Financial Times 17,627 GURNEY

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A breezy challenge from GURNEY this Friday

FF: 8 DD: 7

ACROSS
8 RECIPE
With power for time, give detailed account of method to achieve objective (6)

RECItE ( give detailed account, with P – power replacing T – time )
9 OVERLOAD
Too much to bear — finished with fellow keeping nothing inside (8)

OVER ( finished ) [ LAD ( fellow ) containing O ( nothing ) ]
10 GLEE
Unaccompanied part song leading to merriment (4)

double def; need chambers help for the first part
11 ROTISSERIE
Nasty stories, praise oddly lacking, for meat shop (10)

[ STORIES ] RIE ( pRaIsE, without odd letters of )
12 FORT
Favouring introduction of troops in defensive position (4)

FOR ( favouring ) T ( Troops, first letter )
13 GRAMMARIAN
Language expert’s anagram — I’m at first really at sea (10)

[ ANAGRAM IM R ( Really, first letter ) ]*
17 SOLO
Musical piece from basso, lovely (4)

hidden in "..basSO LOvely"
18 LAPEL
Part of jacket, article from Paris friend shows on return (5)

LE ( article from paris, the in french ) PAL ( friend ), all reversed
19 PACT
By the sound of it, full agreement (4)

sounds liked PACKED ( full )
21 THREADBARE
Shabby group embracing publicity suspension (10)

THREE ( group ) containing [ AD ( publicity ) BAR ( suspension ) ]
23 SPAR
After reflection criticises Pole (4)

reverse of RAPS ( criticizes )
24 CRUSTACEAN
Sure, can act to reform shrimp, say (10)

[ SURE CAN ACT ]*
28 TINY
Very small home is new centre for plaything (4)

IN ( home ) replacing centre of ToY ( plaything )
29 FEARSOME
Exotic fare a few find dreadful (8)

[ FARE ]* SOME ( a few )
30 UPROAR
Turmoil ahead, river blade needed (6)

UP ( ahead ) R ( river ) OAR ( blade )
DOWN
1 WELL TO DO
Our group are going to fuss? That’s rich (4-2-2)

WE'LL ( our group are going .. ) TO DO ( fuss )
2 MINESTRONE
Playing more tennis — soup provided (10)

[ MORE TENNIS ]*
3 BEDRAGGLED
Untidy place to sleep — made fun of learner inside (10)

BED ( place to sleep ) [ RAGGED ( made fun of ) containing L ( learner ) ]
4 POET
Love being entertained by favourite writer (4)

PET ( favorite ) containing O ( love )
5 NEWS
Latest from all directions (4)

N ( north ) E ( east ) W ( west ) S ( South ), all directions
6 CLUE
Reminder to ring Liberal — one of 30 here (4)

CUE ( reminder ) containing L ( liberal )
7 MARINA
Boating facility steep — daughter, English, leaving (6)

MARINAde ( steep, without D – daughter E – english )
14 ALPHA
High mark, high point, that’s out of bounds (5)

ALP ( high point ) HA ( tHAt, without end characters )
15 MILLENNIUM
Philosopher bringing up Greek character — in northeast for long period (10)

MILL ( philosopher, john stuart ) [ MU ( greek character ) IN NE ( north east ) , all reversed ) ]
16 REPOSITORY
Agent very much recalled by one politician in safekeeping facility (10)

REP ( agent ) [ reverse of SO ( very much ) ] I ( one ) TORY ( politician )
20 CHAINSAW
A cash win, unexpected, used for tool (8)

[ A CASH WIN ]*
22 HORSEY
Describing animal-lover’s stockings? About right, snazzy ultimately (6)

[ HOSE ( stockings ) around R ( righy ) ] Y ( snazzY, ultimately )
25 SURF
Foam steams up rather fast initially (4)

first letters of "..Steams Up Rather Fast.."
26 ATOM
Half of letters — subject of significant split? (4)

cryptic def; read as A TO M ( half of letters, first 13 of the english alphabet )
27 EPEE
Sword set piece used on regular basis (4)

alternate letters of "..sEt PiEcE.."

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,627 GURNEY”

  2. A refreshing change after an unpleasant experience with Brummie’s in the Guardian. The only thing that held me up a little was not having heard of John Stuart Mill.

    Thanks, Gurney & Turbolegs.

  3. A refreshing change for me, who wrote I do not have enough time after work for the last couple of puzzles.Approachable. It also may just have saved me during parts of a long meeting that did not concern me.

    While I enjoyed the puzzle, I confess I had no favourites

    Thanks to Gurney and Turbolegs

  4. Yes, Martyn, it was indeed approachable.
    I liked HORSEY and BEDRAGGLED (lovely word) because ‘ragged’ with two syllables could also be ‘untidy’ though it was clear that the setter intended ragged = made fun of.
    I entered GLEE from the second definition alone, not being acquainted with the first.
    Thanks both to Gurney and Turbolegs.

  5. THREADBARE
    3, also known as Three, is an American progressive rock band formed in Woodstock, New York, United States, in the early 1990s.—-Wiki.
    I don’t know if this was a popular group/band. Did Gurney allude to this?

  6. KVa @6: I’d be inclined to go with Occam’s razor. THREE is defined by Chambers as simply a set of three which is a group. I’d be slightly surprised if Gurney expected us to think of a US prog band from 1990.

    I’d agree this was a nice, clean, straightforward puzzle. Nothing wrong with that at all. My faves seem to lean heavily towards the anagrams today with FEARSOME, MINESTRONE and CHAINSAW joining BEDRAGGLED on the podium.

    Thanks Gurney and Turbolegs

  8. A gentle Friday stroll, with just the first def of GLEE causing any head-scratching (I wonder if it has any link to ‘glee clubs’). I had RENT instead of ATOM for a while (with a link to ‘let’, and if something is ‘rent’ it’s subject to a significant split!).

    Thanks Gurney & Turbolegs.

  9. Thanks Gurney and Turbolegs

    Amoeba@10: Chambers 2016 gives glee club as “a club or choir for singing glees, part-songs, etc.”

  10. I have seen GLEE in the first sense before in a cryptic. It was also the title of a musical TV series. Not my cup of tea, so never watched it.

  11. Just had a quick trawl through the archives. Appropriately for a Phiday, in September last year Phi had “Vocal piece with expression of surprise about length (4)”.

  12. Thanks Pelham Barton@11.

    Hovis@12 – I haven’t seen it either but I think Glee was based on a high school ‘glee club’. I only remember it led to the resurgence of Don’t Stop Believin’, which I am horrified to discover occurred 15 years ago.

  13. Enjoyed this one, even though I had 23 across as snap rather than spar. Exactly the same flawed logic as Peter @5

    Strangely, I tried this over breakfast and made very little progress. Then returned this afternoon and flew through it.

    Thanks all.

  14. Thanks for the blog, good set of clues , I liked ATOM.
    No problem with three being a group, Rush or The Jam , it is also a crowd.
    Single Unitary Group 3 , SU(3) is very important in QCD .

  15. Many thanks, Turbolegs, for the excellent blog and thanks also to all who commented.

    Collins has “three” as any group of three people or things. I did not go deeper than that in THREADBARE

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