Financial Times 17,067 by LEONIDAS

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Some wonderfully wicked parsing and definitions for a Tuesday.

This one took a lot of teasing out with many ‘Oh, you rotter’ moments. Excellent fun. Thanks, Leonidas.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9 CEASEFIRE
Blend ice-free as in officer’s order (9)
Anagram (‘blend’) of ICE FREE AS.
10 PRIDE
Satisfaction in naming four 2 works collectively (5)
Presume this to be a ref to Landseer’s ‘Pride of Lions’ painting. Expert explanation weclcome.
11 MUDFLAT
I’m uncertain about Black Key wetland area (7)
UM (‘I’m uncertain’) reversed + D FLAT (or C#), one of the 5 black piano keys per octave.
12 TANTRUM
Truman out of sorts after tense outburst (7)
T[ense] + anagram of TRUMAN.
13 IDE
Plan having lost adult fish (3)
IDEa minus A.
14 PORTMANTEAU
Beverage included in harbour club brunch? (11)
PORT (‘harbour’) + TEA (‘beverage’ ) in MAN[chester] U[nited] (‘club’). ‘Brunch’ (breakfast/lunch) is a ‘portmanteau’ word.
17 BURKA
Thousands exchanged in country once for full coverage (5)
BURmA (‘country once’) its M replaced by K (both = 1,000).
18, 23 PUTRID
Disgusting place repelled director (6)
PUT (‘place’) + reversal of DIR[ector].
19 NOTCH
Postmark perhaps celebrating Congress? (5)
Cryptic definition: a new sexual conquest (successful ‘congress’) is, cynically, ‘another notch on one’s bedpost’. Mine is of course unscathed in 40 years.
21 SECRET AGENT
Shot great scene starting with Toad and Mole (6,5)
Anagram (‘shot’) of GREAT SCENE + 1st of Toad.
23
See 18
25 OBSCURE
Hide regularly on bus before treatment (7)
Alternate letters of ‘On BuS’ + CURE.
27 FORESEE
Anticipate charge to include raw materials (7)
F.EE includes ORES.
28 AGING
Getting on with some gasbag in garden (5)
Included in ‘gasbAG INGarden’.
29 LAURELLED
Ollie presumably second to be garlanded (9)
If Stan LAUREL LED, Oliver Hardy must have been second.
DOWN
1 SCAMPI
Fiddle & Piano knocking 60% off seafood (6)
SCAM (‘fiddle’) + 2/5 of PIano.
2 LANDSEER
Person in the crow’s-nest is an artist? (8)
Cryptic def. from cry of ship’s lookout.
3 CELLOPHANE
Wrapping instrument on sheet lined with hearts (10)
CELLO + H[earts] in P.ANE (‘sheet’ of glass).
4 PICT
Ancient Scot chose broadcast (4)
Homophone of ‘picked’ (‘chose’).
5 HECTOMETRE
Unit in force intercepting Harry close to Palace (10)
MET[ropolitan Police] (‘force’) in HECTO.R (to ‘harry’) + last of ‘palacE’.
6 SPIN
Turn page with wickedness around (4)
P[age] in S.IN.
7 FIERCE
Five out of five rate chilli eating primarily as “intense” (6)
FIvE without V (5, again) + 1sts of Rate Chili Eating.
8 VERMOUTH
Fortified wine churchman tipped over chops (8)
Reversal of REV[erend] + MOUTH (‘chops’).
15 REPEATEDLY
Player tee’d off time and again (10)
Anagram (‘off’’) of PLAYER TEED.
16 NON-STARTER
Turkey finally eaten, so matron needs more cutting (3-7)
Last letters of ‘eateN sO matroN needS’ + TARTER (‘more cutting’). A hefty parse and my last in.
17 BESTOWAL
Wisest member of parliament maybe accepts a grant (8)
The BEST & perhaps therefore the ‘wisest’ in a parliament of OW.Ls includes A.
20 THROSTLE
Singer that flies requiring arrangement of short let (8)
Anagram (‘arrangement’) of SHORT LET.
22 CUSPID
One with a bow to encircle small canine (6)
CU.PID around S[mall].
24 DREADS
Shudders to think about Marley’s hair (6)
Double definition (ref Bob Marley’s dreadlocks).
26 URGE
Drive clear having banned parking (4)
pURGE (to ‘clear’) without P [arking].
27 FAUN
Goat-like deity’s answer stopping merriment (4)
A[nswer] in F.UN.

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,067 by LEONIDAS”

  3. The four lions are in Trafalgar Square and were designed by Landseer after a struggle as he was not a sculptor. Some lovely clues which took careful working out.FIERCE and BESTOWAL were my favourites. Thank you Leonidas and Grant Baynham.

