Financial Times 17,458 by GUY

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GUY kicks off the start of Wimbledon…

A very entertaining set of tennis themed clues. I'm slightly unsure about the parsing of 27a.

Thanks GUY!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. SW19, a sign summer’s here (7)
SWALLOW

SW + ALLOW (let, 19 across)

5. 25 cheer as C Alcaraz holds (6)
RASCAL

[chee]R AS C AL[caraz] (holds)

25 (down) being KNAVE

8. Flexible Serb with limitless stamina showing nerves (9)
BRAINSTEM

(SERB with [s]TAMIN[a] (limitless))* (*flexible)

9. Frame of amateur racket that’s notched for string (5)
ARROW

A[mateu]R (frame of) + ROW (racket)

11. More than one round, sounds clear (5)
RINGS

Double definition

A ring being a round

12. Ball-boys’ job broken down by TV earlier (9)
RETRIEVAL

(TV EARLIER)* (*broken down)

14. During set, gently wobble tooth (8)
SPROCKET

during SET, (P (gently) + ROCK (wobble))

16. Watch most of the top players (3)
SEE

SEE[d] (top player, most of)

19. Faulty serve abandoned, foot out (3)
LET

LE[f]T (abandoned, F (foot) out)

20. Sportswriter ate strawberries covering replays (8)
ITERATES

[sportswr]ITER ATE S[trawberries] (covering)

23. Winner back from warm-down in time for celebratory drink (9)
CHAMPAGNE

CHAMP (winner) + ([warm-dow]N (back) in AGE (time))

24. Enjoy grass with new distinctive feature (5)
TOKEN

TOKE (enjoy grass) with N (new)

26. Five down, D Evans is jittery in chair (5)
SEDAN

(D E[v]ANS (V (five) down))* (*jittery))

27. In front, party prepared to queue overnight? (3,2,4)
SET UP CAMP

Double definition

The "set up" camp being the party in front (in tennis) – I'm not totally sure about this to be honest

28. Some left confused by H Watson’s oppo (6)
HOLMES

(SOME + L (left))* (*confused) by H

29. Got in touch with Queen’s Club (7)
RANGERS

RANG (got in touch with) + ERS (Queens)

DOWN
1. British rugby coach turned up for Wimbledon, say (6)
SUBURB

(B (British) + RU (rugby, union) + BUS (coach))< (<turned up)

2. Rybakina’s back to win once more (5)
AGAIN

[rybakin]A (back) + GAIN (to win)

3. Ball hit over the baseline probably not a winner (4,4)
LONG SHOT

Double definition

4. Sport that might make Swiatek grin (11)
WATERSKIING

(SWIATEK GRIN)* (*might make)

5. Skirt that would give offence in church (3)
RIM

[c]RIM[e] (offence, if it were in CE (church))

6. Unhappy about wait, finally Iga’s outside show courts (6)
STADIA

(SAD (unhappy) about [wai]T (finally)) + I[g]A (outside)

7. Upstart pair train regularly against tennis’s third and first pairs (9)
ARRIVISTE

[p]A[i]R [t]R[a]I[n] (regularly) + V (against) + [tenn]IS + TE[nnis] (the third and first pair of letters in "tennis")

10. A Murray we heard at the GP’s, for a Zimmer frame? (6)
WALKER

Double (cryptic) definition

Murray Walker being a commentator at the GP (Grand Prix)

13. Youngster H Rune full of energy, literally (2,3,6)
TO THE LETTER

TOT (youngster) + ((H + LETTER (rune)) full of E (energy))

15. To finish, professional breaks chubby little Italian (3,4,2)
PUT PAID TO

PAID (professional) breaks PUTTO (chubby little Italian)

17. Recognises Prince’s logo on strings (6)
PLACES

P (Prince's logo) on LACES (strings)

18. Start to plan out a win on the Fritz serve (4,4)
WAIT UPON

(P[lan] (start to) + OUT A WIN)* (*on the Fritz)

21. Small mount within Elysium’s borders — Henman Hill’s one (6)
EPONYM

PONY (small mount) within E[lysiu]M (borders)

22. Wesley goes for a 3 (6)
SNIPES

Double definition

Actor Wesley Snipes, and 3 down being LONG SHOT

25. J Sinner (5)
KNAVE

Double definition

J meaning Jack in a deck of cards

27. Relative runs away from men like Andy Murray (3)
SIS

SI[r]S (men like Andy Murray, R (runs) away))

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,458 by GUY”

  1. Thanks, Guy and Teacow!
    Nice to be back. Thanks to all.

    SET UP CAMP
    I have a different (but tentative) parsing:
    party=CAMP (as in a political camp/party)
    prepared=SET UP
    In front=In front of? CAMP in front of SET UP

    Def: to queue overnight

  2. Great puzzle, lots of fun. And I don’t even like tennis that much (I had to look up who J Sinner was to fully appreciate the cleverness of 25d). Thanks, Guy and Teacow.

    27a: SET UP = in front (as in being a set up in a game of tennis), CAMP = party. The definition is “prepared to queue overnight”. I heard on the radio this morning that something like 5,000 people did exactly this last night in order to get in this morning. Bonkers!

  4. As expected from Guy, this one needed a bit of thought. I liked the way in which the tennis theme in the clues didn’t “spill over” into most of the answers, as I had expected it to when I started. I wasn’t sure about SET UP CAMP but I think Widdersbel @2 has worked it out correctly.

    I liked the Murray WALKER reminder, the def for SNIPES and the oblique ‘nerves’ def for BRAINSTEM.

    Thanks to Guy and Teacow

  7. It’s been lonely without 15². I’m delighted to see a puzzle that plays to my strengths and I’ll be glued to the Wimbledon fortnight. I particularly liked SEDAN for ‘ five down’, SNIPES for the surprising reference to Wesley, HOLMES, the neat SWALLOW and the clever use of Swiatek in 4d.
    I guessed KNAVE but needed Teacow’s blog to see the use of ‘j’ (of course!)
    Very entertaining. Thanks to Guy and Teacow.

  10. Lots of fun with this. Thanks to Guy and Teacow.

    I read 22d as Wesley=Snipes and goes for a long shot as “snipes” as a sniper does?

    Is that is meant in double definition.view of the clue?

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