Financial Times 16,895 by SLEUTH

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A thoroughly enjoyable challenge from Sleuth.

A witty puzzle with lots of tricky clueing. Many thanks to Sleuth. My vote for clue of the day goes to 16d (a new word for me!)

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. A country in Africa with a large poster backed religious leader (5,4)
DALAI LAMA

(A + MALI (country in Africa) + A + L (large) + AD (poster))< (<backed)

10. Suffer terrible ruin admitting first of crises (5)
INCUR

(RUIN + C[rises] first of admitted)* (*terrible)

11. Titled Germans once making right time for lavish outings (7)
JUNKETS

JUNKERS (titles Germans once) making R (right) T (time)

12. Confiscate liquid in dump containing oxygen (7)
IMPOUND

(IN DUMP + O (Oxygen))* (*liquid)

13. Something often following a spelling competition (3)
BEE

Double definition

14. Popular royal tours heart of big place basically (2,9)
IN PRINCIPLE

IN (popular) + PRINCE (royal) tours [b]I[g] (heart of) + PL (place)

17. Time to probe simple way of classifying verse (5)
METRE

T (time) to probe MERE (simple)

18. Something indulgent about to be removed for trashy stuff (3)
TAT

T[re]AT (something indulgent, RE (about) to be removed)

19. Crawler taken in photograph identified (5)
APHID

[photogr]APH ID[entified] (taken in)

21. Sound judgment shown in public hearing, maybe (6,5)
COMMON SENSE

COMMON (public) + SENSE (hearing, maybe)

23. Attendant abruptly recalled for opening (3)
GAP

PAG[e]< (attendant, abruptly, <recalled)

25. Salesperson gets pay hike for another spell of action (7)
REPRISE

REP (salesperson) + RISE (pay hike)

27. What mountaineers often do caught by one tending sheep (7)
CLAMBER

C (caught) by LAMBER (one tending sheep)

28. Long period after work for staged production (5)
OPERA

ERA (long period) after OP (work)

29. Naive Greek character defending dope trapped by debts (9)
INGENUOUS

NU (Greek character) defending GEN (dope) trapped by IOUS (debts)

DOWN
1. Peculiar assignment for villainous henchman (6)
ODDJOB

ODD (peculiar) + JOB (assignment)

Oddjob is the villain in Ian Fleming’s “Goldfinger”

2. Intended method by civilised chap for ringing (8)
PLANGENT

PLAN (intended method) by GENT (civilised chap)

3. Produce first signs of growth in very embryonic group in port (4,4,2)
GIVE RISE TO

G[rowth] I[n] V[ery] E[mbryonic] (first signs of) + SET (group) in RIO (port)

4. Starting point on radio for singer (4)
BASS

“BASE” (starting point, “on radio”)

5. Appreciated judge, one replacing old man in one Asian country or another (10)
TAJIKISTAN

TA (appreciated) + J (judge) + I (one) replacing PA (old man) in [pa]KISTAN (one Asian country)

6. Impediment to communication in school is publicised (4)
LISP

[schoo]L IS P[ublicised]

7. Take apples in pack quietly (6)
SCRUMP

SCRUM (pack) + P (quietly)

8. Game supported by Northern director in Welsh town (8)
BRIDGEND

BRIDGE (game) supported by N (northern) + D (director)

15. A priest is excited by front of elaborate outlet for cakes? (10)
PATISSERIE

(A PRIEST IS + E[laborate] (front of))* (*excited)

16. Detest line adopted by actor for woman running a household (10)
CHATELAINE

(HATE (detest) + L (line)) adopted by CAINE (actor, Michael Caine)

17. A piece of chocolate is put in strand in small cake (8)
MACAROON

A + C[hocolate] (piece of) is put in MAROON (strand)

20. Intellectual extremely bold when rejecting traditional argument (8)
HIGHBROW

HIGH (extremely) + B[old] (rejecting OLD (traditional)) + ROW (argument)

22. Fool increased pressure to cut some police (6)
MUPPET

UP (increased) + P (pressure) to cut MET (some police)

24. Area with a council transformed this part’s interior (6)
PARISH

([t]HIS PAR[t])* (interior, *transformed)

26. Small measure to restrain a religious official (4)
IMAM

1mm (small measure) to restrain A

27. Go round begging losing heart in confined space (4)
CAGE

CA[d]GE (go round begging, losing heart)

11 comments on “Financial Times 16,895 by SLEUTH”

  1. I also had 13a as a double definition but had the first as “something often following a” (maybe this is what was meant in the blog).

  2. Thanks Hovis @2. You’re quite right! I had an image of a bee buzzing around following me, which seems silly now. Your solution is much more sensible.

  3. Enjoyable puzzle with some not so obvious parsing for clues such as BEE, INGENUOUS and GIVE RISE TO. I ended up with CAGE which was one I couldn’t parse and I didn’t know where the ‘villainous henchman’ at 1d came from.

    I wondered if LAMBER might be a made-up word, but there it is in at least one of the usual places. Good to see PLANGENT making another appearance in its natural habitat of crossword land.

    Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow

  5. For 3a, I had “give LIFE to” but could not parse even after thinking RIO for port. Thanks Teacow for elucidation and Sleuth for an enjoyable workout.

  6. A very enjoyable puzzle, indeed, although I needed help with reference sources for BRIDGEND (not very familiar with Welsh towns), TAJIKISTAN (nor some Asian countries), and SCRUMP (a new word to me). And this was the first time I had seen MUPPET to mean anything but one of Jim Henson’s characters. (Just a couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed the Jim Henson exhibit at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.)
    On the other hand, I got CHATELAINE, although I mis-parsed it as HATE inside C(leo) LAINE (actress/singer), ignoring the word “line” in the clue!
    My favorite was 9a; I got the answer from cross letters and was very impressed with the parsing, once I figured it out. And once I had the D and the B from 13a, I got a chuckle from recognizing the villain.

    Thanks to both Sleuth and Teacow.

  7. Like John @5, I put an unparsed GIVE LIFE TO but otherwise found much to enjoy: ODDJOB, DALAI LAMA, BEE and CHATELAINE. But my favourite overall was SCRUMP – a reminder
    that Autumn is upon us and a favourite childhood pastime along with blackberrying.
    Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow.

  8. Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow. Enjoyable. I had trouble with the NE corner until I finally parsed BRIDGEND, then IMPOUND and then my LOI SCRUMP.

  9. I do enjoy puzzles from this setter and today’s was no exception. Struggled to parse 5d simply because I neglected to equate ‘appreciated’ with TA but everything else slotted in nicely. Top two here were ODDJOB & COMMON SENSE.

    Thanks to Sleuth and to Teacow for the review.

  10. Thanks Sleuth & Teacow.
    I parsed 27 across as C (caught) + ER (one — the Queen’s self-reference) tending LAMB (sheep).

  11. Thanks Sleuth and Teacow
    Is it just me or has the Monday puzzle ratcheted up in the difficulty scale over the last month or so – certainly no complaints, just an observation ?
    Found this a really entertaining puzzle with gems such as BEE with its ever so subtle first definition and the clever manipulation of two countries to end up with TAJIKISTAN. Had to go searching through Welsh towns and thankfully found one that started with B quite quickly to finish off the crossword that occupied a bit over an hour on a cold miserable day in southern Victoria.

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