Financial Times 17,328 by GUY

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Guy provides this morning's FT challenge.

This was one of the tougher Thursday puzzles that I have blogged recently, but it was really good fun, and puzzles like this are so satisfying to solve as you appreciate the skill of the setter. Simple clues like that for BASIC and BARON were very clever, although I wasn't overly keen on the clue for PIECES OF EIGHT. I'm not entirely convinced that I have parsed 26ac properly.

Thanks, Guy – enjoyed that!

ACROSS
1 PIECES OF EIGHT
Old tender’s parts falling off during the boat race? (6,2,5)

Cryptic definition – "Parts falling off during the boat race" may describe PIECES falling from a crew on a boat (EIGHT in the University Boat Race)
9 EXAMPLE
Paper plate that’s chucked at model (7)

EXAM ("paper") + PL(at)E [that's chucked AT]
10 CHEATER
Sharp taps worry William’s granny (7)

C + H (cold and hot "taps") + EAT ("worry") + ER (Elizabeth Regina, so "William's granny")
11 SNOWY
White immediately pocketed by a gutted Stephen Hendry (5)

NOW ("immediately") pocketed by [a gutted] S(tephen Hendr)Y
12 NAME NAMES
Snitch in Gethsemane manacled on return (4,5)

Hidden backwards in [in…on return] "gethSEMANE MANacled"
13 DEAD DUCK
Cooked bird, inevitable turkey? (4,4)

DEAD ("cooked") + DUCK ("bird")
15 MAYDAY
“Pick me up ASAP”; Mike always agreed to collect daughter (6)

M (Mike, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + AY ("always", in Scots) + AY ("agreed") to pick up D (daughter)
18 CREASE
Box protects concerning place for batsman (6)

CASE ("box") protects RE ("concerning")

For the non-cricketers, the crease is the line on a pitch on which the batsman places his feet while facing a bowler.
19 HOT DATES
Steamy dinners, perhaps stewed fruit? (3,5)

HOT DATES could be a romantic dinner that goes well, or it could be stewed fruit.
22 REPLICANT
Robot made lifelike original art with pencil (9)

*(art pencil) [anag:original]
24 BARON
Peer over to boozer’s right (5)

ON ("over") to right of BAR ("boozer")
25 IMAMATE
Bilingual friends go head-to-head in cleric’s office (7)

<=AMI + MATE ("friend" in French and English", so "bilingual friends" going head-to-head)
26 EN SUITE
Bathroom in use for showering, note (2,5)

*(in use) [anag:for showering] + TE ("note")

Not convinced that I have parsed this correctly, as "for showering" doesn't seem right as an anagrind?
27 TREASURE CHEST
Case with rust, 3 if it’s been disturbed? (8,5)

*(case rust three) [anag:if it's been disturbed] and &lit.
DOWN
1 PLEASED
Happy with parking paid for by length of stay (7)

P (parking) + LEASED ("paid for by length of stay")
2 ELABORATE
Highly developed English dog men took for dinner (9)

E (English) + LAB(rador) ("dog") + OR (other ranks, so "men") + ATE ("took for dinner")
3 EMPTY
Inebriate MP typically holds dirty glass (5)

Hidden in [holds] "inebriatE MP TYpically"
4 OVERNICE
Too fussy in French city’s airspace (8)

If you are OVER NICE in a plane, say, you could be described as being "in (the) French city's airspace".
5 ENCAMP
Pitch our leader spots heading north (6)

<=(PM (Prime Minister, so "our leader") + ACNE ("spots"), heading north))
6 GREENLAND
Large white area, an area for putting light? (9)

GREEN ("an area for putting" on a golf course) + LAND ("light")
7 TOTEM
Finger setter flipped is a symbol (5)

TOT ("finger", as in a measure of alcohol in a glass) + <=ME ("setter", flipped)
8 FROSTY
Unusually soft and runny on the edges, like 6? (6)

*(soft ry) [anag:unusually] where RY is R(unn)Y [on the edges]
14 DISSIPATE
Princess’s sons, having one crown, break up (9)

(Princess) DI + S + S (sons), having I (one) + PATE ("crown")
16 DETERMINE
Discover natty youth picked up expensive coat (9)

<=TED ("natty youth", picked up) + ERMINE ("expensive coat")
17 FOOTWEAR
Pay for damage getting things fixed at last (8)

FOOT ("pay for") + WEAR ("damage")

Although shoes are becoming more disposable these days, they can still be fixed by a cobbler using a last.
18 CERVIX
Neck case of champagne, six bottles right on the mark for a 27 (6)

[case of] C(hampagn)E + VI (six) bottles R on X ("the mark for a" treasure chest, the solution to "27")
20 SUNBELT
Warm clime but Len’s shivering (7)

*(but lens) [anag:shivering]
21 CARESS
Silky handling of, say, 911 Turbo S (6)

CAR ("911 Turbo, say") + ESS ("S")
23 PLAIT
Queue climbing mountain starts to inflame tempers (5)

[climbing] <=ALP ("mountain") + [starts to] I(nflame) T(empers)
24 BASIC
Simple like ballpoint pens (5)

BIC ("ballpoint") pens AS ("like")

26 comments on “Financial Times 17,328 by GUY”

  1. As you say, Loonapick, not a pushover but very rewarding to get there in the end!
    That’s how I read 26a.
    So many gems here: 25, 4, 21(nice surface) and 22 (took a while to read ‘queue’ correctly) among them.
    Cleverest, I thought, was 27 for the use of 3. If 17 was my LOI, it’s because I thought ‘last’ was more accessory than footwear, but Loonapick’s explanation works.
    Thanks to Guy and Loonapick.

