Financial Times 17,774 by STEERPIKE

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A solid challenge from STEERPIKE.

FF: 9 DD: 9

 

I have one clue whose parsing eludes me.

ACROSS
1 BOLERO
Crossing lake, South African puts on old jacket (6)
[ BOER ( south african ) containing L ( lake ) ] O ( old )
5 EXPLAINS
Clarifies report of unknown number of aircraft (8)
EX ( sounds like X, unknown number, algebra ) PLAINS ( sounds like PLANES, aircraft )
9 UNBIASED
Biden struggling with a US objective (8)
[ BIDEN A US ]*
10 SIT UPS
Steerpike put back into extremely strenuous exercises (3-3)
[ reverse of PUT I ( steerpike ) ] in SS ( StrenuouS, extremely )
11 ATHENA
Three articles; one about Olympian (6)
[ A ] [ THE] [ AN ( three articles, with the last article reversed ) ]
12 MODERATE
Indifferent partner receives poem with lover’s final letter (8)
MATE ( partner ) containing [ ODE ( poem ) R ( loveR, final letter ) ]
14 MAGIC REALISM
Artistic movement stirred up Islamic rage on Malta (5,7)
[ ISLAMIC RAGE ]* M ( malta )
18 DISSATISFIED
Met concludes detective’s frustrated (12)
DI’S ( detective’s ) SATISFIED ( met )
22 COLOMBIA
State policeman almost revived corpse discovered in city (8)
? COp+?
25 CUBITS
Measurements scout is taking in Thailand (6)
CUB ( scout ) [ IS containing T ( thailand ) ]
26 CIRCUS
Teacher heard about American entertainment venue (6)
CIR ( sounds like SIR, teacher ) C ( about ) US ( american )
27 IMPURITY
Shame engulfs ancient city after CIA exposed mass corruption (8)
I ( cIa, exposed i.e. without outer letters ) M ( mass ) [ PITY ( shame ) containing UR ( ancient city ) ]
28 DOORBELL
It announces visitors from Spooner’s brothel in Paris (8)
spoonerism of BORDELO ( brothel , french? )
29 LESSEN
Shrink taken aback by heroine’s selflessness (6)
hidden, reversed in “.. heroiNE’S SELflessness”
DOWN
2 ORNATE
Decorative, gold point on a timepiece’s casing (6)
OR ( gold ) N ( point, North ) A TE ( TimepiecE, casing i.e. end characters )
3 EPIDERMIS
Hide records containing outrageously dire note (9)
EPS ( records ) containing { [ DIRE ]* MI ( note ) }
4 ONSLAUGHT
Some buffoons laugh tacitly? That’s offensive! (9)
hidden in “..buffoONS LAUGH Tacitly..”
5 ENDEMIC
On vacation, European medic treated native (7)
EN ( EuropeaN, vacated i.e. without inner letters ) [ MEDIC ]*
6 POSED
Prop’s head regularly placed in unnatural position (5)
alternate letters of “PrOpS hEaD..”
7 ALTER
Revise liturgical text having deleted appendix (5)
psALTER ( liturgical text, without PS – appendix )
8 NEPOTISM
Frank upset Timothy, claiming son gets preferential treatment? (8)
reverse of OPEN ( frank ) [ TIM ( timothy ) containing S ( son ) ]
13 ERA
Central characters in novella celebrating gay epoch (3)
central characters of “..novElla celebRating gAy..”
15 EPISCOPAL
Apple is corrupt holding company controlled by bishops (9)
[ APPLE IS ]* containing CO ( company )
16 LADYBIRDS
Woman attempts to install top of range bugs (9)
LADY ( woman ) [ BIDS ( attempts ) containing R ( Range, first letter ) ]
17 HIROHITO
Repeated greeting, introducing heartless Greek character to emperor (8)
[ HI HI ( repeated greeting ) containing RhO ( greek character, heartless i.e. without central character ) ] TO
19 AIM
Objective point (3)
double def
20 SPANIEL
Dog that is left under bridge (7)
SPAN ( bridge ) IE ( that is ) L ( left )
21 STATUE
Make declaration about upper-class figure (6)
STATE ( make declaration ) around U ( upper-class )
23 OSCAR
Small 21 starts to overtake speeding vehicle (5)
OS ( starting letters of “Overtake Speeding..” ) CAR ( vehicle ) – small statue
24 BASTE
Pour oil over end of object stuck in bottom (5)
T ( objecT, last letter ) in BASE ( bottom )

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,774 by STEERPIKE”

  3. Thanks Steerpike and Turbolegs

    10ac: Small variation on the parsing, which I think should be (I + [reversal of PUT]) in SS

    14ac: Some people insist that “on” in an across clue means “following”. Here it could work either way round, as the M for Malta could be at the beginning or end of the answer.

