Financial Times 16,769 by SLORMGORM

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SLORMGORM kicks off the week…

I found this all perfectly fine, apart from 1d, which just doesn’t quite feel right. Also, I must confess to being previously unfamiliar with Beyoncé’s œuvre.

 

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Planes travelling for city abroad (6)
NAPLES

(PLANES)* (*travelling)

4. After new treatment, get fit or don’t worry? (6,2)
FORGET IT

(GET FIT OR)* (*after new treatment)

9. Idiot grabbing soprano for a dance (5)
TWIST

TWIT (idiot) grabbing S (soprano)

10. Smalls less than flipping fresh, earl admitted (9)
UNDERWEAR

UNDER (less than) + ((RAW)< (fresh, <flipping), E (earl) admitted)

11. Country school visited by son near Iowa (7)
ESTONIA

ETON (school) visited by S (son) near IA (Iowa)

12. Nonsense leads to amusement with some chortles (7)
GUFFAWS

GUFF (nonsense) + A[musement] W[ith] S[ome] (leads to)

13. They see supportive people, I’m told (4)
EYES

“ayes” (supportive people, “I’m told”)

14. Put down drink, getting squash (8)
SUPPRESS

SUP (drink) getting PRESS (squash)

17. Nurse into drinks such as whisky cuts back (8)
SHORTENS

EN (nurse, Enrolled Nurse) into SHORTS (drinks such as whisky)

19. Piece of wood placed around new pine (4)
LONG

LOG (piece of wood) around N (new)

22. Spirit one’s seen in foreign sea is more odd (7)
RUMMIER

RUM (spirit) + I (one) seen in MER (foreign sea)

24. In hearing, bring forth criminal (7)
ILLICIT

“elicit” (bring forth, “in hearing”)

25. Blair mostly gets behind poor minister for sport (9)
BADMINTON

TON[y] (Blair, mostly) gets behind (BAD (poor) + MIN (minister))

26. Launch sailor parked in vacant spot (5)
START

TAR (sailor) parked in S[po]T (vacant)

27. Pop album by Beyoncé? (8)
LEMONADE

Double definition

28. I shoot Bow revolutionary in a railcar on vacation (6)
ARCHER

CHE (revolutionary) in (A + R[ailca]R (on vacation))

DOWN
1. One likely to release rabbit? (8)
NATTERER

Cryptic definition?

2. A waste of time to go out, so slept in! (9)
POINTLESS

(SO SLEPT IN)* (*to go out)

3. Radiators etc not hot? That’s worrying! (6)
EATING

[h]EATING (radiators etc, not H (hot))

5. A benefit of one’s golden years? (3,3,7)
OLD AGE PENSION

Cryptic definition

6. Blunder housing Iranian leader with Republican beast (7)
GIRAFFE

GAFFE (blunder) housing (I[ranian] (leader) with R (republican))

7. Some absinthe tantalises Greek character (5)
THETA

[absin]THE TA[ntalises] (some)

8. Singer making you a hit time and again? (6)
THRASH

THR[u]ASH (singer, replacing U with A (making you a))

10. A French Blue European judged uncut (13)
UNADULTERATED

UN (a, French) + ADULT (blue) + E (European) + RATED (judged)

15. Son depressed on train, one crawling along? (9)
SLOWCOACH

S (son) + LOW (depressed) on COACH (train)

16. One stirring goat and rat stew that I must tuck into! (8)
AGITATOR

(GOAT and RAT)* (*stew) that I must tuck into

18. Good to cut into veggie? That’s one point of view! (7)
OPINION

PI (good) to cut into ONION (veggie)

20. Bishop in court case showing loyalty to his people? (6)
TRIBAL

B (bishop) in TRIAL (court case)

21. Conservative (one who didn’t win) is more dense (6)
CLOSER

C (conservative) + LOSER (one who didn’t win)

23. Setting on medium-sized computer peripheral (5)
MODEM

MODE (setting) on M (medium-sized)

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,769 by SLORMGORM”

  1. I agree about 1d; I assumed it was a Britishism that was new to me.
    As for 17a, are ”shorts” in the UK the same as “shots” in the US (e.g., a shot of whiskey)?
    Thanks, Teacow and Slormgorm.

  2. I was surprised to see and amused by LEMONADE, which if mixed with whisky constitutes a ‘short’ in UK parlance.
    It seemed to take quite a while to solve this grid but solve it I did unaided but with just a few unparsed.
    THRUSH, SLOWCOACH and TWIST were favourites.
    Thanks both to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  3. EdK@1 & Diane@2, a short in the UK is just an undiluted drink (spirit) I believe.
    1d is still bothering me. Rabbit = natter is fine of course, but I can’t see a satisfactory parsing.

  4. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow. Enjoyable. I’m another who kept trying to parse 17A with shot not short and could not explain NATTERER, and THRASH as opposed to thrush was my LOI.

  5. A very straightforward Monday puzzle from Slormgorm – didn’t take much time.

    NATTERER obvious but not satisfactory, I think: “rabbit” meaning natter only exists as a verb, so one cannot “release a rabbit” in the sense of talking. Like Teacow, I couldn’t see any other way of looking at it, however.

  6. We agree with others about 1dn not being satisfactory, and we also thought 5dn was barely cryptic. But an enjoyable solve nevertheless, although we had an unparsed ‘Thrush’ for 8dn. We liked BADMINTON and POINTLESS.
    Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow

  7. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.
    I agree with the 1D comments but all the rest was an enjoyable solve.
    Also thought 5D was OK as the OAP is a (financial) benefit.

  9. Thanks everyone. Very enjoyable. No quibbles on 1d for us. We read it as “one likely to release rabbit” i.e chatter not “a rabbit”.

  10. Dictionary Corner@8… Not sure what CRS or ODE mean…Could you clarify, please? If you were referring to the OED, my (admittedly 1972) two volume edition of the Shorter OED does not even give rabbit as a verb for chatter, let alone as a noun. Happy to be educated, though

  13. Thanks Slormgorm, that was enjoyable. POINTLESS, RUMMIER, and SUPPRESS were among my favourites. Like others I didn’t understand NATTERER and thought OLD AGE PENSION was the sort of clue one would find in an American puzzle. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  14. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    A gentlish puzzle to start off the week and although there was a slight MER with 1d but I was sort of down the same line of thinking as piratewitch@9 with it. Also had to look up the Beyonce album, but a live-at-home daughter was helpful. Nothing else caused any concerns.
    Finished in the NE corner with GUFFAWS, GIRAFFE and SUPPRESS the last few in.

  15. 5d feels to me like the clue was going to be an anagram including one’s golden but then the API proved too much.

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