Financial Times 16,932 by VELIA

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A witty and entertaining Tuesday puzzle.

Nothing too evil from the Witch of the Wood today, just plenty of wry smiles. I particularly liked the subtlety of 'en' in 1a and the misdirection of 'warring' in 12. Thanks, Velia.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 RUSSIAN ROULETTE
Game Natasha perhaps permitted en route (7,8)

Russian name + LET ('permitted') in (Fr. 'en') ROU.TE
9 NOSEBAG
Go with beans mixture as a source of fodder (7)

Anagram ('mixture') of 'GO…BEANS'.
10 TIBETAN
Empty bottle held by giant mountain dweller (7)

TI.TAN ('giant') contains eviscerated 'BottlE'.
11 IDIOT
Dictator on trial initially as a subject for Dostoevsky (5)

IDI (Amin, late dictator of Uganda) + 1st letters of 'On Trial'. Ref 1869 novel 'The Idiot'.
12 THE ALLIES
Warring partners recover after the end of frequent deceptions (3,6)

T (end of 'frequenT') + HEAL ('recover') + LIES ('deceptions').
13 THEREFORE
So to Hereford briefly and safe at last (9)

'To HEREFORd', both shortened, + last of 'safE'.
15 EARTH
Heart problem can be terminal (5)

Anagram ('problem') of HEART, earth ('ground' in U.S.) being one of the terminals in an electrical 3-pin plug. Neat surface.

16 EX-CON
Topless sex icon, one who broke the law? (2-3)

'sEX iCON' without 1st letters.
18 END OF TERM
Labour’s start of holiday (3,2,4)

Double definition. Last bits of pregnancy and academic semester. (New grandson last week. I thank you.).
20 ALABASTER
Carving stone in the style of star, be prepared (9)

A LA (Fr. 'in the style of') + anagram ('prepared') of STAR BE.
23 LIE IN
Velia’s in the right to stay between the sheets (3,2)

I (=Velia, our setter) included in LIE.N (legal 'right')
24 IN ERROR
Renoir moved around the centre of Paris wrongly (2,5)

Anagram ('wrongly') of RENOIR around middle letter of 'paRis'.
25 IN A STEW
Where meat and vegetables are shaken (2,1,4)

A stew can include meat & veg.
26 YOU AND WHOSE ARMY
Solver’s crossing drifting snow ahead of compiler’s saying “that’s no threat”! (3,3,5,4)

YOU.R (=, to Velia, 'the solver's') surrounds anagram ('drifting') of SNOW AHEAD + MY (Velia's).
DOWN
1 RUNS IN THE FAMILY
Inherited gut disorder is genetically transmitted (4,2,3,6)

RUNS ('the runs', gut disorder) + IN THE FAMILY ('genetically transmitted').
2 SISTINE
Partly assist in embellishing the chapel (7)

Included in 'asSIST IN Embellishing'.
3 IN BETWEEN
Benin may be quaint internally, but that’s neither here nor there (2-7)

Anagram ('may be') of BENIN includes TWEE ('quaint').
4 NIGHT
Carol’s silent one man on board, we’re told (5)

Homophone of 'knight' (chess piece, 'man on board'). Ref. the German carol 'Stille Nacht' ('Silent Night').
5 ON THE MEND
Their responsibility and objective: getting better (2,3,4)

ON THEM ('their responsibility') + END ('objective').
6 LABEL
Left murder victim’s name (5)

L[eft] + ABEL (murdered by Cain in the O.T.).
7 TATTIER
Less nicely presented potato? Right (7)

TATTIE + R[ight].
8 ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Birds of prey a mighty new development for this writer (6,9)

ERNES (sea-eagles, 'birds of prey') + anagram ('development') of A MIGHTY NEW.
14 OVERTHROW
Topple Honduran leader imvolved in public squabble (9)

OVERT ROW ('public squabble') includes 1st of H{onduran}.
15 EXFOLIATE
Scrub a lot if swimming in river (9)

River EX.E includes anagram ('swimming') of A LOT IF.
17 CHATEAU
Nice cat? What it doesn’t like is a grand house (7)

CHAT ('cat' in French and hence in Nice) + EAU, Fr. water, which cats are reputed to dislike. Mine showers under the kitchen tap.
19 EJECTOR
Jet engineered with core safety mechanism for use before a crash (7)

Anagram ('engineered') of the appropriate JET + CORE.
21 APRON
Part of the stage behind which clothing is protected (5)

Double definition.
22 RHINO
Horny individual getting a sarcastic- sounding rejection (5)

RHI = homophone of 'wry' ('sarcastic') + NO ('rejection').

