Financial Times 16,704 by LEONIDAS

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I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of blogging a Leonidas puzzle before this morning. Some lovely surfaces on neatly compiled clues.

I did wonder whether a theme would appear with 7/13d and 8d, but seemingly not. I particularly enjoyed 12a – different and cleverly misleading, 5d which I thought would be an anagram at first, and the witty 7/13d. I hope I see more of this setter on a Monday morning in the future!

 

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Shades they take off at the end of strip (8)
AVIATORS

Double definition

6. The male in ultimate command (6)
BEHEST

HE (the male) in BEST (ultimate)

9. Source of omens vaguely clear (6)
ORACLE

O[mens] (source of) + (CLEAR)* (*vaguely) &lit

10. Indian city character with a writing disorder (8)
AGRAPHIA

AGRA (Indian city) + PHI (character, Greek) with A

11. Scale of fish on front of pinnie (4)
PEEL

EEL (fish) on P[innie] (front of)

Synonyms as verbs, e.g. to scale/’peel’ a fish

12. Put off record given the years we’ve been around (10)
DISCOURAGE

DISC (record) given OUR AGE (the years we’ve been around)

14. Rascal recalled man’s address working in jail (8)
IMPRISON

IMP (rascal) + SIR< (man’s address, <recalled) + ON (working)

16. Heartless Trojan means to transport infants (4)
PRAM

PR[i]AM (King of Troy, heartless)

18. Architect’s painful separation having lost children (4)
WREN

WREN[ch] (painful separation, having lost CH (children))

Sir Christopher Wren, highly acclaimed English architect

19. Palace staff maybe shot ravens outside of towers (8)
SERVANTS

(RAVENS)* (*shot) + T[ower]S (outside of)

21. A bit unwell without fixes (3,2,5)
OUT OF SORTS

OUT OF (without) + SORTS (fixes)

22. Panto figure cycling for cheese (4)
EDAM

DAME (panto figure) cycling

24. School mostly nervous delivering event with a bar (4,4)
HIGH JUMP

HIGH (school) + JUMP[y] (nervous, mostly)

26. French person connects fibre to network (6)
BRETON

[fi]BRE TO N[etwork] (connects)

27. Special FX role for contractor (6)
FLEXOR

(FX ROLE)* (*special)

28. Flipped cakes with one extremely fruity layer (8)
STRATIFY

TARTS< (cakes, <flipped) with I (one) + F[ruit]Y (extremely)

DOWN
2. Navy intercepts the fifth-to-last letter he wrote (5)
VERNE

RN (Royal Navy) interrupts VEE (fifth to last letter of the alphabet)

3. Engineered canoe raced across lake with increasing speed (11)
ACCELERANDO

(CANOE RACED)* (*engineered) across L (lake)

Musical term

4. Finished parties on ecstasy, too much of it perhaps (8)
OVERDOSE

OVER (finished) + DO’S (parties) on E (ecstasy)

5. Standard of best beach rubbish close to piers (5,3,7)
STARS AND STRIPES

STAR (best) + SANDS (beach) + TRIPE (rubbish) + [pier]S (close to)

6. Dispute below Polish northbound tunnel (6)
BURROW

ROW (dispute) below RUB< (polish, <northbound)

7, 13. What’s done to convert ships to subs for operation (3,11)
HIP REPLACEMENT

S[hip]S > replace centre letters for S[ub]S

8. Labour supports second family getting transplant (4,5)
SKIN GRAFT

GRAFT (labour) supports S (second) + KIN (family)

13. See 7
15. Brilliant car bishop nicked from funeral (9)
MERCURIAL

MERC (car) + [b]URIAL (funeral, B (bishop) nicked from)

17. Part of the Woodwork and Brass Co. organised run (8)
CROSSBAR

(BRASS CO)* (*organised) + R (run)

20. Publisher is someone who has gone to court (6)
ISSUER

IS + SUER (someone who has gone to court)

23. Withdrawn dessert, American upset (5)
ALOOF

(FOOL (dessert) + A (American))< <upset)

25. It’s cast from lead in hot old flame (3)
HEX

H (hot) + EX (old flame)

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,704 by LEONIDAS”

  1. Shame we had a very similar clue to 12a just 5 puzzles ago from Buccaneer “Record how old we are to cause despair”. In 25d, I had the definition as just “it’s cast” with “lead in hot” giving H (giving a nicer surface).

  3. Years-long lurker and great admirer of this site, now first-time poster. I just have to say that I confidently entered phantom at 1ac as my foi only to be disabused when I got to 3d.

  4. I agree with Hovis@1 about 25d. And I got stuck on 8d. Never heard of “graft” to mean “work”. That must be a British usage. I thought 7d was quite clever, though. Thanks to Leonidas and Teacow.

  5. No 4 from Leonidas, roughly once a month. Nothing too difficult here, but I like the surfaces.

    Sourdough @ 3
    1a requires an 8-letter solution.

  6. Sourdough @3. I tried to think of aircraft names for 1a but, fortunately, never thought of phantoms which is an excellent answer.

  7. Thanks, Leonidas and Teacow. Enjoyable start to the week. Loved wordplay of 5d and 7/13d. EdK@4, graft also puzzled me – to me it connotes shady/illegal political bribery. Does UK use it in a different sense?

  8. Not too difficult but had blind spot for Wren!! I even saw it fitted but couldn’t think why. Doooh.
    Loved Hip Replacement
    Thanks to all.

  9. Thanks for the fun Leonids. I enjoy your puzzles.
    For the US contributors, “graft” is usually associated with “hard” to describe a task that takes a lot of effort to complete. That phrase is certainly known and used down here (NZ) as well.
    Thanks for the unpacking work Teacow.

  10. 2dn was first in for me … and I coveted 1 of the first iterations of Aviators so that helped a lot.. but for the US contingent 5dn must have been a write-in? .. swings and roundabouts.. agraphia was a new word for me.. but now I know, I feel sometimes thats been my problem with these puzzles..
    thanks Leonidas and Teacow..

  11. Thanks Leonidas. Lovely puzzle to start the week. Couldn’t help but notice that “hip” in hip replacement fits into an anagram of hip in “agraphia”!

  12. I liked this one, too. Favourite was 7,13d HIP REPLACEMENT – clever clue with a nice surface to boot. For those with a musical bent, ACCELERANDO obliquely came into a lengthy discussion in the blog of today’s Vulcan crossword (no spoiler there, I hope).

    Thanks Leonidas for the fun and Teacow for the explanations.

  13. Very pleasant. We liked the short answers – PEEL, PRAM, WREN and (a pleasant change from ‘made backwards’) EDAM. Favourite among them was PRAM for its surface.
    Thanks, Leonidas and Teacow.

  15. Thanks Leonidas and Teacow
    A bit out of order with the puzzles this week … must be the holiday mode.
    Was able to finish this one in a single sitting that took below my average time, but still enjoyable and with a couple that needed to be checked out – the Aviator sunglasses and AGRAPHIA. Also thought that we were heading for a surgical type theme but that petered out after just the two down clues.
    VERNE was the first in after counting back on my fingers to find the 5th last letter :). Couldn’t really equate MERCURIAL to ‘brilliant’, although on thinking about it again, have heard it used in sporting descriptions. It was my last one in.

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