Financial Times 16,553 by GOZO

by

An interesting themed puzzle, which I think will be accessible to most. Thank you Gozo.

The theme is motor vehicle manufacture, makes and models. In real life Gozo is a bus enthusiast and has written books on the historic busses of Malta. I once took a trip to Gozo (the Maltese island) to see some of the wonderful looking vehicles, only to find that they had been replaced en-masse the previous year by Arriva.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 LANCIA Half the Red Rose county accepts independence (6)
 

LANCAshire (red rose county, half of) contains I (Independence)
4 MERCEDES This compiler, at onset of rubella, gives up (8)
 

ME (this compiler) with Rubella (first letter, onset) then CEDES (gives up)
10 CITROEN Far out – for certain, adrift (7)
 

anagram (adrift) of fOR CErTaIN missing (out) FAR
11 PONTIAC Putin’s first criminal action (7)
 

Putin (first letter of) then anagram (criminal) of ACTION
12 OPEL Somewhat hopeless (4)
 

found inside (somewhat) hOPELess
13 ROLLS ROYCE Lorry getting close – crashing (5,5)
 

anagram (crashing) of LORRY with CLOSE
15 SCANIA Medical check receiving first- class backing (6)
 

SCAN (medical check) with AI (first class) reversed (backing)
16 LEYLAND Sadly, all deny removing a couple of roots from hedging tree (7)
 

anagram (sadly) of ALL DENY and also LEYLANDII (a hedging tree) missing two of its bottom letters (roots)
20 BENTLEY Distorted magical lines across the countryside (7)
 

BENT (distorted) then LEY (ley lines, magical lines across the countryside)
21 BEETLE Mallet for Stalky’s friend for sort of drive (6)
 

triple definition – Reggie Beetle, Stalky's friend in the Rudyard Kipling stories – a model rather than a make
24 OLDSMOBILE Aussie parents with a baby’s hanging toy (10)
 

OLDS (parents, Australian) then MOBILE (baby's hanging toy)
26 POLO Some interpol operations, one way or the other (4)
 

found forwards inside interPOL Operations, and backwards too interpOL OPerations – a model rather than a make this time
28 DAIMLER Welsh lad has mulberry regularly (7)
 

DAI (Welsh lad, boy's name) then every other letter (regularly) of MuLbErRy

29 FERRARI A fire, raging, consumed 13 (7)
 

anagram (raging) of A FIRE contains (consumed) RR (Rolls Royce, 13 across)
30 CHRYSLER Sheds tears, we’re told – gets to ballerina’s heart (8)
 

CHRYS sounds like "cries" (sheds tears) and then balLERina (middle of, heart)

31 NISSAN The heart of Venice with small health farm (6)
 

veNIce (middle letters, heart) then S (small) SAN (health farm)
DOWN
1 LACROSSE Game explorer in delicate fabric (8)
 

ROSS (explorer) inside LACE (delicate fabric)
2 NOTRE DAME Cathedral’s title includes radical books first (5,4)
 

NAME (title) contains RED (radical) following (with…first) OT (old Testament, books of Bible)
3 ICON East European art swindler’s confession (4)
 

I CON (swindler's confession)
5 ESPALIER Training and support for horticulturists! (8)
 

I think this is a cryptic definition
6 CONTROLLED Supervised jailbird was offensive online (10)
 

CON (jailbird) and TROLLED (was offensive online)
7 DEITY Apollo, say, tied up at end of day (5)
 

TIED reversed (up) then daY (end of)
8 SOCCER Game for a sound hitter? (6)
 

sounds like (for a sound) "socker" (hitter)
9 ONION Bulb shining, one lit (5)
 

ON (shining) I (one) ON (lit)
14 FIFTY MILES Feisty film broadcast about the distance of two marathons, almost (5,5)
 

anagram (broadcast) of FEISTY FILM
17 NATIONALS 16’s single-deckers aren’t printed locally (9)
 

double definition – the Leyland National single-decker bus and a national newspaper
18 SEABORNE Broken bones are carried across the water (8)
 

anagram (broken) of BONES ARE
19 DEMOTION Departs with feeling, on going down (8)
 

