Financial Times 17,482 by BOBCAT

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BOBCAT starts the week…

I thought 25d was brilliant, and I don't really get the parsing of 24d (but can't see what else it could be), so any suggestions welcome.

Thanks BOBCAT!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. President’s charter provides context for position of Boston (12)
LINCOLNSHIRE

LINCOLNS (President's) + HIRE (charter)

9. Director doing duty for Universal in trials to find extras (9)
ADDITIONS

AUDITIONS (trials), D (director) doing duty for U (universal)

10. Social group partially regrets action in revolution (5)
CASTE

([regr]ETS AC[tion] (partially))< (<in revolution)

11. Soak died striking head in ditch (6)
DRENCH

D (died) + [t]RENCH (ditch, striking head)

12. Broadcast beastly stuff about Beauty’s hat? (8)
LIBELLED

about BELLE (beauty), LID (hat)

13. Memory expert going back through list leaving nothing out (6)
RECALL

(ACE)< (expert, <going back) through R[o]LL (list, leaving O (nothing) out)

15. African doctor gets cut in pay (8)
EGYPTIAN

(GET[s] (cut) IN PAY)* (*doctor)

18. Somewhere to keep profits from Tintin? (5,3)
MONEY BOX

MONEY (tin) + BOX (tin)

19. Shakespeare’s Shrew, set in Sunderland on vacation, performed on ice (6)
SKATED

KATE (Shakespeare's Shrew) set in S[underlan]D (vacated)

21. Entertainment space where Carmen could be commissioned? (8)
SHOWROOM

Double (cryptic) definition

Carmen being "car men"

23. Article inspired by cycling research, albeit abbreviated, leads to book (6)
ESTHER

THE (article) inspired by RES[earch] (abbreviated, cycling (i.e. RES -> ESR))

26. Finish parody, having started late (3,2)
END UP

[s]END UP (parody, having started late)

27. Striking journalist, finally acting as go- between, survived (9)
OUTLASTED

(OUT (striking) + ED (journalist)), LAST (finally) acting as go-between

28. Possible clue to Fidel’s venue for opposing forces (7,5)
PLAYING FIELD

Double (cryptic) definition

"Fidel" being an anagram of "field"

DOWN
1. Hero-worshipper, a gutless nerd, crushed by unpleasant stare (7)
LEANDER

(A + N[er]D (gutless)) crushed by LEER (unpleasant stare)

From the Greek myth Hero and Leander

2. Magistrate blows top following E.ON’s final reminder (5)
NUDGE

[j]UDGE (magistrate, blows top) following [e.o]N (final)

3. Visually impaired pilot certainly not inert in flight (9)
OPTICALLY

(PILOT C[ert]A[in]LY (not INERT))* (*in flight)

4. Hiding place I refuse to sanction (4)
NOOK

NO (I refuse) + OK (to sanction)

5. This resort hit snags? (8)
HASTINGS

(HIT SNAGS)* (*resort)

6. River community 75% missing from Ordnance Survey (5)
RECCE

R (river) + EC (community) + [ordnan]CE (75% missing)

7. Fortune teller apprehends the end of religious lyricist (8)
PSALMIST

PALMIST (fortune teller) apprehends [religio]S (end of)

8. Colour of charred denim (6)
REDDEN

[char]RED DEN[im] (of)

14. Old plane tree substantially lopped by agreement (8)
CONCORDE

[tre]E (substantially lopped) by CONCORD (agreement)

16. Could this spear fish on southern Welsh river? (9)
PIKESTAFF

PIKE (fish) on S (southern) + TAFF (Welsh river)

17. Competitive game for one lacking competition (8)
MONOPOLY

Cryptic definition

18. Teacher needing support of Head regularly failed to attend (6)
MISSED

MISS (teacher) needing support of [h]E[a]D (regularly)

20. Firm exhibiting resistance to replace carbon is jeered (7)
DERIDED

DECIDED (firm), exhibiting R (resistance) to replace C (carbon)

22. Drive off pariah from the south (5)
REPEL

(LEPER)< (pariah, <from the south)

