Financial Times 17,411 by IO

by

A true brainteaser – as creative as ever.

Many thanks to IO for the fabulous challenge this morning. We have two messages (one running along the top and one along the bottom). While I’m not certain of the significance, they certainly helped me get a few words in place!

With IO puzzles there are occasionally nuances or details I miss, so do share your thoughts in the comments.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. I’m afraid to return power to guard (4)
KEEP

EEK< (I’m afraid, <to return) + P (power)

3. On holiday that’s very sweet indeed (4)
AWAY

AW (that’s very sweet) + AY (indeed)

6. Out of class with upset stomach? (4)
FROM

FORM (class, with upset stomach i.e. ‘upset’ centre letters)

9. Kids caught with feet up on back of ottoman (8)
CHILDREN

“CHILLED” (with feet up, “caught”) + RE (on) + [ottoma]N (back of)

10/21. Who’s showing poise capturing Odette’s heart by Lake – and Siegfried’s finale? (6,6)
BALLET DANCER

BALANCER (who’s showing poise) capturing [Od]ET[te] (heart) by L (lake) and [Siegfrie]D (finale) &lit
Reference to Swan Lake

11. Take this for granted: “Full pint in hand, elbow bent, waiting to toast …” (14)
PRESUPPOSITION

Cryptic definition: PRE-SUP POSITION

13. Gun-belt my boss is wearing followed emergency procedures? (9,4)
ABANDONED SHIP

Cryptic definition: A BAND ON ED’S HIP

16. Opening the morning paper is fine – and ideal for Biden (8,5)

AMERICAN DREAM

Opening AM (the morning) + REAM (paper) is (ERIC (fine) + AND)
An ERIC in old Irish law is a fine paid by a murderer to the family of the victim

19. Fax Murdoch’s organisation, pressing the old man to film (1,5,2,6)
A CHUMP AT OXFORD

(FAX MURDOCH)* (*organisation) pressing (PA (the old man) + TO)

23. Escape returning mist, engulfing European solicitor (3,3,2)
GET OUT OF

FOG< (mist, <returning) engulfing (E (European) + TOUT (solicitor))

24. Superb parts in short Ms Lopez put in the can (4)
JAIL

AI (superb) parts JL (in short Ms Lopez, i.e. Jennifer Lopez’s initials)

25. Courier’s last wage packets to deliver (4)
FREE

[Courie]R (last); FEE (wage) packets

26. Eccentric motorist steering clear of river (4)
CARD

CAR D[river] (motorist, steering clear of RIVER)

DOWN
1. Cabbage hearts; I save 50 fine boxes up! (8)
KOHLRABI

(H (hearts); (I + BAR (save) + L (50) + OK (fine)) boxes)< (<up)

2. The heart of very wicked sexologist (5)
ELLIS

[h]ELLIS[h] (very wicked, the heart of)

4. Pleasant women at home – that will do this man! (7)
WINSOME

W (women) + IN (at home) + SO (that will do) + ME (this man)

5. Together, “surly” and “objectionable” would describe him (3)
YOB

[Surl]Y OB[jectionable] (together; would describe) &lit

6. Fellow, lying at the outset, broaching fairies dancing? (9)
FALSIFIER

F (fellow) + (L[ying] (at the outset) broaching FAIRIES)* (*dancing) &lit

7. Result of Erling’s header breaking deadlock? Yes and no (3-3)
ONE-ONE

Cryptic definition: If ON-ON is a deadlock, then E[rling]’s header is both breaking it and not (within and without it)
EDIT: See comments for a better interpretation from @KVa

8. A problem to decipher lamentation read over Mass (10)

CRYPTOGRAM

CRY (lamentation) + PTO (read over i.e. please turn over) + GRAM (mass)

12. The low-down on a nudist’s nuts (3,3,4)
INS AND OUTS

(ON A NUDIST’S)* (*nuts)

14. Like a beautiful maiden in lacy pants snorting speed (9)
NYMPHICAL

(IN LACY)* (*pants) snorting MPH (speed, miles per hour)

15. For Spooner, this would be just mere monogamy (4-4)
PAIR-BOND

For Spooner: BARE + POND (just + mere)

17. One does wow a holder of securities! (7)
CHARGEE

CHAR (one does, i.e. works) + GEE (wow)

18. A fool topped with British fruit (6)
BANANA

A NANA (a fool) topped with B (British)

20. Wild South African ostrich strangely excluded from this? (5)
FAUNA

([s][o]U[t][h] AF[r][i][c]AN)* (*wild, OSTRICH excluded) &lit
EDITED (thanks @KVa):
([s][o]U[t][h] AF[r][i][c]AN)* (*wild, (OSTRICH)* (*strangely) excluded) &lit

&lit in the sense of FAUNA denoting indigenous animal life, assuming you’re not in South Africa of course

22. Official who’s mobbed by Tranmere fans (3)
REF

[Tranme]RE F[ans] (mobbed by)

27 comments on “Financial Times 17,411 by IO”

  1. IO has long been top of my “don’t attempt” list, but I did some revealing today to see whether anything’s changed. Most I couldn’t even parse after revealing. I take my hat off to those who are brainy/warped enough to solve.

  2. I almost finished this! I think the instructions are to ‘Keep away from children’ and ‘Get out of jail free card.’ Thankas Io and well done Oriel.