  5. Also put an unparsed CENTIMETRE but other than that, a wonderfully entertaining solve. I liked 2d, naughty NOTCH, LAURELLED and BURKA.
    Thanks, Grant, for your exemplary work in the blog which I needed. Now the PRIDE of lions makes sense.
    Thanks to Leonidas for some witty, tricky fun.

  6. I do enjoy a Leonidas crossword. I particularly liked the ‘Thousands exchanged’ in 17a and the ‘Five out of five’ in 7d. Took ages to see that 15d was an anagram – wonderful clue. Then, of course, there is the comical reference to our fellow ‘poster’ in 19a. Bravo!

  7. Grant, I agree entirely with your preamble – what a super puzzle! (I didn’t manage to parse NON-STARTER, so thanks for that.)

    So many excellent clues but I must pick out MUDFLAT, BURKA, SECRET AGENT, LAURELLED, SCAMPI, LANDSEER, FIERCE and REPEATEDLY – and I gave double ticks to PORTMANTEAU and NOTCH.

    Huge thanks to Leonidas for the fun and Grant for a great blog.

  8. Thanks to Eileen and SM for the additional info on those lions and I agree that PORTMANTEAU was great, both for its sly parsing and definition.

  9. Thanks Leonidas and GB

    For 2, I saw it not as the cry from the cow’s nest (“Land’s ‘ere”), but that the crow’s nest’s position means that the person in it would be the first LAND-SEER on the ship.

  10. Thanks Leonidas and Grant
    I took 2dn the same way as Simon @9. Would not the cry from the crow’s nest be “Land Ahoy”?

  11. A truly splendid crossword with so many splendid clues but 19a made me smile the most so I’ll pick that for top spot

    Thanks very much to Leonidas and to Grant – I’ve solved four of today’s six cryptics and this one was definitely the best

  12. Excellent puzzle – two in two days from this setter after yesterday’s equally good Wire in the Indy. My favourites were as mentioned by others (special mention to NOTCH and PORTMANTEAU) plus CELLOPHANE, another one for which the parsing was not immediately obvious.

    Saved at the bell by entering the rarely seen HECTOMETRE instead of the much more common, but didn’t fit the wordplay, “centimetre”.

    Thanks to Leonidas and Grant

  13. Agree with the plaudits for a very enjoyable puzzle – PORTMANTEAU is terrific and PRIDE took me several minutes to work out with a gratifying penny-drop. Thanks to Grant for the excellent parsing, some of which I had skated over.

    One tiny quibble: shouldn’t 9a be 5,4 rather than 9? I would think that “ceasefire” as one word would be the state of having ceased fire, whereas the officer’s order would be “cease fire”. Not an issue in terms of solving, I accept.

  14. No 17, and possibly the best yet.
    Too many great clues to pick a favourite, maybe 14a, 17d, or 29a.
    THROSTLE was a new word for me, but the ones I had most difficulty with were 5d and 16d.
    Thanks to SS @9 for the nudge, GB for the blog, and NH for the enjoyment.

  15. Perplexus@13 re 9ac: It could be either. Chambers 2014 gives “an order to cease firing” as its first definition of ceasefire (one word) as a noun.

  16. Super puzzle even though we needed plenty of help and there were plenty of “D’oh!” moments, as with PRIDE, MUDFLAT, PORTMANTEAU and CELLOPHANE. We also liked BESTOWAL (we guessed the parliamentarian was of the feathered variety from ‘wisest’ in the clue). THROSTLE brought back memories of train journeys into the old Manchester Central station via the splendidly named Throstle Nest Junction.
    Thanks, Leonidas and Grant

  17. Too much of this was impenetrable for me to be truly enjoyable but I certainly recognize the excellent craftmanship in clues like BURKA, REPEATEDLY, PUTRID, CUSPID, and FIERCE. Thanks to both.

  18. Thanks GB for the blog, very nicely done. Simon S@9 / Pelham B@10 : that was my intention too. And vaguely referencing JMW being lashed to the mast. Most grateful to all who have commented.

  19. I don’t think I’ve heard of the artist/sculptor at 2d. When I was a kid growing up in Wagga in the 70’s, the local bus company (Fearne’s) called their luxury tourist coaches Landseer. Sometimes, but not often, a Landseer would arrive to take us on a school excursion. Always made our day. Fond memories.

  20. Thanks Leonidas and Grant
    Stumbled on this one after persisting with, though not being able to find a link between my TIERCE and ‘intense’ – a pity that I didn’t persist for longer to find FIERCE, which I thought was probably the pick of the bunch when seeing it here !
    As normal with this setter, lots of really interesting clues and plenty of tricks to negotiate along the way resulting in a solve time almost double the average. After initially thinking that it must be CENTIMETRE and not being able to parse it, at least with this one I ended up using a word finder and found the obvious. Along with 7d, really liked 11a, 17a and 29a.
    Finished in the SE corner with NOTCH (which raised a grin) and NON-STARTER (which required some fossicking to equate it to ‘turkey’).

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