Financial Times 17,945 by XELA

January 10, 2025 at 7:21 am by Turbolegs

An unfamiliar setter this Friday who has dished out a solid challenge. Thanks XELA!

FF: 9 DD: 9

ACROSS
1	MATTE	Dull thing that never ends (5)
		MATTEr ( thing, without ending )
4	PARAMEDIC	Emergency worker seen in epic drama at sea (9)
		sds
9	MAESTRO	Expert, noted chairman taking rest, possibly (7)
		MAO ( chairman ) containing [ REST ]*
10	BATTERY	One maybe charged for beating somebody up? (7)
		double def
11	ON THE FACE OF IT	Where you’ll find a clock’s sweep hand, apparently (2,3,4,2,2)
		cryptic def
14	RARE	Especially good feature of outsider art from the east (4)
		hidden, reversed in "..outsidER ARt.."
15	CATHEDRAL	Animal heard around large church (9)
		CAT ( animal ) [ HEARD ]* L ( large )
18	PANATELLA	Smoked item in casserole had completely turned (9)
		PAN ( casserole ) ATE ( had ) LLA ( completely = ALL, reversed )
19	BLUE	Tory MP huffed and puffed loudly (4)
		sounds like BLEW ( huffed and puffed )
21	EASY LISTENING	Gets insanely, insanely bored by one genre of popular music (4,9)
		[ GETS INSANELY ]* containing I ( one )
24	IMPLORE	Urgently make requests for old stories of mischievous kids? (7)
		IMP ( mischievous kid[s] ) LORE ( old stories )
26	APOSTLE	Messenger is bitter about delivery load? (7)
		ALE ( bitter ) around POST ( delivery load )
27	STATE BANK	Financial institution performed badly assuming a recurring risk (5,4)
		STANK ( performed badly ) containing [ A { TEB ( risk = BET, reversed ) } ]
28	TARTT	American author from Arkansas appearing in Time, time after time! (5)
		AR ( arkansas, abbreviation ) in TTT ( time , time after time ) ; author of the goldfinch
DOWN
1	MEME	This writer repeatedly creates content that goes viral (4)
		ME ME ( this writer , repeatedly )
2	THE SOPRANOS	Fantastic person shot a classic TV show (3,8)
		[ PERSON SHOT A ]*
3	ENTITY	Urges regularly suppressed from whole being (6)
		ENTIreTY ( whole, without RE – alternate letters of uRgEs )
4	PROVENCAL	Established, short name of a French language (9)
		PROVEN ( established ) CALl ( name, short i.e. without last letter )
5	RUBIA	Type of herbaceous plant? It’s some shrub, I assume (5)
		hidden in "..shRUB I Assume"
6	MUTTERED	Medium spoke — spoke in a low voice (8)
		M ( medium ) UTTERED ( spoke )
7	DIE	Conk out, having taken only regular bits of advice (3)
		alternate letters ( regular bits ) of aDvIcE
8	CRYSTAL SET	Certain rock band’s playlist for radio (7,3)
		CRYSTAL ( certain ) SET ( rock band's playlist )
12	FIRELIGHTER	Combustible material in sack on boat (11)
		FIRE ( sack ) LIGHTER ( boat )
13	FRIPPERIES	Cooks eating unlimited cured fish and trifles (10)
		FRIES ( cooks ) containing kIPPERs ( cured fish, unlimited i.e. without end letters )
16	TRADEMARK	Brand of plug fitted in rear part of tablet, say (9)
		AD ( plug ) in [ T ( tableT, rear part of ) REMARK ( say ) ]
17	STALLONE	Stand next to a single film star (8)
		STALL ( stand ) ONE ( single )
20	PIG-OUT	Binge leads to potentially irritating inflammatory condition (3-3)
		PI ( starting letters of "..Potentially Irritating.." ) GOUT ( inflammatory condition )
22	SHEBA	Female born to the north of a place on the Arabian peninsula (5)
		SHE ( female ) B ( born ) A
23	DEFT	Clever senior journo set up this paper (4)
		DE ( senior journo = ED, reversed ) FT ( this paper )
25	PEA	Seed coming from chopped fruit (3)
		PEAr ( fruit, chopped i.e. without the last letter )

23 comments on “Financial Times 17,945 by XELA”

Gnomad

#1 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 07:37

Thanks XELA and Turbolegs. TARTT new for me but couldn’t be anything else.
PostMark

#2 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 08:39

An infrequent setter but one we have seen a couple of times before in the FT.

At first I was wondering if CRYSTAL SET meant ‘certain’ (similar to crystal clear) with ‘rock’ = CRYSTAL and ‘band’s playlist for radio’ = SET! Two super anagrams in PARAMEDIC and EAST LISTENING. I also enjoyed the neat assemblies for FRIPPERIES, TRADEMARK and PANATELLA. BATTERY is a lovely double def though some editors don’t like a directional linker in such clues; likewise ‘next to’ in the down clue for STALLONE is often debated, like ‘by’, though the setting part of me is hugely tempted by them. A nice, crisp, cleanly clued puzzle to start the day.

