Financial Times 17,015 by CHALMIE

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Chalmie is today's FT interrogator.

This was a chewy puzzle that took a while to complete. The last three answers just wouldn't come even though they were actually quite simple (REMAPS (parsing), EVENER and SERGE being the culprits).

Overall, this was an enjoyable solve, although there were a lot of anagrams, which I don't mind as a blogger, but I'm not so keen on when solving for pleasure.

There was a mini-theme based around GRAIN (the solution to 25dn).

Thanks, Chalmie

ACROSS
1 REMAPS
31 back after band makes the charts again (6)

<=SPA ("resort" – answer to 31ac) after REM ("band")
4 PERSIANS
Pens airs rendered terribly by cats (8)

*(pens airs) [anag:rendered terribly]
10 FINANCE
Funding penalty hampers party (7)

FINE ("penalty") hampers ANC (African National Congress, a political "party")
11 CORNEAL
25 regularly enable common sort of transplant (7)

CORN ("grain" – solution to 25dn) + [regularly] E(n)A(b)L(e)
12 GOAT
Butter first of grilled 25 (4)

[first of] G(rilled) + OAT ("grain" – solution to 25dn)
13 ADAM-AND-EVE
Cunningly evaded a man, getting credit in East London (4-3-3)

*(evaded a man) [anag:cunningly]

Adam-and-Eve is Cockney rhyming slang for "believe".
15 EVENER
Flatter earth never unlikely (6)

E (earth) + *(nerve) [anag:unlikely]
16
See 8
20 DELTOID
Little John perhaps cheated about muscle (7)

DID ("cheated") about (little) ELTO(n) (John, perhaps)
21 ANSWER
Some slogans were a solution (6)

Hidden in [some] "slogANS WERe"
24 HIGH MASSES
Services majority leader as he sighs sadly (4,6)

*(m as he sighs) [anag:sadly] where M is M(ajority) [leader]
26 SONG
Very new, good low price (4)

SO ("very") + N (new) + G (good).

As in "going for a song"
28 QUARTER
25% rum has knack of replacing energy (7)

QU(e>ART)ER ("rum" (QUEER)) with ART ("knack") replacing E (energy))
29 GRIMACE
Look disgusted setter’s an expert on 25 (7)

I'M ("setter's") + ACE (expert) on Gr. (grain (solution to 25dn))
30 ERNIE ELS
Golfer essentially jeered boning fish (5,3)

[essentially] (je)ER(ed) (bo)NI(ng) + EELS ("fish")
31 RESORT
Tourist destination in Turkey increased all returns (6)

<=(ROSE ("increased) in TR (international vehicle registration for "Turkey")) [all returns]
DOWN
1 REFUGEES
User fee revision involving golf unsettled people (8)

*(user fee) [anag:revision] involving G (golf, in the phonetic alphabet)
2 MANGANESE
25th in table, Anne’s game is off (9)

*(anne's game) [anag:is off]

Manganese is element No 25 on the periodic table of elements.
3 PONY
£25 premium on Nobu’s yakitori starters (4)

P(remium) O(n) N(obu's) Y(akatori) [starters]

A pony is a slang term for £25, which is believed to have originated from a picture of a pony that featured on a 25 rupee note in 18th century, although other theories exist.
5 ENCAMPED
Staying for the night in eastern North Dakota, American politician visits church (8)

A (American) MP (Member of Parliament, so "politician") visits CE ("Church" of England") in E (eastern) ND (North Dakota), so E-N(C(A-MP)E)D
6 SERENADING
25 needs order performing 26 (10)

*(grain needs) [anag:order], where 25 is the solution to 25dn and 26 the solution to 26ac
7 ADELE
25, her album a key to Spain (5)

A + DEL(delete "key" on keyboard) + E (international vehicle registration number for "Spain")

"25" was a very successful third studio album for Adele.
8, 16 SILVER WEDDING
Live news grid director organising 25-year celebration (6,7)

*(live news grid d) [anag:organising] where D = director
9 LENDS
Advances large objects (5)

L (large) + ENDS ("objects")
14 CENTIMETRE
Point in the middle distance (10)

