Financial Times 15,314 by ARMONIE

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Good Tuesday solve from Armonie, a new setter to me.

Smooth surfaces with nothing too head-scratching. Enjoyed it.

completed grid
Across
1 BRIGHT Bowled accurately? That’s brilliant! (6)
  B (‘bowled’ in cricket) + RIGHT (accurately).
4 IDOLATER Admirer I get on with by and by (8)
  I + DO (for ‘get on with’, as in ‘just DO it’) + LATER (‘by and by’).
9 TREAT Entertain European in Italian restaurant (5)
  Chambers gives ‘treat’ as obsolete for entertain but I think it’s still common enough. If you ‘entertain’ a business client, then the treat’s on you.
Anyway, it’s E(uropean) in TRAT(toria).
10 CHURCHILL Old statesman in basilica gets sick (9)
  CHURCH + ILL. Straightforward, but with heartless misdirection towards a non-existent anagram on first pass.
11 HARPOON Talk endlessly about love being a weapon (7)
  HARP ON around 0.
12 LOACHES The Spanish accept suffering of fish (7)
  ACHE contained in LOS (m. pl. def. article in Sp., one of the several up-tripping variants of ‘the’ in that language).
13 REEL Look suggestively back in the dance (4)
  LEER reversed.
14 NEEDLESS Unwanted sewers start to shatter (8)
  NEEDLES (personified noun for those who sew) + S(hatter).
17 TRIBUNAL Pilot eats pastry in court (8)
  TRIAL (a piloting excecise) ‘consumes’ BUN.
19 CAIN Murderer one found in prison (4)
  1 in CAN to give the chap who, spoiler-alert, killed his brother Abel in the Biblical whodunnit.  (Given the population size, not quite a two-part special for Morse).
22 OCTAGON Figure it’s a month since opening of nightclub (7)
  OCT (a month), AGO (since) + N(ightclub)
24 INSPECT Six-footer keeps quiet in survey (7)
  P in INSECT (‘six-footer’, ho-ho).
25 ON THE WING In transit, cutting east of Ontario (2,3,4)
  HEWING to the (map) right of ONT for Ontario, tho’ Chambers gives only ON for the abbreviation.
26 BOOZE Barrel to leak drink (5)
  B (‘barrel’) + OOZE.
27 THROSTLE Short let arranged for Mavis (8)
  Anagram of SHORT LET. I had to chack ‘mavis’ for song-thrush but it’s there alright.
28 GRATER German traps vermin found in the kitchen (6)
  RAT in GER.
Down
1 BUTCHERS Look for the workers of Smithfield (8)
  London-centric double definition. ‘Butcher’s hook’ is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘look’ and Smithfield has continuously been a meat market since the 10th century.
2 IN EARNEST One close to retreat is resolute (2,7)
  1+NEAR+NEST (retreat’).
3 HOTPOT Food produces a bit of pain in bad tooth (6)
  P(ain) in anagram (‘bad’) of TOOTH.
5 DOUBLE-DEALING Stood in London borough creating treachery (6-7)
  DOUBLED (‘stood in [for]’) + EALING. Neatly set.
6 LACTATE Slow to embrace enterprise to make milk (7)
  LATE surrounds ACT.
7 THIGH Taxidermist initially given rotting body part (5)
  T(axidermist) + HIGH. (Yucky surface. Well done.)
8 RELISH Old priest’s in Haiti for enjoyment (6)
  ELI (Biblical priest) in RH (for ‘Republic of Haiti’: I didn’t know that until now.
10 CONSEQUENTIAL Alien conquest turned out to be significant (13)
  Nice anagram (‘turned out’) of ALIEN CONQUEST.
15 SCAPEGOAT Patsy and son head assault (9)
  The fall-guy, made up of S(on) + CAPE + GO AT (for (‘assault’).
16 KNITWEAR Water and ink spoiled clothing (8)
  Anagram (‘spoiled’) of WATER + INK.
18 INGRESS Entrance of French painter to society (7)
  Jean-Auguste-Dominique INGRES, 1780-1867, (you knew that) + S(ociety).
20 GOT OUT Escaped? Make for solicitor! (3,3)
  GO (‘make for’, as in slogans like ‘Go Barbados!’) + TOUT, one who solicits.
21 ISOBAR A biro’s wielded on a synoptic chart (6)
  Anagram (‘wielded’) of A BIROS. I think ‘wielded’ may be doing double duty here: the isobar is not the chart itself but the lines thereon connecting areas of equal (atmospheric) pressure.
23 TUTOR Trade union gains prominence in school (5)
  ‘School’ as verb, of course. TU + TOR, for ‘prominence’.

*anagram

10 comments on “Financial Times 15,314 by ARMONIE”

  1. Hello from the Saturday Indy Fifteensquared. This wasn’t too difficult though I wasn’t sure about LOACHES and I’d never heard of THROSTLE; I thought she might be a character from one of your soaps. CAIN is a bit of a cryptic chestnut for ‘murderer’ isn’t it. Yes, I think Morse would have had about as much difficulty solving the case as the person after whom he was named would have had in solving the clue. Still, all very well to sound superior – I had ‘spaceboot’ for SCAPEGOAT. Unbelievable, but there you go.

    Thanks to Grant and Armonie.

  2. Thanks to this blog…just could not parse on the wing and Butchers..butchers seems a bit unfair to me.. but on the wing quite kosher 🙂 Doubled for stood seems iffy to me but it was an obvious kinda clue .. whats the bit about Haiti = RH.. cannt find that but again that was an obvious thing.. overall a pleasing xword..

  3. Srividya @2
    “.. whats the bit about Haiti = RH.. cannt find that but again that was an obvious thing..”

    RH is the IVR (International Vehicle Registration) for the Republic of Haiti.

  6. Nice puzzle – easy – but not too – and what an extraordinarily well-written blog – I’ll make a point of looking out for Tuesday FT blogs from now on.

    Thanks to S&B.

  9. Thanks Grant and Armonie.

    Pleasantly enjoyable.

    I had to validate my instincts that RH was the IVR for Haiti and that Mavis was an old term for a song thrush.

    Nice.

  10. Thanks Armonie and Grant
    Liked the crossword … liked the blog more – particularly liked the write-up of Cain !!! A pretty straightforward solve whilst in transit in Malaysia on hols. (the main reason I’m doing backfill puzzles instead of the current ones).
    Knew the ‘mavis’ from many past years of crosswords – only came across the THROSTLE name for the same bird quite recently !
    Finished in the NE corner with CHURCHILL, RELISH (had to check that RH was indeed the IVR for Haiti) and LOACHES (fish that I had to look up to confirm) as the last few in.

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