Financial Times 17,251 by GAFF

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An anniversary puzzle today from GAFF…

Greetings from Barcelona. I’m here to celebrate a friend’s birthday today – a day which is also 100 years since the first ever broadcast by the BBC, leading to the Nina around the edge.

A very enjoyable solve, and fairly plain sailing, except for 14a which I cannot parse (thankyou to Wordplodder@! for providing an explanation).

 

Thanks GAFF!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8. Boil no white fish (6)
SIMMER

S[w]IMMER (fish, no W (white))

9. One interrogated by deposed dictator has meek heart (8)
EXAMINEE

EX (deposed) + AMIN (dictator, Idi Amin) has [m]EE[k] (heart)

10. Young escorts corrupted by tenors (4,4)
RENT BOYS

(BY TENORS)* (*corrupted)

11. Applied for relief from clutch of diamonds (3,3)
ICE BAG

Double definition

12. Decides umpire slightly rewound second hand (4)
USED

([deci]DES U[mpire] (slightly))< (<rewound)

13. Theoretical place for fair with tractor (5,5)
IVORY TOWER

IVORY (fair) with TOWER (tractor)

14. Burgundy, for example, in pool is eccentric (7)
ODDBALL

Double (cryptic) definition.

The burgundy ball in the game of pool is the number 7, and is thus an ODD BALL. 

Many thanks to Wordplodder@1 for providing this explanation. Also my friend Nick who did so independently.

16. Look to measure back of antelope (7)
GAZELLE

GAZE (look) + (ELL)< (measure, <back)

20. Brooks no need from crooked elder statesmen (10)
STREAMLETS

([e]L[de]R STATESME[n] (no NEED))* (*crooked)

23. Reduced account with coin (4)
ANNA

ANNA[l] (account, reduced)

Once a sixteenth of a rupee

24. Communist paintings returned by dealer (6)
TRADER

(RED (communist) + ART (paintings))< (<returned)

25. Tipsy group of ladies left inside towards the end (8)
TWILIGHT

TIGHT (tipsy), (WI (group of ladies) + L (left)) inside

26. Mark could make gains in semi-final (8)
INSIGNIA

(GAINS IN [sem]I (final))* (*could make)

27. Winter sport for runner with float (6)
SKIBOB

SKI (runner) with BOB (float)

DOWN
1. Allowed to slice end off (8)
LICENSED

(SLICE END)* (*off)

2. Expressed desire for even more of the extremely delicious starters (6)
EMOTED

E[ven] M[ore] O[f] T[he] E[xtremely] D[elicious] (starters)

3. A jolly old coin bearing symbols (8)
ARMORIAL

A + RM (jolly, Royal Marine) + O (old) + RIAL (coin)

4. Dislike topless form (7)
VERSION

[a]VERSION (dislike, topless)

5. Because I play even with little effort (6)
EASILY

b[E]c[A]u[S[e] I [p]L[a]Y (evenly)

6. Boring book about rise in chaos (8)
TIRESOME

TOME (book) about (RISE)* (*in chaos)

7. Divinity teacher endlessly confused (6)
HECATE

(TEACHE[r] (endlessly))* (*confused)

15. Roll container around behind bar without second thought (5,3)
BREAD BIN

(BE[h]IND BAR (without [t]H[ought] (second)))* (*around)

17. Part of establishing position with basic SAS training (8)
ABSCISSA

(BASIC SAS)* (*training)

18. Unlawful company hoping for suspension (5,3)
LYNCH MOB

Cryptic definition

19. Dominant key (7)
CENTRAL

Double definition

21. Soundly ejected from power (6)
THRONE

“thrown” (ejected, “soundly”)

22. The part of Homer in our fine yarn (6)
MERINO

[ho]MER IN O[ur] (part of)

23. Detectives captured by spies turned bitter (6)
ACIDIC

CID (detectives) captured by (CIA (spies))< (<returned)

7 comments on “Financial Times 17,251 by GAFF”

  1. I found this hard and had to rely on the Nina to get me home. Some sneaky definitions (eg ‘Part of establishing position’ at 17a and I found the NE corner especially tough with HECATE, ICE BAG, IVORY TOWER and VERSION holding me up.

    For 14a, I didn’t know before, but looking it up now, apparently the number 7 ball (ie an odd numbered ball =ODDBALL) in the game of pool is ‘Burgundy’ coloured. Just a suggestion anyway.

    Thanks to Gaff and Teacow

  2. Well, I couldn’t parse 14a either. I look forward to someone else working it out. And I couldn’t work out why RM is jolly, although I did remember your Women’s Institute, so I’m learning. SKIBOB & HECATE were new to me. Overall quite enjoyable.

  4. Geoff, I think that Jolly was a Royal Marine doctor and appeared in this space a few weeks ago. It was new to me then.

    Re 8A: I love cooking and I do not consider “boil” to be the same as “simmer”.

    I also couldn’t parse 14A – I have never played billiards/pool/snooker and have no idea of the difference between them.

    17D brings back memories of maths – my favourite subject at school.

    P.S. why does this English website want to remove the “u” from “favourite” in my comment above?

  7. Thanks for the blog , I really enjoyed this.
    ODDBALL , traditionally in the UK the pool balls have been “spots” 1 -7 and “stripes” 9 – 15.
    Burgundy being 7 and 15 so both odd. Sadly the modern trend seems to be 7 solid red and 7 solid yellow, far less pleasing .
    STREAMLETS was very clever and I liked INSIGNIA with the semi-final.

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