Financial Times 17,302 by IO

by

Wonderful to see Io back so soon.

Definitely not an easy ride, but a good one! Io is in top form.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1/9/11. Things won’t change what vet users must! (4,4,4)
TWAS EVER THUS

(WHAT VET USERS)* (*must – implying change in context)

3. Will reductio ad absurdum reach this flannelled fool? (5,5)
SILLY POINT

Cryptic/double definition

Silly point is a position in cricket – hence the flannelled fool

Reductio ad absurdum is a silly point

10. So idiot gets it off in the sun? (2,8)
ON VACATION

So (i.e. on vacation) I[dio]T gets IT

12. Occupying pod, this obsessed fan catches band live (6,4)
STRING BEAN

STAN (obsessed fan) catches RING (band) + BE (live)

14. Surely Io’s most effective solver (2,7,3)
I’M TELLING YOU

I’M (Io’s) + TELLING (most effective) + YOU (solver)

17. Get rid of Anne’s nasty root problem (6-3-3)
FINGER-AND-TOE

(GET RID OF ANNE)* (*nasty)

20. Moving to the sun, dishonestly obtained rides in ferries and cabs? (10)
PHOTOTAXIS

HOT (dishonestly obtained) rides in P&O (ferries) and TAXIS (cabs)

P&O Ferries is a ferry company – probably a stretch for non-locals!

21/23/25 Model whom painter’s welcoming so heartily (4,4,4)
WITH OPEN ARMS

(WHOM PAINTER’S)* (*model)

22. As a rule what Serbian uses to pay International Airport guards (10)
ORDINARILY

(DINAR (what Serbian uses to pay) + I (international)); ORLY (airport) guards

24. What client is leaving barber – jumble! (10)
BALDERDASH

BALDER (what client is leaving barber) + DASH (-)

DOWN
1. Highlight of magic act not entirely affected? (8)
THEATRIC

THE A (highlight) of TRIC[k] (magic act, not entirely)

2. Grenade Quatermass secures all right (8)
ADEQUATE

[gren]ADE QUATE[rmass] (secures)

4. Refashioning God and Christ? Insane! (2,7,6)
IS NOTHING SACRED

(GOD CHRIST INSANE)* (*refashioning) &lit

5. Such editorialising characterised by “1 Down” and “anal”? (7,8)
LEADING ARTICLES

From 1 down: THE + A + [tric]; AN + A + [l]

6. Where we may recreate Hamlet as Thelma? (10)
PLAYGROUND

Cryptic definition

(HAMLET)* i.e. a PLAY (*ground) = THELMA

7. A Van Gogh grows on one (6)
IRISES

RISES (grows) on I (one)

8. Locum Doctor? As per broadcast, he holds the title (6)
TENANT

“TENNANT” (Locum doctor, “as broadcast”)

Referring to David Tennant – actor – playing Dr Who

13. Fine compiler writes country club devious clue about some whisky? (5,5)
FLUID OUNCE

F (fine) + (I DO (compiler writes) + UN (country club)); (CLUE)* (*devious) about

15. The top feature for sleazy tourist? (8)
STRIPPER

S[leazy] (the top feature for) + TRIPPER (tourist) &lit

16. Alcohol has blackener in it, IMO (8)
METHINKS

METHS (alcohol) has INK (blackener) in it

IMO = In my opinion

18. A lead actor in The Ladykillers who’s kept cool (6)
APLOMB

A + PB (lead); LOM (actor in The Ladykillers) kept

Referring to Herbert Lom

19. Verse form is right on key (6)
RONDEL

R (right) + ON + DEL (key)

30 comments on “Financial Times 17,302 by IO”

  2. As usual, too hard for me to enjoy and used several cheats to finish (although I don’t get why ‘stan’ is ‘obsessed fan’). Always a learning (and hopefully improving) exercise.

    In 6d, I took “where we may recreate” as the definition with “recreate” in the sense of indulging in sports/pastimes.

  3. Hovis, I was also stumped by “Stan the obsessed fan” and thought that it might be related to the Robert de Niro character in the movie “The Fan’. It turns out that it’s a reference to an Eminen recording (I refuse to refer to it as a “song”) called “Stan”.

    I was not familiar with 17A “finger and toe” and needed the cross letters to solve it.

    As usual, with 3A, the cricketing reference eluded me.

    I loved 19A.

  4. About the most charitable thing I can say is that I did not enjoy this at all. Maybe I am just too dull to appreciate the wit. I still do not understand 5D, even with the “explanation” in the blog. The first parts of those words (with a bunch of random letters left over) are the articles (i.e., parts of speech)??? Is that the clue???

  5. Hovis @2 – ‘Stan’ is a relatively new word which has been post-etymologised as a portmanteau of ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’ but I believe was actually coined by rapper Eminem in his song ‘Stan’ released in 2000 (Click here for the music video – be warned: it has some potentially unsettling lyrics and probably isn’t safe for work unless you work in a startup in which case I imagine it’s played every morning before the daily “stand-up”).

    I really enjoyed this crossword. I usually only do the Guardian but a comment on said site encouraged me to investigate and I’m very glad I did – a proper challenge with several laughs and cries of faux-outrage. Thank you IO, and Oriel for the informative blog.

    And like Hovis, I interpreted ‘recreate’ thusly.

  6. Thanks Peter. I do remember the Eminem single. I even thought about it and dismissed it as being too obscure a reference.

  8. As the saying goes “beyond my pay grade” and like Hovis @2, this was too much of a slog for me to enjoy with several in the NE corner remaining unsolved. I did like a few bits though, especially working out the parsing of PHOTOTAXIS and learning a new word at the same time and the ‘-‘ as part of the wordplay for BALDERDASH.

