Financial Times 16,740 by VELIA

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A dependably 5d puzzle from Velia this morning.

Very nearly a pangram (only missing the letter G). Some technical glitch has left off 26a on my grid, apologies.

A good challenge including some unique clueing, with a range of easier clues (e.g. 3d, 4d, 10a) and some quite tricky ones (e.g. 11a, 14d, 19a). Exactly as I like my Monday puzzles to be, so thank you to Velia!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 , 6. Like this clue, a red hot curry opposite (6,3,4)
ACROSS THE ROAD

ACROSS (like this clue) + (A RED HOT)* (*curry)

8. On familiar ground, as out of Chinatown? (4,4)
FILM NOIR

(ON F[a]MILI[a]R)* (*ground, a’s out)

9. Just an awful bunch of military regimes (6)
JUNTAS

(JUST AN)* (*awful)

10. Auxiliary verbs act correctly (6)
BEHAVE

BE + HAVE (auxiliary verbs)

11. Love and sex play, finally, with an idiot? Idiot savant, perhaps (8)
OXYMORON

O (love) + [se]X [pla]Y (finally) with MORON (an idiot)

12. Last-rite list uncovered in 13 (2,2,2)
AS IT IS

[L]AS[t] [r]IT[e] [l]IS[t] (uncovered)

15. Crashed airbus starts to break up within city outskirts (8)
SUBURBIA

(AIRBUS + B[reak] U[p] (starts to)* (*crashed)

16. Entry requirement for father’s weapon (8)
PASSWORD

PA’S SWORD (father’s weapon)

19. Labs now presumably getting old criminals (2-4)
EX CONS

Cryptic definition
LAB. = Labour supporter now, i.e. former CON. (Conservative supporter) presumably

21. Tavern may be later stage that teenagers go through (8)
PUBERTAL

PUB (tavern) + (LATER)* (*may be)

22. One mat, primarily Asian, taken from the east (6)
TATAMI

(I (one) + MAT + A[sian] + T[aken] (primarily))< (<from the east) &lit

24. Horse with ease said to carry one in five (6)
EQUINE

E’s (“ease”, said) to carry QUIN (one in five, i.e. quintuplets)

25. Nice Xmas pudding found south of 22 down (8)
MEXICANS

(NICE XMAS)* (*pudding)

27. See home and treat as planned for 22 down (4,4,5)
LONE STAR STATE

LO (see) + NEST (home) + (TREAT AS)* (*planned)

DOWN
1. Put up with being tender in hospital department (5)
ABIDE

BID (tender) in A&E (hospital department)

2. Horn for defence? (7)
RAMPART

RAM PART (horn)

3. Gave a lecture on The Wheel? (5)
SPOKE

Cryptic definition

4. No sprat evolves into big fish (7)
TARPONS

(NO SPRAT)* (*evolves)

5. Permit to welcome delight or fun (9)
ENJOYABLE

ENABLE (permit) to welcome JOY (delight)

6. Iran court’s endless hostility (7)
RANCOUR

[I]RAN COUR[t] (endless)

7. Just like a female warrior to find a labyrinth, mostly Macedonian, half abandoned (9)
AMAZONIAN

A MAZ[e] (a labyrinth, mostly) + [Maced]ONIAN (half abandoned)

13. How things stand for rockers (6,3)
STATUS QUO

Double definition
Wikipedia link to the rockers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_Quo_(band)

14. Debatable layer on board planes (9)
SMOOTHENS

MOOT (debatable) + HEN (layer) in SS (on board)

17. Aseptic technique finally evolved with Lister (7)
STERILE

([Techniqu]E (finally) + LISTER)* (*evolved)

18. Cover up Austen character’s horny thing? (7)
DILEMMA

(LID)< (cover, <up) + EMMA (Austen’s character)

20. Accentuate nut-free mix for dolphins? (7)
CETACEA

(ACCE[ntu]ATE)* (*mix, nut-free)

22. State taxes centrally overthrown (5)
TEXAS

TAXES centrally overthrown (i.e. T + (AXE)< + S)

23. Fur trade ultimately makes 1 in 20 (5)
MINKE

MINK (fur) + [trad]E (ultimately)
20 referring to 20d

21 comments on “Financial Times 16,740 by VELIA”

  1. This was indeed 5d. Was quite confident that this was a pangram till my LOI -clearly MINKE could not possibly contain a ‘g’. But as Teacow says, a great mix of clues which made me work a little harder than the usual Monday grid. Likes included 10a, 16a, 24a, 2d and 20d. Just wondered if 24a should have read ‘horsey’ in the clue – are ‘horse’ and ‘equine’ equivalent? The missing 26a was not a problem.
    Thanks very much to Velia, whom I’ve not seem for a while, and Teacow.

