Financial Times 17,277 by FALCON

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A rare sighting of Falcon on a Wednesday.

A pleasant and enjoyable solve. Some general knowledge required to complete the grid, but some lovely surfaces. I particularly enjoyed the longer clues at 9a, 16a and 26a.  Thanks to Falcon.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. Police (CID) has one moving thing likely to become a problem (8,7)
POISONED CHALICE

(POLICE CID HAS ONE)* (*moving)

10. Ship’s course close to Dover (5)
LINER

LINE (course) + [Dove]R (close to)

11. Start to back small northern broker (2- 7)
GO-BETWEEN

GO (start) + BET (to back) + WEE (small) + N (northern)

12. Sweetheart gets upset about ending in crime novel (4,5)
BEAU GESTE

BEAU (sweetheart) + (GETS)* (*upset) about [crim]E (ending in)

14. Nymph? No, a wizard, oddly (5)
NAIAD

N[o] A [w]I[z]A[r]D (oddly)

16. Below, clue involving rugby player also inside (5,4,3,3)
UNDER LOCK AND KEY

(UNDER (below) + KEY (clue)) involving LOCK (rugby player) + AND (also)

19. Attractive daughter retiring around one (5)
DISHY

(D (daughter) + SHY (retiring)) around I (one)

21. Guide, Diane, in front of minister’s house (9)
DIRECTORY

DI (Diane) in front of RECTORY (minister’s house)

23. Lively exchange of opinions may make one irritable ahead of launch (9)
CROSSFIRE

CROSS (irritable) ahead of FIRE (launch)

25. Time left in American city (5)
TULSA

T (time) + L (left) in USA (American)

26. Teeth: sign in lady for treatment from me, perhaps (6,9)
DENTAL HYGIENIST

(TEETH SIGN IN LADY)* (*for treatment) &lit

DOWN
1. Incantation you heard in Bond film? (10)
SPELLBOUND

SPELL (incantation) + U (you, heard) in BOND

2. Capital girl raised to support struggle (6)
VIENNA

ANN< (girl, <raised) to support VIE (struggle)

3. Got it after bar reduced champagne (3,5)
POL ROGER

ROGER (got it) after POL[e] (bar, reduced)

4. Composer from northern part of Berlin (Germany’s capital) (4)
BERG

BER[lin] (northern part of) + G[ermany] (capital)

5. What may be added to drink, drop of red in drinking mug or vessel? (10)
ICEBREAKER

ICE (what may be added to drink) + (R[ed] (drop of) in BEAKER (drinking mug))

6. Cutting a new chequered cloth (6)
TARTAN

TART (cutting) + A + N (new)

7. Fruit stack in Irish port (8)
LIMERICK

LIME (fruit) + RICK (stack)

8. Article put in study for college administrator (4)
DEAN

A (article) put in DEN (study)

13. Chat with female during landmark duel (5,5)
SWORD FIGHT

WORD (chat) with F (female) during SIGHT (landmark)

15. Opera company, from year dot, dotty about Lyceum? Not half! (5,5)
D’OYLY CARTE

(YEAR DOT)* (*dotty) about LYC[eum] (not half)

17. Ignore reduction (8)
DISCOUNT

Double definition

18. Finer points of French resort site after redevelopment (8)
NICETIES

NICE (French resort) + (SITE)* (*after redevelopment)

20. Betsey at last names corrupt Uriah Heep, for one (3-3)
YES-MAN

[Betse]Y (at last) + (NAMES)* (*corrupt)

22. Grease equipment in drilling installation (3,3)
OIL RIG

OIL (grease) + RIG (equipment)

23. Secret language, chapter and verse (4)
CODE

C (chapter) and ODE (verse)

24. Advantage of golf club excluding women (4)
EDGE

[w]EDGE (golf club, excluding W (women))

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,277 by FALCON”

  1. Nothing too taxing here, and quite enjoyable. And my knowledge of Hitchcock films, bubbly wine and crime novels has been enhanced. I thought “me” in 26a was going to mean “setter” or “I” or “falcon”, but ’twas not to be.

  3. I agree with Geoff’s comments, pretty easy but very enjoyable.

    25A reminded me of an old country song called “Tulsa Time”. Please don’t be scared off by the “country music” reference; instead check out Eric Clapton, Cheryl Crow, Vince Gill and Albert Lee. Three of the best male guitarists of all time:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkCZWuo1ThE

  4. This was good fun to do and cleanly clued though I needed an afternoon reset. Favourites included D’OYLY CARTE, POL ROGER and UNDER LOCK AND KEY. 1d is a favourite film of mine.
    Thanks to Falcon and Oriel.

  5. Thanks, Falcon and Oriel. I didn’t find this at all easy, and I’ve no idea how it compares with Falcon’s usual level, but I made steady progress through it and I did enjoy it. Actually, some clues look a lot easier in hindsight, so maybe it was just down to me being slow-witted.

    Yes, a fair amount of general knowledge required but nothing too obscure. “Film” and “novel” are not very generous definitions but the clues for both were precise enough that no guesswork was required. The surface for 20d is a lovely gift to Dickens fans.

  7. I found this at the hard end of the spectrum for Falcon. The 15-letter answers were slow to come and the in retrospect not too difficult POISONED CHALICE was my last in. Favourite was SPELLBOUND.

    Pelham Barton mentioned in yesterday’s FT blog that the new FT crossword editor may be ringing a few changes and with the appearance of Falcon today and Bradman yesterday it looks like he could be right.

    Thanks to Falcon and Oriel

  8. I had a hard time getting started with this, but getting a few crossers finally gave me a toehold. The definitions were on the generic end of the scale (ship, novel, duel, capital), so that took a little brainpower. I had to look up Pol Roger and D’Oyly Carte. I may have seen them somewhere sometime, but definitely not familiar.

  9. Knew Goldfinger is the only 10 letter Bond film so that threw me early doors.

    Little knowledge of opera so no chance with Doyly Carte. All the rest fitted on over the day.

    Happy that I figured out the two large anagrams quite early.

  10. I second what Hovis @2 said. This was tougher than I was expecting and I ended up revealing 3d and 15d, both way out of my orbit. Favourite was SPELLBOUND. Thanks to both.

  12. Never heard of Pol Roger champagne, though I deduced the ‘Roger’ part. For the first part, I considered too many options, including pol(e) but I thought that the synonym for ‘bar’ was too weak to enter it.
    I obviously don’t mix in the right circles, but knowing that it was Churchill’s favourite champagne is no recommendation to me.
    As a G & S aficionado, D’Oyly Carte was no problem for me, but I still grind my teeth over the numeration where there is an apostrophe.

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