Financial Times 13,942 by Alberich

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Pretty smooth ride today but satisfying – nifty trickery with some proper nouns

 

 

 

ACROSS

1 POPLAR   P[erish] in POLAR

4 SYLLABUS   SYLLABUB with second B(baron) changed to S(special)

9 CARROT incentive R(right) in (TO RAC)< to motorists in recession

10 DUBLINER James Joyce: anagram(new edition) of [Grenfel]L B RUINED

12 IBEX goat I initially one “BECKS” homophone

13 ANNEX to appropriate ANNE woman X kiss

14 JADE double definition

17 INTELLIGENCE news TELL report I current GEN info in anagram of NICE

20 DEPRECIATION price fall [min]I in DEPRECATION run down

23 ICON object of admiration I independent CON politician

24 NIAMH Cusack Irish actress in Heartbeat I AM H after N [Joh]N

26 MANX people from Isle of Man capital Douglas

28 TERMINUS loose double definition

29 BOVINE stupid B born OVINE sheep-like

30 TAMARISK plant TAMA[r] river mostly RISK

31 PAST IT not helped by age: PAS French dance TIT alternate letters of twist

DOWN

1 PACK IT IN humorous double definition

2 PERMEATE filter: MEAT food in PERE (Nancy’s?) dad

3 AGOG GO in AG silver

5 YOU’RE WELCOME anagram of EYE COLOUR W ME

6 LOLL lounge hidden backwards in aLL Old

7 BUNYAN writer sounds like bunion

8 SURVEY double definition

11 ANTIRRHINUMS flower beds: anagram of RUMINANTS and first letters of reared in hants

15 ALDER A [e]LDER

16 SCRAP fight: SCRAP[E] a fix

18 FINALIST anagram of (playing) IN LAST FI[xture]

19 INEXPERT not very good: IN home [gam]E wreXham PERT forward

21 DIKTAT order KID< return leather TAT shabby goods

22 POGROM massacre: P penny GO< ROM memory

26 BIER one supports stiff! E drug in  BIR[D]

27 SODA CALVADOS halved and reversed

 

6 comments on “Financial Times 13,942 by Alberich”

  1. Many thanks Jed.

    This took me ages today and I failed on NIAMH for 24ac. Thanks for your explanation.

    In 28ac, I think the wordplay is TERM IN US (a semester).
    I have SCREEN for 8dn.

  2. 30ac held me back for some time. If TAMARISK is correct, then the whole of the river TAMAR is in the solution!

    Re 2dn: In Nancy, they would say ‘pere’ for ‘dad’.

  3. Thanks Jed and Alberich, I found this difficult but v enjoyable.

    Held myself up by putting Saul BELLOW at 7 (“Writer makes painful condition heard”) – well, if you had an accident you might bellow ‘to make painful condition heard’… seemed convincing at the time. DUBLINER soon put me straight, and this was my favourite clue for the clever Joyce/Grenfell misdirection. I also had SCREEN at 8dn.

    Thanks also to mike04 for explaining TERMINUS, which I got but couldn’t parse.

  4. Thanks for the blog and to Alberich for a very satisfying solve.

    I don’t see how “survey” would work and also had “screen” for 8d
    I agree with Mike04 about Terminus (28a), possibly my favourite clue. I had it wrong (“Terminal”) until I finally got the 11d anagram – the natural world is not my forte and I was hoping for inhabitants of a town in Bedfordshire – which probably made it even more rewarding to crack.
    I also really liked 2d, even though that misleading town-in-France thing has been done (probably by Alberich?) before. I completely fell for it again.

  5. I’m off out soon so an early thanks for the blog and the nice comments.

    The answer to 8 down is SCREEN as Thomas suggests – double def as in to televise and to check for suitability.

    Have a good weekend!

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