Financial Times 16,469 by JULIUS

The usual enjoyable mix of clues. Thank you Julius.

No jokes in the clues today, but looking at the grid I can guess what Julius wants for dinner.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 CHICKEN Nice dog guarding Charlie, York’s ultimate scaredy-cat (7)
 

CHIEN (dog in French, from Nice maybe) contains (guarding) C (charlie) yorK (last letter, ultimate)

5 TICKER Ever more stupid, husband lost heart (6)
 

ThICKER (more stupid) missing (lost) H(husband) – I can't explain the "ever" bit

8 SHAMBLING Tottering along with fake jewellery? (9)
 

SHAM (fake) BLING (jewellery)

9 AORTA Labour A-team regularly shunned one bringing new blood (5)
 

every other letter (regularly shunned) of lAbOuR a-TeAm

11 AD-LIB Answer German paper back freely (2-3)
 

A (answer) with BILD (German paper) reversed (back)

12 HOLD FORTH Go on about the job of the banks in Alloa? (4,5)
 

banks hold a river, the River Forth in Alloa perhaps

13 DIPLOMAT Consular official, daughter, mother in international conspiracy (8)
 

D (daughter) then MA (mother) inside I (international) PLOT (conspiracy)

15 BREAST Wild animal consuming rabbit’s head as a source of nourishment (6)
 

BEAST (wild animal) contains (consuming) Rabbit (first letter, head)

17 OCCUPY Fill Médoc cup you’re holding (6)
 

found inside (is holding) medOC CUP Your

19 HANDYMAN Jack-of-all-trades sinking ¥1000 into Chinese martial art ranking (8)
 

YM (1,000 yen) inside HAN (Chinese) DAN (martial art ranking)

22 DRUMSTICK One used to beat son covered in foul muck and dirt? (9)
 

S (son) inside (covered in) anagram (foul) of MUCK and DIRT

23 TORCH Light resistance, caught in flipping hot surroundings (5)
 

R (resistance) C (caught) inside (in…surroundings) anagram (flipping) of HOT

24 ROAST Tear a strip off cook (5)
 

double definition – to severely criticise and to cook

25 ENCHILADA Nurse a kid – adopted – eating a Mexican dish (9)
 

EN (Enrolled Nurse) A contains (with…adopted) CHILD (kid) contains (eating) A

26 SEPSIS Mum’s new partner’s daughter taking temperature – it’s an infection (6)
 

StEP SIS (step sister, mum's new partner's daughter) missing (taking) T (temperature)

27 EPHRAIM Joseph’s boy’s record target? About an hour (7)
 

EP (Extended Play, record) AIM (target) contains (about) HR (an hour)

DOWN
1 CUSTARD POWDER We corrupt dad’s roly-poly pudding ingredient (7,6)
 

anagram (roly-poly) of WE CORRUPT DAD'S

2 IN A FLAP Where the cat might get stuck when panicking (2,1,4)
 

double/cryptic definition

3 KEBAB Partly remake Babette’s Feast feature? (5)
 

found inside (partly) remaKE BABette

4 NAIL-HEAD Chesterfield stud had a line when sozzled (8)
 

anagram (when sozzled) of HAD A LINE – traditional Chesterfield sofas have numerous nailed studs and buttons visible

5 TOGGLE Peg leg got broken (6)
 

anagram (broken) of LEG GOT

6 COAL-FIRED Fossil-fuel dependent firm sacked a student entrant (4-5)
 

CO (company, firm) FIRED (sacked) contains (with…entrant) A L (learner, student)

7 ETRURIA Metro burial exposed former core of Italy (7)
 

mETRo and bURIAl missing the outer letters (exposed)

10 A SHOT IN THE ARM Running the marathon is quite a tonic (1,4,2,3,3)
 

anagram (running) of THE MARATHON IS

14 OPPOSITES Old, silly, soppiest characters attractive to one another? (9)
 

O (old) then anagram (silly) of SOPPIEST

16 BACKACHE Niggling pain’s returned, clipping Rachel’s wings (8)
 

BACK (returned) then rACHEl missing outer letters (wings clipped)

18 CRUSADE Southern area captured by dirty, holy war (7)
 

S (southern) A (area) inside CRUDE (dirty)

20 MARSALA Wine bar left in possession of teetotallers (7)
 

MARS (a Mars Bar) then L (left) inside (in possession of) AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, teetotallers)

21 LIVERS Bits of offal, thin slices, no starter (6)
 

sLIVERS (thin slices) missing starting letter

23 THIGH Tango on drugs, showing a bit of leg? (5)
 

T (tango, phonetic alphabet) then HIGH (on drugs)

22 comments on “Financial Times 16,469 by JULIUS”

  1. I loved this but I’m not sure that all these chicken plans for the kitchen are quite working

    as Row 13 exhibits STENCH. Intentional or coincidental?

  2. The third quickie this week, but witty with smooth surfaces. I especially enjoyed 12ac HOLD FORTH, which to me was entirely original. So thanks, Julius, and of course PeeDee.

  3. Julius will be delighted to learn that even I noticed his theme very early on in the solving process

    I agree with Gaufrid about the typo in 5a

    Thanks to Julius for the usual great fun, even if as Hornbeam says, short-lived today.   Thanks also to PeeDee.   Now what shall I get out of the freezer for tonight’s dinner? 😉

  4. Yes, a fun puzzle, so thanks to Julius. I do not get the debate about ever/even — both words can be intensifiers in this context and to me either is acceptable.

  5. Thanks for your blog PeeDee (early bird today!) and thanks to those who have commented. I regret to inform you that 20d is supposed to be part of the excruciating homophone alluded to by Hovis in comment #2. Also, 5d isn’t a typo…I intended to convey the usage suggested by ub at #6

    warmest regards to all Rob /Julius

  6. Yet another way too easy crossword.
    Trying to lull me into a false sense of security, or make me think I’m smart? 😉

  7. Very enjoyable – and thanks for explaining the parsing of sepsis which I couldn’t for the life of me figure.

  8. Always like Julius but I agree with NNI, over too soon. Perhaps we need twentyfivesquared in these days…

  9. Thanks Julius for an excellent crossword. Loved all the smooth surfaces. Enjoyed CHICKEN, TICKER, COAL-FIRED, and EPHRAIM. Couldn’t parse SEPSIS or TORCH — thanks PeeDee.

  10. PeeDee @12-  I did live there but have moved to a village about 2 km south.  Numerous towns in England in-between Alloa and return north of the border.

  11. Many thanks Julius, hungry now, particularly enjoyed the unexpected Marsala. Son’s cooking tonight, normally very good. food on the brain.

    Long down anagrams were the first in, but took me a while to untangle the family relationships in 26a. Fun seeing a yen symbol.

    16d was 17d in the guardian today (the answer, not the clue!). Thanks also PeeDee

     

  12. Bracoman,

    I’ve not been to Alloa, but I heard it mentioned many times when I was on holiday in Hawaii.

  13. Thanks Julius and PeeDee
    Also found this on the easier end of this setter’s difficulty spectrum. Alerted to the theme, with a chuckle, by the whimsical top line – but didn’t spot the other similar dish at 20d. Thought the construction of 1a,18a, 26a and 20d were quite clever.
    Finished in the SE corner with SEPSIS, HIGH and MARSALA (and a groan, when the ‘bar’ bit finally twigged).

  14. CHICKEN BREAST, THIGH, DRUMSTICK, BACKache — and the wings can be found in 16d!

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