Financial Times 17,257 by STEERPIKE

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STEERPIKE kicks things off this Monday morning….

Despite spending a silly amount of time parsing 16a, I found this to be a very enjoyable and well clued puzzle.

 

Thanks STEERPIKE!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. He is put in ultimate command (6)
BEHEST

HE is put in BEST (ultimate)

4. Revolutionary way madman delivers hackneyed tale (8)
CHESTNUT

CHE (revolutionary) + ST (way) + NUT (madman)

10. Confused forgery, with old line written in biro (9)
SHAMBOLIC

SHAM (forgery) with ((O (old) + L (line)) written in BIC (biro))

11. Wash black articles (5)
BATHE

B (black) + A THE (articles)

12. Wolf down sandwich with zero filling (4)
BOLT

BLT (sandwich) with O (zero) filling

13. Spooner’s stuffed snacks for traditional Spanish events (10)
BULLFIGHTS

“full bites” (stuffed snacks, “Spooner’s”)

15. Newton essentially trusted in God’s consistency (7)
DENSITY

(N (newton) + [tru]S[ted] (essentially)) in DEITY (god)

16. Lodge run by bishop is overlooked (6)
RESIDE

R (run) + [b]ESIDE (by, B (bishop) is overlooked)

19. Fortune-teller poor man called on regular basis (6)
ORACLE

[p]O[o]R [m]A[n] C[a]L[l]E[d] (on a regular basis)

21. Rejected son meets Nationalist in central Germany (7)
SCORNED

S (son) meets (N (nationalist) in CORE (central)) + D (Germany)

23. Brought back jelly and cake for deprived child (10)
RAGAMUFFIN

(AGAR)< (jelly, <brought back) and MUFFIN (cake)

25. Drag from foyer in auditorium (4)
HAUL

“hall” (foyer, “in auditorium”)

27. Finally found a hotel in satellite state (5)
IDAHO

([foun]D (finally) + A + H (hotel)) in IO (satellite)

28. Horrendous forty days following outcast’s return (9)
REPELLENT

LENT (forty days)) following (LEPER)< (outcast, <return)

29. French article on expensive architectural features (8)
STEEPLES

LES (French article) on STEEP (expensive)

30. King is taken in by Sunak’s figures (6)
PRISMS

(R (king) + IS)) taken in by PMS (Sunak’s)

DOWN
1. Meddlesome type engaged young man to protect daughter (8)
BUSYBODY

BUSY (engaged) + (BOY (young man) to protect D (daughter))

2. Heroin dealer in remarkably well-known band (9)
HEADLINER

H (heroin) + (DEALER IN)* (*remarkably)

3. Cries of highly unpleasant Americans, in short (4)
SOBS

SO (highly) + BS (unpleasant, American)

5. One who shouts out mild expletive encounters extremely little resistance (7)
HECKLER

HECK (mild expletive) + L[ittl]E (extremely) + R (resistance)

6. U-boat expedition in act of capitulating (10)
SUBMISSION

SUB (u-boat) + MISSION (expedition)

7. Nick Nolte’s beginning to upset church (5)
NOTCH

N[olte] (beginning) + (TO)< (<upset) + CH (church)

8. Some accept he is truly godly type (6)
THEIST

[accep]T HE IS T[ruly] (some)

9. Dull, vociferous Yankee crushed by leader of Confederates (6)
CLOUDY

(LOUD (vociferous) + Y (Yankee)) crushed by C[onfederates] (leader)

14. Idiot from Northern Ireland and petty officer married on deck (10)
NINCOMPOOP

NI (Northern Island) and NCO (petty officer) + M (married) on POOP (deck)

17. Guard seen sporting overalls (9)
DUNGAREES

(GUARD SEEN)* (*sporting)

18. Hero-worships grown-up defending area north of El Salvador (8)
ADULATES

ADULT (grown-up) defending A (area) north of ES (El Salvador)

20. Implement English fellow stuck in hideous crone (7)
ENFORCE

E (English) + (F (fellow) stuck in (CRONE)* (*hideous))

21. Broadcaster claiming Independent politician is inadequate (6)
SKIMPY

SKY (broadcaster) claiming (I (independent) + MP (politician))

22. Conserving energy, dogs initially avoided sexual encounters (6)
ORGIES

conserving E (energy), [c]ORGIS (dogs, initially avoided)

24. Level area in forest changing hands (5)
GRADE

GLADE (area in forest), replacing L with R (changing hands)

26. Have difficulty saying rude words? (4)
SLUR

Double definition

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,257 by STEERPIKE”

  1. Thanks Teacow, but may I suggest a different solution to 3D? SOBS could be an Americanism which is a short form of “Sons Of B….S” – think female dogs.

    I solved 22D despite never having experienced one.

  2. Very enjoyable and not overly difficult. Clever wordplay throughout.
    I don’t think I’ve come access IO for satellite before and couldn’t parse SOBS but the rest slotted in nicely.
    I particularly liked CHESTNUT and HECKLER.
    Thanks STEERPIKE and Teacow.

  4. I think I agree with Peter@1 re the parsing of 3d. I had SOBS for silly old buggers, but couldn’t understand why American. Peter’s take on it works better.

    Thanks Steerpike and Teacow.

  7. My first go with the FT crossword app which is pretty good except (a) it doesn’t have a timer (unless I missed it) and (b) it’s only free for 30 days, so it will be back to pen and paper then.

    Some good words here – SHAMBOLIC (even if I think of it as being hopeless and disorganised more than ‘confused’), RAGAMUFFIN and NINCOMPOOP. Any reference to recent UK political events I wonder?

    Thanks to Steerpike and Teacow

  8. Thanks Steerpike for an excellent crossword. I surprisingly found this more of a challenge than Leonidas on Saturday. I used the app to check RESIDE which I couldn’t parse and to reveal ORGIES which I could neither guess nor parse. Otherwise everything else fell into place with CHESTNUT, SHAMBOLIC, IDAHO, STEEPLES, SLUR, and SOBS as favourites. (The American actor, Jack Nicholson, once said that his mother never saw the irony when she called him an SOB.) Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  9. Thanks for the blog, a really neat set of clues. IO is probably the most interesting moon in the solar system , very active with a high concentration of volcanoes. Voyager 1 was first to detect volcanic plumes.

  10. Many thanks to Teacow for the blog and his generous review. Thanks to everyone else for their comments. 3 down was intended as Peter@1 parsed it. Although the abbreviation is not in Chambers, it does appear in Collins and Cambridge (which both list it as chiefly/mainly North American usage).

  11. Thanks Steerpike and Teacow

    Steerpike @ 10 s.o.b. (sic) is in the Chambers app, with no indication of being an Americanism.

  12. Thanks Steerpike and Teacow

    Further to Simon S@11, s.o.b. is also in the paper Chambers 2014, between sob and soba, not at the beginning of the S section, where one might reasonably expect to find it.

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