Financial Times 18,016 by STEERPIKE

by

Steerpike is today's FT setter.

A straightforward puzzle with only a little general knowlege required (FORSYTHIA and possibly NOTEPAD). A MONTH OF SUNDAYS was a write-in, which gave a lot of letters as a quick start, and the last one in was NOTEPAD, but only because I'm not 100% sure of the definition.

Thanks, Steerpike.

ACROSS
1 NIGHTINGALE
Coming soon; story about popular German singer (11)

NIGH ("coming soon") + TALE ("story") about IN ("popular") + G (German)
7 SIN
Poles defending international wrongdoing (3)

S + N (South and North, so "poles") defending I (International)
9 VILLA
Construction making a comeback in central Liverpool (5)

Hidden backwards [making a comeback] in "centrAL LIVerpool"
10 GREAT DANE
Go out with morsel for Spooner’s dog (5,4)

The Rev. Spooner in attempting to say GREAT DANE may have uttered DATE ("go out with") GRAIN ("morsel")
11 ROAST LAMB
Morning in Borstal ruined Sunday lunch? (5,4)

AM (ante meridiem, so "morning") in *(borstal) [anag:ruined]
12 ANGEL
Supernatural apparition laid bare risk and left (5)

[laid bare] (d)ANGE(r) ("risk") + L (left)
13 NOTEPAD
Editing software originally designed by retired school secretary (7)

[originally] D(esigned) by [retired] <=ETON ("school") + PA (personal assistant, so "secretary")

A quick Google search brings up Notepad as a source code editing package, but I may be missing something more obvious?
15 CUTE
Shrewd copper evacuated theatre (4)

Cu (chemical symbol for "copper") + [evacuated] T(heatr)E
18 DRAM
Shot dead 28’s mate (4)

D (dead) + RAM ("28's mate")

The 28 in the clue refers to 28ac – EWE
20 SYRINGE
Israeli’s neighbour denied a say about medical instrument (7)

SYRI(a)N ("Israel's neighbour", denied A) + <=e.g. ("say", about)
23 TUTOR
Coach trip essentially heading west across Thailand (5)

TOUR ("trip") essentially heading west (i.e. with its middle going right to left), so T(UO)R across T (international vehicle registration code for "Thailand")
24 NUNNERIES
Nurse worked with nine religious communities (9)

*(nurse nine) [anag:worked]
26 FORSYTHIA
Plant manager’s heart set on exchanging frosty greeting (9)

(man)A(ger) ['s heart] set on *(frosty) [anag:exchanging] + HI ("greeting")
27 THEME
Topic of article written by setter… (5)

THE ("article") written by ME (the "setter" of this puzzle)
28 EWE
…solver read out for docile female (3)

Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [read out] of YOU ("the solver")
29 LIFE-SUPPORT
Claim foes regularly drink alcohol? It keeps you animated! (4-7)

(c)L(a)I(m) F(o)E(s) [regularly] + SUP ("drink") + PORT ("alcohol")
DOWN
1/19/20 NEVER IN A MONTH OF SUNDAYS
Funny maidservant he soon sacked? No way! (5,2,1,5,2,7)

*(funny maidservant he soon) [anag:sacked]
2 GALLANTS
Chivalrous types irritate soldiers (8)

GALL ("irritate") + ANTS ("soldiers")
3 TOAST
Child touring Antipodes on vacation gets brown (5)

TOT ("child") touring A(ntipode)S [on vacation]
4 NIGGARD
Draw spirit sent back to see Scrooge (7)

<=(DRAG ("draw") + GIN ("spirit"), sent back)
5 ACERBIC
Vitriolic writer supporting expert on right (7)

BIC (brand of ballpoint pen, so "writer") supporting ACE ("expert") on R (right)
6 EXTRACTOR
Retired film star embracing extremely tender fan (9)

EX-ACTOR ("retired film star") embracing [extremely] T(ende)R
7 SHAGGY
Unkempt seabird finally finding sanctuary (6)

