Financial Times 15,971 by CRUX

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A fairly gentle start to the week from CRUX…

Nothing too taxing this morning. A couple of Cryptic Definitions that were essentially straight. Both flavours of flower make an appearance. Some nice surfaces, and all rather enjoyable.
We were, however, not entirely sure about our parsing of 9d…

Thanks CRUX!

completed grid

Across

1 Inside the Gulag has them horror-struck (6)
AGHAST
[gul]AG HAS T[hem] (inside)

4 Italian bread strike reported by secret agents (8)
CIABATTA
BATTA “batter” (strike, sounds like, reportedly) by CIA (secret agents)

10 Empty bottles proverbially silent! (7)
DEADMEN
Double Definition
Dead Man is a bottle after the contents is drunk, and dead men tell no tales.

11 Troubled relative he would briefly welcome (7)
HAUNTED
AUNT (relative) inside HE’D (he would, briefly, welcome)

12 No score at end of game that’s much longer than 25 (4)
NILE
NIL (no score) + [gam]E (end of)
The Nile is much longer than the Seine (25 across)

13 Dash around the shops – a trap for the unwary (5,5)
SMALL PRINT
SPRINT (dash) around MALL (the shops)

15 Pursues without energy, unfit, yet still takes over (6)
USURPS
(PURSU[e]S (without E (energy)))* (*unfit)

16 Single variety of orange dates back centuries (4,3)
IRON AGE
I (single) + (ORANGE)* (*variety)

20 English child I dressed up for Scottish party (7)
CEILIDH
(E (english) + CHILD I)* (*derssed up)

21 What pupils can do in surprising detail (6)
DILATE
(DETAIL)* (*surprising)

24 Refuse cover (7,3)
DUSTBIN LID
Cryptic Definition

26 Man out of Genesis in a Beatles audience (4)
ESAU
[beatl]ES AU[dience] (in)

28 Proper centrally regulated flower (7)
PRIMULA
PRIM (proper) + [reg]ULA[ted] (centrally)

29 One of the herd in New York city (7)
BUFFALO
Double Definition

30 More stable flying aid acquired by pilot (8)
STEADIER
(AID)* (*flying) acquired by STEER (pilot)

31 They escort drug addicts around hospital (6)
USHERS
USERS (drug addicts) around H (hospital)

Down

1 An extra put on to conclude university term (finally!) (8)
ADDENDUM
ADD (put on) + END (to conclude) + U (university) + [ter]M (finally)

2 Lead compound found in home is bad for the hair (4,5)
HEAD LOUSE
(LEAD)* (*compound) found in HOUSE (home)

3 Heavyweight sport taken up in bedroom usually (4)
SUMO
([bedro]OM US[usally] (in))< (<taken up)

5 One real NHS reform could relieve congestion (8)
INHALERS
I (one) + (REAL NHS)* (*reform)

6 Risqué writer has to make corrections (4,6)
BLUE PENCIL
BLUE (risque) + PENCIL (writer)

7 Musically all-inclusive (5)
TUTTI
Cryptic definition

8 Congratulations have no place in financial examinations (6)
AUDITS
[pl]AUDITS (congratulations, no PL (place))

9 “Time” requires article before this rival (5)
ENEMY
Time is THE (article) ENEMY (?)

14 Write letters guaranteed to get you transported (10)
SPELLBOUND
SPELL (write letters) + BOUND (guaranteed)

17 German girl on trial that’s just for show (5,4)
GLASS CASE
G (german) + LASS (girl) + CASE (trial)

18 Toothless old PM hanging here? (8)
EDENTATE
EDEN (old PM, Anthony Eden) + TATE (hanging here? The Tate Gallery)

19 Vague commonsense about mixing colour (seen in 6) (8)
NEBULOUS
NOUS (commonsense) about (BLUE)* (*mixing, colour seen in 6 down)

22 A branch’s most able people (6)
ADEPTS
A + DEPTS (branches, departments)

23 Selfish citizen who’s quickly left out (5)
NIMBY
NIMB[l]Y (quickly, Left out)
Not In My Back Yard

25 Sensible-sounding flower (5)
SEINE
“sane” (sensible, sounding)

27 Odd sights starting usually from outer space (4)
UFOS
U[usually] F[rom] O[uter] S[pace] (starting) &lit

*anagram

9 comments on “Financial Times 15,971 by CRUX”

  2. I think your parsing of 9d is fine. Only one to cause any trouble was 10a. I was not aware of this term but guessed it from the cryptic fodder. Checked it in my Chambers but it only appears there as two words.

    Thanks Crux and Teacow.

  3. Thanks to Crux and Teacow. Enjoyable. I’ve come across Time as The ENEMY fairly often in crossword-land (and it may go back as far as Shakespeare’s sonnets). ADI in STEADIER was new to me as were PRIMULA and CEILIDH but those two were gettable from the clues.

  5. Good way to start the week and not too difficult but there were a couple of new words/terms for me (DEADMEN and BLUE PENCIL) and I couldn’t parse STEADIER. BUFFALO was also an original ‘New York city’.

    I’m asking this out of ignorance, but is CIABATTA pronounced as in “batter” or “barter”? I assumed (probably wrongly) it was the latter. I had a listen on a few sites and from what I could hear it seems to be a case of “you say neither and I say neither”.

    Thanks to Crux and Teacow

  8. Thanks Crux and Teacow

    Felt like this setter had taken his foot off the difficulty pedal from his last few puzzles, but still found a couple of little road bumps along the way, pretty much in line with the discussion above.  Parsed 30 with the anagram of AID nut can see that the ADI device could work just as well.

    Finished with ENEMY after a couple in the SW corner – SPELLBOUND and CEILIDH.

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