Financial Times 17,007 by BASILISK

by

The shape-shifting snake strikes again.

And venomously. Always a challenge and today's brought the expected fun and febrile head-scratching. One sees 'Basilisk' on the header and thinks, ah, well, there went the ironing, I'll see you in a couple of hours. Great puzzle once more. Thanks, Basilisk. Pick your own favourites. I had many.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 MIDDAY
12 finished cycling within a month (6)

DID ('finished'), 1st to last ('cycling'), in M.AY.
4 CATCHING
Transferable skill acquired in the field? (8)

Double definition. Covid and cricket, if you will.
10 STYGIAN
Gloomy spirit consuming adult faced by foul place (7)

STY ('foul place') + A[dult] in GI.N ('spirit').
11 SAND DAB
Swimmer with smooth stroke (4,3)

SAND (to 'smooth') + DAB (to wipe, 'stroke').
12 ETCH
Make cuts and the rest start to heckle (4)

ETC (et cetera, 'and the rest' in Latin) + 1st of 'Heckle'.
13 EMANCIPATE
Supply tape machine missing core component free (10)

Anagram ('supply' i.e., 'in a supple way') of TAPE + MAChINE missing middle letter ('core component').
15 RIOTER
He revels in corruption engulfing current head of state (6)

R.OT ('corruption') covers 'I' (symbol for electrical 'current') + ER (Her Maj, 'head of state').
16 REVERSI
Game in which one’s rook always retreats (7)

Reversal ('retreats') of 1'S R[ook] + EVER. 'Reversi', says Chambers, = 'a game in which a captured piece… is turned upside-down to show the captor's colour'. New one on me but gettable and it sounds fun.

20 SLICING
Cutting support for members leads to industrial compensation board (7)

SL.ING ('support for members') includes (i.e., they 'board') 1st letters of I{ndustrial} + C{ompensation}
21 LEGION
The French soldier applied to this (6)

LE (Fr. 'the') + GI ('soldier') + ON (re, about, 'applied to') + whole clue definition of the Foreign Legion.
24 UNDENIABLE
University having sufficient means to host study is beyond question (10)

UN.I[versity] + ABLE ('having sufficient means') surround DEN ('study').
26 ACNE
Problem for many people tackled by Isaac Newton (4)

Hidden in 'isaAC NEwton'.
28 LOADING
Putting on record containing a terrible racket (7)

LO.G ('record') contains A + DIN ('terrible racket').
29 BALLOON
Express disapproval about every new increase in a dramatic manner (7)

B.OO ('express disapproval') around ALL ('every'), then N[ew].
30 CONVEYED
Bore detective with case of conservative member’s complaint? (8)

Private EYE ('detective') encased by CON[servative] + V[enereal] D[isease], an illness or 'complaint' affecting one's private 'member' or so I'm told. Last in. Disgraceful wordplay.
31 USEFUL
Productive exercise almost complete (6)

USE (to 'excercise' discretion, power &c) + FUL{L} ('complete'), shortened.
DOWN
1 MASSEURS
M&S stocks European rubbers (8)

MAS.S + S (naked in clue) contain EUR[opean].
2 DAY SCHOOL
Organised cool and shady place where most children go (3,6)

Anagram ('organised') of COOL + SHADY.
3 AKIN
Like cooking naked (4)

bAKINg, unclad.
5 ASSENTED
Said “Yes!” when journalist dispatched lines (8)

AS ED ('when journalist') is 'lined' by SENT ('dispatched').
6 CANTILEVER
Support available in 14 versions (10)

14 is MERCANTILE, so the answer here is pleasingly included in in 'merCANTILE VERsions'.
7 INDIA
I failed audition leaving out dancing (5)

Anagram ('failed') of AuDItIoN minus anagram ('dancing') of OUT, with international abbreviation as the definition.
8 GIBBET
Place for person who made a killing backing substantial speculative venture? (6)

Reversal of BIG ('substantial') then BET ('speculative venture').
9 ENEMY
Hostile nation bombed Yemen (5)

Anagram of YEMEN. Easy but pleasy.
14 MERCANTILE
Confused men with article related to commerce (10)

Anagram ('confused') of MEN + ARTICLE.
17 SWITCH OFF
Close down high school admitting intelligence must take priority (6,3)

OFF (of food, rancid, 'high') preceded by ('must take priority') S.CH[ool], which includes WIT ('intelligence').
18 ENTANGLE
Confuse fish after casting net (8)

