Financial Times 13,804 by Aardvark

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Good stuff from Aardvark, with one clue that I am unable to solve.  Can anyone help?

Any help on 17 across gratefully appreciated.

Hold mouse over clue number to see clue.

Across
1 MEDALLION Double definition – circular cut of meat and medal in cat show.  Also MEDAL (prize for winning) and LION (cat) – thanks to Eileen for this better interpretation.
6 CHESS matCHES Studied
9 PECAN CAN (drink) following PE (excercise)
10 IONIAN SEA IO (FT setter) SIENNA* shAde (middle of)
11 PETERHOUSE PET (preferred=a favourite) HER* and OUSE (any one of several English rivers of that name) – definition is ‘Cambridge College’
12 AXLE AXE (chopper) contains (draws in) Left – definition is ‘wheel section’
14 SILENUS IS reversed (rebuffed) and LEN (Leonard briefly) with US the United States – Silenus is a satyr and companion of Dionysus in Greek mythology. I’m nore sure why ‘audibly’ is required, I may have parsed this one incorrectly.
15 RAINBOW IN (stylish) BOots (pair of=first two letters) in RAW (green) – one can never reach a rainbow (indeed, do rainbows actually exist?)
17 PINSENT I’m stuck on this. Can anyone help? I (one, Roman numeral) North South (two poles) in PE (Physical Education, training) with OlympiaN targeT (ultimately=last letters of) & lit – Sir Matthew Pinsent Olympic gold medal winner at rowing, hence he has two poles and trains for the Olympics.  Thanks to anax for this, my knowledge of the Olympic Games is somewhat sparse to say the least.
19 WACKILY eAt CaKe (regularly=every other letter, at regular intervals) inside WILY (devious)
20 RUSK hampeR (back of) and USK (Welsh river)
22 STEELMAKER STEAK (beef) outside ELM (wood) and SomERset (middle of) – does ‘steelmaker’ really mean labourer?
25 IAIN BANKS IdeA (vacuous=with no inside) IN BANKS (rims) – Scottish novelist
26 OVOID Omlette (bit of=first letter) inside OVID (poet) – shaped like an egg
27 IGLOO I (1 Roman numeral) GLOO sounds like (when discussed) glue (cement) – definition ‘house’
28 SHEEPSKIN SHE (lady) EPS (Extended Play records) Kestrels (earliest, first letter of) IN (wearing)
Down
1 MOP UP PUP (dog) follows (tracks) MO (‘bones’ is army slang for Medical Officer)
2 DECATHLON Clubs inside DEATH (the end) Latch (start to, first letter) and ON – definition ‘sports event’
3 LONE RANGER ONE RANG (phoned) in aLERt (middle of)
4 IN IRONS bIRO (without cap, top letter) inside INN‘S (pub’s)
5 NON-USER ONUS (responsibility) inside NERd (anorak, shortened)
6 CHAP Harlequins (flanker=one on the side) inside CAP (headgear) – definition is ‘fellow’
7 ESSEX ExectutiveS (periphery, outside letters) and SEX (congress)
8 SLAVE AWAY SLAV (european) strodE (last letter of) AWAY (out) – definition is ‘fag’, work hard
13 NINCOMPOOP N (navy) INCOMe (most of wages) POOP (deck)
14 SUPERMINI US (American) reversed PERM (hairstyle) IN I (1 Roman numeral) – definition is ‘type of car’
16 BRICKWORK BRICK (portion of ice-cream) and R (runs, cricket) inside WOK (kitchenware) – definition is ‘walls’. Before the invention of plastic tubs ice-cream used to come in blocks wrapped in paper that were known as ‘bricks’.
18 TETANUS NAT inside SUET (fat)
19 WOE IS ME With Old English (abbreviations) and SEMI*
21 SWILL WILL (Prince William) with Sunday coming first (a priotity) – definition is hogwash. I’m a bit shaky on royalty, but isn’t Prince Charles the Prince of Wales?
23 RODIN ROD (staff) IN (accepted) – French sculptor, worked with his hands
24 EBRO R (run, cricket) inside (wearing) OBE (medal, Order of the British Empire) reversed – definition is ‘European runner’. The Ebro is a large river in Spain – a river ‘runs’.

*anagram

6 comments on “Financial Times 13,804 by Aardvark”

  2. Thanks PeeDee – good stuff on the blogging, too, and I agree about the puzzle.

    I was stuck on the same one, so many thanks, anax.

    I had the same thoughts, too, about ‘audibly’ and the Prince of Wales!

    I read 1ac as MEDAL [prize for winning] + LION [cat].

  3. Funny how we all struggle slightly differently. I had PINSENT early on but some of the other clues took ages for the pennies to drop. Thanks to PeeDee and Aaardvark – a very enjoyable lunchtime diversion.

  4. Thanks Aardvark for the puzzle and PeeDee for the blog. To pick up a couple of your uncertainties:

    22ac: This seems a reasonable definition – a steelmaker is a type of labourer

    21dn: Prince Charles is indeed the Prince of Wales, but his oldest son is Prince William of Wales, so William is a Prince of Wales, which is all the clue needs.

    I too cannot account for “audibly” in 14ac.

  5. Further to 4 on 21dn: According to Wikipedia, the title Prince William of Wales ceased to be applicable when Prince William became Duke of Cambridge earlier this year. I am still happy with the clue.

    Incidentally, as I am writing this, there seems to be a typo in your explanation of 12ac, where you have “AXLE (chopper)”: you clearly meant AXE.

  6. Thanks PeeDee
    In 14ac, could “audibly” simply refer to the use of the word ‘states’ rather than ‘(the) States’
    with the correct capitalisation?

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