Financial Times 17,267 by MUDD

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A brisk challenge from MUDD this Friday.

FF: 8 DD: 8

ACROSS
1 KNOW THE SCORE
Be experienced, as should players? (4,3,5)

cryptic def
10 TAMARIN
River cool for primate (7)

TAMAR ( river ) IN ( cool )
11 OUTCOME
Result has emerged the other way round? (7)

play on COME OUT ( has emerged ) with the words switched
12 HENNA
Dye painted on skin, Queen Eliza- beth’s back viewed in the mirror? (5)

ANNE ( queen ) H ( elizabetH, last letter ), all reversed
13 EPHESIAN
Old letter’s recipient English, that man in Spain confused (8)

E ( english ) { HE ( that man ) in [ SPAIN ]* }
15 SWEATPANTS
Garment wasn’t mended with paste (10)

[ WASNT PASTE ]*
16 INCA
Old South American currently visiting Colombia’s outskirts (4)

IN ( currently ) CA ( ColumbiA, end characters )
18 ALPS
Range astoundingly large, pretty small initially (4)

starting letters of "..Astoundingly Large Pretty Small.."
20 PEDESTRIAN
Ordinary cook earned tips (10)

[ EARNED TIPS ]*
22 PARAMOUR
Love dipping a sheep into stream (8)

[ A RAM ( sheep ) ] in POUR ( stream )
24 FLOAT
Moving aloft – do this? (5)

[ ALOFT ]*
26 NINEPIN
Square leg, target in game (7)

NINE ( square, math ) PIN ( leg )
27 ORINOCO
Gold coin shimmering by old South American river (7)

OR ( gold ) [ COIN ]* O (old )
28 PAPERWEIGHTS
Office items I get, perhaps, designed to secure first bit of writing (12)

&lit; [ I GET PERHAPS ]* containing W ( first bit of Writing )
DOWN
2 NOMINEE
Applicant seen, I’m only partly seek- ing promotion? (7)

hidden reversed in ( "..sEEN I'M ONly.." )
3 WARRANTS
Documents blustering in conflict? (8)

RANT ( blustering ) in WARS ( conflict )
4 HAND
For example, straight bananas in a group (4)

cryptic def; 'straight' refers to a hand in poker , just below a flush
5 SHOT-PUTTER
Athlete destroyed club (4-6)

SHOT ( destroyed ) PUTTER ( club )
6 OUTRE
A little hideout, really strange (5)

hidden in ".. hideOUT REally.."
7 EMOTION
Feeling passing after end of heart- ache (7)

E ( end of heart-achE ) MOTION ( passing )
8 AT THE SHARP END
On the front line facing point of sword? (2,3,5,3)

cryptic def
9 REINCARNATION
Limitation placed on motor race, new, improved version (13)

REIN ( limitation ) CAR ( motor ) NATION ( race )
14 PAGE-TURNER
Romp with errand boy and artist (4-6)

PAGE ( errand boy ) TURNER ( artist ) – i wasnt aware of this definition for romp , and chambers didnt have it either but the interwebs confirmed that the two are semantically related and can be interchanged
17 STIFLING
Close relationship, it’s arising earlier (8)

STI ( reverse of ITS ) FLING ( relationship )
19 PARSNIP
Standard, bargain vegetable (7)

PAR ( standard ) SNIP ( bargain )
21 IRON OUT
One overcoming defeat, carrying on – resolve! (4,3)

I ( one ) [ ROUT ( defeat ) containing ON ]
23 MOP UP
Second little animal, clean (3,2)

MO ( second ) PUP ( little animal )
25 SORE
Sensitive cutting tool, we hear? (4)

not sure about this; the closest homonym i can think of for a cutting tool is 'saw'

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,267 by MUDD”

  1. An enjoyable romp. Speaking of which, I was befuddled as to why ROMP & PAGE-TURNER equate. I wasn’t aware of the other meaning of the latter. I have done my duty as one at various concerts over the years, so maybe it’s a good thing I wasn’t aware!

    After doing so many British crosswords in recent months, my head is swirling with previously unknown UK rivers, so it was nice to see a good old Australian one today, the Tamar, that flows through Hobart, Tasmania. But hold on … looks like we copied its name from you Brits, as we often do.

    I got Ephisian from the wordplay, but have never heard of it. Something to do with the Bible? My favourite today was REINCARNATION.

    Thanks Mudd & Turbolegs.

  2. Thanks, Turbolegs, I am sure that you are correct with 25D – I pronounce them the same but I assume that some local dialects may accentuate the “r” in “sore”.

    I solved 14D by the definition and cross-letters but didn’t understand the connection. To me, a romp is an active action whereas a page-turner is more sedentary.

    Toughest one was “EPHESIAN” at 13A, followed by equating “STRAIGHT” with “HAND”.

    Shouldn’t 26A be two words or, at least, hyphenated? I have never indulged in the game but my cursory web search didn’t return any single words: not that I spent much time searching.

  4. Er…, GDU @1, I don’t know that the good burghers of Launceston, Tasmania (and the town in the UK for that matter) would agree with you about the TAMAR flowing through Hobart. Those northern Tasmanians are very sensitive about such things!

    I liked PAGE-TURNER for ‘Romp’ though I agree it is a bit loose. Favourite was the looked like it was going to be an anagram but it wasn’t REINCARNATION.

    Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs.

  6. Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
    26ac: ninepins as the name of a game is certainly a single word, and ninepin is a back formation from that. As a phrase, “nine pins” just means the specified number of the named article.
    14dn: Chambers 2014 allows us “a swift easy run” as the last of the definitions for romp as a noun. The figurative use of that meaning seems to me to encompass the meaning of page-turner in the literary sense. [Like Geoff@1, I have spent some time as a page-turner in the musical sense.]

  7. I think a “romp” is a subspecies of a PAGE-TURNER, indicating something boisterous and fun, but generally a PAGE-TURNER could also operate on horror or suspense, for example, so in those cases, not a “romp.”

    We have discussed the homophone barrier in comments before. For me, “sore” sounds nothing like “saw,” and I would have some trouble understanding anyone who pronounced them the same. But I mean no disrespect to the way anyone speaks.

  8. SAW
    Interestingly, quite a few websites have listed sore, soar and saw as homophones. 🙂

    In all probability the cutting tool Mudd wants us to hear is SAW.

  9. Coming from the Liffe floor I’d put runner in as errand boy so got done by 14 down. Also never heard of Ephesian so that got me too.

  10. The Taff yesterday from Rodriguez and the Tamar today from Mudd – seems like setters are trying to widen our knowledge of British rivers beyond the usual suspects of Ure, Ouse etc. No problem as far as we are concerned.
    Not particularly difficult but enough of a challenge to keep us on our toes. Favourites were ORINOCO and AT THE SHARP END.
    Thanks, Mudd and Turbolegs

  11. Thanks Mudd for a solid crossword. I enjoyed such clues as OUTCOME, HENNA (I like the separation of queen & Elizabeth), PARAMOUR, NINEPIN, and REINCARNATION. I failed with PAGE-TURNER; I too had “runner” for errand boy and I only know a PAGE- TURNER as a very engrossing book — I guess one can romp through the pages in a sense. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  12. Thanks for the blog, I liked PAPERWEIGHTS with the unusual use of perhaps in the anagram. Maybe a horsey novel by Jilly Cooper would be called a romp and a PAGE-TURNER.

  13. I got there, but was thrown by one across where I initially put “know the ropes”.

    I took it that the players were campanologists. ???

    This meant the top right hand corner was the last to fall. But once I spotted my mistake, the rest of the fell into place.

    Very enjoyable

    Thanks.

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