Financial Times 17,722 by GOLIATH

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A chewy challenge from Goliath.

Good fun! Some very creative and witty clueing made for a most enjoyable solve. Thank you Goliath!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Conventional city? (6)
GENEVA

Cryptic definition

A play on words referring to the Geneva Conventions

4. Wheels out exotic Nicaragua creature (6)
IGUANA

NI[car]AGUA* (CAR (wheels) out; *exotic)

8. After conflict, bad editor leaves town (7)
WARWICK

After WAR (conflict), WICK[ed] (bad, ED (editor) leaves)

9. Polish celebrity that’s no mean feat to cross (7)
RUBICON

RUB (polish) + ICON (celebrity)

11/12. Graduate musician role reversal, extremely ostentatious about wind (8,2,4)
BACHELOR OF ARTS

BACH (musician) + ROLE< (<reversal) + (O[stentatiou]S (extremely) about FART (wind))

13. Bear found in the outskirts of Philadelphia (5)
PANDA

P[hiladelphi]A (outskirts of) – i.e. ‘P’ AND ‘A’

14. How to choose a recent cover for vehicle (1,2,5)
A LA CARTE

A + (LATE (recent) cover for CAR (vehicle))

16. Labels for swatches? (8)
STICKERS

Cryptic definition

S + TICKERS = S + WATCHES

18. Not clear changing direction shows nerve (5)
VAGUS

VAGU[e] (not clear, changing direction – i.e. substitute E (east) for S (south))

20/21. Thus we stomach eating foreign articles from Italy during the war? (4,10)
SOFT UNDERBELLY

SO (thus) + FT (we, Financial Times) + BELLY (stomach) eating UN + DER (foreign articles)

23. Bound to be in healthy or unhealthy venue (7)
FLEAPIT

LEAP (bound) to be in FIT (healthy)

24. Weak person exploits work (7)
MILKSOP

MILKS (exploits) + OP (work)

25. Postpone return to hug sweetheart, being partly deployed (6)
REEFED

DEFER< (postpone, <return) to hug [sw]E[et] (heart, i.e. the central letter)

26. Medium workplace in ocean? Ocean’s 5, 2 and 3 (6)
SEANCE

SEA (ocean) + [ocea]N’s 5 (fifth letter) + [o]C[ean]’s 2 + [oc]E[an]’s 3

DOWN
1. Fruit in Nicaragua varies (5)
GUAVA

[Nicara]GUA VA[ries] (in)

2. Oxymoronic call for attention (3,4)
NOW THEN

NOW and THEN are contradictory terms, making it an oxymoron 

3. Not well-engaged in empty struggle to decide (9)
VACILLATE

ILL (not well) in VACATE (empty)

5. After the third of August sounding coarse and surly (5)
GRUFF

After [Au]G[ust] (third of, meaning third letter of the word), “ROUGH” (coarse, “sounding”)

6. One with a magic word for a bailout with 11/12 (3,4)
ALI BABA

A + BAIL* (*out) with BA (Bachelor of Arts, referring to 11/12 across)

7. They no longer believe America supports chiefs of American police organisations (9)
APOSTATES

STATES (America) supports A[merican] P[olice] O[rganisations] (chiefs of)

10. Pop finale involves much writing (5,4)
CREAM SODA

CODA (finale, musical term) involves REAMS (much writing)

13. Let rip and boo rudely seeing such trite and uninspired work (9)
POTBOILER

(LET RIP and BOO)* (*rudely)

15. Plug: unfortunate to insert it the wrong way (9)
ADVERTISE

ADVERSE (unfortunate) to insert IT< (<the wrong way)

17. Outrageous captive residence? (7)
COTTAGE

OTT (outrageous, over the top), in CAGE (captive, cryptically)

19. Good girl’s family in a pickle (7)
GHERKIN

G (good) + HER KIN (girl’s family)

21. Join returning stripped entourage (5)
UNITE

[r]ETINU[e]< (entourage, stripped, <returning)

22. Relaxed ladies and gentlemen come last (5)
LOOSE

LOOS (ladies and gentlemen) + [com]E (last)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,722 by GOLIATH”

  1. One of those very rare occasions where I had no NHO list and no “Huh?” list! Very enjoyable, thanks Goliath & Oriel. I haven’t had one for more than half a century, but we called them creaming sodas.

