Financial Times 17,213 by ARTEXLEN

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A fun puzzle from ARTEXLEN with nothing too taxing.

FF: 9 DD: 7

ACROSS
1 FRANTIC
Furious fellow in charge keeps shouting (7)

[ F ( fellow ) IC ( in charge ) ] contains RANT ( shouting )
5 PURIFY
Clean timber ahead all round yard (6)

[ FIR ( timber ) UP ( ahead ), reversed ] Y ( yard )
8 ROLLED OUT
Heard character hesitate being introduced (6,3)

sounds like ROLE ( character ) DOUBT ( hesitate )
9 SLUMP
After casing’s switched, fruit suddenly decline (5)

PLUMS ( fruit ) with casing i.e. end characters, switching places
11 UPEND
Turn over page in novel Dune (5)

P ( page ) in [ DUNE ]*
12 KNOWLEDGE
New keg crafted with old skill (9)

[ NEW KEG OLD ]*
13 ENTREATY
To dine inside, register request (8)

EAT ( dine ) in ENTRY ( register )
15 NEARED
Advanced study involving period in revolution (6)

reverse of [ ERA ( period ) in DEN ( study ) ]
17 ESCAPE
Oddly easy covering leak (6)

ES ( EaSy, oddly ) CAPE ( ~covering )
19 MISTRIAL
Invalid hearing film recalled home (8)

MIST ( film ) reverse of LAIR ( home )
22 LANDRAILS
Birds ruined a sill – swallows with rook (9)

[ A SILL ]* containing [ AND ( with ) R ( rook ) ]
23 FLOSS
Cleaning line sells, succeeded for good (5)

FLOgS ( sells, with S – succeeded replacing G – goods )
24 ROAST
Cook rolls with temperature moved to extreme (5)

ROTAS ( rolls ) with T ( temperature ) moving to the end
25 CHINAWARE
Greek letter informed about new pottery (9)

[ CHI ( greek letter ) AWARE ( informed ) ] about N ( new )
26 CRISIS
Size of snack product being reduced is disaster (6)

CRISp ( snack product, reduced ) IS
27 GARMENT
Habit of bloke circling a room (7)

GENT ( bloke ) around [ A RM ( room ) ]
DOWN
1 FORTUNE-TELLER
Loudly welcoming a French clerk as visionary (7-6)

[ FORTE ( loudly ) containing UN ( a, french ) ] TELLER ( clerk )
2 AILMENT
Mate in awful housing left complaint (7)

[ MATE IN ]* containing L ( left )
3 TREND
Tips from tutor on design course (5)

TR ( TutoR, tips of ) END ( design )
4 CROCKETT
Folk hero’s missile piercing heart of victim (8)

ROCKET ( missile ) in CT ( heart of viCTim, central characters )
5 POTION
Drink choice, having downed first (6)

OPTION ( choice ) with first letter dropping down

6 RESILIENT
Tough being right in exam that’s repeated (9)

LIEN ( right ) in RE-SIT ( exam that's repeated )
7 FOUNDER
Collapse considered concerning on reflection (7)

FOUND ( considered ) ER ( reverse of RE, concerning )
10 PREADOLESCENT
Young European getting to study in Cologne? (13)

[ POLE ( european ) containing READ ( study ) ] SCENT ( cologne )
14 EUPHRATES
What holds aloft with speed over southern river (9)

[ EH ( what ) containing UP ( aloft ) ] RATE ( speed ) S ( southern )
16 RIESLING
Type of grape regularly trained on hanging support (8)

RIE ( tRaInEd , regularly ) SLING ( hanging support )
18 CENTAUR
Mythical cross framed in magnificent aura (7)

hidden in "..magnifiCENT AURa"
20 ISOLATE
Ruffling characters in east, oil gets cut off (7)

[ EAST OIL ]*
21 PIECES
Men from church tucked into pastries (6)

CE ( church ) in PIES ( pastries )
23 FLAIR
Reportedly light gift (5)

sounds like FLARE ( light )

9 comments on “Financial Times 17,213 by ARTEXLEN”

  1. Very enjoyable with plenty of smiles. Never beard of handrails, nor even what Wikipedia says is their more common name, corn crakes. My only quibble is that knowledge and skill are not the same.

  4. I knew ‘rails’ not ‘landrails’ (as Geoff says, corn crakes are more familiar to me) but the parsing bore this out.
    I found this to be a moderate challenge though I got there in the end. I needed help from Turbolegs, though, for the correct parsing of 6 and 10.
    For 11a, I toyed with FLICK (‘turn over page’ and Dune, a film or ‘flick’) until 1d put me right.
    My top picks were 4, 12, 21, 23 and 25.
    Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs.

  5. “Nothing too taxing” but more than enough to keep the brain in gear. PREADOLESCENT and then EUPHRATES are words not commonly seen in crosswords and the parsing for both wasn’t immediately obvious. As mentioned by GDU @1-3 and Diane @4 LANDRAILS isn’t one of our usual feathered friends either.

    Took a while to see FOUNDER and then SLUMP at the end. I liked the ‘Cleaning line’ def for FLOSS.

    Earworm of the day: “Davy, Davy CROCKETT, King of the wild frontier…”. Showing my age.

    Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs

  6. Like everyone else, I was unfamiliar with “landrails” although I did know that “rails” are birds.

    I did like 5D: it reminded me of my (amateur) singing days when “Love Potion Number Nine” was one of my regular songs. I still sing it today – but only to oldies in my new over-fifties village.

    18D was very clever.

    Re 3D: can someone explain to me how “end” and “design” are synonyms?

    A belated thanks to Deezzaa for her explanation yesterday for how “cute” can mean “dear”.

  8. Nothing too taxing but there were a few clues which took a bit of working out. Favourites were SLUMP and EUPHRATES. One very minor quibble in that we thought 10dn should be enumerated as (3-10).
    Thanks, Artexlen and Turbolegs.

  9. I struggled to finish this one, and could not parse 6D or 23A, so thanks for the clarifications. I am not entirely sold on “fir” as a synonym for “timber,” but OK. Fair clues overall, though.

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