Financial Times 16,862 by VELIA

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I think this may be the first Velia puzzle I have blogged.

I normally only do the FT puzzle on a Thursday, and it appears that most of Velia's earlier puzzles have appeared on a Monday, so they are a new setter to me.

It took me a little while to get on Velia's wavelength, but I got there in the end with THAT'S FINAL being an appropriate "last one in".

On the whole, I enjoyed the puzzle and liked the variety of cluing, although I had one minor quibble at 14dn.

Thanks, Velia (and I look forward to solving more of your puzzles)

ACROSS
1 PROLAPSE
Bits hanging out? Professional error (8)

PRO (professional) + LAPSE ("error")
6 SOOTHE
He’s too stupid to appease (6)

*(he's too) [anag:stupid]
9 BRUNEI
Carla touring east of small Asian state (6)

(Carla) BRUNI touring E(east)

Carla Bruni is a singer-songwriter who is also the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, the ex-president of France.
10 USHERSIN
Admits you and me and her are immoral (6,2)

US ("you and me") + HER + SIN ("are immoral")
11 INFO
Semi-informal facts (4)

[semi-] INFO(real)
12 THAT’S FINAL
Fat isn’t nearly half bad – end of story! (5,5)

*(fat isn't hal) [anag:bad] where HAL is [nearly] HAL(f)
14 PRESSURE
Topless dress in sheer strain (8)

[topless] (d)RESS in PURE ("sheer")

"Topless" to indicate removing the top (or first) letter should only be used in down clues in my opinion.
16 MA’AM
How to address the Queen Mother and her reflection (4)

MA ("mother") and <=MA [ma's ("her") reflection]
18 HI-FI
Sound system in the middle of this office (2-2)

[in the middle of] t(HI)s + (of)FI(ce)
19 GO PUBLIC
Reform Club admitting one after Republicans sell shares (2,6)

*(club) [anag:reform] admitting I (one) after GOP (Grand Old Party, the "Republicans" in the US)
21 RELENTLESS
Not faltering, advanced through lesser evil (10)

LENT ("advanced") through *(lesser) [anag:evil]
22 LISP
Starts to look into speech problem (this one) (4)

[starts to] L(ook) I(nto) S(peech) P(roblem)
24 CALCULUS
Professor of mathematics? (8)

Professor CALCULUS is a character in the Tintin series of animated adventures.
26 DESPOT
Finally verified genocide reports by Pol Pot, half-forgotten dictator (6)

[finally] (verifie)D (genocid)E (report)S by (pol)POT [half-forgotten]
27 METRIC
Alternative to Imperial College opening with exceptional merit (6)

*(merit) [anag:exceptional] with C(ollege) [opening]
28 SECEDING
Change sides in elaborate design, going one’s own way (8)

C(hang)E [sides] in *(design) [anag:elaborate]
DOWN
2 RERUN
Insurer unlikely to cover repeat (5)

Hidden in [to cover] "insuRER UNlikely"
3 LANGOUSTINE
Got us an order, queuing for seafood? (11)

*(got us an) [anag:order] in LINE ("queuing")
4 POINT OUT
Indicate Pinot cryptically (5,3)

Cryptically, PINOT is *(POINT) [OUT]
5 EDUCATED GUESSES
Like Cambridge graduate guesthouses, leaving you old punts (8,7)

EDUCATED ("like Cambridge graduate") + GUES(thou)SES ("you old" (thou) leaving)
6 SCHISM
Artless Christmas pudding, causes rift (6)

*(chisms) [anag:pudding] where CHISMS is CHRISTMAS without the letters ART (artless)
7 OUR
The FT’s essentially not sure (3)

[essentially] (n)O(t) (s)UR(e)
8 HAIL A TAXI
Lack of coordination, mostly after freezing rain – get a ride (4,1,4)

ATAXI(a) ("lack of coordination", mostly) after HAIL ("freezing rain")
13 IMMOBILISED
Setter is Lib-Dem, so I gathered, and incapable of shifting (11)

I'M ("setter is") *(lib-dem so i) [anag:gathered]
15 REITERATE
Repeat strange rite heartlessly, time after time (9)

*(rite) [anag:strange] + T(im)E [heartlessly] after ERA ("time")
17 EPISODIC
Long story about one git is delivered by instalments (8)

EPIC ("long story") about I (one) + SOD ("git")
20 ITALIC
Rabbit? Alice’s type (6)

Hidden in "rabbIT ALICe"
23 SWOON
Court in session – banks collapse (5)

WOO ("court") in S(essio)N [banks]
25 CAR
Vehicle rejecting roadside assistance? (3)

[rejecting] RAC (Royal Automobile Club, who provide "roadside assistance")

17 comments on “Financial Times 16,862 by VELIA”

  1. A double dose of Velia today, with her Guardian identity as Matilda. I normally find her crosswords the very best at the easier end of the spectrum but I found this quite tough in places. The professor in 24a is, perhaps, a little obscure but, fortunately, known to me. I admit to failing on 12a. I was trying to get an anagram of FATISNTNEA and failing miserably. I was convinced that the second word must be FINAL and still failed to get the correct anagram fodder.

