Financial Times 14,836 by WANDERER

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A brilliant stunner of an FT challenge!! Wanderer – If you are reading this, take a bow! I dont think I can adequately extol the attributes of this puzzle but suffices to say that I shall eagerly await more grids from this setter.

Excellent surfaces punctuated by creative clues that all seemed to have a certain inflexion point where they went from being unsolvable to “oh, that was easy!!”. I have several favorites in the clues but invite readers here to call out their own. Might be interesting to summarise the poll after a couple of days.

FF: 10 DD: 8

P.S: The last Wanderer puzzle I blogged also scored a 10 on the Fun Factor axis !  There was a mini-theme too back then, around the Flintstones. As I write this, I am striving vigorously to identify any in today’s challenge.

 

completed grid
Across
1, 6 FROM SIDE TO SIDE
How journeyman footballer often moves? Such a write-in, this one (4,4,2,4)
Cryptic clue – Journeyman footballer here could refer to someone who is not assigned a flank or someone who keeps switching teams. The clue itself goes all the way from the left side to the right.
9 VIOLENT
Furious cook lit oven (7)
Anagram of LIT OVEN
10 THOREAU
English author upset American one (7)
Anagram of E (English) AUTHOR
12, 13 IN NO TIME AT ALL
Pub over by farm, in which a mate gets drunk very quickly (2,2,4,2,3)
Charade of INN (pub) O (over) [ TILL (farm) containing anagram of A MATE ]
15 ERRATA
Mistakes noted by sailor, reversed in time (6)
RAT (sailor = TAR, reversed) in ERA (time)
16 MEDIATES
Referees side with team being fouled (8)
Anagram of SIDE TEAM
18 CAMPFIRE
Worry about politician, loud one where singing is involved (8)
CARE (worry) about [ MP (politician) F (loud) I (one) ]
20 TEA BAG
Leaves container with airline, having gone through wrong gate (3,3)
BA (airline, British Airways) in anagram of GATE – Excellent clue!!
23, 24 ONE IN A MILLION
Aim to be someone very special? (3,2,1,7)
Cryptic clue. AIM can be described as I (one) in A M (million).
26 HATLESS
No bowler, maybe, but he’s last out (7)
Anagram of HE’S LAST – Clever misdirection towards cricket.
27 SIGNS UP
Recruits volunteers (5,2)
Double definition
28, 29 STIR ONES STUMPS
Person must sit still at first, when about to move (4,4,6)
Anagram of PERSON MUST SIT S (Still at first) – &lit for the anagram indicator. I havent come across this phrase before but managed to get there by a logical deconstruction. Having done that, I can fully appreciate why this is yet another gem of a clue.
Down
1 FIVE
Fellow setter’s figure (4)
F (Fellow) I’VE (setter’s)
2 OCONNOR
Singer ordered: “Croon on!” (7)
Anagram of CROON ON – Sinead O’Connor. / [See comments @ 2 below. Thanks Muffy.]
3 STEP OUT OF LINE
What might make pals rebel (4,3,2,4)
Cryptic clue. Pals = Pets. Thus ‘step out of line’ can be construed as an anagram of ‘step’ to give Pets. / [The better parsing is in the comments @1 below, thanks Stuart ]
4 DETAIL
Give full info about dock (6)
Cryptic clue ‘literally’ for Crosswords – To Dock is to remove the last letter i.e. DE-TAIL.
5 TATTERED
Model carried some weight, though not initially in poor condition (8)
T (Model, Ford’s 1st car) mATTERED (carried some weight, not initially)
7 INEXACT
One Direction no longer performing group? That’s not quite right (7)
I (one) N (Direction) EX – ACT (no onger performing group) – This clue made me chuckle. Havent heard this band but seems to be quite popular with the young crowd here.
8 EQUALS SIGN
11 on either side? It shows there’s no difference between them (6,4)
Cryptic clue. I think the first part of the clue was a bit of a misdirection with the reference to cricket (11, side). [An oversight on my part, worthy of a well-deserved smack to the forehead. See comments @1 below. Thanks Stuart ]
11 OUT LIKE A LIGHT
Like a kipper that’s gone off 12 13 (3,4,1,5)
Cryptic clue, referring to 12,13 ac – someone who has had too much to drink too quickly would be “out like a light”./ [See comments @2, 3 below].
14 BEDCLOTHES
County in which chambermaid started changing hotel sheets? (10)
[C (Chambermaid, started – initial character) LOTHE (anagram of HOTEL) ] in BEDS (County, short for Bedfordshire)
17 ARKANSAN
Statesman showing hard heart to another (8)
AR (hARd heart) KANSAN (another, statesman, from Kansas)
19 MAESTRI
Distinguished figures content to flirt? Seaman’s upset (7)
Reversed, Hidden in “..flIRT SEAMan’s..”
21 BLOSSOM
Flourish and prosper as singers after vacation in Orlando? (7)
SS (SingerS after vacation) in BLOOM (Orlando Bloom, actor who played the character of Legolas in Lord of the Rings).
22 MISSIS
Feel the loss of one’s wife (6)
MISS (Feel the loss) I’S (one’s) – I wasnt aware of this spelling for the word. More accustomed to seeing “Missus”.
25 APES
Copies topless pranks (4)
jAPES (pranks, topless)
*anagram

17 comments on “Financial Times 14,836 by WANDERER”

  1. I think with 8d the first part of the clue ndicates that if you turn 11 90 degreees in either direction it becomes an equals sign. For 3d I thought the wordplay refefed to “pas” (step) outside of “l” (line) to make “pals” but Turbolegs’ theory also makes sense.