D (departs) then (with…on) EMOTION
22 NORDIC Scandinavian lexicon or dictionary features it (6)
 

found inside (featured by) lexicoN OR DICtionary
23 CLIFF Veteran pop-star, one of many on the Kent coast (5)
 

double definition – Cliff Richard and the White Cliffs
25 DRIER It’s odd dormice are getting less water! (5)
 

the odd letters from DoRmIcE aRe
27 DREI Number from the Third Reich (4)
 

found inside thriD REIch – a number from Germany (as used by the Third Reich)

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,553 by GOZO”

  1. Again, the s/w I use doesn’t give the special instructions, although found them on the FT site once I suspected something was going on. The car-names brought back some old memories.
    As far as I can see, only BEETLE uses the get-out of “no ‘themed’ definitions” , thus making ‘beetle’ effectively a quadruple definition, which is impressive.
    Good fun, thanks to both.

  2. Sped through this Gozo challenge like Lewis at the Hungaroring only to suffer a puncture on the last lap with 15ac, my LOI. I had SPANIA (unparsed) instead of SCANIA which put the brakes on. An online check had SWABIA!
    A curious collection: 13ac, and the related 29ac were favourites but, sadly, no Jaguar? 21ac made the 3rd reference I’ve seen to Kipling over the past week or so. 12ac goes by at least three different names, depending on where you live, which should make things interesting…
    The rest of the grid went in quickly – a virtual write-in with very pleasing surfaces and word plays.
    Thanks to Gozo for this racy little number and PeeDee for shedding light on the handful I didn’t parse.

  5. Thanks, Gozo and PeeDee. Great puzzle, went quickly when I got the theme (13a and 10a first in along with 7d). But I didn’t get SCANIA or LEYLAND – now I understand NATIONALS, thanks for explaining.

    4d sort of a double cryptic def – an espalier trains a plant to grow along it, then supports it as it gets tall.

  8. My FOI, OPEL, led me to guess the theme early and that made the crossword much easier for me. However, I failed at BEETLE because I was thinking of car makers, not models. I did get POLO (what else could it be?) but didn’t know it as a car model. Favourite was ICON. Thanks to both.

  9. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee

    Don’t know that I found this ‘racy’, taking four mini sessions across the day working from home.  It definitely had some meat in it, particularly with the unravelling of the word play in a number of the clues.  Was able to do it to most but skipped over the reversely hidden POLO, only seeing the forwardly hidden one.

    Began well enough with NOTRE DAME which quickly gave me LANICA and the airline theme – until ICON corrected that to a motor vehicle one !  A lot of fun generating past and present makes and models.

    Finished in the SE corner with the excellently clued BEETLE (not having read the Kipling book, I googled ‘Mallet for Stalky BEETLE, and discovered that Tom had used this exact clue in a Guardian Prize Puzzle 27172 (14 April 2017) – a jigsaw puzzle, similarly themed that I might download and do) – it’s such a great clue that all is forgiven for repeating it !  Followed that with the cleverly crossed LEYLAND clues at 16a and 17d to finish a very entertaining and enjoyable puzzle

  10. I got LANCIA and OPEL immediately, which led the way to most of the remaining crossers (unfortunately like James@4 I went straight for SWABIA without a second thought, because I’ve just done a Covid test). This was a lively and stimulating mid-weeker — thanks, Gozo. And thanks to PeeDee that his electronics were salvaged.

  11. Another masterful grid construction by Gozo … all the across answers themed and all of the down words from core dictionary (as opposed to Azedic). I salute Gozo again. Thank you PeeDee for the explanation.

  12. PS – for the record I put SWABIA in first time too and spent ages failing to find some evidence of the non-existent vehicle.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.