Financial Times 17,467 by SLEUTH

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Sleuth has privided this morning’s entertainment

I really enjoyed this puzzle, which was challenging but fun and taught me a couple of things (IGRAINE and a new spelling of GULLEY) along the way. I wasn’t convinced by my original parsing for URGENT, but KVa put me right. Some general knowledge is required to complete this (IGRAINE, AMARILLO, GIMLET, BERG, EDMONTON(, but I like that in my puzzles.

Thanks, Sleuth

ACROSS
1 GIMLET
Frenchman in sleeveless jacket gets cocktail (6)
M (monsieur, so “Frenchman”) in GILET (“sleeveless jacket”)

Gimlet is a cocktail of vodka or gin, with lime juice.
4 PROROGUE
Discontinue supporting scoundrel (8)
PRO (“supporting”) + ROGUE (“scoundrel”)
9 URGENT
Old city rep overlooking area requiring immediate attention (6)
UR (“old city”) + (a)GENT (“rep” overlooking A “area”)
10 AMARILLO
A rare misfortune when entering a second Texan city (8)
A + R (rare) + ILL (“misfortune”) when entering A MO (“a second”)
12 SLAM
Harshly criticise extremists in special asylum (4)
[extermists in] S(pecial)L A(sylu)M
13 FAINT
Weak pretence for hearing (5)
Homophone [for hearing] of FEINT (“pretence”)
14 PERU
Some coup erupting in Spanish-speaking country (4)
Hidden in [some] “couP ERUpting”
17 MONOPOLISTIC
Mike, working with circle, wise to retain society regarding exclusive control of trade? (12)
M (Mike, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + ON (“working”) with O (circle) + POLITIC (“wise”) to retain S (society)
20 CENTRE SPREAD
Peer’s traced broadcast about new feature of a paper (6,6)
*(peers traced) [anag:broadcast] about N (new)
23 HAIL
Summon to stop shower of missiles? (4)
Double definition
24 BATCH
Consignment of goods found in club at Cheltenham (5)
Hidden in [found in] “cluB AT CHeltenham”
25 UNDO
Release name in university party (4)
N (name) in U (university) + DO (“party”)
28 OBDURACY
Unyielding nature of duo possibly about bachelor given to naughtiness? (8)
*(duo) [anag:possibly] about B (bachelor) + RACY (“given to naughtiness”)
29 ACQUIT
Clear account and leave (6)
Ac. (account) and QUIT (“leave”)
30 DERISORY
Is pot essentially in NI city absurdly inadequate? (8)
IS + (p)O(t) [essentially] in DERRY (“Northern Irish city”)
31 LEAD ON
Dupe a fellow chasing article in French (4,2)
A + DON (“fellow”) chasing LE (“article in French”)
DOWN
1 GRUESOME
Frightful sort of morgue’s concealing echo (8)
*(morgues) [anag:sort of] concealing E
2 MIGRAINE
Start to mollify Arthur’s mother getting throbbing pain? (8)
[start to] M(ollify) + IGRAINE (mother of King Arthur, in legend)
3 ERNE
Eastern sailors beginning to eye seabird (4)
E (eastern) + RN (Royal Navy, so “sailors”) + [beginning to] E(ye)
5 REMINISCENCE
Anecdote about minister, Conservative in current spectacle (12)
RE (“about”) + MIn. (minister) + C (Conservative) in I (symbol for electric “current” in physics) + SCENE (“spectacle”), so RE-MIN-I-SCEN(C)E
6 RARE
Slip in turn about answer seldom seen (4)
<=ERR (“slip”, in turn) about A (answer)
7 GULLEY
Chap skirting two lakes close to fine ravine (6)
GUY (“chap”) skirting LL (two lakes) + [close to] ((fin)E
8 EXODUS
European has times largely scheduled in huge evacuation? (6)
E (European) has X (times, in maths) + [largely] DU(e) (“scheduled”) in OS (outsized, so “huge”)
11 BALLET DANCER
Stage performer manipulated central blade (6,6)
*(central blade) [anag:manipulated]
15 SPIEL
Glib speech from film director after dismissing composer (5)
(Steven) SPIEL(berg) (“film director”) after dismissing (Alban or Gunnar) BERG (“composer”)
16 DIPPY
Scatterbrained father getting disheartened amid household work (5)
P(o)P (“father”, getting disheartened) amid DIY (do it yourself, so “household work”)
18 BEAN CURD
Brand cue wrong for tofu (4,4)
*(brand cue) [anag:wrong]
19 EDMONTON
English executive flipping about fashion in London suburb (8)
E (English) + [flipping] <=MD (Managing Director, so “executive”) + ON (“about”) + TON (“fashion”)
21 SHROUD
Cover quiet circuit with no end of dedication (6)
SH (“quiet”) + ROU(n)D (“circuit” with no [end of] (dedicatio)N)
22 BIDDER
One making offer more substantial with dates to replace goods (6)
BI(gg)ER (“more substantial”) with Ds (dates) replacing Gs (goods) becomes BI(DDER
26 IRIS
Assistant virtually raised plant (4)
<=SIRI (Apple’s “virtual assistant”, raised)
27 ACHE
Companion in part of hospital for problem requiring treatment? (4)
CH (“Companion” of Honour) in A & E (Accident & Emergency, so “part of hospital”)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,467 by SLEUTH”

