Financial Times 17,040 by REDSHANK

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A proper corker from REDSHANK this Friday.

FF: 9 DD: 9

ACROSS
1 SHIELD
Protect spades I kept outside (6)

S ( spades ) [ I in HELD ( kept ) ]
4 ISTHMIAN
This odd chap nicks paper from Corinth maybe (8)

[ THIS ]* [ I ( paper ) in MAN ( chap ) ]
9 EGGNOG
Drink, say, going to be withdrawn? I quit (6)

EG ( say ) [ reverse of GOiNG ( without I ) ]
10 EMERGENT
Soldiers rejected bloke coming out (8)

EMER ( soldiers = REME, reversed ) GENT ( bloke )
12 AGAR
Somewhere to cook rare marine extract (4)

AGA ( somewhere to cook ) R ( rare ); didnt know aga's meaning until i looked up chambers
13 LOVE LETTER
Duck estate agent’s billet-doux (4,6)

LOVE ( duck ) LETTER ( estate agent )
15 ICE-CREAM SODA
Cold drink violates America’s code (3-5,4)

[ AMERICA'S CODE ]*
18 COLD SHOULDER
Slight person chillier? Ought to be hugged (4-8)

COLDER ( chillier ) containing SHOULD ( ought )
21 GET THE CHOP
Order given to butcher to be dismissed? (3,3,4)

cryptic def;

22 IFFY
Dodgy moment after judge leaves (4)

jIFFY ( moment, without J – judge )
24 NEONATAL
Anne worked with a lot of recent arrivals (8)

[ ANNE A LOT ]*
25 CAVIAR
Wheels round a sixth salted roe (6)

CAR ( wheels ) around [ A VI ( sixth ) ]
26 ARGOSIES
Ships once leave small group of stars outside (8)

[ GO ( leave ) S (small ) ] in ARIES ( group of stars )
27 ENIGMA
Imagine stupidly ignoring current puzzle! (6)

[ iMAGINE ( without I – current ) ]*
DOWN
1 SCENARIO
Edit most of Arsenic and Old Lace plot outline (8)

not sure if i got this right: [ ARSENIC O ( old ) ]*' ; anagram fodder referred to as most of "arsenic and old lace" ; 1944 movie starring cary grant.

2 INGRATES
Thankless types where the Ashes end up? (8)

cryptic def ; reads as IN GRATES ( where the ashes end up )
3 LOOT
Spoils officer guarding leaders in Oval Office (4)

LT ( officer ) containing OO ( starting letters of 'Oval Office' )
5 SUMMER SCHOOL
Adders collected, curbing hotel vacation course (6,6)

SUMMERS ( adders ) [ COOL ( collected ) containing H ( hotel ) ]
6 HORRENDOUS
Terrifying Egyptian god split Osiris’s first spears (10)

HORUS ( egyptian god ) containing [ REND ( split ) O ( Osiris, first letter ) ]
7 IDEATE
Conceive international meeting without English (6)

I ( international ) [ DATE ( meeting ) outside E ( english ) ]
8 NATURE
Wildlife function up river (6)

NAT ( function = TAN, reversed ) URE ( river )
11 BOW AND SCRAPE
Smell Rod’s silk that’s fawn (3,3,6)

BO ( smell ) WAND'S ( rod's ) CRAPE ( silk )
14 ARROWHEADS
Dashing hero awards points for The Archers? (10)

[ HERO AWARDS ]*
16 EDIFYING
Training detective force watching fences (8)

[ DI ( detective ) F ( force ) ] in EYING ( watching )
17 GREY AREA
Sign of maturity that needs clarification (4,4)

double def? or cryptic def
19 UGANDA
United Georgia and boring African country (6)

AND in [ U ( united ) GA ( georgia ) ]
20 STRONG
Powerful trumpeter sacrificing limb (6)

armSTRONG ( trumpeter, louis ) without ARM ( limb )
23 LAWN
Left top of grass or all of it (4)

L ( loft ) AWN ( top of grass )

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,040 by REDSHANK”

  1. Another excellent one from Redshank. Plenty of clues I’d given the tick to on my hard copy, the surface for SUMMER SCHOOL probably being my favourite. COLD SHOULDER for ‘Slight person’ was almost as good. Learnt a few things too, such as what EDIFY(ING) really means and CRAPE as a type of ‘silk’.

