Financial Times 17,231 by ARTEXLEN

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A neat puzzle from ARTEXLEN this Friday to keep us entertained.

FF: 9 DD: 8

ACROSS
1 MANIFOLD
Mother returned home with tuck of various kinds (8)

MA ( mother ) NI ( home = IN, reversed ) FOLD ( tuck )
5 SCROLL
Westbound Tolkien characters, two lines move on screen (6)

SCRO ( tolkie characters = ORCS, reversed ) LL ( two lines )
10 LEVER
Ignoring leader, artful crank (5)

cLEVER ( artful, without leader i.e. without first letter )
11 GATE MONEY
Such that ground may get after entry of whole (4-5)

semi &lit; [ MAY GET ]* containing ONE ( whole )
12 DIGNITARY
VIP putting golf with fool in appointment book (9)

[ G ( golf ) NIT ( fool ) ] in DIARY ( appointment book )
13 INDIA
Country in plan to drop metric unit of mass . . . . (5)

IN DIAgram ( plan , without GRAM – metric unit of mass )
14 STONES
. . . . imperial measure of mass rocks (6)

double def
15 DETRACT
Take away tons carried around (7)

T ( tons ) CARTED ( carried ), all reversed
18 HEROISM
Husband drunk is more daring (7)

H ( husband ) [ IS MORE ]*
20 HOODOO
Robin, say, beside another without wings – that’s bad luck (6)

HOOD ( robin, say ) hOOd ( another, without wings i.e. without end characters )
22 CACTI
Plants coil oddly around front (5)

CI ( CoIl, oddly ) around ACT ( front )
24 DISREPAIR
Shabby condition of couple after rocky rides (9)

[ RIDES ]* PAIR ( couple )
25 PIRATICAL
Buccaneering mate seizing scoundrel in charge on island (9)

PAL ( mate ) containing [ { RAT ( scoundrel ) IC ( in charge ) } after I ( island ) ]
26 OWING
Old part of building that’s outstanding (5)

O ( old ) WING ( part of building )
27 ARTERY
Vessel stripped bare with crack across base (6)

AR ( bARe, stripped i.e. without end letters ) [ TRY ( crack ) containing E ( base ) ]
28 BRINGS ON
Calls to invest in good French causes (6,2)

RINGS ( calls ) in BON ( good, french )
DOWN
1 MALADY
Complaint from youth interrupting former PM (6)

LAD ( youth ) in MAY ( former pm )
2 NAVIGATOR
One directs new pilot about flying ultimately (9)

N ( new ) [ AVIATOR ( pilot ) around G ( flyinG, ultimately ) ] – tempted somewhat to mark this an &lit
3 FOREIGN MINISTER
Encourage keeping control over little politician (7,8)

FOSTER ( encourage ) containing [ REIGN ( control ) MINI ( little ) ]
4 LOG JAMS
Hold-ups shake gentle types according to Spooner (3,4)

spoonerism of JOG ( shake ) LAMBS ( gentle types )
6 COME INTO ONES OWN
Demonstrate talent once emotion is settled on broadcast (4,4,4,3)

[ ONCE EMOTION ]* SOWN ( broadcast )
7 OWNED
Extract from clown editor retained (5)

hidden in "..clOWN EDitor.."
8 LAY WASTE
Former traps close to boundary used to cause devastation (3,5)

LATE ( former ) containing [ Y ( boundarY, last letter ) WAS ( used to ) ]
9 STAYED
Remained speedy regularly crossing river (6)

SED ( SpEeDy, regularly ) containing TAY ( river )
16 ANOMALIES
Peculiarities of number beset by malaise at sea (9)

NO ( number ) in [ MALAISE ]*
17 CHICKPEA
Elegant parrot eating soft seed (8)

[ CHIC ( elegant ) KEA ( parrot ) ] containing P ( soft )
19 MEDICO
Physician from foreign country dropping by for day (6)

MExICO ( foreign country ) with X { by } replaced by D { day }
20 HUSTLER
That woman filled with desire bringing down large fraud (7)

HER ( that woman ) containing LUST ( desire ) with L – large, moving down
21 ORIGIN
Mounted US soldier among other ranks in base (6)

IG ( us solider = GI, reversed ) in [ OR ( other ranks ) IN ]
23 CARET
Learner leaving red mark on page (5)

ClARET ( red, without L – learner )

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,231 by ARTEXLEN”

  1. Most enjoyable, thanks Artexlen & Turbolegs for the blog. Goldilocks level of difficulty. I shall add Tay to my growing list of unknown British rivers.

  3. A rather gentle solve although 11A needed all the cross letters to complete.

    Re 22A, I’m still not sure how “ACT” means “FRONT”. I can act in a play and I can front a band, but I cannot see a relationship between the two.

    I did like 23A ..but then I do like that wine. Turbolegs, you need to amend your solution from “CIARET’ to “CLARET”.

    Great blog anyway: we all press the wrong keys now and then.

  5. Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs

    Peter @ 3/4 The lower case l in ClARET is an indicator that it is dropped for the solution.

  6. Geoff, common British rivers of three or four letters in crosswords are TAY, CAM, DEE, ESK, ISIS, SARK. TYNE, TEES, WYE and probably a whole lot more.

  7. Not so gentle for me, particularly with my last three in, GATE MONEY (v. good), LAY WASTE and finally LOG JAMS. Even my first in CARET could have been my last in on another day if I hadn’t seen CLARET for ‘red’.

    Peter @3, for 22a I thought of ACT and ‘front’ as both nouns.

    Thanks to Turbolegs and Artexlen

  8. Thanks to Artexlen. Most of this flew in for me, but then there were five or six left that I had to chew over.

    WordPlodder@7 & Peter@3: Yes, “putting on an act” and “putting up a front” are synonymous. In US slang, “fronting” as a verb is equivalent to “pretending” (to be someone or something). I don’t know whether that usage is current in the UK.

    For CARET, I was so occupied scratching my head trying to figure out what to do with the leftover “s” from “scarlet” (for “red”), that the obvious “claret” never occurred to me, so thanks for that clarification.

  9. Thanks Artexlen for an excellent crossword. Like GDU @1 this was in my Goldilocks zone. There was some head-scratching but I was able to solve and parse everything — not an everyday thing for me. My top choices included LEVER, BRINGS ON, LOG JAMS, LAY WASTE, HUSTLER, and my clue of the day, MEDICO. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog and your spot-on ratings.

  11. I didn’t find this particularly enjoyable. The clueing of GATE-MONEY, HOODOO, and CHICKPEA was not not good. Artexlen is usually better than this.

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