Financial Times 16,884 by NEO

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A consistently interesting Tuesday exercise.

Not viciously hard, but everything required a bit of thought which was in turn rewarded with more than a few 'Ah-ha!' moments. Good puzzle. Thanks, Neo.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 MAGISTRATE
Legal administrator finding publication excellent? (10)

MAG[azine] + 1ST RATE ('excellent').
7 DRAT
Plan to emit loud blast (4)

DRAfT ('plan') without F[orte]. Def as in 'Damn & blast!'.
9 ONUS
Responsibility we must shoulder? (4)

I.e., it's 'on us'.
10 EVANGELIST
Spinning line, TV sage becomes preacher (10)

Anagram ('spinning') of LINE TV SAGE
11 ASLEEP
Please: that should be cooked like kipper! (6)

Anagram ('…that should be cooked') of PLEASE, w cryptic def of one who 'kips'.
12 OBEDIENT
Yielding over what may be cast in crooked surroundings (8)

O[ver] + BE.NT ('crooked') including DIE ('what may be cast').
13 MAHARANI
No thanks for Dutch agent taking in an Indian princess (8)

Notorious Dutch dancer & spy MAta HARI, without TA ('no thanks'), but including AN.
15 AXLE
East after A40 for one taking wheel (4)

A + XL (Roman 40) + E[ast].
17 APSE
Satanic leader breaks mirror in church recess (4)

AP.E (to copy, to 'mirror') includes 1st of 'Satanic'.
19 SRI LANKA
Country songs recalled having limp content (3,5)

Reversal of A.IRS contains LANK ('limp').
22 CARAPACE
Shield quickly attached to vehicle (8)

CAR + APACE.
23 TYBALT
Dry clothes returned by a large Capulet hothead (6)

T[ee]T[otal] ('dry') surrounds reversed BY + A + L[arge], for Shakesperean Juliet's impetuous cousin.
25 HARD LABOUR
Very alcoholic party – something served in can? (4,6)

HARD (v. alcoholic, as in 'hard liquor') + LABOUR (political 'party') + cryptic def of prison sentence.
26 UNIT
Reportedly solvers grow together as fighting force (4)

Homophone of YOU ('solvers' to our setter) + KNIT ('grow together').
27 STIR
Irish drawn to saint excited reaction (4)

S[ain]T + IR[ish].
28 RED CABBAGE
A musical King in communist prison, one in pickle? (3,7)

A + BB ('King', musician) in RED C.AGE. (I tried for ages to make 'Abba, The Musical' work here. No joy.).
DOWN
2 AMNESIA
Men with energy lowered in the East recalling trouble? (7)

MEN, its E[nergy] descending one letter, in A.SIA ('the East'), + cryptic def.
3 ISSUE
Shares where girl lives upstairs? (5)

SUE with IS (exists, 'lives') above her.
4 THESPIAN
Rada graduate loathes piano frames (8)

Hidden in 'loaTHES PIANo'.
5 ANABOLIC STEROID
Banned drug shown after training is a trace in blood (8,7)

Anagram ('after training') of last 5 words. Not quite an &lit but a pleasing clue.
6 EAGLET
Little hunter nimble avoiding one in film (6)

AGiLE ('nimble' without I) in E.T ('film').
7 DALAI LAMA
A country boy up for embracing a spiritual leader (5,4)

Reversal of A + MALI + LAD includes A.
8 ARSENAL
Weapons collection in club (7)

Double def. Arsenal F.C., of course.
14 ALEXANDER
Great man cross having to enter ace rowing club (9)

A[ce] then X in LE.ANDER, first (1818) & most famous rowing club.
16 VICTORIA
Six agents from Langley guarding hill station (8)

VI ('six') + CIA ('agents from LANGLEY', Virginia, around TOR ('hill').
18 PEASANT
Bumpkin needs hearts cut from game birds (7)

PhEASANT without H[earts].
20 KILLING
Taking people out is very amusing (7)

Double def.
21 BAZAAR
Sound of sheep right round a Zulu market (6)

B.AA around A + Z[ulu] + R[ight. ('Zulu' as in radio comms.)
24 BLURB
Obscure book? This description might help (5)

BLUR (to 'obscure') + B[ook].

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,884 by NEO”

  1. Liked 9, 16 and 19 best.
    No specialist knowledge required though Grant’s explanations here and there are welcome.
    Thanks Neo for an entertaining solve.

  2. Some nice touches, including the wordplay for MAHARANI, the misleading ‘A40’ in AXLE, the ‘something served in can?’ def for HARD LABOUR and my favourite the BB for ‘musical King’ who we haven’t seen in crossword land for a while .

    As usual, I didn’t know the Shakespearean reference at 23a but wordplay helped.

    Thanks to Grant and to Neo for a very enjoyable puzzle

  3. Agree with Grant’s comments.Never heard of B B King but the answer had to be RED CABBAGE. I suspect ONUS has appeared before but it was new to me and. a great clue. Thanks to settler and blogger.

  6. Sorry I was in a hurry, another enjoyable crossword from Neo. I expect there’ll be another nice one from Tees soon x

  11. I found I got on to the wavelength of this very quickly and almost everything went in at first sight, except HARD LABOUR, where the defined meaning of “hard” took a moment or two’s thought. A very entertaining puzzle, nevertheless, with 13 and 28 as particular stand-outs, so thanks to Neo for the Tuesday entertainment.

  13. [I once fell for a very old joke. In the course of a discussion about crossword clues, someone offered “Overworked postman”. I asked how many letters, and the answer was “Thousands.”]

  14. To Pelham Barton @13:
    My mother told me that joke. Not normally a profane woman, she nonetheless inserted the F-word before the punch-line, which made it splutteringly funny to me.

  15. Thanks Neo and Grant
    Spilled over into the early hours of Wednesday morning for the third sitting. Really enjoyable puzzle, not seriously hard, but with enough grist in it to keep one on one’s toes.
    No real unusual terms, although had to confirm TYBALT as a character in R&J and recall B.B. King from the memory banks. Thought that MAHARANI was cleverly constructed and some of the cryptic definitions (‘musical king’, ‘agents from Langley’, ‘great man’ and ‘like kipper’) were very good.
    Finished in the NW corner with the well-hidden THESPIAN, ASLEEP and AMNESIA.

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