24. Kentish Town youth theatre initially puts on light elementary stuff (5)
HYTHE

Y[outh] T[heatre] (initially) puts on HHE (light elementary stuff)

25. Astound, scoring 147? (4)
STUN

[a]ST[o]UN[d] (scoring, i.e. removing, letters 1, 4 and 7)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,482 by BOBCAT”

  3. Thanks, Bobcat and Teacow!
    Liked LINCOLNSHIRE, LIBELLED, MONEY BOX, SHOWROOM, RECCE, STUN and HYTHE.

    LINCOLNSHIRE
    Should the def be ‘context for position of Boston’?

    MONOPOLY
    I thought it was a DD
    The Monopoly game (competitive game).
    One lacking competition (in the real business setting).

    OPTICALLY
    ((Pilot certainly) less inert* (in flight))* impaired

  4. Thanks for the blog, excellent puzzle, STUN is simply astounding , clever clues throughout.
    OPTICALLY I had (pilotcertainly) impaired as one anagram , with (inert) taking flight as the other since we must remove (ertin) . Many setters do not do this for subtraction.
    MONOPOLY I had as a double definition, the first being the board game.

  5. HASTINGS
    Is there any story related to this resort (I gather that it’s a seaside resort)?
    Is it a CAD or an extended def?

  6. Another fine puzzle after today’s equally good Indy. I might have to leave the Guardian till tomorrow.
    Agree with KVa & Roz on MONOPOLY & H[ydrogen]Y[outh]T[heatre]HE[lium]
    It’s always nice to see the old “Kentish Town” misdirection. I cycled to worked there for 20+ years.

  8. Agree with others on MONOPOLY & OPTICALLY. As a Brit, the battle of Hastings is up there with the fire of London in our rich (and often not glorious) history. I have no idea to what extent such things are taught in other countries.

  9. Yes, STUN is brilliant with its snooker surface – (just in case anyone had MISSED it – I’m sure nobody had. You’d be LIBELLED & DERIDED if you had).

  12. Hovis@8
    HASTINGS
    Most of my knowledge of English history comes from tele-series like Vikings (there are two or three series), The White Queen (there are a follow-up series), Henry VIII, Victoria etc.,
    Knowledge on the battle of Hastings: Close to nothing.
    Coming to the puzzle, the clue can be treated as a CAD, I think.

  15. SKATED – solved the clue by knowing ‘Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, KATE‘ rather than Shakespeare’s Katherina.
    I’m off to Sunderland on holiday, soon – I must go and see…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew
    …on ice.
    ‘McLintock! is a 1963 American Western comedy film, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara’ with a plot based on Shrew.
    Well I never. That went over my head completely. My aunt went to school with Maureen O’Hara in Dublin in the ’20s – That’s the 1920s.

  16. Hastings gives its name to the Battle of Hastings (1066) which actually took place 8 miles away, by a remarkable coincidence at a town called Battle (copyright ISIHAC)

  17. Clever stuff as usual, SHOWROOM was fun for taking the Carmen chestnut a stage further, and STUN, though I’m afraid I missed the deletion trick.
    EGYPTIAN was favourite, very neat deceptive anagram. Here’s a can of worms:
    African doctor gets cut in pay
    This resort hit snags
    Both identical clues in structure, one word plus imperative indicator plus anagram fodder.
    The first separates neatly into definition plus wordplay.
    The second is tangled. ‘Resort hit snags’ contains all the wordplay and all the definition, except that it doesn’t equate to a noun. So ‘this’ is added so that the clue as a whole refers to a thing. ‘This’ won’t do as a definition on its own – the whole clue is the definition. But the whole clue doesn’t work as a cryptic sentence, as I think it needs to: cryptically, it works in the same way as the African doctor clue, in two parts.

  18. Bobcat’s never easy and this was no exception. I revealed a few letters to finish and couldn’t parse the clever STUN. Still, this was enjoyable with clues like LEANDER, ADDITIONS, and PSALMIST. Thanks to both.

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