Financial Times 17,736 GUY

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Guy provides our FT challenge this morning.

This was a toughie, in my opinion. After my first couple of passes, I only had seven answers in the grid, and the top half was almost empty. I laboured away at the bottom half and then in a moment of inspiration, saw GALLOWS HUMOUR which opened up the top half. The clue for SMUGGLERS was brilliant, and my LOI was EARNEST, even though I knew early on that EARNEST was the likely answer. It just took me a while to sort out the parsing.

Thanks, Guy.

ACROSS
1 COLOSSAL
Saddle and rope skilfully thrown over mammoth (8)

COL ("saddle") and <=LASSO ("rope skilfully thrown", over)
6 SUBSET
Group of members decided on yearly fee (6)

SET ("decided") on SUB (subscription, so "yearly fee")
9 GALLOWS HUMOUR
Young lady downs bodily fluid, funny bad taste (7,6)

GAL ("young lady") + LOWS ("downs") + HUMOUR ("bodily fluid")
10 RASHID
Arabic name African prince tried to keep secret (6)

RAS ("African prince") + HID ("tried to keep secret")
12 BEGINNER
Ask private, one just embarking (8)

BEG ("ask") + INNER ("private")
13 ADAM AND EVE
Crashpad a man developed protects fallers (4,3,3)

Hidden in [protects] "craspAD A MAN DEVEloped"
15 TOTE
Carry child back from playdate (4)

TOT ("child") + [back from] (playdat)E
16 ACES
Likely winners missing start of Ascot, perhaps (4)

(r)ACES ("Ascot, perhaps) missing start
18 ROBUSTNESS
Covering chest, sensor bespoke good health (10)

*(sensor) [anag:bespoke] covering BUST ("chest")
21 WARPLANE
Fighter switched crude strategy after four failures, perhaps (8)

[switched] <=RAW ("crude") + PLAN E (a fifth strategy, so "strategy after four failures, perhaps")
22 BASICS
Simple things like ballpoint pens and spades (6)

BIC ("ballpoint") pens AS ("like") and S (spades)
23 PAEDIATRICIAN
Baby expert backed scheme to impregnate hereditary peer (13)

[backed] <=IDEA ("scheme") to impregnate PATRICIAN ("hereditary peer")
25 FRISEE
Parisian’s salad French? That’s understood (6)

Fr. (French) + I SEE ("that's understood")

Frisée is a French word for a type of endive, so "Parisian's salad (ingredient)"
26 REEF KNOT
Maybe skipper’s binding Essex’s opener into playing for Kent (4,4)

E(ssex) ['s opener] into *(for kent) [anag:playing]
DOWN
2 ON GUARD
Wary taking a drug abroad (2,5)

ON ("taking") + *(a drug) [anag:abroad]
3 OIL
Buried treasure well recovered? (3)

Cryptic definition
4 SNOOD
Oscar puts on gloves, conversely making head warmer (5)

<=DONS ("puts on", conversely) gloves O (Oscar, in the NATO phonetic alphabet)
5 LOSABLE
See paintbrush not yet in the bag (7)

LO ("see") + SABLE (an artits's "paintbrush" made from sable fur)
6 SMUGGLERS
Sorts regularly hiding horse inside mule? (9)

S(o)R(t)S [regularly] hiding GG (a child's "horse") inside MULE &lit.
7 BROWNSTONES
Ridge poles set on new American houses (11)

BROW ("ridge") + N + S (North and South "Poles") + *(set on) [anag:new]
8 EARNEST
Serious organ music causes vibrations in home (7)

EAR ("organ" that "music causes vibration in") + NEST ("home")
11 HOMO SAPIENS
Hot shifting some pianos, the upright type (4,7)

H (hot) + *(some pianos) [anag:shifting]
14 NARRATIVE
Relation arrived wanting mother to provide accommodation (9)

Arr. (arrived) accommodated by NATIVE ("mother", as in "mother tongue")
17 CLAPPER
Cold drink for each bell ringer? (7)

C (cold) + LAP ("drink") + PER ("for each")
19 BLEATER
Habitual complainer wants bill voided by diner (7)

B(il)L [voided] by EATER ("diner")
20 SECONDO
Briefly view apartment block in Manhattan, the lower part (7)

[briefly] SE(e) + CONDO ("apartment block in Manhattan")

In music, secondo is the lower part of a duet.
22 BRIDE
Bishop on bicycle, last to arrive for service (5)

B (bishop) on RIDE ("bicycle")

Traditionally, the bride should be the last person to arrive at a wedding service.
24 INK
Mark permanently a little sunburned without cap (3)

(p)INK ("a little sunburned" without cap (i.e. first letter))

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,736 GUY”

  1. My margin note on this was “hard,” and my solving experience was similar to yours. In retrospect, it all seems relatively direct, though, with SMUGGLERS and OIL taking me the longest to get a handle on. I could not see what the “music causes vibrations in” was doing in EARNEST, and it turns out the answer was nothing. Good write-up.

  3. Guy hits the spot again with this puzzle. Some lovely smooth surfaces (REEF KNOT, BLEATER, COLOSSAL) combined with chewy wordplay such as the wily WARPLANE.
    I liked the nimble and cheeky FRISEE best, closely followed by SMUGGLERS.
    Thanks to Guy and Loonapick for doing the honours today, particularly the correct parsing for NARRATIVE (was too fixated on ‘ma’ here to see the blindingly obvious now!?

  4. Splendid puzzle with some serious misdirection going on. SMUGGLERS is superb and big ticks go also to OIL, HOMO SAPIENS, NARRATIVE, SECONDO, BRIDE, COLOSSAL, ADAM AND EVE, WARPLANE, PAEDIATRICIAN and REEF KNOT. Lovely inventive stuff throughout; a really fizzy puzzle.

    Thanks Guy and loonapick

  5. Finished it but didnt enjoy it
    Too any convoluted surfaces and stretchy defs
    Especially after the excellence of the recent Vlad and Basilisk
    Sorry.

  6. Only solved about two thirds. There were some clever clues among those that I did solve though.

  7. An excellent tough challenge. RASHID and FRISEE deliberately chosen over simpler words that would fit. Especially liked the long definition of an EAR.
    Thanks G&L

  8. Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle , all my favourites have been mentioned.
    SUBSET mixes sets and groups but I will let it pass for a crossword.

  9. Thanks Guy. A Guy crossword is never a cakewalk and this was no exception. I used a word finder for my last two — WARPLANE and SNOOD, and I couldn’t parse WARPLANE, EARNEST, and RASHID. All else fell into place with COLOSSAL, GALLOWS HUMOUR (amusing surface), FRISEE, the brilliant SMUGGLERS, BROWNSTONES, and BRIDE being my favourites. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  10. I can attest to all the above. It was tough. There were some very clever clues wth “oh!” moments. There were some dodgy definitions and “eh?” moments. My favourites have been mentioned. To pick one is tough, but I will go with FrankieG@7 and nominate EARNEST for its very misleading yet accurate definition of EAR.

    thanks Guy and loonapick

  12. This was very tough, but I really enjoyed it. My LOI, the unknown FRISEE, probably took me as long as the rest of the puzzle combined – which I hardly rushed!

    Favourites were ADAM AND EVE, EARNEST, and OIL.

    Thanks Guy & Loonapick.

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