Financial Times 16,083 by SLORMGORM

by

Medium-hard for a Tuesday, with some cunningly-hidden short definitions. 

Enjoyed this. Many nice pebble-drop moments and nothing to get grumpy about. Very pleasant solve. Thanks to Slormgorm.

completed grid
Across
1 INDECORUM Nice do spoilt by liquor having bad taste? (9)
  Anagram (‘spoilt’) of NICE DO + RUM (‘liquor’).
6 STASI One taken by small revolutionary security force (5)
  I (‘one’) after S[mall] + SAT (‘taken’, as of an exam), reversed. Old E. German baddies, of course.
9 MASTIFF Widespread argument broadcast on radio and Watchdog (7)
  Well-signposted (‘broadcast on radio’) homophone of ‘mass tiff’.
10 NOTICED Saw how folk allergic to topping like their cake? (7)
  I.e., ‘not iced.’
11 SET-TO Ostentation regularly creates conflict (3-2)
  Aternate letters of ‘oStEnTaTiOn’.
12 RECEPTION Function room (9)
  Double definition.
14 SIP Little drink of lager knocked back (not large) (3)
  PILS, reversed without L[arge].
15 A BAG OF BONES Very thin stock made in part from this? (1,3,2,5)
  Cryptic def.
17 ANOMALOUSLY You all moan oddly about son in an odd way (11)
  Anagram (‘oddly’) of YOU ALL MOAN.
19 CHA Drink daily, but not the ultimate in beer (3)
  CHAr (‘daily’ cleaner) without last letter of ‘beeR’.
20 BLOOD TYPE A, perhaps, novel by old poet (5,4)
  Anagram (‘novel’) of BY OLD POET.
22 INNER Private meal that comes without any starter (5)
  dINNER.
24 AL DENTE Study by foremost of tasters in beer firm (2,5)
  DEN + T(asters) in ALE. Nice surface and my last in, not helped by my first having the lazy ON OFFER for 18d.
26 REDCOAT Socialist dude embracing old british soldier (7)
  RED (‘socialist’) + CAT (‘dude’) around O[ld], doing double duty as part of def here.
27 DERBY Bowler embarrassed about extra mostly (5)
  The hat, of course. RED (’embarrassed’), reversed, + most of ‘BYe’ (‘extra’ run in cricket).
28 OARSWOMAN Lady who might pull a blade? (9)
  Cryptic definition.
Down
1 IAMBS Those bragging about, primarily, big feet? (5)
  A braggart might be ‘The great I AM’, pluralised and surrounding 1st letter of B[ig].
2 DESKTOP PC turned up positioned outside entrance of The Grand (7)
  POSED (‘positioned’), reversed, around 1st letter of T(he) + K (thousand, a ‘grand’).
3 CHIPOLATA Slippery oil patch next to a little banger (9)
  Anagram (‘slippery’) of OIL PATCH + A.
4 REFORMATORY Official men with a right to tour medium-sized borstal (11)
  REF (‘official’) + O[ther] R[ranks] (‘men’) + A + TORY (‘right’) around M[edium] (to complete the S, M, L size trilogy today).
5 MAN Old lady close to northern guy (3)
  MA (‘old lady’) + last letter of ‘northerN’.
6 SIT UP Don’t slouch in places one enters heading north (3,2)
  1 in PUTS (‘places’), reversed upwards.
7 AUCTION Where one sees lots of fighting around uni (7)
  ACTION (‘fighting’) around U[niversity] & cryptic def.
8 INDONESIA Individuals entering the country, one in Asia (9)
  ONES (‘individuals’) in INDIA.
13 CROSSBEARER Angry soldiers breaking up support for Jesus? (11)
  CROSS (‘angry’) + R[oyal] E[ngineers] splitting BEAR (‘support’, again doing double duty, hence question-mark).
14 STARBOARD Celebrity panel situated on the right? (9)
  STAR (celeb) + BOARD (‘panel’)
16 BAY WINDOW Light breeze in Anchorage heading from out west (3,6)
  WIND in BAY + ‘heading’ of O(ut) + W[est].
18 ON ORDER Request to support side of batsman awaiting delivery? (2,5)
  ORDER (‘request’) under ON (leg ‘side’ in cricket)
19 CONFORM Clubs playing as well as they can in match? (7)
  C[lubs] ON FORM (‘playing as well as they can’).
21 DINGY Dark inflatable boat husband’s pushed out of (5)
  DINGhY – ‘inflatable (perhaps) boat’) – without H[usband].
23 ROTON Quantum particle found in serotonin (5)
  Included in ‘seROTONin’ but not in Chambers. Will they never stop finding these new bits of stuff?
25 EGO I shot subordinate of Eisenhower at the front (3)
  Second single-letter def today. GO (a turn, a ‘shot’) lies below (is ‘subordinate’ to) 1st letter of Eisenhower). I think.

*anagram

23 comments on “Financial Times 16,083 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Second tussle today with this setter. Enjoyable and not too difficult though there were a few I couldn’t parse such as STASI and I had to wait till I had all the crossers to choose between ‘tonin’ and ROTON. I wonder if there’s another sub-atomic particle called an ‘eutron’? I agree with your ‘perhaps’ for ‘dinghy’ as an ‘inflatable boat’.

