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Monday begins with a PETO…
I found this fairly easy to fill in, but some of the parsing proved a little tricksy. All good fun though.
Thanks PETO!
ACROSS
1. Mindful of concussion? Not entirely bothered (9)
CONSCIOUS
(CONCUSSIO[n] (not entirely])* (*bothered)
6. Unsuitable for an unmarried woman (5)
AMISS
A MISS (an unmarried woman)
9. In favour of wearing almost any piece of protective clothing (5)
APRON
PRO (in favour of) wearing AN[y] (almost)
10. Enthusiasm to embrace street art abroad is excellent (5-4)
FIRST-RATE
FIRE (enthusiasm) to embrace (ST (street) + (ART)* (*abroad))
11. Small back on essentially big piece of furniture is unique (10)
INIMITABLE
(MINI)< (small, <back) on [b]I[g] (essentially) + TABLE (piece of furniture)
12. Soldiers avoiding distressing experience in town (4)
DEAL
[or]DEAL (distressing experience, OR (soldiers) avoiding)
14. Reject conflict with first of appeals for love (7)
DISCARD
DISCORD (conflict), with A[ppeals] (first of) for O (love)
15. Salesman taking large amounts in recession as a bung (7)
STOPPER
(REP (salesman) taking POTS (large amounts))< (<in recession)
17. Obtain endless drink on ship (7)
POSSESS
POSSE[t] (drink, endless) on SS (ship)
19. Up-to-date course (7)
CURRENT
20. Essentially disregarding Patel’s first language (4)
ERSE
[p]ER SE (essentially, disregarding P[atel] (first))
22. Bags of plunder in Vatican City share- out (10)
HAVERSACKS
SACK (plunder) in (V (Vatican City) + SHARE)* (*out)
25. Against interrupting call for help on top of mountain as it were (2,2,5)
SO TO SPEAK
(TO (against) interrupting SOS (call for help)) on PEAK (top of mountain)
26. Contributing to iconic exhibition being postponed (2,3)
ON ICE
[ic]ONIC E[xhibition] (contributing to)
27. Fine period of success in North Dakota? Just the opposite (5)
DANDY
ND (North Dakota) in DAY (period of success)
28. Fanciful plan of Dickens’ protagonist formed on reflection to capture Fred’s heart (4,5)
PIPE DREAM
PIP (Dickens' protagonist) + ((MADE)< (formed, <on reflection) to capture [f]RE[d] (heart))
DOWN
1. Animal bed without a hint of insulation (5)
COATI
(COT (bed) without A) + I[nsulation] (hint of)
2. Plant providing food served up around island close to South America (9)
NARCISSUS
((SCRAN)< (food, <served up) around I (island)) close to S (south) + US (America)
3. Examinees worried by last of questions on unfinished novel (10)
CANDIDATES
(ATE (worried) by [question]S (last of)) on CANDID[e] (novel, by Voltaire, unfinished)
4. Without thought for sick worker (7)
OFFHAND
OFF (sick) + HAND (worker)
5. Left over right, together with a couple of supports at the front (7)
SURPLUS
(R (right) + PLUS (together with)), SU[pports] (a couple of) at the front
6. Book’s verifiable truths initially ignored (4)
ACTS
[f]ACTS (verifiable truths, initially ignored)
7. Senseless getting involved with half- hearted girl (5)
INANE
IN (involved with) + AN[n]E (girl, half-hearted)
8. Begin to suspect deception in small rate changes (5,1,3)
SMELL A RAT
13. Agree to modify drop scone recipe (10)
CORRESPOND
(DROP SCONE + R (recipe))* (*modify)
14. Prepared to take exercise on the way up and down (9)
DEPRESSED
DRESSED (prepared) to take (PE)< (exercise, <on the way up)
16. Recommend the use of oddly neglected Greek writer after a bit of persuasion (9)
PRESCRIBE
([g]R[e]E[k] (oddly neglected) + SCRIBE (writer)) after P[ersuasion] (a bit of)
18. Unnerve Arab leader speaking at university (5,2)
SHAKE UP
"Sheik" (Arab leader, "speaking") + UP (at university)
19. Control over medical examination (7)
CHECKUP
CHECK (control) + UP (over)
21. Become established as a consequence of joining clique (3,2)
SET IN
IN (as a consequence of) joining SET (clique)
23. Stop harnessing atomic energy (5)
STEAM
STEM (stop) harnessing A (atomic)
24. Make out after international game (1-3)
I-SPY
SPY (make out) after I (international)
It took me a while to get in to this and I never had a good run when the clues went in quickly. I liked the ‘Not entirely’ anagram of ‘concussion’ for CONSCIOUS and the not so obvious defs for DEPRESSED, HAVERSACKS (as a bonus learnt the international licence plate country code for ‘Vatican City’) and my last in, SURPLUS.
