Financial Times 16,506 by NEO

by

Neo is up today in the FT.

The top half of this slotted in easily enough, but there were a couple of entries in the bottom half that I struggled with. I took a while to parse RALPH, and because I couldn't see BLOOD FEUD and the associated DRACULA, the SW corner held out for a bit.

Not much to say about the puzzle – medium-level difficulty, with some clever clues (such as that for RALPH).

Thanks, Neo.

ACROSS
1 BRAINPOWER Supporter providing government intelligence (10)
 

BRA ("supporter") + IN POWER ("providing government")
7 BEAT Rhythm and echo in club (4)
 

E (echo, in the phonetic alphabet) in BAT ("club")
9 ASIA Large region in Matsuida regularly ignored (4)
 

(m)A(t)S(u)I(d)A [regularly ignored]
10 ALARM CLOCK Anxiety about hair that will interrupt sleep (5,5)
 

ALARM ("anxiety") + C (circa, so "about") + LOCK ("hair")
11 STRONG Saint and unethical wife going deep (6)
 

St. (saint) + (w)RONG ("unethical" with W (wife) going)
12 SCENARIO Film story in a score rewritten (8)
 

*(in a score) [anag:rewritten]
13 SOMBRERO Melancholy men reversed in top gear (8)
 

SOMBRE ("melancholy") + <=OR (other ranks, so "men", reversed)
15 EDEN First couple to disappear in country garden (4)
 

[first couple to disappear in] (sw)EDEN ("country")
17 EDDO Edible plant given in measured dose (4)
 

Hidden in [given in] "measurED DOse"
19 RACK-RENT Excessive demand nasty letter communicates? (4-4)
 

Mildly cryptic definition
22 SAN DIEGO Drunken sea-dog in coastal location (3,5)
 

*(sea dog in) [anag:drunken]
23 THRACE Vehicle going back into the ancient land (6)
 

<=CAR ("vehicle" going back) into THE
25 SUPERVISOR Excellent shield one looks over (10)
 

SUPER ("excellent") + VISOR ("shield")
26 LASH Cat in wood by lake (4)
 

ASH ("wood") by L (lake)
27 BALD Poor to welcome Liberal found wanting in Barnet? (4)
 

BAD ("poor") to welcome L (Liberal)
28 DUNDERHEAD Idiot daughter working for boss (10)
 

D (daughter) + UNDER ("working for") + HEAD ("boss")
DOWN
2 RISOTTO Dish, very dry, should be dipped in port (7)
 

(SO ("very") + TT (teetotal, so "dry")) should be dipped in RIO ("port")
3 IMAGO Shakespearean ensign holding male, idealised view (5)
 

IAGO ("Shakespearean ensign" from Othello) holding M (male)
4 PLAY-GOER Actor filled with zest as theatre fan (4-4)
 

PLAYER ("actor") filled with GO ("zest")
5 WHAT'S YOUR POISON Why’s PA notorious when sloshed? That’s question of choice (5,4,6)
 

*(whys pa notorious) [anag:when sloshed]
6 RAMSEY Sheep indeed upended 1966 winner (6)
 

RAM ("sheep") + <=YES ("indeed", upended)

Sir Alf Ramsey was the manager of the England World Cup winning side of 1966.
7 BALLADEER Do listen to a much-loved singer (9)
 

BALL ("do") + homophone [listen to] of A DEAR ("much-loved")
8 ARCHIVE Records are cut with knife (7)
 

ARE cut with CHIV ("knife")
14 BLOOD FEUD Clan wars, for Spooner, overwhelm Cornish resort (5,4)
 

Spooner may have mixed up the opening consonants of FLOOD BUDE ("overwhelm Cornish resort")
16 SCOT FREE Second bed delivered without damage (4-4)
 

S (second) + COT ("bed") + FREE ("delivered", as in rescued)
18 DRACULA Capone with posh character upset one with an interest in 14? (7)
 

<=(AL (Capone) + U ("posh") + CARD ("character")) [upset]
20 NICOSIA Capital one invested in corrupt casino (7)
 

I (one) invested in *(casino) [anag:corrupt]
21 FERVID Fried bananas, about five heated (6)
 

*(fried) [anag:bananas] about V (five)
24 RALPH Sacred flower for Richardson perhaps? (5)
 

R (for river) + ALPH ("sacred river" in Coleridge's Kubla Khan), so the River Alph (R. ALPH) would be a "sacred flower"

14 comments on “Financial Times 16,506 by NEO”

  1. Never thought learning Kubla Khan off by heart in my school days would ever prove useful.

    Liked the Spoonerism.

