Financial Times 17,397 by BASILISK

by

Thanks to Basilisk for this morning’s challenge.

I found this smooth sailing. Good fun! Have you spotted the authors and their works?

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Wander around China having taken year off? (6)
POTTER

POTTER[y] (china, having taken Y (year) off)

4. Predicament introduced by advertisement for outlet in Bath (8)
PLUGHOLE

HOLE (predicament) introduced by PLUG (advertisement)

9/23. Temptation for woman to touch her partner’s prominent male feature (5,5)
ADAM’S APPLE

APPLE (temptation for woman, referring to Eve in the Garden of Eden) to touch ADAM (her partner)

10. Inhospitable place was last to support African natives (9)
WASTELAND

WAS + [suppor]T (last to) + ELAND (African natives)

11. Starting to develop North American track (7)
NASCENT

N (north) + A (American) + SCENT (track)

12. Legally binding summary of policeman’s position? (2,5)
IN FORCE

Cryptic definition

13. Nose largely destroyed with white powdery substance (4)
SNOW

(NOS[e])* (*destroyed, largely) with W (white)

14. Genuinely gifted athlete is extremely committed (4-4)
TRUE BLUE

TRUE (genuinely) + BLUE (gifted athlete)

An Oxford blue or Cambridge blue is a sports representative

17. Like article appearing in unbalanced newspaper’s front-page piece (8)
MASTHEAD

AS (like) + THE (article) appearing in MAD (unbalanced)

19. Victor possibly starts to hold up game (4)
HUGO

H[old] U[p] (starts to) + GO (game)

22. Fail to attend meeting with Nationalists about Unionists (5,2)
STAND UP

NATS< (Nationalists, <about) + DUP (Unionists)

24. One gets upset in row to do with pride (7)
LEONINE

(ONE)* (*gets upset) in LINE (row)

25. Blame account and notes for creditors keen to make a killing? (9)
RAPACIOUS

RAP (blame) + AC (account) + IOUs (notes for creditors)

26. Writer’s flimsy material rejected (5)
ELIOT

TOILE< (flimsy material, <rejected)

27. Integer radius fixed circular region of plane? (4,4)
TREE RING

(INTEGER + R (radius))* (*fixed)

28. Gather profitable enterprise has lost leader for good (6)
GARNER

[e]ARNER (profitable enterprise, has lost leader for G (good))

DOWN
1. Heartless panellist could be seen as most unfair? (8)
PLAINEST

(PANE[l]LIST)* (*could be seen as, heartless)

2. Partners in favour of boarding public transport to commute (9)
TRANSFORM

N+S (partners) + FOR (in favour of) to board TRAM (public transport)

3. Objective to limit fat mostly succeeded (6)
ENSUED

END (objective) to limit SUE[t] (fat, mostly)

5. Aimless rebel’s stirring tale of revolution (3,10)
LES MISERABLES

(AIMLESS REBELS)* (*stirring)

6. Happy, uplifting experience wearing drag (7)
GLEEFUL

(FEEL (experience) wearing LUG (drag))< (<uplifting)

7. Series hosted by millionaire is being broadcast (2,3)
ON AIR

[milli]ONAIR[e] (series being hosted by)

8. Journalist stops working for revolutionary movements (6)
EDDIES

ED (journalist) + DIES (stops working)

10. Book makes weaker cases with it (9,4)
WATERSHIP DOWN

WATERS DOWN (makes weaker) cases HIP (with it)

15. Game used in version of book learning (9)
ERUDITION

RU (game, Rugby Union) used in EDITION (version of book)

16. One wanting to have trees cultivated? (8)
FORESTER

FOR (one wanting) + (TREES)* (*cultivated) &lit

18. I scared nervous passenger travelling here (7)
SIDECAR

(I SCARED)* (*nervous)

20. Liveliness of mischievous individual with heightened energy (6)
ESPRIT

SPRITE (mischievous individual) with heightened E (energy)

21. Old, old book about source of Jesus’s wine? (6)
BODEGA

(AGED (old) + O (old) + B (book))< (<about)

31 comments on “Financial Times 17,397 by BASILISK”

  2. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

    Really enjoyed this, everythingflowed at a good steady pace. The author / work pairings made for great icing on this particular cake.

  3. Very much enjoyed the literary flavour of this puzzle. I made a slow start, like Geoff, but LES MISERABLES got the ball rolling nicely.
    PLUGHOLE, LEONINE PLAINEST were favourites and the cheeky 9/23 wouldn’t be out of place in a Private Eye grid.
    Thanks to Basilisk and Oriel.

  4. Thanks, Basilisk and Oriel!
    Liked PLUGHOLE, ADAM’S APPLE, PLAINEST and BODEGA.

    ADAM’S APPLE
    a minor omission
    ADAM’S-her partner’s.

    FORESTER
    FOR-wanting or wanting to have (‘one wanting’ doesn’t seem ok. Am I missing something?)
    If one is not used in the wordplay, then the &lit status of the clue needs a review.

    SIDECAR
    Does the def include the ‘passenger traveling’ bit?

  6. KVa. I know! I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. (You need to have read my comment in yesterday’s independent to get what this is about.)

  7. I’m with Geoff Down Under. I just couldn’t get started with this, other than 7d, which is obviously my level.

  8. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

    16dn: We talk of the ayes and the noes, meaning people voting yes and no respectively. Could we similarly talk about the fors and againsts? I cannot find this in Chambers 2014, or on a brief web search, but would still regard it as far less of a stretch of the language than some of the devices that we see frequently in daily crosswords.

