Financial Times 16,570, by DOGBERRY.

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A fun Tuesday solve with some ingenious clueing for which thanks to Dogberry. For some reason, my software won't let me enter 10 Down, so SPOILER ALERT, I'll parse it here…

10 Endlessly in quest to secure underground and underwater animal Answer: SEA URCHIN ('underwater animal') = 'SEARCHINg ('in quest' without last) surrounds U[nderground railway.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 REDACT Edit revolutionary piece of legislation (6)
 

RED ('revolutionary') + ACT ('piece of legislation').
4 LAPTOP Friend of weed knocked over computer (6)
 

POT ('weed') + PAL ('friend'), all reversed.
8 INCUBUS In whelp with American dream (bad one) (7)
 

IN + CUB + US. A nightmare', says Chambers at def. 2.
9 DEVIANT Abnormal damage Roman road received (7)
 

DE.NT ('damage') includes VIA ('Roman road').
11 COMMITMENT Remark about US university’s dedication (10)
 

COMM.ENT ('remark') contains M[assacusetts] I[nstitute] of T[echnology].
12 KATE Shrew decapitated fish (4)
 

sKATE ('fish') without 1st to give the Shrew 'tamed' in Shakespeare's play.
13 HARPO Chatshow host turned to Marx (5)
 

OPRAH neatly reversed.
14 UMBRELLA Mad bull and mare covering a number of things (8)
 

Anagram ('mad') of BULL + MARE. 'Umbrella' as adjective.
16 PANDEMIC Irrational fear about returning sea causing widespread disease (8)
 

PAN.IC around MED.
18 TOSCA Rocky coast shown in opera (5)
 

Anagram ('rocky') of COAST..
20 ASHY Grey gives a toss (4)
 

A + SHY (to 'toss').
21 SHIRE HORSE Father introducing husband to daughter, finally stockinged from traditional drawer (5,5)
 

S.IRE (to 'father') includes H[usband], then R (last of 'daughter') is in HO.SE, i.e. is 'stockinged'. Cryptic def of powerful old dray-horse.
23 BALONEY Howl about unaccompanied twaddle (7)
 

BA.Y (to 'howl') around LONE.
24 OCARINA Instrument displaying nothing in a vehicle, previously (7)
 

0 (zero, 'nothing'), then IN A preceded by CAR.
25 TOGGLE Change function of button (6)
 

Whole-clue cryptic definition, i.e., 'a button with which to change a function'.
26 SPONGE Freeload dessert (6)
 

Double definition.
DOWN
1 RINGO 2 goes 2 rounds (5)
 

RING + O (2 'rounds'), with 2 Down, 'drummer', as definition of Starr, the legendary Beatle.
2 DRUMMER Musician’s introduction to dark stranger (7)
 

1st of D{ark} + RUMMER (more rum, 'stranger').
3 COURTROOM Woo prospective partner beheaded in scene of TV drama (9)
 

COURT ('woo') + (bride)gROOM without 1st.
5 ALERT Change, moving heart to foot – the way to stay in a 16 across, we’re told (5)
 

ALTER, middle letter moved to last. Stay safe, all.
6 TWINKLE Shine light, finally, on shellfish (7)
 

Last of 'lighT' + WINKLE.
7 PANATELLA Old man (King Cole) and Fitzgerald generating smoke (9)
 

PA ('old man'+ NAT ('King' Cole) + ELLA.
13 HEAD START One side of the coin is to easy lover’s advantage (4,5)
 

HEADS ('one side of the coin') + TART ('easy lover')..
15 BUTTERCUP Insect’s fifth to penetrate flatter flower (9)
 

BUTTER UP (to 'flatter') includes 5th of 'inseCt'.
17 DAYLONG Character in Lear admits lay-off will be lasting from dawn to dusk (7)
 

'The DONG (with the luminous nose', poem by Edward Lear) includes an anagram ('off') of LAY.
19 SPORRAN Sleeps over, cradling old bishop’s pouch (7)
 

NAPS ('sleeps'), reversed, contains ) O[ld] + R[ight] R[everend] ('bishop').
21 SMELL Flog without mercy, initially causing stink (5)
 

S.ELL (to 'flog') outside ('without') 1st of 'Mercy'.
22 SENSE Reason with 21, say (5)
 

Double def, 'smell' at 21d being one of the 5 senses.

16 comments on “Financial Times 16,570, by DOGBERRY.”

