Financial Times 17,354 by NEO

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A very devious puzzle from NEO today. Tougher than the usual offering from this setter, I thought.

FF: 9 DD : 9

ACROSS
1  
See 10
   
5 SNAPSHOT
Photograph showing cracks (8)
 

cryptic def
9 IRRIGATE
Attire put in steaming water (8)
 

RIG ( attire ) in IRATE ( steaming )
10/1 HARLEY STREET
Medical centre here: let’s try to cure adult admitted (6,6)
 

[ HERE LETS TRY ]* containing A ( adult )
11 ANIMUS
Friction a problem in wheels (6)
 

A [ SUM ( problem ) IN , all reversed ( wheels ) ]
12 NORMANDY
French place in north with Raymond cooking (8)
 

N ( north ) [ RAYMOND ]*
14 TRIUMPHALIST
One engaged by Orangeman perhaps is in to stop gloater (12)
 

[ I ( one ) in TRUMP ( orangeman, perhaps ) ] { IS in HALT ( stop ) }
18 ICE-CREAM SODA
Drink best in old case I’d ordered (3-5,4)
 

CREAM ( best ) in [ O ( old ) CASE ID ]*
22 ARKANSAS
River boat for rescuing an elite regiment (8)
 

ARK ( boat ) AN SAS ( elite regiment )
25 PREFER
Favour fairer voting system, potentially free (6)
 

PR ( fairer voting system, Proportional Representation ) [ FREE ]*
26 AFLOAT
A change in store at sea — or an 18? (6)
 

doubly clued; A FLOAT ( change in store, money to return as change ) and A FLOAT ( e.g. ice-cream soda, 18a )
27 EVIDENCE
Support drug habit, immoral, saving opium venue? (8)
 

E ( drug ) [ VICE ( immoral habit ) containing DEN ( opium venue ) ]
28 ALLEGORY
Blake ultimately dragged into complete- ly blood-soaked symbolism (8)
 

E ( blakE, last letter ) in [ ALL ( completely ) GORY ( blood-soaked ) ]
29 TALENT
Beer feeding explosive natural ability (6)
 

ALE ( beer ) in TNT ( explosive )
DOWN
2 THRONG
Host initially revealed in skimpy underwear (6)
 

R ( Revealed, initially ) in THONG ( skimpy underwear )
3 ENIGMATIC
Imagine this clue starts out as cryptic! (9)
 

[ IMAGINE T ( This, starting letter ) C ( Clue, starting letter ) ]*
4 TRANSPIRE
Happen to exhale water vapour (9)
 

double def; with ‘exhale’ by itself being a standalone def ( in addition to giving off water vapour )
5 STERNUM
Something in chest to check when entertaining insane run (7)
 

STEM ( check ) containing [ RUN ]*
6 ABHOR
Other ranks after charge can’t stand (5)
 

OR ( Other Ranks ) after ABH ( charge , Assault causing Bodily Harm ) ; learnt something new today
7 SYRIA
Shy artisan occasionally in war-torn location (5)
 

“ShY aRtIsAn..”, occasionally i.e. alternate letters
8 OVERDOSE
Take too much from ordinary poem about party (8)
 

O ( ordinary ) [ VERSE ( poem ) around DO ( party ) ]
13 MOA
Bird lost taking off close to castle ditch (3)
 

MOAt ( castle ditch, without last letter ); lost implies extinction
15 HOOFPRINT
Impression Arab makes at Longchamp? (9)
 

cryptic def
16/23 LEAVE WELL ALONE
Keep away from bore — don’t get involved (5,4,5)
 

cryptic def
17 SCORNFUL
Depraved one put out by my sneering? (8)
 

SiNFUL ( depraved, without I – one ) containing COR ( my )
19 RAN
Held aboard British ships, Sandinista finally took flight (3)
 

A ( sandinistA, finally ) in RN ( british ships, Royal Navy )
20 MASTERY
Skill entering answer for first of puzzle’s unknowns (7)
 

