Financial Times 16,624 by LEONIDAS

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

My first tussle with this setter, and a quite a tussle it was.

I was shamefully slow out of the traps this morning, eventually completing the SE corner with hardly anything else showing. Then I seemed to find the wavelength and the rest fell smoothly – and enjoyably – into place. Thanks to Leonidas, a nice birthday present for me.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 CALLISTO Astronomical list obviously includes this (8)
 

Inclusion in 'astronomiCAL LIST Obviously' &lit., moon of Jupiter.
5 ABLUSH Red-faced seaman drunk (6)
 

A[ble] S[eaman]) + LUSH (a 'drunk').
9 GAMEPLAN Politician in local contest has new strategy (4,4)
 

MEP ('politician') in GA.LA ('local contest') + N[ew].
10 CARTEL Vehicle hired out for returning syndicate (6)
 

CAR + reversal of LET.
12 NARKY Nettlesome grass in front of yard (5)
 

NARK (police informant, 'grass') + Y[ard].
13 HEARTBEAT Run in preliminary event and trounce Mo (9)
 

R[un] in HEA.T ('preliminary event') + BEAT.
14 ASTHMA Sat around hospital, mother makes a complaint (6)
 

Anagram ('around') of SAT + H[ospital] + MA.
16 GROWLER Sailors steer clear of this noisy hound? (7)
 

Double def, a 'growler' at sea being a small iceberg.

19 PHOENIX Hope to organise veto for US city (7)
 

Anagram ('to organise') of HOPE + NIX ('veto').
21 INFAMY Disgrace among footballers, well I never (6)
 

IN F[ootball] A[ssociation], i.e., 'among footballers' + MY! ('Well I never!')
23 CUTTY SARK Pass through vacant touristy island attraction (5,4)
 

CUT ('pass through') + TouristY, emptied, + SARK ('island'), 'touristy' nudging us toward the solution.
25 BASIL Herb from the east of Brazil is abundant (5)
 

Reversed ('from the east') inclusion in 'braziL IS ABundant'.
26 BORROW Temporarily acquire gold buried in hilltop (6)
 

OR in B.ROW.
27 GENEROUS Liberal possibly sour succeeding old Vincent (8)
 

Anagram ('possibly') of SOUR follows 'old' GENE ('Be-Bop-A-Lula' Vincent).
28 RELAYS Switches places again (6)
 

Double definition.
29 PLUMPEST Most engorged purply-red fly? (8)
 

PLUM ('purply-red') + PEST (e.g., a fly).
DOWN
1 COGENT Convincing chap to be prop for county (6)
 

GENT below CO[unty] (in Ireland).
2 LAMBRUSCO Note crumbs scattered over drink (9)
 

LA (sol-fa 'note') + anagram ('scattered') of CRUMBS + O[ver].
3 IMPLY Spotted first priest leaving hint (5)
 

pIMPLY .
4 TRACHEA Pipe that splits in two inside of chest (7)
 

After long consideration… straight def, I think. The trachea does indeed brachiate into the bronchi.
6 BLASTS OFF Damn close to sickness on rotten launches (6,3)
 

BLAST ('damn!') + last of 'sicknesS' + OFF ('rotten').
7 UNTIE Release relatives when discovered (5)
 

aUNTIEs.
8 HALF-TERM Holiday flat he used with room below (4- 4)
 

Anagram ('used') of FLAT HE + R[oo]M.
11 GANG Half of Mozart’s first band (4)
 

From wolfGANG Amadeus, of course.
15 HUNKY-DORY Strong swimmer in fine condition (5-4)
 

HUNKY ('strong') + DORY (fish, 'swimmer').
17 LIMESTONE Rock in shade beneath fruit trees (9)
 

TONE under LIMES.
18 SPACE BAR Key boozer lacking atmosphere perhaps (5,3)
 

Cryptic definition.
20 XMAS Set up instrument to capture mass annual festival (4)
 

M[ass] in reversal of SAX.
21 INKWELL Knew about filling poorly writer’s vessel (7)
 

I.LL ('poorly') surrounds anagram ('about') of KNEW.
22 CLOSET Clubs don’t keep model secret (6)
 

C[lubs] + LOSE ('don't keep') + (Model) T.
24 TYROL Student left Alpine region (5)
 

TYRO (beginner, 'student') + L[eft].
25 BREAM Catch bishop suppressing papers (5)
 

B[ishop] above REAM ('papers'). Poss. fisherman's 'catch'.

