Financial Times 16,665 by ZAMORCA

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A gentle start to the week from ZAMORCA

A pangram today, which is not unusual from this setter but always welcome.
An enjoyable puzzle, merry Christmas everyone, and thanks ZAMORCA!

image of grid

ACROSS
1. Power of nature regularly infusing calmness (7)
CONTROL

N[a]T[u]R[e] (regularly) infusing COOL (calmness)

5. Blathered on and escaped with a fine up front (7)
WAFFLED

FLED (escaped), (W (with) + A + F (fine)) up front

9. Briefly contemplate eating at home with take away (5)
MINUS

MUS[e] (contemplate, briefly) eating IN (at home)

10. Said I had a blue quilt (9)
EIDERDOWN

“I’d a” (I had a, “said”) + DOWN (blue)

11. Make futile attempt to teach incoming Year 5 about current (3,2,4)
TRY IN VAIN

TRAIN (teach), incoming ((Y (year) + V (5)) about IN (current))

12. Restored silence with fellow soldiers going on ahead (5)
FRESH

SH (silence) with (F (fellow) + RE (soldiers)) going on ahead

13. Seepage from great river reported (4)
OOZE

“Ouse” (great river, “reported”)

15. Powerful one act play to include introduction from Hugh Grant (8)
ATHLETIC

(I (one) + ACT))* (*play) to include (H[ugh] (introduction) + LET (grant))

18. Strongest Surrey opener’s dismissed in cricket match (8)
STOUTEST

S[urrey] (opener) + (OUT (dismissed) in TEST (cricket match))

19. Former society girl and model makes commitment (4)
DEBT

DEB (former society girl) and T (model)

22. Not able to have posh new suit (5)
UNFIT

U (posh) + N (new) + FIT (suit)

24. Drink plenty of water having drunk hearty red (9)
REHYDRATE

(HEARTY RED)* (*drunk)

26. Where ordinary MPs are getting support by judiciary (4,5)
BACK BENCH

BACK (support) + BENCH (judiciary)

27. One’s reluctant to spend one’s energy seducing man (5)
MISER

(IS (one’s) + E (energy)) seducing MR (man)

28. Exceptional golden arches in Exeter building (7)
EXTREME

M (golden arches) in (EXETER)* (*building)

29. Finally, achy joints long gone and new heart in baseball team (7)
YANKEES

[ach]Y (finally) + ANK[l]ES (joints, L (long) gone) and [n]E[w] (heart) in

DOWN
1. Wake up commander satisfied onslaught’s beginning (4,2)
COME TO

CO (commander, Commanding Officer) + MET (satisfied) + O[nslaught] (beginning)

2. Good old Grandma’s first with a top tip for mother of kids (5,4)
NANNY GOAT

(G (good) + O (old)), NANNY (grandma) first, with A + T[op] (tip)

3. Check sulphur in tree sap (5)
RESIN

REIN (check), S (sulphur) in

4. Is unable to sleep before a funeral, makes up stories (4,5)
LIES AWAKE

before (A + WAKE (funeral)), LIES (makes up stories)

5. Broaden women’s group study (5)
WIDEN

WI (women’s group, Women’s Institute) + DEN (study)

6. Female artist knocked up advert about lifestyle overseas (3,6)
FAR AFIELD

F (female) + (RA)< (artist, <knocked up) + (AD (advert) about (LIFE)* (*style))

7. Relaxed look round Kent area (5)
LOOSE

LO (look) + O (round) + SE (Kent area, South East)

8. Dying to go out with husband in boat . . . . (6)
DINGHY

(DYING)* (*to go out) with H (husband) in

14. . . . . just even to have sex on board (9)
EQUITABLE

EQUABLE (even) to have IT (sex) on board

16. Man found on grass after blow to head went to bed (3,3,3)
HIT THE HAY

(HE (man) found on HAY (grass)) after (HIT (blow) + T[o] (head))

17. I don’t understand Italy’s best team getting demolished (2,5,2)
IT BEATS ME

(I (Italy) + BEST TEAM)* (*getting demolished)

20. First Judy Blume novel’s in stuff for charity shop (6)
JUMBLE

J[udy] (first) + (BLUME)* (*novel)

21. Some nobility in priest’s words of wisdom? (6)
PEARLS

EARL (some nobility) in PS (priest’s)

23. Truth about terminal failure of plane (5)
FACET

FACT (truth) about [failur]E (terminal)

24. Anger management class (5)
RANGE

(ANGER)* (*management)

25. Evil spirit’s trapped in hillside monastery (5)
DEMON

[hillsi]DE MON[astery] (trapped in)

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,665 by ZAMORCA”

  1. Yes, not too taxing, but there were a few that needed a bit of working out to parse properly such as ATHLETIC and FAR AFIELD. Some good surfaces too, especially the excellent misdirection of MINUS and the wise advice to REHYDRATE during the festive season celebrations. Having the pangram topped things off nicely.

    Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow

  2. A nice, steady solve, with some enjoyable bits along the way… particularly enjoyed JUMBLE, WAFFLED.

    Am curious re the defn for UNFIT, as I took it as just “not able”? (As in “not able to serve” or “unfit to serve”).

    Parsed RESIN differently, w/”check”=REIN, and “in” as insertion indicator for S(ulpher). Unclear to me in what sense “check” would be RE, so curious about that too.

    Thx to setter, blogger, and commenters…

  4. As others have commented, it was a merciful start to the week from Zamorca though I was slow off the mark, reaching 5d before I could enter my FOI!
    BACKBENCH and DEYHDRATE got the ball rolling nicely.
    I’d single out MINUS, EXTREME and HIT THE HAY in the apt EIDERDOWN today, among many tight surfaces. Think I’ve seen DINGHY before but I still liked it.
    Thanks Zamorca and to Teacow.

  6. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow

    In 2D I wasn’t sure whether it was Top tip or top Tip. Both seem to work in a down clue.

  7. A nice accessible puzzle to start the week.
    We got MINUS quite easily as we suspected there was some reason for ‘take away’ rather than ‘takeaway’ which would have suited the surface reading better. On the other hand we took a while to see the parsing of TRY IN VAIN as we took ‘current’ to be simply I (the electrical symbol) at first and couldn’t see where the extra N came from.
    Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.

  9. Except for EIDERDOWN which required a word finder (not a fan of most sound-alike clues) there was nothing too difficult today. Some answers I got with only partial parsing so thanks Teacow for filling in the gaps. Favourites included MINUS and FAR AFIELD, the former for its misdirection and the latter for the sneaky anagram of life. Thanks Zamorca.

  10. Enjoyed this. Would add that I found 7 down easy because I knew that Loose is a suburb of Maidstone, the county town of Kent. Which delights in the name of its WI. The Loose Women’s Institute.
    ??

  11. Enjoyed this. Would add that I found 7 down easy because I knew that Loose is a suburb of Maidstone, the county town of Kent. Which delights in the name of its WI. The Loose Women’s Institute.
    ??

  12. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
    Not too difficult but with enough oomph to stretch the single sitting to the average solve time. Had the same neat clues as have been mentioned and struggled initially with the parsing of NANNY GOAT and EQUITABLE.
    Finished in the left hand side with the clever MINUS, the tricky EQUITABLE and finally OOZE (in which the pangram helped to get).

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