Financial Times 15,487 by REDSHANK

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A challenging Thursday puzzle…

…which in the main was clever and entertaining, however I think there is an obvious mistake in 19ac.  It may not be a mistake, and if that is the case I don’t like the device used.

Some clues were excellent, for example 14ac, 20ac, 27ac, 7dn and 24 dn, with my LOI being 22dn becuase it took me a while to parse it.

Thanks, Redshank.

Across
9 BAPTISMAL Psalm a bit out of place at christening (9)
  *(psalm a bit)
10 ISLES Recite passages in Scillies, say (5)
  Honophone of AISLES (passages), indicated by “recite”.
11 MARINER Eliot’s weaver owned one probe (7)
  (Silas) MARNER “owned” 1, so MAR(1)NER

Silas Marner was the title character and a weaver in one of George Eliot’s novels, and Mariner was the name of several American deep-space probes.
12 DOG STAR What sailors followed follows sailor (3,4)
  DOGS (“follows”) + TAR (“sailor”)
13 SKI Typical finish of a Russian runner (3)
  Many Russian names end in “ski”
14 SYNCOPATION I stay on ground to cover new policeman, changing beat (11)
  *(i stay on) “to cover” N(ew) COP (policeman)
17 AGGRO Goods run out after a display of violence (5)
  GG (good, twice, so “goods”) + R.O. (run out) “after” A
18 MOP Clean start to minor surgery (3)
  M(inor) + OP (surgery)
19 LYCEE Odd features of play scheme in school (5)
  (p)L(a)Y(s)C(h)E(m)E

Is it just me, or is there a word missing from this clue?  The letters required from PLAY SCHEME are the even ones, not the odd ones.  Perhaps “Odd features of play scheme NOT in school, or REMOVED from school” or something like that would have worked.  I appreciate that “odd” can mean “remainders of pairs”, but in crossword clues, this would be too vague.
21 PENALTY AREA Cast pay a rental to reserve theatre’s last box (7,4)
  *(pay a rental) “to reserve” (theatr)E
23 EAT What we do now and then during repasts (3)
  (r)E(p)A(s)Ts), indicated by “now and then during”
25 NIAGARA A Republican once more rejected the Falls (7)
  <=AGAIN + R(epublican) + A
27 TORNADO Rent-a-party flier? (7)
  TORN (rent) + A DO (a party)

A Tornado is a fighter plane.
28 STEWS Cooks steal paintings from royal householders (5)
  STEWARTS (royal householders) with ART removed (or stolen)
29 BAILIWICK Guarantee New Zealander’s about to bag 100 in field (9)
  BAIL (guarantee) + <=KIWI (New Zealander, “about”) “to bag” C (100)
Down
1 A-BOMBS Product of Manhattan, actor initially flops (1-5)
  A(ctor) + BOMBS (flops)

Atom bomns were developed by the Manhattan Project.
2 SPARRING Tweet about queen crossing swords (8)
  SING (tweet) “about” (Katherine) PARR (queen)
3 PIANO STOOL What sustained Liberace playing apt solo No. 1 (5,5)
  *(apt solo no i), where i = 1
4 EMIR Islamic leader married in Ireland briefly (4)
  M(arried) in EIR(e) (Ireland, “briefly”)
5 CLODHOPPER Fool old battered helicopter controls (10)
  CHOPPER (helicopter) “controls” *(old)
6 RING Phone box here (4)
  You box in a ring
7 GLUTEI Instrument poking Joe’s cheeks (6)
  LUTE (instrument) “poking” G.I. (Joe)

Glutei are muscles in the buttocks, hence (bum) cheeks.
8 ESTRANGE Distance at greens varies (8)
  *(at greens)
15 NAMBY-PAMBY Wimpy guy stood up girl betweentimes (5-5)
  <=MAN (guy, “stood up”) + PAM (girl) between BY and BY (times)
16 AILSA CRAIG One of 10 feels bad with a foul cigar (5,5)
  AILS (feels bad) + A + *(cigar)

Ailsa Craig is an island off the coast of Ayrshire, famous as being the source of the stone used to make curling stones.
17 ALPINIST He climbs a slope, grasping flag of course (8)
  A LIST (slope) “grasping” PIN (a flag on a golf course, so “flag of course”)
20 CLEMATIS Climate changes beginning to stunt old man’s beard (8)
  *(climate) + S(tunt)
22 NEARED Approached destitute Arab? (6)
  An Arab (Ar.) in NEED could be described as “destitute”
24 TROIKA Three HP vehicle, possibly, or a kit (6)
  *(or a kit)

A troika was a carriage pulled by three horses, so a “three horse-power vehicle”
26 ALSO Some musical sounds from choral society too (4)
  Hidden in “musicAL SOunds” and “chorAL SOciety” also.
27 TRIM Shorten article leaving county (4)
  (An)TRIM

*anagram

9 comments on “Financial Times 15,487 by REDSHANK”

  1. Thanks for blog-especially PARR-As for LYCEE, no yellow card but.. I didn’t notice it at the time. And thanks for Manhattan project-there was me wondering if it was a cocktail at PJ’s. Nice puzzle.

  2. Thanks loonapick
    To make 19ac parse, I substituted the synonym ‘occasional’ for ‘odd’ which meant the selection could be either the even or the odd letters of pLaY sChEmE.

  3. Enjoyable thank you Redshank and Loonapick. I agree with Gaufrid about 19a – I marked lots of clues but my particular favourite is 13a as it made me smile

  4. Gaufrid & crypticsue – I can see the “odd = occasional” argument, and referred to it rather clumsily in my blog.

  7. Thanks Loonapick and Redshank.

    Couldn’t get “lycee” from wordplay (was not smart enough to resolve odd/even)

    and

    had a???a?r?i? for 16d…even though I guessed the second word as CRAIG from foul cigar…not good at geography either!

    Liked TORNADO BAILIWICK AGGRO NAMBY-PAMBY.

    Redshank never fails to entertain!

  8. Coby @5: This is a transliteration issue but isn’t the Russian surname ending most commonly rendered as -sky in English texts? Dostoevsky, Trotsky, Spassky …

  9. Thanks Redshank and loonapick

    Late to this one and it did take a number of sessions to get it out. Always enjoy the variety of the logic that is required to get his clues – particularly liked MARINER, BAILIWICK, AILSA CRAIG and ALPINIST here.

    Did have that same ‘this is not quite right feeling’ with the use of ‘odd’ to derive LYCEE, but it in no way held me up from getting it.

    Quite clever misdirection in a number of definitions – ‘Project of Manhattan’= A-BOMB, ‘flier’ = TORNADO and ‘probe’ = MARINER.

    Last in was TRIM at 27d.

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