Financial Times 16,599 by SLORMGORM

by

An enjoyable puzzle from Slormgorm.

Quite a few animals – making me want to find a theme, but alas I could not. Almost a few mini themes going on. I worked through this quite quickly but no detraction from the enjoyment factor. I thought 16a quite a literal clue. Otherwise excellent anagrams at 9a and 11a, and very clever surfaces throughout.

A pleasant start to the week, so thank you to Slormgorm!

image of grid

ACROSS
1. Really hate Dutch quiz European puts on (6)
DETEST

D (Dutch) + TEST (quiz), E (European) puts on

4. Make of old aircraft with the letter E in it (6)
CREATE

CRATE (old aircraft) with the letter E in it

8. Continually working? A fellow must grab bit of nap! (2,3,2)
ON AND ON

ON (working) + A DON (a fellow) must grab N[ap] (bit of)

9. A stiff drink sent flying in revel (7)
LIVENER

(IN REVEL)* (*sent flying)

11. I boot users out for this sort of behaviour (10)
BOISTEROUS

(I BOOT USERS)* (*out) &lit

12. Long piece of asparagus given to short cook (4)
ACHE

A[sparagus] (piece of) given to CHE[f] (cook, short)

13. Animal some sell: a marsupial? (5)
LLAMA

[se]LL A MA[rsupial] (some)

14. Resentful son steals new waders (8)
BITTERNS

BITTER (resentful) + S (son) steals N (new)

16. Ways for one to easily get round cities? (8)
BYPASSES

Cryptic definition

18. Dine in empty KFCs? That’s romantic! (5)
KEATS

EAT (dine) in K[FC]s (empty) – Keats being a Romantic poet

20. Sport is combat without extermination primarily (4)
WEAR

WAR (combat) without E[xtermination] (primarily) – sport as a verb in this case

21. Fabric wise chap’s brought to foolish sort (10)
SEERSUCKER

SEER (wise chap) brought to SUCKER (foolish sort)

23. A transgression that’s consuming knight is silly (7)
ASININE

A SIN (a transgression) + I.E. (that’s) consuming N (knight)

24. Sadly rue orgy and mischievous acts (7)
ROGUERY

(RUE ORGY)* (*sadly)

25. Pleasant son welcomes English relatives (6)
NIECES

NICE (pleasant) + S (son) welcomes E (English)

26. A perfunctory design of small sailing vessel (6)
SKETCH

S (small) + KETCH (sailing vessel)

DOWN
1. Beastly sort of racket’s got to finish early (5)
DINGO

DIN (racket) + GO[t] (to finish early)

2. Fish seen about river briefly in the country (7)
TUNISIA

TUNA (fish) seen about ISI[s] (river, briefly)

3. Small, flapping beasts on large perch (5,4)
STONE BASS

S (small) + (BEASTS ON)* (*flapping) – type of fish/perch

5. Locomotives won’t start in downpours (5)
RAINS

[t]RAINS (locomotives, won’t start)

6. A vicar gets upset with Times being mean (7)
AVERAGE

A + (REV)< (vicar, <gets upset) with AGE (times)

7. Those making trunk calls plan these changes (9)
ELEPHANTS

(PLAN THESE)* (*changes)

10. Architect’s firm finally prosper with more work on (9)
CORBUSIER

CO (firm) + [prospe]R (finally) + BUSIER (with more work on)

13. Crushed parsley on ham? (3,6)
LAY PERSON

(PARSLEY ON)* (*crushed)

15. Look critically at what a shoplifter is apt to do? (4,5)
TAKE STOCK

Cryptic definition

17. Organise a series of summits around October’s end (7)
ARRANGE

A RANGE (a series of summits) around [Octobe]R (end)

19. Italian peer supporting a conservative bill (7)
ACCOUNT

COUNT (Italian peer) supporting A C (conservative)

21. Feel uptight? Time to leave for northern tip of Sardinia! (5)
SENSE

TENSE (uptight, T (time) to leave for S[ardinia] (northern tip of))

22. Want to sack foremost of divas in The Globe (5)
EARTH

[d]EARTH (want, to sack D[ivas] (foremost of))

6 comments on “Financial Times 16,599 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

    Zoomed through this one quite quickly and only slowed up when getting to the last two – BYPASSES and the French architect.

    Lots of variations of clues that I’d seen before and a couple of words that I hadn’t in STONE BASS and LIVENER.

  2. Wasn’t sure of 10d given that he is named Le Corbusier, not just Corbusier. Apart from 4a, which took some nutting out, the rest was a nice gentle start to the week.

  3. Yes, an enjoyable start to the week from Slormgorm. ‘Avarice’ at 6d was eventually swapped for AVERAGE once I spotted ‘itch’ wouldn’t work for 12a. Otherwise, a quickish solve.
    Favourites were BITTERNS, SEERSUCKER and CORBUSIER, the missing def article notwithstanding.
    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  4. Thanks Slormgorm & Teacow.

    I think that there is a bit more to 16 across — getting around by passes is easier than paying for tickets.

  5. Thanks Slormgorm for a fine crossword with so many easy-to-read surfaces. Favourites included ACHE, WEAR, SENSE,and EARTH — simple words with quite twisted clues as well as ELEPHANTS for its anagram. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  6. Thanks to Slomgorm for a pleasant little challenge and Teacow for the explanations. I ran into trouble with LIVENER as my eChambers refused to give me the invigorating drink which I eventually found elsewhere. I also had to check the architect but it had to be that as the clueing was very good throughout.

Comments are closed.