Financial Times 17,446 by JASON

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JASON kicks things off this Monday morning…

All good fun, with a few tricky bits of parsing.

5d eludes me for the time being. Hopefully the answer is correct though.

Thanks JASON!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Relative in America I dressed in fleece (6)
COUSIN

(US (America) + I) dressed in CON (fleece)

5. Fee covering stage performer’s training (8)
PRACTICE

PRICE (fee) covering ACT (stage performer)

9. Thoroughbred exercises and I would turn mostly envious (8)
PEDIGREE

PE (exercises) and (ID)< (I would, <turn) + GREE[n] (envious, mostly)

10. Standard scholar’s remit (6)
PARDON

PAR (standard) + DON (scholar)

11. Courier hiding what’s at the heart of this city’s might (6)
MUSCLE

MULE (courier) hiding [thi]S C[ity] (heart of)

12. Pedagogue of relevance only in theory (8)
ACADEMIC

Double definition

14. Uproarious cheer marks an entertainer who mesmerises (5,7)
SNAKE CHARMER

(CHEER MARKS AN)* (*uproarious)

18. Loosely describe loan as tidy? (12)
CONSIDERABLE

(DESCRIBE LOAD)* (*loosely)

22. For Parisians very flirty play is wrong (8)
TRESPASS

TRES (very, for Parisians) + PASS (flirty play)

25. Family beset by tabloid collecting up scattered stuff (6)
RAKING

KIN (family) beset by RAG (tabloid)

26. A doctor of sex is deft (6)
ADROIT

A + DR (doctor) + O (of) + IT (sex)

27. Teach about society somebody being well-thought-out (8)
REASONED

READ (teach) about (S (society) + ONE (somebody))

28. Camp champ consuming large bit of squid, say (8)
TENTACLE

TENT (camp) + (ACE (champ) consuming L (large))

29. Being more comfortable one’s dressed in exotic saree (6)
EASIER

I (one) dressed in (SAREE)* (*exotic)

DOWN
2. Writer shielded by scholarly publisher is to speak freely (4,2)
OPEN UP

PEN (writer) shielded by OUP (scholarly publisher, Oxford University Press)

3. Trunks match examples (9)
SUITCASES

SUIT (match) + CASES (examples)

4. Tend to help married first — I do (9)
NURSEMAID

NURSE (tend) + (AID (help), M (married) first)

5. Churchman not quite yet out of office? (7)
PRELATE

?

6. Top Dog’s character first seen in Aristophanes? (5)
ALPHA

The character first seen in Aristophanes is an ALPHA in the Greek alphabet.

7. Compact High Street time’s forgotten (5)
TERSE

(STREE[t] (T (time) forgotten))* (*high)

8. These should be cold, best outside with sun (4-4)
CHOC-ICES

(C (cold), CHOICE (best) outside) with S (sun) &lit

13. What fundamentally identifies you could be lifted also (3)
DNA

(AND)< (also, <lifted)

15. Breathe in freely and lie up (9)
HIBERNATE

(BREATHE IN)* (*freely)

16. These square up better than granny’s bank bonds (4,5)
REEF KNOTS

REEF (bank) + KNOTS (bonds)

Referring to granny knots compared to reef knots

17. Time for oats? (8)
PORRIDGE

Double definition

Porridge meaning time in prison

19. One’s quiet — unlikely! (3)
IMP

IM (one's) + P (quiet) &lit

20. Sub’s reticence to get game going again (7)
RESERVE

Triple definition

"to get game going again" being to RE-SERVE

21. You’d say a tissue is for this (6)
SNEEZE

Cryptic definition

"a tissue" sounding like atishoo

23. Kind about priest — one’s a good egg? (5)
SPORT

SORT (kind) about P (priest)

24. Sadly I can’t prank (5)
ANTIC

(I CANT)* (*sadly)

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,446 by JASON”

  1. I came here to find out how 5D worked then pondered further when I found a ?. I think it might be PRE-LATE, wtih PRE meaning “not quite yet” and LATE meaning “out of office”, as in an EX-PRELATE. Can anyone do any better? Otherwise all good – I was seduced by trying SWIMSUITS for 3D and it took me a while to come up with the proper answer – it was my LOI. O liked SNAKE CHARMER best.Thanks Jason and Teacow.

  2. Enjoyable start to the week so thanks to both..
    My shot at 5d . PRE as in before e.g prenup and LATE as in Boris Johnson the late prime minister?

  5. Quite a few iffy synonyms, viz terse/compact, suit/match, teach/read, reef/bank. I’m sure they’re all explained in Chambers, so no need to tell me. I’d have clued DNA as (1,1,1).

    Otherwise everything was tickety-boo. Thanks Jason & Teacow.

  6. I wondered about PRELATE too and mainly entered the answer from the def. The parsing given above by Johninterred @1 seems plausible and looking it up now in Chambers, I see sense no. 8 for LATE is given as “Out of office”.

    Good puzzle with a few quite hard ones. I agree with GDU @5 about the enumeration for DNA. I took a long time to see MUSCLE as my last in. Favourite was the at first sight bewildering surface for REEF KNOTS.

    Thanks to Jason and Teacow

  7. Thanks Jason and Teacow

    While I’m happy with DNA being clued as ‘3’, I think ‘1, 1, 1’ would be incorrect as the DN stands for deoxyribonucleic, so if anything ‘2, 1’.

  9. Thanks Jason. I liked many of the clues including COUSIN, PEDIGREE, TRESPASS, ALPHA, and DNA. [IMP, clued as “one’s quiet” could also be clued as “one politician” but I guess that’s been done a million times already.] Thanks Teacow for the blog. I couldn’t parse PRELATE; now that I see it I can’t say that I find it a great clue.

  11. Excellent puzzle and blog, so thanks Jason and Teacow.

    Favourites were 18a CONSIDERABLE (nice anagram and surface), 5d PRELATE (clever wordplay), and 20d (excellent surface for a triple definition).

    I always get fooled by the atishoo wordplay, because here we use “ atchoo” for a SNEEZE.

    I agree that 13d DNA is correctly enumerated. 1,1,1 would give the game away.

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