  3. Thanks, Io and Oriel!
    Excellent puzzle indeed. Thoroughly enjoyed it. And the blog can’t get better than this. Real justice to the puzzle.

    ONE-ONE
    I have a different take. Others may say if this works.

    E breaking/entering O(NONE)-NONE (deadlock-certainly not a standard way of saying 0-0; just for the purposes of this puzzle). Result of this: ONE-ONE. So, YES.
    ONE-ONE: Deadlock is not broken. So, NO.

    (subtext (not relevant to the parsing): After that header, the score would have been 1-0. In that sense, the deadlock was
    broken, but then the equalizer was scored by the opponents!!!).

    FAUNA:
    Read it this way
    Wild (‘South African’ minus ‘ostrich’ strangely).

  4. ONE-ONE
    Let’s say both teams are ON ONE. That’s a deadlock.
    E breaks ON ONE and we get ONE-ONE. So, YES.
    It’s still ONE-ONE. So, NO.

    Which one is a bigger stretch? 🙂

  5. Two totally unknowns to me were the 2D sexologist (I didn’t know that there was such a thing) and 15D’s PAIR-BOND. Obviously I have led a sheltered life.

    A minor quibble with 7D: isn’t “One-all” a more common rendering of a draw?

  6. Another jazzy puzzle after yesterday’s Nimrod.
    Couldn’t parse AW AY or A BAND ON ED’S HIP and didn’t understand “ON-ON = deadlock”.
    KVa’s take makes sense.
    Thanks I&O

  7. @KVa – thank you for your contributions – enlightening as ever!
    I completely agree on the strange ostrich, and both of your takes on ONE-ONE are feasible and better than mine.

  9. Phew-I survived but came here for parsing of AWAY and a couple of others.
    Brilliant puzzle-a bit of prescience in the Erling clue although his header had to be changed to de Bruyne’s boot!
    I dont think JH does Enigmatist puzzles any more-maybe something to do with him submitting a “normal” puzzle which appeared as a Genius
    (JH’s normal puzzle is like calling Grande Cuvee a NV!)

    But there’s always Elgar

  10. I must be a sucker for punishment as this is my third JH puzzle in a week. I’m afraid I ABANDONED SHIP on the parsing of quite a few including that very clue, CHILDREN, PRESUPPOSITION, ONE-ONE (well done, KVa @4) and CRYPTOGRAM and I failed on 15d for which I put in “pair fond”; well for a nonsense term, it sort of works. As mentioned by Oriel, the two messages in the grid helped with some others. All in all, about what I expected after seeing the identity of today’s setter.

    I was interested to read copmus @9’s comment, but if Enigmatist still lives, in response to Paul b @8 there is too much of a good thing and I wouldn’t relish the prospect of having to tackle an Enigmatist tomorrow!

    Thanks to Oriel (great effort) and to Io

  11. An excellent piece of brain mangling, where even I noticed the Ninas

    Many thanks to Io and Oriel

  12. I agree, crypticsue, but I still managed to completely missed the Ninas!

    Thanks for another excellent challenge, Io.

    And thanks, Oriel, for the blog – a few bits of parsing did elude me, though my interpretation of 7d was E in O-NONE as per KVa @3.

  13. Thanks for the blog , a typically brilliant puzzle from my favourite setter.

    Not a single Enigmatist puzzle in the Guardian this year , only two in the whole of last year . I wonder why ?

  14. I am with GDU on this one. After struggling for some time I revealed a few answers which I couldn’t parse or knew I’d never have got in a month of Sundays. So I came here to marvel at those who could. Thanks IO for the struggle and Oriel (and Kva) for the explanations.

  15. Had a disaster with yesterday’s, this one AOK, most enjoyable. A particular pleasure/relief was realising the ‘and’ in 16a was needed for the solution.
    Two questions:
    To what does ‘keep away from children’ refer? It sounds very sensible, just don’t think I’m aware of it as a thing.
    How do the brackets in the explanation for 20d work?

  16. Thanks Oriel and Io.
    Delighted to complete this, though a few unparsed. I will take that as win.
    Excellent puzzle.

  17. James @ 15 I suspect it may be related to the old actor’s adage “Never work with children or animals”.

  18. James @15 , I was puzzled , it is not from Monopoly which is the source of the other quote.
    I have seen it written on certain medicine boxes.
    20D is basically a compound anagram . SOUTHAFRICAN = OSTRICH + “this” with anagram indicators for each side.

  20. Roz @18, oh, keep this rather than yourself away, makes sense now, thanks. 20d, I understand the clue, just not the sequence of parentheses.

  21. Brain pain. Appreciate the parsing expertise for future learning. Maybe one day io and will converse. But so far the dialog has been one sided.

  22. I think the outer brackets are the whole thing being an anagram and the inner brackets the letters of ostrich being removed. Not easy to explain , I always think of these as an equation.
    I have just remembered that KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN was printed on the side of some old matchboxes .

  23. As a cryptic newbie i thought i was making progress until today. I can usually get the explanations at least but can’t see how save means bar in 1d. As in bar an entrance?

  26. We all get blind spots , often on obvious things, that is why the blogs and comments are so useful.

  27. If anybody’s still listening, I thought this was one of his wittiest for a while. Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially 11 and 13. Held me up for a while with 17D as I was stuck on COR for wow.

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