Financial Times 16,917 by REDSHANK

by

A relatively easy challenge from REDSHANK this Friday morning.

FF: 8 DD: 7

ACROSS
1 LITIGATE
Dispute settled one wicket (8)

LIT ( settled ) I ( one ) GATE ( wicket )
5 WIGWAM
Rug with a minute tent (6)

WIG ( rug ) W ( with ) A M ( minute )
10 UNDERGO
Go through foreign articles on leave (7)

UN DER ( foreign articles ) GO ( leave ) – cant say i liked the 'go' in the clue much since its in the solve as well
11 LEAFLET
Circular spring indicator? (7)

cryptic def
12 CORGI
Barker’s contribution to Bacchic orgies (5)

hidden in "..bacchiC ORGIes"
13 SUSPENDER
South American writer flushed round hose fitting (9)

S ( south ) US ( american ) PEN ( writer ) DER ( flushed = RED, reversed )
14 HAIRPIN BENDS
Parish binned crazy ways to slow traffic? (7,5)

[ PARISH BINNED ]*
18 AMATEURISHLY
A male, easily hurt, played without much skill (12)

A M ( male ) [ EASILY HURT ]*
21 DISPENSER
Officer accompanies poet and chemist (9)

DI ( officer ) SPENSER ( poet )
23 YOURS
Solver’s curdled food, ignoring G & T (5)

YOgURtS ( curdled food, without G and T )
24 LETTUCE
Latvian uncle regularly leaves (7)

LETT ( latvian ) UnClE ( regular letters of )
25 EEL-LIKE
Sleek Europeans fancy taking in Lima (3-4)

[ EE ( europeans ) LIKE ( fancy ) ] containing L ( lima )
26 NEEDLE
It picks up sound in sewer (6)

double def
27 UNOPENED
End up with one mobile still in its packaging (8)

[ END UP ONE ]*
DOWN
1 LAUNCH
Throw up meal across area (6)

LUNCH ( meal ) around A ( area )
2 TUDORS
Royal family arranged tours around Germany (6)

[ TOURS ]* around D ( germany, Deutschland )

3 GERMINATE
Start to grow good fur at lodging (9)

G ( good ) [ ERMINE ( fur ) containing AT ]
4 TROUSER PRESSES
Research in new superstores shows decreasing tools? (7,7)

RES ( research ) in [ SUPERSTORES ]*
6 IMAGE
Setter’s mature still perhaps (5)

I'M ( setter's ) AGE ( mature )
7 WELL DONE
It’s not rare or good for you (4,4)

cryptic def; culinary reference
8 MOTORIST
Second sightseer avoids posh driver (8)

MO ( second ) TOuRIST ( sightseer, without U – posh )
9 PLASTIC SURGEON
Does the ultimate in figures drive this theatre worker? (7,7)

[ LAST ( ultimate ) in PICS ( figures ) ] URGE ON ( drive )
15 BELLY FLOP
Call Yankee near Turkey making bad landing (5,4)

BELL ( call ) Y ( yankee ) FLOP ( turkey )
16 MANDOLIN
Cutter’s crew almost doing without sail finally (8)

MAN ( crew ) [ DOINg ( almost i.e. without last letter ) around L ( saiL, finally ) ]
17 CASSETTE
Film unit etc turned up to dress property (8)

[ ETC ]* around ASSET ( property )
19 BUNION
Digital problem initially baffles Labour group (6)

B ( Baffles, initially ) UNION ( labour group )
20 ASCEND
When about to finish, get up (6)

AS ( when ) C ( about ) END ( finish )
22 EQUAL
To some extent these qualities match (5)

hidden in "..thesE QUALities.."

11 comments on “Financial Times 16,917 by REDSHANK”

  1. I agree this grid slipped down nicely but with some fun anagrams and pleasing surfaces. Favourites included 6d, 11, 23 and 27.
    True, 10 seemed a little weak…towards the end of the setting exercise, maybe?
    But it’s only a minor blip in a very enjoyable puzzle.
    Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs – especially for 25 – though I’m still unsure why LIT = settled in 1a. I’m sure it’s something simple.

  2. Hi Diane – ‘A bird lit on a far branch’ is an example of the use of light on to mean to settle.

    I found this straightforward except for the SW corner as I didn’t know Mandolin was a kind of vegetable cutter, not being much of a cook myself.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  5. Pleasant and not too difficult but at the very end, the parsing of PLASTIC SURGEON defeated me.

    MANDOLIN was an original ‘cutter’ (unrelated to the human example above) and BELLY FLOP reminded me of larking about in swimming pools many years ago, undoubtedly with anxious parents looking on.

    Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs

  6. Diane@1, I had the same question about LIT at first, although I did figure it out before I got to the blog. I got stuck on 25a and needed a word search on 4d (not a tool I’ve used much since I started buying “permanent-press” clothes). My favorite was 5a.

  7. Hurrah! My printer finally juddered into life, after refusing to print the puzzle for me this morning.

    My ticks today were for AMATEURISHLY, LETTUCE, UNOPENED, MOTORIST, CASSETTE and BUNION, the last two particularly for their definitions.

    Many thanks to Redshank and to Turbolegs.

  8. A pleasant romp. Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs. Also thanks to Steven for the LIT explanation – not seen this before.
    Faves were WIGWAM, UNOPENED and BUNION.
    Good weekend All.

  9. Unlike others I found this to be one of the more difficult crosswords of the week — I left several unfinished and even more unparsed. Maybe it was a wavelength thing. Thanks to both. By the way Turbolegs, isn’t “easy challenge” an oxymoron?

  10. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
    Was another who found this a quicker solve than is normal for this setter. Started off by immediately seeing WIGWAM and then worked through that NE corner. Was on the right wavelength to work through the rest without too many holdups with only one, PLASTIC SURGEON, causing a slow down with the parsing – getting fixated on the S (does the ultimate) being a key component and needing the blog to see how it really worked.
    Finished in the SW corner with MANDOLIN (which my partner comes in many different styles for different cuts – grating, julienne, etc.), AMATEURISHLY and CASSETTE (with its original word play) as the last one in.

  11. Thanks for blog and crossword. Took me a while but I got there in 3 sessions. I rather convolutedly parsed PLASTIC SURGEON as LAST within PI and C, two numbers, followed by SURGE ON. Thought that was a bit tough!

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