Another fun challenge. Thank you Julius.
Lots of financial stuff in here. Ironically I never liked money, despite having worked in banks and financial institutions for years.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RISK FREE | Busy ferries carrying 1,000 with complete safety (4-4) |
| anagram (busy) of FERRIES contains K (£1000) | ||
| 5 | AMOUNT | Import adult horse (6) |
| A (adult) and MOUNT (horse) | ||
| 10 | PRAWN | Partially chop raw Newquay seafood (5) |
| found inside (partially) choP RAW Newquay | ||
| 11 | PENINSULA | Cape corral not entirely closed (9) |
| PEN (corral) then INSULAr (closed, not entirely) | ||
| 12 | FEE INCOME | Iron Miocene casting is a source of funds (3,6) |
| FE (Fe, iron) then anagram (…casting) of MIOCENE – income derived from fees rather than interest on loans | ||
| 13 | YO-YOS | Ma’s playthings? (2-3) |
| YO-YO’S (belonging to Yo-Yo Ma, cellist) | ||
| 14 | AGEIST | Blocking peerage is terribly prejudiced against seniority (6) |
| found inside (blocking) peerAGE IS Terribly | ||
| 15 | POOL CUE | With which Potter hopes to line his pockets? (4,3) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | MORALLY | Doctor to improve, in an ethical way (7) |
| MO (Medical Officer, doctor) then RALLY (to improve) | ||
| 20 | PROFIT | Mine admits being in favour of returning earnings (6) |
| PIT (mine) contains (admits) FOR (being in favour of) reversed (returning) | ||
| 22 | IRKED | Heads of Inland Revenue kept exacting demands, which was annoying (5) |
| first letters (heads) of Inland Revenue Kept Exacting Demands | ||
| 24 | HAND DRILL | Tool of Chinese totalitarian state assassinates without restrictions (4,5) |
| HAN (Chinese) DDR (totalitarian state, former East Germany) then kILLs (assassinates) missing outer letters (without restrictions) | ||
| 25 | GALLIPOLI | US soldier capturing every current petty officer left in 11 battleground (9) |
| GI (US soldier) contains (capturing) ALL (every) I (current, electrical symbol) PO (petty officer) L (left) | ||
| 26 | ON ICE | Spanish XI touring Italy, chilling (2,3) |
| ONCE (eleven in Spanish) contains (touring) I (Italy) | ||
| 27 | DASHER | The German trapping silver-grey reindeer (6) |
| DER (the, in German) contains (trapping) ASH (silver-grey) – name of one the reindeer in the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas | ||
| 28 | INTEREST | Popular setter aroused curiosity (8) |
| IN (popular) then anagram (aroused) of SETTER | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RIP OFF | Poor 20a robbed of tons following scam (3-3) |
| anagram (poor) of PROFIt (20 across) missing T (tons) then F (following, pages or lines) | ||
| 2 | SCAVENGER | Versace design “no good” admitted picky individual (9) |
| anagram (design) of VERSACE contains (with…admitted) NG (no good) | ||
| 3 | FINANCIAL ADVICE | Cash tips? (9,6) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | EXPLOIT | Abuse former flier, one somewhat depressed? (7) |
| EX (former) PILOT (flier) with I (one) moved downward (somewhat depressed) | ||
| 6 | MONEY FOR OLD ROPE | Do refer monopoly for review – it’s making cash too easily (5,3,3,4) |
| anagram (for review) of DO REFER MONOPOLY | ||
| 7 | USURY | American railway union introduced punitive financial practice (5) |
| US (American) RY (railway) contains (with…introduced) U (union) | ||
| 8 | TRANSFER | Download permitted in Windows? (8) |
| just a guess – is this some financial term relating to a “window of opportunity”? – permitted in the football “transfer window” | ||
| 9 | IN DEEP | Batting clever, hooked (2,4) |
| IN (batting, cricket) and DEEP (clever) | ||
| 16 | CRITICISE | Pan Spooner’s urban screams (9) |
| a Spoonerism of “city cries” (urban screams) | ||
| 17 | IMPINGED | Julius is sent a computer test message, which was an encroachment (8) |
| I’M PINGED (Julius is sent a computer test message) – to ping is to send a test message on a computer network | ||
| 19 | YAHOOS | Louts – Aryans, essentially – smashing up Soho (6) |
| arYAns (middle letters, essentially) then anagram (smashing up) of SOHO | ||
| 20 | PENSION | Accommodation bringing security in old age? (7) |
| double definition | ||
| 21 | CLIENT | Patron acclaimed Nato on a regular basis (6) |
| every other letter (on a regular basis) of aCcLaImEd NaTo | ||
| 23 | KILLS | Cuts talent from top to bottom (5) |
| SKILL (talent) with top letter moved to the bottom | ||
I think 8d is referring to transfer windows in football.
