Financial Times 16,498 by FALCON

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Pretty gentle stuff from the Falcon this morning.

Slightly slown down in the S.E. corner by the strange (to me) African beast but otherwise a very swift solve. Thanks to Falcon.

image of grid
ACROSS
1 BOOTLEG Sold illicitly from sack next to stage (7)
BOOT (the ‘sack’) + LEG (‘stage’ of, say, a sporting event).
5 GALLANT Brave face social worker put on (7)
GALL (cheek, ‘face’) + ANT, a ‘social worker’).
9 INFER Gather popular judge retired (5)
IN (‘popular’) + REF (‘judge’, reversed).
10 TASK FORCE Working party, wanting some breakfast, ask for cereals (4,5)
Hidden in ‘breakfasT ASK FOR CEreals’.
11 LHASA APSO Small dog has a drink put outside, accordingly (5,4)
HAS + A surrounded by L.AP (to drink) + SO (‘accordingly’).
12 FINCH Loud island bird (5)
F[orte] (‘loud’) + INCH (‘island’).
13 HERO Protagonist in love, pursuing that girl (4)
HER (‘that girl’) + 0 (‘love’).
15 EMINENCE Height of distinction? (8)
Double definition.
18 PARTISAN Irregular power worker (8)
P[ower] + ARTISAN (‘worker’), for ‘unofficial’ fighter.
19 DRUM Beginning to describe strange percussion instrument (4)
1st of ‘D{escribe} + RUM (‘strange’).
22 NOBLE Person of wealth, the French aristocrat (5)
NOB (‘person of wealth’) + LE (Fr. ‘the’). I’d always assumed ‘nob’ was short for ‘noble’ anyway but Chambers disabuses us.
24 FREIGHTER Warplane circling about does for cargo ship (9)
F.IGHTER surrounds RE (‘about’).
26 WRAPPED UP Dressed warmly, wife talked volubly at college (7,2)
W[ife] + RAPPED (‘talked voluably’) + UP (‘at college’). Not sure this doesn’t work as a homonym without the ‘wife’ but heigh-ho.
27 NYALA Name a song about an antelope (5)
N[ame] + A LAY (‘song’) reversed, for southern African gnu-like beast.
28 ROSETTE Favour method of learning involving group (7)
RO.TE (‘method of learning’) around SET (‘group’). Football fans used to wear ‘favours’ & carry rattles. How quaint.
29 RESIDUE Poor rise expected for the rest (7)
Anagram (‘poor’) of RISE + DUE (‘expected’).
DOWN
1 BRIDLE Check line penned by newly- wed? (6)
L[ine] in BRIDE (‘newly-wed’).
2 OFF-CAMERA While not being filmed, Oscar, with fine female, arrived ahead of artist (3-6)
O[scar] + F[ine} + F[emale] + CAME (‘arrived’) + RA (‘artist’).
3 LARVA Part of particular vagrant’s grub (5)
Inclusion in ‘particuLAR VAgrant’.
4 GO TO PRESS Be printed in turn on theatrical posters (2,2,5)
GO (a ‘turn’) on anagram (‘theatrical’) of POSTERS.
5 GUSTO Enthusiasm got us in trouble (5)
Anagram (‘in trouble’) of GOT US.
6 LEFT FIELD Unconventional what injured player did? (4-5)
Double definition.
7 APRON In favour of wearing article, protective garment (5)
PRO in AN.
8 TEETHE What baby’s bound to do then, shortly after peg produced? (6)
THEn, shortened, after TEE (‘peg’).
14 ON THE SPOT In an awkward predicament immediately (2,3,4)
Double def.
16 INNKEEPER Publican’s secret stock inside (9)
INN.ER (‘secret’) surrounds KEEP (to ‘stock’).
17 COURT CARD Curry favour with eccentric queen, perhaps (5,4)
COURT (‘curry favour’) + CARD (an ‘eccentric’).
20 ANSWER Response from a king in receipt of bad news (6)
A + R[ex] surround anagram (‘bad’) of NEWS.
21 URBANE Sophisticated city, England’s capital (6)
URBAN (‘city’ as adjective) + E (cap. letter of ‘England’).
23 BRASS Nerve of supporters on top of skyscraper (5)
BRAS (‘supporters’) + 1st (‘top’ in down clue) of ‘S{kyscraper}’.
24 FUDGE Leader of gang in ridiculous feud makes unsatisfactory compromise (5)
1st of ‘G{ang} in anagram (‘ridiculous’) of FEUD.
25 GENUS Information on American group (5)
GEN (‘info’) on US.

11 comments on “Financial Times 16,498 by FALCON”

  2. Late to doing this as the puzzle dates on the FT site were incorrect- this was shown as Monday, 8 June.  A good confidence builder after today’s tough Imogen in the Guardian, though I still failed to spot ‘theatrical’ as an anagram indicator in GO TO PRESS. I don’t know how often NYALA has appeared before, but it’s less common than ‘eland’ as a crossword ‘antelope’ so took a bit of working out for me too. The ‘queen, perhaps’ def for COURT CARD held out longest.

    I won’t give the game away, but there’s a clue here which would fit in to today’s Independent puzzle very nicely.

    Thanks to Falcon and to Grant

  3. Really neat, and I especially liked 18ac PARTISAN because I wrestled at first with ‘irregular’ as an instruction. LOI was 17dn, which I found very tough. Anyway, thanks to Falcon for a good one, and GB too.

  4. A swift and fairly straight-forward solve but no less enjoyable for all that. Almost a write-in but for the unfamiliar NYALA which scuppered the ‘queen’part of 17d.
    Thanks to Falcon and Grant for elucidating me.

  6. Thanks Falcon and Grant

    Nothing to really scare the horses here … but an enjoyable solve nonetheless.  Was able to start with the 1a / 1d combination and gradually work my way around the grid to come to rest with COURT CARD and RESIDUE in the SE corner.

    Liked the hidden TASK FORCE and the ‘other African antelope’ which has popped up in a couple of the Times / Sunday Times puzzles that I have done recently.

  7. I thought it was going to be a write in until I got to the SE corner where I failed to get four of of the answers -17d, 21d, 1

    27a and 29a!! Thanks Grant and Falcon.

  9. Steady solve over breakfast — favorites were INFER, LHASA APSO, LEFT-FIELD, and INNKEEPER. Guessed correctly at FINCH (island=inch?) and NYALA (lay=song?) so thanks Grant for parsing. Thanks Falcon.

  10. A pleasant and fairly quick solve with no poblems.  Thanks, Falcon and Grant.

    PS What’s the problem with the FT date?  We download the crossword via the link on 15sq; when we first click on the link it shows the previous day’s date but the correct date comes up within a second or two.

  11. Not hugely impressed by 12ac because FIONA is an equally valid answer to the wordplay.

    Good job I always do the crossword with a 2B pencil with a rubber to hand.

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