    I couldn’t work out exactly what was going on in SCENARIO either. I ended up, unconvinced, with the same parsing as Turbolegs but l’m not sure it really works.

    Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs

  2. 1d does seem a little odd. I didn’t take O as the usual abbreviation for old so much as ARSENICO being 8 of the 14 (and so ‘most’) formed from putting ARSENIC with OLD LACE. An odd construction but, presumably forced, by wanting to refer to “Arsenic and old lace”.

  3. Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs. Finished quickly and enjoyed the process. I didn’t parse SCENARIO and wasn’t sure about Tan as an abbreviation in NATURE but aga is familiar from previous puzzles and EGGNOG has appeared several times in the last week or so.

  4. ACD@3: If you’re still struggling with tan as a function, it’s the standard short form of “tangent” in trigonometry. If it’s any comfort, I didn’t see it at first either.

    For SCENARIO, I too wonder how “lace” helped the clue, other than getting in the film and play reference. Otherwise a lovely puzzle. My favorite was ICE-CREAM SODA. Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs.

  5. A bouquet of lovely clues in this Redshank puzzle made it hard to pick a favourite.
    I particularly admired COLD SHOULDER, SUMMER SCHOOL and BOW AND SCRAPE.
    The surfaces of 20d and 22a were also pleasing.
    I can shed no light on ‘lace’ having parsed SCENARIO the same way as Turbolegs and Wordplodder.
    Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs.

  6. Forgot to say, I’m more accustomed to seeing ‘crepe’ than ‘crape’ (which gave me pause for a short while) but I see both are admissible.

  7. An enjoyable solve – thanks REDSHANK and Turbolegs. Am I the only for whom the (American) spelling of ‘eying’ in 16D jarred? I say that as a Brit who’s been living in the US for 30 years.

  8. It would be interesting to know which puzzle he set first – this or yesterday’s Guardian as the EGGNOG clue is recycled.
    Thanks for the fun, and it was, Redshank and the explanations Turbolegs.

  9. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs

    16dn: Chambers 2014 gives the present participle of the verb eye as eyeing or eying without marking either spelling as American.

  10. Thanks Turbolegs as I just couldn’t see what was going on in BOW AND SCRAPE, a phrase I only know thanks to the Wicker Man. Nor did I know AWN so that was a lucky guess.
    Steve@7 jarred may be too strong a word for my feelings but the spelling is unfamiliar so that was my last one in. On the other hand the mere thought of the word IDEATE is for some reason enough to make me shudder.
    Unsurprisingly I can shed no further light on SCENARIO which was my penultimate.
    I found this quite a challenge but enjoyed eking it out so thank you Redshank.

  11. Got there reasonably quickly by missed Ideate – word I’ve never encountered. Enjoyable. Thanks for explaining Awn, which I now distantly recall.

  12. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
    Enjoyable puzzle to finish the week although I did it late on Saturday afternoon. A good mix of devices used and especially liked the different charades – two of them I didn’t work out properly – missed seeing AND in between U and GA, went the anagram and like others didn’t completely get the ‘lace’ bit, but think that Hovis@2 may be on the right track.
    ARGOSIES was a new term but very clearly clued and had to check that ‘Corinth’ was actually an isthmus. Thought that the ‘points for The Archers’ was clever.
    Finished in the NE corner with SUMMER SCHOOL (nice), that ISTHMIAN and IDEATE (an annoying consulting-y term’) as the last one in.

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