Financial Times 16,594 by PETO

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Tricksy and enjoybale stuff from Peto today

A slow start this morning. Some very cute definitions ('bank' at 1A a favourite) and not much was being given away in the parsing, either. But a very satisfying one to complete. Thanks very much, Peto.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 SALT AWAY Control over key Australian bank (4,4)
 

S.WAY ('control') around ALT ('key' on computer) + A[ustralian].
5 CROP UP Appear unexpectedly with power to stop infectious disease (4,2)
 

P[ower] in CRO.UP ('infectious disease').
9 IMPROPER Hesitation after Peto’s support becomes irregular (8)
 

ER ('hesitation') follows I'M (i.e. 'Peto is') + PROP ('support').
10 PLURAL More than one found in river to the east of Poland (6)
 

River URAL (both here and on maps) lies 'east' of P[o]L[and].
11 CHOLERIC Irritable clergyman touring Ohio regularly (8)
 

C.LERIC around alternate letters of ' 'oHiO'.
12 STREAM Burn flag after queen leaves (6)
 

STREAMer ('flag') minus ER. 'Burn' = Scots 'stream', of course.
14 FREE-FOR-ALL Fight to get charge withdrawn following French exam online (4-3-3)
 

FR[ench] + FEE ('charge', reversed) + ORAL ('exam') + L[ine]. (You have to split 'on line').
18 THOUGHT OUT Carefully considered even if taking Tevez initially on loan (7,3)
 

THOUGH ('even if') + 1st of 'T{evez}' + OUT ('on loan' as of e.g. a library book).
22 ACTION Fighting to get something done (6)
 

Double def.
23 TAX HAVEN Make heavy demands on port in Jersey for instance (3,5)
 

TAX ('make heavy demands') + HAVEN ('port').
24 GLOBAL Comprehensive’s attempt to introduce Latin faces party backsliding (6)
 

GO (an 'attempt') includes L[atin] + reversal of LABour 'party'.
25 DISSOLVE Collapse emotionally seconds after girl gets to explain (8)
 

DI (a 'girl') + S[econds] + SOLVE ('explain').
26 TODATE Left-leaning party embraced by poet until now (2,4)
 

DO ('party', reversed = 'left-leaning') in (James) T.ATE, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
27 INTEREST Concern for butcher in Street (8)
 

Anagram ('butcher') of IN STREET.
DOWN
1 SWITCH Replace whip (6)
 

Double definition.
2 LAPTOP Computer literacy primarily applicable at work (6)
 

L (1st of 'Literacy) + APT ('applicable') + OP ('work')
3 ADORES Loves commercials featuring old soldiers (6)
 

AD.S ('commercials') includes O[ld] + R[oyal] E[ngineers] ('soldiers').
4 AMELIORATE Improve when playing Thora, homeless, in French film (10)
 

AMELI.E ('French film' starring Audrey Tautou, m'm) surrounds anagram ('playing') of ThORA minus H[ome].
6 RELATION Account for Republican euphoria (8)
 

R[epublican] + ELATION. 'Relation' as in the relating of a story.
7 PERCEVAL Clever PA involved with the PM at one time (8)
 

Anagram ('involved') of CLEVER PA. Spencer of that ilk, PM 1809-1812, assassinated in office.
8 PALL MALL Punch-up involving everyone left in game (4-4)
 

LAMP (to punch, reversed, 'up') includes ALL, then L[eft] at the end.
13 PECULATION Conjecture not originally indicating embezzlement (10)
 

sPECULATION minus 1st.
15 STRAIGHT Settled for Frank (8)
 

Double def.
16 FOOTHOLD Believe after former Labour leader gets a grip (8)
 

HOLD (to 'believe') after (Michael) FOOT.
17 IGNORANT I admit describing refusal as rude (8)
 

I GRANT ('I admit') around NO.
19 CHASTE Modest honour worthless? Not at first (6)
 

C[ompanion] of H[onour] ('award') + wASTE ('worthless') minus 1st.
20 SVELTE Slender girl’s bottom pinched by horse doctor in the middle of Ossett (6)
 

Middle of 'osSEtt' contains last of 'girL', itself contained in VET ('horse doctor').
21 INTENT Consisting of temporary accommodation by design (6)
 

IN ('consisting of') + TENT.

