Financial Times 16,875 by REDSHANK

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A solid workout from REDSHANK. Slow work but got there eventually. Thanks for the treat, REDSHANK.

FF: 9 DD: 9

ACROSS
1 DRESSING GOWN
Censure swapping diamonds for good evening wear (8,4)

DRESSING dOWN ( censure, with D – Diamonds replaced by G – Good )
8 FIFTEEN
Rugby team play in fine fettle, apart from second half (7)

[ FINE FETtle ( half of ) ]*
9 TWIN TUB
Where to wash and dry one of the Tweedle brothers? (4,3)

cryptic def; ref two fat brothers tweedle dee and tweedle dum from lewis carroll's work
11 TEASHOP
Retired bard drinks a quiet cuppa here (7)

TEOP ( bard = POET, reversed ) containing [ A SH ( quiet ) ]
12 STIMULI
Spurs limit us in a different configuration (7)

[ LIMIT US ]*
13 EXERT
Apply authority without power (5)

EXpERT ( authority, without P – power )
14 PAVAROTTI
Patriot arranged to host a very big singer (9)

[ PATRIOT ]* containing { A V ( very ) }
16 ECCENTRIC
Nut’s not circular (9)

double def
19 CLING
Getting nearer after taking out very big stick (5)

CLosING ( getting nearer, with OS – very big )
21 OPAQUER
More obscure work with a pair of rulers (7)

OP ( work ) A QU ER ( pair of rulers )
23 RELIEVO
Outstanding work on old shield in retreat (7)

RE ( on ) [ reverse of O ( old ) VEIL ( shield ) ]
24 DEEP RED
Very embarrassed English prince stops act (4,3)

[ E ( english ) PR ( prince ) ] in DEED ( act )
25 OVERRUN
Exceed two terms at Lord’s (7)

read as OVER RUN ( lord's ref – two terms in cricket )
26 QUINTESSENCE
Elite insects regrouped with queen (12)

[ INSECTS QUEEN ]*
DOWN
1 DEFLATE
Diminish three consecutive semitones (7)

D E-FLAT E ( three consecutive semitones )
2 EYESHOT
Looks longingly at fashionable range (7)

EYES ( looks longingly ) HOT ( fashionable )
3 SANDPAPER
Abrasive doctor appears to control new department (9)

[ APPEARS ]* containing { N ( new ) D ( department ) }
4 NATES
Behind in a test to some extent (5)

hidden in " ..iN A TESt.."
5 GRIMIER
Smuttier writer’s one probing king and his daughter (7)

[ I'M ( writer's ) I ( one ) ] in { GR ( king , george ) ER ( george's daughter, elizabeth ) }
6 WETSUIT
At sea, use it in worst extremes? (7)

&lit; [ USE IT ]* in WT ( extreme letters of WorsT )
7 OFF THE RECORD
Private place for stylus when disc’s finished (3,3,6)

cryptic def
10 BOILING POINT
When emotions are highest, book place for Grease (7,5)

B ( book ) [ OILING POINT ( place for grease ) ]
15 VICARIOUS
Rector is touring old university, replacing another (9)

VICAR ( rector ) [ IS around { O ( old ) U ( university ) } ]
17 CHATEAU
Vineyard’s two kinds of hot drink not common (7)

CHA TEA ( two kinds of hot drink ) U ( not common? )
18 NEUTRON
Poles bring in cash over time, a tiny amount (7)

NN ( poles ) containing { EURO ( cash ) containing T ( time ) }
19 COLLEEN
Officer left, intermittently eyeing Miss Ireland? (7)

COL ( officer ) L ( left ) EEN ( EyEiNg, alternate letters ) – irish girl
20 ICE FREE
Unusually fierce English like salted roads (3-4)

[ FIERCE ]* E ( english )
22 RIDGE
Sierra and Golf’s parting trip (5)

G ( golf ) in RIDE ( trip )

14 comments on “Financial Times 16,875 by REDSHANK”

  1. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs.
    1dn: Technically, a semitone is the interval between two notes, but it does not seem too much of a stretch to me to read “three consecutive semitones” as “three consecutive notes on a scale going up in semitones”.

