This puzzle didn’t arrive on the FT’s website until around 2pm (I’d only been waiting 8 hours for it to appear!) so it is a good job that Neo has been gentle with us today otherwise this post would have been even later than it already is.
An enjoyable solve, if over rather quickly.
Edit: Having now had time to return to the puzzle for a more leisurely view, I see that the word STONE appears in the middle row and this can be associated with many of the grid entries. The ones immediately obvious are: 7ac, 9ac, 11ac, 17ac, 23ac, 26ac, 27ac, 8dn & 21dn.
Across
1 Very good beans meal explosive for mariner (4,6)
ABLE SEAMAN – A (very good) plus an anagram (explosive) of BEANS MEAL
7 Feeling anger shown by female (4)
FIRE – F (female) IRE (anger)
9 Signal to stop / bombardment (4)
HAIL – double def.
10 Footwear imparts energy to digger crossing stream (10)
ESPADRILLE – E (energy) SPADE (digger) around (crossing) RILL (stream)
11 Name on papers in important organ (6)
KIDNEY – ID (papers) N (name) in KEY (important)
12 In French one barbed comment is demeaning (5,3)
INFRA DIG – IN FR (French) A (one) DIG (barbed comment)
13 Wordsmith Cyril, demented, is given time (8)
LYRICIST – an anagram (demented) of CYRIL plus IS T (time)
15 Long story? It’s about Silver (4)
SAGA – SA (it) around (about) AG (silver)
17 Lehman went to this / rich Manhattan street (4)
WALL – double def. – the first referring to the American bank that declared bankruptcy in 2008
19 Lowborn student in training to live with Scotsman (8)
PLEBEIAN – L (student) in PE (training) BE (to live) IAN (Scotsman)
22 She and I crazily entertain dubious charmer (8)
SMOOTHIE – an anagram (crazily) of SHE I around (entertain) MOOT (dubious)
23 Celebrity chef’s duck pâté ingredient? (6)
OLIVER – O (duck) LIVER (pâté ingredient)
25 Thirsty bird one to get drink (3,7)
DRY MARTINI – DRY (thirsty) MARTIN (bird) I (one)
26 Heartless Conservative veteran (4)
COLD – C (Conservative) OLD (veteran)
27 Irish working in club (4)
IRON – IR (Irish) ON (working)
28 He flees north-eastern ground in Turkey (3-7)
NON-STARTER – an anagram (ground) of NORT[h-e]ASTERN
Down
2 Bless and make lovely when non-U (7)
BEATIFY – BEA[u]TIFY (make lovely when non-U)
3 Maybe Terry feels lie-in regularly needed (5)
ELLEN – [f]E[e]L[s] L[i]E-[i]N (feels lie-in regularly needed) – this actress
4 So black tie worn, being upwardly mobile to the same degree (5,3)
EVERY BIT – VERY (so) B (black) in (worn) TIE reversed (being upwardly mobile)
5 Devilish Farage? His best man has to catch up (15)
MEPHISTOPHELIAN – MEP (Farage?) HIS TOP (best) HE (man) NAIL (catch) reversed (up)
6 Small number remove clothing and fall asleep (3,3)
NOD OFF – NO (small number) DOFF (remove clothing)
7 Surveyor reserving a seat for the bishop to eat this? (9)
FRICASSEE – FRICS (surveyor) around (reserving) A plus SEE (seat for the bishop)
8 Old student pair visits circus in motion (7)
ROLLING – O (old) LL (student pair) in (visits) RING (circus)
14 Bemused if no males found here? (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN – an anagram (bemused) of IF NO MALES
16 One biased to find cosy place to keep first pension amount? (8)
NEPOTIST – NEST (cosy place) around (to keep) POT 1 (first pension amount)
18 Lover requires a physician to bandage something unpleasant (7)
ADMIRER – A DR (a physician) around (to bandage) MIRE (something unpleasant)
20 Aloe vera not very active in sunken spots (7)
AREOLAE – an anagram (active) of ALOE [v]ERA
21 Former Israeli leader has broken right leg (6)
SHARON – an anagram (broken) of HAS plus R (right) ON (leg)
24 Experience hot dog (5)
INCUR – IN (hot) CUR (dog)
Thanks Gaufrid.
I’d given up on an FT puzzle today, then saw your blog and decided that, as it was Neo, I’d give it a go.
I’m glad I did, because I enjoyed it and equally glad that it wasn’t too demanding, as I had a meeting to prepare for this evening.
I particularly liked OLIVER, ISLE OF MAN and FRICASSÉE and admired the surfaces throughout.
Thanks, Neo, for an entertaining puzzle.
Thanks for the post script, Gaufrid. Well done to you and Neo. I won’t pretend that I would have seen thatif I’d had more time. 😉
Another here who just caught that STONE thrown in. A nice easy-ish Tuesday puzzle, then to discover a bit of ‘extra’ was even nicer.
Thanks for splendid blog Gaufrid, and thanks for spotting the little theme I buried in the grid.
It was ‘extra’ – hopefully extra fun.
Cheers
Neo
Many thanks to Neo for indeed a puzzle that was slightly easier than the average Neo.
Solved it tonight while cooking a meal.
My Smile of the Day has to go to ISLE OF MAN (14d).
But there was a lot more that was very right today.
This setter has the ability to downgrade himself if necessary.
Which cannot be said of setters in general.
Neo is just one (cryptic) step down compared to Tees.
He could be a perfect contributor to the Guardian’s Quiptic series.
Just an idea.
Thanks Gaufrid for the blog.
Oh, by the way, I missed the ‘hidden theme’.
Lovely – a real bonus!
Thanks Neo and Gaufrid
Did do this last week but only got around to checking it off tonight.
Can’t remember it as being easy, certainly with a couple that required some time to fully parse – in particular FRICASSEE (hadn’t come across the FRICS acronym before), MEPHISTOPHELIAN (having to chase down Nigel Farage to find he was a MEP) and EVERY BIT (putting the charade, especially the reverse TIE together).
I did spot the STONE nina, but didn’t extend it out to all of the related ‘stones’ – so nice work there, Gaufrid.
Finished in the middle of the top with ESPADRILLE, EVERY BIT and MEPHISTOPHELIAN as the last few in.
Thanks Neo any Gaufrid.
Another Nina has parsed? me by! This one I think is particularly clever.
I worked out AREOLAE from the anagram fodder and had to look it up but still held off entering it till last – according to my online dictionary, AREOLAE aren’t sunken – examples being the iris (of the eye) and the area around the nipple. Have I missed something?
Notwithstanding that, this Member of the RICS (not a Fellow I’m afraid) particularly enjoyed FRICASSEE – often called a FRACAS on an old construction site menu – and the well-constructed MEPHISTOPHELIAN.