FINANCIAL TIMES 15,646 by CRUX

Pretty straightforward, although a couple of sneaky ones in the S.E. corner slowed the old gallop for a bit…

Apologies for late blog, technical probs which I was ill-qualified to sort out. Thanks to Crux for the puzzle and to PeeDee and my son Jake for the hand-holding.

Across
1	DEVASTATED	The French of Virginia said to be heartbroken (10)
		DE (‘of’ in French) + VA (‘Virginia’) + STATED (‘said’).
6	I SPY	What Mole might say is child’s play (1,3)
		Confession of a secret agent.
9	DIMINISHED	Little lost after 50% diet? Cut down! (10)
		DIet (½ of ‘diet’) + MINI (‘little’) + SHED (‘lost’).
10	BAGS	Lots of old trousers (4)
		Double definition.
12	HAUTE CUISINE	Kind of menu for high table at the Sorbonne? (5,7)
		Cryptic definition, literally ‘high cooking’ being yer French for posh nosh.
15	INCIDENTS	Episodes in The Detectives, ten maybe, starting Sunday (9)
		IN + CID (‘detectives’) + anagram (‘maybe’) of TEN + S[unday].
17	CANED	Get beaten in the dance-off (5)
		Anagram (‘off’) of CANED. Rare example of def not being first, last or all words of clue.
18	SANTA	Kiddies love a bit of that Parmesan taste (5)
		Inclusion in ‘parmeSAN TAste, Santa being ‘children’s favourite’, we take it.
19	RASPBERRY	The coarse sound of a fruit (9)
		Two defs, ‘raspberry tart’ being the rude, rhyming slang one.
20	MUSIC THERAPY	Treatment for the tone-deaf, perhaps (5,7)
		Cryptic def.
24	NIGH	Almost dark, almost (4)
		NIGHt.
25	DOUBLE TIME	What fast-moving troops do, seen briefly in battle (6-4)
		T[ime] & T[ime] again are seen in ‘baTTle’. Sneaky, and my last one in.
26	AWRY	Starting arguments without reason you become twisted (4)
		First (‘starting’) letters of 2nd 4 words.
27	SETTLEMENT	What Bill required for the colony (10)
		Another double def.
Down
1	DODOS	Parties no longer in existence, proverbially (4)
		2x DOs (‘parties’). “Dead as a dodo”, of course.
2	VAMP	A femme fatale against a politician (4)
		V[ersus] + A + MP.
3	SONG-AND-DANCE	A lot of fuss for such an act (4-3-5)
		Double def.
4	ASSET	The advantage of raising a girl (5)
		TESSA, reversed.
5	EXERCISES	Works out name of river with right dimensions, we hear (9)
		EXE (a river) + homphone of ‘sizes’ (‘dimensions’).
7, 22	STATIONARY BIKE	Taking 5 on this gets you nowhere! (10,4)
		I.e., ‘exercises’ which consume calories and not miles.
8	YESTERDAYS	Recent past is OK, with steady changes involving little resistance (10)
		YES (‘OK’) + anagram (‘changes’) of STEADY, to include R[esistance].
11	PIECE BY PIECE	Gradually shows how to score at Scrabble (5,2,5)
		Double def, one cryptic.
13	DIPSOMANIA	Swims with topless female, one with a drink problem (10)
		DIPS (‘swims’) + wOMAN + 1 + A.
14	ICING SUGAR	Fine white powder causing rig to collapse (5,5)
		Anagram (‘to collapse’) of CAUSING RIG.
16	NORTH POLE	A house here would have an all-round southern aspect! (5,4)
		A thought experiment. From the exact North Pole, all directions are southward.
21	REBUT	Prove wrong about King Edward? (5)
		TUBER (King Edward spud being an example), reversed.
22		See 7

23	NEWT	Latest model with a distinctive crest, possibly (4)
		NEW (‘latest’) + T (old ‘model’ Ford car). Ref the Great Crested Newt. I used to own one. He was called ‘Tiny’.

*anagram

6 comments on “FINANCIAL TIMES 15,646 by CRUX”

Hovis

#1 - Tue 5th Sep 17, 16:36

Quite enjoyed this. A moderate rate solve with a few sneaky ones thrown in for good measure. A couple of typos in blog: in 17a, it should say anagram of DANCE and in 5d, the R for ‘right’ is missing. Thanks to all.

Simon S

#2 - Tue 5th Sep 17, 21:16

Thanks Crux & GB

23: OK, old ‘uns are good ‘uns… ? ?

Simon S

#3 - Tue 5th Sep 17, 21:17

Sorry, keyboard-generated smileys etc don’t work, then…

brucew@aus

#4 - Tue 5th Sep 17, 21:26

Thanks Crux and Grant

Interesting puzzle with a couple of the long ones putting the brakes on too quick a solve. Hastily wrote in CARTE as the first word of 12a for a start which caused a bit of a hold up there. Never heard of the term STATIONARY BICYCLE (BIKE) before and although being able to work out the first bit – would never have guessed the second bit without the help of a dictionary that provided suggestions after writing in ‘stationary’.

BAGS was the last one in and needed a word search to generate a squillion options to try to make some sense of – had only vaguely heard of the answer in respect to either of those Brit slang terms.

That eagle-eyed hovis has prolonged your ‘perfect blog’ for yet one more week !!! 🙂