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,594 by PETO”

  1. Found this a real struggle but enjoyed slowly working it out. The top half went in reasonably quickly with 1a taking the longest but was staring at an almost blank bottom half for a while. Eventually filled in the SW but the SE caused most trouble. Ended up cheating on 13d and admit I had forgotten the word PECULATION. Up till then, I was trying to insert a word for “butcher” into ST for 27a but the N made me finally see the light. Thanks to Peto and Grant.

  2. “Tricky and enjoyable” is a good way of describing this. It started off with the benign looking but difficult SALT AWAY and many others weren’t much easier. At least I did remember PECULATION so that went in pretty early. Apart from 1a, DISSOLVE and LAPTOP held me up and I ended up failing on PALL-MALL, for which I entered an unparsed “pell-mell”, thinking ‘Punch-up’ might be the def. Interesting to see one of the answers here also turning up at St.Elsewhere’s today.

    In my ignorance, I’d never heard of Spencer PERCEVAL, or his tragic end. Not too make light of this, but looking at the Wikipedia entry, I see that his “inquest was held at the Cat and Bagpipes public house on the corner of Downing Street” the day after the assassination. Different times.

    Thanks to Peto and Grant

  3. Agree with comments above that despite being a tough nut to crack, this puzzle was definitely worth the trouble.
    First run-through didn’t produce much but answers at the centre helped to finally unlock what had seemed too difficult initially.
    Finished in the NE corner but had to cheat to get SALT AWAY.
    Favourites were SWITCH, AMELIORATE, STREAM and PERCULATION.
    Thanks to Peto and to Grant for clarifying what I could not.

  4. Got there in the end but we needed to consult our thesaurus to finish.  Apart from SVELTE and a tentative (no pun intended) INTENT the SE quadrant was a blank till ‘speculate’ for ‘conjecture’ gave us PECULATION and we realised ‘Jersey’ in 23ac wasn’t CI, a cow or a garment – D’oh.  And ‘butcher’ as an anagrind in 27ac escaped us for ages.

    But a satisfying solve nevertheless.  Lots to enjoy, including PLURAL, AMELIORATE and SVELTE.

    Thanks, Peto and Grant.

  5. I had to spend a lot of time in trains today, so finished without cheating after a lot of time. I agree with all above, so have nothing to add but thanks to Peto for an excellent puzzle and to GB for the blog.

  7. To Yves @6:
    Nah, don’t think so. As a football fan from the north of England, I’d say ‘Tevez’ and ‘Ossett’ are familiar, run-of-the-mill proper nouns suitable as fodder for any crossword GK word-play. No quibs from me.

  8. Both Hovis and Hornbeam used the word ‘cheating’ today.

    What does that mean in FT terms (where there are no buttons to do so).

    [BTW, I am a die-hard, non-interactive, pen-and-paper solver]

  10. Sil van den Hoek @8: When I need to “cheat” with an FT crossword, I use the word finder function of OneLook.com, plug in the letters of a partial answer, and look at the suggestions given. One of them might satisfy the clue. It’s not exactly the Guardian’s reveal button but it can help.

  13. Thanks Peto and Grant

    In catch up mode after printer mishap and was surprised to see one so hard for a Tuesday.  As others have said, a very enjoyable solve once one got into the groove though.

    Have seen that [S]PECULATION clue recently in an old Times puzzle that I had recently done, although I still have difficulty remembering the word.  Didn’t know the ill-fated PM, the 17th century game or the French movie, so electronic help was required to validate them.  Did recall Michael FOOT.

    Finished in the NE corner with that PALL-MALL and CROP UP (again trickily parsed) as the last couple in.

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