Financial Times 17,308 by GUY

by

Many thanks to Guy for this morning’s challenge.

Smooth sailing for the most part. A good variety of clues with some clever misdirections. Just not sure about the ‘outside’ bit in 23a…

Reading the first and last columns we get “MUCH MORE THAN THIS” – a song by the great Chris de Burgh, though I can’t be sure that is what the setter is referring to. A great puzzle from a reliably witty setter.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Car generally admired by Chinese Tesla dealer (8)
MERCHANT

MERC (car generally admired) by HAN (Chinese) + T (Tesla)

6. Manual worker playing I-spy between times (6)
TYPIST

(I-SPY)* (*playing) between T+T (times)

9. Happy to see the latest news (6)
UPDATE

UP (happy) + DATE (to see)

10. Ridicule bands making comeback (4-4)
POOH-POOH

(HOOP + HOOP)< (bands, <making a comeback)

11. Padding that’s firm and dry worn by women, backing up toilet (6,4)
COTTON WOOL

CO (firm) and TT (dry, teetotal) + ON (worn by) + W (women) + LOO< (toilet, <backing up)

12. Bovary perhaps a Madame you should recall (4)
EMMA

(A + MME (Madame))< (<you should recall)

13. Subatomic particle that’s surprising PhD by never spinning (6)
HADRON

HA (that’s surprising) + DR (PhD) by NO< (never, <spinning)

15. Seventh element that’s in caffeine? (8)
NITROGEN

[caffei]N[e] – EDIT: Thanks to Peter@2: N is also the 7th letter in caffeine, making this clue &lit

Google says caffeine is just under 30% nitrogen

18. Who the devil is this poem about? (8)
MEPHISTO

(THIS POEM)* (*about)

20. Papers repeated the very thing that was successful (1,3,2)
I DID IT

ID + ID (papers, repeated) + IT (the very thing)

21. Yes, gran peeled vegetables (4)
OKRA

OK (yes) + [g]RA[n] (peeled)

23. Penny has ordered her tomcat outside for being destructive indoors (6-4)
CARPET-MOTH

(P (penny) + HER TOMCAT)* (*ordered)

25. Port artist consumed full of flavour enhancer (8)
RAMSGATE

RA (artist) + ATE (consumed) full of MSG (flavour enhancer)

26. Festival in Shangri-la, widespread to the west (6)
DIWALI

[Shangr]I-LA WID[espread] (in, <to the west)

27. Each golfer initially allowed a birdie (6)
EAGLET

EA (each) + G[olfer] (initially) + LET (allowed)

28. They shower requests on Santa’s head (8)
SPRAYERS

PRAYERS (requests) on S[anta’s] (head)

DOWN
2. Snoopy manoeuvres close to Charlie as pigeon flutters (9)
ESPIONAGE

[Charli]E (close to) + (AS PIGEON)* (*flutters)

3. Bend over daily for proficiency (5)
CRAFT

ARC< (bend, <over) + FT (daily)

4. Mountain range risen in Nepal keeps rising (9)
APENNINES

[ri]SEN IN NEPA[l] (keeps, <rising)

5. Grass turned blue under boss’s control (3-4)
TOP-DOWN

POT< (grass, <turned) + DOWN (blue)

6. Try to wind up loo paper when half-cut (5)
TROLL

[toile]T ROLL (loo paper, when half-cut)

7. Tucking into beer, maybe masks pizza’s flavour (9)
PEPPERONI

Tucking into PERONI (beer), PPE (maybe masks)

8. Attack upset Miss Otis’s father, presumably absent one (5)
STORM

MR OT[i]S< (Miss Otis’s father presumably, absent I (one), <upset)

14. Drill tries going through concrete (9)
REHEARSAL

HEARS (tries) going through REAL (concrete)

16. Kind hosts bother making weak batter (9)
TAILENDER

TENDER (kind) hosts AIL (bother)

A cricketing term

17. Letter writer’s arm always cramps (9)
EPISTOLER

PISTOL (arm), EER (always) cramps

19. Doctor lasers opening for otoplasty, having no blades (7)
OARLESS

(LASERS + O[toplasty] (opening for))* (*doctor)

22. Moral lead regularly given by King, a tree-hugger (5)
KOALA

[m]O[r]A[l] L[e]A[d] (regularly) given by K (king)

23. Take it easy when in bed (5)
COAST

AS (when) in COT (bed)

24. How 20 is a number (2,3)
MY WAY

How I DID IT (from 20a) = “I Did It MY WAY” – a song/number by Sinatra

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,308 by GUY”

  3. Well spotted, Peter. I missed that.

    Not sure what you are referring to, Oriel, in your comment about ‘outside’ in 23a. Needed both for the surface (an excellent one, I thought) and the wordplay since P is inside the anagram.

