Financial Times 17,006 by SLEUTH

This Monday morning begins with a SLEUTH…

An enjoyable puzzle, and not too taxing thankfully. I'd never heard of 22d, however, and the parsing of 3d had me stumped for a while.

Thanks SLEUTH!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS

1. Rather weak medic getting very cold with November gone (6)

DRIPPY

DR (medic) getting [n]IPPY (very cold, with N (November) gone)

4. Get angry with Indian cricketer showing disrespectful levity (8)

FLIPPANT

FLIP (get angry) with PANT (Indian cricketer, Rishabh Pant)

9. Feature of city in past in a ruined state (6)

ASPECT

EC (city) in (PAST)* (*in a ruined state)

10. A hybrid drinking haunt? It’s supported by posts (8)

CROSSBAR

CROSS (hybrid) + BAR (drinking haunt)

12. Very warm current found around centre of Mediterranean (8)

TROPICAL

TOPICAL (current) found around [medite]R[ranean] (centre of)

13. Place for screening agents covering males from the east (6)

CINEMA

CIA (agents) covering (MEN)< (males, <from the east)

15. Imitate something supplied by journalists (4)

COPY

Double definition

16. Escort person in custody and assume control (4,6)

TAKE CHARGE

TAKE (escort) + CHARGE (person in custody)

19. Disregard president holding Republican ideas wrongly (5,5)

BRUSH ASIDE

BUSH (president) holding R (republican) + (IDEAS)* (*wrongly)

20. What a pack might do, being heartless, worthless types? (4)

SCUM

SC[r]UM (what a pack might do, being heartless)

23. Learner, one with quite distinctive uniform (6)

LIVERY

L (learner) + I (one) with VERY (quite)

25. Popular Australian film about chap losing money getting fearful (2,1,5)

IN A PANIC

(IN (popular) + A (Australian) + PIC (film)) about [m]AN (chap, losing M (money))

27. Most of class to be arranged for part of a challenging course? (8)

OBSTACLE

(CLAS[s] (most of) TO BE)* (*arranged)

28. Reportedly, hold up decoration on a wall (6)

FRIEZE

"freeze" (hold up, "reportedly")

29. Musician goes round narrow beam of light that’s out of place? (8)

STRAYING

STING (musician) goes around RAY (narrow beam of light)

30. Educational achievement of French and other EU nationality in short (6)

DEGREE

DE (of, in French) + GREE[k] (other EU nationality, in short)

DOWN

1. Volatile dictator’s denying first signs of this oppression? That’s extreme (7)

DRASTIC

(DICTA[to]RS (denying T[his] O[ppression] (first signs of)))* (*volatile)

2. Leader of industry taken on dodgy tour with two MPs? It’s not preplanned (9)

IMPROMPTU

I[ndustry] (leader of) taken on (TOUR MP MP (two))* (*dodgy)

3. Ingredient in apple or other fruit lacking a hard container (6)

PECTIN

PE[a]C[h] (other fruit, lacking A H (hard)) + TIN (container)

5. Play a prank in large rescue vessel (4)

LARK

L (large) + ARK (rescue vessel)

6. First person in Germany probing broadcast tapes in a jumble (8)

PASTICHE

ICH (first person in Germany) probing (TAPES)* (*broadcast)

7. Light stroll or walk in the countryside skirting river (5)

AMBLE

[r]AMBLE (walk in the countryside, skirting R (river))

8. Carer mistakenly enters vacant theatre in a row of houses (7)

TERRACE

(CARER)* (*mistakenly) enters T[heatr]E (vacant)

11. Illness sadly besetting island in the Middle East (7)

MALAISE

(ALAS (sadly) besetting I (island)) in the ME (middle east)

14. Writer and poet clipped hanging item (7)

PENDANT

PEN (writer) and DANT[e] (poet, clipped)

17. Artist beginning to consider much of new tour possibly as a fund of stories (9)

RACONTEUR

RA (artist) + C[onsider] (beginning to) + (NE[w] (much of) + TOUR)* (*possibly)

18. A charm proving deceptive in case of phoney source of drugs (8)

PHARMACY

(A CHARM)* (*proving deceptive) in P[hone]Y (case of)