You know I like to point out your deliberate errors 🙂 In 1d, “following” is just F, the other F comes from PROFIT.
In 8d, I took “transfer” to refer to footballers, which have to be done during the transfer window.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
Another fine puzzle from Julius. I particularly liked 25ac GALLIPOLI, 28ac INTEREST, and the clever anagrams and surfaces in 2dn SCAVENGER and 6dn MONEY FOR OLD ROPE.
Many thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
Thanks for the corrections Andrew and Hovis,fixed now.
hi PeeDee, many thanks for the blog and thanks to those who have commented. Bit cathartic this one – I got terribly bogged down in a six-month long cross-border pension transfer which coincided, as luck would have it, with extreme market volatility during the spring due to corona-related issues. Weeks turned into months spent waiting for financial advisers, paid a fortune to give me advice they knew I was never going to take just to cover the backsides of the pension fund administrator….grrr!
best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
This money-themed puzzled was just what I was in the mood for; a virtual write-in with an entertaining mix of clues. Even the dreaded Spoonerism @16d proved straight forward.
Surfaces were smooth and seemingly effortless with 1ac, 2d and 17d all praiseworthy. If 20d was a tad prosaic, 13ac was a delight!
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee for a grid that was on the money.
What Eileen said
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
A fairly quick but nevertheless enjoyable solve for me. Thanks, Rob.
I was given financial advice when I retired, and invested my tax-free lump sum which began to increase at 6%pa. That quickly changed.
Julius @5 Better out than in.
Thanks. i know the feeling well
And nicely clued.
Thanks to Julius for his usual freshness (no chestnuts) and smooth surfaces — 25ac was just one of several crackers. Sorry I didn’t notice the financial flavour, probably because all the papers are full of the stuff at the moment. And thanks, PeeDee, for your usual unhurried summaries
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee. Fun and not difficult morning solve. MONEY FOR OLD ROPE a new expression for me but fun to solve. Needed help with POOL CUE – I didn’t get “potter” for pool player. PENINSULA and GALLIPOLI very cleverly constructed!
Thanks Julius for a cleanly clued puzzle but that’s no surprise. Favourites included YO-YOS, GALLIPOLI, and YAHOOS. Except for TRANSFER everything was understandable for me without reading the blog. Thanks PeeDee for the write-up.
Thanks to PeeDee and Julius
23d I can’t see how “skill from top to bottom” might gives “kills”
Sandra – you move the top letter of skill to the bottom
Sorry predictive text wins again
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Enjoyable crossword in which I was too involved with the solve to see the financial theme. Lots of varied clue devices and particularly enjoyed constructing 24a and 25a (which immediately leapt iff the page with the ANZAC involvement).
PROFIT was the first entry after being redirected from 1d and all went quite smoothly from there. Thought there was a misprint in 17d with ‘test message’ rather than ‘text message’.
Finished in the NE corner with IN DEEP (had to check on the deep / clever meaning), POOL CUE and TRANSFER (didn’t think of football and just crossed the fingers).
Julius/Rob, I enjoyed your sharing what was behind the puzzle. Yo-yos was my favourite.
@Dansar
I agree with your criticism of 23d; a very fair comment
A work of genius, 51 clues and 18 answers with a financial connection in a financial newspaper.
PeeDee: I just finished this crossword and do not understand Dansar’s criticism of 23d SKILLS, which Julius agreed with. Could you help me out please?
Hi Cellomaniac – I can’t speak for Dansar personally, but I imagine the criticism is that there is no explicit instruction that the top letter has to be moved. Something moves “from (the) top to (the) bottom” but what?
Literally the phrase doesn’t help either. It can mean “thoroughly” or “in a downward direction” but doesn’t explicitly indicate a movement.
In contrast: “heading from top to bottom” might work as it says the top letter (heading) has to move.
Whether this sort of thing bothers you as a solver is another matter entirely. What is a critical flaw to one person is irrelevant detail to another. Some people treat the rules of grammar as a religion, self-evidently correct and unquestionably important. For others the grammar is a bit of a sideshow. Take your pick.