Financial Times 17,897 by GAFF

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GAFF kicks off the week with “Seven trapped singers”

A very enjoyable puzzle, with a few new words for me.

I’ve spent a while on the “trapped singers” (had to enlist a little help – thanks to Nick and Andy), the Von Trapp kids. Apologies for the awful colours I’ve used!

 

Thanks GAFF!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7. Steep tariff on spice (8)
MACERATE

RATE (tariff) on MACE (spice)

8. Mid-sixties tolerate fat (6)
TALLOW

[six]T[ies] (mid) + ALLOW (tolerate)

10. Stomachs turned level and more raunchy (8)
SMUTTIER

(TUMS)< (stomachs, <turned) + TIER (level)

11. Suddenly appear to cheer up TV shows (5)
ERUPT

[che]ER UP T[v] (shows)

12. Prison ship (4)
BRIG

Double definition

13. Both are responsible for back-stage gossip (2,5,3)
IT TAKES TWO

Double (cryptic) definition

Referring to the Strictly Come Dancing spin off show

15. Occupied by sinuses, predominantly (2,3)
IN USE

[s]INUSE[s] (predominantly)

17. Mid-Atlantic, drone leads race (5)
HUMAN

[atl]AN[tic] (mid), HUM (drone) leads

22. Fuel line left in factory (10)
PROPELLANT

(ROPE (line) + L (left)) in PLANT (factory)

26. Said to have coached wrong (4)
TORT

“taught” = TORT (coached, “said”)

27. Regularly forgive original dead-beat (5)
FRIED

F[o]R[g]I[v]E (regularly) + D[ead] (original)

28. State of game embracing new abundance (8)
RICHNESS

RI (state, Rhode Island) + CHESS (game) embracing N (new)

29. Found first one in abandoned coin (6)
FLORIN

F[ound] (first) + (I (one) in LORN (abandoned))

30. Houses distressed goats etc (8)
COTTAGES

(GOATS ETC)* (*distressed)

DOWN
1. Americans lose money initially through growth of store chain (7)
WALMART

(A[mericans] L[ose] M[oney] (initially)) through WART (growth)

2. Write about keeping game in shape (8)
PENTAGON

(PEN (write) + ON (about)) keeping TAG (game)

3. Happy game if a smile breaks out (8)
FAMILIES

(IF A SMILE)* (*breaks out)

4. Feel sorry for bird under hunter’s foot (6)
REGRET

EGRET (bird) under [hunte]R (foot)

5. Run exposed struggling skater (6)
STREAK

(SKATER)* (*struggling)

6. Study hardpan from the south caves (7)
KOWTOWS

(SWOT (study) + WOK (hardpan))< (<from the south)

9. Lane in comic turn at heart of old boxer (5)
LOUIS

LOIS (Lane in comic), U (turn) at heart

14. Remains of tree (3)
ASH

Double definition

16. Skin headless fish (3)
EEL

[p]EEL (skin, headless)

18. CIA involved in utter sting (8)
URTICATE

(CIA UTTER)* (*involved)

19. Conductors confuse Ayrton Senna and Rob Roy (8)
ANTENNAS

(A[yr]T[o]N SENNA)* (*confuse, and rob ROY)

20. Slum RAF destroyed with maximum loads (7)
ARMFULS

(SLUM RAF)* (*destroyed)

21. Magician vanishes duck with flourish (7)
PROSPER

PROSPER[o] (magician, vanishes O (duck))

23. Earlier one in order (5)
PRIOR

Double definition

24. Load of noise admitted by prisoner (6)
LADING

DIN (noise) admitted by LAG (prisoner)

25. Where lions hunt and feast, revelling in carcasses and heads (6)
AFRICA

A[nd] F[east] R[evelling] I[n] C[arcasses] A[nd] (heads)

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,897 by GAFF”

  1. Well, this was ‘a drop of golden sun’ to start the week.
    It was accessible in itself (not as vexatious to solve as a problem named Maria!) so I didn’t hunt for the singers until finishing which provided an added element of fun. I liked the theme’s witty indication too.
    There was much to like en route including MACERATE (nice pithy surface), the Roy-less Ayrton and KOWTOW – a neat touch to use ‘wok’ to clue another Chinese word; the literal meaning being to knock or touch (kow/kou) one’s head (tow/tou) to the ground in a show of respect to an ancestor or emperor.
    Anyway, the puzzle struck the right note for me today!
    Thanks to Gaff and Teacow.

  2. Aah. Von Trapps. No wonder I couldn’t find them – hate that film.

    Saw SANTE and ELLA but clearly on the wrong track.
    URTICATE was new but gettable from the anagram fodder, so all in all a great fun.
    Thanks to both.

  3. I did not get the IT TAKES TWO reference, and could not find the singers until I finally saw FRIEDRICH, and then it all fell into place. Good fun.

