Financial Times 16,426 by VELIA

A gentle start to the week from VELIA…

A very pleasant solve. Lot’s of great clues. Hokuto apples were new to me.
My parsing of 28a is perhaps a bit dodgy.

Thanks VELIA!

image of grid

ACROSS

1 Row on river in France (8)

CAMARGUE

ARGUE (row) on CAM (river)

5 Part of speech swamped by undergrad verbosity (6)

ADVERB

[undergr]AD VERB[osity] (swamped by)

10 Wine I substituted for lost love, doctor! (5)

MEDIC

MED[o](I)C (wine, I substituted for lost O (love))

11 Pine for property (9)

BELONGING

BE LONGING (pine for)

12 Accused lowland American prosecutor in depression (9)

DEFENDANT

(FEN (lowland) + DA (american prosecutor)) in DENT (depression)

13 Freeze half-portions of choice soup (3,2)

ICE UP

[cho]ICE [so]UP (half portions of)

14 Delightful stop outside Bordeaux? (6)

DIVINE

DIE (stop) outside VIN (bordeaux)

15 Velia’s into recreating Plato’s ideal (7)

OPTIMAL

IM (velia’s) into (PLATO)* (*recreating)

18 Extremely bijou gastropub – listener’s pet hate (7)

BUGBEAR

B[ijo]U G[astropu]B (extremely) +EAR (listener)

20 To begin with, agent provocateur relaxed (2,4)

AT EASE

A[gent] (to begin with) + TEASE (provocateur)

22 Sub is trendy and far out (5)

INFRA

IN (trendy) + (FAR)* (*out)

24 Quietly mourn outside church location (9)

PLACEMENT

P (quietly) + LAMENT (mourn) outside CE (church)

25 Sold off education (9)

AUCTIONED

(EDUCATION)* (*off)

26 Taxis come endlessly in principle (5)

AXIOM

[t]AXI[s] [c]OM[e] (endlessly)

27 Previous lean stretch (6)

EXTEND

EX (previous) + TEND (lean)

28 Manipulate line, give way! (8)

INVEIGLE

(LINE GIVE)* (*manipulate)

DOWN

1 Perhaps film puts me in company with vacuous dandy (6)

COMEDY

ME in (CO (company) with D[and]Y (vacuous))

2 Changing method of work provided in final (9)

MODIFYING

MO (method of work) + (IF (provided) in DYING (final))

3 One’s cried out, helping review (15)

RECONSIDERATION

(ONES CRIED)* (*out) + RATION (helping)

4 Dress over which Australian bird’s thrown up causing offence (7)

UMBRAGE

(GARB (dress) over which EMU (Australian bird))< (<thrown up)

6 Cartoon character with naughty he-man tendencies (6,3,6)

DENNIS THE MENACE

(HE MAN TENDENCIES)* (naughty)

7 The best of comparative literature (5)

ELITE

[comparativ]E LITE[rature] (of)

8 Large computer in Hokuto and New York (3,5)

BIG APPLE

Triple definition
BIG (large) + APPLE (computer)
Hokuto apples are rather big

9 Bravo! Game smashed (6)

BLOTTO

B (bravo) + LOTTO (game)

16 Getting better at putting flower in vase (9)

MASTERING

putting ASTER (flower) in MING (vase)

17 A sharp rise in boys’ truancy? Expect heads to resign (8)

ABDICATE

A + ((ACID)< (sharp, <rise) in B[oys] T[ruancy] E[xpect] (heads))

19 Regret being incarcerated again (6)

REPENT

RE PENT (incarcerated again)

20 Give up live music? (7)

ABANDON

A BAND ON (live music)

21 Obstruct dodgy testimony not withdrawn (6)

STYMIE

([t]ESTIM[on]Y (not withdrawn))* (*dodgy)

23 Non-fiction about eastern aspect (5)

FACET

FACT (non-fiction) about E (eastern)

9 comments on “Financial Times 16,426 by VELIA”

Thanks, both. Re 28a,I parsed “manipulate” as the def and “way” as the anagram indicator.

Thanks V and T! enjoyable puzzle — agree with billy wrt 28a parsing. Did anyone else notice a sub-textual them of death? or is it just me projecting corona phobia?

Thanks to Velia and Teacow. Enjoyable, but I failed to ger CAMARGUE.

Not too difficult.

Blotto has appeared in the FT puzzle two days running.

A consequence of the financial times?

Thanks to all.

Not too difficult

Blotto has appeared in the FT puzzled two days in succession.

He sign of the financial times?

Apologies for duplication!!

Thanks Velia and Teacow. Had to look up CAMARGUE but otherwise encountered no difficulties with this pleasing start to the week.

Thanks to both. I also took “manipulate” as the definition for 28a. Not sure how “way!” Becomes an anagram indicator but it does not seem to be the definition, so must be.

Thanks Velia and Teacow

Late to this one … started new contract and getting back into the swing of when can get to the puzzles again after a break. Anyway not too many problems with this one and done in the single sitting. Was able to get off to a flying start with the three similar word plays at 7d, 5a and 13a.

Think that 28a is trying to be an &lit / semi &lit of sorts – as in INVEIGLE ONE’S WAY IN … with the anagram / anagrist in amongst it all. Didn’t ponder too much on the technicalities … the answer was quite clear

Finished down the bottom with that INVEIGLE, MASTERING and ABDICATE (which took a bit of unwrangling).

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