Financial Times 16,558 by FALCON

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Solid Tuesday fun from the Falcon.

All pretty straightforward, although I did get held up for a couple of minutes trying to think of a novelist in the top right before sanity prevailed. Thanks to Falcon

image of grid
ACROSS
9 PROVIDENT Prudent to show conservationists papers found inside (9)
 

PROV.E (to 'show') + N[ational] T[rust} ('conservationists') contain ID (identity 'papers').
10 CHAIN Measure mountain range (5)
 

Double definition: a 'chain' = 22 yards, length of a cricket pitch, 1/80th of a mile. Thank you, Miss Darlington (1963).
11 RIDDLED Problem with piece of duck, peppered (7)
 

RIDDLE ('problem') + 1st of 'Duck'.
12 REMORSE Shame about son going inside again (7)
 

RE (concerning, 'about') + MOR.E ('again') around S[on].
13 ASH Tree of a small height (3)
 

A + S[mall] + H[eight].
14 RUMOUR HAS IT People are saying American lodger picked up his at resort (6,3,2)
 

Homophone of 'roomer' ('lodger' in US) + anagram ('re-sort') of HIS AT.
17 HAD ON Tricked a fellow after end of match (3,2)
 

A + DON ('fellow') after last of 'matcH'.
18 SAC Bag wine bar removed (3)
 

barSAC (Sweet Bordeaux 'wine') minus 'bar'.
19 ANGER Fury as old car fails to start (5)
 

bANGER ('old car') without 1st.
21 TOFFEE APPLE Fine female feeding unfortunate people tea, a sticky confection (6,5)
 

F[ine] + F[emale} in anagram ('unfortunate') of PEOPLE TEA.

23 NAP Down in Devon, a parade (3)
 

Hidden in 'devoN A Parade'. 'Nap' as in in animal hair, fur, 'down'.
25 ROLL MOP Fillet of fish with portion of bread, sponge to follow (7)
 

Bread ROLL + MOP (to 'sponge').
27 GESTURE Act of guest, awfully touching (7)
 

Anagram ('awully') of GUEST + RE (concerning, 'touching').
28 CROWN Top honour (5)
 

Doule def, 'honour' as verb.
29 NAME NAMES Terribly mean stars – identify them (4,5)
 

Anagram ('terribly') of MEAN then NAMES ('stars') + lightly cryptic def.
DOWN
1 SPARTA Creative work seen in mineral spring in ancient city (6)
 

ART in SP.A.
2 WOODSHED Golf club got rid of hut (8)
 

WOOD ('golf club') + SHED ('got rid of').
3 RIFLE RANGE Go through mountains where shooting is practised? (5,5)
 

RIFLE (violently 'go through') + RANGE ('mountains').
4 FEED Stooge charged (4)
 

Double def. A comedy-act 'straight man' & 'charged (a fee)'.
5 STIRRUP CUP Hunt member’s parting shot? (7,3)
 

Cryptic def: a last drink, taken in the saddle, before a fox hunt and I hope it chokes them.
6 SCAM Racket made by little monkey on losing tail (4)
 

SCAMp (mischievous child, 'little monkey') without last.
7 WALRUS Fighting to protect large American mammal (6)
 

WA.R ('fighting') around L[arge] + US.
8 INVENTOR Author in shortened list (8)
 

Shortened INVENTORy.
15 MASCARPONE Miffed at first, when one, after fish, offers cream cheese (10)
 

1st of 'Miffed' + AS ('when') + CARP ('fish') + ONE.
16 HEAVEN-SENT An event she organised, very timely (6-4)
 

Anagram ('organised') of 1st 3 words.
17 HAT TRICK Result of bowler having skill? (3,5)
 

HAT (e.g., 'bowler') + TRICK (knack, 'skill', as in 'she has the trick of solving crosswords'), w whole-clue cricketing definition.
20 GIN RUMMY Couple of shorts before my game (3,5)
 

GIN + RUM (couple of drinks, 'shorts') + MY.
22 FOLLOW Keep up with dog (6)
 

Double def.
24 PLEASE Introduction of peppercorn rent? I’d like that (6)
 

1st of 'Peppercorn' + LEASE (to 'rent').
26 MEND Soldiers, with bit of discipline, get better (4)
 

MEN ('soldiers') = 1st of 'D{iscipline}'.
27 GAMP Doctor carrying a maiden’s umbrella (4)
 

A + M[aiden] in G[eneral] P[ractitioner].

11 comments on “Financial Times 16,558 by FALCON”

  1. Found this offering from Falcon a very satisfying solve over breakfast and was pleasantly surprised to see Grant’s blog up so bright and early.
    25ac, 29ac and 15d were favourites. I particularly liked, in 14ac, that the definition doubled as homophone indicator. The food clues were fun to work out, also the devious hidden one at 23ac.
    Lots of sports-related clues, none of which I follow, so I feared a struggle. As it happens, most were guessable/parsable but I failed on INVENTORY because I was also thinking of writers. Oh well. Thanks, Falcon for the fun and Grant for the interesting write-up.

  2. To Diane B @1:
    Strictly, the homophone indicator for ‘rumour’ is ‘picked up’ but I agree ‘people are saying’ reinforces it at least.
    I actually solved this at midnight, having checked there were no probs with publication – there sometimes can be – on my way to bed & then getting carried away after the first few just fell in. Please don’t expect a 1 a.m. blog every week!

  3. Yes, INVENTORY was my LOI for the same reason; and I needed GB to explain REMORSE. And sorry, GB, you’ve now set a 0100 precedent. Thanks. Thanks too to Falcon for a lively start to the day.

  5. Thanks Falcon and Grant

    Even though was able to finish the grid fill well within average time, it felt like it took a bit more work than that !  Even so, was still not able to see [BAR]SAC at 18a.

    Thought that HAT TRICK was excellent – concise and just really clever.  Lots of other very good clues throughout to make a great start to the week.

    Like others, I needed all of the crossers to get INVENTOR which was the last one in.

  6. Oh, the marvel and magic of cryptic puzzles! Author= inventor (-y) is superb.Keep up with dog as a DD for follow is a bit outre’. Follow need not imply keep up?

  7. To Rajiv @6:
    I “keep up with” or “follow” the results of West Bromwich Albion football club. I think that works fine. The ‘like-for-like’ test only has to work in one construct to be valid.

  9. A DNF for me as STIRRUP CUP is beyond my GK and I’m not inventive enough to have gotten INVENTOR. Still I hadn’t heard of ROLLMOP or GAMP but got them from the wordplay. RUMOUR HAS IT was my favorite. Thanks to both.

  10. Thanks Falcon and Grant. I got INVENTORY – best clue! – but SE corner hung me up because I had “crest” for 28a, needed blog to solve. Just heard Adele’s “Rumour Has It” recently so that came to mind and I like the double homophone indicator!

  11. “Keep up with” and “follow” also mean much the same thing as used in “get”, “understand” a story or explanation.

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