Financial Times 17,456 by ZAMORCA

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A fun challenge from ZAMORCA. Apologies for the late blog as I faced some technical issues.

I could use help with 22d.

FF: 9 DD:9

ACROSS
1 REVEAL
Expose core of depravity within party (6)

A ( core of deprAvity, middle letter ) in REVEL ( party )
4 RABBIT ON
Bachelor stopping into bar, foolish to talk so much (6,2)

B ( bachelor ) in [ INTO BAR ]*
10 ARCH-ENEMY
Great adversary’s unpredictable, hence guarded by militia (4-5)

[ HENCE ]* in ARMY ( militia )
11 NINJA
Some men in jail are assassins (5)

hidden in "..meN IN JAil.."
12 RICH
Abundant borders of orchid removed and what’s left reorganised (4)

[ oRCHId ( without borders ) ]*
13 FILM CRITIC
Reviewer with movie quote cut, accepting editor ultimately in charge (4,6)

FILM ( movie ) [ CITe ( quote, cut ) containing R ( editoR, last letter ) ] IC ( in charge )

15 GRADUAL
Progressive German artist knocked back acclaim (7)

G ( german ) RA ( artist ) reverse of LAUD ( acclaim )
16 LOBBED
Sent ball high in bold shot over boy by middle of net (6)

[ BOLD ]* containing [ B ( boy ) E ( nEt, middle letter ) ]
19 DRY ROT
Conservative way to reverse timber decay (3,3)

reverse of TORY ( conservative ) RD ( way, road )
21 SWEEPER
One has brush with defender (7)

double def
23 ADVENTURES
Exploits commercial enterprises (10)

AD ( commercial ) VENTURES ( enterprises )
25 ZONE
Designated area’s in palazzo nearby (4)

hidden in "..palazZO NEarby"
27 RISHI
King is greeting Sunak (5)

R ( king ) IS HI ( greeting )
28 DOING TIME
In prison for murder, violent git gets more heartless (5,4)

DO IN ( murder ) [ GIT ]* ME ( MorE, heartless )
29 WORSENED
Aggravated recollecting quarrel, needs to relax (8)

reverse of ROW ( quarrel ) [ NEEDS ]*
30 LEAN ON
Get support from person unknown after lowlife cleared out (4,2)

LE ( LowlifE, without inner letters ) ANON ( person unknown )
DOWN
1 ROAD RAGE
When a Golf cut in, roared out anger at other motorist (4,4)

{ A G ( golf ) } in [ ROARED ]*
2 VICE-CHAIR
Second-in-command’s failing daily to keep it brief (4-5)

VICE ( failing ) [ CHAR ( daily ) containing It ( briefly ) ]
3 AGED
Got on and coped without staff (4)

manAGED ( coped, without MAN – staff )
5 ABYSMAL
Times article goes ahead rejecting strikes as terrible (7)

A ( article ) BY ( times ) reverse of LAMS ( strikes )
6 BANK ROBBER
Criminal financier pinching gold, retired with billions (4,6)

BANKER ( financier ) containing [ RO ( gold = OR, reversed ) BB ( billions ) ]
7 TENET
Banks on the web for teaching (5)

TE ( ThE, banks i.e. end characters ) NET ( web )
8 NUANCE
Bore is excluded with subtlety (6)

NUisANCE ( bore, without IS )
9 GENIAL
Pleasant city home with good set-up retains energy (6)

[ reverse of LA ( city ) IN ( home ) G ( good ) ] containing E ( energy )
14 QUARANTINE
Restoration of antique managed during enforced isolation (10)

[ ANTIQUE ]* containing RAN ( managed )
17 EXPLOSION
Blast old record by Kiss inside, sound turned up (9)

[ O ( old ) LP ( record ) X ( kiss ) ; all reversed ) ] in reverse of NOISE ( sound )
18 FREE REIN
French control over mobile operator gets carte blanche (4,4)

FR ( french ) EE ( mobile operator ) REIN ( control )
20 TRUNDLE
Hearing tea urn led out, roll along (7)

T ( sounds like TEA ) [ URN LED ]*
21 SCENIC
South Carolina’s unexpectedly nice with beautiful views (6)

SC ( South Carolina ) [ NICE ]*
22 MARROW
Flipping garden creature’s eaten half of root vegetable (6)

reverse of WORM ( garden creature ) containing AR ( ?? ) or possibly RA ( if the reverse applies to the full word ) – need help parsing "..half of root.." which i thought would have been RO but doesnt fit my take on the parsing.
24 VISOR
Eye protector repelled some corrosives (5)

hidden, reversed in "..corROSIVes"
26 AGUE
Five lost from non-specific fever (4)

vAGUE ( non-specific, without V – five )

6 comments on “Financial Times 17,456 by ZAMORCA”

  2. Or perhaps (t)AR(o)?
    Thanks, Zamorca, for the entertaining grid with customary panagram.
    And to Turbolegs for the blog.

  3. Or a mistake, which was my read. Amazes me that Zamorca makes all his/her crosswords pangrams.

  4. Thanks Turbolegs

    I am glad I was not the only one to find this challenging. I had several clues I did not have time to parse: thanks for explaining FILM CRITIC, DOING TIME, GENIAL and ABYSMAL (the latter being a problem, simply because I had never heard of LAMS. I will try to remember that one). I had never heard of EE before, but was able to guess it

    I had the same parsing as Diane @2 for MARROW. If correct, it does not seem very fair to me.

    One question: why does Golf = G?

    Thanks Turbolegs for the blog, and thanks Zamorca for the puzzle (and for confusing my computer’s spell check)

  5. Thanks for the blog, perhaps MARROW was just a mistake in the clue ?? it is very easily done. I thought that ROAD RAGE was very neat.
    Martyn @4 it is G from the phonetic alphabet Alpha, Bravo ,Charlie ……..

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