19. Cry over old American that’s become bloated (7)

BULBOUS

(BLUB)< (cry, <over) + O (old) + US (American)

21. Friend keeps revolutionary tool used by workers in fields? (7)

MACHETE

MATE (friend) keeps CHE (revolutionary)

22. Sun is seen above clear herbaceous plant (6)

SPURGE

S (sun) is seen above PURGE (clear)

24. Guest is missing it as coverage for viewers? (5)

VISOR

VIS[it]OR (guest, missing IT)

26. Turn up part of final page in proposal (4)

PLAN

([fi]NAL P[age] (part of))< (<turn up)

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,006 by SLEUTH”

Thanks to Sleuth for a gentle start to the Chinese New Year week and to Teacow for the blog.

I had a slight double take on 6d ‘pastiche’ as ‘a jumble’, but accept one meaning of the word is medley so close enough…

Happy New Year of the Tiger!

I am not sure I agree with the cluing in 28ac. “hold up” is what a robber does, likely with a gun, and ‘freeze’ is what the victim does in response. Using one as a definition of the other seems tenuous to me. Other than this quibble, I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow.

Along with Steven, Kung Hei Fat Choy to all those celebrating the Lunar New Year.
Agree with Ravi on FRIEZE: didn’t see it as I was thinking of ‘delay’. FLIPPANT was scored from the definition as I don’t follow cricket so thanks to Teacow for telling me who PANT is.
I liked VISOR, DRASTIC and BRUSH ASIDE best.
Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow.

Thanks Sleuth and Teacow
28ac: I had no problem with this. For example, among the definitions of freeze in Chambers 2014 are “to put a temporary stop to” and hold up has “to bring to, or keep at, a standstill”. Those are near enough for me.

Thanks, Pelham. I am corrected. I have perhaps seen one too many a gangster film where the bad guy yells “Freeze” 🙂

Very much enjoyed this offering from our detective setter. Great fun unravelling the clues.
I would like to single out 11d as an absolutely superb smooth surface with a very fair but intricate construction.
Thanks all.

Pleased to see that I wasn’t alone in not knowing the Indian cricketer, fortunately the answer was gettable without any in-depth knowledge of the game. I also had my doubts about 28a – still have despite the explanations offered.
Top three for me all bunched together – BRUSH ASIDE, SCUM & LIVERY.

Thanks to Sleuth and to Teacow for the review.

Thanks for the blog, all my favourites have been named.
You can FREEZE bank accounts and that will hold up all payments.

Thanks Sleuth, I enjoyed this just after completing the Hypnos crossword in the Sunday Indy so it was a continuous wavelength for me. I needed a word finder for SPURGE but all else fell into place. Favourites included TROPICAL, IN A PANIC, PASTICHE, PHARMACY, and VISOR. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

SPURGE is also known as EUPHORBIA , also used in puzzles often with a link to euphoria.

Thanks Sleuth and Teacow. I have no problem with 28a; to freeze payments (for example, as Trump did with Ukraine) is to hold them up. My favorite was 12a for the smooth surface.

Thanks Teacow as I hadn’t parsed the PANIC and didn’t know that meaning of PASTICHE but both clued fairly. I think PECTIN and ASPECT took me as long as the rest put together and my only, very minor, quibble was that “nippy” isn’t really very cold, although thinking about it I do only recall hearing it with the qualifier “it’s a bit…”. I would add OBSTACLE to the list of highlights, thanks Sleuth.

A ‘hiring freeze’ is among common uses of freeze in the U.S. to mean an implied temporary stoppage.

Thanks to Sleuth and Teacow.

Thanks Sleuth and Teacow
Tidying up some old ones – and found this one quite enjoyable and not as easy as some of the others here, taking the full average time to solve it. As had been stated, some excellent clues throughout with only MALAISE holding out from the parsing front – seeing nothing beyond it being contained in M and E. Fortunately, I had vague recollections of the Indian cricketer which helped round out FLIPPANT.
Finished in the NW corner with PECTIN (only just remembered) and ASPECT as the last couple in.

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