Financial Times 17,950 by JASON

by

Jason is the compiler of today's FT puzzle.

I finihed this in two passes, the first providing ample crossers for the ones I missed first time round. I'm not entirely convinced I have the parsing of DODO right, but otherwise everything seems to be in order, although I had to check Chambers to justify the first part of CHEESECAKE.

Thanks, Jason.

ACROSS
8 VISAGE
Face travel document, say, being returned (6)

VISA ("travel document") + <=e.g. ("say", being returned)
9 OVERCOAT
Raglan perhaps is done with cold cereal (8)

OVER ("done") with C (cold) + OAT ("cereal")
10 WEEP
Little Penny’s sob (4)

WEE ("little") + P (penny)
11 ENTERPRISE
Undertaking to go in quietly and go up (10)

ENTER ("to go in") + P (quietly) + RISE ("go up")
12 DODO
Please mimic old fogey — lost old bird that couldn’t wing it (4)

DO DO ("please mimic") and double definition
13 OPEN SECRET
Oscar writes on English island mostly, one’s not well-kept (4,6)

O (Oscar, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + PENS ("writes") on E (English) + CRET(e) ("island, mostly")
17 NEAR
Name on lug is handy (4)

N (name) on EAR ("lug")
18 OSIER
Willow is more promising, one right for the chop (5)

(r)OSIER ("more promising") with one R (right) chopped
19 EASE
Place lacking in charm gives comfort (4)

Pl. (place) lacking in (pl)EASE ("charm")
21 ACCELERATE
Put one’s foot down — a late recce is out of order (10)

*(a late recce) [anag:is out of order]
23 SMUG
Complacent son features (4)

S (son) + MUG (facial "features")
24 BED OF ROSES
Soft situation in a prickly plot? (3,2,5)

A BED OF ROSES in the gardern could be descriped as a "prickly plot"
28 CUBE
Block what Potter wields, black within (4)

CUE ("what potter (snooker player) wields") with B (black) within
29 TELLTALE
Snitch is utter legend, perhaps (8)

TELL ("utter") + TALE ("legend, perhaps")
30 GO-KART
Good and satisfactory design for racer (2-4)

G (good) + OK ("satisfactory") + ART ("design")
DOWN
1 TIRESOME
Remote is damaged, that’s irritating (8)

*(remote is) [anag:damaged]
2 DAMP COURSE
Check start of plumber’s progress — one’ll protect the home (4,6)

DAM ("check") + [start of] P(lumber) + COURSE ("progress")
3 HERETOFORE
Until now the roe let out warning call (10)

*(the roe) [anag:let out] + FORE ("warning call" on a golf course)
4 LOOT
Riches flunkey picked up (4)

<=TOOL ("flunkey", picked up)
5 LEER
Reverse spin gets a sideways glance (4)

[reverse] <=REEL ("spin")
6 SCAR
Spoil second vehicle (4)

S (second) + CAR ("vehicle")
7 HASSLE
Steamship seen in blooming trouble (6)

SS (steamship) seen in HALE ("blooming")
14 ERICA
Plant from perhaps Morecambe area (5)

[perhaps] ERIC (Morecambe) + A (area)
15 STREET SIGN
Cryptic setter’s wrong about golf — it gives you a name (6,4)

*(setter) [anag:cryptic] + SIN ("wrong") about G (golf, in the NATO phonetic alphabet)
16 CHEESECAKE
What could be of superb quality? Possibly, fancy sweet (10)

CHEESE ("what could be of superb quality", as in big cheese) + CAKE ("fancy, perhaps" (think French fancy, for example)

20 STUBBORN
Difficult end brought into being (8)

STUB ("end") + BORN ("brought into being")
22 CLEVER
Conservative bar is bright (6)

C (Conservative) + LEVER ("bar")
25 OGLE
Look over broken leg (4)

O (over, in cricket) + *(leg) [anag:broken]
26 REAL
Sincere in the matter of a Liberal (4)

RE ("in the matter of") + A + L (Liberal)
27 SLEW
Many turn round (4)

Double definition

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,950 by JASON”

  1. I was stuck on trying to omit “charm” from “place,” to somehow arrive at EASE, which seemed obvious from the definition, so I see that I had that backwards. Chambers also lists “fancy cake” as a type of cake (under “fancy”). I agree with you on DODO, but I was similarly not entirely sure how that was intended to parse.

  2. CHEESECAKE was the only one whose wordplay I didn’t get, and I’m not sure whether I do after reading the blog. A weird clue?

    All else was straightforward, and I enjoy puzzles with no ultra-obscurities or UK-specific clues, thank you, Jason.

  3. 16d CHEESECAKE: The CHEESE is “† colloquial. Obsolete. 1840–1928 With the. The right, correct, or best thing; something first-rate, genuine, or exemplary.” Agree on 12a DODO.
    My LOi 27d SLEW took me longer than everything else.

  4. Thanks Jason and loonapick.

    DODO
    Agree with the blogger’s parsing. DO DO for ‘please mimic’ (do come in=please come in) seems fine to me.

  7. Favourites were the nice surface & anagram for ACCELERATE, and nice surface for TELLTALE.

    I also struggled with 27d. At one point I thought it was going to cause a DNF, but, like others, SLEW finally came to me.

    This was made difficult in part by a large number of unusual or inaccurate word meanings – too many in my book. Otherwise enjoyable.

    Thanks Jason and loonapick

  8. We couldn’t parse LOOT (we had ‘picked up’ as a homophone indicator) or EASE (didn’t think of ‘please’ = ‘charm’) although they couldn’t be anything else. Otherwise all straightforward enough with OPEN SECRET, ACCELERATE and STUBBORN among our favourites.
    Thanks, Jason and loonapick.

  9. Thanks for the blog , I agree for DODO , DO tell is often used for please tell .
    Good set of mainly concise clues and I liked the precision for OSIER .

  10. Slew was the one I didn’t get, but otherwise this was fun, just the right level of some easy and some needing a bit of thought.

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