Financial Times 17,739 by BOBCAT

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BOBCAT starts off the week…

I pleasant challenge this morning. Not sure if the CORE at the centre is an intentional Nina.

 

Thanks BOBCAT

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Apple movie follows PM losing her head (6)
RUSSET

ET (movie) follows [t]RUSS (PM, losing her head)

5. Prevail over striking women’s crew with time to spare (8)
OUTWEIGH

OUT (striking) + W (women’s) + EIGH[t] (crew, with T (time) to spare)

9. Steps taken by prominent Olympian to circumvent key prohibition (8)
HABANERA

HERA (prominent Olympian) to circumvent (A (key) + BAN (prohibition))

10. Del Boy, possibly half-heartedly, returned potentially hot lab equipment (6)
RETORT

(TRO[t]TER)< (Del Boy, possibly, half-heartedly, <returned)

From Only Fools and Horses

11. Eric and Denise applied for provisional ruling (6,4)
DECREE NISI

(ERIC and DENISE)* (*applied)

12. Where sultanas may be cultivated in Romania (4)
OMAN

[r]OMAN[ia] (in)

13. Pure first-class rolling tobacco (8)
VIRGINIA

VIRGIN (pure) + (AI)< (first class, <rolling)

16. Boil these cycling clothes white in the end (6)
SEETHE

(THESE)* (*cycling, not an anagram as such, just a cycling of the letters) clothes [whit]E (in the end)

17. European lived all over the place under cover (6)
VEILED

(E (European) LIVED)* (*all over the place)

19. Case of having the means to secure laid-back life in Italy (8)
ABLATIVE

ABLE (having the means) to secure (VITA)< (life in Italy, <laid-back)

21. Weeds moving south west to Oxford? (4)
SHOE

HOES (weeds, moving S (south) west)

22. In-depth far-flung guide (10)
PATHFINDER

(IN DEPTH FAR)* (*flung)

25. Welsh borders to reissue nature guide (6)
RENEGE

R[eissu]E N[atur]E G[uid]E (borders to)

26. Lines in Court 1 at Queen’s less clear (8)
WOOLLIER

LL (lines) in (WOO (court) + I (1) at ER (Queen))

27. Judge fools very reasonably… at first (8)
ASSESSOR

ASSES (fools) + SO (very) + R[easonably] (at first)

28. Perfect European language is losing its essence (6)
FINISH

FIN[n]ISH (European language, losing its essence)

DOWN
2. Convention requiring generation to support FT (5)
USAGE

AGE (generation) to support US (FT)

3. One in flight from celebrity casing island… (5)
STAIR

STAR (celebrity) casing I (island)

4. …in that jockey’s control (7)
THEREIN

THE REIN (jockey’s control)

5. Instrument in old vehicle is initially not applicable (7)
OCARINA

O (old) + CAR (vehicle) + I[s] (initially) + NA (not applicable)

6. Crop rotations from north and south come together at the end (7)
TURNIPS

TURN and (SPIN)< (rotations, from north <and south) come together at the end (i.e. the final N is shared)

7. Old dog — boring abstainer or party animal? (9)
EXTROVERT

EX (old) + (ROVER (dog) boring TT (abstainer))

8. Grove erroneously descibes famous German composer as leading Soviet (9)
GORBACHEV

(GROVE)* (*erroneously) describes BACH (famous German composer)

14. Mouldy cheese regularly stains thick coverings (3,6)
ICE SHEETS

(CHEESE [s]T[a]I[n]S (regularly))* (*mouldy)

15. Lowdown about former detective gets the bird (6-3)
GOLDEN-EYE

(GEN (lowdown) about OLD (former)) + EYE (detective)

18. Bear down on extemely dissolute crowd (7)
DEPRESS

D[issolut]E (extremely) + PRESS (crowd)

19. Peace-loving soldier, one inexperienced in retreat (4-3)
ANTI-WAR

ANT (soldier) + I (one) + (RAW)< (inexperienced, <in retreat)

20. Countdown to end with this wordplay for FLIT? (4-3)
LIFT-OFF

LIFT OFF being wordplay for FLIT

23. New factory ultimately requiring 50% of capital to manufacture fibre (5)
NYLON

N (new) + [factor]Y (ultimately) requiring LON[don] (capital, 50% of)

24. Odds of runaways never turning up? (5)
EVENS

([runaway]S NEVE[r])< (of, <turning up)

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,739 by BOBCAT”

  1. Marvellous. At the edge of what I’m capable of doing without resorting to aids, which is how I like it. TURNIPS was my loi with a sigh of relief when I finally saw it.

  2. COTD: TURNIPS (Two twists in the tale)!
    Liked SHOE and EVENS.
    Thanks Bobcat and Teacow!

    A minor observation:
    LIFT-OFF
    Def: Countdown to end with this

  4. Several NHOs — Hera, DECREE NISI, ABLATIVE, Del Boy. And I was unaware of this meaning of retort. TURNIPS was clever.

  5. I also had a long list of NHOs, slightly different to GDU@4’s. Aside from that, I do not have much to say about this one

    Thanks Bobcat and Teacow

  6. Very enjoyable. Quite tightly clued and a mix of straightforward and tussles. VIRGINIA, SEETHE and TURNIPS my podium.

    Thanks Bobcat and Teacow

  7. Thanks Bobcat. This was a mixed bag for me — I enjoyed some clues like VEILED, ABLATIVE, PATHFINDER, RENEGE, EXTROVERT, and ANTI-WAR but others like RETORT and TURNIPS were incomprehensible to me. I eventually revealed five clues in total so this was not a good outing for me. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  8. An enjoyable challenge, with TURNIPS the most devious, and my favourite.

    My LOI RETORT took me ages, and went in with a distinctly raised eyebrow. I thought that had to be the answer from quite early on, yet couldn’t properly justify it. Partly because I’d never heard of the lab equipment (fair enough), but also because only the ‘T’ is the heart of TROTTER (a 7-letter word), not TT.

    Thanks Bobcat and Teacow.

  9. All solved without help, although there were a few chewy clues. We liked HABANERA, PATHFINDER and TURNIPS. We couldn’t see the parsing of RENEGE, our LOI – we saw ‘gene’ reversed in the answer and wondered if that was the ‘nature guide’ but we couldn’t make the rest fit.
    An enjoyable solve; thanks, Bobcat and Tracow.

  10. Thanks for the blog, good set of neat clues . I liked the Olympian for HABANERA.
    PATHFINDER could have had a link to Mars , replace guide by rover.

  11. Thanks BOBCAT and TEACAL.
    Can anyone enlighten us on the italicised first words of 1A, 8D and 20D in the print version?

  12. Piratewatch@11 The reason for the italics is that, for the purposes of the surface readings of the clues in question, Apple (the IT company), Grove (the dictionary of music and musicians) and Countdown (the UK TV show) are all references to names rather than to the dictionary meanings of the words.

  13. Oh, that reminds me – would someone please explain the connection between 3D & 4D, which appear to be connected by ellipsis?

  14. Really enjoyed this and got much of it but didn’t know what a del boy is and why is Gen the lowdown? But thank you! Always glad to learn here

  16. Martyn@13, as far as I can see, the ellipses are there only because the two clues together make a single sentence.

    I enjoyed this one. 11a DECREE NISI was my initial favourite, for the good anagram and excellent surface. I couldn’t parse 8d TURNIPS, but when I saw Teacow’s explanation it became my second favourite, so thanks to both Bobcat and Teacow for the fun.

  17. Anil@14 , GEN is a word mainly seen just in crosswords. It is the news , the gossip , the lowdown , whispered between conspirators.

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