  3. I never was able to parse EX CONS and there were plenty of others that needed a bit of thought, notably the parsing for LONE STAR STATE and SMOOTHENS, my last in. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Chinatown?’ clue (great film) and the ‘Horn for defence?’ I was sure there was going to be a pangram but that G did indeed prove to be absent despite a couple of trawls through the grid.

    Thanks to both Velia and Teacow

  4. What a lovely puzzle!

    I had ticks for OXYMORON, EX-CONS, EQUINE, SMOOTHENS, DILEMMA, CETACEA and the cleverly allusive STERILE.

    Diane @1 – equine can be a noun. Chambers: ‘a horse or other member of the horse family’.

    After all the Nice / Nancy clues we’ve had, my first thought for 25ac was that it might begin with NOEL. 😉

    Many thanks to Velia for the fun and Teacow for the blog.

  5. Thanks Velia and Teacow

    Diane @ 1: as well as Eileen’s noun, you could also say “The hoof is the horse / equine equivalent of the toe”.

  6. Yes, Eileen and Simon, on reflection I considered both interpretations fine, it just struck me as odd in the moment.

  7. If it’s only missing a G to be a pangram, does that make it a panram? Just askin’.

    Good puzzle. I was fine with MINKE once I got 20d, but I struggled with SMOOTHENS for a while, and I was not familiar with the band Status Quo, although that obviously had to be the answer. I particularly liked 10a. Thanks to Velia and Teacow.

  8. Thanks Velia, I enjoyed that despite failing to get SMOOTHENS. Favourite clue was FILM NOIR. Liked the apt surfaces for JUNTAS and STERILE. All in all a fine crossword. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  14. Tricky in places but a satisfying solve. Several answers went in on a ‘must be that’ basis with parsing following considerably later – e.g. RAMPART and LONE STAR STATE. The latter was one of our favourites, along with BEHAVE and OXYMORON. We did think the clue for EX-CONS was a bit poor, though. And SMOOTHEN(S) was new to us but of course it’s in Chambers.
    26,27 was just shown as 27 online – don’t know about the dead tree version, but could that be the same glitch that affected the grid above?
    Thanks, Velia and Teacow.

  16. Very enjoyable throughout. My thanks to Velia and Teacow.
    In my hardcopy, 26A was just mis-numbered as 27.
    I thought 19A was fine.

  18. Hmmm.. game of 2 halves… well mostly top R.. didn’t get 1ac at all n accepted PATRONS as “big fish” in a cryptic financial sense.. none of which helped at all.. 18ac was a doddle in comparison despite the awful clue..
    Thanks Velia n Teacow

  19. Re 19A, in Vela’s defence it was a variation on a theme. I know I’ve seen something similar from a different setter some years ago: at the time it attracted plaudits.

    NB I’m not suggesting plagiarism. There are many instances where the same or a similar solution crops up in a short time-frame, in puzzles that may have been set far apart in both time and distance. A few years ago we had STEVEDORE appear several times within about 6 weeks.

  20. Thanks Velia and Teacow
    An enjoyable puzzle that was no gimme for a Monday. Was able to complete all of it except for 14d in a single session. SMOOTHENS surfaced on the walk home, with a head slap. Liked the good variation of clue devices that were used throughout.
    Had heard of ‘Chinatown’ the movie, but didn’t know what genre it was – lucky the word play was very gettable. STATUS QUO was well remembered from teenage days, so 13d was not a holdup for long. MINKE came mid-solve – they were the species that the Japanese whalers targeted with Aussie protesters in small boats trying to make it as difficult as they could for them to do it. Enjoyed the intertwined clues around TEXAS.

  21. EdK@USA@7, I love your panram definition.
    Perhaps Grumpy@10 can supply the missing G. (Does he have another moniker that he uses when he has something nice to say?)

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