Financial Times 17,503 by GURNEY

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Gurney provides this morning's 11dn.

My first run-through of the puzzle yielded about half of the across solutions and, thanks to crossers, all but two of the down clues, so I was able to mop up the rest of the puzzle fairly quickly. Although it wasn't the mpst challenging of puzzles, it was very enjoyable. My only mild quibble was with 1 across where the letters ACCE appear in the same order at the start of the answer and in the anagram fodder, thus barely hiding the solution.

Thanks Gurney.

ACROSS
1 ACCEPTANCE
Unusual accent associated with Cape gets favourable reception (10)

*(accent cape) [anag:unusual]
6 HEAT
Passion in preliminary contest (4)

Double definition
9 TORONTO
Victor, on top, too much for City? (7)

Hidden in [too much] "vicTOR ON TOp"
10 TEENAGE
16, maybe, needing support on course, horse ultimately feeble (7)

TEE ("support on (golf) course") + NAG ("horse") + [ultimately] (feebl)E
12 NONCHALANT
Showing little interest in news clan oath is to be revised? (10)

*(nn clan oath) [anag: is to be revised] where NN is new twice, so "news"
13 PUP
Pressure leading dog (3)

P (pressure) + UP ("leading")
15 LENGTH
Measure large English article, not quite finished (6)

L (large) + Eng. (English) + TH(e) ("article", not quite finished)
16 PEERLESS
So wonderful nothing can match it, like House of Commons? (8)

Double definition
18 CAST-IRON
Strong argument against including wine ration initially (4-4)

CON ("argument against") including ASTI ("wine") + R(ation) [initially]
20 MALICE
Man in charge inside showing spite (6)

MALE ("man") with IC (in charge) inside
23 BAN
On way back arrest outlaw (3)

[on way back] <=NAB ("arrest")
24 KILMARNOCK
Scottish town’s temporary enthusiasm about new normal? (10)

KICK ("temporary enthusiasm") about *(normal) [anag:new]
26 ARRANGE
Come to agreement about artist’s return before class (7)

<=RA (member of Royal Academy, so "artist", returning) before RANGE ("class")
27 PUERILE
Silly upper-class echo meeting resistance in building (7)

U (upper-class) + E (echo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) meeting R (resistance) in PILE (large "building")
28 DEAN
Cleric finding answer in quiet room (4)

A (answer) in DEN ("quiet room")
29 EYEWITNESS
One who saw European tree — exactly what’s needed by headland (10)

E (European) + YEW ("tree") + IT ("exactly what's needed") by NESS ("headland")
DOWN
1 ANTI
Against drawing from Roman times selectively (4)

Hidden in [drawing from… selectively] "romAN TImes"
2 CARTOON
About right — love performing in something humorous (7)

Ca. (circa, so "about") + Rt. (right) + O ("love" in tennis) + ON ("performing")
3 PANIC-STRICKEN
Very fearful, criticise circus regularly missing joke in French (5-8)

PAN ("criticse") + (c)I(r)C(u)S [regularly missing] + TRICK ("joke") + EN ("in" in "French")
4 AVOWAL
Frank acknowledgement a letter’s to be read out (6)

A + homophone of [to be read out] VOWEL ("letter")
5 COTTAGER
Company target troubled this rural labourer (8)

Co. (company) + *(target) [anag:troubled]
7 EXAMPLE
Typical specimen in past, more than sufficient (7)

EX ("past") + AMPLE ("more than sufficient")
8 TRESPASSER
Very French? I don’t know — I hesitate to say one’s doing wrong (10)

TRES ("very" in "French") + PASS ("I don't know", for example on Mastermind) + ER ("I hesitate to say")
11 ENTERTAINMENT
What I hope to provide intern team, ten, at work (13)

*(intern team ten) [anag:at work]
14 BLACKBOARD
Education aid making chess player fed up, we hear (10)

BLACK ("chess player") + homophone [we hear] of BORED ("fed up")
17 COLLIERY
Mine facility dog rarely abandoned (8)

COLLIE ("dog") + R(arel)Y [abandoned]
19 SANGRIA
Rings AA about drink (7)

*(rings aa) [anag:about]
21 INCLINE
Popular Conservative policy slant (7)

IN ("popular") + C (Conservative) + LINE ("policy")
22 PAWPAW
Fruit producer asking why people are wary first of all (6)

[first of all] P(roducer) A(sking) W(hy) P(eople) A(re) W(ary)
25 LENS
What might follow contact in French industrial town (4)

Double definition

13 comments on “Financial Times 17,503 by GURNEY”

  1. Hadn’t heard of the French nor the Scottish towns. Everything else straightforward and enjoyable. It’s a while since I’ve seen a blackboard.