SHAG ("seabird") + [finally] (findin)G (sanctuar)Y
8 NEEDLE
Necessity will reportedly provoke reaction (6)

Homophone/pun/aural wodplay [reportedly] of NEED'LL ("necessity will")
14 PORTRAYAL
Depiction of gateway blocked by beam (9)

PORTAL ("gateway") blocked by RAY ("beam")
16 ANTIHERO
Another broadcast about independent, unconventional protagonist (8)

*(another) [anag:broadcast] about I (independent)
17 REASSERT
State again starts to rouse extreme resistance, stopping benefit (8)

[starts to] R(ouse) E(xtreme) + R (resistance) stopping ASSET ("benefit")
19
See 1 Down
20
See 1 Down
21 STIFLE
Suppress content of podcast if left-wing (6)

Hidden in [content of] "podcaST IF LEft-wing"
22 STARVE
Celebrity against taking drug to stop consumption? (6)

STAR ("celebrity") + v (versus, so "against") taking E (ecstasy, so "drug")
25 EAT UP
Scoff at entering trading alliance with Portugal (3,2)

AT entering EU (European Union, so "trading alliance") with P (International Vehicle Registration code for "Portugal")

13 comments on “Financial Times 18,016 by STEERPIKE”

  1. Fun puzzle by Steerpike. The gimmick used in 23A was new to me so thanks to Loonapick for explaining that one. Otherwise, a pretty smooth solve. My favorites were FORSYTHIA and GREAT DANE. Thanks Steerpike!

  2. Loonapick, NOTEPAD is a no-frills text editor that was part of the Microsoft Windows package from the very beginning. It is (or at least until recently was–I may be a few releases out of date) the default app for opening .txt files, so if you have ever done that on a Windows machine, you’ve seen Notepad.

  3. Liked 1d etc – great surface and wonderful anagram、PORTRAYAL, DRAM, NUNNERIES (another anagram)

    1d thought the anagrind was funny, not sacked. But I got it right and it was my third one in which helped. 13 was a mystery so thanks for the explanation mrp@2.I did not think I parsed EAT UP but my interpretation was the same as loonapick. So that’s it is it? I also wonder why a EWE is docile？ 10 ac made me realise how little I would like to meet Spooner. While I get “date grain”, it makes no sense.

    To end on a positive note, I loved SHAGGY given “shag on a rock” is one of my mother’s favourite expressions.

    Thanks Steerpike and loonapick

  4. Enjoyed this. Thanks to Martyn for mentioning “shag on a rock” which is a new expression for me. It is an Australian term “ lonely as a shag ..”
    Ewes are pretty docile except when protecting their lambs.
    Thanks to Steerpike and loonapick.

  6. Good fun, and the right level of difficulty, I thought. Never heard of FORSYTHIA, but the wordplay was clear. I wouldn’t have thought of “cute” and “shrewd” as synonyms, but no doubt they’d be in a dictionary somewhere.

    Thanks Steerpike & Loonapick.

    [As mrpenny said, Notepad is a no-frills text editor in Windows. A slightly less no-frills one is Wordpad, which Microsoft surreptitiously deleted without warning in a recent update, leaving me with a lot of .rtf files that couldn’t be read by anything else. (I eventually found that InDesign will import them.)]

  7. A solid puzzle and blog. The appearance of the word THEME had me hunting for one, but I do not see anything extra this time.

  8. Lots of fun I got most of this before breakfast and filled in the last couple quickly thereafter.
    Thanks

  10. Geoff @6
    if you google it, there are numerous references as to how to restore wordpad to windows 11 should you wish to.

  11. [Geoff @ 6: Microsoft Word will read .rtf files, and save in the format, as will the free Libreoffice suite. RTFs are the safest way to exchange documents, as, having no executable component, they cannot be infected by malware.]

  12. Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable set of clues . FORSYTHIA at their best right now , always out so early and so yellow . I had NERDPAD in mind but could not make the wordplay work .

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