  1. Yes, a fresh and refreshing puzzle from Dogberry. I was struck by 4ac LAPTOP, for instance: obvious, but I don’t recall its being done before. Thanks to Dogberry and GB.

  2. A great crossword that had me smiling from start to finish – lots to enjoy – I particularly liked the clue for TWINKLE

    Thanks to Dogberry and to Grant

  3. Thanks for explaining 17D. Although I entered the correct answer, based on the obvious definition, the cross-letters and the anagram of “lay”, I just couldn’t, for the life of me, find a character in Shakespeare’s King Lear called Dong. That’s why they are called “cryptics”.

  4. Mort @3 Lear is an old favourite of setters

    I remember the Rev setting a puzzle with OT in several clues-we were told tat it it could be either of two things which rapidly transpired to be OLD TESTAMENT and OLIVER TWIST.Happy days.
    thanks all.

  5. Late to this today – I had to go out for a blood test first thing and didn’t even look to see who was in the FT slot before I went, so it was a lovely surprise, when I got home, to find Dogberry – and on top form, too.

    Like crypticsue, I was smiling all the way through – so many ingenious and witty clues – and I really liked TWINKLE (lovely word) too.

    I don’t think I’m particularly prodigal with my ticks but I’ve found it impossible to prune the list, so I’ll just mention PANDEMIC ( + ALERT), SHIRE HORSE, PANATELLA, DAYLONG and SPORRAN.

    Many thanks to Dogberry for a most enjoyable puzzle and to Grant for a great blog.

  6. Like others commenting here, I was pleased to find a Dogberry puzzle today. And it was as much fun as I’d expected it to be.
    Made a false start early on with SWITCH instead of TOGGLE but once this was amended much of the rest went in quite readily. I really liked PANATELLA, BALONEY and, when the penny finally dropped, 1 and 2 down made me smile. Though I failed on INCUBUS, it was a well-spent afternoon break.
    Thanks very much, Dogberry, and Grant too.

  7. Thanks to Dogberry and Grant. Great fun. I did not spot “easy lover” as tart and took a while piecing out SHIRE HORSE, new to me.

  8. Thanks, Dogberry and Grant. Only a couple of strange words: SPORRAN new to me, and LOI was SHIRE HORSE, thanks for the blog. Loved cluing of PANATELLA and RINGO/DRUMMER.

    Oprah’s production company is called Harpo – when she was here in Chicago, her building was Harpo Studios!

  10. To Simon S @9:
    I guess you have to be of a certain age & it did ring a faint bell once you’d mentioned it. So I did a Google Youtube and, golly, what a dreadful song it was.

  11. I took the 21 referred to in 22D as 21A. SENSE is related to the saying “horse sense”  – reason in a horse.

     

  13. Thanks Dogberry and Grant

    Excellent puzzle from a setter that we don’t see often enough in this paper – wonder if he is more often seen in his alter ego at the Graun.  Took a while to get a start with the solve and down to 26a to get the first entry.  The rest of it seemed to go steadily from there.

    Saw TOGGLE as a double definition – the switching between functions on a computer and the sort of ‘button’ that we used to have on a duffel coat of former days.

    Plenty to like here and lots of entertaining word play to untangle.  Finished down the bottom with that TOGGLE, SMELL (which took longer than it should have) and the clever SHIRE HORSE the last one in.

  14. To Bruce: Yes, I had second thoughts about TOGGLE as well but it seemed to me that the meanings were too close, the computer meaning having been derived from the wobbly button in the first place.
    Greetings. How’s lock-down in Melbourne going?

  15. [ Hey Grant … to be honest … it sucks !!!  The worst thing being that it was all just caused by gross mismanagement.  We are an isolated island and all we had to do was keep anybody coming in to the country to isolate for 14 days.  All of NZ and the rest of Australia were able to do that … but not our beloved Victorian government.

    Anyway, we are all surviving, luckily still in work and have not much to spend our money on … so there is always a positive side to it all.  Lucky the crossword world continues along to keep us properly sane !!

    Hope that all is well over there …]

  16. jeff@usa @8: oh dear, Oprah Winfrey beat me to it. I had no idea that her production company was called ‘Harpo’. And I thought I was being clever. Still, in the unlikely event that she reads this blog, apologies to you, Oprah, and thankyou for your direction of, and performance in, the film of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which is one of the most harrowing things I’ve ever watched.

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