Financial Times 16,675 by ORENSE

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A themed Tuesday offering.

Straightforward enough midweek fare, enlivened by a veritable shoal of themed solutions all over the grid. More puns from posters welcome. Thanks to Orense.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 FLOUNDER Struggle helplessly needing father to cross lake (8)
 

F.OUNDER ('father') around L[ake].
5 SCUFFS Marks left by manacles on son? (6)
 

CUFFS after S[on].
9 RING ROAD Way of getting round heart bypass? (4,4)
 

Kind of double def. A ring road avoids the heart of a town or city.
10 MULLET Add spice to eat outside – such a shock (6)
 

MULL ('add spice to', as of wine) + outside letters of 'EaT.', w cryptic def of dodgy 'shock'of hair..
12 LEVIS Clothing line promoted by “The King”? (5)
 

ELVIS ('The King', say some), his 'L' moved to 1st place.
13 AU NATUREL Character adopted by a university student wearing nothing (2,7)
 

NATURE ('character') in A + U[niversity] + L[earner].
14 WRASSE Colourful swimmer may see poor waitress without it (6)
 

An anagram ('poor') of WAitRESS minus IT.
16 BLOATER I’m leaving Baltimore dressed for such a dish (7)
 

Anagram ('dressed') of BALTimORE minus IM. Two very similar consecutive clues.
19 TESTING Difficult at sea regularly needing bite (7)
 

Alternate letters of 'aTsEa' + STING ('bite').
21 MINNOW Person of little importance currently on short time (6)
 

MIN ('short time'') + NOW ('currently').
23 REBUTTING Refuting call about European object of ridicule (9)
 

R.ING ('call') around E[uropean] + BUTT ('object of ridicule').
25 SMELT Got a whiff of fish (5)
 

Double definition.
26 EDIBLE Believable, but having no credit, capable of being taken in (6)
 

crEDIBLE minus CR[edit].
27 UNFASTEN Open quickly to be decanted into wonky funnel uncovered (8)
 

FAST ('quickly') in anagram ('wonky') of middle letters of 'fUNNEl.
28 NILGAI Antelope that may be ailing, possibly (6)
 

Anagram ('possibly') of AILING'
29 BALMORAL Research establishment backed ethical cap (8)
 

LAB, reversed, + MORAL ('ethical'),
DOWN
1 FIRMLY Company largely evacuated in a decisive manner (6)
 

CO + 1st & last of 'LargelY'
2 OMNIVORES Doctor set up new version for those who’ll swallow anything (9)
 

M[edical] O[fficer], reversed, + anagram ('new') of VERSION.
3 NARKS Informers breaking ranks? (5)
 

Anagram of RANKS.
4 EMANATE Issue title coming up with a note (7)
 

Reversal of NAME ('title') + A + TE (sol-fa 'note').
6 COUNTDOWN Dracula perhaps depressed with approaching deadline (9)
 

COUNT ('Dracula, perhaps') + DOWN ('depressed').
7 FILER Share lift going north, admitting one who keeps records (5)
 

Hidden and reversed in 'shaRE LIFt'.
8 SETTLERS Resolves to keep right for immigrants perhaps (8)
 

SETTLE.S ('resolves') surrounds R[ight].
11 SNUB Cut flipping bread rolls (4)
 

Reversal of BUNS,('bread rolls').
15 SCINTILLA Wrong course director heard a bit (9)
 

Homophones of SIN ('wrong') & TILLER ('course director').
17 TWO-SEATER Wrote off about MP’s constituency transport (3-6)
 

Anagram ('off') of WROTE around SEAT ('MP's constituency').
18 STURGEON Doctor importing source of tropical caviar from this (8)
 

S.URGEON around 1st of 'Tropical'.
20 GRID Network offering free support for golf (4)
 

RID (to 'free') below G[olf].
21 MAGENTA Ridiculous for the most part keeping silver colour (7)
 

MENTAl (most of 'ridiculous') around AG ('silver')
22 ATONAL Diplomat on a launch hiding without a key (6)
 

Hidden in 'diplomAT ON A Launch'.
24 BRILL Statute covering river fish (5)
 

B.ILL around R[iver].

