Financial Times 15,042 by JASON

by

Anyone for charades?

A pleasant Tuesday challenge with a plethora of charades and cryptic definitions.

My favourite clues were 24a and 28a

I’m not sure about KETTLE as I can’t see the wordplay, unless “kettle” is a definition of “box up” that I haven’t come across before.

Across
1 PRO FORMA
Don or postgrad’s official record (3,5)

Prof. + OR + M.A.
6 BUTTER
Start to buy pure spread (6)

B(uy) + UTTER
9 GUARDS
Alice married one of these breaking sugar daddy’s heart (6)

*(sugar D) where the D is heart of “daDdy”

They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard,”
Says Alice.

(from Buckinghan Palace, by A A Milne)
10 OVERRIPE
Finished Scripture and gym? I’m off (8)

OVER + R.I. + P.E.
11 MEME
Often trite image that is indicative of a big ego! (4)

ME ME!
12 DOTTED LINE
Scattered queue tear along this? (6,4)

DOTTED + LINE
14 FLAMINGO
Furious old bird (8)

FLAMING + O
16 FOIL
Fine lubricant is something to battle with pointlessly (4)

F + OIL
18 ANON
In short, like some crosswords before long (4)

Double dedfinition
19 SHADOWED
Dogged son was in debt beforehand (8)

S + HAD OWED
21 TIE THE KNOT
Take the plunge and hike to Barking with tent (3,3,4)

*(hike to tent) with Barking as the anagrind
22 RARE
Artist concerned with being thin on the ground (4)

R.A. + RE
24 CUP OF TEA
Dash up to cafe for what suits you (3,2,3)

*(up to cafe)
26 ALLEGE
Without basis claim supporter’s overcome by beer (6)

AL(LEG)E
27 SEANCE
Peculiar scene with a meeting across the divide? (6)

*(scene a)
28 SHIPYARD
Trucks back round trendy place of craftwork? (8)

HIP in <=DRAYS
Down
2 ROUTE
Run out Ozzie pick-up here? (5)

R.O. + UTE (& lit.)
3 FORGET ME NOT
Flower suitable as a lover’s giftt, I’d suggest (6-2-3)

Cryptic(ish) definition
4 RESIDENT
Hand in what’s due to be settled (8)

RE(SIDE)NT
5 A MONTH OF SUNDAYS
An eternity to pray and hymn, you may say (1,5,2,7)

Cryptic definition
6 BREWER
I’ll make tea in British pot (6)

Br. + EWER
7 TAR
Jack’s a celeb needing no introduction (3)

(s)TAR
8 EXPENSIVE
Dear divorcee is thoughtful (9)

EX + PENSIVE
13 LIFE OF RILEY
Biography of a motor manufacturer in easy street? (4,2,5)

LIFE OF RILEY (as in Riley Motor, a British motor and bicycle and manufacturer in the early 20th century)
15 LONGITUDE
Dicky led outing in line (9)

*(led outing)
17 PASTRAMI
Smoked beef in one market clot picked up (8)

<= I-MART-SAP
20 KETTLE
Box up what’s essential for 24? (6)

Need some help here….
23 ROGER
Moore is one well received and taken on board (5)

Double definition
25 OWN
Have bumfluff shaved from the beginning (3)

(d)OWN
*anagram

8 comments on “Financial Times 15,042 by JASON”

  3. Enjoyed this. So many good clues but I particularly liked “guards” & “life of Riley”. 20d amused me, having been kettled while visiting our daughter in Walthamstow; long story, but suffice it to say that the police showed respect for our grey hair & let us through!

    Thank you very much Jason & loonapick.

  4. Just a note loonapick about Riley.

    The marque survived until the 60’s, but by then as part of BMC’s badge engineering’. Its glory days were the immediate pre and post war years. I could go on, because I feel an anorak moment coming on, so I’ll just have a lie down instead. 🙁

  5. Thamks, Conrad – I don’t claim to be an expert in cars. In fact, not knowing about cars prevented me form winning much more money on a TV quiz show, where I had to “settle” for £64K…

  6. Thanks Jason and loonapick

    A reasonably quick solve – although with some clues that left me not 100% convinced. Took a while to get my head around PRO FORMA (could only find it as an invoice type of record though), ANON (have assumed that it is like the Times where the setters are not disclosed) and thought that ‘what’s due’ was a loose definition of RENT. Haven’t seen these sort of ambiguities with this setter before. I have become aware of the KETTLE term purely through crosswords.

    Is there something that I’m missing with ‘giftt’ in 3d?

    Liked 5d and 13d.

  7. Bruce

    I had no problem with ANON or PRO FORMA, but can see the point you’re making with RENT.

    I didn’t even notice the typo in 3d…

  8. Thanks loonapick and Jason.

    I never read any A A Milne whilst young so needed your explanation for 9ac.

    I have no problem with the charades, but there are a lot of them. I was more bothered by the cryptic(ish) definitions such as ANON, and FORGET-ME-NOT which seemed somewhat lame.

    On the plus side, I did enjoy ‘meeting across the divide’ for SEANCE which I thought a good oblique definition.

    So thanks for the entertainment.

Comments are closed.