Financial Times 16,967 by LEONIDAS

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Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from LEONIDAS.

A very original challenge in my opinion with plenty to like. Some GEMS include “climbing out of bed”, “defrocked women”, “sleuth’s witticism” and “The Stripes”. Many thanks to Leonidas!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Vessel with last of Medoc put before shrine (7)
CORACLE

[Medo]C (last of) put before ORACLE (shrine)

5. Majority of cattle docked both times in city (6)
MOSCOW

MOS[t] (majority of) + COW[s] (cattle) (docked both times)

8. Record of blue jays regularly stopping overseas? (5,4)
ABBEY ROAD

B[lu]E [ja]Y[s] (regularly) stopping ABROAD (overseas)

9. Stone to shoot when whirled (5)
TOPAZ

TO + ZAP< (shoot, <when whirled)

11. Defrocked women united after so long (5)
ADIEU

[l]ADIE[s] (women, defrocked) + U (united)

12. A grub stop possibly (9)
GASTROPUB

(A GRUB STOP)* (*possibly) &lit

13. Leaders of ships in Bath eating good porridge (8)
TUGBOATS

TUB (bath) eating G (good) + OATS (porridge)

15. Rear is shot in range (6)
SIERRA

(REAR IS)* (*shot)

17. Stagger back on pass crossing Italy (6)
RECOIL

RE (on) + COL (pass) crossing I (Italy)

19. Relative who’s passed Spooner’s pig market (8)
FOREBEAR

“BOAR FAIR” (Spooner’s pig market)

22. Probing camera with exposed lens bashes bear (9)
ENDOSCOPE

[l]EN[s] (exposed) + DO’S (bashes) + COPE (bear)

23. Source of infection right inside bits of 9? (5)
GERMS

R (right) inside GEMS (bits of 9 (across))

24. Discharge some dress-rehearsal volunteers (5)
SALVO

[dress-rehear]SAL VO[lunteers] (some)

25. Topping peak, Edmund posed initially with lager (9)
PEPPERONI

P[eak] E[dmund] P[osed] (initially) with PERONI (lager)

26. Fallen part of church in centre of building (6)
LAPSED

APSE (part of church) in [bui]LD[ing] (centre of)

27. Savings invested by Pyongyang get sent back (4,3)
NEST EGG

[Pyonyan]G GET SEN[t]< (invested by, <back)

DOWN
1. Dull king features in class teacher prepared (13)
CHARACTERLESS

R (king) features in (CLASS TEACHER)* (*prepared)

2. Chafing from sound defeat after loss of crown (7)
RUBBING

[d]RUBBING (sound defeat, after loss of crown)

3. Rodent evasive climbing out of bed (5)
COYPU

COY (evasive) + UP< (out of bed, <climbing)

4. Stretch note (eg “la”) with vibrato perhaps (8)
ELONGATE

(NOTE EG LA)* (*with vibrato perhaps)

5. Second person that’s attractive and stylish (6)
MODISH

MO (second) + DISH (person that’s attractive)

6. Grave a nun tries to vandalise (9)
SATURNINE

(A NUN TRIES)* (*to vandalise)

7. In theory, sole recipe needs mash as a filling (2,5)
ON PAPER

ONE (sole) + R (recipe) needs PAP (mash) as a filling

10. The Stripes supporting the 4 on 8? (5,8)
ZEBRA CROSSING

Supporting the 4 (Fab 4, i.e. Beatles) on 8 (Abbey Road)

14. Blanks 007 essentially needed on jobs (9)
OMISSIONS

[0]0[7] (essentially) needed on MISSIONS (jobs)

16. Simple sleuth’s witticism lecturer ignored (8)
HOMESPUN

HO[l]ME’S (sleuth’s) + PUN (witticism) (L (lecturer) ignored)

18. Squiggle under letter from detective in first cell? (7)
CEDILLA

DI (detective) in CELL A (first cell)

20. Award hanging from nobleman’s dangly bit (7)
EARLOBE

OBE (award) hanging from EARL (nobleman)

21. Sluggish swim over at foot of hill (6)
TORPID

DIP< (swim, <over) at foot of TOR (hill)

23. Celts trap the Spanish with chemical weapon (5)
GAELS

Trap EL (the, Spanish) with GAS (chemical weapon)

10 comments on “Financial Times 16,967 by LEONIDAS”

  3. First Leonidas I’ve completely solved and parsed but for the ‘a’ in CEDILLA (thanks Teacow).
    I’ve found each of this setter’s grids a real treat so far and this one was no exception.
    The connecting 8 and 10 were super. TUGBOATS was another favourite and ‘A grub spot’ for GASTROPUB was such a neat anagram. Highly entertaining wordplay all round.
    Thanks to Leonidas and Teacow.

  4. I liked the ABBEY ROAD and ‘detective’ / ‘sleuth’ related pairs of clues. Forget Big Ben, the National Gallery etc, when I first went to London, I was much keener to see that famous ZEBRA CROSSING.

    A v. enjoyable puzzle topped off by the “boar fair” Spoonerism, the GASTROPUB &lit and ELONGATE, without a multi-millionaire in sight.

    Thanks to Leonidas and Teacow

  5. Another super puzzle (number 13) from Leonidas. Favourites were the grub stop, the pig market, and the sleuth’s witticism, but all the clues were good.
    Thanks to NH and Teacow.

  6. Thanks Leonidas for a top drawer crossword. My favourites included the &lit GASTROPUB (great anagram), ADIEU (clue of the day for me), ENDOSCOPE, PEPPERONI, and GAELS. I needed a word finder to get TUGBOATS (I got misled by “leaders of ship” thinking it was part of the wordplay) and OMISSIONS (never would have thought of a job as a mission but I now see where they can be on the same spectrum.) Thanks Teacow for parsing and explaining the fab “4.”

  7. ACD

    Thanks to Leonidas and Teacow. I got off to a very slow start with GAELS and almost gave up but slowly things fell into place so that eventually I got and parsed everything except the DOS in ENDOSCOPE (and I recently had an endoscopy).

  8. For me, Leonidas has something in common with Buccaneer in the same way that I find their surfaces not always terribly exciting.
    They also have in common that – while solving – they show so much finesse.
    I’d wish that I could leave out ‘not’ in my first line!!
    It was a DNF for me today, because of me failing on both clues at 23.
    Leonidas in usually incredibly precise but I didn’t like ‘trap’ in 23dn (or was I just wrongfooted?).
    Also not keen on ‘bit of topaz’ for ‘gems’.
    But on the whole a really excellent Monday crossword – did I say Monday?
    Many thanks to Teacow & Leonidas.

  9. A treat from Leonidas with so much to like. Really enjoyed GASTROPUB, GERMS and HOMESPUN.
    I was a bit sceptical about the use of “regular” in 8A but, as no one else has commented, it must be me!
    Thanks to Teacow for the blog.

  10. Thanks Leonidas and Teacow
    A very pleasant start to the week. Lots going on with many of the clues, a terrific mix of devices, some very clever anagrams and a couple of neat hiddens.
    Got off to a great start by seeing the CHARACTERLESS anagram and was able to work away at the puzzle in short stints throughout a working day until coming to the tricky two 23’s – eventually saw GERMS instead of a pesky VIRUS that just wouldn’t parse and was then able to see the obvious GAELS for ‘Celts’ at 23d.
    Liked the humorous and cleverly misleading phrases that have already been highlighted by others, the misdirection such as ‘bashes’ = DOS at 22a and the very good Spoonerism at 19a.

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