Thanks Xela and Turbolegs
Geoff Down Under

#3 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 08:42

I assumed in 27a that “performed badly” gave “sank” and couldn’t account for the remaining TATEB, so I’m glad that’s been cleared up.

I’ve never equated “rare” with “especially good”. Typhoid is rare.

Lexicon expanders: RUBIA, TARTT (I thought it parsed as TERAT).

An enjoyable solve from this infrequent setter.
FrankieG

#4 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 09:05

[4a sds?] [8d ‘…CRYSTAL ( certain and rock ) SET ( band’s playlist )’]
Noticed quite a few double letters: Ps, Ls, and especially Ts. 28d TARTT should have been “Time, time after time!”
Pelham Barton

#5 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 10:25

Thanks Xela and Turbolegs

4ac: I am not sure what Turbolegs meant by “sds” but, as no one else has said it in full detail, I shall give my parsing as anagram (at sea) of “epic drama”.

14ac: Collins 2023 p 1653 gives us, among other relevant meanings of rare¹, “6 exhibiting uncommon excellence; superlatively good or fine: rare skill“.
Petert

#6 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 12:52

Thanks to setter and blogger. Nice crossword, though I wasn’t altogether happy about recurring as a reversal indicator.
John

#7 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 14:06

For 3d I could not get away from “estate” being the only word that fit the crossers. Otherwise a superb Friday puzzle..
Martyn

#8 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 15:04

I echo PM@2: “A nice, crisp, cleanly clued puzzle”.

Favourites were BATTERY, and EASY LISTENING.

My only questions are: following the clue in 17 down exactly, should the answer not be STALLAONE; and in 19 across is “loudly” really a homophone indicator?

Thanks Xela and Turbolegs
Pelham Barton

#9 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 15:41

19ac: I agree that “loudly” seems a bit of a stretch, but I think it is near enough to either “noisily” or “out loud”, and I would be happy with either of these.

17dn: I think “a single” works for “one”: perhaps in a construction like “There is a single tree in this field”.
PostMark

#10 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 15:58

PB @9: or ‘Root scored a single’ …
Martyn

#11 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 16:38

PM@10 and PB@9. As always, the answer is among the contributors. Appreciated
Pelham Barton

#12 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 16:56

Thanks Martyn@11. A point which I make occasionally , but which applies every time, is that it is much easier to be a commenter than a blogger. If I have an answer, I will give it, but if not I will usually stay silent. The blogger has to say something about every clue, even if it is only a plea for help.
Martyn

#13 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 17:51

Yes, I completely agree. They all do a great job and I certainly do not expect them to anticipate every question.
Roz

#14 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 18:01

Thanks for the blog , I had “certain rock” for CRYSTAL and the resr for SET . I will not even start on a BATTERY being charged.
Moly

#15 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 18:49

I know I’m being thick, but would somebody please explain the Cal(i)part of Provençal?

Thank you.

I like most of this which was done quickly by my standards before I got stuck on the last few. I did not like not state bank (poor reversal indicator).
Moly

#16 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 18:50

I know I’m being thick, but would somebody please explain the Cal(i)part of Provençal?

Thank you.

I liked most of this which was done quickly by my standards, before I got stuck on the last few. I did not like not state bank (poor reversal indicator) and where I was convinced “performed badly” = sank
Pelham Barton

#17 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 18:53

4dn: CALl (as given by Turbolegs) is the word CALL (name) with the last letter changed to lower case, to indicate omission.
Moly

#18 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 19:43

Thank you very much PB @ 17.

I was looking for something far more complicated……😂
Moly

#19 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 19:52

Of course, in my defence, I read the word CALI as if the last letter is a capital i rather than a lower case L……..

So I was trying to understand what name could be shortened to Cali.
Martyn

#20 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 20:09

I also treated it as Cali, and thought of it as short for California.
Anil Shrivastava

#21 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 20:44

I had a lot of fun with this puzzle but also didn’t know TARTT. but having learned about her, I’m interested in reading her. One of the great benefit of doing puzzles is learning new things!
I’m generally very bad at popular culture and struggle with even older things like THE SOPRANOS and STALLONE though I did get them eventually.

Thank you all.
Moly

#22 - Fri 10th Jan 25, 20:54

The Secret History is a magnificent novel. A modern classic.
Drake

#23 - Sun 12th Jan 25, 17:16

Like Petert @6 I remain unhappy with recurring = reversed. Apart from that, quite an enjoyable puzzle. Thank you both.

Comments are closed.