A ( answer ) replacing the first Y ( unknown ) in MYSTERY ( puzzle )
21 DEACON
One churchman or another bottling gas (6)
 

DEAN ( churchman ) containing CO ( gas, carbon monoxide )
23  
See 16
   
24 SET TO
With river gone, aquatic mammals up for fight (3-2)
 

reverse of OTTErS ( aquatic animals, without R – right )

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,354 by NEO”

  1. Thanks Neo and Turbolegs

    5ac: I think the wordplay here is that SNAP is one crack and SHOT is another.

  2. I found this to be exactly as Turbolegs describes in his prologue but as usual with Neo, I did enjoy the battle

    Thanks both

  5. Enjoyed this, thank you Neo. I couldn’t parse MASTERY. Didn’t understand SNAPSHOT, but Pelham Barton has clarified it above, thank you. I kept getting handbags when I googled Longchamp, and it was only after I had all the crossers that I guessed what it was. Still no idea how it works. Hadn’t heard of Arkansas River.

  8. Liked SNAPSHOT, ARKANSAS, AFLOAT and MASTERY.
    Thanks, Neo and Turbolegs!

    Turbolegs! A minor omission in the blog:
    ARKANSAS
    ARK: boat for rescuing

  9. I agree this was pretty tough but v. enjoyable. ‘Bird lost’ was an interesting def for MOA, I didn’t know there was an ARKANSAS ‘River’, TRIUMPHALIST took a bit of working out and I was defeated by the ICE-CREAM SODA sense of FLOAT. Liked HOOFPRINT.

    A good challenge and satisfying to see the grid was filled correctly at the end.

    Thanks to Neo and Turbolegs

  11. Thanks Neo for an enjoyable challenge. I found this a medium difficulty crossword and not as tricky as Tees in yesterday’s Indy. I had many favourites including IRRIGATE, NORMANDY, EVIDENCE, ALLEGORY (the recent death of actor and accused murderer Robert Blake made the surface very timely), THRONG, ENIGMATIC (clue of the day), OVERDOSE, and SET-TO. I needed to reveal a couple of letters to get unstuck with ARKANSAS and MASTERY. Thanks Turbolegs for parsing and explaining “ABH.”

  12. I wandered off to check if Arkansas is bordered by the Arkansas River as well as the Mississippi, but it’s much longer than that, starting in Colorado and ending up in the Mississippi, changing its pronunciation depending on state. (I’ve found by playing Statele that states that aren’t square are bordered by rivers.)

    I found this tricky, but eventually soluble. Thank you to Neo and Turbolegs.

  14. FrankieG@13 I think you are right ABH is assault causing Actual Bodily Harm and GBH is Assault causing Grievous Bodily Harm, which seems to indicate that the A is for Actual rather Assault. I really struggled with this puzzle.

  15. Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues, very tidy and a lot of variety.
    Geoff@5 all racehorses are thoroughbreds, all of them can trace their lineage back to just three Arab stallions.

  16. Like Shanne@12 we found this tricky, but eventually soluble. We liked the lift and separate required for the Orangeman and the rescue boat. We also liked ALLEGORY, SCORNFUL and MASTERY.
    Thanks, Neo and Turbolegs.

  19. I agree with Turbolegs’ 9 for DD, but not for the FF – I would have scored it a 10. The laughs and the “doh” quotient were very high indeed. Favourites among many were 17d SCORNFUL (nice surface), 27a EVIDENCE, 20d MASTERY (artful construction), and my COD, 14a TRIUMPHALIST, which had me laughing out loud.

    Thanks, Neo for the immeasurable fun, and Turbolegs for the excellent blog.

  20. I needed to return to this on Saturday but complete it I did. Tough but enjoyable with some incredibly good clues.

    Thanks for explaining mastery and scornful

    I had lots of ticks, including hoofprint, deacon, enigmatic and triumphalist.

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