    Thanks Gurney & Loonapick.

  2. I’m so bad at sorting out anagrams that I didn’t even notice the ACCE wordplay/answer duplication at 1a. Enjoyable puzzle without too many hard ones, though I’m embarrassed to admit I spent an unreasonable amount of time wondering how TEENAGE and PEERLESS were in any way synonymous. Didn’t know that LENS was an ‘industrial town’.

    Took a while to get my last in PUERILE, thinking the def was ‘building’ for which, with the crossing letters, PREMISE would have fitted; wordplay of course was another matter.

    Thanks to Gurney and loonapick

  3. Thanks for the blog, a neat and precise set of clues, for TORONTO I liked the “too much” to indicate a hidden word. NONCHALANT earned a severe Paddington stare.
    Agree with Geoff about BLACKBOARD, whiteboards are still going strong, “smart” boards came in for a while but largely abandoned now.

  4. Yes, Gurney, you did provide 11D, albeit for a brief time!
    I particularly liked LENS, SANGRIA and EYEWITNESS.
    Thanks very much to Gurney and Loonapick.

  5. Thanks Gurney and Loonapick

    14dn: My gripe with this clue is that the same ambiguity occurs in the definition and the wordplay. There are so many other ways that Gurney could have clued “black”, so why use one that could also clue “white”? As it happens, I had not solved either 15ac or 18ac when solving this clue, but it was obvious enough that 15ac would begin with L not H. Even so, I feel that relying on checked letters to make a clue unambiguous is something to be avoided whenever possible.

    [Incidentally, in the days when we did still use chalkboards, it was great fun to use that term instead of blackboard. When people accused me of political correctness, I would point out that some chalkboards were green.]

  6. I’m another to agree with the current existence of “blackboards”. Wasn’t scratching fingernails on one something that made us all wince?

    Like WordPlodder, it took me ages to realize that TEENAGE and PEERLESS were not related. Great misdirection by Gurney.

    Thanks loonapick for explaining 24A. The answer was obvious from the cross letters but I didn’t twig that “kick” was a “temporary” thing. I get a “kick from champagne” (but never cocaine) and it lasts for quite a while. Thanks, Cole Porter!

  7. 27a – PUERILE – I would pronounce this pew-er-i’ll – I had an idea that in the US they’d rhyme it with Meryl. Collins has options sounding like Muriel & mural.
    https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/puerile
    11d – ENTERTAINMENT – “What I hope to provide intern team, ten, at work”
    So Gurney has a team of ten interns – or is it ten teams of interns? – hard at work, mixing the anagrams, hiding the hiddens, finding homes for the homophones…
    It’s a good idea – an apprenticeship scheme, so that the old craft doesn’t die out.
    21d – INCLINE – “Popular Conservative policy slant” – I can’t think of a single one that’s been popular with me in the last 13 years.
    I especially liked NONCHALANT for the two Ns being News.
    Thanks G&L

  8. [Peter@6 – I thought I was on for spotting a 50-year-old single with Gary Shearston’s version of I Get A Kick Out Of You but it’s from 1974. Next year…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Get_a_Kick_Out_of_You
    The Alterations to the song are interesting:”
    ‘I get no kick in a plane | I shouldn’t care for those nights in the air | That the fair Mrs. Lindbergh goes through | But I get a kick out of you.’
    After the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping, Porter changed the second and third lines to: ‘Flying too high with some guy in the sky | Is my idea of nothing to do’
    In the 1936 movie version, the reference to cocaine was not allowed by Hollywood’s Production Code of 1934
    ‘Some get a kick from cocaine | I’m sure that if | I took even one sniff | That would bore me terrif- | Ically, too | Yet, I get a kick out of you’
    The first line changed to: ‘Some like the… …perfume in Spain’ or ‘…whiff of Guerlain’
    There is also a version with the lines ‘Some like the bop-type refrain | I’m sure that if | I heard even one riff…’]

  9. Thanks Gurney. I liked CAST-IRON, EYEWITNESS, TRESPASSER, and SANGRIA. I failed with LENS. I’ll keep an eye out for “too much” to indicate a hidden word; generally I’ll think of OTT as “too much”. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  10. Many thanks, loonapick, for the excellent blog and thanks also to all who commented.

    Pelham Barton at #5 is quite right. I did not think of the alternative when setting. If I had done so, I would have taken a different approach to the clue.

  11. What GDU@1, PB@5 said

    Only thing to add is I find Gurney’s clues very wordy and sometimes I find it difficult to see my way through all the words sometimes

    Thanks loonapick – first pass through for me was not nearly as successful as you – and thanks Gurney

  12. I did put white board and lost the 15 and 18 across. Was thinking measure could be height some how! But a lot of fun for the most part

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