Financial Times 17,096 by HAMILTON

by

Hard bur fair, I thought.

Quite a while before this one finally knelt before the sword. One or two quibbles and still a dash of uncertainty over some clues, but a good tussle.

Thanks, Hamilton.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 QUICK MARCH
Intelligent tramp has to get a move on (5,5)

QUICK (‘intelligent’) + MARCH (‘tramp’).
7, 27 CASHMERE
Material reworked? Search me! (8)

Anagram (‘reworked’) of SEARCH ME.
9 MUSO
Player going first in Manchester United shoot-out (4)

1st letters of last 4 words.
10 GADROONING
Indoor gang refurbished decorative edging (10)

Anagram (‘refurbished’) of INDOOR GANG. Good word, new to me.
11 TUSSLE
Scrap awful results right away (6)

Anagram ‘(awful’) of rESULTS without R[ight].
12 OPENINGS
Windows of opportunity provide means of access (8)

Duble definition. A little close, perhaps.
13 AL PACINO
The Godfather who sank all but the last three pina coladas (2,6)

Not quite sure of this. The answer is an anagram (‘sank?) of PINA COLA… as described, but whether Pacino ‘sank’ his opponents (‘they live with the fishes’) as part of the def is unclear to me.
15, 17 COLLAPSE
Company’s large failure led to breakdown (8)

CO + L[Arge] + LAPSE..
19 TEAR DUCT
Spooner’s animals slipped in salt- water channel (4,4)

Spoonerism of ‘deer tucked (‘slipped inside’)’, with cryptic def.
22 BORDELLO
Weary, having no energy, but inwardly mellow in disorderly house (8)

BOReD without E[nergy] + innards of ‘mELLOw’.
23 MAHOUT
Mother’s call missed second beastly driver (6)

MA + sHOUT. without S[econd].
25 CAT BURGLAR
Siberian intruder? (3,7)

Cryptic def. A Siberian cat is an official domestic breed which might, one understands, take it into his head to go a-burgling. H’m.
26 ICKY
Gervais loses his head, and that’s unpleasant (4)

Ref rICKY Gervais, British comedian.
27
See 7 across
28 SADDLESORE
Consequence for jockey who’s been up for too long (10)

Lightly cryptic def, ‘up’ meaning ‘in the saddle’.
DOWN
2 UNUSUAL
County must run health centres, which is not normal (7)

Middle letters of 1st 4 words.
3, 24 CROSS HAIRS
Used to focus on Harris, cos something started to change (5,5)

Anagram (‘to change’) of ‘HARRIS COS S’ {omething}.
4 MAGNESIA
Girl in focus going up for laxative (8)

AGNES in reversal oF AIM (‘focus’).
5 RADIO-CONTROLLED
In order to call, do reconnect; this way there aren’t any leads (5-10)

Anagram (‘reconnect’) of 1st 5 words.
6 HOOFER
Repair man gets new lead and may appear on Strictly Come Dancing (6)

rOOFER, 1st letter changed.
7 CONVINCED
Satisfied when revealed deception has seen off Edward (9)

Not sure of this. ‘Revealed deception’ might be ‘con evinced’, from which ‘see off’ E[dward]. My best shot, anyway.
8 SENEGAL
Directions Jane followed to African republic (7)

SENE (compass ‘directions’) + GAL (‘Jane’ being a synonym of that, as in ‘Joes & Janes’ in ‘Guys & Dolls’).
14 AMENDABLE
Persuadable, and when daughter’s included, can be adjusted (9)

‘Amenable’ becomes ‘amendable’.
16 BALMORAL
Castle workshop turned over, honest (8)

Reversed LAB + MORAL.
18 PROBATE
Official will drum up content of exercise in school (7)

Reversal of TABOR (‘drum’) as ‘content’ of P.E.
20 CHUKKER
Spoke of ball player and period of game play (7)

Homophone of ‘chucker’. Unusual spelling, but in Chambers.
21 FLIRTS
Teases Sam, rejected by playful film stars (6)

Anagram (‘playful’) of ‘FILm sTaRS’ minus letters of SAM.
24
See 3

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,096 by HAMILTON”

  1. AL PACINO: What you have taken as def seems all right. ‘sank’ is an anagram indicator-you have indicated that (If Al Pacino sank something or not, it may not be relevant here.).

    CONVINCED: I am convinced. Can’t see anything wrong with your parsing.

  2. I enjoyed this, and got most of it out without any assistance. I had HOOPER for 6d, thinking the reference was to Melanie Hooper, and the repair man was a cooper (barrel repairer). I hadn’t heard of Melanie Hooper, but apparently she has definite links to Dancing with the stars.

    Hadn’t heard of GADROONING or CHUKKA. Didn’t think 28a was cryptic.

  4. I have never seen a polo period as anything but “chukka” but then I didn’t go to Eton!

    Am I the only person who is annoyed by clues that split the answer across two different areas like 7,27 and 15,17? I accept that both parts of the answer are words in themselves but they are not referenced in the clue.

    Like Grant, 10A was a new word to me, and Grant, you’re missing an “o” in your explanation of 12A – “duble” should be double. A minor issue and thanks for your blog.

  5. I didn’t find this easy either. I parsed 13a as per Grant, with similar uncertainties, but had no idea about CONVINCED and wrongly spelt CHUKKER with an A. GADROONING known from “Antiques Roadshow” even if I didn’t know exactly what the experts were referring to.

    I agree with your comment about split answers in different parts of the grid, Peter@4.

    After 4d, interesting to see another “laxative-girl” pairing in 8d, homophonically (in part) anyway.

    Thanks to Hamilton and Grant

  6. An enjoyable grid on the whole in which FLIRTS was my favourite. Failed on CHUKKER at the last because I had mispelt MAHOUT and parsed it differently (ma’s, missing the s of ‘second’, together with ‘hoot’ from call). Annoying really, since unlike the split answers mentioned already, they fit together rather nicely. GADROONING is indeed a good word and one I know from scouring decorative arts catalogues.
    Thanks to Hamilton for the workout and Grant for a sound blog.

  7. I managed to complete this unaided. Agree with GB’s assessment and thanks to setter and blogger for their excellent work. These crosswords are such a welcome escape from the horrors of our world.

    For 20d I had CHUCKER which is a baseball term . I fear this is wrong. Must CHUKKER be the answer?

  8. Thanks Hamilton and Grant
    20dn: SM, the answer must be CHUKKER, because “Spoke of” appears at the beginning of the clue, and so “period of game play” must be the definition of the answer.

  9. Incidentally, in 14dn, I think the definition should be all of “can be adjusted”.

  11. A good challenge and I would agree with hard but fair, except for CAT BURGLAR…

    FWIW, my alternative but no doubt flawed potential parsing of CONVINCED was CON (deception) VINC. (abbreviation of vincit, latin for defeated – seen off) plus ED. But this does leave “revealed” as superfluous, unless “convinced” means “satisfied when revealed”.

  12. Thank you Grant as I had assumed there must be a word “edvinced” but you have a much better idea, and I also no-balled thanks to a Chucker. Other bits I thought iffy have all been mentioned, but a thumbs up for a few esp. GADROONING, only guessed thanks to a Lovejoy book! Thanks for a stiff test Hamilton.

  13. Hmmm. A few blanks before I gave in. My mistake however was to put in Al Caponi as the answer to 13 across. You may laugh but the famous gangster’s family name is not Capone but Caponi. Or I learned from Wikipedia. Odd that this is an anagram of Pacino.

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