19 comments on “Financial Times 16,624 by LEONIDAS”

  2. I had to respect the night after a two hour long tussle. Didn’t get BREAM and PLUMPEST, and I don’t know why. I am sure there will be some who found this puzzle easy.

    Wonder what makes crosswords difficult for some and easy for others. Must be some research out there 🙂

  4. This new (to me) setter took a lot of getting used to, and I got stuck firmly in the NW (having enjoyed 2dn and not understood 4dn). Some great fresh surfaces and a new syntax to get used to. A breath of fresh air, although perhaps a bit bracing for a Tuesday. Thanks Leonidas and GB.

  6. What baerchen and crypticsue  said.

    Have we seen him under a different handle?

    it was pretty polished if he is a new kid in town

  7. Always good to have a new setter (though as Hovis @6 says, ? known by another name) appear on the scene. I didn’t find this easy and if this is just a warm-up debut, even tougher ones may be in store. I had trouble working out ABLUSH, GANG and PLUMPEST and didn’t know what a GROWLER referred to, or GALA for ‘local contest’. Favourites were the ‘Mo’ def for HEARTBEAT and HUNKY-DORY.

    Grant, sorry to be pedantic, but in your explanation of TRACHEA, I think you meant ‘bifurcate’ rather than ‘brachiate’. I thought ‘brachiate’ had something to do with arms and indeed it does, meaning to use the arms as a means of locomotion, as in swinging from tree to tree like the apes, something I can’t see the trachea being able to do!

    Thanks and welcome to Leonidas and thanks and happy returns to Grant

     

  9. What copmus @6 said – I remember saying something like that in my blog of Picaroon’s first puzzle. 😉

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  10. Very impressive debut puzzle. I don’t do the FT on a regular basis, but I’ll make a point of looking out for Leonidas in future.

  11. This took some getting into, despite us getting 1ac straight off as first one in, but it all came out in the end.  The only thing we weren’t happy with was 4dn being just a straight definition.

    Favourites were GROWLER and BLASTS OFF.

    Thanks, Leonidas and Grant – and Happy Birthday to Grant.

  12. As my first Leonardo’s I had no idea what to expect. When my first in was BASIL I knew it would be a longer afternoon. Then things started to drop in nicely and I really enjoyed it. However I put in RESETS for 29a which held that corner up for a long time. Sorted eventually though. And, Grant, I too looked at TRACHEA as a problem – there seemed to be nothing cryptic about the clue at all. At one point I wondered if the answer was BRONCHI. Thanks to both as always – just what I needed on a wet afternoon.

  15. Most of this well-crafted crossword fell into place over the course of the day after a very slow start. Favourites included HEARTBEAT (Mo!), PLUMPEST, and XMAS. Missed NARKY and the very clever GANG. I look forward to more from this setter. Thanks to both.

  16. Thanks Leonidas and Grant – challenging but very satisfying to finish. Another slightly pedantic comment perhaps but, re 1D, I’m not sure of the need to specify ‘CO’ as an abbreviation for County in Ireland (e.g. County or Co. Durham).

  17. Thanks Leonidas and Grant (Happy B’day for yesterday, to a fellow Scorpio)

    A pretty tricksy debut (from what I can see) puzzle.  Had a quick look before going for a walk, a second go over a toastie and coffee and needed another 3/4 of an hour this afternoon to finish it off.  Was very pleased to not have to use any reference help along the way – which is more a credit to the setter in as much as it was the clever clues that needed to be unravelled and not obscure or general knowledge required for the solve.

    Looking back it is hard to pinpoint what made this so challenging – guess it was just masterful misdirection and cleverly concealed definitions.

    Was another who initially wrote in RESETS that needed to be remediated before finishing in the SE corner with the curiously defined PLUMPEST and BREAM the last couple in.

  18. Typo in solution to 5a. It should be AB + LUSH, of course. Still, nicely done, GB. Happy birthday, and I agree with you on 4d; not very cryptic.

  19. Re: the non-cryptic 4d TRACHEA.
    Very, very occasionally there will be a non-cryptic definition and I quite like ‘em. They’re legitimate, I feel, and keep us on or toes, especially when as here they’re designed to look as if there’s wordplay in there somewhere but there just isn’t any. Good fun.

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