British. I missed BOFFIN but I’m not complaining. I also missed MANURE but I certainly heard of MAN U — I just couldn’t access that stored bit of info today for some reason. I had many favourites, OBSOLETE, PITA, EPISODES, and 5d among them. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  15. As Hovis@1 says, very enjoyable. And we too liked the OB< and BO< device. Our favourite, though was OPPOSABLE THUMBS.
    Thanks, Steerpike and Teacow.

  16. Thank you, Steerpike! I don’t mind the odd Britishism — all part of life’s rich tapestry! — so don’t feel compelled to avoid them! If we had a rich source of quality cryptics in Australia, we addicts wouldn’t need to go to the other side of the world for our fixes!

  17. Gee, Geoff@16, Steerpike is trying to help us out. Don’t discourage him/her! 🙂

    Seriously, thanks to Steerpike for a fun puzzle and Teacow for explaining the answers I couldn’t get.

  18. Thanks Steerpike and Teacow
    Another very good puzzle from this newish setter to the FT stable, although I was able to finish it in a Monday-typical time. It is one of the things that I enjoy about English cryptics, one picks up a lot of knowledge of all things British from geography, politics, TV characters, etc. also along with literary, opera and other high brow subjects that one may not usually get involved with.
    I was a bit ‘what the heck’ with the reversed OB and BO – but looking at the surface readings of both clues, all was forgiven.
    No other real hold ups although I didn’t previously know of the OPPOSABLE THUMBS phrase.
    Finished in the SW corner with ADDENDUM, APACHE (when I got may helicopter list together in my head) and CHESS (which I had heard of).

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