Financial Times 15,654 by GURNEY

This crossword can be found here.

After blogging Boatman’s Guardian puzzle yesterday, this was a welcome relief – a simple, straightforward puzzle with most of the answers being “write-ins”.  A good range of devices, non-contentious homophones, long and short answers, no specialist knowledge required, no difficult words – a very good crossword for beginners.

Thanks, Gurney.

Across
1 STARS AND STRIPES Exotic satin dress strap Pole might display (5,3,7)
  *(satin dress strap”), indicated by “exotic”

The Stars and Stripes may well be displayed on a pole.

9 LARGEST Somewhat stellar gesture, generous in the extreme (7)
  Hidden in “stelLAR GESTure”
10 ON SIGHT When observed, there’s no turning back at location, I’d say (2,5)
  <=NO + homophone of SITE (“location”), indicated by “I’d say”
11 NIALL Guy from Northern Ireland with everything? (5)
  Northern Ireland with ALL (“everything”)
12 SUPERNOVA Terribly nervous drinking quietly with a star (9)
  *(nervous) drinking P (piano, in music, so “quietly”), with A
13 ETIQUETTE Standards of behaviour quite possibly better after extremists leave (9)
  *(quite) + (b)ETTE(r) 

“Possibly” is the anagram indicator, and “after extremists leave” indicates that we should remove the extremes (i.e the first and last (letters)) of the word “better”

15 ENNUI By sound of it cricket side with small feeling of dissatisfaction (5)
  Homophone (indicated by “by sound of it”) of ON (“cricket side”) + WEE (“small”)
16 SPENT Initially sleeping poorly every night, they’re exhausted (5)
  Made up of the initial letters of Sleeping Poorly Every Night They’re”
18 PRESEASON SA openers trained in this period? (9)
  *(sa openers), the anagram indicator being “trained”.
20 OVERPLAYS Exaggerates importance of dramas completed earlier (9)
  OVER (“completed”) + PLAYS (“drama”)
23 FORGO Give up pro board game (5)
  FOR (“pro”) + GO (“board game”)
24 DEEP-SEA Hurry back by mid-year giving description of wet area (4-3)
  <=SPEED (“hurry, back”) + (y)EA(r)
25 ODORISE Oddly Old Boy with pay increase gets perfume perhaps (7)
  Take the odd letter of OlD bOy” with RISE (“pay increase”)
26 NATIONAL LOTTERY Six perfect balls in this game? Long odds against that! (8,7)
  Cryptic definition
Down
1 SILENCE IS GOLDEN Appeal for quiet colleges is binned, failing to start, unfortunately (7,2,6)
  *(colleges is inned), where the “inned” is indicated by “binned, failing to start”
2 AIR TAXI Aviatrix, very briefly flying, ordered for this transport? (3,4)
  *(aiatrix), with “ordered” as the anagram indicator

“very briefly flying” tells us to remove the “v” from “aviatrix”, as it has flown (away).

3 SHELL SUIT Society anguish over plea for casual wear (5,4)
  S(ociety) + HELL (“anguish”) over SUIT (“plea”, as in law)
4 NOTES Pays attention to distinctive vocal sounds (5)
  Double definition
5 SHOWPIECE Fine example succeeded – the way with no violence reportedly (9)
  S(ucceeded) + HOW (“the way”) + homophone of PEACE (“no violence, reportedly”)
6 RISER More prudent getting right to replace wide vertical pipe (5)
  WISER (“more prudent”) with the W (“wide”) replaced by R (“right”)
7 PEG DOWN Restrict Margaret? Not happy (3,4)
  PEG (“Margaret”) + DOWN (“not happy”)
8 SITUATION COMEDY Programme cost I’m breaking down – needs to be spelt out fully (9,6)
  Two steps required here – *(cost i’m) gives us SITCOM, which then needs to be extended to SITUATION COMEDY (“spelt out fully”)
14 TOP BANANA Leader knocking trophy over, crazy when bottom’s pinched? (3,6)
  <=POT (“trophy”, knocked “over”) + BANANA(s) (“crazy”, with its “bottom pinched”)
15 EYES FRONT Sentry and foe in struggle for command (4,5)
  *(sentry foe), with “struggle” being the anagram indicator.
17 ELEMENT Factor in running away to get married, having no work? (7)
  EL(op)EMENT (“running away to get married”, without OP (“having no work”)
19 SARDINE Starving and ravenous, first of all eat fish? (7)
  First letters of “Starving And Ravenous” + DINE (“eat”)
21 PESTO Sauce from Dieppe store (5)
  Hidden in “diepPE STOre”
22 SHOAL Sandbank crowd (5)
  Double definition

*anagram

4 comments on “Financial Times 15,654 by GURNEY”

  1. Is ODORISE (25d) a proper word? I suppose it’s a back-formation from “deodorise”, but it’s not in Chambers or the Compact OED.

  2. Tom_I
    Both Collins and the ODE have odorize/odorise. The ODE gives its origin as “late 19th century: from Latin odor ‘odour’ + -ize”.

  3. Thanks Gurney and loonapick

    Only got to this on the weekend and also found it quite straightforward, although I didn’t find it awash with write-ins !

    There were new learnings: SHELL SUIT was a new term and the pronunciation of ENNUI was the first time that I had to learn how to say it.

    Finished with a couple of the long ones – 8d and 26a followed by ENNUI as the last one in.

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