Financial Times 17,283 by IO

by

My first time blogging Io – a wonderful challenge.

As others have remarked in previous blogs, Io gives us an extra layer of depth in his puzzles. I thoroughly enjoyed solving this. I found it challenging, but very clever. Thanks to Io.

I haven’t expanded on all the cryptic and double definitions as they seemed clear, but do comment if not. However, perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me could explain 23a please? A bit out of my sphere. EDIT – resolved thank you! 

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Vigilante, say, turned off news about noisy dispute (8,4)
BORROWED WORD

BORED (turned off) + WORD (news) about ROW (noisy dispute)
A word borrowed by the English language from Spanish

9. Capital cuts inaccurately give us a projection (6,5)
VISUAL IMAGE

LIMA (capital) cuts (GIVE US A)* (inaccurately)

10. Quite like battery acid, this soup? (3)
PHO

pH 0 (quite like battery acid)

11/12. Cyrano found fame this costly! (7,3,4)
THROUGH THE NOSE

Double definition

Read the plot for Cyrano de Bergerac here

13. What you should do if you don’t know about opening keg (4)
CASK

ASK (what you should do if you don’t know); C (about) opening

14. What present onset of Christmastide will become with a little time? (6,4)
RECENT PAST

(PRESENT + C[hristmastide] (onset of) + A + T (little time))* (*will become) &lit

16. Tipsy cakes go for a song (4,2,4)
ROCK OF AGES

(CAKES GO FOR)* (*tipsy)

18. Fairly rebutted these facts (4)
DATA

A TAD< (fairly, <rebutted)

21/22. The risks people take involving the press (7,7)
EXTREME IRONING

Cryptic definition
It’s a real sport – they have a World Championship competition

23. Starts being 18 with this logical circuit? (3)
NOR

EDITED:  STA[r]TS (with NO “R”) = 18 (i.e. DATA from 18a) 

24. As correspondents are doing business — remotely placed? (7,4)
TRADING POST

Double definition

25. Simple means to travel south via busy North Parade (5,3,4)
HORSE AND TRAP

(S (south) via (NORTH PARADE))* (*busy)

DOWN
2. Being inferior, 20 succeeded in 24s (2,5)
OF SORTS

O (20, i.e. nought from 20d) + S (succeeded) in FORTS (24s, i.e. trading posts from 24a)

3. Notice that repairs are on the way (4,2)
ROAD UP

Cryptic definition

4. Excluding considerable influences wouldn’t make you this mean (8,7)
WEIGHTED AVERAGE

Cryptic definition

5. I needed to read it in this original form (4,4,7)
DEAD TREE EDITION

(I NEEDED TO READ IT)* (*in this original form) &lit

6. In character, unveiled egg dish (8)
OMELETTE

[h]OME + LETTE[r] (in+ character, unveiled)

7. Receiving one doddery old PM with a certificate (7)
DIPLOMA

Receiving I (one), (OLD PM)* (*doddery) with A

8. The final stage in hand (4,8)
HOME STRAIGHT

HOME (in) + STRAIGHT (hand, poker)

9. Who might resort to violence when smuggling gold? (4,8)
VITO CORLEONE

(TO VIOLENCE)* (*resort) when smuggling OR (gold) &lit

15. Chopin, Paderewski et al rating director (4,4)
POLE STAR

POLE (Chopin, Paderewski et al) + STAR (rating)

17. On air, where did we witness the World Cup build-up coming to a head? (7)
CATARRH

“QATAR” (where did we witness the World Cup, “on air”)

19. Where Phoenix is risen? Old stories about it (7)
ARIZONA

(RIZ (risen) + O (old)) + ANA (stories) about it

20. Enough time to embrace love in court? (6)
NOUGHT

[e]NOUGH T[ime] (to embrace)

Think tennis

25 comments on “Financial Times 17,283 by IO”

  2. You did a lot better than me. Failed to get (or know) VITO CORLEONE and didn’t get BORROWED WORD. Didn’t get ROAD UP either, which seems a weak clue unless I’m missing something. Never seen RIZ for RISEN and it appears to be an unindicated Americanism.

    NOR is a type of logical gate (along with AND, OR, XOR and others). I took the cryptic part to be a reference to “no R rating” for movies, hence the 18, as in age.

  4. Well done, Oriel, for explaining this one. I had to cheat a little as I didn’t know the expressions “borrowed word”, “dead tree edition” and “extreme ironing”. I still cannot comprehend that the latter actually exists!

    I still don’t get 23A and cannot see the link between the definition and answer in 2D.

    Re 19D: I don’t see how “ANA” equates to “stories” unless it’s a reference to George W. Bush’s daughter. I assume that “RIZ” is inspired by “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz”.

    3D isn’t a sign used here in Australia but the cross letters made it easy to solve.

  5. Peter @4. It is worth remembering ANA as it crops up every now and then. It is a collection of anecdotes or something similar (it’s in Chambers, no surprise).

