Financial Times Sunday No.15 – World by Gaff

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It’s the return of the monthly geographically themed puzzle, this time brought to us by Gaff. Find it on the FT website to solve interactively or use the smartphone app.

The preamble: “A cryptic puzzle themed on one particular country. The name of the country should be inserted at 21 down. Work out the name of the country by solving the *asterisked clues, all undefined – their solutions have some relevance to the country, such as its places, famous people, culture, language”

It didn’t take me too long to work out the country we were after today, with 1d AEGEAN getting me off to a good start. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Greek islands is not what it could be, which held me up in a few places. None the less, the clever 2/28 SANTORINI CALDERA was my favourite, followed by 24a ALEXANDER for the reference to the classic John Mills film. Aside from the asterisked clues, a number of solutions are Greek-derived words, such as KINESCOPE, UTERI, MOSAIC.

Thanks, Gaff!

NB at the time of writing, the puzzle is not yet available to download and print – but last week’s News puzzle has now appeared, at least.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 ASSAULT
Fool with a final charge (7)
ASS (fool) + A + ULT (final, short for ultimo)

Ult is an old-fashioned way of saying “[of the] last [month]” in letters.
5
See 6 down
9 GENIE
Nameless engine fixed by wizard (5)
Anagram (fixed) of ENGInE, less an N (abbreviation for name)
10 INITIALLY
How acronyms are formed at first (9)
Two definitions: how acronyms are formed // at first
11 ALONISSOS
*”Not quite friendless” is a cry for help (9)
ALON[e] (friendless) removing the last letter (not quite) + IS + SOS (a cry for help)

A Greek island in the Northern Sporades archipelago, a popular holiday destination.
12 TANGO
Dance that follows summer holiday? (5)
Cryptic definition: after your summer holiday your “tan goes”
13 PICK
Choose tool (4)
Two definitions: a verb and a type of axe
15 POSITION
Sit and poo in new posture (8)
Anagram (new) of SIT + POO IN
18 DIONYSIA
*Canadian and Australian songstresses embrace unknown (8)
DION (Celine Dion, Canadian singer) + SIA (Australian singer) containing Y (letter standing for an unknown number in maths)

An ancient Greek festival held in honour of the god Dionysus. The singers are both known to me but I didn’t know Sia was Australian, and I spent far too long trying to make Kylie fit somehow.
19 EPEE
Top of tent cut off with sword (4)
[t]EPEE (tent) with first letter (top) “cut off”
22 OATHS
Pledges crops to keep his head (5)
OATS (crops) containing (to keep) first letter (head) of H[is]
24 ALEXANDER
*Ice cold city with half of beer (9)
ALEX (Alexandria, “Ice cold” city) + AND (with) + half of [be]ER

Alexander III of Macedon, aka Alexander the Great, legendary ancient Greek king and military leader. The clue alludes to the 1958 war film Ice Cold in Alex and its famous beer scene (used in a 1980s TV commercial by Carlsberg).
26 ASTRONOMY
*When ancient city takes old French name (9)
AS (when) + TROY (ancient city) containing (takes) NOM (French for “name”)

The study of celestial objects and phenomena from the Greek meaning “law of the stars”. I can’t account for “old” in the clue – am I missing something?
27 HEAVE
Gag man with greeting (5)
HE (man) + AVE (greeting)
28
See 2 down
29 ESSENCE
Significance of German city to church (7)
ESSEN (German city) + CE (Church [of England])
DOWN
1 AEGEAN
*Even bad egg remains (6)
Even [letters of] bAd EgG rEmAiNs

Eastern section of the Mediterranean sea between Greece and Turkey.
2,28 across SANTORINI CALDERA
*Volcanic circle with island in a crater (9,7)
Anagram (volcanic) of O (circle) + ISLAND IN A CRATER

Clever clue – the Santorini Caldera is a ring-shaped group of islands formed by the collapse of a volcano leaving a crater (strictly a sinkhole, but let’s not be too picky).
3 UTERI
Chambers update to exclude RIP in capitals (5)
First letters (capitals) of Update To Exclude Rip In
4 TSITSIPAS
*Famous racketeer (9)
Cryptic definition: racketeer = tennis player

Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greek professional tennis player, losing finalist in this year’s Australian Open.
5 OMITS
Disregards parts of rejected testimony (5)
Section (parts) reversed (rejected) in teSTIMOny
6,5 across ARISTOTLE ONASSIS
*Cruelly toast airlines’ SOS (9,7)
Anagram (cruelly) of TOAST AIRLINES SOS

Greek business magnate, second husband of Jackie Kennedy.
7 SOLON
*Left early houses (5)
SOON (early) containing (houses) L (left)

Ancient Greek statesman, regarded as the father of Athenian democracy.
8 SKYROS
*The blue cut flower (6)
SKY (the blue) + ROS[e] (flower) with last letter cut

Another Greek island, the largest of the Sporades.
14 KINESCOPE
TV of cows on the range (9)
KINE (archaic plural of cow) + SCOPE (range)

