Financial Times 16,893 by REDSHANK

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A fun workout from REDSHANK this Friday AM

FF: 9 DD: 8

I could use some help with parsing 2d.

ACROSS
1 OPEN FIRE
Shoot that’s dangerous when unprotected (4,4)

cryptic def
5 TANGLE
The Spanish fly recalled complication (6)

[ EL ( the, spanish ) GNAT ( fly ) ] all reversed ( recalled )
10 DRASTIC
Desperate GP with a reduced staff (7)

DR ( gp ) A STICk ( staff, reduced )
11 Y FRONTS
Yankee overlooks what guards the crown jewels (1-6)

Y ( yankee ) FRONTS ( ~overlooks?)
12 GULCH
Pull over leading pair in Cheddar Gorge (5)

GUL ( pull = LUG, reversed ) CH ( leading pair in CHeddar )
13 NATURALLY
Do a turn with supporter of course (9)

[ A TURN ]* ALLY ( supporter )
14 INHARMONIOUS
Damage bulb mostly in US housing that’s not compatible (12)

[ HARM ( damage ) ONIOn ( bulb, mostly ) ] in IN US
18 UNITED STATES
Country cousin at heart (6,6)

expansion of '..coUSin..' ( at heart )
21 BALACLAVA
Bacall undermined Gardner’s battle (9)

[ BACALL ]* AVA ( gardner, american actress )
23 Z-AXIS
Start to Zoom with a Lord’s big shot about line on chart (1-4)

Z ( start to Zoom ) A [ SIX ( lord's big shot , cricket ) , reversed ( about ) ]
24 ACRYLIC
Paint girl briefly suppressing sob (7)

ALICe ( girl, briefly ) containing CRY ( sob )
25 YUCKIER
Crikey! Fancy storing uniform in worse mess (7)

[ CRIKEY ]* containing U ( uniform )
26 DEDUCT
Big hack splits channel dock (6)

ED ( big hack ) in DUCT ( channel )
27 ETHEREAL
Exquisite number on each line (8)

ETHER ( number, as in something that numbs ) EA ( each ) L ( line )
DOWN
1 OLD AGE
Pull up, say, dandelion regularly when one droops? (3,3)

EG ( say ) dAnDeLiOn ( regular letters of ), all reversed ( pull up )
2 ENABLE
Permit England manager once to omit wings? (6)

E ( english ) xNABLEx ( manager once, without end characters )

3 FAT CHANCE
Fellow at unfinished end of church offers little hope (3,6)

F ( fellow ) AT CHANCEl ( end of church, unfinished )
4 RECONNAISSANCE
Survey trick during restoration? (14)

CON ( trick ) in RENAISSANCE ( restoration )
6 AIRER
Drier and finer? Take top off (5)

fAIRER ( finer, without starting letter )
7 GANGLION
Band hero’s a bundle of nerves (8)

GANG ( band ) LION ( hero )
8 ESSAYIST
Lamb for one lives in English street (8)

[ SAY ( for one ) IS ( lives ) ] in [ E ( english ) ST ( street ) ], charles lamb
9 SYSTEMS ANALYST
IT worker got out of last nasty mess with happy ending (7,7)

[ LAST NASTY MESS Y ( happY, ending ) ]*

15 NIETZSCHE
Superman fan’s zest misplaced during recess (9)

[ ZEST ]* in NICHE ( recess )
16 OUTBOARD
Motor’s way below old scuttled U-boat (8)

RD ( way, road ) below { O ( old ) [ U-BOAT]* }
17 PILLARED
Like some porticos, poorly trimmed on the outside (8)

ILL ( poorly ) in PARED ( trimmed )
19 EXCITE
Former Anglicans screen sex for thrill (6)

EX ( former ) [ CE ( anglicans ) containing IT ( sex ) ]
20 ASTRAL
Having to do with stars from south Universal sacked (6)

AuSTRAL ( from south, without U – universal )
22 COLIC
Maybe cramp officer in charge (5)

COL ( officer ) IC ( in charge )

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,893 by REDSHANK”

  1. Loonapick,
    That would be Terry (V)enable(s), ex England football manager – a favourite today along with 21 and 15.
    Thanks for your help in parsing 14 and 8.
    Very enjoyable, as you say.
    Thanks Redshank.

