Financial Times 16,420 by FALCON

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Enjoyable puzzle this morning.

My two quibbles are 13a, which doesn’t seem to have a straight indicator, and 8d which held me up as the split in AN E is A NE rather – confusing, but maybe not technically incorrect? However other than that a fair and enjoyable puzzle from Falcon. A nice mix of easy and more thought provoking clues. I particularly enjoyed WRANGLER, CANBERRA, MEGABUCKS and RUMBA.
Many thanks to Falcon!

completed grid

Across

1 Honest pitch in fun park (10)
FAIRGROUND
FAIR (honest) + GROUND (pitch)

7 Stand in pub full of energy (4)
BEAR
BAR (pub) full of E (energy)

9 Station a long way? Miles (4)
FARM
FAR (a long way) + M (miles)

10 Part of a large church team the Spanish man included (4,6)
SIDE CHAPEL
SIDE (team) + EL (the, Spanish); CHAP (man) included

11 Fertiliser in container for plant, for instance, beginning to hum (6)
POTASH
POT (container for plant) + AS (for instance) + H[um] (beginning to)

12 What a maverick may throw away to lead order? (8)
RULEBOOK
Cryptic definition

13 It’s extremely short opening (8)
VERMOUTH
VER[y] (extremely, short) + MOUTH (opening)

15 Couple I came across heading west (4)
ITEM
I + (MET)< (came across, <heading west)

17 Deer having short leg (4)
STAG
STAG[e] (leg, short)

19 Cowboy with rod crossing river (8)
WRANGLER
W (with) + ANGLER (rod) crossing R (river)

22 Stick surrounding bishop, a bishop back in capital (8)
CANBERRA
CANE (stick) surrounding B (bishop) + (A RR)< (a bishop, <back)

23 Broadcast from Nether Alderley (6)
HERALD
[net]HER ALD[erley] (from)

25 Different approach involving end to play, line being unauthenticated (10)
APOCRYPHAL
(APPROACH, [pla]Y (end to), L (line))* (*different)

26 One acquiring right to develop area of land (4)
ACRE
ACE (one) acquiring R (right)

27 Part of the barracks in an untidy state (4)
MESS
Double definition

28 Musical instrument coming after organ – hearing aid required! (3,7)
EAR TRUMPET
TRUMPET (musical instrument) coming after EAR (organ)

Down

2 Seaman, on his tod, finds edible mollusc (7)
ABALONE
AB (seaman) + ALONE (on his tod)

3 Alcoholic drink wicked daughter put out – something from Cuba (5)
RUMBA
RUM (alcoholic drink) + BA[d] (wicked, D (daughter) put out)

4 Busy time of day in plant by hotel belonging to us (4,4)
RUSH HOUR
RUSH (plant) by H (hotel) + OUR (belonging to us)

5 Indisposed subordinate, British subject? (5,3,7)
UNDER THE WEATHER
UNDER (subordinate) + THE WEATHER (British subject)

6 GP, say, on French island, easily managed (6)
DOCILE
DOC (GP, say) on ILE (island, French)

7 Finch seen by leader of bunch walking for pleasure (9)
BRAMBLING
B[unch] (leader of) + AMBLING (walking for pleasure)

8 Sign put up in an English plant (7)
ANEMONE
OMEN< (sign, <put up) in AN E (English)

14 Large amount of money, for example, in Massachusetts county (9)
MEGABUCKS
EG (for example) in MA (Massachussetts) + BUCKS (county)

16 Composer, retiring character, one who’s never married (8)
BACHELOR
BACH (composer) + (ROLE)< (character, <retiring)

18 Pair set off, wander aimlessly (7)
TRAIPSE
(PAIR SET)* (*off)

20 Become bigger, in general, after adjustment (7)
ENLARGE
(GENERAL)* (*after adjustment)

21 Mole in the region of the genitals, reportedly? (6)
GROYNE
“GROIN” (in the region of the genitals, “reportedly“)

24 Genuine marks, a field of interest (5)
REALM
REAL (genuine) + M (marks)

10 comments on “Financial Times 16,420 by FALCON”

  1. New to me was BRAMBLING finch.

    I parsed 12a as “What a maverick may throw away” as definition and then rule = lead + book = order (as in booking a ticket).

    Not sure what your objection was to 13a. 8d was fine to me.

    Thanks both.

  3. Andrew @2. Having seen this clue, or variations on it, several times, I never considered the “it” as anything other than Italian Vermouth but I see now this explains Teacow’s quibble.

  4. Thanks T and F! Enjoyed the clever clues that T enuemrated (MEGABUCKS etc.) — I convolutedly parsed 8d as A(NEMON)E with a=an and nomen=name=sign.  Made sense to me at the time.

  5. I didn’t see the significance of ‘It’ in 13a straight away and couldn’t understand what THE WEATHER had to do with ‘British subject’ until the penny dropped. The two variations on the ‘bishop’ theme for CANBERRA also took a bit of working out.

    Coming across an old crossword-land friend in BRAMBLING added to the enjoyment and helped get the week off to a good start.

    Thanks to Falcon and Teacow

  6. Thanks Falcon and Teacow

    Enjoyable puzzle for our long weekend holiday with enough depth in the clues to keep on one’s toes.  Had no problem with 13a – twigged that ‘It’ was VERMOUTH quickly enough and the wordplay spelled it out for me … still can’t see what the concern was with the clue.

    Anyway bigger embarrassments awaited by not seeing CANBERRA without a word finder – gotta say that it is pretty forgettable these days with the mob (on both sides) that are up there at the moment !!!  It was the second to last in, with the tricky RULEBOOK the last one in.

    BRAMLING was a new bird for me and had to use references to convince myself that AS did mean ‘for example’.

  7. I liked pretty much the same set mentioned in the blog. especially MEGABUCKS. I also liked VERMOUTH – ‘it’ has caught me out before, but not this time.

    Like Hovis @1, I don’t see any problem at all with 8d, it seems perfectly straightforward to me. I was, however, slightly miffed by 12a being enumerated as a single word. Searching online I see both Lexico (Oxford) and Macmillan both have it as an an American entry, but Merriam-Webster don’t. I’m trying not to be too sniffy about this, but it seems a bit rum that a British crossword contains an American word that not even they can agree upon.

    Thanks to all.

  8. Thanks for the blog, Teacow. This was a quick and enjoyable stroll except for 12 & 13 which simply didn’t work as clues for me.
    Having now been reminded of the old obscure Vermouth = it chestnut, I’ve just groaned loudly….

  9. Unusual for me to finish in one session: enjoyable.

    I got VERMOUTH from the crossings but, being Italian, I had no idea that VERMOUTH could be defined by “it’! In return, I got 5d easily, and I thought it was excellent. I parsed ANEMONE like Teacow. Although I got ITEM, I did not know that it could mean a “couple” (item for conversation?). MEGABUCKS was also very nice.

    Thanks to Falcon and to Teacow.

  10. That was a breeze, except for 13a. I’m partial to martinis (was on the tasting panel that helped create Bluecoat gin), but that definition of “it” was totally new to me. Must be a British thing.

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