  3. A mix of easy and not-so-easy clues. RELIEVO was a new word for me and I needed a word fit to get it. I find it a little strange how U stands for Universal in film classifications but also for upper-class, as in 17d. I wondered if “tub” could refer to a tubby person but couldn’t find this meaning so, perhaps, 9a is just a cryptic definition?

  4. Working out the perimeter clues (1 was my favourite) went a long way towards solving this enjoyable puzzle.
    All present and correct but
    needed this blog to properly parse 1d, 3 and 21 (LOI) which I dredged up after finally thinking of ‘relief work’; spent too long on a different perspective till the penny dropped.
    Top picks today included 4, 9, 14, 17 and 21. Was on the alert for a panagran but it was not to be.
    Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs .

  5. Another lovely puzzle from Redshank: a steady and satisfying solve, apart from a slight hold-up trying to fit RANGE into 22dn.

    Some great clues, as ever. My favourites today were TEASHOP, PAVAROTTI, QUINTESSENCE, SANDPAPER, NATES, GRIMIER and CHATEAU – all for both construction and surface and there could have been more.

    I would include ‘at’ in the definition of ‘eyes’ in 2dn.

    Many thanks to Redshank and to Turbolegs.

  6. Pelham Barton @1 a semitone is C to C# C# to D D# to E, E to F because E# IS F.
    Some music has quarter tones but …do D Eb and E are semitones apart.QED
    I’ll shurrup-just waiting for the cricket!

  7. Eileen @5,
    I went with RANGE at first too but DEEP RED put me back on the straight and narrow.
    And I agree with those you ticked.

  8. No hope of parsing the ‘semitones’ clue so thanks to Pelham Barton and copmus for the explanation above. I’ll try to remember it (almost certainly unsuccessfully) for next time.

    Didn’t spot the not so obvious ‘replacing another’ def for 15d, so spent a while looking for the names of a couple of universities till helped by crossers. Yet another “Is a RANE really a ‘trip’?” for 22d. I don’t think I’ve seen QUINTESSENCE before and as a bonus learnt its sense of ‘elite’.

    Thanks to Redshank for a puzzle that needed more than a bit of thought to solve and to Turbolegs

  9. Is the solution to 21A really a word? Or should it be “more opaque”? It reminds me of an old quote: I am eruditer than you.

    4A was obvious from the simple to solve clue and the cross letters but the answer was unknown to me.

    For the non-musicians amongst us, the scale is as follows: A Bb B C C# D Eb E F F# G Ab A – please excuse the mix of flats and sharps; I think that I have used the more common examples but it could be written: A A# B C Db D D# E F Gb G G# A.

  10. I liked 1d, but I’d have said two consecutive semitones. The first D to E flat, the second E flat to E.

  11. Thanks Redshank for an enjoyable crossword. Even though I failed at several (TWIN TUB, GRIMIER, RELIEVO, and CLING) I found this more penetrable than yesterday’s Crucible. I liked 1a, ECCENTRIC, CHATEAU, COLLEEN, and ICE-FREE (nice surface). Thanks Turbolegs for the blog and others for the semitone discussion — I had no hope of parsing DEFLATE.
    [ Diane: I missed your comments on Aardvark’s crossword — I found it the most difficult FT puzzle this week.]

  12. Tony @11
    Sadly, there was no leisure time for me that particular day but a quick glance now suggests it would not have been speedily solved!
    Me @ 4
    Of course there was no ‘panagran’! No pangram either. My old friend autocorrect strikes again.

  14. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
    A solid puzzle to finish the week in which the first two interrupted sessions gained little ground after initially entering DRESSING GOWN as a write-in – a third sitting made steady progress to complete it.
    Thought that the misdirection in so many of the clues was outstanding, with special mentions to DEFLATE (a real penny drop moment when it came to parsing it), PAVROTTI (along with an excellent surface reading) and QUINTESSENCE (with the clever use of ‘elite’ and ‘queen’ as either the anagram fodder or the definition – certainly caught me out by looking for a 12-letter queen).
    The surfaces of most clues were equally sublime.
    Finished in the left hand bottom corner with that QUINTESSENCE, CHATEAU (where started to look for a word starting with CRU at first) with EXERT (succumbing to a word finder to get it after the brain had numbed up).

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