  3. Lots of ticks from me for this one. Favourites were the def for Y-FRONTS, the surface for YUCKIER, ‘when one droops’ for OLD AGE and my last in, RECONNAISSANCE. Some of the parsing was pretty hard too, especially INHARMONIOUS. Glad I had the crossers to help with NIETZSCHE, which I can never remember how to spell. I knew Terry Venables, who was also the manager of our national side for a while in the late 1990’s.

    Only one quibble, more with the setter, in that I think the def for 8d is probably better seen as ‘Lamb for one’ (‘Lamb’ is an example of an ESSAYIST, but there are others) in which case the ‘for one’ is doing double duty. Again, happy to be corrected if I have the wrong end of the stick.

    Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs

  5. Thanks for the blog and thanks Diane for Venables , I really enjoyed this.
    I think 1Ac is a double definition, an open fire is usually a coal fire, we all used to have them, needed a fire guard at night, they spit out sparks that can set the carpet on fire.
    4D is very clever, agree that NIETZSCHE is so hard to spell and I assume that LAMB cannot take the example indicator, it is needed for the word play.

  6. Good call for a double definition, Roz, re 1a – our carpet had a few singe marks! And yes, Redshank is a setter I look forward to. Meant to say earlier that as I’m currently re-reading Smiley’s People, ‘cousin’ stood out in 14a and helped where parsing failed.

  7. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs

    11ac: Turbolegs, you have a question mark on “overlooks”. It works for me in the sense of “looks over”.
    21ac: I was not really happy with “undermined” as an anagram indicator.
    8dn: I share the misgivings expressed by others about “for one” doing double duty.

  8. I remember EL TEL posters in London- that was my Proustian trigger (that guy who won the Grand Prix in Balbec)
    Then “Theres nothing Nietzsche couldnt teach you about the raising of the wrist
    A lovely little thinker but a bit a bugger when he’s pissed”
    There was also a musician of similar name but without the E-not quite as mad as the philosopher but did the arrangements for River Deep Mountain High etc
    As Ian Dury said”there aint half been some clever bastards”
    Sorry-got carried away-two DA puzzles in two days
    Thanks y’all

  9. Thanks Redshank for the work-out. This took some effort and there were some I couldn’t fully parse; also I hadn’t heard of Y-FRONTS before so thanks Turbolegs for the help. I thought most of the clues were excellent and I ticked ESSAYIST, NIETZSCHE, OUTBOARD, and EXCITE as particularly satisfying.

  10. Very enjoyable – my thanks to Redshank, Turbolegs and the other bloggers.
    Me being thick but still don’t get 8D for one = say, however guessed the correct answer.

  11. All done and dusted fairly quickly. 8dn was a bit of a write-in so we never gave a thought to the double duty; in any case not all setters trouble to indicate definition by example. We thought 11ac was a wee bit risqué but it raised a smile.
    Thanks, Redshank and Turbolegs.

  13. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
    Not sure why this one stayed in the backlog pile for so long, but was able to do it in the train ride into the Melbourne Cup this afternoon. All clues seemed to fall in a relatively steady manner, but ended up recording the error with my not fully parsed UNHARMONIOUS – just couldn’t account for the first N.
    Was another double definition at 1a and like most had a long list of good clues noted during the journey, with UNITED STATES getting the nod as favourite. Needed the cheat word finder to locate NIETZSCHE and took a while to see what was going on with the ‘big hack’ in DEDUCT. It was my last one in, being preceded by OUTBOARD and PILLARED in the SW corner.

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