Financial Times 17,367 by Rosa Klebb

by

Weekend puzzle from the FT of March 25, 2023

I believe this is the most challenging puzzle yet from Rosa. It includes two words that are new to me, WEEDICIDE and DEMONYM.  I believe I have come across URTICATION before but it did not spring to mind when I needed it and I needed a pattern-matching tool to get it.

I noted a few interesting associations in the puzzle:

The leftmost column reads SWITCH ON AND OFF

Two clues involve nettles, 9 (WEEDICIDE) and 16 (URTICATION)

15 (OKLAHOMANS) is an example of 25 (DEMONYM)

ACROSS
9 WEEDICIDE
Hearing setters settle way to kill nettles? (9)
Homophone (hearing) of “we decide” (setters settle). A ‘weedicide’, a new term for me, is what is more commonly called a weed-killer.
10 VILLA
Property wrongfully seized by Victoria and Albert (5)
ILL (wrongfully) in (seized by) V and A
11 THRILLS
Dipping right hand back into cash registers for kicks (7)
RH (right hand) backwards (back) in (into) TILLS (cash registers)
12 GARNISH
Freely sharing parsley, perhaps (7)
Anagram (freely) of SHARING
13 HAD
Conned Henry and Maud on a regular basis (3)
H (henry) + [m]A[u]D
14 GHOSTBUSTER
Tax investigator and head of government entertain bankrupt royal (11)
G[overnment] + HOST (entertain) + BUST (bankrupt) + ER (royal)

Apparently some tax inspectors refer to themselves as ghostbusters. This is news to me!
17 OPERA
Trollope rarely includes drama (5)
Hidden word (includes)
18 LIE
Porky middles of old, hairy men (3)
[o]L[d] [ha]I[ry] [m]E[n]
19 TRIPE
Ultimately not ready to eat offal (5)
[no]T + RIPE (ready to eat)
21 ANAESTHETIC
Number Ten cat: is he a stray? (11)
Anagram (stray) of TEN CAT IS HE A
23 PUB
Retired, half-heartedly belch in boozer (3)
BU[r]P (half-heartedly belch) backwards (retired)
25 DEMONYM
Familiar misrepresentation of my people’s name (7)
DEMON (familiar – in the supernatural sense) + anagram (misrepresentation) of MY. A demonym is a name given to people on the basis of where they live or come from.
27 DOTTIER
Row after cook finally bought more crackers (7)
DO (cook) + [bough]T + TIER (row)
28 FERAL
Wild time in Florida! (5)
ERA (time) in (in) FL (Florida)
29 NEW FOREST
Bats of western National Park (3,6)
Anagram (bats) of OF WESTERN
DOWN
1 SWITCH
Small women long for change (6)
S (small) + W (women) + ITCH (long for)
2 BEGRUDGE
Buggered off for stint (8)
Anagram (off) of BUGGERED
3 BILLYGOATS
Gruff characters can tackle last of doubters (10)
BILLY (can) + GO AT (tackle) + [doubter]S
4 KISS
Smack children, but not daughter and son (4)
KI[d]S (children but not daughter) + S (son)
5 WEIGHTIEST
Most significant decade in inane West (10)
EIGHTIES (decade) in (in) W[es]T.  I originally parsed this incorrectly, missing the significance of ‘inane’.
6 OVER
Finished deliveries (4)
Double definition (with the second referring to cricket)
7 PLAINT
Isn’t commonly oppressed by extremely pitiful accusation (6)
P[itifu]L + AINT (isn’t commonly) in (oppressed by)
8 WARHORSE
Hears row about charger (8)
Anagram (about) of HEARS ROW
15 OKLAHOMANS
Fine prince upset sultanate’s statesmen (10)
OK (fine) + HAL (prince) backwards (upset) + OMANS (sultanate’s) with a cryptic definition
16 URTICATION
Stinging nettle in our attic (10)
Anagram (nettle) of IN OUR ATTIC. ‘Urtication’ is the sensation of being stung by nettles.
17 ON AND OFF
Chap spilling seed in front of shed occasionally (2,3,3)
ONAN (chap spilling seed) + DOFF (shed)
20 IMPAIRED
Spoilt, naughty child vented (8)
IMP (naughty child) + AIRED (vented)
22 ASMARA
Paula’s marathon round African capital (6)
Hidden word (round) with a nod presumably to Paula Radcliffe. Asmara is the capital of Eritrea.
24 BERATE
Losing connection, Bertie chewed carpet (6)
BER[tie] (bertie, losing connection) + ATE (chewed)
26 NULL
Letter with lines signifying nothing (4)
NU (letter – Greek ‘n’ that is) + LL (lines)
27 DOWN
Blue, fluffy hair (4)
Double definition

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,367 by Rosa Klebb”

  3. Thanks Rosa Klebb for a superb crossword. I agree with Pete that it was a bit more challenging but only BILLYGOATS required a word finder for me. (Billy=can is new to me.) I had many favourites as I always do with this setter; among them were FERAL, KISS, PLAINT, OKLAHOMANS, ON AND OFF (liked “chap spilling seed”), BERATE, TRIPE, and ANAESTHETIC, the latter two for their surfaces. Thanks Pete for the blog.

