Financial Times 16,743 by BASILISK

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One for fans of the homophone.

I counted four homophone clues in this puzzle, which is a bit excessive in my opinion, but if you like homophones, these ones are pretty good.

I couldn't quite parse 28ac to my satisfaction. I think I have the component parts and the order they need to go in, but I don't think the setter has made it clear what order they are supposed to be in (I'm sure someone will put me right, and I'll have a facepalm moment).

I gave ticks to the clues at 10ac, 13ac and 6dn.

Thanks Basilisk

ACROSS
1 AMBUSH
Surprise attack by former president on America (6)

BUSH ("former president") on Am. (America)
4 UNDERDOG
He’s likely to lose, according to boxer? (8)

UNDER ("according to") + DOG ("boxer?")
10 PLACATING
Calming concerns of nervous capital leads to new guidelines (9)

*(capital) [anag:nervous] + [leads to] N(ew) G(uidelines)
11 ALIBI
Bail suspect with one good reason for doing so? (5)

*(bail) [anag:suspect] with I (one)
12 SLIM
Reduce size of corporation? (4)

Cryptic definition
13 PENTAGONAL
Append a line by writer associated with Department of Defense? (10)

TAG ON ("append") + A + L (line) by PEN ("writer")
15 TOURNEY
Time travel initially banned in contest (7)

T (time) + (j)OURNEY ("travel" initially banned)
16 ECLAIR
Pastry base with crushed garlic’s not good (6)

E ("base" of the natural system of logarithms, in maths) + *(arlic) [anag:crushed) where ARLIC is (g)ARLIC without the G (not G(ood))
19 CEDING
Clubs say accepting racket is giving up (6)

C (clubs) + e.g. ("say") accepting DIN ("racket")
21 BESIEGE
Crowd round saint that is interrupting father endlessly (7)

S (saint) + i.e. ("that is") interrupting BEGE(t) ("father" endlessly)
23 RED HERRING
Misleading article about dead husband going astray (3,7)

RE ("about") + D (dead) + H (husband) + ERRING ("going astray")
25 WEAR
Sport is ultimately like going into battle (4)

[ultimately] (lik)E going into WAR ("battle")
27 PEACE
Newspaper article declared end to hostilities (5)

Homophone [declared] of PIECE ("newspaper article")
28 AFORESAID
Noted prior to supply ideas for opening of abbey (9)

[opening of] A(bbey) + FOR + *(ideas) [anag:supply]

These are the component parts, but the clue gives ESAID + FOR + A. Even if the "prior" is not part of the definition, that would give FOR + A + ESAID?
29 REFITTED
Renewed attack put off Revolutionary Guards (8)

<=DETER ("put off" revolutionary) guards FIT ("attack")

30 CLOTHE
Sale item charges 60% of cheap dress (6)

LOT ("sale item") charges [60% of] CHE(ap)
DOWN
1 APPOSITE
Suitable program location to store zero (8)

APP ("program") + SITE ("location") to store O ("zero")
2 BEATITUDE
Delight in mentioning insolent manner of worker? (9)

Homophone [in mentioning] of BEE ("worker") ATTITUDE ("insolent manner")
3 SCAR
Mark left by The Sound of Music in Jamaica (4)

Homophone [the sound of] SKA ("music in Jamaica")
5 NIGHTIE
Close relationship is something fitting for retirement (7)

NIGH ("close") + TIE ("relationship")
6 EVANGELIST
Film about Greek musician and creator of gospel (10)

ET ("film") about VANGELIS ("Greek musician")
7 DEIGN
Sketch concealing son’s stoop (5)

DE(s)IGN concealing S (son)
8 GRILLE
Screen reporter’s question thoroughly (6)

Homophone of [reporter's] GRILL ("question thoroughly")
9 TIMELY
Opportune issue raised by empty library (6)

<=EMIT ("issue", raised) by [empty] L(ibrar)Y
14 INSIDE LEFT
Attacker doing time felt wronged (6,4)

INSIDE ("doing time" in prison) + *(felt) [anag:wrong]

In football, an inside left is an attacking midfielder.
17 INELEGANT
Crude, popular lament: Burying the Unknown Soldier (9)