25 SWARM Small and friendly crowd on the move (5)
 

S[mall] + WARM ('friendly').

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,675 by ORENSE”

  1. An excellent crossword so thanks to Orense. Once I saw the fishy theme, my heart dropped since I’m not too knowledgeable on fish names but WRASSE was the only unknown and was easy to guess. My only criticism was for 28a. I can’t see why the clue contains “may be” and “possibly”. The word “antelope” is another one that fills me with dread. There are so many. Fortunately, I managed to recall the one needed. Thanks also to Grant for the blog.

  2. I enjoyed tackling this neatly clued fishing expedition from Orense today. I’m no angler either but, thankfully, the grid proved fair in the parsing.
    WRASSE (once saw a fine specimen in Australia), MULLET and COUNTDOWN were my favourites in a grid which was quickly solved and contained nothing too 19a.
    Thanks very much to Orense and Grant.

  3. Thankfully no really obscure piscine creatures so everything was reeled in without any Jeremy Wade like struggles. I always like seeing MULLET and to think of the Chambers definition. The only one I had difficulty parsing was MAGENTA, as ‘mental’ and ‘ridiculous’ aren’t quite the same for me.

    Not a thematic answer, but NILGAI needed a bit of thought (and helpful crossers) and it was good to be reminded that elands are not the only ‘Antelope(s)’ seen in crossword land.

    Thanks to Orense and Grant

  4. Another fishy word – silurid – contained in that ‘ridiculous’ was what I was pondering at first but with the ‘m’ of minnow to add to ‘ag’, the colour ‘magenta’ rose to the surface and with it, menta(l). I wouldn’t use them interchangeably either but have seen frequent examples.

  5. Thanks to Odense for a fun solve, even if there was something fishy about it. Thanks too toGB for the explanations.

    FWIW, I would interpret 12a as meaning “clothing”, while “line promoted” indicates move the L forward.

  6. everything went swimmingly till bottom left corner.. no fish involved? .. was looking at wrong end of 27ac for too long.. and not long enough at 22d to see the inclusion..
    thanks to ORENSE n Grant Baynham

  7. Can MINION be an alternative at 21ac, ie, MIN-I(currently,or current??)+ON.That was my answer.

  8. Thanks Orense and Grant
    Took longer than it should have due to distractions whilst doing it and nearly made a blue with the SWARM / UNFASTEN crossers by having a plausible STEAM and an un-parsable UNBEATEN until sense finally prevailed.
    Wasn’t all that sure about MENTAL being equal to ‘ridiculous’ at 21 and pondered over the RING ROAD clue, thinking that the first part was a bit iffy. Otherwise, a pleasant solve with a lot of neat clues with alternate meanings to the fishy theme.
    There should be a FIRM instead of a CO in the parsing of 1d … went down that CO logic path too, initially.

  9. Despite a few mistakes I generally enjoyed this crossword. Themes usually lead to a more interesting puzzle. Besides, it’s not my plaice to carp about the quality of the clues, not that I found anything to criticize. Thanks to both.

  10. Definite thanks to Orense and Grant. An enjoyable time occupier.
    I put MUSKET for 10a until other answers told me I was wrong. I assumed a musket was another of those 1960s haircuts I had never encountered.
    I was another MINION as I always look sideways when I see “current” in a clue these days.

  11. Very enjoyable – and we didn’t have to trawl through lots of obscure names to find all the thematic answers.
    As so often with us, our favourite was non-thematic – SCINTILLA.
    Thanks, Orense and Grant.

  12. Thanks to both for the entertainment. I have two nitpicks. I do not think “statute” and “bill” are synonymous. This was one of the few days that I did not print out the puzzle before the blog appeared. So I would have preferred not to see in the first sentence that this was a “themed” puzzle. Isn’t part of the fun to find that out on my own? “Flounder” was my first one in, so that was a big hint. But without the blog’s tease, it’s 50-50 whether I spot a theme until I am almost done, if I see it at all.

  13. I cazn’t say I like “mental” for “ridiculous”, but I suppose it is common (vulgar?) usage. And I am not sure that rebut and refute are synonyms, though common usage probably confuses them. I struggled at first, but now I’ve finished I must admit to having enjoyed this puzzle – thanks Grant and Orense.

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