    Had to cheat on first part of 19a. That’s a problem with such cryptic definitions. If you don’t know the term then you can’t work it out from the clue. I guessed RICH-RENT then had to resort to a word fit.

    Thanks to Neo and loonapick.

  2. For a brief moment there, I entertained the thought that 3d was ‘Tiago’, as defined by the Urban Dictionary, but nixed it just as quickly as being a tad too racy for the FT!

  3. Yes, moderately hard. My LOI was 8dn ARCHIVE because despite my ancient birth certificate I’ve never come across chiv/chive/shiv. Presumably that’s where the verb chivvy comes from? Thanks, loonapick and Neo.

  4. Another enjoyable Neo crossword – a bit trickier than some – my favourite is 24d

    Thanks to Neo and loonapick

  5. What crypticsue said – + 14dn BLOOD FEUD [because I’m not usually a fan of crossword Spoonerisms and it was a relief to see one that made sense].

  7. I didn’t know CHIV for ‘knife’ either. Otherwise everything went in parsed, though RACK-RENT had to be brought up from the depths as my last in.

    I agree that the Spoonerism worked well and I also liked the ‘found wanting in Barnet?’ def for BALD.

    Thanks to Neo and loonapick

  8. I had DONKEYHEAD for 28. It almost parses if working is ON and boss is an important (KEY) head … maybe not though

  9. H’m, never liked Spoonerisms, never will. They only ever seem to be solvable in retrospect, as it were. Of course they make sense, but only afterwards and they rarely produce that ‘Aha’ Moment, which becomes just a ‘tut, sigh’ once you’ve got the crossers.
    Never mind, a good puzzle otherwise, thanks to both.

  10. A very pleasant puzzle from a setter we frequently encounter as his alter ego in the Indy.

    We vaguely knew of ‘chiv’ but confirmed it in Chambers.  EDDO was a new word to us but obvious from the wordplay and crossers; interestingly we found that Chambers lists it in the plural form ‘eddoes’ with the singular given in brackets.  And the Shakespearean ensign caused a little confusion; in the dramatis personae of Othello Iago is said to be an Ancient – cue Chambers again for ‘ensign’ as one of the meanings of ‘ancient’ (2nd entry).

    We did wonder if the surface of 1ac was a subtle political comment – something about only taking advice from those who agree with you?

    Thanks, Neo and loonapick.

  11. Thanks Neo — enjoyed SOMBRERO (top gear=hat is funny), BALLADEER, and SCOT-FREE. ALARM CLOCK took me longer than it should have — I fixated on anxiety being stress and hair being tress but couldn’t proceed of course. I figured the “flower” in 24d was a river but did not know Alph. Never heard of RACK-RENT — agree with Hovis about cryptic definitions. Also agree with Grant about Spoonerisms. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.

  12. Without checkers, I don’t think I would parse spoonerisms (BLOOD FEUD). COD 2d.Thanks blogger and setter.

  13. All steadily fell into place with Archive – never heard of a chiv – LOI. Thought rack rent was very clever but then I’d heard of it.
    Held up by alarm clock – originally had alarm bells which was an early entry. Harebells (campanula rotundiflora) are a plant – which in my head I had spelt as Hair Bells! Oh well.

  14. Thanks Neo and loonapick

    A good tussle with this one – always enjoy the puzzles of this setter with his crisp clueing that leaves one in no doubt as to what the answer is … eventually.  Did take some time to fully understand the cryptic play with RACK RENT – hadn’t heard of the term itself and for some reason the penny didn’t drop with ‘letter’ for ages.

    Had to check the psychological meaning of IMAGO after deducing the word from the charade.  Was pleased to remember the river ALPH from Coleridge and CHIV as a prison term for a crude knife.  Had to look up RAMSEY to see how he was related to the 1966 win – forget about the England World Cup victory – that was the year that the AFL team that I barracked for, St Kilda, won its first ever premiership … and haven’t won another since – a somewhat familiar scenario it seems !!

    Finished in the SE corner with RALPH, FERVID and the tricky DUNDERHEAD (and yes I went down the DONKEYHEAD path too for a while).

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