Financial Times 17,196 by Artexlen

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Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 10, 2022

I was on holiday last week so solved this one very slowly.  1a (BAMBINOS) was my first in and I have forgotten which was my last.  My favourites are 5 (SPIRAL STAIRCASE) for its cryptic definition, 8d (EROTICISE) for its theme and 9 (TIPTOP) for its literal reading.

And I have to admit to some embarrassment as I do not fully understand the wordplay of 15 down.  Too much sun and wine?

ACROSS
1 Disney film lad brought back for children (8)
BAMBINOS – BAMBI (Disney film) + SON (lad) backwards (brought back)

6 Desire to replace contents of sweet bag (6)
SACHET – ACHE (desire) in (to replace) S[wee]T

9 Overturned bedpan by bed? Fantastic! (6)
TIPTOP – POT (bedpan) + PIT (bed) together backwards (overturned)

10 Sluggishness of one caught invading country (8)
INACTION – I (one) + C (caught) in (invading) NATION (country)

11 Old French town from which Italy’s withdrawn in the past (4)
ONCE – O (old) + N[i]CE (French town from which Italy’s withdrawn)

12 Command revolutionary soldiers aboard metal boat (10)
LEADERSHIP – RE (soldiers, i.e. Royal Engineers) backwards (revolutionary) in (aboard) LEAD (metal) + SHIP (boat)

14 Fruit rot treated with aspic (8)
APRICOTS – anagram (treated) of ROT ASPIC

16 Keen songstress gets rejected (4)
AVID – DIVA (songstress) backwards (gets rejected)

18 Antelope switching sides to get comfy (4)
SNUG – GNUS (antelope) with the first and last letters interchanged

19 A Greek character always successful type (8)
ACHIEVER – A (a) + CHI (Greek character) + EVER (always)

21 Worked out grill attached to sides of extended household  appliance (6,4)
PUMPED IRON – PUMP (grill) + E[xtende]D + IRON (household appliance)

22 Go wild striking north from hills? (4)
RAGE – RA[n]GE (striking north from hills)

24 Elegant parrot eating soft legume (8)
CHICKPEA – CHIC (elegant) + P (soft) in KEA (parrot)

26 Learner in the past playing pool (6)
LAGOON – L (learner) + AGO (in the past) + ON (playing)

27 Free traitor imprisoned by US soldiers (6)
GRATIS – RAT (traitor) in (imprisoned by) GIS (US soldiers)

28 Using river, vessel entering outskirts of Reading (8)
EXERTING – EXE (river) + TIN (vessel) in (entering) R[eadin]G

DOWN
2 Foreign goalie neatly saves (5)
ALIEN – hidden word (saves)

3 Flattering European in the end on phone (9,2)
BUTTERING UP – BUTT (the end) + E (European) + RING UP (phone)

4 General staff about to support an uprising (8)
NAPOLEON – AN (an) backwards (uprising) + POLE (staff) + ON (about)

5 Circuitous flight from Alsace airstrip’s rerouted (6,9)
SPIRAL STAIRCASE – anagram (rerouted) of ALSACE AIRSTRIPS with a cryptic definition

6 Sailors viewed netting in the morning (6)
SEAMEN – AM (morning) in (netting) SEEN (viewed)

7 What hacker does is not totally clever (3)
CUT – CUT[e] (not totally clever)

8 Make sexy twitch in naughty soiree (9)
EROTICISE – TIC (twitch) in (in) anagram (naughty) of SOIREE

13 Player’s nerves level following remedy (5,6)
STAGE FRIGHT – STAGE (level) + F (following) + RIGHT (remedy).  Is this right?

15 Office worker’s vigour after a king in new attendant (9)
PENPUSHER – N (new?) in (?) PEP (vigour) + USHER (attendant)

17 Fabric layer poorly installed in church (8)
CHENILLE – HEN (layer) + ILL (poorly) in (installed in) CE (church)

20 Converts area before erecting stone home (6)
ADAPTS – A (area) + ST (stone) + PAD (home) twogether backwards (erecting).  Do we like ‘erecting’ as a reversal indicator?

23 Cultivated king wearing robe (5)
GROWN – R (king) in (wearing) GOWN (robe)

25 Queen perhaps beginning to address court guards (3)
CAT – A[ddress] in (guards) CT (court)

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,196 by Artexlen”

  1. I am continuing my advanced education in the rivers, flora and fauna of the world. Thank for Artexlen for teaching me there is a parrot named Kea, and a river named Exe. I guess I should thank you for telling me a cat is a queen, but I still don’t actually understand that one – I guess it is a saying somewhere in the English speaking world?

    I had hoped you would unlock the mysteries of 15 down for me, Pete. I had the same parsing as you. Of course, the unknown bits are what does “after a king” mean, and isn’t it new in pep?

    It took me for ever to finish the SE corner – STAGE FRIGHT, LAGOON and CHENILLE were what delayed me.

    As to favourites, I agree with Pete on EROTICISE and SPIRAL STAIRCASE. I cannot agree on TIPTOP, only because I do not get why a bed is a pit – I am sure I am missing something simple.

    Thanks Artexlen and thanks Pete. I hope you had a nice vacation

  2. Agh, I threw away my FT and with it my notes! I think SACHET was my FOI.
    I agree with Pete’s favourites, especially 5d (lovely surface), and had the same parsing for PENPUSHER though ‘after a king’ bothered me too.
    Martyn, a ‘queen’ is a female cat.
    I also enjoyed the simplicity of SNUG, as well as CHICKPEA and PUMPED IRON.
    Thanks to Artexlen for the weekend entertainment and to, hopefully, a suitably recharged Pete for the blog.

  3. Thanks for the blog and enjoy your holiday. I have no help for PENPUSHER, I suspect a misprint or sometimes there is a late edit, so not the setter’s fault, even the clue itself does not read properly. Maybe someone will have a bright idea.
    STAGE FRIGHT you are surely correct – to RIGHT is to remedy.
    ADAPTS- erecting is to put up (a tent) so fine for reversal in a Down clue.
    I thought this was very good, a lot of neat, concise clues. CHENILLE my favourite.

  4. Martyn @1 we have EXE, WYE and DEE for rivers that sound like letters , the UK has many 3 letter rivers and setters do like them.
    As Diane@2 says , female cat is queen, male is tom , no idea why . Perhaps it makes up for dog and bitch. PIT is just old slang for a bed.

  6. This is all a bit weird. I printed out the crossword first thing on the Saturday it appeared and 15d says ‘… taking in new attendant’, so the parsing is clearly correct and the typo has crept in somehow.

  7. A-ha, Hovis sheds light on the mystery. So my paper copy (since binned) must have read ‘after taking a’ as well. I didn’t remember that, of course, and was thrown by the blog.
    So, no problem, after all.

  9. Thanks all for furthering education. While I knew tom is a male cat, it never occurred to me that the female must be called something too.

    And thanks Pete for the word on Keas. I have just been in Sydney, where the population has a love-hate relationship with the now many sulphur-crested cockatoos. “Wonderful birds, but they are so destructive” is the common refrain.

  10. Thanks Artexlen and Pete. I enjoyed this a great deal with ticks for BAMBINOS, NAPOLEON, PENPUSHER, and CHENILLE. In 15d my copy had “taking in” and not “a king in” so parsing was obvious.

  11. Many thanks Hovis@6 have searched for my paper copy but it must have been recycled .
    I do not remember any issue with 15D but when I read the blog I thought I must have missed the issue with the wording.

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