  2. Thanks Turbolegs and Wanderer,

    I parsed 8d and 3d as stuartr (but toyed with your parsing of 3d too).

    I thought OUT LIKE A LIGHT was – “like a kipper” = definition + OUT = gone off, + LIKE A LIGHT = in no time at all; but I am not sure.

    Re 2d, I was thinking of Des here, but you may well be correct!

    My favourite was BLOSSOM

  3. Thanks Stuartr @1 and Muffy @2. I have made the necessary edits to the blog.

    Stuartr@1 – Ref 3d, I think my parsing holds but like yours better.

    Muffy@2 – Just an implied reference to the speed at which salmons swim I thought. The underlining for definition is equally justified for the second part of the clue which means someone heavily intoxicated.

    Cheers

  4. Very good puzzle indeed, thanks turbolegs for stressing this in the intro otherwise I might not have done it.

    I wondered about FROM WING TO WING for 1 across, and initially misread the apostrophe in 1dn as setters’ so had F + OUR = FOUR instead of FIVE.

    ONE IN A MILLION was my favourite. The only clue I thought was less than great was SIGNS UP as the two meanings are very close, but that is just nitpicking really.

    Thanks Wanderer, great stuff!

  5. Excellent puzzle! We don’t get that many wanderer’s puzzles but they are always fun and inventive.

    I parsed 8d like turbolegs but didn’t think it was very satisfactory. I also had Des in mind as the singer.

    Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs.

  6. As usual a top-notch puzzle from Wanderer who has proved a great addition to the FT stable. Re 1 ac. This has to be about a player going from team to team – “not assigned a flank” makes no sense. Re 2dn, definitely in the Des camp – he being a crooner, Sinead definitely not! Agree with stuartr re 8dn and 3dn, and with Muffyword on 11 down. Too many good clues to pick a favourite.

  7. Hi Jmac@6,

    Thanks for the comment. Re 1ac, I do have the team-to-team in the parsing. When I made the note on unassigned flanks, I was thinking about references to “bad” players who are just kept on the team for unfathomable reason and usually well beyond their age – they get rotated through the various playing positions and thus qualified for the definition in the clue too. In hindsight, this isn’t as strong as the other parsing.

    By the way, it is unbelievable that so many readers here thought of Des O’Connor for the clue. I was unaware of his existence until about 10 hours ago! The first name that sprang to mind was Sinead, her songs “Thief of my heart” and “Nothing compares to you” being among my favorites when she first released them.

    Cheers

  9. Hi Turbolegs,

    I forgot to say thnnk you for the blog. Sorry! On reflection, if it is Des, then 2 Dn is my favourite.

  10. My thinking about 11d is all about sleeping.
    Kipper may be a cryptic form of a sleeper ie someone having a kip.
    Go off can mean to go to sleep.
    And a person who falls asleep quickly is said to go out like a light.

    I agree with PeeDee about the relative weakness of 27A.

    Thanks to Turbolegs and Wanderer.

  11. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs

    Gave this a big tick of approval as well. Seemed a little daunting until the long ones started to fall.

    Parsed 3d the same as TL, but the dance step around L is much neater. Had the journeyman footballer travelling between clubs rather than sides of the ground as well.

    It took way too long to see the anagram of VIOLENT for some reason.

    All round there were lots of clever devices with many misdirected surfaces at a ‘Goldilocks’ level of difficulty.

  14. Mr K @13 – wouldn’t MISSES need to be “Feels the loss of”? “Feel the loss of” would give you MISS.

    Turbolegs’ parsing looks right to me.

  15. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs

    Now that the answers have been published, we can see that 22dn is definitely MISSIS, and I can join those who agree with Turbolegs’ parsing of this clue.

  16. I wouldn’t normally comment this late but I only just got round to doing this one and I can’t find enough words to praise it.

    I was in the MISSUS camp myself. In the circle of one who says “one” frequently to mean “oneself alone” “one” is also used to mean “one’s husband and one” – ie US.

    But one can see the argument for MISSIS and if that is indeed an alternative spelling one can accept that as the preferred version.

  17. Thanks Jollyswagman@15 for stopping by. And to PD@14 and PB@15 for the thumbs-up on 22dn.

    Sil@12, indeed a surprise to see such a short comment. Goes to say just how good Wanderer has really made this one to be.

    Ignoring any bias I might have as the blogger for this grid, its just wonderful to see a great puzzle get the attention it deserves. Thanks to all here!!

    Cheers
    TL

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