  9. For the record, could someone list the theme pairs? I noticed some works and authors, but was too distracted to nail down the theme. I now see three pairs, (Hugo, Eliot, Adams), plus several other possible authors (Forester, Potter, Snow?, Garner?) without works that I recognize? Is there any other connection among them?

    I think ADAM’S APPLE is a double definition, the two parts dividing between “touch” and “her.”

    I read the wordplay for BLUE as just (athlete), with “gifted” meaning essentially “plus.”

    I marked SIDECAR as &lit.

  10. I read FORESTER as a cryptic &lit: A person who is “for ester” is a person who wants an anagram of “trees.” A little weird, but still legit, I think.

  11. PB@8

    The Chambers app has the following under FOR admittedly as a preposition not a noun.

    3. Wanting or wishing to have

    On the other I would query W for white, I’ve seen setters on MyCrossword.co.uk pulled up for using that as (as far as I know) we haven’t yet found dictionary support for it other than in compound abbreviations like B&W for black & white.

    Saying that I thought this was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed it. The clue for SNOW made me snort (with laughter I hasten to add)

    Thanks both.

  12. Cineraria@10
    I like that parsing.

    Pelham Barton@8
    I agree it’s not much of a stretch.

    SIDECAR:
    Any further views?

  13. Blah @11,
    16dn: I was arguing for “one” as part of the indication for FOR.
    13ac: I agree on this. We must take “white” as part of the definition, and “with” as the indicator for W: that is in Chambers 2014.

  16. Great stuff.
    For SNOW, I had ‘with’ for W, and ‘white powdery substance’ for def
    For FORESTER, I had ‘one’ as the definition/placeholder for a person, with ‘wanting to have’ for FOR. ‘One’ doesn’t have to be part of the wordplay, it just means ‘a person’.
    For STAND UP, I had ‘with’ as part of the definition, as it’s transitive.
    For those on the ‘articles are optional’ side of the titles debate, how would you feel about MISERABLES being a solution?
    Thanks S&B

  17. Found my way through this alright apart from BODEGA where I was trying to find a wine with a J other than a RIOJA for ages. Couldn’t understand the “?” at all until the penny dropped that Jesus was the Spanish version of Pierre or Amelie or something. In the meantime I had checked a couple of strained efforts so this was a DNF albeit an enjoyable one. I also put in THUG initially for 19. Particularly liked ESPRIT and TREE RING.

    Hadn’t parsed FORESTER at all seeing it as just a rather weak CD so thanks to Oriel for that. Tx too to Basilisk for a puzzle that didn’t turn me completely to stone for once. I admit I usually find him fearsome.

  19. Thanks PB, KVa and James

    That’s makes much more sense for SNOW. I often forget with can be W as it often indicates juxtaposition.

  20. The one clue I had solved (see above) was THUG for 19a — a possible victor in a fight, and the wordplay works. Was this a cunning misdirection, or am I just thick?

    I probably was too quick to give up earlier, and once I had my brain in gear, I found it quite doable. Wasn’t aware that a blue is a gifted athlete.

  22. Great fun – both solving the crossword and finding the authors and works

    Many thanks to Basilisk and Oriel

  23. Thanks for the blog , great set of clues.
    One minor quibble, it is The Waste Land, Eliot was insistent on this. For many works it is okay to miss out “the” for a crossword but not for this , and it is two words for Waste Land.
    Having said that it does not really matter, 10Ac works fine and we only really making the connection ourselves.

  24. Superb puzzle. Cryptic definitions dialled up to 11 today, all so witty and inventive. Like Nick @17, I was almost done for by ‘Jesus’ but the penny dropped eventually making that my LOI.

    Thanks, Basilisk and Oriel.

    GDU @20 – Blue is an Oxford/Cambridge thing. Getting your blue means being chosen to represent the university at sport.

    James @18 – the same question crossed my mind but I decided it’s close enough to be OK.

    Roz @23 – I failed to spot it anyway since the Eliot I had in mind was George.

  25. GDU@20 the answer is HUGO not THUG as explained in the blog. I think the wordplay doesn’t quite work for THUG as “starts to” is a better indicator of the need to take starting letters than just “starts” . And unless one goes with just “starts” you can’t get a “t” for THUG.

    But no you’re not thick, not in my book. Or, there again, maybe I am as well!

  27. Thanks Basilisk. Basilisk/Serpent continues to be one of my favourite setters and this crossword reinforces that opinion. There were many excellent clues like MASTHEAD, RAPACIOUS, TRANSFORM, ENSUED, GLEEFUL (like how the nouns in the clue become verbs in the solution), and EDDIES. WATERSHIP DOWN went in quickly because “waters down” was recently in a crossword so it was fresh in my mind. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  29. Am with numerous other comments here: had five after a couple of long stares then gave up. As so often I’m with Geoff Down Under.

  30. Many thanks to Oriel for the excellent and to everyone who has taken the time to comment, especially to James @16 for clarifying the intended parsing of SNOW, FORESTER and STAND UP.

  31. Late to the party, just did this onncatch-up and loved it. Such clever cluing from Basilisk. But we don’t have a list of who wrote what… are there works hidden here by Potter, Snow, Forester, Garner, …? I will have trouble sleeping tonight!

Comments are closed.