A process from the early days of television for recording live broadcasts. Not a Greek invention but the name is derived from the Greek kínisi meaning movement.
16 SPARE TYRE
Extra flesh packed in trunks (9)
Two definitions: the first a colloquial term for a roll of fat around the waist; the second is literal, using the American meaning of trunk, ie the boot/storage space in your car.
17 OVERDRAWN
Done with morning coverage of right lacking balance (9)
OVER (done with) + DAWN (morning) containing (coverage of) R (right)
20 MOSAIC
Patchwork of commandments (6)
Two definitions: the second being the adjective meaning “relating to Moses”
21 GREECE
[See setter notes] (6)
The keyword linking all the asterisked clues.
23 TOTAL
Child with a large amount (5)
TOT (child) + A + L (large)
24 AGORA
*Pythagoras’ fraction (5)
A “fraction” of pythAGORAs

The central public meeting space in ancient Greek cities, “market” in Modern Greek.
25 ATHOS
*Variety of hosta (5)
Anagram (variety) of HOSTA

Oros Athos in northeastern Greece, aka Agio Oros meaning Holy Mountain, is home of the Eastern Orthodox monastic community. It is named after one of the Gigantes who challenged the Olympian Gods.

15 comments on “Financial Times Sunday No.15 – World by Gaff”

  1. I found this one tough, my Greek knowledge clearly being less than that of our esteemed blogger. And what a lot of Ss, Os and Ns there are in Greek names! So, a few reveals were necessary to get to the end. MOSAIC was interesting: not an adjective I have encountered before and very cunning. The cluing was solid but my greatest praise goes to the gridfill with a lot of tricky words included and intertwined.

    Thanks Gaff and Widdersbel

  2. This was good fun but my experience was similar to Postmark’s with the need to reveal the odd letter to complete the grid. And lots of guesses ending in -os or starting with -k.
    TSITSIPAS was topical (with the US Open underway) and ONASSIS was also a big helping hand.
    I tried, like Widdersbel, to shoehorn Kylie into 18a though Ms Dion made the festival guessable.
    Fairly clued overall otherwise, I might never have got ALONISSOS.
    Thanks to Gaff and Widdersbel.

  3. I had no idea how “ice cold city” related to “Alex,” (reference a bit obscure???), but Alexander seemed the obvious guess with regard to Greece. Thanks for the backstory. I find these geographical puzzles difficult, and I could not even complete No. 6.

  4. Thanks, Gaff and Widdersbel!

    My top fave was the &litish SANTORINI CALDERA.

    ASTRONOMY
    Wiktionary-nom-etymology:
    Inherited from Old French nom (whence Norman nom).
    Still not sure why not just French instead of old French.

    TANGO
    Does the cryptic grammar work all right? ‘TANGO follows’ …’ vs ‘tan goes’—>not clear.

  5. I don’t think I was aware of these monthly puzzles until the blog caught my eye today. Reading through it, I was annoyed that I hadn’t been able to print the puzzle and solve it, as it would have been right up my street.

    However, I’m immensely grateful for having chanced upon it, for two reasons.

    Huge thanks, Widdersbel, for the Alex link – one of my favourite cinema moments, with which my walking group often used to beguile the last half mile or so of a hot walk.

    I could hardly believe it when ALEXANDER and SPARE TYRE leapt out at me from the same puzzle – a reminder of one of my absolute classic clues, which I’ve been trying to find for ages. I was inspired to try one more time and managed, at last, to track it down: Rufus 24,464, from fifteen years ago!
    ‘Gluttons may have one; Alexander the Great didn’t (5,4)’.

    Many thanks, Gaff, for the puzzle – I’ll look out for the next one – and Widdersbel for the super blog – you’ve really made my day!

  7. Cineraria @3 – it’s a great film, well worth seeing if you get the chance.

    Eileen @5 – Oh, that’s superb! Classic[al] Rufus! Thanks for sharing it.

  8. [Since it’s getting late, Widdersbel, and you liked that one, I’ll offer another from the same section of my little book, which you may remember my quoting before (I’ve done it more than once, I think!):
    Where Rome couldn’t win, Scots can’t’ (6] – Gordius this time

    and, for good measure, from Tees:
    Where Greeks gave Persians beans and sausages (7)]

  11. I was unable to get SANTORINI (although I guessed CALDERA), DIONYSIA (a word my spell check tells me does not exist) or the tennis player (whose name I will not attempt).

    My sparse knowledge of Greece and several pretty remote words & references made this tough going for me too. I cannot say I had any favourites from Gaff. I am afraid Eileen rather stole his thunder.

    Thanks Gaff and Widdersbel

  13. FrankieG @12 – it’s all Greek to me… I’ve changed it to kínisi, which the internet tells me is more accurate.

  14. Well kynos means “of a dog, a dog’s” – kinesis = “motion”, comes unchanged into English from Ancient Greek.
    I thought autocorrect might have made a dog’s breakfast – beans and sausages. perhaps – of what you meant. 🙂
    No Hope Of TSITSIPAS, but I’m expecting lots of ALCA[t]RAZ clues soon. The new Rafa
    Thanks G&W

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