Financial Times 17,259 by GUY

A most enjoyable puzzle from Guy this morning.

Apologies for the lateness of publishing this morning – some technical HICCUPs. Thanks to Guy for a very elegant set of clues with some excellent surfaces.

ACROSS

1. Store took a lot of booze back (5)

DEPOT

TOPED< (took a lot of booze, <back)

4. Short time, almost too short for bike racing (9)

MOTOCROSS

MO (short time) + TO[o] (almost) + CROSS (short)

9. Horror of King and Queen being infected (7)

CARRIER

CARRIE (horror of King, Stephen King) and R (queen)

10. Maybe King’s or Queen’s saddle on horse’s back (7)

COLLEGE

COL (saddle, geographically) + LEG (on, cricket reference) + [hors]E (back)

11. New air hostess jogged for fitness on transatlantic trip, perhaps (13)

SEAWORTHINESS

(NEW AIR HOSTESS)* (*jogged)

14. American sailors docked in Middle Eastern port (4)

ACRE

A (American) + CRE[w] (sailors, docked)

15. Residents come to mind being fed pudding with spades (9)

OCCUPIERS

OCCUR (come to mind) being fed PIE (pudding) with S (spades)

18. Quarter of London church during a mass contains women (9)

CHINATOWN

CH (church) + IN (during) + A TON (a mass) contains W (women)

19. Fall road trip heading for red leaves (4)

DIVE

D[r]IVE (road trip, R[ed] (heading for) leaves)

21. Ray stole jewellery including diamonds for sport (13)

SKATEBOARDING

SKATE (ray) + BOA (stole) + (RING (jewellery) including D (diamonds))

24. Rather ruins tea dunking sandwiches (7)

INSTEAD

[ru]INS TEA D[unking] (sandwiches)

26. Virginia played without Charlie after Charlie left (7)

VACATED

VA (Virginia) + A[c]TED (played without C (Charlie)) after C (Charlie, NATO phonetic)

27. Foul dank creek completely drained (9)

KNACKERED

(DANK CREEK)* (*foul)

28. Helen’s second husband runs forward in doubles (5)

PARIS

R (runs) forward in PAIRS (doubles)

DOWN

1. One down comes from nought (4)

DUCK

Double definition

2. IKEA reports wobbly reconstruction behind the curtain (11)

PERESTROIKA

(IKEA REPORTS)* (*wobbly) – curtain being the Iron Curtain

3. A western island NATO mostly protects? On the contrary (6)

TAIWAN

(A + W (western) + I (island), (NAT[o] (mostly) protects)< (<on the contrary) &lit

4. Maiden bowed before sweet explorer (5,4)

MARCO POLO

M (maiden) + ARCO (bowed) before POLO (sweet)

5. Unspoken magnetic attraction keeps returning (5)

TACIT

[magne]TIC AT[traction]< (keeps, <returning)

6. Name one work by English female that’s inspiring (8)

CALLIOPE

CALL (name) + I (one) + OP (work) by E (English)

7. Encouragement for Ballesteros, perhaps, if his target lacks aspiration? (3)

OLE

[h]OLE (his target, lacks aspiration)

Ballesteros is a Spanish golfer; to aspirate is to pronounce an “h”

8. Flight tires out relative (10)

STEPSISTER

STEPS (flight) + (TIRES)* (*out)

12. Venus usually gave tennis shot a bit of rage (7,4)

EVENING STAR

(GAVE TENNIS)* (*shot) + R[age] (a bit of)

13. Length of a light tie attracts criticism (10)

MATCHSTICK

MATCH (tie) attracts STICK (criticism)

16. Elaborate fraud attempted; Victor’s taken in by it (9)

CONTRIVED

CON (fraud) + TRIED (attempted); V (Victor, NATO phonetic) taken in by it

17. Audio equipment to bug the fifth floor? (4,4)

TAPE DECK

TAP (bug) + E DECK (E being the fifth letter of the alphabet, DECK meaning floor – i.e. A DECK would be first floor, B DECK second etc.)

20. Slight difficulty listening to bumpkin going on (6)

HICCUP

“HICK” (bumpkin, “listening to”) + UP (going on)

22. Class seconds from hometime tries addition very grudgingly (5)

ORDER

[h]O[metime] [t]R[ies] [a]D[dition] [v]E[ry] [g]R[udgingly] (seconds from)

23. An operating system’s troubles (4)

ADOS

A + DOS (an + operating system)

25. Spring ultimately comes every year (3)

SPA

[Come]S (ultimately) + PA (every year, per annum)

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,259 by GUY”

I agree, Oriel, very enjoyable. 1d took me far too long to see. I often get caught out by constructions such as ‘being infected’ however nnany times I see them
Thanks Eccles and Guy.

Many!

Rats! I mean 9a, of course.

Oh dear, maybe I should go back to bed. Thanks Oriel.

We all have those days Sourdough! 🙂
Thanks for your comments

Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this, a very clever set of clues. wide variety of international references. PERESTROIKA wins by a short head..
One very minor quibble, it does not matter, Venus is not quite usually an evening star. For each synodic cycle it averages 263 days as both a morning and evening star.

V. enjoyable. All parsed except I don’t know who Helen’s first husband was. Favourites were the PERESTROIKA def and especially the &lit TAIWAN. Let’s hope it not put to the test…

Thanks to Guy and Oriel

WordPlodder , Helen was stolen from Menelaus, caused a bit of trouble with the Trojans.

Thanks Guy for the challenge. I had to reveal ACRE and needed a hint to get COLLEGE but I was able to solve the rest. There were a ton of excellent clues. My top choices were MOTORCROSS, SEAWORTHINESS, SKATEBOARDING, INSTEAD, VACATED, DUCK, and the &lit TAIWAN. So far this has been a wonderful week of FT crosswords. Thanks Oriel for the blog — I didn’t know that polo = sweet.

Thanks Guy and Oriel

Tony@9: Polo Mints are a well known brand of sweet, known from their shape as “the mint with the hole”.

Pelham Barton @10: Thanks. They seem similar to Life Savers in the States.

Thanks for a Goldilocks puzzle that I quite enjoyed. The only ones I couldn’t parse were DUCK & CARRIER.

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