  4. Never heard of IGRAINE either and even with all the crossers I was about to give up when the answer appeared after putting the clue out of my mind and just having a good stare at the grid; sometimes it works. I’d probably heard of the ‘London suburb’ but even with crossers I only solved it from wordplay. I know the ‘Texan city’ from the “Is This The Way to AMARILLO” song. I liked the idea of the UR AGENT with his travelling sales case, all those years ago.

    DIPPY is a good word and was my pick today.

    Thanks to loonapick and Sleuth

  5. As I patiently trawled a list of London suburbs for 19d, I thought “Is this why I do cryptic crosswords?” I couldn’t even fully avail myself of the wordplay — why is “fashion” “ton”? I was a bit quicker finding Amarillo in Texas.

    Igraine in the Matter of Britain was new to me, and I had no idea how to parse GIMLET, which I had to check was right. And I was unaware that “gully” could harbour an “e”.

    There were quite a few smiles, although I don’t remember which they were. Thanks Sleuth & Loonapick

  7. Thank you, SM, very comprehensive. I don’t feel the least bit guilty though, having never heard of it.

  8. I enjoyed this a lot. A few trickier ones to solve and parse but all very fairly clued I thought.

    I always thought Igraine was spelled with either a Y or even two, not I’s, but I see that’s the French version like in Malory. I stared at the word MYGRAINE in puzzlement for a minute or two I admit.

    I also failed to parse EXODUS taking the def to be ‘huge evacuation’. Obvious when you see it.

    Thanks Sleuth and loonapick.

  9. Another great grid from SLEUTH, in which GIMLET, SPIEL and OBDURACY were my favourites.
    Like Wordplodder, I solved EDMONTON from the wordplay and only got ‘ton’ from speaking French.
    For ACHE, I also considered ACNE (‘requiring treatment’) for a while using C (Companion) in A ‘n’ E (part of hospital) but figured finally that CH was what was required and the ‘n’ not so likely.
    Thanks for the enjoyment, Sleuth, and for the informative blog from Loonapick, particularly Igraine which I will try to commit to memory.

  10. Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle, many tough fair clues. I had to work backwards from the answer to get IGRAINE , it is new to me but good to learn. Igraine Pendragon , what a name.

  11. Thanks Sleuth for the challenge. I guessed EDMONTON from the crossers; I know EDMONTON from Canada and often New World places are named for English locales. It’s not the first time this method has worked for me. (I couldn’t parse my way into the answer because TON =fashion was unknown to me.) In any event I needed a letter reveal to solve OBDURACY, ACQUIT, and EXODUS. Favourite was SPIEL. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  12. Very glad I did this one, and I agree wholeheartedly with both Blah and Roz: very fairly clued and not easy. But not fiendish either – nicely Goldilocks. I was beaten by FAINT – and kicked myself for not spotting the homophone – it was hardly disguised! – and amazed at how long it took me to spot BATCH. Favourites include AMARILLO, PERU, GRUESOME, EXODUS, BALLET DANCER, SPIEL and BIDDER. Only raised eyebrow was IRIS which I felt could be justified in either direction – but, as I’d plumped for the right one, the eyebrow didn’t remain for long.

    Thanks Sleuth and loonapick

  13. It’s interesting to see how many were unaware of ton/fashion as this used to be a real crossword staple. Maybe setters have shied away from it for awhile from overuse. Well worth remembering for future use.

  14. Hovis @13: I agree it’s a super word for setters and I enjoy both using it and encountering it. But I have never ever seen it used outside the cruciverbal environment. I wonder whether that usage ever appears anywhere else.

  17. We needed two goes at this, partly dictated by the need to break for refreshment, but that was all to the good because on returning the remaining handful of clues were solve pretty quickly.
    We either didn’t know of (or had forgotten) Igraine but didn’t really need to know since 2dn was obvious from the crossing letters. We did know of EDMONTON as the London suburb – but felt that non-UK solvers might have been happier had it been clued as a provincial capital (of Alberta, Canada).
    DERISORY was one of our last few – we were fooled thinking ‘absurdly’ might be an anagram indicator but (naturally) couldn’t see any suitable anagram fodder.
    An enjoyable solve, though. Yhanks, Sleuth and loonapick.

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