    A small point, but is ‘support’ really doing double duty for CROSSBEARER, for which I just had ‘Jesus?’ as the def? To me Jesus was the one bearing the cross, and I can’t really see how (the or a) CROSSBEARER was supporting Jesus. Probably me being thick though.

    Thank you to Slormgorm and Grant.

  2. Thanks Grant and Slormgorm.

    Most enjoyable – especially for the ‘cunningly hidden short definitions’ [eg 20 and 24ac and 1, 2 and 25dn [with its reminder of the classic: ‘I say nothing (3)’.

    I also liked the misdirection in 1ac: I’m so used by now to ‘Nice’ at the beginning of the clue indicating ‘French’ that  this was initially a double bluff for me.

    I agree with WordPlodder about the parsing of CROSSBEARER. I think the question mark is for definition by example.

    Thanks again, Harry – great stuff!

  4. Thanks to Grant and Slormgorm

    Very good variety, very good surfaces, very good everything really.

    Except for the grammar in 25d.

    A very minor quibble about a very good clue but shouldn’t be either:

    “a subordinate of” or,

    “subordinate to”

    = “under”

    And perhaps @23d – is a ROTON a particle?

     

     

  5. Ah, who’d be a blogger?
    I’m pretty sure you posters are right about ‘Jesus’ as a definition. Religion isn’t my long suit but I seem to remember someone-or-other legendarily helping the chap up the hill with his cross so in it went.
    To Dansar @4:
    I agree about the problem with ‘subordinate’ but was giving Harry the benefit of the doubt.
    As to ROTON: yep, it’s a particle alright. I’m no kind of a physicist but I do read an awful lot of pop-science and this one was completely new to me. Google it and if you understand it, let me know. I certainly don’t.

  6. You’re quite right, Grant – here he is 

    I’m with you re 25: ‘subordinate of’ sounds rather awkward but if you think of it as a noun rather than an adjective it works.

  7. Thanks SLORMGORM

    Favourites were BLOOD TYPE, AL DENTE, CHIPOLATA. I missed Stasi, should have seen it.
    And thank you grant

  8. Thanks to Slormgorm and Grant. A slow start for me. I did not parse STASI and did not know ROTON but I did make it through with OARSWOMAN my LOI.

  9. To Eileen @6…
    Thanks, my dear, for the moral support re 13d CROSSBEARER being possibly Simon of Cyrene but I fear that – unless Harry leaps in – The Hoard are probably right. Heigh-ho. That’s why we do this.
    In passing, I was particularly proud of parsing the reversed SAT bit of STASI. Good day, on balance.

  10. Ahh, so good to find there is a proper Harry fix to be had today!

    Had a question mark by CROSSBEARER, sorted out nicely by WordPlodder.  Also surprised by ROTON because once upon a time I knew some physics and this was a new one on me.

    Great stuff.  Top clues for me include SET-TO, AL DENTE and BAY WINDOW, but it would be a very long longlist, certainly including all those mentioned by other commenters.

    Many thanks Slormgorm and Grant.

  11. I rarely disagree with Eileen but I still can’t see it:

    Major Brown was subordinate to Colonel Smith – adjectival

    Major Brown was a subordinate of Colonel Smith – nounal

    In both cases = under

    I see no other grammatical construction

  12. Hi Dansar @12 – as a former teacher, I [unfortunately] can’t give up!

    I’m a bit confused [admittedly, I’m into wine o’clock] by the military allusions but  your ‘Major Brown was a subordinate of Colonel Smith – nounal’ seems to be agreeing with – in the clue – ‘subordinate of’.

    I’m glad this wasn’t my blog – no offence, Harry 😉  –

     

     

  15. Hi Dansar @13

    I’m perhaps too tired now but I can’t see ‘a’ in clue or answer – I’m going to bed now. 😉

  16. Simon S@14

    Yes, (a) fair example, but there is an ellipsis there which is masked by the use of a comma. No comma in the clue though.

  17. Eileen @15

    I used a military example because the clue uses “subordinate” in the military sense.

    My original point was that the clue would read more smoothly as “I shot a subordinate of Eisenhower at the front”

    = Ego / Go under E

    I won’t labour it any further, (I don’t want to win Pedant of the Year), I just thought it was a slight flaw in an otherwise excellent clue. (How do you do smiley face?)

  23. Thanks Slormgorm and Grant

    Late with this one and must say that I enjoyed it a lot.  Was one of those puzzles that I made steady progress on, without breaking any speed records getting it done. A nice mix of clue devices and a new term in ROTON which I saw as the hidden, but had to look up what the heck that it meant – and suffice to say that when I saw the word ‘quantum’ in the definition that was enough – didn’t need to understand anything more about it.

    Liked CHIPOLATA best of all and finished with the cleverly defined CROSSBEARER (as Jesus) and the ‘baddies’ at 6a as the last couple in.

    (… and your entertaining blog deserved the 20+ comments that it got !!)

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