Financial Times 17,649 by BASILISK

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Great solving fun from Basilisk.

Plenty to like in the grid – a typically witty and fun Basilisk puzzle.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Representative of English supporter appearing in court (8)
DELEGATE

(E (English) + LEG (supporter)) appearing in DATE (court)

6. Distinction is extraordinary result (6)
LUSTRE

(RESULT)* (*extraordinary)

9. Spirit doctor visited by artist each year (6)
GRAPPA

(GP (doctor) visited by RA (artist)) + PA (each year, per annum)

10. Means of accessing transport (8)
ENTRANCE

Double definition

ENtrance / enTRANCE

11. American city losing its past elegance (4)
CHIC

CHIC[ago] (American city, losing AGO (its past))

12. Stop America invading Chinese soil (4,6)
HANG AROUND

A (America) invading (HAN (Chinese) + GROUND (soil))

14. Unorthodox moral changes introduced by ill-conceived ban (8)
ABNORMAL

(MORAL)* (*changes) introduced by (BAN)* (*ill-conceived)

16. Fair and square (4)
EVEN

Double definition

18. Territory in the Far East (4)
AREA

[f]AR EA[st] (in)

19. Some of The Sun’s output contains worse banter (8)
RAILLERY

RAY (some of the sun’s output) contains ILLER (worse)

21. Free from illusions and ethics, nihilism’s beginning to develop (10)
DISENCHANT

(AND ETHICS + N[ihilism]’s (beginning))* (*to develop)

22. Get rid of unconscious inhibiting bias in the end (4)
OUST

OUT (unconscious) inhibiting [bia]S (in the end)

24. Permanent position in society (8)
STANDING

Double definition

26. Personalise evening dress trimmed with gold (6)
TAILOR

TAIL (evening dress) trimmed with OR (gold)

27. Old outfit belonging to Dawn (6)
ORIGIN

O (old) + RIG (outfit) + IN (belonging to)

28. Infuriating piece from outspoken rag in Germany (8)
ENRAGING

[outspok]EN RAG IN G[ermany] (piece from)

DOWN
2. Celestial body’s level of hydrogen lowered in core (5)
EARTH

HEART (core); level of H (hydrogen) lowered

3. Suppose soldiers had to discharge matter (11)
EXPECTORATE

EXPECT (suppose) + OR (soldiers) + ATE (had)

4. Ecclesiastical denunciation of four articles suppressing Mass (8)
ANATHEMA

AN + A + THE + A (four articles) containing M (mass)

5. Constant figure in awkward relationship (7,8)
ETERNAL TRIANGLE

ETERNAL (constant) + TRIANGLE (figure)

6. Poisonous lines filled with twisted hate (6)
LETHAL

LL (lines) filled with (HATE)* (*twisted)

7. Main statement of witness (3)
SEA

“SEE” (witness, “statement”)

8. Teller reconciled current account initially containing nothing (9)
RACONTEUR

(CURRENT + A[ccount] (initially))* (*reconciled) containing O (nothing)

13. Missing monarch on the throne? (11)
OVERLOOKING

Cryptic definition

The throne in the clue being a toilet / LOO: OVER LOO KING

15. Counsel gentleman about entering trade negotiation (9)
BARRISTER

SIR< (gentleman, <about) entering BARTER (trade negotiation)

17. Who is probably worse than King Richard and King Edward we hear? (8)
DICTATOR

“DICK” (Richard) + “TATER” (King Edward) (“we hear”)

A King Edward is a type of potato / tater

20. First part of play connected with fighting (6)
ACTION

ACT I (first part of play) + ON (connected with)

23. Demonstrated method to open tin (5)
SHOWN

HOW (method) to open SN (tin, chemical symbol)

25. Constantly find fault with endless problems (3)
NAG

[s]NAG[s] (problems, endless)

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,649 by BASILISK”

  3. Marvellous. Loved this one.

    Some fantastic, witty, always fair clues, my favourites being the very clever Expectorate (held up for a while with Expectorant [soldiers = OR + ANT)]), Dictator, Shown and Barrister

    Thank you to all

  5. Lots of the usual good fun from Basilisk. Highlight was the OVER LOO KING with ETERNAL TRIANGLE another good one. ENTRANCE was also very clever, one of those double definition cum cryptic def clues.

    Thanks to Basilisk and Oriel

    [BTW off-topic, but for those who have access to a completed grid for yesterday’s puzzle from Guy, you’ll see there’s a little present in the grid as suggested by Guy in his comment @8 in the blog].

  6. I agree with the other comments. A most welcome and enjoyable puzzle without any obscurities .
    Thank you Basilisk and Oriel

  7. Very nice indeed. Lots of smooth cluing. Deception in abundance. All gettable – though I spent too long trying to begin ACTION with a P as first part of play. Another day when I could list many favourites: keeping it to just the double ticks, I’ll highlight DELEGATE, GRAPPA, HANG AROUND, EXPECTORATE (COTD), ETERNAL TRIANGLE, LETHAL, BARRISTER and DICTATOR.

    Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

  9. My enthusiasm for this grid has largely been covered already (especially by Moly) and thanks to KVa for pointing out the now obvious ‘trimmed’ bit of TAILS.
    I’ll just add the CHIC(ago) trick to my list of favourites.
    Thanks to Basilisk and Oriel.

  10. Peter@10: coming originally from Scotland, I would use “tatties”, but I recall that in “The Lord of the Rings” Gaffer Gamgee (Sam’s dad) complains that “they’ve been and dug up Bagshot Row and ruined my taters.”

    Happy to echo all the compliments for this very enjoyable solve.

  11. Thanks for the blog, very neat set of clever clues.
    Peter @10 the term is still used , usually in combination . Meat and tater pie. Tater and turnip mash . Taters also used to mean cold but the origin is obscure and much disputed.

  12. Perplexus @11: that’s delightful. Justifying a word on the basis of its use in a book written in the 1940’s (ish) and set in a mythical country. Works for me!

  13. Tater predates Tolkien by at least a couple of hundred years, according to the OED. And just a month or so back, another FT setter gave us the clue “Cold spuds (6)”.

    Anyway, I agree with everyone else – very enjoyable. Thanks, Basilisk and Oriel.

  15. The praise above covers my enjoyment of the puzzle. So many smooth surfaces and an abundance of wit. Too many favourites to name.

    Thanks to Basilisk and Oriel

  16. Thanks Basilisk, that was top drawer with RAILLERY, ORIGIN, OVERLOOKING, BARRISTER, and NAG being favourites. I missed HANG AROUND, not seeing it as a definirion for ‘stop’. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

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