IN ("popular") + ELEG(y) ("lament" burying Y ("unknown") + ANT ("soldier")
18 BEGRUDGE
Object to confuse debugger (8)

*(debugger) [anag:to confuse]
20 GARBAGE
Refuse to get on with actress having been snubbed earlier (7)

AGE ("to get on") with (Greta) GARB(o) ["actress" having been snubbed] earlier
21 BUNION
Trouble for member of British workers’ organisation (6)

B (British) + UNION ("workers' organisation")
22 PROPER
Do well without having succeeded in conforming to accepted norms (6)

PRO(s)PER ("do well" without having S (succeeded))
24 DWARF
Doc perhaps died following cold’s recurrence (5)

D (died) + <=(F (following) + RAW ("cold")) ['s recurrence]
26 VEIL
Dancing characters in the middle of silver screen (4)

*(ilve) [anag:dancing] where ILVE are the "characters in the middle of" (s)ILVE(r)

16 comments on “Financial Times 16,743 by BASILISK”

  1. Thanks Basilisk and loonapick
    Took a couple of sessions to get this one out and enjoyed winkling out the clues slowly but surely.
    I had 28a as an anagram (supply) of ‘IDEAS FOR A’ as a total bundle, after trying to use the constituent pieces separately. Liked the clues for DWARF and CLOTHE when I finally landed the word play for them. Couldn’t parse REFITTED although it had to be.
    Finished in the SE corner with BUNION (doh, when the penny dropped, that CLOTHE and the trickily hidden anagram for VEIL as the last one in.

  2. There’s a Nina here. In from the periphery – 3 words. I’ll leave it at that. Not too many related clues that I could see.

    Quite apart from the Nina, an excellent puzzle – best of the day. Really loved EVANGELIST with plenty of other really good and challenging clues.

    Thanks to Basilisk and loonapick

  3. Parsed 28a as brucew@aus. Don’t forget Basilisk’s usual nina. I’ll not spell it out in case people wish to find it for themselves.

    My only criticism is for 27a. Yet again, we see a homophone indicator poorly placed so you need 24d to find out whether the solution is PEACE or PIECE.

  4. Thanks to commenters – now see where I went wrong with AFORESAID.

    Completely missed the NINA, although I see it now.

  5. I enjoyed the solve, not least because I remembered to look for a Nina and found it

    I’d agree with Hovis about 27a – I went the wrong way and had to change it when I got to 24d

    Thanks to Basilisk and loonapick

  6. Thanks Basilisk and loonapick

    Third excellent puzzle today: we’re spoilt. Remembering to look for a signature, and finding it about 3/4 through helped with the last few, and also resolved the 27A query.

  7. Quite a challenge and we ended up resorting to a wordfinder for the SW corner, not helped by the ambiguous homophone indicator in 27a – and we took a while to get 1dn and decide if 12ac was SLIM or ‘trim’.
    Lots to like; favourites were EVANGELIST and BEGRUDGE. We guessed there was a nina since Basilisk’s alter ego in the Indy frequently has one, but we didn’t look for it properly.
    Thanks, Basilisk and loonapick

  10. Re the nina, it’s probably late enough to reveal it.

    Start with the F of 14D, and follow the unches of row14, column 2, row 2 & column 14 clockwise back to the second G of 20D.

  11. So far this has been the toughest crossword for me this week in either the Guardian or the FT. I did get some joy from clues like PLACATING, DEIGN, INSIDE LEFT, and GARBAGE. I didn’t look for a nina but I see it now that it’s been mentioned. Thanks to both.

  14. Blimey – no wonder I never spotted that! What’s the Nina got to do with anything anyway, or am I being more than usually dense?

  15. Alan@14: Generally, ninas are of two types:
    (a) a message relating to something specific such as a notable anniversary or a theme linking some of the answers
    (b) a phrase of no particular significance which occurs to the setter as a means of ‘seeding’ the grid.
    The nina here appears to be of the latter type, unless Basilisk wants to enlighten us further..

  16. allan_c is quite right about the types of nina and that I used the phrase to ‘seed’ the grid; although the phrase has some personal resonance (like many of the ninas I choose), as I used to work for the trade unions NALGO and Unison.

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