Financial Times 17,291 by GURNEY

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Gurney has a rare Thursday outing.

I found this slightly more challenging than many of there Gurney puzzles I've solved before, but I got there in the end. For some unfathomable reason, it took me a while to work out the parsing of REIGN and PHONEY took too long to be dredged from my ageing brain.

Thanks, Gurney.

ACROSS
1 SUMMONS
Order to appear Monday featuring in calculations (7)

Mon. (Monday) featuring in SUMS ("calculations")
5 SOIGNE
One’s prepared to welcome returning soldier, well-groomed (6)

*(ones) [anag:prepared] to welcome [returning] <=GI ("soldier")
8 PORCELAIN
Simple housing as alternative to extremely choice in China (9)

PLAIN ("simple") housing OR ("alternative") + [extremely] C(hoic)E
9 PLUMP
Fleshy fruit, pleasing initially (5)

PLUM ("fruit") + P(leasing) [initially]
11 REIGN
With no support at the outset, call time on period in charge (5)

RE(s)IGN ("call time") with no S (S(upport) at the outset)
12 SPEARMINT
Source of flavour in foreign pantries impressing Monsieur? (9)

*(pantries) [anag:foreign] impressing M (monsieur)
13 TEDDY BOY
Odd bet, yearly after vacation, could make 1950s guy (5,3)

*(off bet yy) [anag:could make] where YY is Y(earl)Y [after vacation]
15 RATHER
Article by artist? Right to a certain degree (6)

THE ("article") by RA (member of the Royal Academy, so "artist") + R (right)
17 TRENCH
Channel showing leading couples in training, English champions (6)

[leading couples in] TR(aining) EN(glish) CH(ampions)
19 FLOTILLA
See where money is held in centre of seafarer ships (8)

LO ("see") + TILL ("where money is kept") in [centre of] (sea)FA(rer)
22 OVERTHROW
Fielder’s error and downfall (9)

Double definition, the first referring to a mistake made by a fielder in cricket, where he or she throws the ball beyond the stumps.
23 IRAQI
National misread quip — nothing odd in that (5)

[nothing odd in] (m)I(s)R(e)A(d) Q(u)I(p)

24 SWARM
Large group from South, cordial (5)

S (South) + WARM ("cordial")
25 GUITARIST
Unexpected gratuities European left for musician (9)

*(gratuitis) [anag:unexpected] where GRATUITIS is GRATUITI(e)S with E (European) left

26 PHONEY
Call, ultimately dodgy and not genuine (6)

PHONE ("call") + [ultimately] (dodg)Y
27 GEORGIC
Eg corgi, lively, in this rural poem? (7)

*(eg corgi) [anag:lively]
DOWN
1 SUPERSTITIOUS
In play, strip out issue having no basis in reality (13)

*(strip out issue) [anag:in play]
2 MARRIED
Mike came after Victor’s gone with a partner (7)

M (Mike, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + ARRI(v)ED ("came" after V (Victor, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) is gone)
3 OCEAN
Huge quantity of copy, editor annoyed naturally at first (5)

O(f) C(opy) E(ditor) A(nnoyed) N(aturally) [at first]
4 SNAPSHOT
Speaks sharply, furious, in quick appraisal (8)

SNAPS ("speaks sharply") + HOT ("furious")
5 SUNSET
Sort of pudding divided by Poles in final stage (6)

SUET ("sort of pudding") divided by N + S (North and South, so "poles")
6 IMPORTANT
Key incoming item needing worker’s support (9)

IMPORT ("incoming item") needing ANT ("worker")
7 NOURISH
Feed sorted out in hours (7)

*(in hours) [anag:sorted out]
10 PATERNALISTIC
Sort of management pattern, heartless, top people in charge? (13)

[heartless] PAT(t)ERN + A-LIST ("top people") + IC (in charge)
14 YACHTSMAN
He has many chats at sea? (9)

*(many chats) [anag:at sea] and &lit.
16 CLOWNING
150 having fun (8)

CL (150, in Roman numerals) + OWNING ("having")
18 EYEWASH
Setter in conversation with tree? Nonsense (7)

Homophone [in conversation] of I ("setter") + W (with) + ASH ("tree")
20 LEADING
Having reversed direction, Berkshire team ahead (7)

(r>L)EADING ("Berkshire town" with R (right) becoming L (left), so changing direction)
21 CRAGGY
Rugged — shout about recycled gag (6)

CRY ("shout") about *(gag) [anag:recycled]
23 IMAGO
Insect victim, a goner? Not entirely (5)

Hidden in [not entirely] "victIM A GOner"

24 comments on “Financial Times 17,291 by GURNEY”

  1. An enjoyable divertissement. I couldn’t parse REIGN or LEADING. GEORGIC & SOIGNE were new to me. And I have only a vague recollection of having two distinctly British terms, TEDDY BOY and EYEWASH explained to me here a few months ago. (We have hogwash in the Antipodes.)

