Financial Times 16,485 by ZAMORCA

A nice gentle ZAMORCA for a bank holiday…

A very pleasant solve with some very nice surfaces, and a pangram to boot!

Thanks ZAMORCA!

image of grid

ACROSS
1 Ruler’s repressing over half of region (8)
PROVINCE

PRINCE (ruler) repressing OV[er] (half of)

6 Observes endless wonder in children’s plaything (6)
SEESAW

SEES (observes) + AW[e] (wonder, endless)

9 Journalist’s going to reject nothing to reach border (6)
EDGING

ED (journalist) + G[o]ING (to reject O (nothing))

10 Credit one quite original review (8)
CRITIQUE

CR (credit) + I (one) + (QUITE)* (*original)

11 Brief tumble with Henry on settee broke dentures (5,5)
FALSE TEETH

FAL[l] (tumble, brief) with (H (Henry) on (SETTEE)* (*broke))

12 Hiker turned back during long walk . . . . (4)
TREK

([hi[KER T[urned) (during))< (<back)

13 . . . . getting hot and sick on high ascent (6)
UPHILL

(H (hot) and ILL (sick)) on UP (high)

15 Bookmaker’s pursuing final bets for good runner (8)
SPRINTER

PRINTER (bookmaker) pursuing [bet]S (final)

18 A teetotaller chap gets stick when buying drinks (2,3,3)
AT THE BAR

A + TT (teetotaller) + HE (chap) gets BAR (stick)

20 Smart to bandage wound with yarrow initially (6)
DRESSY

DRESS (bandage wound) with Y[arrow] (initially)

21 Wedge key behind post at side of door (4)
JAMB

JAM (wedge), B (key) behind

23 Scheme has one Scottish family importing bubbly Pinot (6,4)
ACTION PLAN

(A (one) + CLAN (Scottish family)) importing (PINOT)* (*bubbly)

25 Gone with sheep and pig heart to make meat product (8)
PASTRAMI

PAST (gone) with RAM (sheep) and [p]I[g] (heart)

26 Take possession of old college trophy on last day (6)
OCCUPY

O (old) + C (college) + CUP (trophy) on [da]Y (last)

27 Some returning Wapiti deer go back over again (2-4)
RE-EDIT

([wapi]TI DEER (some))< (<go back)

28 Cut down crossing between Austria and Germany (8)
ABRIDGED

BRIDGE (crossing) between A (Austria) and D (Germany)

DOWN
2 Yorkshire town’s darling gets VIP treatment (3,6)
RED CARPET

REDCAR (Yorkshire town) + PET (darling)

3 Wine’s absorbed effectively opening blood vessels (5)
VEINS

VINS (wines) absorbed E[ffectively] (opening)

4 Man’s heading off to get clobber for disco (5,4)
NIGHT CLUB

[k]NIGHT (man, heading off) to get CLUB (clobber)

5 Abstains from upside down pudding most of school’s tucked into (7)
ESCHEWS

(SWEET[t] (pudding, most of))< (<upside down), SCH (school) tucked into

6 Son has desire to be posh (5)
SWISH

S (son) has WISH (desire)

7 Sixteen converts taking on church’s way of life (9)
EXISTENCE

(SIXTEEN)* (*converts) taking on CE (church)

8 Arizona river’s deep blue (5)
AZURE

AZ (Arizona) + URE (river)

14 Possessed trendy robe by Spain’s leading designer (9)
INHABITED

IN (trendy) + HABIT (robe) by E (Spain) + D[esigner) (leading)

16 RAF, hosting princess on round tour, cut time in wireless station (5,4)
RADIO FOUR

RAF hosting (DI (princess) on O (round)) + [h]OUR (time, cut)

17 Sick, no question, when regularly spoiled with a piece of cake (4,2,3)
EASY AS PIE

[qu]EASY (sick, no QU (question)) + AS (when) + [s]P[o]I[l]E[d] (regularly)

19 Take top off container and hold it up to get wine (7)
RETSINA

([c]ANISTER (container, top off))< (<hold it up)

22 Sleepless and feeble with no energy in hospital department (5)
AWAKE

W[e]AK (feeble, no E (energy)) in AE (hospital department)

23 Nowadays old man gets upset and tense with change (5)
ADAPT

AD (nowadays) + (PA (old man))< (<gets upset) and T (tense)

24 Walked up and down with cigarette, gutted and gripped by writer’s block (5)
PACED

C[igarett]E (gutted) griped by PAD (writer’s block)

8 comments on “Financial Times 16,485 by ZAMORCA”

  1. Zamorca seems to be adopting some of Hamilton’s “quirkiness” today, I felt, but entertaining nonetheless.

    I particularly didn’t like “most of” in 5d referring to the word preceding it and, similarly, “during” in 12a, referring to preceding words.

    I did think EASY AS PIE was very nicely constructed.

    Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.

  2. Yes, a gentle starter to the day — but that’s not to say I found it easy-peasy. I spent some time on 2dn RED CARPET and a couple of others, but emerged much refreshed. Thanks to teacow and Zamorca.

  3. Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow. Yes, a gentle start to the day, though I had trouble parsing RETSINA.

  4. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow

    Not only a pangram, but all bar X and Z feature in the across clues.

  5. Like Hovis@1 we didn’t like “most of” in 5d and “during” in 12a, referring to preceding words.  We weren’t too keen, either, on “last” to mean “last letter of” in 26ac, and similarly “final” in 15ac.

    A pleasant enough solve, though, with plenty to like.  CRITIQUE was our favourite but we also liked AWAKE if only because the hospital department wasn’t ENT.

    Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.

  6. Thanks Zamorca for the fun and Teacow for parsing esp. AWAKE, AT THE BAR, and RETSINA. PASTRAMI was a favorite — I feel like I’ve seen it recently — I also liked EASY AS PIE.

  7. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
    One that didn’t take all that long to complete but still felt like there had been a decent challenge.
    Was a little surprised to see VIN simply defined as ‘wine’ – has it been adopted totally now?
    Noted the possibility of a pangram early on but didn’t end up making use of it.
    Had the same parsing as psmith@7 for 16d which was my last one in.

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