Financial Times 16,674 by SLORMGORM

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Back to work this week, with a gentle SLORMGORM to start things off…

Happy new year everyone! Once more round the Sun for 4d’s pale blue dot.

Nice mix of clues with some good surfaces today. I’d not come across the wine in 8d before, but, other than that, all pretty straightforward.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

image of grid

ACROSS
1. Train carpet is in need of refurbishment (8)
PRACTISE

(CARPET IS)* (*in need of refurbishment)

5. Medium-sized tie that might bring good luck (6)
MASCOT

M (medium-sized) + ASCOT (tie)

10. What Slormgorm does can make a scene (7)
SETTING

Double definition

11. Music paper that comes with American magazine (7)
RAGTIME

RAG (paper) that comes with TIME (American magazine)

12. Model mixing gin sling creates exciting feelings (9)
TINGLINGS

T (model) + (GIN SLING)* (*mixing)

13. Old flame goes to a court to make demand (5)
EXACT

EX (old flame) goes to A + CT (court)

15. Old relative screening part of Anzacs and Band of Brothers? (5)
OASIS

(O (old) + SIS (relative)) screening A[nzacs] (part of)
The Gallagher brothers

16. Animals that woman dressed in underwear (8)
PANTHERS

HER (that woman) dressed in PANTS (underwear)

19. People trying to flog large vessels (8)
PITCHERS

Double definition

20. Digger child picked up! (5)
MINER

“minor” (child, “picked up”)

21. Plane housing not opening could create this (5)
ANGER

[h]ANGER (plane housing, not opening)

23. Lazy way to cut down on changing gear (9)
SHIFTLESS

SHIFT LESS (cut down on changing gear)

25. Thin soup starter given to uncle? (7)
SLENDER

S[oup] (starter) given to LENDER (uncle)

27. Scotsman rejected underwear that’s most green (7)
NAIVEST

(IAN)< (Scotsman, <rejected) + VEST (underwear)

28. A plank on a ship (6)
ABOARD

A + BOARD (plank)

29. Bishop associated with socially aware resort (8)
BRIGHTON

B (bishop) associated with RIGHT ON (socially aware)

DOWN
1. Medicinal drink one’s knocked up inside office (8)
POSITION

POTION (medicinal drink), (IS)< (one’s, <knocked up) inside

2. Nothing is as fantastic or amazing (11)
ASTONISHING

(NOTHING IS AS)* (*fantastic)

3. I respect drunk quaffing large liqueur (6,3)
TRIPLE SEC

(I RESPECT)* (*drink) quaffing L (large)

4. Astronomer’s flatulence upset vacuous academician (5)
SAGAN

(GAS)< (flatulence, <upset) + A[cademicia]N (vacuous)

6. Fish hook? (5)
ANGLE

Double definition

7. Computer processor with no power or energy (3)
CHI

CHI[p] (computer processor, with no P (power))

8. Wine opened by head of RBS for banker (5)
TRENT

TENT (wine) opened by R[bs] (head of)

9. Donations posted in advance by foremost of sponsors (8)
PRESENTS

PRE-SENT (posted in advance) by S[ponsors] (foremost of)

14. Score ten and manager wildly grabs winger’s bottom (11)
ARRANGEMENT

(TEN and MANAGER)* (*wildly) grabs [winge]R (bottom)

16. Humble request bound to provide amusement (8)
PLEASURE

PLEA (humble request) + SURE (bound)

17. Runner might have trouble with this actor on series (9)
HAMSTRING

HAM (actor) on STRING (series)

18. A great deal of weight is disgusting to NHS leader (5,3)
GROSS TON

GROSS (disgusting) + TO + N[hs] (leader)

21. Lost on the ocean (2,3)
AT SEA

Double definition

22. One had to support rook with queen and knight (5)
RIDER

(I’D (one had) to support R (rook)) with ER (queen)

24. Exclusive meal that daughter won’t attend (5)
INNER

[d]INNER (meal, that D (daughter) won’t attend)

26. I like love (3)
EGO

EG (like) + O (love)

12 comments on “Financial Times 16,674 by SLORMGORM”

  2. You’re right about the spelling of HANGAR Hovis @1 – good pick, which I missed. As far as I can tell, the -ER ending isn’t given as an alternative spelling.

    TRIPLE SEC was my unknown alcoholic drink today, though I’ve only ever seen TENT in crosswords.

    For some reason I was slow on the uptake for this one and it took longer than it should have. No comment about the surface for 4d (!) but positive things to say about the ‘Runner might have trouble with this’ def for HAMSTRING, and SHIFTLESS – from a lazy automatic driver of course.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow

  3. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    Had HANGER, but had gone down a path of A-N (not opening)-GER without ever equating AGER to ‘plane’ – interesting to see that the proper parsing failed to pass muster as well.
    Apart from that, found it to be a very entertaining puzzle which took a bit longer than I thought it would. Some really clever clues, including 15a, 23a, 29a, 1d, 7d, 18d and 26d.
    Finished in the NW corner with PITCHERS (a good double definition), POSITION and OASIS (my cod, because of the deceptive definition and excellent charade).

  4. For 1a I originally had the anagrind as train and the answer ‘crapiest’ for the definition of ‘in need of refurbishment.’ Didn’t seem quite suitable for the FT though, and 1d swiftly sorted me out!

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.

  7. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow. Enjoyable. I spent some time looking for a use of “angar” but finally decided that “could” in the clue might indicate a homonym (?). LOIs were SHIFTLESS and HAMSTRING.

  8. What a mixed bag!
    Some very easy write-ins (1&28)
    A mistake (hanger/hangar)
    An old crossword cliche (Scotsman = Ian)
    Some obscure general knowledge (Oasis = brothers, tent = wine, ascot = tie)
    …and is grosston a single word?

  9. Thanks Slormgorm for a nicely crafted crossword. I found the surface for SAGAN very funny and I liked the simplicity of EGO. I never saw an airplane hangar spelled with an “e” but being American there are a number of words that we spell differently so I didn’t give it a second thought. )PRACTISE is such an example.) Thanks Teacow for parsing. I got OASIS because I know the band and never bothered to work out the wordplay.

  10. Both Chambers and Collins (in our dead-tree editions) have hangar as the only spelling for the plane housing.
    Apart from that, a thouroughly enjoyable puzzle, just right for a Monday, although we were held up in the SE corner till we got SHIFTLESS from a wordfinder. And we had a bit of déja vu at 11ac since Gila in the i on Saturday had RAGTIME clued almost identically – but it was a reprint of an Indy puzzle from 2016.
    Plenty to like; PANTHERS and PITCHERS were among our favourites.
    Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow.

  11. I am very late in doing this – yesterday was a shambles. I would like to add my question to “anger” as well. Just wrong I think. I am also not overly happy with GROSS TON as the usual term is gross tonnage which represents the carrying capacity of a ship. Someone will tell me I am wrong no doubt.
    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow for the work from both.

  12. Mystogre @11. I also thought that about GROSS TON but didn’t mention it since I was far from sure. A quick check in my Chambers also only gave GROSS TONNAGE.

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