  4. Agree this was on the difficult side. Agree also there were many fine clues. I share many on Tony’s list and add AMARA and BEGRUDGE.

    Thanks Pete for unlocking a couple of mysteries. I could not parse ON AND OFF, LIE or GOAT – further indication this one was tough going. I was slightly disappointed that some of the difficulty sprang from the large number of new words.

    But overall the number of great clues made up for any frustration. Thanks RK and thanks Pete.

  5. Thank you Pete Maclean for GHOSTBUSTERS. I didn’t know either, and for Paula in ASMARA, and BERATE.
    Had to look up URTICATION. Chuffed to get ON AND OFF from other crossies.
    DOWN, PUB, SWITCH, NULL, LIE, TRIPE, BEGRUDGE, FERAL, ANAESTHETIC classic RK craft and humour. What a joy!

  7. Thanks for the blog , great puzzle , Urticaria is nettle-rash so that helped me . Nice trick to see Number= ANAESTHETIC instead of the usual ether.
    Good to see PDM in the FT blog, you can help Tony@3 with BILLY – Once a jolly swagman ……

  8. I know urticaria as being all rashes including allergies, not just nettle rash [I regularly get urticatia all over when a washing powder/liquid changes their formulation so that went in relatively easily. It’s a real heartsink moment when whatever brand I’ve found as safe to use announces that it’s “new and improved”, because I have another hunt to find something I can use.]

    Fun but tough puzzle. Thanks to Rosa Klebb and Pete Maclean.

  9. Enjoyable as ever from this setter.

    Demonym is a word I recognised but was last one in for us and needed checking. It seems to be of very recent coinage, and isn’t in the 2011 Chambers.

  10. A very well-crafted puzzle. I didn’t get familiar = demon in 25a, but I knew the word DEMONYM, which as Andrew B noted (@9) is not in Chambers (not in the 2016 edition either).

    I’ve seen number = anaesthetist quite recently, and it was nice to see the same ‘trick’ employed here in ANAESTHETIC.

    Thanks to Rosa and Pete.

  12. Brian it is witchcraft , a demon may take the form of a cat for example and be called a witch’s familiar.

  13. Ah yes! Thank you Roz. I see now that it is mentioned in my dictionary but it was a new one on me.

  14. Another lovely puzzle from Rosa – super clues, with witty and amusing surfaces throughout.

    I did know DEMONYM and, like others, got URTICATION from urticaria. I’m in total sympathy with Shanne’s first paragraph @8.

    I loved the ‘Gruff characters’, with happy memories of acting out the story of the three billygoats with children and grandchildren at Foxton Locks, with my husband being the troll and singing the song under the bridge.

    The clue for NULL recalled Macbeth’s ‘tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury …’

    A real delight – many thanks, Rosa and Pete.

  15. We found this fairly straightforward, the only problems being with WEEDICIDE, URTICATION and DEMONYM; the first two were easily checked in Chambers but having worked out DEMONYM we had to google to discover that it is a real word.
    GHOSTBUSTER is in Chambers (2014), with one definition being ‘an employee of the Inland Revenue responsible for detecting people who have not paid tax on their incomes.’
    Favourites were ANAESTHETIC and BILLYGOATS.
    Thanks, Rosa and Pete

  16. Delightful, thank you Rosa and Pete too. Favourites here were the cheeky BEGRUDGE and ON AND OFF, closely followed by ANAESTHETIC. Last and trickiest were GHOSTBUSTERS and BILLYGOATS, but all gettable.

  18. Pete – not sure if you’ve had a chance to check out this weekend’s April 1 Gozo puzzle yet but it seems like there’s a missing clue (unless that’s an intentional April Fools’ Day diversion?). Your thoughts would be most appreciated!

  19. There is indeed a clue missing, in both the print and online editions, and I believe it must be a mistake. The clue should be for 30 and, with all the crossers, there is only one likely answer.

Comments are closed.