  5. Entertaining solve on tube journeys various this morning, including hunting out all the von Trapp singers (from the film, not the actual singers we noted).

    Thank you to Gaff and Teacow

  7. Thanks Gaff. I looked for singers — vocalists, birds, and informers (I saw ‘rat’ in MACERATE) but I failed because I never knew the names of the Von Trapps. I liked much of this but wondered about ‘turn at heart’ being just the letter ‘U’ and what I see as misuse of the word ‘of’ in RICHNESS, LOUIS ( wordplay of definition?), and ASH. Minor points, I guess. My favourites were MACERATE, WALMART, EEL (I first had ‘ide’ but that didn’t fit), and AFRICA. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
    [TripleJumper @2: Are you saying that you hate The Sound of Mucus?]

  8. Many thanks Gaff – the singers from the film missed me completely. I did look but couldn’t see anything familiar at all.
    Loved 8 across and 4 down in particular.

  9. Tony@7; I share the majority of your misgivings, but, in 9dn, I took “turn” as indicating U as in U-turn, and then “at heart” is a (very precise) containment indicator for the U entered specifically in the middle of LOIS. I think that puts me in full agreement with Teacow’s parsing in the blog.

    Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  10. I must have seen Sound of Music a million times (or snatches of it in the days we had live TV) but have never bothered with their names. I looked, but did not get far with the theme.

    Anyway, onto the puzzle, and like others there was plenty to like but also plenty here that puzzled me.

    My favourites were TALLOW, AFRICA, MACERATE and ANTENNAS

    With apologies to Teacow, I still do not understand how U is synonymous with turn (I cannot think of a sentence where they can be used interchangeably) and feel the same about beat and FRIED. Like Tony@7 I wondered why “of” was floating around in a double definition. I still cannot bring myself to think of a wok as a “hardpan”. And I found the UK-reader-only clue IT TAKES TWO inaccessible. But, as Tony wrote, all minor quibbles in an otherwise nice puzzle

    Thanks Gaff and Teacow

    PS I am always fascinated by the end of the movie when the Von Trapps walk to Switzerland. It is described as “just across the border” but is about 450 km in real life.

  11. I really enjoyed this puzzle

    My favourites included : MACERATE, PENTAGON, EGRET, KOWTOWS, LOUIS

    Didn’t find the singers.

    Thanks Gaff and Teacow

  12. Having never seen (or wanted to see) The Sound of Music the theme and the punning ‘trapped’ were totally lost on us. Fortunately they weren’t needed to solve the puzzle, which we found quite tough in places and needed help. Never encounterd FRIED to mean ‘beat’; nor did we know BRIG for ‘prison’ (an unindicated American usage). WALMART wasn’t a store chain to come to mind for Brits either although, to be fair, IT TAKES TWO would puzzle non-Brits. Not a very satisfying solve but thanks all the same to Gaff and Teacow.

  14. Loved the puzzle, but like TripleJumper I went off on Ella and Cat (Stevens) looking for singers. As mentioned above, it should be Gretl, not Greta, but perhaps her friends called her Greta 😂. Thanks to Gaff and Teacow.

  15. In 6D, I had SWOT for study hard, then WOK for pan. Only because I’ve never heard the term hardpan used. Anyway, makes no difference to a pleasant solve, even if I don’t care for the film. Many thanks to both.

  16. Martyn@10,an
    I’ve heard Aussies say ‘throw a U-ey’ when they want to make a U-turn.
    Drake@15,
    Yes, ‘study hard’ for ‘swot’ and ‘pan’ = ‘wok’ was my thinking too.
    Allan@12
    Conversely for me, I wasn’t aware of the TV show IT TAKES TWO as I’m British living overseas though knew the enormous Walmart chain. I had wondered at first if the former was pointing to Cher as I’d already found Ella like others. Then Liesl and Friedrich came along…

  17. A bit late, here is a quick response to Diane@16. Yes, I am familiar with U-ey, and “throw a U-ey” is a great expression.i am glad you picked it up. But it is not “throw a U”, which the clue would demand

    Not a biggie. Thanks for the thought

  18. I saw Friedrich and stopped looking
    As Mr Costello said in a song about hell
    “My favourite things are playing-again and again
    But its by Julie Andrews and not by John Coltrane”

    But the “Trapped Singers” was otherwise a good idea

  19. Diane@16
    Walmart would have been more familiar over here when they owned the Asda chain, but that was a few years ago now.

  20. Not knowing the spin- off TV show, I still don’t understand the “back-stage gossip” definition at 13d IT TAKES TWO. Could someone explain?

    copster@18, thanks for the Costello quote. I couldn’t agree more. (And it’s a shame that the wonderful Julie Andrews is remembered for this.)

    Thanks Gaff for the excellent puzzle – great surfaces throughout – and Teacow for the helpful blog.

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