  6. I found this very approachable, and solved it during my commute. It usually takes me longer, sometimes much longer. I found it enjoyable for tight cluing and a good variety of devices. For no other reason than they made me smile, I liked CUBIT, and ALTER best.

    Did anyone else write in END for 19d? I still think it is just as good as AIM (except it does not fit the crossers, of course). I am sure they are both typos in the blog, but I agree with Cineraria@4 about 28ac and PB@3 about 10ac. I am still not sure of the purpose of “French” in 28ac.

    Thanks Steerpike for an enjoyable puzzle and thanks Turbolegs for a great blog

  7. Martyn@6: Bordel is French for brothel, thus “in Paris.” I also had END at first for 19D. That will probably be the right answer some other day.

  8. A really good crossword as far as I’m concerned (which basically means I finished it)

    Just two minor irritations:-

    Why is Malta reduced to ‘M’ in 14A and why is Thailand ‘T’ in 25A?

    These aren’t the abbreviations for these countries as far as I can see.

  9. 14ac/25ac for Mark A@8: These are the International Vehicle Registration codes for the two countries. In the world of crosswords, IVR codes are still much more common than internet codes.

    19dn: I thought about END as a possible answer. In my view, it does not match with “point” as well as AIM does, but it definitely highlights the problem with double definition clues. In my view, this clue type is at its best when two words of completely different origins have converged in spelling.

  11. We hadn’t heard of MAGIC REALISM but it was worked out easily enough. As far as restricting the use of ‘on’ to mean ‘folowing’ is concerned (Pelham@3) there are several established and respected setters who see ‘on’ as meaning ‘before’ or ‘following’ to suit particular clues. Certainly in the FT/Indy/Guardian if not other publications.
    Thanks, Steerpike and Turbolegs.

  12. Thanks Steerpike for a most satisfying crossword with very readable surfaces throughout. My top picks included UNBIASED, COLOMBIA (my LOI), CUBITS, CIRCUS, LESSEN, EPIDERMIS, and NEPOTISM. I couldn’t parse ERA.Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  13. Thanks Cineraria@7 for the response on bordel. I now feel “French” is either unfair or unneeded.

    It is unfair to expect us to speak French so well as to know such a word

    But it does not matter, because my SOED tells me bordel is an English word. So French is not needed in the clue

    Thanks again to all

  14. Another aimless END here for 19d until the crossers (that’s what they’re for in a ‘cross’word) ended my misery and straightened out my AIM.

    Favourites included the excellent (but sadly distressing after last night’s debate) anagram for 9a UNBIASED, the excellent surface of 10a SIT-UPS, and the brilliant wordplay and construction of 8d NEPOTISM.

    Thanks, Steerpike and Turbolegs for the well-aimed puzzle and blog.

  15. Martyn@13, I think the ‘in Paris’ (= French) reference at 28a is useful even with the SOED confirming that bordel is a word in English. Most of us on thinking that DOORBELL might be the answer would then think, “but surely it’s a bordello” (also a word in English says the SOED), so the language reference in the clue steer(pike)s us in the right direction.

  16. Thanks cellomaniac@15. Sorry, hasty composing on my part – I meant “In Paris” but wrote “French”. Happy to accept your view that it is needed. But I still feel it is unfair to expect such mastery of a foreign language. I do not even know the word for brothel in the foreign language I do speak well.

  17. Hi all, many thanks as always for the blog and the kind comments. If I could add my tuppence worth to the ‘on’ in an across clues discussion, I would say that as a solver I have never liked it being used to mean before, and so as a setter I try to avoid it. This does not mean I think it wrong, but there are some devices (like ‘up’ as an anagrind) that I instinctively avoid unless they serve to improve the surface reading or I can find no other way to clue a word.

  18. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

    The top half fairly flew in, but I had more trouble with the bottom left hand corner with Columbia as my LOI. My heart always sinks when I see spoonerism and Doorbell proved tricky. I was also convinced that there must be some word involving Arse (bottom) and T before Baste fell into place…….

    Thanks to all.

    I really like it when the setter drops in . Perhaps the editor could as well??

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