TIME ("point") in CENTRE ("the middle")
17 NEW POTATO
2 on tape crunching vegetable (3,6)

*(two on tape) [anag:crunching]
18 MINSTREL
Singer extravagantly rents limo to drop round (8)

*(rents lim) [anag:extravagantly] where LIM is LIM(o) dropping O (round)
19 FRAGMENT
25 cloth-collectors featured in newspaper (8)

RAGMEN ("cloth-collectors") featured in FT ("newspaper")

Fragment = grain (solution to 25dn), as in "a grain of truth" (kinda).
22 CHEQUE
I leave quiche cooked essentially perfectly as payment (6)

*(quche) [anag:cooked] + [essentially] (perf)E(ctly) where QUCHE is QU(i)CHE with I leaving
23 SERGE
Soldier dismissing soldier worsted? (5)

SERGE(ant) ("soldier") dismissing ANT ("soldier")
25 GRAIN
Texture artist, in spirit (5)

RA (member of the Royal Academy, so "artist") in GIN ("spirit")
27 RICE
Shakespearean heroine beat off 25 (4)

(beat)RICE ("Shakespearean heroine" with BEAT off), 25 referring to "grain", solution to 25dn

Beatrice appears in "Much Ado About Nothing"

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,015 by CHALMIE”

  1. Quite enjoyable. I’d have been quicker if I’d been more familiar with African politics and Cockney rhyming slang! Using “gr” for “grain” in 29a a bit disappointing.

  2. GDU@1 – gr is an abbreviation for grain (as in the unit of measurement) so is no more disappointing than using s for second or cm for centimetre.

  3. I enjoyed the imaginative use of 25 in today’s grid which besides the GRAIN mini-theme included 2, 3, 8/16, 25 and 28. Not sure of the significance though.
    Another mini-theme related to SONG appeared to include 6, 7, 18, 25, 26.
    My favourite, though, was ADAM-AND-EVE.
    Thanks to Chalmie and to Loonapick for helping with my three misses: DELTOID, RICE, RESORT.

  6. I did this straight after Paul in the G and was hoping for a gentle warm-down, which of course didn’t happen. Very enjoyable though, particularly the use of ’25’ in the clues not always referring to the GRAIN mini-theme. I have to admit to not knowing the name of ADELE(‘s) ‘album’ and I couldn’t quite see TIME for ‘Point’ at 14d when solving, though it seems fair enough now.

    Another example of CRS to add to the list for the future, in crosswords, if not in the real world! Favourite was the old-fashioned ‘worsted?’ for the equally old-fashioned SERGE.

    Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick

  7. Thanks all. There’s no great significance to 25 other than that there are several ways to refer to it and if you put a friendly sort of word in the solution for 25, you can amuse yourself by making 25 do lots of work and with any luck produce an enjoyable puzzle.

    SONG and SERENADING were deliberately connected; that some other answers could be vaguely connected to them was perhaps a happy accident – I didn’t notice it when filling the grid in.

  8. Thanks Chalmie. This was a DNF in a big way but I certainly enjoyed what I solved with ADAM-AND-EVE, HIGH MASSES, and SONG being favourites. I’m always pleased when I recognize Cockney rhyming slang. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.

  9. About 70% of this puzzle flew in and then the struggle began, with Serge being my LOI. Centimetre was also a latecomer and only now, as I write this, do I grasp why time equals point.
    clever use of mini theme.

  11. Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
    A lovely puzzle done in and around visits to friends that involved too much food and a variety of alcoholic beverages yesterday. Loved the use of 25 throughout the puzzle, although some of them took longer than they should have to work through. Also liked seeing the South African golfer used in full as compared to the myriad of times when his useful surname is just a part of the word play in clues.
    Although there were a lot of anagrams used throughout, many were constructed from bits and pieces and there were enough other clever devices used throughout to keep it very interesting.
    Finished in the SE corner with FRAGMENT, RESORT and RICE the last few in.

  12. 12 A could have been misunderstood to be ‘gram’, with ram as the butter on g and gram as a ‘grain’ or small amount of something.

    Goat turned out to be the correct reading.

    Thanks to all involved.

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