Financial Times 17,839 by GOLIATH

by

A very enjoyable puzzle from Goliath.

Nothing too tricky and a good mix of clue types going on in the grid. 14d was a new word for me. Lots to like, so many thanks to Goliath!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Desperately dreads becoming even more miserable (6)
SADDER

DREADS* (*desperately)

4. Birds roll about on board (8)
SWALLOWS

WALLOW (roll about) on board (on SS, steamship)

9. Abating and stopping, not starting! (6)
EASING

[c]EASING (stopping, not starting)

10. What may follow beatification is recited mantra including religious text (8)
SAINTDOM

(SAID (recited) + OM (mantra, sacred syllable of Hinduism)) including NT (religious text, New Testament from Christianity)

12. Seems that themes can be heard in this speech (4)
LISP

Cryptic definition

Someone with a lisp might pronounce ‘seems’ as ‘themes’

13. An unusually sane and healthy author (4,6)
ANNA SEWELL

AN + SANE* (*unusually) + WELL (healthy)

15. Piles of horrid homes to welcome a renovation (12)
HAEMORRHOIDS

(HORRID HOMES)* to welcome A (*renovation)

18. I’m no intellectual, therefore I see things differently (1,4,5,2)
I DON’T THINK SO

I DON’T THINK (I’m no intellectual) + SO (therefore)

21. For reign to get renewed, find the ancestor (10)
PROGENITOR

PRO (for) + (REIGN TO)* (to get renewed)

22. Our duty to preserve language (4)
URDU

[o]UR DU[ty] (to preserve)

24. Openings as an alternative, providing sweets (8)
ORIFICES

OR (as an alternative) + IF (providing) + ICES (sweets)

25. Doctor, setter, house of power (6)
MEDICI

MEDIC (doctor) + I (setter)

The House of Medici was a very wealthy and influential family in Italy during the 14th to 18th centuries

26. Park back in the times o’ yore (8)
YOSEMITE

[th]E TIMES O’Y[ore]< (in, <back)

27. Joiner spoken of in elevated lowland? (6)
HYPHEN

“HIGH + FEN” (elevated + lowland, “spoken of”)

DOWN
1. Pinch your secret (8)
STEALTHY

STEAL (pinch) + THY (your)

2/20. Sea storm I’d produced competes with Titanic and suchlike (8,6)
DISASTER MOVIES

(SEA STORM I’D)* (*produced) + VIES (competes with)

3. Northerner capturing eagle (4)
ERNE

[North]ERNE[r] (capturing)

5. Amazing fight by solver! Now tell me your news (4,5,3)
WHAT ABOUT YOU

WHAT A BOUT (amazing fight) by YOU (solver)

6. Varnish 7 Nile bananas (7,3)
LINSEED OIL

(OLDIES (answer from 7) + NILE)* (*bananas)

7. The elderly soldier, mostly traumatised (6)
OLDIES

SOLDIE[r]* (mostly, *traumatised)

8/17. Easy answer could be brine (6,8)
SIMPLE SOLUTION

Double definition

Brine is salt dissolved in water, so scientifically a simple solution

11. Adamant and on the move, gathering information (12)
INTRANSIGENT

IN TRANSIT (on the move) gathering GEN (information)

14. In an empty bedroom, playing Wordle is a call for censorship (10)
BOWDLERISM

In B[edroo]M (empty); WORDLE* (*playing) + IS

16. Ask not a European to embrace Marxist leader, it’ll cause an altercation (8)
SKIRMISH

[a]SK (not A) + (IRISH (European) to embrace M[arxist] (leader))

19. Creepy broadcaster full of crap (6)
SPOOKY

SKY (broadcaster) full of POO (crap)

23. Times covering zero-emission car group (4)
BEVY

BY (times) covering EV (zero-emission car, electric vehicle)

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,839 by GOLIATH”

  1. A playful grid from Goliath with his usual bag of tricks. I had lots of ticks including LISP, SPOOKY, STEALTHY, SKIRMISH and BOWDLERISM. There were more besides but suffice to say it was ‘piles’ of fun.
    Thanks to him and Oriel.

  3. A fun puzzle and not as tricky as Goliath can be. I will confess to using the autofill for 15a – a word I can never spell correctly – but I knew what I was anagramming so I’m not taking that as a cheat! I thought YOSEMITE was brilliantly hidden, SPOOKY made me laugh and I enjoyed the quaint wording in SKIRMISH. BOWDLERISM was my only eyebrow raise – I thought the inclusion of ‘an’ was a tad unfair: the clue would have been the same without it – ‘In an empty bedroom …’ is no different from ‘In empty bedroom …’ so I assumed the ‘an’ had a reason to be there. When I returned to the clue with crossers, the solution was clear but left me slightly irritated.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel

  4. A double treat today, with Philistine in the Guardian – and lots of fun, including the challenge of spelling 15ac unaided!

    My ticks were for SAINTDOM, I DON’T THINK SO, OLDIES, EASY SOLUTION, SKIRMISH and BOWDLERISM (l had the same initial reaction as PostMark but I really enjoyed the clue).

    Many thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  8. Re 15A: Did anyone actually spell the word correctly without consulting a dictionary?

    Last one in was 8/17 which I only worked out from all the cross letters. I didn’t really know what “brine” is.

    Thanks Oriel.

  9. Thanks Goliath for a super crossword as usual. My top picks were ANNA SEWELL, HAEMORRHOIDS (having 2 O’s & 1 E in the anagram fodder helped me spell this correctly), I DONT THINK SO, URDU, the expertly hidden YOSEMITE, and INTRANSIGENT. I failed with HYPHEN. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  10. I echo the positive comments about the puzzle. My favourites were URDU, MEDICI, YOSEMITE, JOINER, INTRANSIGENT (nice surface and nice misdirection), HAEMORRHOIDS, and PROGENITOR (LOI). A different list to others, which I think indicates there were a lot of good clues today. I felt there were a few filler words that got in the way of the parsing beyond 14d, but I did not think it a big deal.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel

  11. I struggled at first but then all seemed to fail into place. Of the many enjoyable clues I particularly liked HYPHEN and LISP. Well done setter and blogger alike !

  12. I thought lisp was great fun. Trying to go fast I guessed saline solution and messed up saintdom, and sewell! Oh well, thanks everyone,

Comments are closed.