Financial Times 17,325 by ARTEXLEN

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ARTEXLEN kicks off the week….

I found this rather more challenging than I've come to expect from a Monday puzzle, though that's not a bad thing. Plenty of clues to like, but I think 14a and 17a were my favourites.

Thanks ARTEXLEN!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. I’m showing variable opinion opposed to the norm (6)
HERESY

HERE'S Y (I'm showing variable)

4. Excitable runner is hot following races (8)
SKITTISH

SKI (runner) + ((IS + H (hot)) following TT (races))

9. Bird of prey hit hill (6)
RAPTOR

RAP (hit) + TOR (hill)

10. Secured bunker getting pelted on the outside (8)
STRAPPED

TRAP (bunker) getting SPED (pelted) on the outside

12. Coarse material group in church put on fire (9)
SACKCLOTH

LOT (group) in CH (church) put on SACK (fire)

13. A sin not totally OK (5)
AGREE

A + GREE[d] (sin, not totally)

14. All my nutrients blended in useful manner (14)
INSTRUMENTALLY

(ALL MY NUTRIENTS)* (*blended)

17. Regret engagement of police officer (14)
DISAPPOINTMENT

DI'S APPOINTMENT (engagement of police officer)

21. This writer inside bit subdued (5)
TAMED

ME (this writer) inside TAD (bit)

22. Don’t leave sack, picking up bulk, prepare to jump (3,2,4)
LIE IN WAIT

LIE IN (don't leave sack) + "weight" (bulk, "picking up")

24. Fancy canape involving dry meat (8)
PANCETTA

(CANAPE)* (*fancy) involving TT (dry)

25. Musician’s a good person touring Britain regularly (6)
ARTIST

(A+ST (good person)) touring [b]R[i]T[a]I[n] (regularly)

26. Nice lodge accommodating each son (8)
PLEASANT

PLANT (lodge) accommodating (EA (each) + S (son))

27. Delight going round small bars (6)
LEVERS

(REVEL)< (delight, <going round) + S (small)

DOWN
1. Bears crossing road in difficulty (8)
HARDSHIP

HAS (bears) crossing RD (road) + HIP (in)

2. Agent ordered cask refills (7)
REPACKS

REP (agent) + (CASK)* (*ordered)

3. Patient responds to ice packs (5)
STOIC

[respond]S TO IC[e] (packs)

5. Dual-purpose room of field marshal suppressing noise (7-5)
KITCHEN-DINER

KITCHENER (field marshal) suppressing DIN (noise)

6. Meal with wretch eating standard rubbish (4,5)
TEAR APART

TEA (meal) with RAT (wretch) eating PAR (standard)

7. Risk from supernatural creature eerily dropping wings (7)
IMPERIL

IMP (supernatural creature) + [e]ERIL[y] (dropping wings)

8. Be quiet climbing surrounding border barriers (6)
HEDGES

(SH)< (be quiet, <climbing) surrounding EDGE (border)

11. Sophisticated flash politico half-cut between functions (12)
COSMOPOLITAN

(MO (flash) + POLI[tico] (half cut)) between (COS + TAN (functions))

15. Once more, tackle and examine habit (9)
READDRESS

READ (examine) + DRESS (habit)

16. Nancy’s second person limited by nation’s laws (8)
STATUTES

TU (Nancy's second person) limited by STATES (nations)

18. Huge semi after modification occupied by males (7)
IMMENSE

(SEMI)* (*after modification) occupied by MEN (males)

19. Devious European hiding four in vessel (7)
EVASIVE

E (European) + (IV (four) hiding in VASE (vessel))

20. Disheartened people manipulated in revolution come forward (4,2)
STEP UP

(PUP[p]ETS (people manipulated, disheartened)< (<in revolution)

23. Scandinavian hospital worker has love for uniform (5)
NORSE

NURSE (hospital worker) has O (love) for U (uniform)

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,325 by ARTEXLEN”

  1. Though I finished, I needed Teacow’s smarts to see what was going on with those ‘manipulated people’ and 10a’s ‘on the outside’ where I was thinking ‘p(elte)d’. Seems obvious now!
    I think COSMOPOLITAN was my favourite. At least ‘mo= flash’ didn’t trip me up like ‘pelted=sped’ did!
    A change for ‘Nancy’ rather than ‘Nice’ to clue something Gallic.
    Thanks to Artexlen and Teacow.

  2. For SACKCLOTH I was thinking “group in church” = CLOTH, as in “men of the cloth”.
    It almost works.

  3. FrankieG@2: it not only “almost” works, it does work – at least in my world as I had the self-same parsing. Others may care to disagree but I think it’s a viable alternative.

  5. An enjoyable puzzle with excellent and fair clues. Thank you Artexlen and Teacow.

    For 12 Across, I too had CLOTH parsed as FrankieG@2 and Deezzaa@3. However, Teacow’s parsing also makes sense and made me think “How could I have missed that?”

    I liked TT having two interpretations (“races” in 4 Across’s SKITTISH and “dry” in 24 Across’s PANCETTA).

    My favourite was 20 Down’s STEP UP. I had the answer early, but understanding the parsing made it my LOI. A brilliant and deviously misleading clue.

  8. I do found this tricky for Monday and it took a couple of visits to tease out the answers. Thanks for helping with the parsing of cosmopolitan, which was also one of my favourites. My last two in were tear apart and agree, which took longer than they should, as they now seem very easy.

    While step up was obviously the answer to 20d, I had no idea why

    A top quality puzzle

    Thank you to all

  9. Thanks Artexlen for a solid crossword with SKITTISH, HARDSHIP, TEAR APART, and STATUTES (liked “Nancy’s second person”) as favourites. I couldn’t parse the clever HERESY and I had to confirm my guess of Kitchener being a field marshal but otherwise all else made sense. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  10. We got everything but couldn’t properly parse HERESY and LIE IN WAIT. Favourites were COSMOPOLITAN and STATUTES.
    Thanks, Artexlen and Teacow.

Comments are closed.