14 comments on “Financial Times 16,932 by VELIA”

  1. A most enjoyable puzzle which I enjoyed even more as I finished it very quickly. Particularly enjoyed some of the puns and the humour of 1d and 22d.
    Thank you Velia for cheering me up and Grant for the usual exemplary blog.

  2. Pleasant and entertaining puzzle, very welcome after some tough ones lately. Unusually, my favourite was my first in, the “wry” NO at 22d. The ‘warring partners’ fooled me into looking for enemies rather than friends too and I liked the ‘So’ def for THEREFORE. I didn’t know the expression at 26a so there was enough to keep the grey matter ticking over till this was solved.

    Thanks to Velia and thanks (and congrats) to Grant

  4. Thanks to Velia and Grant. Lots of fun. I took a while to parse the eau in CHATEAU and especially liked the long answers.

  5. Thanks Velia & GB

    I parsed 1D slightly differently, with ‘Inherited gut disorder’ as a whimsical sort-of-definition plus ‘is genetically transmitted’ as the true definition, as I think ‘is’ is required there to make the clue work

  6. I got stuck on THE ALLIES, but otherwise I found this the most fun puzzle in quite a while. Probably too many favo(u)rites to list, but I’ll list them anyway: 1a, 13a, 20a, 26a, 1d, 5d, 14d, 17d.

    Many thanks to Velia and thanks and congratulations to Grant. (As they say, if I’d known grandchildren were so much fun, I’d have had them first!)

  7. Such a quick solve, this felt like a Monday puzzle but was no less enjoyable for it.
    Favourites were NIGHT, END OF TERM, CHATEAU and 26a.
    Another slip-up (‘imvolved’) from the crossword editor, I note, in 24d.
    Thanks to Velia and Grandpa Grant.

  9. Thanks Velia. I enjoyed this a great deal with YOU AND WHOSE ARMY, ERNEST HEMINGWAY, and EXFOLIATE being my favourites. RHINO elicited a groan but in a good way. Thanks Grant for filling in my parsing gaps — if I get an answer quickly I get lax and move on without a full understanding.

  10. Very enjoyable. We were fooled in 1dn by ‘disorder’ suggesting an anagram till we realised we couldn’t find suitable anagram fodder. TIBETAN, ALABASTER, YOU AND WHOSE ARMY and CHATEAU were our favourites.
    Thanks, Velia and Grant

  12. Thanks Velia and Grant
    Did this on the day – just late to post – it was Melbourne Cup day – a day at the races with champagne and fine food got in the way. This was a relatively quick solve but very enjoyable while it lasted – enjoyed all of the long perimeter ones, with a wry grin at the RUNS in 1d. Thought that the French construction of 17d and the ‘warring partners’ at 12a were pretty cool as well.
    Always been meaning to read THE IDIOT and will make it a 2022 goal.
    Finished in the SW corner with RHINO, APRON and YOU AND WHOSE ARMY (which took way longer than it should have) the last few in.

  13. Welcome, Bruce. Envious of yr Melbourne Cup. Hope you’re all getting back to normal – for a given value of ‘normal’ – over there.

  14. [Hi Grant, Melbourne Cup day was very special this year, with only 10,000 on course instead of 100,000. Spent the day with my son which made it even more special with the icing on the cake being that we shared in the quadrella (picking the last four winners of the day) and won enough to more than pay for the day out !!
    Congratulations on the arrival of your grandson – none have surfaced at all from my three kids yet ! ]

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