Financial Times 17,144 by GURNEY

by

A pleasant summer morning stroll.

Nothing too taxing and all solidly clued with the occasional flash of wit. Just right for a Tuesday. Thanks, Gurney.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 MAJOR-LEAGUE
Important PM meets the French and Germans at outset – EU going wrong way? (5-6)
Ex-PM John MAJOR + LE (Fr. ‘the’) + firsts of ‘And’ & ‘German’ + reversal of EU.
7 MAT
What might follow prayer mother initially thought (3)
I.e. ‘prayer’-‘MAT = MA (‘mother’) + 1st of ‘Thought’.
9 LIMIT
Restrict books this person’s plugging (5)
L.IT[erature] (‘books’) surrounds ‘I’M’.
10 TRAVELLER
No stay-at-home type, one giving account about artist Vermeer at first (9)
T.ELLER (‘one giving account’) around RA (‘artist’) + 1st of ‘V{ermeer}’.
11 OBSERVANT
Perceptive former pupil attending daily? (9)
O[ld] B[oy] + SERVANT (E.g. ‘daily’ cleaner).
12 PIECE
Musical composition, calm, given a hearing (5)
Homophone of ‘peace’.
13 SPASSKY
Chess champion’s permit accepted by broadcaster (7)
S.KY (‘broadcaster’) includes PASS (‘permit’) to give Boris of that ilk, whose Nemesis was Bobby Fischer.
15 YANK
American’s refusal recalled by king (4)
NAY, reversed, + K[ing].
18 PROP
Forward paid pittance originally (4)
PRO[fessional] (‘paid) + 1st of P[ittance], to give Rugby ‘forward’.
20 HERBAGE
Grass in this place appropriate to be included (7)
HER.E includes BAG (to ‘appropriate’, as in towels on deckchairs).
23 OMEGA
Last of series, “Ring” – extremely impressive (5)
‘O’ (= ‘ring’) + MEGA (‘extremely impressive’).
24 LANDSCAPE
Portrait turned on its side for printers? (9)
I.e. the opposite of ‘portrait’ in a printer’s aspect ratio.
26 SHORTFALL
Arrange about hotel before some time in US – deficit results (9)
S.ORT (‘arrange’) around H[otel] + FALL (American season, ‘some time’).
27 BLAST
Gust that’s annoying (5)
Double definition.
28 NET
Regularly used insect trap (3)
Alternate letters of ‘iNsEcT’.
29 CHEERLEADER
Somehow declare here’s one providing encouragement (11)
Anagram (‘somehow’) of DECLARE HERE.
DOWN
1 MULHOUSE
One saying little about university left hospital in French city (8)
M.OUSE (timid person, ‘one saying little’) around U[niversity] + L[eft] + H[ospital].
2 JUMP-SEAT
Unexpected jam – set up extra place to rest (4,4)
Anagram (‘unexpected’) of JAM SET UP.
3 ROTOR
It goes around – unchanged however you look at it (5)
I.e. ‘rotor’ is a palindrome.
4 ESTUARY
Type of English, say? True – new version (7)
Anagram (‘new version’) of SAY TRUE.
5 GHASTLY
Very unpleasant hag, sly, on the move, time to become involved! (7)
Anagram (‘on the move’) of HAG SLY includes T[ime].
6 EYE-OPENER
Description of letter E that may startle? (3-6)
I.e. ,’E’ = 1st of ‘Eye’.
7 MULLET
Swimmer’s hairstyle (6)
Double def.
8 TURKEY
Country bird (6)
And another.
14 SARCASTIC
Catholic wine in container – maybe funny in ironic way (9)
SA.C (‘container’) includes RC + ASTI (‘wine’).
16 SARABAND
Dance girl brought over musical group (8)
SARA (a ‘girl’) above BAND (‘musical group’).
17 DEFECTOR
Turncoat failing at core of work (8)
DEFECT (‘failing’) + centre of ‘wORk’).
19 PALE ALE
Paella freshly prepared served with English drink (4,3)
Anagram (‘freshly prepared’) of PAELLA + E[nglish].
20 HANDLER
Agent’s name given by republican (7)
HANDLE (informal ‘name’) + R[epublican].
21 COUSIN
Relation from America in the money (6)
US in CO.IN.
22 DEVOUT
Deeply religious, extremely divine – very unfashionable? (6)
Ends of ‘DivinE’ + V[ery] + OUT (‘unfashionable’).
25 SABRE
Gets a break, characters leaving weapon (5)
Hidden in ‘getS A BREak’