  2. Reliably entertaining.
    S.TICKERS from ‘s.watches’ was my favourite here.
    Thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  3. Noticed “Nicaragua” appearing twice – at 4a and 1d. Maybe because it’s 500 years since the first permanent settlements,
    Granada and León, were founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524.

  4. COTD: STICKERS
    Other faves: GENEVA and NOW THEN.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel!
    (We can expect an Io next week!)

  5. Started off well and quickly filled in the NW then really slowed down. Got a couple in the NE but took ages to get ALI BABA (which was a guess and I didn’t parse it) and then filled in the rest of the NE.
    Slow in the bottom half. Needed the crossers to get many of them which I then parsed. And had to reveal the last two. I found some of the definitions very misleading.

    Whew – don’t think I’ve done a Goliath before – very challenging.

    Thanks to both

  7. Not as hard as Paul in the G today but a real challenge for me too. Difficult defs to spot (eg for RUBICON, SOFT UNDERBELLY, REEFED and APOSTATES) and some not so obvious wordplay (eg for BACHELOR OF ARTS and COTTAGE) to add to the mix. I missed the S TICKERS for ‘s watches?’ and took too long to see UNITE as my last in, so maybe it just wasn’t my day.

    Thanks to Oriel and to Goliath

  10. Liked this, clues, wordplay, constructions, all good, nothing very obscure, a lot of fun.
    Now that I understand “Stickers”, I find it very clever…
    Didn’t get “Fleapit”, (kicking myself now) so unfortunately a DNF for me.
    Thank you to Goliath and to Oriel for your blog

  11. Thanks for the blog, great set of clues , full of craft and quality wordplay. I was hoping for IO , we did not get an IO Wednesday in April , but doing this stopped me being disappointed.
    Agree with Diane@2 for S TICKERS , it is a Goliath/Philistine trademark clue.

  12. As it was Goliath and not Io, I enjoyed another day of the FT crossword.

    I also found several clues difficult to solve and some were impossible for me to parse. Brilliant job with the blog, Oriel. I agree that SWATCHES is innovative and amusing, for example, but without the blog I would never have seen it. I was unable to get REEFED at all. In fact I am still not sure I get it – does it refer to reefing a sail?

    There were so many clues that I enjoyed that it is difficult to pick favourites, but I will name RUBICON and NOW THEN for their aha! moments.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel

  13. Yes Martyn a REEFED sail is partly folded so not the whole area. Conrad is my source for all things nautical in crosswords.

  14. Thanks Roz,

    I have not sailed since I was a kid. I guess I can see how reefing is a partial deployment and thank you for confirming

  15. Thanks Goliath for an excellent crossword. This was smooth sailing overall but I got mired a bit in the SW corner and eventually revealed COTTAGE to get off the sandbar. My top picks were IGUANA, WARWICK, VACILLATE, ADVERTISE, and GHERKIN. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  16. Saw Ali Baba and that got me 11/12. Bottom was a little slow for me but it wasn’t too bad and it made for a very enjoyable solve. My favorite clue was 16A. Thanks Goliath and Oriel!

  17. Martyn @12 – if you do come back, REEFED was my LOI, which annoyed me as reefing sails is another thing I’ve done, sailing. That definition is particularly well-hidden.

    I loved the spot of the charade in GHERKIN and how cleverly COTTAGE was put together. I love the wit and humour in Goliath’s cluing in both his manifestations, making him one of my favourite setters.

    Sorry, late posting as I didn’t get to this until the evening on the tube home after a 10 mile walk this evening, then didn’t finish solving until the thunderstorm hit in the wee small hours.

    Thank you to Goliath and Oriel.

  18. Smooth Surfaces, Clever Constructions, Witty Wordplay = (Good Gracious) Goliath. My Four Favourites, with All the Above Attributes, we’re 4 IGUANA, 11/12 BACHELOR OF ARTS, 16 STICKERS and 10 CREAM SODA.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel for the fabulous fun.

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