  2. A good double dose from Velia / Matilda today. It took me a while to work out the wordplay and who the ‘Carla’ was referring at 9a and Professor CALCULUS was an unknown.

    Two clues with medical references were my favourites; HAIL A TAXI and especially the ‘Bits hanging out?’ (visualisation discouraged!) for PROLAPSE.

    Thanks to Velia and loonapick

  3. I havent seen Velia in a while and greatly enjoyed this one with ticks for so many (3, 5 , 6, 12 and 13).
    My experience was the opposite of yours, Hovis, as I snagged THAT’S FINAL but was unfamiliar with the professor at 24 which was my LOI, the crossers clearly suggesting CALCULUS.
    I also admit that while I entered RERUN from the definition, I erred in thinking it came from ‘insurer’ minus ‘is’ and thought ‘Insurer is not to cover repeat’ was better. Completely missed the hidden word!
    My only hesitation was over ‘line’ for ‘queuing’ rather than ‘queue’. Maybe it flows better that way.
    No matter, this was very rewarding so thanks to Velia and Loonapick for reminding me about ‘banks’ in 23d.

  5. Yes thanks, Hovis. I accept that. I was just being too literal looking for that tacit ‘in’ in the clue itself.

  6. Thanks for the blog, some nice clues here, I will add 21AC to Diane’s list.
    I may have 27AC different, I took C for College with an anagram of MERIT opening ( first ) . Not sure if that is what you meant.

  8. Lots of fine clues . Quite pleased to have answered all correctly. Thought 27a was very clever. Thank you Velia and loonapick for cheering me up on a rather dismal morning.

  9. Good fun and a pleasant solve. Personally, I had no problem with 14a and “d” being the top of “dress” in general terms, though it was an across clue.
    If anyone is interested in trivial quibbles, the “of” in 9a is redundant and slightly misleading, since it led me to look for an adjective at first, though I appreciate that it’s there to make the clue read better, and in 20d some indication that the answer is hidden might have been friendly.

  10. I had the same concern about the “of” in 9a, Perplexus. I think 20d is fine though. The use of “apostrophe s” to denote “belonging to” is a fairly common inclusion indicator.

  11. Thanks Velia and Loonapick
    20dn: Further to Perplexus@9 and Hovis@10, in the cryptic reading I think you take “‘s” as short for “has”.
    18ac: I was not completely happy about the singular “middle of” asking us to take the middle parts separately of “this” and “office”.

  12. A straightforward solve which didn’t even need any 5dn.
    Speaking from Pedant’s Corner, though, we have a gripe about 14ac. PRESSURE is not strain, it is stress – strain is the change in something resulting from the application of stress.
    All enjoyable nevertheless. We particularly liked CALCULUS, METRIC and HAIL A TAXI.
    Thanks, Velia and loonapick

  13. Thanks Velia. I found this a bit more difficult than Matilda today, needing a word finder to get LANGOUSTINE and the amusing PROLAPSE. All else seemed to flow but I didn’t understand CALCULUS fully. (Actually, I never did.) In any event my favourites included RELENTLESS, SECEDING, POINT OUT, and REITERATE. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  14. Thanks for the exercise Velia.
    Loonapick, I really needed your help to parse today as I had the correct letters in the correct squares but couldn’t work out why in too many cases. I am blaming it on a lovely afternoon so snoozing in the sun was at fault. Thanks for all those explanations.

  15. Thinking that an “insurer” would not cover “a gain” (repeat) in 2d really messed me up in the NW corner. Thanks l and V.

  16. Like Perplexus@9, I think top and bottom are acceptable equivalents of first and last when describing the ends of sequences of letters, order of finishing of competitors, or other lists, whether written out horizontally or vertically. As in, “My favourite writers are Austen, Bronte, Dickens Eliot and Gaskell, and in that order; Austen is at the top of my list and Gaskell at the bottom.”

    This was a very enjoyable puzzle. Like Hovis@1 it took me a long time to get the correct anagram fodder for 12a THAT’S FINAL, which was my top clue. My bottom clue was 24a CALCULUS, but only because I am not familiar with the Tintin books/cartoons, so no complaints.

    Thanks Velia and loonapick for the fun.

  17. Thanks Velia and loonapick
    A busy week at work pushed this out to an early Sunday morning solve – and a pleasant one to boot. Got on to her wavelength quite quickly, so not overly long to get through it, although my last one in, THAT’S FINAL, took a long time to work out, especially determining what the anagram fodder was to be.
    As has been pointed out, a lot of really good clues with the interestingly defined PROLAPSE being my favourite. The only one not fully parsed was ‘professor’ CALCULUS @ 24a.

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