Financial Times 17,471 by GURNEY

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I really struggled with today’s entry from Gurney . . .

. . . although the clues are well-constructed, and none of the solutions is particularly obscure.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 ARSENIC
As table shows, London team lost last two, I note (7)
ARSEN[AL] (London team minus last two letters [“lost last two”]) + I + C (note). “As” is the symbol for arsenic on the periodic table.
5 CASSOCK
Church garment cold when blow encountered (7)
C (cold) + AS (when) + SOCK (blow)
9 CLOSE
Near end (5)
Double definition, with two different pronunciations, for the adjective and the verb (or noun)
10 LORGNETTE
Unusually let go — rent viewing aid (9)
Anagram of (unusually) LET GO RENT
11 PREMIERED
Country leader’s meeting with media boss shown for first time (9)
PREMIER (country leader) + ED (media boss)
12 YPRES
Battles here — quite so, about limits on power (5)
YES (quite so) around (about) outer letters of (“limits on”) P[OWE]R, fought during World War I
13 AROUND-THE-CLOCK
Doctor raced and took lunch without stopping (6-3-5)
Anagram of (doctor) (RACED + TOOK LUNCH)
18 BREAD-AND-BUTTER
Not fancy money with laughing-stock — ditherer’s statement (5-3-6)
BREAD (money) + AND (with) + BUTT (laughing-stock) + ER (ditherer’s statement)
20 CLEAR
Easily seen in vehicle, a runabout (5)
Hidden in (in) [VEHI]CLE A R[UNABOUT]
22 ELABORATE
Marked by complexity — add more details (9)
Double definition, with two different pronunciations, for the adjective and the verb
24 RETRIEVAL
Getting back, seeing English quintet in second hearing (9)
[E (English) + V (quintet)] inside (in) RETRIAL (second hearing)
25 ABODE
Home of President hosting returning party (5)
ABE (president, i.e., Lincoln) around (hosting) DO (party) reversed (returning)
26 SILVERY
Singular, verily, recollected as having clear, ringing sound (7)
Anagram of (recollected) [S (singular) + VERILY]
27 DESTROY
Ruin of French second city, old (7)
DE (of [in] French) + S (second) + TROY (city, [an] old [one])
DOWN
1 ACCEPT
Be resigned to move to restrict Church parking (6)
ACT (move) around (to restrict) [CE (church) + P (parking)]
2 SMOKE-FREE
Referring to environment, small/medium enterprise penning fine release (5-4)
SME (small/medium enterprise) around (penning) OK (fine) + FREE (release). This could be read as semi-&lit.
3 NAEVI
Nothing odd in unease — avoid showing birthmarks (5)
Even letters of (“nothing odd in”) [U]N[E]A[S]E [A]V[O]I[D]
4 COLORADAN
From Denver maybe, can do oral that’s rearranged (9)
Anagram of (rearranged) CAN DO ORAL
5 CARED
Took an interest as Jack, say, consumed energy (5)
CARD (jack, say) around (consumed) E (energy)
6 SAND YACHT
Alexander with German boat crew maybe, in vehicle (4,5)
SANDY ([nickname for] Alexander) + ACHT (German boat crew maybe, i.e., “eight” in German)
7 OUTER
External computer equipment with top removed (5)
[R]OUTER (computer equipment minus first letter R [“with top removed”])
8 KEEPSAKE
Memento of castle, drink to follow (8)
KEEP (castle) + SAKE (drink)
14 UNDERLINE
Indicate importance of policy following foreign articles (9)
UN + DER (foreign articles, i.e., in French and in German, respectively) + LINE (policy)
15 HOBNAILED
Like some footwear he passed on before November — cheered about that (9)
HAILED (cheered) around (about) [OB. (he passed on, i.e., obitus obiit, Latin for “he died”) + N (November)].  See Pelham Barton @ Comment 9.
16 OPERAGOER
Eager to be transformative with poor musical drama one sees often (9)
Anagram of (to be transformative) EAGER + POOR. I think the definition is supposed to be interpreted as “one [who] sees musical drama often,” but the convolution is pretty weird.
17 OBSCURES
Clouds over revised courses initially brought in (8)
First letter of (“initially”) B[ROUGHT] inside (in) anagram of (revised) COURSES
19 CELERY
Vegetable — moving fast, it vanishes (6)
CELER[IT]Y (moving fast minus (“vanishes”) IT)
21 EXTOL
Praise once charge cut (5)
EX (once) + TOL[L] (charge minus last letter L [“cut”])
22 ENVOY
Diplomat in hidden voyage… (5)
Hidden in (in) [HIDD]EN VOY[AGE]
23 OVALS
…also very involved in sports grounds maybe (5)
Anagram of (involved) [ALSO + V (very)]

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,471 by GURNEY”

  2. Yes, I also appreciated this puzzle very much too, as well as one or two explanations from Cineraria which eluded me: HOBNAILED was one such. My parsing left me with an extra ‘n’.
    My first round was meagre but I found the two central across answers very helpful in completing the grid. LORGNETTE, SILVERY and CELERITY were among the many I enjoyed. Don’t know why SAND YACHT took me so long but, natürlich, I uttered when the penny dropped.
    Thanks both.

