Financial Times 14,327 by Sleuth

by

Lots to enjoy (stumped by 24 across)

 

 

 

 

Across

1 AIRSTRIP place for taking off AIRS (broadcasts) TRIP (drug experience)

6 CLEESE comedian LEE (general) S[hock] in CE (church)

9 SALOON bar LOO (facilities) in SAN (hospital)

10 ABNORMAL odd NO (number) R (republican) in A LAMB< (essayist returned)

11 MEAL food MEDAL (award) minus D (daughter)

12 GO TO PIECES dd (tongue in cheek)

14 LAVENDER shade END (part of court) in LAVER (tennis player)

16 OBOL old Greek currency hidden in [j]OB OL[igarch]

18 SCAB source of itch S (second) CAB (advice bureau)

19 ACERBITY bitterness HERB (basil) minus H (hotel) in A CITY (finance area)

21 BUDGERIGAR flier RIGA (capital) in BUD (friend) GER (german)

22 TASK allocate work TA (volunteers) S[in]K

24 SRI LANKA island

26 IGNORE pass SIGNORE (Italian women) minus S (sun)

27 ADAGIO slowness in music (bars)

28 DOGGEREL comic verse DOG (follow) GERE (actor) L (line)

Down

2 IRATE cross PIRATE (illegal operator) minus P (power)

3 SHOULDER BAG container for effects SHOULDER (joint) BAG (interest)

4 RENEGADE turncoat (DEE[m] ANGER)*

5 PRAETORIAN GUARD Roman bodyguard RA (artist) in (TOURING PARADE)*

6 CANAPE savoury food A P[arty] in CANE (stick)

7 ERR slip sounds like UR (old city)

8 SPACED OUT dazed state ACE (outstanding) D (day) in SPOUT (gush)

13 EXORBITANCE going beyond limits C (college) in (TEXAN BORE I)*

15 ACCOUTRED in dress (CRUDE COAT)*

17 LEARNING education R (one of 3Rs) in LEANING (tendency)

20 BRANDO Marlon BRAND (type) O (love)

23 SPREE overindulgence (PEERS)*

25 LAG dd

( )* = anagram    [ ] = omit    < = reverse    dd = double definition

8 comments on “Financial Times 14,327 by Sleuth”

  1. I had SRI LANKA as *(SARK) around ILAN (a man’s name I am unfamiliar with). But it’s not that convincing.

    Thanks for the blog Jed and to Sleuth for an engaging crossowrd. My favourite was BUDGERIGAR.

  2. Thanks Jed

    Muffyword, be convinced ;-). I had the same parsing but was helped by the fact that one of the 15² bloggers is called Ilan (it is in Chambers 11th Ed.).

  3. I toyed with SRA LANKA as an alternative spelling – Alan seemed a much better name than Ilan!

    A good example of the dangers of Google … as I had PAL-GERIGAR for several minutes and was reliably informed that it was a form of small prehistoric paraqueet! Common sense finally prevailed.

    Thanks Jed and Sleuth

  4. Enjoyed this, with BUDGERIGAR and GO TO PIECES being my favourites. Couldn’t see how SRI LANKA worked, so am grateful for this. Thanks, Sleuth and Jed.

  5. Thanks for the blog, Jed, and Sleuth for an enjoyable puzzle.

    The only Ilan I’ve heard of is ‘our’ one, so thanks to him for helping me to ‘see’ SRI LANKA!

    With 5ac and 19ac, I wondered if there might be a ghost theme, so did a bit of research to see if there was a ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode involving a budgerigar, for instance, but I couldn’t find any more references.

  7. Thanks Sleuth for an enjoyable puzzle and Jed for the blog.

    12ac: I really liked the idea, but I think it would be more technically correct with “draughts” in place of “chess”.

    16ac: This one is technically impeccable, but it is always slightly unsatisfactory to see a redundant word (in this case “defended”) in a hidden clue. At worst a small blemish on a generally good crossword.

  8. Must say the only ILAN I’ve ever seen is my learned co blogger, still nice stuff from Sleuth/namesake.

Comments are closed.