Financial Times 16,362 by VELIA

by

A stylish end to the year.

All pretty straightforward, although I needed Mycroft’s help in parsing ‘second thoughts’, all leavened with this compiler’s usual wit. We liked ‘mishmash’ particularly.
Thanks to Velia and a happy new year to all our readers.

completed grid

 

Across
1, 4 APPLES AND PEARS Sad paper planes crash in flight (6,3,5)
  Anagram (‘crash’) of SAD PAPER PLANES, solution being rhyming slang for ‘stairs’.
9 EARNER Worker and Queen embracing composer of Rule Britannia (6)
  ER (‘queen’) around (Thomas) ARNE.
10 ATHLETIC Active and extraordinarily tactile with husband (8)
  Anagram (‘extraordinarily’) of TACTILE + H[usband].
12 CHEQUERS Gothic country mansion with draughts (8)
  Double definition. PM’s country retreat.
13 ASTERN Like bird’s behind (6)
  AS + TERN.
15, 21 MISHMASH When drunk, fail to attend church jumble (8)
  Drunken mispronunciation of ‘miss mass’.
16 SHUTTER Blind and quiet state (7)
  SH + UTTER.
20 ON A ROLL Registered winning (2,1,4)
  Double def.
21   See 15
 
25 ELIXIR Flipping bother about 9 or 11 as medicine (6)
  RILE (to ‘bother’), reversed, around either of IX or XI.
26 TIRAMISU In fact, IRA misunderstood final course (8)
  Hidden in ‘facT IRA MISUnderstood’.
28 IN TANDEM At the same time halving quaint island item (2,6)
  Last halves of 1st 3 words.
29 LENGTH Lacklustre, nauseating Telegraph, devoid of content or dimension (6)
  External letters (‘devoid of content’) of 1st 3 words.
30, 31 FAREWELL TO ARMS Play more Fats Waller – that’s mostly novel (8,2,4)
  Anagaram (‘playing’) of MORE FATS WALLER. Full title is ‘A’ Farewell to Arms, hence ‘mostly’.
Down
1, 22 A WELCOME RELIEF Wonder if mere cello playing makes a nice change (1,7,6)
  AWE (‘wonder’) + anagram (‘playing’) of IF MERE CELLO.
2 PERVERSE Each bit of poetry is sick (8)
  PER (‘each’) + VERSE.
3 EYEFUL Complete view of architectural wonder c’est dit! (6)
  Homophone (“c’est dit”, it’s said) of Eiffel (Tower).
5, 27 NUTSHELL Crazy nightmare (short version) (8)
  NUTS + HELL.
6 PILASTER I tucked into cake decoration on the outside (8)
  I in P.LASTER (‘to cake’).
7 ANTHEM Special song for worker on edge (6)
  ANT + HEM.
8, 19 SECOND THOUGHTS However, the conclusion of Brexit is in more doubt (6,8)
  THOUGH (‘however’) + end of ‘brexiT’ in SECOND.S (‘more’ food, e.g.), w splendidly tendentious surface.
11 ORCHARD Tough to follow Tolkein character – the first solution here? (7)
  Apples & pears (1 Across solution) may be found here. ORC (‘Tolkein character) + HARD (‘tough’).
14 OTALGIA Hankering for times gone by – it’s not Poles causing earache (7)
  nOsTALGIA, lacking N[orth] & S[outh] ‘poles’.
17 UNTIL NOW Thus far Auntie, ill and down with no clothing . . . . (5,3)
  ‘aUNTIe’, iLl & ‘dOWn’, each lacking external letters.
18 MALINGER . . . . put it on to stay with mother (8)
  MA + LINGER.
19   See 8
 
22   See 1
 
23 BITTER Beer please. German, right? (6)
  BITTE (‘please’, auf Deutsch) + R[ight].
24 GAZEBO Look and smell garden feature (6)
  GAZE + B.O.
27   See 5
 

*anagram

8 comments on “Financial Times 16,362 by VELIA”

  1. Hear, hear, GB. Velia’s surfaces are delightfully witty. 29ac LENGTH, for instance (but I did need you to explain ‘Rile’ in 25ac ELIXIR). Thanks for that, and thanks to Velia for a perfect close to 2019. Happy New Year, everyone.

  2. Thanks to Velia and Grant. I agree – a delightful puzzle. I slowed myself down by confidently entering Palisade instead of PILASTER (I had found an obscure term Palsade that almost fit) but that made SHUTTER impossible.

  3. Thanks Velia and GB

    In 17, the ampersand makes the parsing wrong by losing the N. It should be aUNTIe iLl aNd dOWn.

  4. Thanks Grant Baynham.
    As an aside, ‘Mish mash’ has been previously defined elsewhere as “What Sean Connery does if he doesn’t make it to church on a Sunday”

    Happy new year to all.

  5. Hornbeam @1 “Delightfully witty” echoes my thoughts exactly. I regret missing EYEFUL because it’s a brilliant clue but there was enough amusement regardless. Thanks Velia and Grant.

  6. A pleasant and quite quick solve with some superb clues.  Got the fruit trees straightaway but the ORCHARD was my LOI.  I thought it was going to be a pangram but J and K were missing.

    I wasn’t too happy at first about MISHMASH split across two lights as ‘mish’ isn’t a word in either Chambers or Collins; however, Wiktionary has it as short for ‘mission’ and the Urban Dictionary, rather like Humpty Dumpty, says it can mean anything you want it to mean.  Great clue, though.

    Thanks, Velia and Grant – and a Happy New Year to all!

  7. Thanks Velia and Grant
    HNY to all from our burning Aust (never seen the likes).
    This however was a very pleasant diversion. I think that the puzzles of this setter keep getting better and better. Lots of excellent clues and surfaces throughout here.
    Interesting to see similar devices used at 28a, 29a and 17d.
    Finished with A WELCOME RELIEF, the humorous NUTSHELL and the beheaded Hemingway novel.

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