ANGLE (to 'fish') after anagram ('casting') of NET.
19 INTERNAL
Trainee content to walk home (8)

INTERN (a 'trainee') + inside letters of 'wALk'.
22 PUBLIC
People left in charge after lead’s assumed by United (6)

U[nited] in P.b ('lead', the element) + L[eft] + I[n] C[harge].
23 ALIBI
Accused’s location is belying indictment primarily (5)

Ist letters of 1st 5 words &lit. Neat.
25 DRAIN
Opening for deluge to pour down (5)

1st of D{eluge} + RAIN (to 'pour') to give to 'drain' = to 'down' e.g. a glass of something.
27 ALMS
Doctor reduced small amount to relieve distress (4)

Anagram (to 'doctor') of SMA{L}, shortened. 'Alms' can be singular or plural, of course.

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,007 by BASILISK”

  1. I found this the hardest of the ones I’ve done today. Grid filled correctly but I had no hope parsing either CONVEYED (I’m too innocent) or ALMS. I’ve just seen how the ‘M&S’ at 1d works – very good.

    I have to admit I didn’t know the significance of the Nina until I looked it up afterwards, and I was only then able to spot the two related answers (there may well be more) in the grid.

    Thanks to Basilisk and Grant

  2. Like WordPlodder, I had to look up the significance of the nina and then saw the two (or more) related grid entries.

    Who knew Isaac Newton had hidden acne? That was a good spot 🙂

    Pleased when I got CANTILEVER. Was just about to cheat with a word fit on 30a, my loi, when I suddenly saw that CONVEYED fit the crossers and the parsing soon followed.

    Splendid stuff, as always, from my favourite setter.

  5. I spent too much time on the nina which I twigged-something to do with Public Enemy-I think the phrase may be incomplete as it is “It Takes a nation of Millions “to…….
    Where i went astray was thinking ARCH was contained in 4a-I did have the C starting 6d but I was too exhausted or stoopid to thing of putting MERCANTILE VERSIONS together getting an embed?
    WEll done again JC and thanks for blog GB

  6. To add to Grant @4, we may be saying the same thing, but I parsed MASSEURS as ‘M’ (=MASS) + ‘&S’ (=S) ‘stocks’ (=containment indicator) + ‘European’ (=EUR) to give MASSEURS.

  7. Thanks to Basilisk for a proper workout of the cryptic grey matter. I was helped by knowing that he (or his alter egos) sometimes hide a Nina in the same way as he has done today. Lots to enjoy throughout

    Thanks also to Grant

  9. Thanks for the blog, many clues to enjoy here.
    REVERSI perhaps better known as OTHELLO , black and white counters, very easy to learn and very hard to master.
    The VD clinic has now become the STI clinic I think.

  10. Thanks Grant and Basilisk.
    A DNF for me, and I’d rather not go into the details, if you please!
    What where is the nina?

  11. Thanks Serpent & Grant

    Toughest puzzle of the day by a long chalk, but very enjoyable and very satisfying to complete.

    ilippu @ 10: starting in Row 7, it follows the unches in column 2, row 2, column 14 & row 14 clockwise. Then 22D & 9D refer to the makers. There may be other references, but I’m not familiar with the work concerned.

  17. DS@15, as Simon S@11 described, start with the unchecked “I” in row 7, column 2 and read the unchecked letters clockwise (i.e., start reading up) through the upper part of column 2, then across row 2, down column 14, across (right to left) row 14, and up the rest of column 2. You’ll get the first few words in the title of an album by 22d, 9d.

  18. Thanks Basilisk and Grant
    A solid workout as is expected from this setter taking several sessions across the day yesterday to finish just before the day did.
    Was eventually able to fill the grid (with some outside help from the net) but was able to parse everything when they landed. Particularly liked the run-on across clues to get CANTILEVER, liked the trick with MASSEURS. Clue of the day has to go to REVERSI with the reversed charade and the making known of a previously unknown game, that as Grant says, sounds very interesting.
    Finished down the bottom with USEFUL, INTERNAL (after 31 put INTERNEE to rest) and CONVEYED (which I used a word finder to get and took a long time to see the naughty wordplay). The nina completely passed me by and was thankful to those who took me step by step though the process to get an album from a band I’ve never really listened to.

  19. Having taken a long time to get this finished, I was very grateful for some explanations. In 7, I don’t think it’s the abbreviation but rather the crossword-setter’s friend, the phonetic alphabet.

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