Financial Times 16,444 by ARMONIE

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An enjoyable start to the week.

Reliably good Monday puzzle from Armonie. Generally quite straightforward. GUY MANNERING was a new one for me – an 1815 novel by Sir Walter Scott. While BARRIE and GOETHE would have been writing at about the same time, I don’t see further connection or a theme. Many thanks to Armonie!

completed grid

Across

1 Rascal set off for the OTC (6)
CADETS
CAD (rascal) + (SET)* (*off)
Officer’s Training Corps

4 Is in Paris holding shipment of delicacy (8)
ESCARGOT
EST (is in Paris) holding CARGO (shipment)

9 Agree condition at the time of despatch (6)
ASSENT
AS SENT (condition at the time of despatch)

10 Rice came cooked in dessert (3,5)
ICE CREAM
(RICE CAME)* (*cooked)

12 Entice student to the river (4)
LURE
L (student) to the URE (river)

13 Displays cereal bowls (10)
BRANDISHES
BRAN (cereal) + DISHES (bowls)

15 Determined to keep prisoner blowing hot and cold (12)
INCONSISTENT
INSISTENT (determined) to keep CON (prisoner)

18 Tenor appears in mocking novel (3,9)
GUY MANNERING
MANNER (tenor) appears in GUYING (mocking)

21 Sparkling drink gets fragrance after a little work (10)
OPALESCENT
ALE (drink) gets SCENT (fragrance) after OP (a little work)

22 Look over castle (4)
KEEP
Double definition

24 Dissident keeps motorway sealed (8)
HERMETIC
HERETIC (dissident) keeps M (motorway)
In the UK, motorways are numbered and classified as “M”

25 Scoundrel in spy organisation is a six-footer (6)
CICADA
CAD (scoundrel) in CIA (spy organisation)

26 Despite that has affair with bird (4,4)
EVEN THEN
EVENT (affair) with HEN (bird)

27 Church set in a hollow is respectable (6)
DECENT
CE (church) set in DENT (a hollow)

Down

1 Clergyman has tea with Frank (8)
CHAPLAIN
CHA (tea) with PLAIN (frank)

2 Neighbourhood detective’s scrupulous (8)
DISTRICT
DI (detective) + STRICT (scrupulous)

3 Acting award for knight in play (4)
TONY
N (knight) in TOY (play)

5 Support heavyweight ace? That’s matchless! (6,2,4)
SECOND TO NONE
SECOND (support) + TON (heavyweight) + ONE (ace)

6 Sales manager organised a nice route (10)
AUCTIONEER
(A NICE ROUTE)* (*organised)

7 Poet’s ego disturbed by article (6)
GOETHE
(EGO)* (*disturbed) by THE (article)

8 Most boring amateur seen during exam (6)
TAMEST
AM (amateur) seen during TEST (exam)

11 Produce system giving a better game (5,7)
FRUIT MACHINE
Cryptic definition
Better in the sense of one who bets

14 Popular Dutch sealant for consideration (10)
INDUCEMENT
IN (popular) + DU (Dutch) + CEMENT (sealant)

16 Terrier publicised beer (8)
AIREDALE
AIRED (publicised) + ALE (beer)

17 Bomb factory of vegetable producer (8)
EGGPLANT
EGG (bomb) + PLANT (factory)

19 Girl making concession having to hurry (6)
SOPHIE
SOP (concession) + HIE (to hurry)

20 Dramatist introduces a monarch to cheese (6)
BARRIE
introduces A R (a monarch) to BRIE (cheese)

23 Tell stories about lots of parasites (4)
LICE
LIE (tell stories) about C (lots of)

10 comments on “Financial Times 16,444 by ARMONIE”

  1. Very tricky SW quadrant. Didn’t know GUY MANNERING and would never have guessed it from the clue so a DNF.

    Can’t see 11d as a “cryptic definition”. I parsed as fruit = produce (noun) and machine = system with “a better game” as the definition.

  3. Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. I didn’t get the “fruit” in FRUIT MACHINE (not a term familiar to me), but I did know GUY MANNERING and agree about KEEP-peek.

  4. I too came a cropper in the SW. I can’t exactly say I was breezing it. but having solved 21ac OPALESCENT in a split second I came to a halt with a bloody nose. Thanks for your commentary, Teacow — but actually JM Barrie (upon whom I stupidly came a cropper) didn’t die until the 1930s. And thanks, Armonie, for some most unMondayish stimulation.

  5. Same as Hovis @1. No hope with the unheard of ‘novel’ either and I also had trouble with SOPHIE and HERMETIC. Some not so hard ones as well, but definitely enough to get the brain into gear for the coming week.

    Thanks to Armonie and Teacow

  6. Flew through first three quadrants and then came a complete cropper in South West. Only comfort is that I don’t appear to have been alone.
    Hmmm

  7. We struggled in the SW corner, too, and had to resort to a word finder, although the answers and parsing were obvious once we got them.  But GUY MANNERING was a write-in as one of us did it for O level Eng Lit – over 60 years ago now.  Might be worth reading again now we’ve got time on our hands.

    Thanks, Armonie and Teacow

  8. The enjoyment in getting ESCARGOT, SECOND TO NONE, and CICADA cancels out the disappointment in missing GUY MANNERING, FRUIT MACHINE, and BARRIE for me. Thanks Armonie and Teacow.

  9. Late today, doing the Genius first. Finished it ok, but it took me quite a while. I’m familiar with Guy Mannering, although I haven’t read it.
    There is a housing scheme (estate) near me which has street names all associated with Sir Walter Scott’s novels, eg Mannering, Inglewood, Claverhouse, Peveril, Kenilworth, Glendinning, Glenvarloch, etc.

  10. Thanks Armonie and Teacow

    Found this at the harder end of this setter’s spectrum.  Thought that there were some tenuous definitions which I’m probably wrong about – thought that INDUCEMENT for consideration was a bit of a stretch – can see they can mean something sort of the same … but …

    Had the parsing of 22a and 11d as per the above commentary.  Knew of GUY MANNERING but haven’t read of any of Walter Scott’s works – my loss !

    Also finished in the SW corner where I had to look up HERMETIC as a word after the construction – it was my second to last in and the trickily composed SOPHIE was the last.

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