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,144 by GURNEY”

  1. I enjoyed this puzzle with everything making sense and nothing too obscure or unclear. I couldn’t have told you much about MULHOUSE, but see now it’s home to the Schlumpf automobile (especially Bugatti) museum.

    I liked MAJOR-LEAGUE and the reminder of Boris SPASSKY; I see that the first game of the famous World Chess Championship against Bobby Fischer was exactly 50 years ago yesterday.

    Thanks to Gurney and Grant

  2. Enjoyable and not too taxing. Had to come here to parse 18a, and I still don’t know why ESTUARY is a type of English…

  3. Estuary English is a slightly derogatory term for a sort of Cockney-lite southeastern version of RP, the extended estuary in question being that of the Thames.
    Its native speakers would pronounce it roughly as ‘Esh-cheree’, which tells you all you need to know.

  5. Geoff,
    It’s an increasingly common accent but its speakers are supposedly from around the Thames estuary (definitely not RP).
    I also liked MAJOR LEAGUE, EYE-OPENER and HERBAGE among others. I didn’t know the dance or that chess player (Kasparov and Fischer are the sum total of my knowledge of chess) but both were fairly clued. Still didn’t get the dance though.
    Thanks to Gurney and Grant.

  7. A very easy puzzle for me apart from 1D. I have never heard of this city and it certainly doesn’t sound French. I was held up for a while by thinking that “one saying little” was “mute” but when I solved 13A as “Spassky”, I realised that “mouse” was the answer.

    Re 16D, I read “girl brought over” as a girl’s name reversed before realising it just meant “before”. As a musician, I was very familiar with the answer but had always known it as “sarabande”. I know that the “e” was dropped from Ingmar Bergman’s last film “Saraband”.

    I would like a dollar for every time that “ROTOR” has been used as an answer in cryptic crosswords…

  8. It is no surprise that Mulhouse does not sound French as it was part of Switzerland for centuries ,only annexed to France in 1648 at the treaty of Westphalia (according to Wikipedia.)
    I agree with Peter about ROTOR. MULLET and TURKEY have been pretty ubiquitous .Old Boys as former pupils have been seen before too. But I enjoyed the puzzle and the blog so many thanks to both.

  10. Thanks Peter. Very sentimental and sounds well on a warm summer’s day. A waltz probably more suitable than a sarabande.

  11. Thanks Gurney, I really enjoyed this. I hadn’t heard of MULHOUSE, SARABAND, or ESTUARY as a type of English but I was able to solve for them from the wordplay. I ticked MAJOR-LEAGUE (great surface), OMEGA (clever misdirection with the words “last” and “extremely”), EYE-OPENER, SARCASTIC, and DEVOUT as my top choices. I never got PROP because I’m not versed in rugby. Thanks Grant for explaining it all.

  13. Agreed, nothing too taxing – although we jumped to conclusions a few times but fortunately realised where we’d gone wrong so were able to finish. In 10ac we saw ‘artist Vermeer at first’ as RAV and confidently pencilled in ‘extravert’ (not that we could parse the rest) before 4dn put us right; then in 1dn we saw UL and thought of ‘Toulouse’ before MULHOUSE occurred to us. LOI was 23ac where ‘ring’ suggested ‘opera’ at first instead of OMEGA.
    A pleasant stroll indeed. Favourite was LANDSCAPE.
    Thanks, Gurney and Grant.

  16. Many thanks, Grant, for the excellent blog and also to all those who commented.

    Perhaps prayer mats were in greater use by Everton fans towards the end of last season…

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