    Thanks to Io and Oriel – great effort to work everything out

  9. A real challenge. Very clever and varied cluing. Eclectic references to Eminem, Doctor Who, Herbert Lom, Van Gogh’s Irises, P&O,..
    The obligatory cricket term , a couple of &lits and a root disease nobody’s ever heard of, but was gettable from the crossers.
    What more could you want?
    If anyone’s interested FT 17,303 by MONK – tomorrow’s crossword, I’m assuming – is available on the website dated December 15 2022.
    It’s another good one, with a theme.

  10. Thanks for the blog, another fantastic puzzle from IO .
    IS NOTHING SACRED just brilliant , ORDINARILY so clever , country club=UN so original, I could go on.
    Flannelled fools is a P G Wodehouse term for cricketers .
    Cineraria @ 4 , THE A tric and AN A l both have two articles at the start of the word, so have LEADING ARTICLES.

  11. TWAS EVER THUS
    (WHAT VET USERS)* (*must – implying change in context)

    Just starting out in cryptics and finding this website so useful for learning, thank you! I solved 1A, but can someone explain why ‘must’ implies a change in context, i.e. an anagram. I just don’t get it!

  14. I used to think that Io was the more solver-friendly of our setter’s aliases but that wasn’t the case today. I gave it a go and then went for a walk and managed to fill in the rest on my return home

    Thanks to Io for the brain-stretching treat and to Oriel for the blog

  15. The two dangling bits of grid NW and SE looked scary with one solution in each providing all the crossers, but they turned out to be the easiest bits. After that, I needed a lot of help, or perhaps just more patience.
    PLAYGROUND was favourite of the many good ones, also IRISES (what a nice ‘normal’ clue) and IS NOTHING SACRED.
    For ‘Moving to the sun’ in 20a I thought ‘helio-‘ and on finding that heliotaxis exists and fitted the definition I put that in, which turned out to be a big spanner, but all sorted out eventually.
    Hats off to Oriel for winkling it all out (hasn’t your underlining gone awry in 3a, where the gap should be after ‘this’?) and thanks to IO.

  16. Thanks Io and Oriel
    1dn: I think we are supposed to take “Highlight of magic act” all together to indicate THE A TRICK, and then the “not entirely” for removing the last letter.
    I do not normally bother to express my opinions on this site, but I seriously dislike the arrangement of answers in the NW and SE corners. If I cannot solve a clue without any checked letters, I want to earn the checked letters one at a time, not have an answer with six checked letters which can only be discovered in threes. Maybe that is just my opinion, but I feel it strongly enough to state it here.

  18. A few guesses and a couple not fully parsed. Beaten only by 3a, where my first guess was YIELD POINT suggested by online Chambers to fit in with the crossers. My second guess was correct.

  19. This puzzle certainly stopped me from resting on my laurels. I found it tough-going and needed a few rounds to actually finish but it wasn’t without its pleasures.
    Like others, I really enjoyed PLAYGROUND, along with ORDINARILY, METHINKS, IS NOTHING SACRED and IRISES.
    Very rewarding.
    Thanks to IO and Oriel for a sterling blog to illuminate some very liberal guesswork.

  20. A couple of points that may be worth noting:

    3ac: “flannelled fools” comes from the 1903 poem “The Islanders” by Rudyard Kipling, predating Wodehouse. The line quoted in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (at least 3rd and 5th editions) reads “With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals.”

    13dn: A bit like “Cambridge University” for MIT, I think of “country club” for UN as one of those crossword clichés which crop up from time to time. For example, it was used by Italicus in the Independent in October 2022, and by Picaroon in a Guardian Jumbo crossword in July 2022. In January 2021 Tees in the Independent used “country club” for EU.

    (I should add that I am perfectly aware that I am liable to factual error myself. I am always glad of correction when I do, so that I am less likely to repeat the mistake.)

  21. I congratulate everyone who completed this. I was miles away. Very disappointing after a good run of completions.

    Wasted maybe a couple of hours of my life trying. They will never be recovered. Didn’t enjoy.

    Thank you for trying to explain

  22. Thanks, Io and Oriel!

    Clever wordplay with easy answers= fun
    Straight wordplay with difficult answers= fun
    Clever wordplay with difficult answers= impossible for me

    Anil

  24. I still can’t parse 10a even though I solved the rest of it eventually, I seem to be missing something obvious?

  25. Thank you everyone for your comments!

    Tambu @10:
    So idiot gets it off in the sun? (2,8)
    “off in the sun” is the straight part of the clue which directly means ON VACATION
    For the cryptic element: when we “vacate” the word IDIOT – i.e. remove all the letters from the word keeping only the outer two, we are left with IT, hence IDIOT on vacation (“so” in the clue) gets IT

  26. Oriel@25: I think I would add to your explanation of 10ac, that “off in the sun” is only a possible way of being on vacation – this is indicated by the question mark at the end of the clue.

  28. Phew! Finally finished this. Thanks for the blog, Oriel, and thanks, Io, for what is for me the best puzzle of the year so far. Well worth the effort of chipping away at it, so many wonderful penny drops. Just delightful.

    FrankieG @9 sums it up perfectly for me – everything from Ealing comedy to hiphop, what more indeed could you want?

  29. If you’re still reading this, JH, I loved the ferry rides, the flannelled fool and the running bald man. I think Io is possibly my favourite of your incarnations,

  30. Thanks Oriel, this took me all this time but enjoyed it (with the occasional curse en route) and thanks also Roz for recommending it elsewhere. While I understood 10a I think the so…gets pairing is less than crystal clear – not unfair nor incorrect though. Bonus point for use of STAN so thanks Io, i always learn a lot from your puzzles (and from the blog too eg source of flannelled fools) although not all of it sticks, unfortunately!

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