Financial Times 16,424 by WANDERER

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A tough challenge from WANDERER today. I needed Geoff’s help to complete the blog.

FF: 9 DD:10

Across
1  PIPE RACK
 Where churchwarden might be in quiet period during harvest (4,4)
 [ P (quiet) ERA (period) ] in PICK (harvest);
5 BUYS UP Fully takes stock of situation after heading off from busy pub, drunk (4,2)
bUSY PUB* (without staring letter)
9 MONOPOLY Sole trader might have this long game to play? (8)
double def
10 USURER One taking a lot of interest in American rivers (6)
US (american) URE (river) R (river)
12  ELOPS Fish from the flipping South Pole! (5)
S (south) POLE, all reversed
13 MARMOREAL Like one of Elgin’s sculptures displaying male member (nothing substantial) (9)
M (male) ARM (member) O (nothing) REAL (substantial)
14 AVOWAL Frank confession such as I possibly heard? (6)
cryptic def; read A VOWEL (such as I)
16 ARTISAN Sort of jumper worn by model backing skilled craftsperson (7)
ARAN (sort of jumper) around TIS (model = SIT, reversed)
18 CALCIUM Metal from cans (not tin, contrarily) (7)
expansion of CAns (without tin, chemical symbol for tin is SN, contrarily indicates reversal)
20 MID-OFF Where there’s an “f” in “fielder” (3-3)
cryptic def; MID of OFF is ‘F’
22 PRESENTLY Ten replays without a foul now! (9)
TEN REPLaYS* (without A)
23 CROAT Split personality? Actor has that off (5)
ACTOR*; excellent clue i thought (split is a city in croatia)
24 CHORAL Sort of music that’s sung in church or alehouse (6)
hidden in “..churCH OR ALehouse”; excellent surface
25 CAMBODIA Country fellow following river before Italy meets Austria (8)
CAM (river) BOD (fellow) I (italy) A (austria)
26 SADDLE Notice £500 during emptying of safe? Put it on a horse! (6)
[AD (notice) D (500, roman numerals) L (pounds)] in SE (SafE, empty i.e. without inner letters)
27 CRAYONED Primarily censoring material, editor used blue pencil? (8)
C (Censoring, first letter) RAYON (material) ED (editor)
Down
1  POMMEL Cut up about Frenchwoman getting hit repeatedly (6)
LOP (cut) reversed around MME (frenchwoman)
2 PENTONVILLE ROAD Prison door, a revolving one offender’s beginning to exit in one of the 7 (11,4)
PENTONVILLE (prison) DOoR A* (without O – Offender, first letter)
3 ROPES Sexually fondles topless guys? (5)
gROPES (sexually fondles, without starting letter)
4  CALOMEL Purgative requiring vacant loo in plane (7)
LoO (vacant) in CAMEL (plane)
6 UNSPOTTED Surprisingly outspent by daughter? Not noticed (9)
OUTSPENT* D (daughter)
7 STREETS OF LONDON Number of ways to get around a big city (7,2,6)
cryptic def?
8 PARK LANE One of the 7 seen from on board old ship? (4,4)
ARK (old ship) in PLANE (board)
11 AREA Field of barley, as seen in prime spots only (4)
prime positons (2,3,5,7) of “bARlEy As”
15 WHITEHALL Short holiday: what everyone needed in one of the 7 (9)
WHITsun (holiday, short) EH (what) ALL ; wasnt familiar with whitsun before this
17 ICEPACKS Diamonds? They’re in these cool bags! (8)
cryptci def; diamonds = ICE
19 MATH Subject of US participating in scam at Harrods (4)
hidden in “..scaM AT Harrods”
20 MAYFAIR Ex-PM just seen in an 11 of upmarket 7 (7)
MAY (ex-pm) FAIR (just) ; area(11d) of upmarket streets of london(7d)
21 STRAND One of the 7 some just ran down (6)
hidden in “..juST RAN Down”; see 7d
23 CABBY Cantankerous? That’s not right for one with knowledge of the 7, perhaps (5)
CrABBY (cantankerous, without R – right); see 7d

*anagram

12 comments on “Financial Times 16,424 by WANDERER”

  1. Great puzzle as usual from Wanderer.

    Re 7 dn, Steets of London was also a well known song by Ralph McTell, hence perhaps ‘number’, and a double, rather than dryptic definition.

    Thanks TL

  2. I think the def of the key clue 7d should be ‘number’, ref the Ralph McTell song. And I’ m not clear how PARK LANE works. It feels the wrong way round somehow I don’t get ‘board’ for ‘plane’.
    But otherwise a stiff-ish but fair puzzle. Thanks to both.

  3. Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.

    I found it rather hard to get started but I enjoyed it a lot when I did – as I knew I would!

    7dn is a cryptic definition, the ‘number’ being this song

    and, cleverly  the streets are all on a MONOPOLY board.

    I took 8dn as ARK in PLANE = ‘on board’ – but perhaps that’s what Turbolegs meant.

    ELOPS sounds like a real crossword word but I’m pretty sure I’ve never met it before.

    Many thanks to Wanderer for another lovely puzzle.

  4. Sorry – I took far too long typing [and got in a mess with it, as you see!] so crossed with jmac and Grant.

  5. Indeed, I found this quite difficult — and couldn’t solve 13a — insisting that is must be CORPOREAL (material).  Oh well.

     

    On the other hand, I did notice the MONOPOLY theme (but not the song) — a side-effect of my misspent youth in London.

  7. Good old Ralph McTell.

    This was plain sailing compared to Paul

    Uodate of game needed with Ladbroke Grove,Brick Lane etc-and collect £5000.

    Renovations bill £180,000.

    Nah-wouldnt catch on.

  8. Yes, a toughie and apart from MONOPOLY I gave up on the NW corner entirely.  Could someone explain the connection between church warden and pipe rack? Something to do with the organ perhaps?

  10. Got there in the end. Several new words. I’m a keen angler but never heard of an elops, my loi.

    Slightly easier than Io earlier in the week and which I couldn’t quite complete. Spotting monopoly theme early helped.

  11. Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs

    Another interesting puzzle by this setter with the Monopoly ghost theme that only came to me about 2/3 of the way through.  A couple that I didn’t parse properly were PIPE RACK and PENTONVILLE ROAD (never heard of the prison).

    Liked the good mix of devices and especially liked the use of ‘prime spots only’ in 11d when it finally dawned what he was getting at.

    CALOMEL and MARMOREAL were the only other new terms which were my second and third last ones in, followed by the penny-dropping AREA as the last one.

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