Financial Times 16,775 by ORENSE

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A meaty bank holiday Monday crossword from Orense.

A very enjoyable solve with a great mix of clues. I’m not convinced on 7a so you may have different ideas? Favourites today for me include 1a, 10a and the simple but neat 28a. 16d was new for me but easily parsed from the clue. Thank you to Orense!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Police detachment – one of four going after yard in affairs (6,5)
FLYING SQUAD

QUAD (one of four) going after Y (yard) in FLINGS (affairs)

7. Mostly reluctant crowd (3)
LOT

LO[a]T[h] (reluctant, mostly)

9. Times has changed welcoming love for language (5)
XHOSA

X (times) + (HAS)* (*changed) welcoming O (love)

10. Poem about variety actor’s first drink (9)
ORANGEADE

ODE (poem) about RANGE (variety) + A[ctor]’s (first)

11. Pay attention after hearing only son becomes disreputable businessman (4,5)
LOAN SHARK

HARK (pay attention) after “LONE” (“hearing” only) + S (son)

12. Clay pigment and mineral containing carbon and hydrogen (5)
OCHRE

ORE (mineral) containing C (carbon) and H (hydrogen)

13. Struggles to adopt right universal qualities (7)
VIRTUES

VIES (struggles) to adopt RT (right) + U (universal)

15. Idiot daughter’s shock going topless (4)
DOLT

D (daughter) + [b]OLT (shock, going topless)

18. Fine reduced to cover end of nuclear plant (4)
OKRA

OKA[y] (fine, reduced) to cover [nuclea]R (end of)

20. BSE dismissed by submariner suffering BSE! (7)
MURRAIN

([s]U[b]MARIN[e]R)* (*suffering, BSE dismissed)

23. Man of the cloth mostly getting the right page (5)
RECTO

RECTO[r] (man of the cloth, mostly)

24. Allege it’s criminal to lay down laws (9)
LEGISLATE

(ALLEGE ITS)* (*criminal)

26. Indian customs mainly seen in American city (9)
BALTIMORE

BALTI (Indian customs) + MORE (mainly)

27. Believer bound for rejection hugs son (5)
DEIST

TIED< (bound, <for rejection) hugs S (son)

28. Air could be dirty without it (3)
DRY

D[i]R[t]Y (without it)

29. Maker so far out, knowledge is abandoned (11)
GODFORSAKEN

GOD (maker) + (SO FAR)* (*out) + KEN (knowledge)

DOWN
1. Growth of initially great affection, supporting fool (8)
FOXGLOVE

G[reat] (initially) + LOVE (affection) supporting FOX (fool)

2. Class transforming my year won without women (8)
YEOMANRY

(MY YEAR [w]ON (without W (women)))* (*transforming)

3. Within earshot, guarding approaches (5)
NEARS

[withi]N EARS[hot] (guarding)

4. Work hard on answer for catchy phrases (7)
SLOGANS

SLOG (work hard) on ANS (answer)

5. Revealed – not married and not invited (7)
UNASKED

UN[m]ASKED (revealed, not M (married))

6. One takes the lead from vicar’s attire (3,6)
DOG COLLAR

Double definition

7. Hate look on naked swimmer (6)
LOATHE

LO (look) on [b]ATHE[r] (swimmer, naked)

8. Topics put up to protect border (6)
THEMES

SET< (put, <up) to protect HEM (border)

14. Not aware of a Parisian currently held by ruler (9)
UNKNOWING

UN (a, Parisian) + NOW (currently) held by KING (ruler)

16. Time in the morning – a danger for this tree (8)
TAMARISK

T (time) + AM (in the morning) + A RISK (a danger)

17. Left, accepting bishop is yet to lose (8)
UNBEATEN

UNEATEN (left) accepting B (bishop)

19. No secrets, taking everything into account (3,4)
ALL TOLD

Cryptic definition

20. One may generate an attractive item on love (7)
MAGNETO

MAGNET (an attractive item) on O (love)

21. Investigated on behalf of graduate teacher (6)
PROBED

PRO (on behalf of) + BED (graduate teacher)

22. Hooligan’s crack about copper’s head (6)
SCALLY

SALLY (crack) about C[opper]’s (head)

25. Profiles banks (5)
SIDES

Double definition

17 comments on “Financial Times 16,775 by ORENSE”

  1. This fascinating grid from Orense required more exertion than expected for a Monday though at least half was a write-in.
    An initial mistake, writing FERN (FiNE+ nucleaR) at 18a, needed reconsideration to finish in the SW corner where I eventually found my pick of the day, BALTIMORE. Also liked 14, 20a and 28.
    Thanks for the challenge, ORENSE and to Teacow for shedding some much-needed light. 7a was among those I failed to parse so I’d go along with your thoughts there.

