Financial Times 15,003 by MAGWITCH

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Greetings from Copenhagen!! A pleasurable challenge from Magwitch today. Needed perseverance on a few clues to parse right but nothing to really bother. Thanks Magwitch for yet another treat !!

FF: 9 DD : 8

Across
1 MOTIVATION
Incentive for proposal introducing international tax (10)

MOTION (proposal) introducing [ I (international) VAT (tax) ]

6 ICED
I returned last month chilled to the bone (4)

I CED (last month = DEC, reversed)

10 RULER
Person in charge of government measure (5)

Double def?

11 RAISE HELL
Her allies unexpectedly make a lot of trouble (5,4)

Anagram of HER ALLIES

12 COHERENT
Understandable being firm at this point with conservationists (8)

CO (firm) HERE (at this point) NT (conservationists, National Trust)

13 CAROB
Like chocolate bar blended with 40% cocoa (5)

Anagram of BAR with CO (40% of COcoa)

15 BED REST
Enforced idleness in middle of the day trapped in French port (3,4)

ED (middle of thE Day) in BREST (french port)

17 DEMURER
Objector drops resistance and becomes more modest (7)

DEMURrER (objector, drops ‘R’- resistance)

19 MIRACLE
Wonder at the Spanish vehicle reversing on motorway (7)

[ CAR (vehicle) EL (the, in spanish) ] all reversed, on MI (motorway)

21 FUSSPOT
Stickler about full stops left out altogether (7)

Anagram of FUllSTOPS (‘LL’ – left out, altogether)

22 NOVEL
Book would get a prize if central character were changed (5)

Cryptic clue; If V (central character) changed to B, it would spell a much coveted prize.

24 DOUBTFUL
Party turn initially booked through friends unfortunately looks uncertain (8)

DO (party) U (turn) followed by initial characters of “..Booked Through Friends Unfortunately Looks..”

27 BLUSTERED
“Be without covetousness!” leftie ranted (9)

[ BE around (without) LUST (covetousness) ] RED (leftie, communist)

28 AVOID
Shun old and extremely ill- conceived electoral system at first (5)

O (old) ID (extremely Ill-conceiveD) after AV (electoral system,  Alternative Vote)

29 EATS
Takes in inside knowledge at school (4)

Hidden in “..knowledgE AT School”.

30 FEARLESSLY
Woman with no means of hearing regularly plays without anxiety (10)

F (woman) EARLESS (with no means of hearing) LY (regularly pLaYs)

Down
1 MURK
Described car as dark (4)

Sounds like MERC (mercedes, colloquial)

2 TALL ORDER
A lot to expect of high command (4,5)

TALL (high) ORDER (command)

3 VERSE
Poem is not about defeat (5)
reVERSE (defeat, without ‘RE’- about)
4 TORMENT
Wrong to imprison those of one sex for harassment (7)

TORT (wrong) imprisoning MEN (those of one sex)

5 OMITTED
Times journalist goes after award I failed (7)

TT (Time = T, plural) ED (journalist) after [OM (Order of Merit, award) I ]

7 CLEAR
King to succeed Charlie? It’s obvious (5)

LEAR (king) succeeding C (Charlie)

8 DELIBERATE
Planned to berate idle drunk (10)

Anagram of BERATE IDLE – Unless I have got this wrong, not the crispest clue in the puzzle, with BERATE falling in place without change as well as the fact that the clue is in the past-tense but the solution is not.

9 WELCOMES
Gladly accepts that we’ll mostly arrive by bus in the end (8)

WEL ( WE’Ll mostly) COME (arrive) S (buS in the end)

14 ABOMINABLE
Disgusting that an explosive device is reported in Aberfoyle’s suburbs (10)

Sounds like A BOMB (an explosive device) IN ABLE (ABerfoyLE’s suburbs)

16 ESCALATE
Mushroom escalope more than half consumed (8)

ESCALope (more than half) ATE (consumed)

18 RAPTUROUS
Delighted to criticise America over shambolic rout (9)

[RAP (criticise) US (America)] over TURO (anagram of ROUT)

20 ENDORSE
Wind up more ill without a wife to give support (7)

END (wind up) wORSE (more ill, without ‘W’ – wife)

21 FOUNDER
Father’s collapse (7)

Double def

23 VAUNT
Unionist engaged in heartless empty boast (5)

U (unionist) in VAcaNT (empty, heartless)

25 TRACE
A hint of tense competition (5)

T (hint of Tense) RACE (competition) – hint doing double duty.

26 EDGY
Sentry guarding crowded conference ends up irritable (4)

last letters of “sentrY guardinG crowdeD conferencE”, reversed.

*anagram

9 comments on “Financial Times 15,003 by MAGWITCH”

  1. Lots to admire here and quite a challenge in the bottom half especially.

    Re 8 down – if something is ‘planned’ it may be said to be ‘deliberate’

  2. Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs

    Very enjoyable and quite straightforward I thought.
    I agree with Steven about 8dn.

    Using a homophone clue in 1dn was rather unfair: the answer could be MURK or MIRK.
    In 21ac, I’m sure you meant ‘Anagram of FUll STOPS’ (left out altogether.)

  3. Thanks Magwitch abd Turbolegs

    Half your luck TL … and enjoy.

    Actually did this one last Friday and haven’t had time to check it until now. Could only get to it in short snatches of time throughout the day too, from memory.

    Found it pretty straightforward for most part and finished down in the SW corner with BLUSTERED, ENDORSE and VAUNT (which I see that I’ve parsed wrongly) the last few in.

    Noticed an unusually large number of abbreviations used throughout !

  4. Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs.

    Needs your help to parse 3dn and a bit disappointed to find that was it.

    I’ve never seen ‘suburbs’ for the first and last two letters of a word before. Made perfect sense when I solved it so that must be OK.

    Hope you had a nice break TL.

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