Financial Times 15,484 – Falcon

Monday Prize Crossword / Feb 27, 2017

Monday puzzles are usually easy and this one was no exception.


Clear clueing, no iffiness, no controversy.

Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.

Across
1 SYLLABUS Dessert? Unable to finish second course! (8)
SYLLABUB (dessert) without the last letter B [unable to finish], then + S (second)
6 DELPHI Parking in Indian city, historic city (6)
P (parking) inside DELHI (Indian city)
9 RUCKUS Uproar caused by large number ahead of us (6)
RUCK (large number) + US
10 ANTIDOTE Poor diet, not a remedy (8)
(DIET + NOT A)*    [* = poor]
11 THIN Poor article, not good (4)
THING (article) minus G (good)
12 NELLIE DEAN Danielle, distraught after one has rejected love – music hall song (6,4)
ONE minus O (love) + (DANIELLE)*    [* = distraught]
More of that song here .
14 RUBBISHY Mistake wearing gemstone of poor quality (8)
BISH (mistake) inside RUBY (gemstone)
16 ALAS An element of political asylum, I’m sorry to say (4)
Hidden solution [an element of]:   political asylum
18 USED Employed American editor (4)
US (American) + ED (editor)
19 ONE-LINER Quip about English ship (3-5)
ON (about) + E (English) + LINER (ship)
21 CODSWALLOP Small beer after fish and gammon (10)
S (small) + WALLOP (beer), together coming after COD (fish)
‘Gammon’ in the sense of ‘nonsense’.
22 GOTH Old German understood by husband (4)
GOT (understood) + H (husband)
24 CLERIHEW Form of comic verse member of the clergy abridged, then cut (8)
CLERI[c] (member of the clergy, abridged i.e. minus the last letter) + HEW (cut)
26 EXODUS Used at sea to carry ten over in mass migration (6)
(USED)* around {X (ten) + O (over)}    [* = at sea]
27 EDITOR Journalist cycled back carrying it (6)
Reversal [back] of RODE (cycled) around IT
28 YOSEMITE See toy I’m flying in National Park (8)
(SEE TOU I’M)*    [* = flying]
Down
2 YOUTH 7 in play out here (5)
Hidden solution [in]:   play out here
As to the definition: 7 = 7d = LAD.
3, 4 LIKE NOBODY’S BUSINESS Very much similar to Charles Pooter’s job (4,7,8)
Double definition
Charles Pooter is the leading character in The Diary of a Nobody, see more here .
5 STANLEY HOLLOWAY Stupidly loathes any lowly actor (7,8)
(LOATHES ANY LOWLY)*    [* = stupidly]
I must admit I had never heard of Stanley Holloway .
6 DETAIN Hold back Greek character during row (6)
ETA (Greek character) inside DIN (row)
7 LAD Boy happy heading off (3)
GLAD (happy) minus the first letter G [heading off]
8 HIT PARADE List of popular songs apartheid affected (3,6)
(APARTHEID)*    [* = affected]
This surely must be a well-known anagram but one I’ve never come across (as far I can recall).
Nice.
13 DRAWING ROOM Sketch popular stable lad in reception area (7,4)
DRAW (sketch) + IN (popular) + GROOM (stable lad)
15 UNSPOILED Roof of library in complex done up, is as good as new (9)
L[ibrary] inside (DONE UP + IS)*    [* = complex]
17 HELPLESS Unable to manage without servants? (8)
Double definition
20 RATHER Serious pest that woman? On the contrary (6)
RAT (serious pest) + HER (that woman)
23 TRUST Hope to extend business credit to self-governing hospital (5)
Triple definition
25 ROT Rubbish to right to be tipped (3)
Reversal [to be tipped] of:    TO + R (right)

*anagram

1 comment on “Financial Times 15,484 – Falcon”

  1. Thanks Falcon and Sil

    Not quite as easy as he can be … I didn’t know actor STANLEY HOLLOWAY, the song NELLIE DEAN, the British term WALLOP for beer nor ‘gammon’ for nonsense. Missed the parsing of 1a and hadn’t seen SYLLABUB before.

    Slick clues throughout and quite a bit of fun to have worked through … the economy of ONE-LINER was superb.

    The actor was my last one in.

Comments are closed.