Financial Times no.14,865 by Redshank

by

Always a pleasure to see Redshank’s name at the top of a grid.

This was well up to Redshank’s usual standard: neat, clever, witty, full of variety and nicely balanced. Thank-you, Redshank.

Across
1 DRY-CLEAN
Launder diamonds, the proceeds of larceny (3-5)

D [diamonds] anagram of larceny
6 SIT-INS
It cuts errors in demonstrations (3-3)

It within sins [errors]
9 IMMURE
Wall in green at shed (6)

Immature [green] minus at
10 NUISANCE
Sister these days is a boring pest (8)

Is a within nun [sister]  CE [Common Era, these days]
11 BOOT
Kick start (4)

Double definition
12 TOOLMAKERS
Engineers smoke a lot at work, stifling resistance (10)

R [resistance] within anagram of smoke a lot
14 POLYGRAM
Label girl cut off, upset about front of gown (8)

Reversal of g(own) within Mary [girl]  lop [cut off]
16 LOGO
A sign ladies have drunk gallons (4)

G [gallons] within loo [ladies’]
18 ET AL
Scrap odd bits of meatballs etc (2,2)

Even letters of mEaTbAlLs
19 SAUCEPAN
In which to cook small golden pecan nuts (8)

S [small] Au [gold]  anagram of pecan
21 BOOBY PRIZE
By spinning one in alcohol win derisory award (5,5)

By PR [spinning, public relations]  I [one] within booze [alcohol]
22 WHUP
Trounce London team initially, putting on pressure (4)

Initials of West Ham United [London team]  p [pressure]
24 GRIDIRON
Golf club straddles free football field (8)

Rid [free] within G [golf]  iron [(golf) club]
26 ISAIAH
Book One has returned with “Excellent” inside (6)

I [one] AI [A1, excellent] within reversal of has
27 HERNIA
Woman’s involved in a medical breakthrough (6)

Her [woman’s] anagram of in a
28 DEEPENED
Dredged place divers prefer bordering mouth of Exe (8)

E(xe) within deep end [place divers prefer]
Down
2 ROMEO
Capital “O” that signifies “R” (5)

Rome [capital]  O
3 COUNTRY CLUB
G8’s leisure facility? (7,4)

Double definition
4 ELECTORS
They vote in line in Chicago City hills (8)

El [(railway) line in Chicago]  EC [City of London]  tors [hills]
5 NON-COMMISSIONED
Rank speculative scripts, all rejected except the fourth? (3-12)

None commissioned [all speculative scripts rejected] minus the fourth letter, e
6 STIGMA
It’s modified, genetically modified, on a flower part (6)

Anagram of its GM [genetically modified]  a
7 TEA
Ends of plant, the camellia (3)

Last letters of planT thE camelliA – lovely &lit
8 NICARAGUA
Month with ace racing non-stop all over country (9)

Reversal of Aug [month]  a [ace]  racin(g)
13 KILLER WHALE
He’ll like raw flounders (6,5)

Anagram of hell like raw, and another lovely &lit
15 OUTSOURCE
Use subcontractors to build courthouse, not hospital (9)

Anagram of courthouse minus h [hospital]
17 YULETIDE
Some say you’ll change over Christmas (8)

Yule [sounds like ‘you’ll’] reversal of edit [change]
20 SPARTA
Old city has a role in it (6)

Part [role] within SA [Sex Appeal, ‘it’]
23 UKASE
Employ Ford parts making up Russian order (5)

Ka [model of Ford] within use [employ]
25 DIN
Racket regularly used by Agassi at Wimbledon finals (3)

Last letters of useD agassI wimbledoN

9 comments on “Financial Times no.14,865 by Redshank”

  1. Thanks for a great blog, Ringo, especially for WHUP and UKASE – I hadn’t heard of either.

    I like your list of epithets for this puzzle – I agree entirely. I had ticks against 10, 12, 18 and 27ac and 13 and 15dn – all lovely surfaces and constructions.

    [My only little quibble is launder = DRY CLEAN – to me they’re practically opposites. 😉 ]

    Many thanks, as ever, to Redshank – a lovely puzzle.

  2. Thanks Ringo. I needed your help in parsing the “el” in ELECTORS and NON-COMMISSIONED. My only fail though was UKASE where I guessed “usage” (meaning “employ” as a noun) but with no parsing at all.

    And thanks to Redshank, as Eileen says, many delightful clues.

  3. Thanks for the blog, Ringo.

    My considerable pleasure at being able to complete so many great clues quite quickly was tempered somewhat by the obscurity of both ‘el’ in 4dn and ‘ukase'(23)…

    …and I always groan when I see ‘sa’ clued as ‘it’ – It = sex appeal is a rare usage (especially nowadays), but then to abbreviate sex appeal to ‘sa’ baffles me. Can anyone quote an example of sa actually being used as an abbreviation in this way?

    Rant over – I particularly admired the construction of 2dn & 5dn.

  4. Was anyone else confused, as I was, by 14a POLYGRAM? It’s not in Chambers or the compact OED, though Wordweb and other sources have it as “a figure consisting of many lines”, which doesn’t seem to help at all.

    But having Googled it, I assume that the definition is “label”, and it refers to the PolyGram record label, originally started by Philips. Now that the memory has been prodded, I remember it all right, but apparently it hasn’t existed since 1999 when it was sold to Seagram, and merged with Universal Music Group. A bit on the obscure side?

    Or am I missing something, and there’s a better explanation?

  5. I think you’re spot on, Tom. It must be the record label.
    I thought of it (not to deeply) but then went on as the solution had to be right.

    Another really inventive puzzle from Redshank.
    The use of West Ham United was clever, though I hadn’t heard of the word WHUP (22ac) [had to be it, no doubt].
    What happens in 25d is a kind of novelty, in my opinion. Two devices for the price of one: first take the last letters of five words (D,Y,I,T,N), then make a ‘regular’ selection.

    Thanks, Ringo, for the blog which I needed for fully understanding the long one at 5d.
    By the way, would it be possible to underline the definitions (or make them bold/italicised) next time, just like most other bloggers do nowadays?

  6. Tom_I – I once spent a lot of time working with Universal Music, so got POLYGRAM without giving it a second thought – but you’re right it is a bit obscure.

  7. Hmm been playing polygram records today on my record deck so got that easily. Good fun this one, thanks redshank & Ringo.

  8. Great fun as ever from Redshank. Polygram didn’t seem particularly obscure to me – they were one of the biggest record labels of their time; and I remember Muhammed Ali using WHUP quite frequently. Thanks Ringo.

  9. Thanks Redshank and Ringo

    14ac: Small point about the parsing. I think it should be G in reversal of MARY LOP, given the order of the words in the clue.

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