  2. EN SUITE
    Your parsing looks fine to me.

    TREASURE ISLAND
    You have considered this aspect as you have taken the clue as &lit. Yet wanted to add a line:
    (It’s a) case with rust (or an) EMPTY (case), if it’s disturbed (by someone). 3 is EMPTY.

  6. Tougher than usual and I finished with the only possible solution to 18D being the one in the blog. I must confess to a total lack of knowledge of anatomy – especially of the female kind, but I thought that the “cervix” was somehow part of the internal organs of a woman. Whereas one’s “neck” is the bit that holds one’s head on one’s shoulders.

    “Plait” I knew of, as I used to plait my sister’s hair when we were younger, but “queue” as a synonym was new to me.

  7. Not many easy clues here, with PIECES OF EIGHT in particular taking a long time to see. I really liked TREASURE CHEST which relies on THREE for the wordplay component, and the solution to 3d, EMPTY, (as pointed out by KVa @2) for the cryptic definition component of a sort of hybrid &lit; that’s how I saw it anyway.

    PLAIT for ‘queue’ was also new to me. Favourite was the ‘things fixed at last’ def for FOOTWEAR.

    Thanks to Guy and loonapick

  8. I thought I didn’t know ‘plait’ could mean ‘queue’. Turns out I didn’t know ‘queue’ can mean ‘plait’. The SE was a real bugger and I needed a few cheats to get there. It was recently mentioned that S can stand for ‘son’ or ‘sons’ (see Chambers for example), so 14d could be DI’S + S + I + PATE. Loved the clue for EXAMPLE and the clue for BASIC was beautifully simple.

  9. Peter @6

    The cervix is the neck, but also an anatomical term for something neck-shaped like the part of the uterus that you refer to.

    Le queue is French for “tail”, so I think that makes sense.

  10. And ‘queue’, as Loonapick says, was also used for the plait worn traditionally by Manchurian men with partially shaved heads.

  12. Another good puzzle in a good week.
    TREASURE CHEST – so clever how it works with the letters “THREE” and as an &lit with the answer at 3 EMPTY.
    I missed this, thinking it would be either/or but it’s both!
    Well spotted Diane & KVa.
    And Thanks, Guy and loonapick

  15. 20a has ‘shivering’ and
    26a has ‘showering’;
    I don’t see a world of difference between them. I’ve seen such a wide variety of anagrinds here, I just shrugged.

  16. I found this difficult and missed footwear, which now seems quite easy.

    Grrrrr.

    Some marvellous clues. Mayday a baffled me for a long time and they were a few I couldn’t parse so thanks for solving these.

  17. Diane@15
    Agree that the list of anagrinds is growing by the day.
    Shivering and showering are both fine as anagrinds, I feel.
    When it is ‘FOR showering’, it seems odd to me.

  20. I see. Thank you, Simon. I didn’t have the staying power today, and abandoned ship with less than half solved. Plenty I was unfamiliar with, such as queue/plait and tot/finger.

  22. Thanks Guy for the challenge. I needed to use a word finder to get the clever IMAMATE as well as FOOTWEAR and I couldn’t parse 27a. I liked CHEATER for “William’s granny” and CARESS for its surface imagery. Thanks loonapick for the blog. Nothing surprises me when it comes to words as anagrinds.

  23. KVA@17 I agree that “shivering” works well enough as an anagram indicator, as Chambers lists “quiver” and “tremble” amongst the meanings of “shiver”, both of which suggest shaking. But there is nothing I can see in the meanings of “shower” given in Chambers that suggests any sort of rearrangement or disorder. Perhaps I have missed something, or a meaning given elsewhere provides the necessary support? As far as the word “for” in 26A is concerned, my impression is that it is not intended to form part of the anagram indicator: I think the structure is FODDER “for” REARRANGEMENT.

  24. Ref ‘showering’ as anagrind, the analogy that came to me was showering newly-weds with confetti (if it’s still allowed): a tightly gripped handful of paper is thrown in the air and comes down in a completely different arrangement.

  26. Thanks, Loonapick, your assessment hits the nail on the head for me – this was a very satisfying puzzle to solve. CREASE was my favourite but there was so much else to enjoy here. Bravo, Guy.

    Fortunately, I know “queue de cheval” as French for ponytail so it wasn’t too much of a mental leap to get PLAIT.

    Tony S @22 – re anagram indicators: quite. Not really much else to say on the matter.

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