Financial Times 14,958 by PHSSTHPOK

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Tuesdays are getting better at the FT?

 

For the second week in a row, I’ve had the pleasure of solving and blogging slightly harder than usual Tuesday FT puzzles.  This one has some great clues, so thanks PHSSTHPOK for a fun challenge.

Across
1 LOBBIES
Pushes into corridors (7)

Double definition
5 ESTATE
Valuable assets in French art gallery (6)

ES-TATE

ES = art (as in “thou art”) in French
8 TALKATIVE
Effusive lecture on musical recalled (9)

TALK <=EVITA
9 RIMED
Compiler is in debt and covered in frost (5)

R(I’M)ED

I can see what the setter is trying to do, and I applaud him for it, but in debt is IN THE RED, is it not?
11 FORGO
Sacrifice to endlessly simulate love (5)

FORG(e) O
12 PENTAGONS
Content to sharpen tag on serrated shapes (9)

Hidden in “sharPEN TAG ON Serrated”
13 TACITURN
Understood vase was reserved (8)

TACIT-URN
15 ALKALI
Goddess sits on aluminium base (6)

AL-KALI

KALI is a significant Hindu goddess
17 ELEVEN
Team of elves carry Elrond’s head (6)

EL(E)VEN

Elrond is a half-elven character from “Lord of the Rings”
19 IRON LUNG
Overturned ruling on medical equipment (4,4)

*(ruling on)
22 OVERTHREW
Routed above and beyond by radio (9)

OVER – homophone of THROUGH
23 RABBI
Teacher nearly useless at sport (5)

RABBI(t)

Have come across RABBIT as a tail-ender in cricket.  Does it apply to other sports?
24 KAPUT
Broken stick – a putter – is glued together and trimmed (5)

Hidden in “sticK A PUTter”

Clue’s a bit long-winded.
25 EDINBURGH
I’d book Hunger Games for northern city (9)

(*I’d B Hunger)

Games as an anagrind?
26 ESCORT
Defence sector undergoes reconstruction (6)

*(sector)
27 SEDATED
Soothed by unending see saw (7)

SE(e) DATED

Excellent clue
Down
1 LET OFF THE HOOK
Excuse to detonate article on pirate (3,3,3,4)

LET Off = detonate

THE = artcle

HOOK = pirate in Peter Pan
2 BALDRIC
Belt is naked and spicy, but not hard (7)

BALD-RIC(h)
3 IDAHO
What retired farmer might say in part of the Pacific northwest (5)

Homophone of I’D A HOE
4 SKIPPERS
Mariners find fish aboard ship (8)

S-KIPPER-S
5 EXEUNT
They leave river before boat’s bow is broken off (6)

EXE (p)UNT
6 TARPAULIN
Scientist plunges into lake in waterproof cloth (9)

TAR(PAULI)N

Wolfgang Pauli was a Nobel Prize winning physicist.
7 TOMBOLA
Lob atom bomb? It’s a lottery (7)

*(lob atom)
10 DISTINGUISHED
Famous get pointed out (13)

Double definition
14 TWENTY-TWO
2 x 17 = gun (6-3)

2 x ELEVEN (17a solution) = 22

A 22 is a .22 calibre handgun
16 BROWNIES
Before start of summer, have to slice into cheese cakes (8)

BR(OWN)IE-S(ummer)
18 EXEMPTS
Frees old European politicians – about time! (7)

EX-E-MP(T)S
20 UNBURNT
How one looks after too much tanning without opening suncream? Just the opposite! (7)

(s)UNBURNT
21 ARDENT
Wild about a trend for reinvention (6)

*(a trend)
23 RABID
Frenetic onslaught seizes bomber (5)

RA(B)ID
*anagram

12 comments on “Financial Times 14,958 by PHSSTHPOK”

  2. Thanks loonapick for the blog and phssthpok for an interesting challenge. I got the farthest on this grid, compared to all others from this setter.

    Ref 23a, a pacemaker in a marathon is also referred to as a rabbit. However, I learnt today that the term is also used to describe somebody bad at sports.

    Cheers
    Tl

  3. Re 2d BALDRIC
    Shouldn’t the surface reading of a clue be plausible?
    I can imagine a belt being ‘bald’ (in the sense ‘not ornamental’ or ‘not embroidered’) but ‘spicy’?
    Has some masala been rubbed into the belt or what?
    Apologies if I sound harsh but this is a genuine query on surface reading of clues.

  5. Rishi@3,4 : Chambers gives the meaning of spicy to also include racy, risqué so in that sense, it should be fine?

  6. Ah, you mean a belt can be spicy if it is stamped with images from Khajuraho sculptures? If so, let it be a broad sash.

  7. I see nothing wrong with the surface reading of 2d. It’s a cryptic definition or an &lit (I can never remember which is which!). Chambers also gives “full flavoured”, i.e spicy, as a definition of “rich”.

    Those of us in the UK know Baldric as a very funny character from the TV series ” Blackadder” – thank you PHSSTHPOK for that reminder, and, indeed for a very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks too to loonapick for the blog.

  8. [Have just thought that the Baldric of TV fame may have spelled his name with a “k” at the end – if he could spell at all! Either way is acceptable according to Chambers].

  10. Thanks Phssthpok and loonapick, the puzzle took a while to solve, but the blog was most helpful, especially for the explanation of ELEVEN and RABBI; I think dogs would like to chew the BALDRIC.

  11. Thanks Phssthpok and loonapick

    Actually did this one last week and only checked it off tonight – started on the train into office and finished it off soon after.

    Ended up not parsing 1d and 20d – so thanks for that! Ended up in the NW corner with BALDRIC, FORGO and IDAHO the last few in. Was actually a bit surprised to see IDAHO clued as Pacific – its quite a way inland … wouldn’t north west have sufficed?

    Thought that ELEVEN was very clever and TWENTY-TWO even more so. Struggled for a while to see B- bomber, but the B-52 to the rescue. Agree that SEDATED was also very good – probably the best clue for that word that I’ve seen.

  12. Thanks Phssthpok and loonapick.

    Another good puzzle from the unpronounceable one.

    Needed your help to parse 5ac. Very clever on reflection – I had been starting to think that there was a typo – perhaps ‘in’ should have been ‘is’ to get to the second person singular.

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