Financial Times 17,448 by BASILISK

by

Thanks to Basilisk for the challenge this morning.

I found this on the easier side of the Basilisk spectrum, and very enjoyable.

I haven’t found a theme or Nina – there may be something musical going on with each of the edge clues being the name of a rock song (Dire Straits, Costello, Pearl Jam, Sutherland Brothers) but that may be coincidence!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Comrades of branch members accepting different function (8-2-4)
BROTHERS-IN-ARMS

BR (branch) + ARMS (members) accepting OTHER (different) + SIN (function)

10. Artist’s first and second layer of greyish colour (5)
ASHEN

A[rtist] (first) + S (second) + HEN (layer)

11. Unreadable introduction of authoritative work becomes bad for one (9)
ILLEGIBLE

[b]IBLE (authoritative work; introduction becomes: ILL (bad) + E.G. (for one))

12. One inclined to absorb reading, writing or arithmetic (7)
LEARNER

LEANER (one inclined) to absorb R (reading, writing or arithmetic, ‘the three R’s’) &lit

13. Expressing disapproval is no good after everyone plays (7)
TUTTING

NG (no good) after TUTTI (everyone plays, musical instruction)

14. Remix tapes for Pulp (5)
PASTE

(TAPES)* (*remix)

16. Radical, potentially harmful flaw is concealed by test’s limitations (9)
TERRORIST

(ERROR (flaw) + IS) concealed by T[es]T (limitations)

19. Mistakes caught in only one text message (9)
SOLECISMS

C (caught) in (SOLE (only) + I (one) + SMS (text message))

20. I’m surprised about new revolutionary chip (5)
NACHO

(OH (I’m surprised) + CA (about, circa) + N (new))< (<revolutionary)

22. Distilled wine contains brandy (7)
REFINED

RED (wine) contains FINE (brandy)

‘Fine’ is a French oenological term for brandy

25. Pervert finally led Hecuba astray (7)
DEBAUCH

[le]D (finally) + (HECUBA)* (*astray)

27. Offensive sound almost brought back having to suffer before (9)
INCURSION

NOIS[e]< (sound, almost, <brought back) having INCUR (to suffer) before

28. Strange position adopted by article (5)
ALIEN

LIE (position) adopted by AN (article)

29. Laissez-faire attitude to finance freedom of movement? (4,4,4,2)
EASY COME EASY GO

Cryptic definition

DOWN
2. Judges involved in substantial trial (9)
REHEARSAL

HEARS (judges) involved in REAL (substantial)

3. Part of joint group that plays up (5)
TENON

NONET< (group that plays, <up)

4. Leaves country as armies get mobilised (9)
EMIGRATES

(ARMIES GET)* (*mobilised)

5. Rent place on the coast (5)
SPLIT

Double definition

Split is on the coast of Croatia

6. Close to large settlement, including good retirement cover (9)
NIGHTGOWN

NIGH (close to) + (TOWN (large settlement) including G (good))

7. Royal Academy books international legal expert (5)
RABBI

RA (Royal Academy) + BB (books) + I (international)

8/21. Manual work that’s not recognised for what it is? (7,2,4)
SLEIGHT OF HAND

Cryptic definition

9/19. Vicar with epilepsy condemned to make meaningless gesture (3,3,7)
PAY LIP SERVICE

(VICAR EPILEPSY)* (*condemned)

15. Unconventional description of the letter D? (9)
ECCENTRIC

Double definition

Technically, ‘eccentric’ means not having a central axis

17. Engineers face new church hall? (9)
RESIDENCE

RE (engineers, Royal Engineers) + SIDE (face) + N (new) + CE (church, Church of England)

18. Counting on dining club almost going bust (9)
INCLUDING

(DINING CLU[b] (almost))* (*going bust)

23. Central point from clues regularly ignored (5)
FOCUS

F[r]O[m] C[l]U[e]S (regularly ignored)

24. Belief in God exists in hearts of eldest women (5)
DEISM

IS (exists) in [el]DE[st] + [wo]M[en] (hearts of)

26. Elementary combination of disrespect and rudeness (5)
BRASS

Double definition

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,448 by BASILISK”

  2. I couldn’t see a theme or Nina either but may have missed one based eg on the names of rock songs. Pretty gentle going for a Basilisk/Serpent puzzle with some such as ILLEGIBLE mainly entered from the definition. Interesting to see RABBI defined as ‘legal expert’ rather than the usual teacher. I liked the SLEIGHT OF HAND cryptic def, which would have taken me longer to get had it not been for the enumeration.

    It certainly didn’t occur to me, but I like Hovis @1’s take on the parsing of D as EC CENTRIC; good spot.

    Thanks to Basilisk and Oriel

  3. Great stuff!
    Liked LEARNER, DISPELS, ILLEGIBLE, DEBAUCH, BRASS especially.
    The “EC CENTRIC” (Anti-Brexit?) Letter D is a nice idea. Thanks Hovis@1
    Thanks B & O

  4. Oops – DISPELS shouldn’t be there. A setter elsewhere was doing something similar with the Gospels today. Blasphemy.

  5. Thanks for the blog, well done Hovis@1 , I was thinking of D rotation for Kepler orbits, way too obscure, your idea is much better and makes it a really good clue.
    Great puzzle , so many neat bits of wordplay.

  6. Thanks Basilisk. I liked many of the clues including NIGHTGOWN, RESIDENCE, DEISM, and my clue of the week, ECCENTRIC. I parsed it the same as Hovis @1. I was unaware of the names of the songs on the perimeter; I doubt that’s a coincidence. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  7. Another who said (out loud, to my daughter) D is centric to EC.

    I did see Basilisk as the swtter and wondered about using thia as travel entertainment, but it was more accessible than I’d initially thought.

    Thank you to Basilisk and Oriel.

  8. Enjoyed this one.

    LOI was brass which I’m afraid I got to by figuring out what letters could possibly fit in B-A-S, until the penny dropped.

    Thanks for explaining some of the parsing.

    I particularly liked Learner.

  10. Nice puzzle, and thanks for the blog. I was checking in to confirm my parsings. I also wonder whether there is not a hidden theme or some other hidden device (usual for this setter), presumably in the perimeter solutions? If so, I don’t see it, unfortunately.

  11. Many thanks to Oriel for the excellent blog and to Hovis @1 for pointing out the intended parsing of ECCENTRIC. Thanks also to everyone who has taken the time to comment.

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