Financial Times 13,864 by Gozo

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A good puzzle from Gozo and as always an entertaining and educational puzzle to blog.

Gozo’s grids are usually themed and this week we have another geography lesson with names of towns and geographical regions.  I had heard of all the entries except 9 across, so not too obscure and quite solvable without having to resort to searching lists in reference books etc.  Thank you Gozo.

Each solution in the blog is linked to its article on Wikipedia , so if you have finished early you can use them for revision for the remainder of the lesson.

I can’t explain why ‘attacking’ is an anagram indicator in 16 across, so any help would be appreciated.

Hold your mouse over any clue number to see the clue.

Across
1 MOBILE triple definition – mobile phone, hanging decoration and the US port
4 WINNIPEG PINE* in WING (annexe)
9 NIEVRE ER (The Queen, Elizabeth Regina) and VEIN (temperament) reversed – department of France, home of the Pouilly Fumé wine
10 BARNSLEY North and South (partners in bridge) inside BARLEY (cereal) – ‘the opposite’ indicates that cereal is eating partners rather than the other way round
12 ABERDARE BREAD* (crumbs=anagram, broken up) ARE (live, we are=we exist, we live)
13 HARARE H (Henry) next to (by) AbeRdARE (the previous solution) with components (letters) of bed removed – capital of Zimbabwe
15 ADEN decADENt – port in Yemen, situated inside the crater of an extinct volcano
16 BASUTOLAND (ALAN DOUBTS)* (anagram=attacking, but why??) – the old colonial name for Lesotho
19 CADER IDRIS C (cape) and (SARI DRIED)* anagram=out
20 JURA JURAssic (half of) -Jurassic Park the film is set on an fictional island – definition is ‘range’, of mountains.  A better explanation is another triple definition: ‘half the park on film’, ‘scottish island’ and ‘mountain range’.  Thanks to mike04 for this.
23 RIMINI RI (Rhode Island, state) MINI (a vehicle)
25 VALLETTA Left inside VALET (assistant) with TA (Territorial Army, volunteers) – capital of Malta. Gozo (pseudonym of the setter) is an island off Malta, so Valletta is ‘my neighbouring capital’
27 CARLISLE Conservative (Tory) RALLIES* (anagram=round, moved about)
28 MANILA MAN (chap) and ILA sounds like “iller” (more ill=worse)
29 SARDINIA SARDINe (fish, missing the tail letter) I (one, Roman numeral) and seA (just one edge of)
30 GENEVA North and East (directions) inside GAVE* (anagram=wrong)
Down
1 MONTANA MAN around ON Time then A
2 BIELEFELD (FEEBLE IDLe)* misisng E=enegry (cook=anagram)
3 LAREDO LA (‘the’ in French) and RE-DO (re-create) – city in Texas, part of the mixed nationality Laredo-Nuevo Laredo Metropolitan Area on the US-Mexico border.
5 IRAQ I (1 Roman numeral) RAQ sounds like “rack”, torture device
6 NUNEATON sounds like “none eaten”
7 PALMA Left in PA and MA (both parents) – capital of Majorca
8 GWYNEDD (EDGY DaWN)* anagram=awfully, missing the first letter of (just a bit of) ambition
11 ORLANDO LARDOON*
14 SURINAM SURe (certain, but not quite all of) IN AM (the morning)
17 AQUITAINE Adult QUIT (to leave) and AÎNÉ (the eldest boy in French)
18 BRINDISI (BIRD IS IN)*
19 CARACAS sounds like “crackers” – capital of Venezuela. Its full name is ‘Santiago de León de Caracas’ which is my favourite name of any city in the world, can anyone suggest one more beautiful?
21 ALABAMA À LA BAMA (in the manner of Barack Obama)
22 ALSACE Statesman (leading letter) inside pALACE (without the top, roof)
24 MORAR RAM reversed around OtheR (edges of) – Loch Morar is the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles
26 ALBI centrAL BIrmingham – birth place of Toulouse Lautrec

*anagram

4 comments on “Financial Times 13,864 by Gozo”

  1. Thanks PeeDee and Gozo. Good fun. I’m also puzzled by 16 – is it a kind of “reverse anagram indicator” (you can get to ALAN DOUBTS by “attacking” the answer)?

  3. Chambers gives ‘begin to act destructively on’ as a meaning for attack, but this doesn’t really go far enough for me, one needs to complete the destruction. Also, as you say, the sense is wrong too, it sould be ‘alan doubts’ that is being attacked, not the thing doing the attacking.

  4. Thanks very much, PeeDee.
    This was a fine work of art by Gozo. The department in Burgundy caused me
    some problems too. I like MikeC’s explanation for ‘attacking’ in 16ac.

    Although Jurassic Park was set on a fictional island, I don’t think it could be
    described as “film of island”. So I’d go for a Triple Definition:
    Half the park on film / island (Jura in the Hebrides) / range

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