  3. Enjoyable puzzle which I didn’t have too much trouble with, though I only saw SILVERY at the end, not really associating the word with ‘having clear, ringing sound’. I thought the ‘Referring to environment’ def for SMOKE-FREE was a bit vague and couldn’t account for the ‘he’ in the wordplay for HOBNAILED; thanks to Cineraria for clearing this up. Maybe I’m missing something but I wasn’t a big fan of the ellipses between 22d and 23d.

    Best bit for me was ‘hidden’ being part of the hidden for ENVOY.

    Thanks to Gurney and Cineraria

  4. WP@3: I thought that the ellipses at 22D/23D might be hinting at some extra wordplay (such as a compound anagram), but if anything like that is happening, I don’t see it. I think it is just an attempt to make the surfaces smoother.

  5. I agree with positive comments on this top quality puzzle and blog so thanks to Gurney and Cineraria. Nothing too taxing although NAEVI is new for me.
    I think the answers to 9ac and 22ac are both homonyms and homographs but linguistics are not my strong suit.

  6. Peter,
    I’ve always thought ‘silvery’ a lovely way of describing a bright, clear tone like the peal of bells, a pleasant singing voice or the resonant sound of a violin, say.

  7. I’ve definitely encountered silvery being used with this meaning before – it relates to the particular quality of the sound made by silver bells (as opposed to the sound of iron bells, which I guess would be irony).

    NAEVI would have been new for me if I hadn’t already encountered it elsewhere today. Odd coincidence.

    Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle, Gurney, and a nice blog, Cineraria.

  8. Thanks Gurney and Cineraria

    15dn: Just for the record, the Latin for “he died” (or “he passed on”) is obiit, as can be found under the definition for ob in Chambers 2014. Obitus is the Latin noun for death.

  9. ‘SILVERY – 3 – Having the clear, musical tone of silver; soft and clear in sound. – “a silvery laugh”
    1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
    “The hand grasped the curtain, and drew it aside, and as it did so I heard a voice, I think the softest and yet most silvery voice I ever heard.”‘
    And Widdersbel@8:
    ‘IRONY – Adjective – (comparative more irony, superlative most irony) – Of or pertaining to the metal iron. – “The food had an irony taste to it.”‘
    A homograph of the usual IRONY, but pronounced differently – like CLOSE and ELABORATE in the puzzle.
    Thanks G&C

  10. Thanks, FrankieG! Bells are made of iron anyway, they’re made of bronze. Not entirely sure about the silver thing either, just something I half-remember.

  11. 23d OVALS – The “…also” attempts to disguise the anagram fodder as a link word. I liked it. The ellipsis in 22d is just there to match the one in 23d.

  12. Thanks for the blog , very good puzzle, NAEVI was new to me but the clue was very fair and then it turned up elsewhere. I am always very suspicious when As ( or I ) turns up at the front of a clue.

  13. Thanks Cineraria

    I struggled with parts of this too. Unfortunately, I was in a rush, and did not have the time to enjoy this puzzle as much as I should. I agree with the general consensus that it was nicely put together. I entered a few clues without properly parsing and luckily I guessed well. Gurney does speak different English to me, and clues such as SMOKE FREE, OPERAGOER, SILVERY, and quintet = V elicited “eh?” rather than “ah!”. And, isn’t a VIII called an achter in German?

    I do not see many favourites mentioned above, and I did not really have any stand-out clues either.

    Thank you Cineraria and Gurney

  14. One of us being a chemist, ARSENIC went straight in at 1ac, with CASSOCK and CLOSE following quickly to give us a good start and in fact we completed the puzzle quite quickly. Last in was OPERAGOER. We likes LORGNETTE, RETRIEVAL and SMOKE-FREE.
    Thanks, Gurney and Cineraria.

  15. I went quickly through 3/4 of this and then got well and truly stuck in the bottom right hand corner, missing operagoer and elaborate. I even saw the possible anagram for operagoer, but thought it was two words. Hmmm.

    Thanks for explaining some of the mysteries

  16. Thanks very much Cineraria. Nobody has commented on your blog of 16D. We agree with you. It seems to us to be the wrong way round.

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