Financial Times 15,857 by ARMONIE

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A pleasant start to a working week of crosswords from ARMONIE.

Morning all!

There were a few answers here, the parsing of which we were not 100% sure of (see 9a, 24a and 15d below), and had not come across ENTRECHAT before, but, on the whole, fun!

Thanks ARMONIE!

 

 

completed grid

Across

1 Longs for young ladies (6)
MISSES
Double definition

4 Arrest disorderly trader (6)
RETARD
(TRADER)* (*disorderly)

8 Government adopts trade union legislation (7)
STATUTE
STATE (government) adopts TU (trade union)

9 Censure congressman over ramble (7)
REPROVE
REP (congressman) + (OVER)* (*ramble) (or possibly ROVE = ramble)

11 Cheating ruled out as arranged (10)
ADULTEROUS
(RULED OUT AS)* (*arranged)

12 Knife gives Penny trouble (4)
DIRK
D (penny, in old money) + IRK (trouble)

13 Burrow in soil (5)
EARTH
Double Definition
An earth being the underground lair of a badger

14 Editor of Fashion is extremely good (2,3,3)
TO DIE FOR
(EDITOR OF)* (*fashion)

16 Girl to betray furniture designer (8)
SHERATON
SHE (girl) + RAT ON (betray)

18 Way to get healthy mammal (5)
WHALE
W (way) + HALE (healthy)

20 Murder victim had tree cut (4)
ABEL
ABEL[e] (tree, the white poplar apparently cut)
Murdered by his brother Cain, according to a bible

21 Washes well into the night to get a fresh start (5,5)
CLEAN SLATE
CLEANS (washes) + LATE (well into the night)

23 Gives evidence at trials (7)
ATTESTS
AT + TESTS (trials)

24 East German wife wears divine fleece (7)
DEFRAUD
E FRAU (East German wife) in (wears) DD (divine) (or possibly East German Wife = DE FRAU and divine = D)

25 Stylish, clean and young (6)
DRESSY
DRESS (clean) + Y (young)

26 Attitude of priest in a cult (6)
ASPECT
P (priest) in (A + SECT (cult))

Down

1 Doctor keeps Victorian pick- up quiet (5)
MUTED
MD (doctor) keeps UTE (pick-up, in Victoria, Australia)

2 Gundog bites hand of pioneer (7)
SETTLER
SETTER (gundog) bites L (hand, left)

3 Ask to hug companion seen at the ballet (9)
ENTRECHAT
ENTREAT (ask) to hug CH (companion, order of the Companions of Honour)

5 Unusually getting second chance (5)
EVENS
EVEN (unusually) + S (second)

6 Shorten a bishop’s saddle (7)
ABRIDGE
A + B (bishop) + RIDGE (saddle)

7 Allowance includes deliveries of fish (5,4)
DOVER SOLE
DOLE (allowance) incudes OVERS (deliveries, cricket)

10 Tory-loving adversary (9)
CONTENDER
CON (tory) + TENDER (loving)

13 Set forth and left without greeting bishop (9)
EXHIBITED
EXITED (left) around (without) (HI (greeting) + B (bishop))

15 Work miracles as before? Think a second! (2,7)
DO WONDERS
DO WONDER (think) + S (second) (not really sure where the DO comes from, or, for that matter what “as before?” means) – See Steven’s @1 explanation

17 Steward takes lithium to relax (7)
RELIEVE
REEVE (steward) takes LI (lithium)

19 Engaged in Elgar composition without restriction (2,5)
AT LARGE
AT (engaged in) + (ELGAR)* (*composition)

21 Mentions pronounced eyesores (5)
CITES
“SITES” (sounds like (pronounced) sights (eyesores))

22 Time to corrode? Have faith! (5)
TRUST
T (time) + RUST (to corrode)

*anagram

14 comments on “Financial Times 15,857 by ARMONIE”

  1. Thanks setter and blogger. A pleasent Moday canter. I liked 1 down!.

    Re 15 down.

    Do is short for ‘Ditto’ (= as before). Then as you have the rest of the explanation.

  4. An enjoyable solve with much to surprise and delight. Y for young and W for way are not listed in Chambers or in SOED. The same is true for EVEN as meaning ‘unusually’. Perhaps the abbreviations are in Collins. My Collins Thesaurus does not link the two words.

  5. Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. Enjoyable. I missed the badger-burrow connection to EARTH and needed help parsing the DO in DO WONDERS but did know ENTRECHAT (it appeared in a recent N.Y. Times puzzle).   In 20a “while” should be “white.”

  7. Bob Sharkey @4, with regards to the W and Y… we’ve given up on trying to check these kinds of things these days, and just assume that the first letter of a word may well mean that letter! We’re sure there’s probably some good reason behind it!

  8. Thanks Armonie and Teacow

    I think your first parsing of ‘defraud’ is correct, as DE is the ISO code for Germany per se, so there’s no ‘east’, which in German would be ‘ost’ anyway.

    The best I can offer for Y = Young is CSNY, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, which one wouldn’t really expect to find in a dictionary anyway.

  10. Bob Sharkey @4 I (eventually) took “even” to be in the context of “even if that were the case …” =>unusually

  11. Thank you Teacow for another fine Monday blog.

    Armonie is one of those setters I would like to see more regularly on this day of the week.

    But he has his oddities. “With regards to the W and Y… we’ve given up on trying to check these kinds of things these days, and just assume that the first letter of a word may well mean that letter! We’re sure there’s probably some good reason behind it!”?  Don’t forget that this is the setter who gave us both ‘M = man’ and ‘N =man’ …..

    I didn’t expect you to make these ‘excuses’, Simon!  🙂   However, of course, you’re right about DEFRAUD, Teacow‘s first parsing is 100% correct.

     

  12. Sil @ 11

    Not excuses! Just examples of where usage exists outside of dictionaries. If they are in common parlance they maybe deemed to be acceptable. I’m not making the judgment, just giving options. It’s up to individuals to decide for themselves whether it’s acceptable or not (I waver).

  13. Thanks Armonie and Teacow

    Interesting crossword – quite straightforward with a number of ‘curly bits’ such as the DO part of 15d (which I didn’t see until coming here), the ‘Victorian pick-up’ and the ‘unusually’ EVEN.

    Finished in the NE corner with EVENS and REPROVE the last couple in.

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