Financial Times 16,908 by FALCON

A straightforward Tuesday offering with some eminently neat surfaces.

I imagine that there will be very few DNFs today. I certainly flew through this, pausing only to work out the plural of ‘coup de theatre‘. Thanks to the Falcon.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1	BISTRO	Small restaurant in street described by writer (6)
		S[ree]T in BI.RO.
4	IDOLATER	Newly tailored for worshipper (8)
		Anagram (‘newly’) of TAILORED.
9	CARAFE	Glass container depicted by artist in coffee shop (6)
		RA in CAFE.
10	INUNDATE	Overwhelm one convent member attending court (8)
		1 + NUN + DATE (to ‘court’).
12	ASCERTAIN	Get to know when definite (9)
		AS (‘when’) + CERTAIN (‘definite’).
13	JOULE	Physicist – someone greatly prized, it’s said (5)
		Homophone of ‘jewel’ (‘someone greatly prized’).
14	CONSIDER IT DONE	Contemplate having Italian over? I’ll oblige immediately (8,2,4)
		CONSIDER (‘contemplate’) + IT[alian] + DONE (‘over’).
17	COUPS DE THEATRE	Unexpected events in play – these dupe actor, surprisingly (5,2,7)
		Anagram (‘surprisingly’) of THESE DUPE ACTOR.
21	LOSER	One failing to win in close race (5)
		Included in ‘cLOSE Race’. Neat.
22	SHORTFALL	Sharp drop in deficit (9)
		SHORT (‘sharp’ as in brusque speech) + FALL (‘drop’).
24	BRACELET	Band couple hired (8)
		BRACE (‘couple’) + LET (‘hired’).
25	PRESTO	Knight leaving English city very quickly (6)
		PRESTOn minus kNight (in chess).
26	TREATISE	Paper in stand is English (8)
		TREAT (‘stand’, as in to stand someone a drink) + IS + E[nglish].
27	GHETTO	Poor quarter has hospital within reach (6)
		H[ospital] in GET TO (‘reach’).
DOWN
1	BY CHANCE	Bishop, close to guy shot accidentally (2,6)
		B[ishop] + last of ‘guY’ + CHANCE (a ‘shot’).
2	SARACEN	Old Arab nation featured in small article (7)
		RACE (‘nation’) included in S[mall] + A.N (‘article’)
3	REFER	Either way, consult (5)
		The solution being a palindrome.
5	DENUNCIATION	Speech supporting Democrat’s severe public criticism (12)
		D[emocrat] + ENUNCIATION (‘speech’).
6	LINE JUDGE	Official in row over try (4,5)
		LINE (‘row’) + JUDGE (to ‘try’).
7	TO A TURN	A trout cooked, note, perfectly (2,1,4)
		Anagram (‘cooked’) of A TROUT + N[ote}.
8	REELED	Staggered about daughter catching fish (6)
		R.E (‘about’) + D[aughter] around EEL.
11	HABERDASHERS	Shopkeepers here had brass buckles (12)
		Anagram (‘buckles’) of HERE HAD BRASS
15	IMPERFECT	International male model, tense (9)
		I[nternational] + M[ale] + PERFECT (adj., ‘model’).
16	WELL-TO-DO	Rolling in it, clearly – likewise duke inside (4-2-2)
		WELL (‘clearly’) + TO.O (‘likewise’) includes D[uke].
18	ON STAGE	Performing in two legs (2,5)
		ON (‘leg’ side in cricket) + STAGE (one ‘leg’ of, say a sporting contest).
19	TRANSIT	Passage in broadcast ignored by millions (7)
		TRANSmIT without M[illions].
20	ALL BUT	Very nearly the whole amount, contrary to expectation (3,3)
		ALL (‘the whole amount’) + BUT (‘contrary to expectation’).
23	TORCH	Check after raised bunk deliberately set on fire (5)
		CH[eck], in chess, beneath reversal of ROT (rubbish, ‘bunk’).

11 comments on “Financial Times 16,908 by FALCON”

My experience was much the same, Grant, with COUPS DE THEATRES among my favourites. Super neat surfaces throughout made this a write-in though I did wait until I had all the crossers to enter the lovely 11d – my LOI – as I didn’t immediately spot the anagram. Very enjoyable and done in a fraction of the time yesterday’s took me!
Thanks to Falcon and Grant.

Thanks Falcon and Grant
His puzzles can be straightforward but they are always perfectly clued with no ambiguity and with a few real gems thrown in. They are ones that you always feel glad that you have done it. The neat definitions of ‘stand’ for TREAT, ‘court’ for DATE and ‘sharp’ for SHORT were challenging but satisfying to solve.
Finished with the slick TRANSIT, COUPS DE THEATRE (was happy to piece it together from the anagram fodder) and IMPERFECT as the last one in.

I couldn’t get ‘diction’ out of my head for the ‘Speech’ bit of the wordplay for my last in, 5d and must have spent as long on this as all the other clues combined before I finally saw the light. I don’t remember ever having seen COUPS DE THEATRE before in a crossword so that also took a bit of working out.

I like anachronistic sounding words which have seemingly survived against the odds so HABERDASHERS was my favourite.

Thanks to Falcon and Grant

To WordPlodder:
HABERDASHERS my favourite too, for the near &lit surface. So many neat contrivances today. No show-boating, just one satisfying solve after another.

Me @1,
I did, of course, mean COUPS DE THEATRE.

Thanks to Falcon and Grant. Great fun, especially the long clues. BRACELET was my LOI, which reminded me of my years of teaching Romeo and Juliet when I would ask what does “brace” mean in a “brace of kinsmen” and rarely get an answer from US students.

Most enjoyable and quite straightforward.

Agree about straightforward puzzle but most enjoyable for all that. Brace is often used for two game birds e.g pheasants but not, it seems, in the US.

Thanks for the blog , I agree with several that HABERDASHERS is so good in so many ways. It was the best of many near clues.

Thanks Falcon for the rare treat of providing a crossword that I could both complete and parse without help. This was certainly more like a Monday than Monday’s Bobcat but I’m not complaining. In addition to the oft mentioned HABERDASHERS, I liked BRACELET, PRESTO, and TRANSIT. Thanks Grant for the blog.

Really enjoyable and always a pleasure to complete a good puzzle without too much angst.
Thanks to Falcon and Grant.

Comments are closed.