Financial Times 17,953 by PETO

by

PETO kicks off the week…

A gentle but enjoyable Monday puzzle.

Thanks PETO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Quickly becoming aware of standing by prince (6)
PRONTO

ON TO (becoming aware of) standing by PR (prince)

4. Single daughter extremely gullible when nervous (2,4)
ON EDGE

ONE (single) + D (daughter) + G[ullibl]E (extremely)

8. Dante regularly ignored allure of crack (7)
ATTEMPT

[d]A[n]T[e] (regularly ignored) + TEMPT (allure)

9. Note by Rex on manuscript describing popular place of worship (7)
MINSTER

(TE (note) by R (Rex)) on (MS (manuscript) describing IN (popular))

11. Visit country to get largely unfamiliar gemstone (10)
TOURMALINE

TOUR (visit) + MALI (country) to get NE[w] (unfamiliar, largely)

12. Somewhat degenerate bawd returning to assist in crime (4)
ABET

([degenera]TE BA[wd] (somewhat))< (<returning)

13. Obsession of academic starts to nullify intellectual awareness (5)
MANIA

MA (academic) + N[ullify] I[tellectual] A[wareness] (starts to)

14. Girl overwhelmed by compassion after copper’s greed (8)
CUPIDITY

(DI (girl) overwhelmed by PITY (compassion)) after CU (copper)

16. Growth at home to stop around end of year (8)
INCREASE

IN (at home) + CEASE (to stop) around [yea]R (end of)

18. By no means all declare belief in revolt (5)
REBEL

[decla]RE BEL[ief] (by no means all)

20. Deceived over opening of news agency (4)
HAND

HAD (deceived) over N[ews] (opening of)

21. Curt once played around in Paris I guess (10)
CONJECTURE

(CURT ONCE)* (*played) around JE (in Paris, I)

23. Summarise existing course of action (7)
OUTLINE

OUT (existing) + LINE (course of action)

24. Curious desire to protect Updike’s source remains (7)
RESIDUE

(DESIRE)* (*curious) to protect U[pdike] (source)

25. Workers losing bit of momentum before strike’s conclusion (6)
ENDING

[m]EN (workers, losing M[omentum] (bit of)) before DING (strike)

26. Poseidon perhaps in love captured by Degas dancing (3,3)
SEA GOD

O (love) captured by (DEGAS)* (*dancing)

DOWN
1. Paul oddly exaggerated over feature of baroque art (5)
PUTTO

P[a]U[l] (oddly) + (OTT)< (exaggerated, <over)

2. Occupied during trip (7)
OVERRUN

OVER (during) + RUN (trip)

3. Cover prohibition with article on American boss (3,6)
TOP BANANA

TOP (cover) + BAN (prohibition) with AN (article) on A (American)

5. Jack heard about Italian leader being innocent (5)
NAIVE

"knave" = NAVE (Jack, "heard") about I[talian] (leader)

6. Worked on small vehicle kept inside shed (7)
DISCARD

DID (worked on), (S (small) + CAR (vehicle)) kept inside

7. Basic design of metal eel maintaining hint of naturalism (9)
ELEMENTAL

(METAL EEL)* (*design of) maintaining N[aturalism] (hint of)

10. Villain’s crimes affected social worker (9)
MISCREANT

(CRIMES)* (*affected) + ANT (social worker)

13. Small scale version of car found by volunteers back near river (9)
MINIATURE

MINI (car) found by (TA)< (volunteers, <back) near URE (river)

15. Soldier on parade initially finding hesitation hard to endure (9)
PERSEVERE

P[arade] (initially) finding ER (hesitation) + SEVERE (hard to endure)

17. King became confused and unkempt in appearance (7)
RADDLED

R (king) + ADDLED (became confused)

19. In Crosby covering a race (7)
BATTING

BING (Crosby) covering (A + TT (race))

21. Rule on first of claims immediately (5)
CANON

C[laims] (first of) + ANON (immediately)

22. Frank’s dog runs for hours (5)
ROUND

HOUND (dog, R (runs) for H (hours))

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,953 by PETO”

  1. I enjoyed this which went in fairly easily except for unknown TOURMALINE . Some witty clues too. A nice diversion from the American TOP BANANA today.

    Thanks to Peto and Teacow.

  2. A nice change from Saturday. Favs. were tourmaline and cupidity. I entered “ round” for 22d but could not convince myself that it meant “frank’. Thanks Peto and Teacow.

  3. A nice change from Saturday. Favs. were tourmaline and Cupidity. I entered “ round” for22d but yould not convince myself that it meant “frank’. Thanks Peto and Teacow.

  4. Thanks Peto and Teacow

    22dn: ODE 2010 p 1549 has round adjective 5 not omitting or disguising anything; frank: she berated him in good round terms.

  5. Held up for a while in the NW corner thinking 1ac had to be ‘Presto’ which of course we couldn’t parse and preventing us getting 2dn. Otherwise fairly straightforward, although we didn’t equate ROUND with ‘frank’.
    Thanks, Peto and Teacow.

  6. Went anti-clockwise from NE corner

    Liked surface to DISCARD, BATTING

    It was gentle to a point, but there seemed to be a lot of stretching of words and words that were on the edge of my knowledge (some just inside, others outside). A few have been mentioned already.

    Thanks Peto and Teacow

  7. For PERSEVERE, I had thought that the definition was “to endure,” with SEVERE being given by just “hard” (“they take a hard/severe line on that sort of behavior”). Which left me wondering what on earth the soldier was doing there. So thanks to Teacow for setting me straight.

  8. I solved this fairly speedily by my standards, though found some of the definitions stretched or vague, and thus a bit unsatisfactory (like Martyn @6). Also, as mrpenny@7, I had exactly the same misunderstanding with Persevere, so thanks for solving that puzzle for me.

    Top banana was a new expression; I’ve always thought it was big banana.

    Putto also new.

    Thanks!

  9. mrpenny and Moly @7&8, I too saw to endure as a definition, so I credited Peto with the clever deception of giving us definitions at both ends of the clue, which I thought was brilliant. 😊

    I couldn’t parse 25a ENDING, but when I saw Teacow’s explanation it became my favourite clue – tricky construction and a very evocative surface.

    Thanks Peto and Teacow for the Monday merriment – a good companion to the wonderful Arachne in today’s Guardian.

  10. A quick solve , but I appreciate this website for certain clarifications. Thanks to PB @4 for ROUND and FRANK.

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