  3. I enjoyed this outing by Gurney. Didn’t know GEORGIC but it was my first guess for the anagram. SOIGNÉ only rang a vague bell and I was glad that the clue for PATERNALISTIC pretty well spelled the answer out. loonapick, there is an odd error in your parsing for 13a. Not sure if you meant to write “town” or ‘team” in 20d.

  5. A very well put together puzzle, thanks, Gurney. No themes or gimmicks, just a nicely varied set of well crafted clues. I wouldn’t say it was easy but I did seem to click with it.

    And thanks for the blog, Loonapick. Similar problems with PHONEY and REIGN for me, but they yielded eventually.

  6. Thanks for the blog and all the others this year. Good variety of clues here , it seemed to be a very friendly grid, always letters to help, especially first letters.
    YACHTSMAN was neat and FLOTILLA . Not heard of GEORGIC but the clue was fair.
    Geoff @1 a reminder about TEDDY BOY, a 1950s and onward fashion for dressing like Edwardian dandies. Mainly groups of teenagers and they were the first teenage hooligans despite appearances.

  7. A pretty easy solve today but, I have to admit, with some embarrassment, that 26A was my last one in. I had no problem parsing it but I was hung up on thinking that the answer (after I had the cross-letters) had to be “shonky”. I cannot remember being held up by such an easy solve.

    Despite my absolute ignorance of anything to do with cricket (yawn), I managed to solve 22A: but isn’t “overthrow” a verb and “downfall” a noun? Pedantic, I know, but the noun equivalent of “overthrow” should be “overthrowal”. I know that it’s probably in Chambers (which I do not own) but I doubt that it’s in the OED.

    Hey, Roz, I wasn’t picking on you yesterday: I guess that I misinterpreted your comment about “Issue”. Please don’t go away… forgive me.

  8. Thanks for the blog. I could parse all except REIGN, and even now, I am not 100% persuaded. (I was thinking REIGN[ITE]? [SOVE]REIGN? No, of course, those do not work.) “Call time on,” while intelligible in the US, is not an expression that we would normally use here. I guess that while “call time on” and “resign [from]” both mean “stop” or “quit,” in a sense, they somehow (to me) do not feel like ready synonyms for each other, but I cannot quite put my finger on a meaningful distinction. That quibble aside, a very pleasant puzzle.

  9. Peter@7: “Overthrow” is listed as a noun in both senses in Chambers. “The overthrow of the tsarist regime” = “downfall.”

  10. I agree with others that this grid showed a fine variety of clues. I didn’t find it especially hard but failed to parse a couple including REIGN. Loonapick’s parsing works for me.
    I really liked CLOWNING, FLOTILLA, TRENCH and SOIGNE.
    Thanks for an enjoyable solve, Gurney, and Loonapick for the write-up.

  11. Thanks, Cineraria, for confirming my guess that Chambers would have it wrong. I still believe that “overthrowal” is a noun and “overthrow” is a verb.

    Maybe it’s time for me to leave this earth… “invite” is a verb, not a noun.

    “Begging the question” does not mean “suggesting a question”. Instead, it means assuming something as fact when it hasn’t been proven. The most common example, which was drummed into me at university (and politically incorrect these days) is “When did you stop beating your wife”. Assuming something as true when it has not been proved.

    And don’t get me started on “true facts”! All facts are true.

    Ahh, time for bed here in the land down under…

  12. Cineraria@8
    I have come across ‘call time on’ in the sense of ‘retire/quit’ as you say, but not in the sense of ‘resign’.

    However, close enough for me to say that I am fine with the clue.

  13. Peter – very first definition of Overthrow (n.) in the OED:

    “The action of overthrowing something; the fact of being overthrown; defeat; deposition from power; destruction, ruin; an instance of this.”

    Citations going back to 1440. (Which is when cricketers take their tea break, appropriately enough)

  15. ‘Overthrow’ in the cricketing sense is used far more frequently as a noun than a verb (which I’m not sure I’ve ever heard.

  16. Simon S – the cricketing sense only has citations going back as far as 1748, so it’s fair enough for Peter to dismiss that one as an odious neologism.

    Btw, earliest citation for “overthrowal” is 1862.

  17. Has anyone else noticed that there’s an extra crossword by MONK available on the FT website numbered 17,303 – ie 12 days in the future?
    It’s a good one too. Happy Early New Year.

  19. I agree with Simon@15 that overthrow is a noun in cricket; and “four overthrows” can easily be gifted by a fielder’s error.

    Elsewhere, the word is used as both verb and noun in The War Song of Dinas Vawr:

    “Fierce warriors rushed to meet us;
    We met them, and o’erthrew them…

    Ednyfed, king of Dyfed,
    His head was borne before us;
    His wine and beasts supplied our feasts,
    And his overthrow, our chorus. ”

  22. Thanks Gurney for a solid crossword. I couldn’t parse REIGN but all else made sense. Liked EYEWASH with its apropos surface. Was amused that SUNSET was my LOI. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

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