Financial Times 16,250 by GURNEY

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A slightly tougher than normal Tuesday offering, I thought, with some head-scratching multi-parters… 

… and a very nice &lit. Finished on the left only when all crossers were in. Good test, thanks to Gurney.

completed grid
Across
1 DOWNSTAIRS Far from happy, famous person’s going round one part of building (10)
  DOWN (‘far from happy’) + STAR’S around 1.
6 EDEN Former PM’s eastern retreat (4)
  E[astern] + DEN (‘retreat’).
9 TOPICALITY Current relevance of oil city apt to be misrepresented (10)
  Anagram (‘to be misrepresented’) of OIL CITY APT.
10 USER Serious error imprisoning addict (4)
  Inclusion in ‘serioU SERror’.
12 PRESS RELEASE Urgency about rental agreement? Information here (5,7)
  PRESS (‘urgency’) RE (‘about’) LEASE.
15 ABOUT-FACE Change of mind in relation to notes (5-4)
  ABOUT (‘in relation to’) + F,A,C,E, the notes in the spaces on the treble clef.
17 STASH Time to enter band’s store (5)
  SASH (‘band’) includes T[ime].
18 SITAR Instrument is returned to sailor (5)
  IS reversed + TAR.
19 MUSKETEER Old soldier, one thinking about Koestler regularly (9)
  MUSER includes alternate letters of ‘KoEsTlEr’.
20 RINGSIDE SEAT Good view here of dial division with water temperature (8,4)
  RING (‘dial’) + SIDE (‘division’) + SEA + T[emperature].
24 CONE Bollard, not exactly unique (4)
  C[irca] (=’about’, ‘not exactly’) + ONE (‘unique’). ‘Cone’ as in temporary traffic ‘bollard’.
25 PLEASANTRY Land worker, about fifty, by railway making remark (10)
  PEASANT (‘land worker’) around L (Roman 50) + R[ailwa]Y.
26 TART Cutting tact with introduction of rocket for Charlie (4)
  TAcT, its C[harlie] replaced by 1st letter of ‘Rocket’.
27 LOVE LETTER Missive to sweetheart with zero character? (4,6)
  LOVE (‘zero’) + LETTER (‘character’).
Down
1 DATE Fruit of romantic appointment? (4)
  Double definition.
2 WIPE Towel, say, from Women’s Institute? Extremely probable (4)
  W[omen’s] I[nstitute] + ends of ‘ProbablE’. I have a soft spot for the W.I., having won an electric bike in their magazine’s cryptic crossword competition.
3 SECURITY RISK Crisis with Turkey potentially source of danger (8,4)
  Anagram (‘potentially’) of CRISIS + TURKEY.
4 ATLAS Expression of regret about ultimately deficient book (5)
  ALAS around end of ‘deficienT’.
5 RETURNEES Re-enter US after moving? They might (9)
  Anagram of RE ENTER US &lit.
7 DISPARAGER Somehow drag praise out of him? Quite the opposite (10)
  Anagram (‘somehow’) of DRAG PRAISE, w whole clue def (not quite an &lit this time, I think, but still neat).
8 NURSE SHARK Complaint about elaborate ruse by quiet swimmer (5,5)
  NARK (a grumble = ‘complaint’, Chambers confirms) around anagram (‘elaborate’) of RUSE + SH (‘quiet!’).
11 ELYSEE PALACE Not half timely, spot friend, talented, in Paris building (6,6)
  Half of ‘timELY’ + SEE (‘spot’) + PAL (‘friend’ + ACE (‘talented’, as in “he’s ace at crosswords”).
13 MAASTRICHT Mother, initially awfully rigorous, securing hotel in city (10)
  MA + A(wfully) + STRIC.T including H[otel]. Last in, because nothing starts with MAA…, does it?
14 FORTY-NINER Gold-digger on outside’s yen to be included in frontier’s new arrangement (5-5)
  ‘Outsides’ of YeN in anagram of FRONTIER.
16 ARMADILLO Host’s endless fuss about hostile American native (9)
  ARMy (endless ‘host’) + ADO (‘fuss’) around ILL (‘hostile’, as in ‘there’s ill feeling between them.’).
21 SHADE Some blush a deep colour (5)
  Inclusion in ‘bluSH A DEep’.
22 STAT Numerical fact in beginning that’s not right (4)
  STArT.
23 AYER Philosopher’s arguments you embrace readily at outset (4)
  1st letters (‘at the outset’) of words 2-5 in clue. Ref. A.J. ‘Freddy’ Ayer.

*anagram

6 comments on “Financial Times 16,250 by GURNEY”

  1. Thanks Grant and Gurney. After doing the FT crossword for a few years, I have not seen the increasing difficulty Mon. through Fri. that many of you refer to. Some Mondays I have been completely stumped!

    Todays was hard but fun.

  2. I felt 26 was a bit weak I was expecting a different word for tact to used. It only fell in with the crossers. Otherwise a good puzzle

  3. Contrapunctus @ 3

    Surely that’s a sign of a good clue? Misdirecting you into looking for something that’s not there…

  4. Thanks Gurney and Grant

    Did this one quite late last night and was able to get it finished before I dropped off to sleep.  Couldn’t find this variation of NARK, but assumed that it would be OK.  Also couldn’t break the thought of having MAD=hostile in 16d and never parsed that one.

    Finished in the SW corner with the clever TART, MAASTRICHT and CONE (which took an age to link to a ‘bollard’ and even longer to get the word play out – and became my clue of the day).

    Lots of interesting clues and enjoyed it a lot.

     

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