  2. I parsed 26 differently: BALTI (an Indian dish) and MORE (customs) but as ‘more’ is singular, maybe not.

  3. ‘Loth’ would be my preferrred spelling for ‘unwilling’ (Chambers gives it).
    ‘Mores’ are customs. I agree with Diane about ‘Going for a Balti/Indian’
    Not as straightforward as it looked!
    Thanks v much to both.

  4. Diane @2. Yes, but BALTI MOREs (“mainly”) gives the answer. I failed to get this due to entering ALL SAID for 19d and not realising my error. XHOSA & MURRAIN were unknowns although I think the former had appeared previously. Also had LOTH spelling for 7a. Bit messy given 7d.

  7. Diane @6. That’s interesting. Also, by an odd coincidence, OKRA is hidden backwards in row 5 and LOT backwards in row 11. Doubt if there’s anything more to it though.

  8. I’m a DOLT and put in an unparsed ‘dill’ for 15a. Otherwise, everything in and parsed, though not without a bit of effort. I agree with Diane @2 et al re the parsing of BALTIMORE. Missed the observations made by Diane @6 and Hovis @7.

    MURRAIN was remembered from past appearances and with any luck my new word of the day SCALLY will similarly find a place in the biological RAM.

    Thanks to Odense for a tricky challenge and to Teacow

  9. Thanks Orense and Teacow
    Right on his wavelength today, getting most of it finished on the train trip home from work and quickly finishing it off when getting home. A bit more to think about though with some of the parsing components – taking an age to equate ‘bank’ to SIDE before thinking about the river banks and similarly with the joke definitions of ‘sally’ and ‘crack’. Was another LOT[H] at 7a … and liked the clue.
    Came across MURRAIN for the first time recently, may have been in a Times puzzle and thankfully remembered it for today – was another clever clue with the double use of the ‘mad cow disease’.
    Finished in the left hand side with VIRTUES and the previously unknown SCALLY for which a word finder was required.

  11. I recognized MURRAIN as one of the ten plagues of Egypt in Exodus. I got the same parsing of 26a as Hovis@4. Was not familiar with LOTH, so parsed 7a the same as Teacow. Thanks to Orense for an enjoyable puzzle and to Teacow for confirming some of my guessed parsings.

  12. Agree with the LOTH folks on 7a – especially deceptive given 7d. Finished with a couple of word wizard helps (FOXGLOVE, YEOMANRY) and needed blog for SCALLY, new word (WordPlodder@8, likewise something to remember). XHOSA and BALTIMORE very clever. Thanks, Orense and Teacow.

  14. I obviously hadn’t read the blog in enough detail earlier. I’m with Ong’ara re 15A.

  16. We thought we were going to be defeated in the SW corner by 22dn and 26ac, having initially put ‘all said’ for 19dn till eventually we saw SCALLY and realised 26ac could only be BALTIMORE {parsed as BALTI = Indian (meal) + MORE[s} = customs, mainly} whereupon 19dn was corrected to ALL TOLD as our LOI.
    No real problems otherwise. Among others we liked XHOSA, VIRTUES and (with a bit of a groan) DOG COLLAR.
    We thought the clue for FLYING SQUAD missed a trick as ‘yard’ could have had a capital Y to tie in with the surface reading. Incidentally there’s a bit of a discussion on the Indy blog today about the use of capitalisation.
    Thanks, Orense and Teacow.

  17. Thanks Orense, I solved this (mostly) in bits and pieces over the day. I parsed DOLT with the shock being bolt, as in “bolt out of the blue” but jolt works even better. Favorites were OKRA, UNASKED, and UNKNOWING; missed BALTIMORE abd SCALLY. Thanks Teacow for parsing.

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