Financial Times 16,757 by PETO

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A solid start to the week from PETO…

Enjoyable and pretty straightforward, which is what one needs on a Monday morning.

 

Thanks PETO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Make weak swimmers admit any misgivings at the outset (6)
FAMISH

FISH (swimmers) admit (A[ny] M[isgivings] (at the outset))

4. Soldier on talking stoically at first about mother’s disgrace (6)
STIGMA

(GI (soldier) on (T[alking] S[tiocally] (at first)))< (<about) + MA (mother)

8. Reportedly studied record of obstructive official procedure (3,4)
RED TAPE

“read” (studied, “reportedly”) + TAPE (record)

9. Spread uncontrollably right around a French city (3,4)
RUN RIOT

RT (right) around (UN (a, French) + RIO (city))

11. Bunk bed’s original ladder has broken (10)
BALDERDASH

B[ed] (original) + (LADDER HAS)* (*broken)

12. Evident in granite monolith’s detail (4)
ITEM

[gran]ITE M[onolith] (evident in)

13. Conveyed one of ducks away from island (5)
BORNE

BORNE[o] (island, one of O’s (ducks) away)

14. Girl died wrestling huge rat (8)
DAUGHTER

D (died) + (HUGE RAT)* (*wrestling)

16. Good to take issue with girl over Thailand’s policy of openness (8)
GLASNOST

G (good) to take (SON (issue) with SAL (girl))< (<over) + T (Thailand)

18. Bit of sausage stuffing perfectly warm (5)
TOAST

S[ausage] (bit of) stuffing TO A T (perfectly)

20. Story of Magyar nationalism (4)
YARN

[Mag]YAR N[ationalism] (of)

21. Keep firm and carry on (10)
STRONGHOLD

STRONG (firm) and HOLD (carry)

23. Country house left secure (7)
HOLLAND

HO (house) + L (left) + LAND (secure)

24. Regularly lobby minister to make a comment (7)
OBSERVE

[l]O[b]B[y] (regularly) + SERVE (minister)

25. Assume that woman has a gun (6)
GATHER

HER (that woman) has GAT (a gun)

26. Treacle not originally produced as breakfast food (6)
CEREAL

([t]REACLE (not originally))* (*produced)

DOWN
1. Runs into whimsical American goddess (5)
FREYA

R (runs) into FEY (whimsical) + A (American)

2. Stuff brought up about reserves getting to fix game (7)
MATADOR

(RAM)< (stuff, <brought up) about (TA (reserves) getting DO (fix))

Matador being a domino game it seems.

3. Excellent old king’s missing daughter found by Jessica Jones perhaps (9)
SUPERHERO

SUPER (excellent) + HERO[d] (old king, missing D (daughter))

Jessica Jones being a Marvel superhero.

5. Little contact (5)
TOUCH

Double Definition

6. Bench essentially covered with lurid decoration (7)
GARNISH

[be]N[ch] (essentially) covered with GARISH (lurid)

7. Changes meant to include cast getting compensation for injury (9)
ATONEMENT

(MEANT)* (*changes) to include TONE (cast)

10. Required from lawyer employed by fellow politician (9)
MANDATORY

DA (lawyer) employed by (MAN (fellow) + TORY (politician))

13. A backwater in global Britain amazingly (9)
BILLABONG

(IN GLOBAL B (Britain))* (*amazingly)

15. UN support over prohibition sent up by Labour leader as indefensible (9)
UNTENABLE

UN + TEE (support) over ((BAN)< (prohibition, <sent up) by L[abour] (leader))

17. Model seen with only one piece of underwear (7)
SINGLET

T (model) seen with SINGLE (only one)

19. I’ve struggled through pain to win (7)
ACHIEVE

(IVE)* (*struggled) through ACHE (pain)

21. Open about leaving from that time on (5)
SINCE

SINCE[re] (open, RE (about) leaving)

22. Aim to speak honestly (5)
LEVEL

Double Definition

12 comments on “Financial Times 16,757 by PETO”

  1. I agree this was great light entertainment perfect for Monday. Favourites included 8, 11 and 13d (for the pure pleasure of saying the word).
    Didn’t know the game at 3d, but the solution was clear. Nor do I know this particular 4d but could parse this one at least. Otherwise, a virtual write-in.
    Thanks Peto for a speedy solve and to Teacow for the blog.

  3. Also didn’t know the game at 2d (usually spelt matadore according to Chambers). The superhero at 3d is, perhaps, an unusual choice. I know the character well from the initial Alias comic series to the wonderful Netflix series. I guess her appearance in the latter makes her reasonably fair game for a setter to use.

  4. Seems it was just me, but I found this the hardest of today’s puzzles, with few write-ins and the defs for MATADOR and SUPERHERO both being unknown. The parsing for some others such as GLASNOST and GATHER also took a bit of working out.

    Favourite, although I don’t know that “favourite” is the correct term, was the rather bizarre (and certainly original) surface for DAUGHTER.

    Thanks to Peto and Teacow

  5. Thnaks Peto and Teacow. I actually parsed 16ac differently, taking issue of a magazine to be the same as number and hence NO, with “over” as an inclusion indicator to put NO in LASS. I still think my parsing works, but Teacow’s is better.

  7. Good straightforward puzzle – agree that it’s perfect for Monday – and I did it quickly with a little Word Wizard help. I had same parsing as Pelham and EdK for GLASNOST, but Teacow’s makes sense. BILLABONG and MATADOR as a game were new to me. Thanks, Peto and Teacow.

  8. Thanks Peto, that was satisfying. I liked RUN RIOT, TOAST, UNTENABLE, and BORNE. (I finally remembered that duck=0.) I was held up a bit in the SW corner because I first had “heater, ” old slang for gun, with assume=eat and that woman=her. SINGLET caused me to rethink my error; everything then fell into place. I didn’t understand MATADOR but nothing else made sense. Thanks Teacow for parsing.

  9. Enjoyed this. Tony@8 the cricket season just opening so maybe a little BBC Radio 4 commentary to get more familiar with those all important terms…
    And agree with Wordplodder@4 on DAUGHTER … liked it, but I guess potentially a little insensitive to any solvers who have lost a child in a fight with a large rodent…

  10. My only quibble is that in 23ac Holland is not a country, the word technically refers to either North Holland, a county in The Netherlands, or to South Holland, a different county in The Netherlands. Chambers does not give Holland as a country.
    Having said that, I did get the answer ?

  11. All pretty straightforward, although we had to google for a description of Ms Jones and in 1ac we wasted a lot of time trying to think of a specific fish before we saw the obvious. Some parsings, particularly GLASNOST took a bit of working out, too.
    Thanks, Peto and Teacow.

  12. Thanks Peto and Teacow
    Straightforward enough with a bit of grist in some of the parsing. Did manage to get across all of it though and enjoyed the ride.
    Finished in the SW corner with GATHER, SINCE (tKing much longer than it shoukd have) and HOLLAND the last one in.

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