Financial Times 16,618 by FALCON

by

Solid Tuesday breakfast fare.

Tasty and not too meaty. Thanks, Falcon.

image of grid
ACROSS
9 END Close finish (3)
 

Double def. Feels a bit, er, close.
10 CONSOLIDATE Strengthen vulnerable citadel soon (11)
 

Anagram ('vulnerable') of CITADEL SOON.
11 PROBE Examine front of pretty gown (5)
 

1st of 'Pretty' + ROBE.
12 AIRY-FAIRY Offhand, hob perhaps unrealistic (4-5)
 

AIRY ('offhand') + FAIRY ('hob', as in hobgoblin, an example).
13 UNARMED Cockney’s safe’s wide open (7)
 

UNhARMED ('safe'), dropping H, as a Cockney might.
14 YEARNED Longed for, tranquillity, ultimately gained (7)
 

Y (end of 'tranquilitY') + EARNED ('gained').
16 PUT OUT MORE FLAGS Novel published again meets standards (3,3,4,5)
 

PUT OUT (to 'publish') + MORE ('again') + FLAGS ('standards'). Evelyn Waugh 1942 novel.
20 ELASTIC Resilient European to remain in charge (7)
 

E[uropean] + LAST ('remain') + IC ('in charge').
23 MISTAKE Pole on motorway makes error (7)
 

STAKE ('pole') after M1.
25 TREADMILL Time to study factory’s routine drudgery (9)
 

T[ime] + READ (to 'study') + MILL ('factory').
26 IDEAL Perfect vision learner driver shows (5)
 

IDEA ('vision') + L[earner].
27 PLANTAGENET Hide a catlike animal in house (11)
 

PLANT (to 'hide', Chambers at 13, informal) + A + GENET ('cat-like animal')
28 TIN Not entirely small element (3)
 

Almost TINy.
DOWN
1 DEEP PURPLE Band’s record – piano included in rearranged prelude (4,6)
 

EP ('record') + P[iano] in anagram ('rearranged') of PRELUDE.
2 ADVOCAAT Mostly recommend imbibing a liqueur (8)
 

ADVOC.ATe ('recommend', shortened) includes A.
3 SCREAM Second best comedian (6)
 

S[econd] + CREAM ('best').
4 IN TANDEM Manned it at sea, together (2,6)
 

Anagram ('at sea') of MANNED IT.
5 ROB ROY Novel cocktail (3,3)
 

Double definition. Scott novel & whisky/vermouth cocktail
6 RIFF-RAFF Frantic friar employing force against very loud undesirables (4-4)
 

Anagram ('frantic') of FRIAR includes F[orce] +FF ('very loud'). A lot of effin' parsin'.
7 RATION Budget speech lacking nothing (6)
 

oRATION (speech without 0).
8 VERY Jolly place to eat, no car required (4)
 

carVERY without CAR. Jolly good.
15 DISNEYLAND Send in lady to reform theme park (10)
 

Anagram ('reform') of SEND IN LADY.
17 UP TO DATE Contemporary, a top duet dancing (2-2- 4)
 

Anagram ('dancing') of A TOP DUET.
18 RAMBLING Rex walking leisurely, hiking (8)
 

R[ex] + AMBLING.
19 AMARETTO A horse taken initially inside to drink (8)
 

A + MARE + T (1st of 'Taken') + TO).
21 AXEMAN Guitarist, celebrity, coming over after a kiss (6)
 

NAME ('celeb') reversed after A + X.
22 CRINGE Group in church squirm (6)
 

RING ('group') in C[hurch] of E[ngland].
24 SHINTO Mum, enthusiastic about religion (6)
 

SH (silence!, 'mum') + INTO ('enthusiastic about').
25 TYPO Printer’s error in charity poster (4)
 

Inclusion in 'chariTY POster'.

10 comments on “Financial Times 16,618 by FALCON”

  1. Found this Falcon grid tricky but fair with many excellent clues, 6d and 12a among them. Pick of the puzzle for me, though, was 27a.
    As for the novel at 16a, this slotted in most readily as it was a recent re-read during lockdown.
    With 2d, 3d and 19d in mind, cheers to Falcon and Grant for a great blog. Time for a Singapore Sling, me thinks…

  3. I’m afraid I’d never heard of the Waugh novel which therefore had to go in, somewhat unconfidently, from the wordplay. Sounds like it may be an interesting read. I’d also forgotten about the GENET and, if I’d ever known it, that a ROB ROY was a cocktail. I still can’t quite see UNARMED for ‘wide open’ but am probably missing something.

    All in all then, plenty to keep the solver honest. I did like the ‘Jolly place to eat’, somewhere I hope to be able to visit soon after a prolonged absence due to a certain virus.

    Thanks to Falcon and Grant

  4. I confess that like Wordplodder, I didn’t really understand ‘wide open’ as the definition. I concentrated on ‘safe/unharmed’ and the crossers.

  5. I think that ‘unarmed’ works fine if you use ‘against’ as the ‘like-for-like’ triggger: ‘They were unarmed/defencelsess/wide open against such an attack’

  7. Thanks to Falcon and Grant. I did not know the Waugh title (but did manage eventually to piece it out) and took a while getting VERY even though the dining area in our community is known as The Carvery. Haven’t seen AXEMAN lately.

  8. Though I failed at ADVOCAAT and PLANTAGENET, new words for me, I found this crossword to be satisfying. Favourites included DEEP PURPLE and AXEMAN and for a second I thought there might be a rock music theme. Turns out there were more alcohol references than musical ones but again insufficient for a theme. Thanks Falcon and Grant.

  9. Thanks to both as always. I too was uncomfortable with UNARMED but eventually came to the reasoning Grant@5 supplies. The novel was a complete unknown and I had to do a search to confirm the title. I seem to recall another DISNEYLAND somewhere recently. Loved PLANTAGENET. I always though drudgery was “on a” treadmill rather than the apparatus itself. An enjoyable late afternoon exercise.

  10. Thanks Falcon and Grant

    Was able to work relatively quickly through the first half of the puzzle but found the second half a little more challenging.  Haven’t read any, but do know many of the novels of Evelyn Waugh from a past hobby of collecting the old Penguin books – not this one though.  Vaguely remembered the GENET with the ‘hide’ / PLANT bit holding up the parsing for a while.

    Finished with AIRY FAIRY (didn’t find either of the component words easy to see), ROB ROY (new cocktail for me) and VERY (keep forgetting that meaning of ‘jolly’ / clever second part).

    [This was the first day of over 100 days of lock down here in Victoria – so a big sense of relief.  Wish all of the folk elsewhere the very best to get through it as well !]

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