Financial Times 17,416 by PETO

An interesting variety of clues today from Peto.

On a somewhat personal note: I hope the parsing below looks OK. I had a bout of COVID a couple of weeks ago, and although recovering, I have experienced the insidious fatigue and brain-fog of anecdote, to the point that I have been unable to get any enjoyment out of solving my usual crosswords. A pastime that had been amusing and challenging became loathsome and torturous. Cryptics are no fun when the lateral moves in my mind come only slowly, if at all. This was an effect that I had not anticipated. Except for my blog assignments, I have basically stopped solving for now, although I will say that I enjoyed this offering from Peto. I will probably work my way through the backlog over the coming weeks.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1	SPACEMAN	Celebrity limits retiring astronaut (8)
		NAME (celebrity) + CAPS (limits) all reversed (retiring)
5	VIRGIL	Number six starts to rant guiltily at the Italian linesman (6)
		VI (number six) + first letters of (“starts to”) R[ANT] G[UILTILY] + IL (the [in] Italian), “linesman” being a facetious reference to a composer of lines, i.e., a poet
10	ON PAPER	Expert essentially protected by new apron in theory (2,5)
		Middle letters of (“essentially”) [EX]PE[RT] inside (protected by) anagram of (new) APRON
11	OVERRUN	Left remaining ladder in area beyond airstrip (7)
		OVER (left remaining) + RUN (ladder)
12	TEARS	Taunt, reportedly swallowing last of pear drops (5)
		TEAS homophone of (reportedly) TEASE (taunt) around (swallowing) last [letter] of [PEA]R
13	STILL LIFE	Undisturbed by story about feminine type of painting (5,4)
		STILL (undisturbed) + LIE (story) around (about) F (feminine)
14	MASTERSTROKE	Gain control over city capturing rebel leader of coup (12)
		MASTER (gain control over) + STOKE (city) around (capturing) first letter of (“leader”) R[EBEL]
18	HEARTRENDING	Become widely discussed online during trial causing great distress (12)
		TREND (become widely discussed online) inside (during) HEARING (trial)
21	ENDEAVOUR	Undertaking, in French, to quickly read boxing article (9)
		EN (in [in] French) + DEVOUR (to quickly read) around (boxing) A (article)
23	AESOP	Put forward by a left-leaning teller of stories (5)
		[POSE (put forward) + A] all reversed (left-leaning)
24	IN ORDER	Working OK (2,5)
		Double definition
25	ANIMATE	Make lively Hindu queen run off with ship’s officer (7)
		[R]ANI (Hindu queen minus [“off”] R [run]) + MATE (ship’s officer)
26	HUMANE	Kind of soldier wearing shades for the most part (6)
		MAN (soldier) inside (wearing) HUE[S] (shades “for the most part”)
27	ETHEREAL	Extremely delicate repair of leather around end of banquette (8)
		Anagram of (repair of) LEATHER around last letter of (end of) [BANQUETT]E
DOWN
1	SPORTY	Track lacking nothing by extremely trendy Spice Girl (6)
		SPO[O]R (track) minus (lacking) O (nothing) + outside letters of (“extremely”) T[REND]Y, aka Mel C
2	APPEAR	Come into use as American soldiers turn up without protection against disease (6)
		[A (American) + RA (soldiers) inverted (turn up)] around (without) PPE (protection against disease)
3	EN PASSANT	Die to have Adams’ earliest books on space by the way (2,7)
		EN (space) + PASS (die) + first letter of (“earliest”) A[DAMS’] + NT (books)
4	ACROSS-THE-BOARD	Applying to all provision of meals after cook chats with Rose (6-3-5)
		Anagram of (cook) [CHATS + ROSE] + BOARD (provision of meals)
6	IDEAL	Most suitable stuffing inside already (5)
		Hidden in (stuffing) [INS]IDE AL[READY]
7	GARRISON	Bishop in Georgia is against making place fortified (8)
		RR (bishop) inside (in) [GA (Georgia) + IS] + ON (against)
8	LINGERED	Say nothing in return about daughter’s delayed departure (8)
		[E.G. (say) + NIL (nothing)] all inverted (in return) + RE (about) + D (daughter)
9	ROBIN REDBREAST	Flyer showing various retro bread bins (5,9)
		Anagram of (various) RETRO BREAD BINS
15	TANTALISE	Entice frustratingly awkward Titans with ale (9)
		Anagram of (awkward) TITANS + ALE
16	SHEEPISH	Like Uriah perhaps after son’s feeling embarrassment from shame (8)
		S (son) + HEEPISH (like Uriah perhaps)
17	HANDLOOM	Chinese lawyer primarily looking into death of textile producer (8)
		HAN (Chinese) + first letter of (“primarily”) L[AWYER] inside (looking into) DOOM (death)
19	ESTATE	Landed property in the middle of Donegal say (6)
		Middle of [DON]E[GAL] + STATE (say)
20	APPEAL	Fellow, under pressure, putting on a monkey suit (6)
		P (pressure) inside (putting on) APE (a monkey) + AL (fellow)
22	AUDEN	Camus oddly dismissed study by poet (5)
		Even letters of (“oddly dismissed”) [C]A[M]U[S] + DEN (study)

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,416 by PETO”

Get well soon Cineraria! I am sure the current phase of fatigue etc., is temporary and will very soon go away.
Regarding the blog, it is as nicely written as ever. I agree with all your parsings. Thanks for the blog. Special thanks, considering the difficult circumstances. Take care, please.

Thanks, Peto for the enjoyable puzzle.

Sorry to hear about your COVID-induced cognitive lethargy, Cineraria. Despite this handicap you’ve done a great job in explaining everything for what I thought was a tough puzzle. I had trouble with MASTERSTROKE, HANDLOOM, LINGERED and even the simple looking APPEAR, both in identifying the def and making sense of the wordplay.

I was surprised to see it without a hyphen, but my favourite was HEARTRENDING for its (sadly) close to the bone surface.

Thanks to Peto and thanks again and wishes for a quick recovery to Cineraria

Found this fairly difficult but chipped away at it and finished.

I managed to get fatigue symptoms after my covid booster last October and am still suffering from it. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to bother me much in the mornings when I do my crosswords. Let’s hope for better days.

Thank you Cineraria, and hope that you recover from the brain fog – my daughter has just had a really bad dose of Covid (she’s less up-to-date with her vaccinations than I am) and is still feeling rough. Best wishes.

Thank you for the blog and Peto for the crossword. This I found relatively straightforward and fun, but was wondering where the Tuesday theme had gone? or am I getting confused with another crossword?

Shanne @ 4 It’s the Indy that has theme Tuesday, as indeed it does today.

Thanks Peto and Cineraria – hope things improve soon.

Could I get someone’s help to understand how AL is ‘fellow’ in 20d?

Kevin@6: AL is a generic man’s name.

Thanks Peto and Cineraria

Kevin@6: Further to Cineraria@7: Chambers 2014 gives Al as a diminutive of Albert, not Alan as I was expecting. According to Wikipedia, Al Capone’s correct first name was Alphonse.

Thanks Peto. I enjoyed this though it took a second sitting before the NE corner finally came into focus. My top picks were AESOP, SHEEPISH, and ANIMATE, the latter for its surface. Thanks Cineraria for the blog. Keep solving, even if it feels like work. The joy may return unexpectedly.