  4. Quite enjoyable, my favourites were UPDATE & REHEARSAL. I couldn’t parse STORM, NITROGEN or CRAFT, but all pretty obvious once they’re explained here. 23a led me to think that I was looking for a verb, not a noun.

    Thanks Guy & Oriel.

  6. WordPlodder, you may know, or not, that “My Way” is an adaptation of the French song “Comme d’habitude” (French for “As Usual” – not to be confused with the Brenda Lee hit). The tune was originally used with English lyrics by David Bowie on his song “Even a Fool Learns to Love”.

    Later, Paul Anka wrote his own version of the song that became a big hit for Frank Sinatra. Interestingly, neither Bowie’s nor Anka’s version has lyrics that relate to the original French lyrics which are about the gradual breakdown of a relationship. Great tune, though and one of Sinatra’s best.

    ….regrets, I’ve had a lot, and if you’ve got, sometime I’ll tell you…

  7. Thanks Peter, no I didn’t know that. All very interesting. Yes, I like Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way”, though of the songs he recorded at about that time my favourite is “I Have Been A Rover” (“Love’s Been Good To Me”) which I think was written by Rod McKuen.

    V. enjoyable crossword even without the theme. I missed the N being the seventh letter of ‘caffeine’ too which makes what I thought was a fairly loose clue into a top notch one. Lots of other good clues with my pick being the misleading context of ‘maybe masks’ for PPE in PEPPERONI.

    Thanks to Guy and Oriel

  8. Thanks Guy and Oriel

    23ac: Following Hovis@3, I think the parsing here really has to be P in (HER TOMCAT)*. Of course, (P + HER TOMCAT)* would also be a valid construction for CARPETMOTH, but it does not fit the order of the words in the clue.

  9. Peter @6
    Just for the record, ‘Comme d’habitude’ was co-written by Claude Francois. It related to the break-up of his relationship with France Gall, Eurovision Song Contest winner for Luxembourg in 1965.

  10. This is a wonderful crossword. I didn’t find it easy, but I did get there with my LOIs Update and Craft. I needed a bit of help from the thesaurus on a few clues.

    I missed the Sinatra theme though did spot the N as the seventh letter of nitrogen.

    Lots and lots of ticks, including hadron, carpetmoth, sprayers and tailender

    Thank you to all.

    Marvellous how so many of the clues read as perfect, sensible sentences. Incredible craftsmanship.

  11. Missed the theme and missed the 7th letter of caffeine and still thought it was a great crossword. Had to come here to find out quite how good. Thanks to both Guy and Oriel for improving my day.

  12. I echo Moly @10 – wonderful crossword. Very well crafted throughout, witty, inventive, elegant and devious. Didn’t spot the Nina. Fave for me was the very tidy HADRON – look, Roz, a science clue! And another one immediately after it!

  13. Peter @6 – much like the sentimental drivel that is Terry Jacks’ Seasons in the Sun bears no relation to Brel’s bitter, angry Le Moribond, the song it is ostensibly translated from (by the aforementioned Rod McKuen, in fact, who seems to have made a habit of this kind of thing).

  14. Thanks Guy for a slew of excellent clues. MEPHISTO was my FOI and I knew then that I would enjoy this crossword. I didn’t get 16d — cricket remains a mystery to me. I didn’t look for a nina but I will next time. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  16. Way too late for anyone to see, but I just had to comment on the theme/nina/24d:

    (a) Paul Anka (from my home town and high school) doesn’t get enough credit for this song. Besides writing the English version, it was as much a hit for him as it was for Sinatra.

    (b) For my money the greatest recorded song by Sinatra is “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” – quintessential Old Blue Eyes.

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