A good way to start the FT week.
Thanks to Peto and Teacow
Found this tough but all the more enjoyable for that. Didn’t bother even trying to get 12a but, on reflection, should maybe have thought of “ordeal” for “distressing experience”.
My only criticism was the inappropriate (in my opinion) use of “close to” in 2d. I wouldn’t have minded “by” and Peto may well have used this wording to mislead solvers to expect H not S but it didn’t work for me.
Cant say I liked this
I didn’t enjoy this.
Also took a while to get going with this and thought it a bit stiff for a Monday but started to enjoy it once I gained momentum. My likes echo those of Wordplodder, along with PIPEDREAM.
Thanks to Peto and Teacow.
I agree with Alex and copmus.
I too failed to finish and , sorry to say, I agree with the last two commentators.
We also took a while to get going but then it all began to fall into place. We were a bit dubious about POSSESS for ‘obtain’ – Chambers gives that meaning as obsolete.
We took a while to get NARCISSUS as ‘close to South’ suggested there should be an H somewhere, but we eventually saw ‘close to’ as ‘on’ – ‘before’ in a down clue; Chambers to the rescue again told us that ‘on’ can mean ‘close to’ so we assumed the converse. We also needed Chambers to confirm ‘scran’ as food.
The clue for DEPRESSED had us lokking for a palindrome (‘up and down’) at first so it was an ‘aha’ moment when we got the answer.
We liked PIPE DREAM and wondered if the inclusion of Fred in the clue was a deliberate misdirection away from Pip to Scrooge (Fred being the latter’s nephew).
Favourite, though, was INIMITABLE.
An enjoyable solve. Thanks, Peto and Teacow.
Not the easiest Monday — missed a few like DEAL and the clever ERSE and could not begin to parse NARCISSUS — but I did enjoy FIRST-RATE, INIMITABLE, DISCARD, and SHAKE-UP. Thanks to both.
I gave up with about a 3rd to go. Just not enjoying myself. Some of the clues I missed were very very easy – a case, me thinks, of my heart not being in the task.
Ps. Isn’t Check Up two words? So not in the groove was I, that I even missed this answer, looking for a single word that fitted all the crossers. I wish we could use emoticons in these comments. Because I would now have three of the laughing idiot!
Pps. I also got Deal but spent a frustrating age forlornly trying to work out why it was the answer answer.
I feel I ought to add, after all the negativity here, that I thought this was the best of the bunch today (I do the GiFT threesome). I agree with allan_c @8 in regards to the analysis of “close to” (after all, when you enter the solution there is a gap between the letters) but, as a method of denoting an add-on bit, I remain unconvinced.
I managed just over half but, for some reason, was not enjoying the session.
On checking, most of the answers seemed reasonable . However, am left with a sense of disappointment.
Usually really enjoy Peto so can’t put my finger on it.
Hey ho – maybe a bad day at the (home) office…
Me too, simply couldn’t get to it. Had a busy day so maybe mind was on other things. Usually enjoy Monday.
One of a few off days
I had some blanks in the lower L.. 20ac n 27ac.. not helped by having SET UP for 21dn.. agree with Teacow that finding the words to fill the grid was not as tricky as parsing them.. by the sound of it I might have enjoyed this more than some.. but not by much
Thanks PETO n Teacow
Four of the first seven comments (@3,4,6,7) were nothing more than “I didn’t like it.” Without any explanation or elaboration, these comments are of no use to the setter and of no interest to anyone else.
I thought this was a good puzzle. It was a challenge to get into, but gradually things fell into place, thus giving a sense of satisfaction. Some of the surfaces were less than elegant (e.g. 15a, 5d), but on the whole it was fun.
Thanks Peto and Teacow for the entertainment.
Thanks Peto and Teacow
Am late to this, simply by being bloody-minded on figuring out what 12a would be – could only be DEAL or PEEL I was thinking. Finally the penny dropped when ‘ordeal’ and those crossword friends of the ‘other ranks’ marched forward.
Thought that there was some really interesting clueing used throughout – notably 1a, 11a (after a struggle), 20a (have seen variants of this), 22a (for the mind twist in parsing) and 28a – and was surprised to see the negative comments about the puzzle.
Needed the blog to see how 2d worked – not heard of SCRAN before, missed CANDID[E] as the novel – thinking it might have been CANDID[A] and forgot to check and it took a long time to settle with SET IN (and based it more on the Lexico definition of it).