  6. Thanks Helfordpirate @1 and Hovis @2 – I see 23a is far more involved than I had thought.

    Peter @4: Something “of sorts” is an inferior version of something. In the sense of something being makeshift: a “bed of sorts” for example might be some old planks propped up on bricks.

  9. I managed to fill the grid correctly but as usual with Io, not all parsed. Well done to helfordpirate @1 for working out NOR, which I think just edges out Hovis @2’s alternative parsing. I couldn’t believe there is such an activity as EXTREME IRONING but it appears there is; very amusing as long as it doesn’t become a serious Olympic “sport”!

    Very happy to finish after a long time, with the unlikely BORROWED WORD my last in.

    Thanks to Io and to Oriel for doing such a great job in making sense of a v. difficult puzzle

  10. I should have said @2 that helfordpirate clearly has the correct parsing for NOR. As so often, especially with Io, I look for something a lot more sneaky than is required. Ah well, back to the drawing board.

  11. Hovis@2
    I feel the same about ROAD UP. It looks like a straight definition rather than a cryptic definition.

    Liked NOR and WEIGHTED AVERAGE.

    Thanks, I and O!

  12. Goodness, that was hard. Thanks, Oriel. I could not parse ARIZONA–I guess “riz” is fair wordplay (he said grudgingly), if the “?” on “risen” makes it OK. Not something I would have ever thought of on my own. I could not parse NOR either, and managed to find it (from the definition) only by bashing Chambers–but a fair (ingenious) clue, now that I see it. ROAD UP is not a US expression (that I am aware of), and if there is something cryptic about that clue, I don’t see it. The device used for OMELETTE is unusual, and that took me a while to parse. OF SORTS was also a tough clue. I happened to know EXTREME IRONING from my kids, who got a big kick out of people climbing the Alps to iron a shirt. The &lits/semi-&lits made for a remarkable puzzle.

  13. Thanks for a brilliant blog, it must be very daunting when it is Io , not something I would welcome. I can totally second the last sentence from Cineraria @12.
    For my own taste there were too many cryptic or double definitions , I prefer the word play . RIZ is in Chambers (US dialect ) and I think it is okay being in a US clue.
    ROAD UP perhaps we are meant to think “on the way ” means arriving soon but the actual answer seems more obvious. We have home=in twice almost consecutive , the editor should have picked this up.
    Sorry minor quibbles, I am always pleased to see Io , wish it was more often, and for Enigmatist .

  14. Riz, I mean Roz, that’s a fair point you make about 19d although it does seem a bit obscure for a Brit puzzle. Maybe others disagree.

  16. Always a treat to get a crossword from Io – I thought this a bit trickier than his usual but as usual I enjoyed the solving very much indeed. I agree with JS @15 about 15d

    Thanks very much to both Io and Oriel

  17. Thanks IO and Oriel.
    Brilliant stuff, VITO CORLEONE was LOI as I was sure the first word is VOTE… took a while to clear my cobwebs…a fav.
    Needed parsing for NOR.
    Others include:
    BORROWED WORD, DATA and RECENT PAST.
    Both &lits have terrific surfaces!

  19. Thanks, IO and Oriel. Proper challenge this. Had to reveal a few letters to get me going. Satisfying in the end though. NOR is fiendish, but in a good way. No chance with that one.

    I had the same parsing for 15d as JS.

  20. Thank you to Io and Oriel. Always something to learn here.

    I made only two marks : Data and NOR which tells you about my profession.

    The rest I got absolutely nothing! But I enjoyed Oriel’s complete telling and will attempt to remember these things when I next encounter this moon of Jupiter again!

    Anil.

  21. Anil@20 it is all part of the game. When I was learning cryptics the Guardian had a fearsome setter called Bunthorne, He would often do Saturday puzzles, and I remember trying really hard all weekend sometimes and getting precisely nothing.

  22. Delighted to read the comments here: ran through it three times and achieved nothing. Pleased to see i want the only one who found it very hard. Wasn’t on the right wavelength, yesterday morning, afternoon or this morning either!

  24. Thanks Io and Oriel. I have probably come in too late to do any good, but here goes anyway. I was not feeling well on Wednesday, and gave up on this puzzle after just a quarter of an hour with one clue solved. I did get a few more when I had another look later in the day.

    15dn: This was the one I solved in my first attempt at the puzzle. My parsing was as indicated by JS@15, but I do not think any of those who agreed have not really given the reason why we should prefer that parsing. Io may be difficult, but he is precise in his language, and so “Chopin, Paderewski et al” really should be taken as indicating the plural POLES, leaving rating to indicate TAR, taking rating in the sense of a sailor who is not an officer.

  25. In the sentence in 24 before I said that Io was precise in his language, I have wrongly put in a double negative. The simplest way to correct to what I meant to say would be to remove the second “not” from that sentence. While I am back in, I am sure that I not added anything to what previous commenters were thinking, I have just spelled it out in more detail.

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