Financial Times 17,000 by SLORMGORM

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Puzzle 17,000 this morning is a welcome challenge from Slormgorm.

Slormgorm is back with his dependable style of simple but not too obvious clues. Very enjoyable – thank you!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Scottish cows in British and American farms (8)
BRANCHES

B (British) + RANCHES (American farms)

5. Summary of investigation engineers left (6)
REPORT

RE (engineers) + PORT (left)

10. Bags of credit notes officer gets a lead on (7)
COPIOUS

IOUS (credit notes) COP (officer) gets a lead on

11. Disgusting old boy associated with Panorama (7)
OBSCENE

OB (old boy) associated with SCENE (panorama)

12. Whose sins involved elaborate extravagance? (9)
SHOWINESS

(WHOSE SINS)* (*involved)

13. Linesman in agreement about a tackle initially (5)
YEATS

YES (agreement) about A + T[ackle] (in initially)

Linesman – i.e. poet

15. A place kids crash around southern track? (5)
ASCOT

A + COT (place kids crash) around S (southern)

16. Frank is not crooked (8)
STRAIGHT

Double definition

19. Two servings of liquor? Slormgorm’s game! (3,5)
GIN RUMMY

GIN + RUM (two servings of liquor) + MY (Slormgorm’s)

20. Ingredient in a bagel or bloomer, I’m told (5)
FLOUR

“FLOWER” (bloomer, “I’m told”)

21. Run off literature about English golf (3,2)
LEG IT

LIT (literature) about E (English) + G (golf)

23. Grind gear terribly? That’s concerning! (9)
REGARDING

(GRIND GEAR)* (*terribly)

25. Where Joan of Arc was once in peril? (2,5)
AT STAKE

Double definition

27. Pragmatic type about to get a register (7)
REALIST

RE (about) to get A + LIST (register)

28. One protecting member and small former PM (6)
SHEATH

S (small) + HEATH (former PM)

29. Imitative work done by one revolutionary (8)
PASTICHE

PAST (done) by I (one) + CHE (revolutionary)

DOWN
1. Support group will get hold of a car part (4,4)
BACK SEAT

BACK (support) + SET (group) will get hold of A

2. Cast, hoping a carp is doing this? (11)
APPROACHING

(HOPING A CARP)* (*cast) &lit

3. Disc acquired by Messiah and Queen singer (9)
CHORISTER

O (disc) acquired by CHRIST (Messiah) and ER (queen)

4. Nurse with revolutionary American drug gets result (5)
ENSUE

EN (nurse) with US< (American, <revolutionary) + E (drug)

6. European state holding head of Stasi for trial (5)
ESSAY

E (European) + SAY (state) holding S[tasi] (head of)

7. I could be working close to Morecambe (3)
ONE

ON (working) + [Morecamb]E (close to)

8. Rows and things they can create, they say (5)
TIERS

“TEARS” (things they can create “they say”)

9. Fall from grace seen in farcical Tory saga (2,6)
GO ASTRAY

(TORY SAGA)* (*farcical)

14. A fried radio’s chip and what might get it going? (11)
APHRODISIAC

A + (RADIO’S CHIP)* (*fried)

16. A few prepared to cross river in English county (8)
SOMERSET

SOME (a few) + SET (prepared) to cross R (river)

17. Hot female or chap with time for dope supplier (9)
INFORMANT

IN (hot) + F (female) + OR + MAN (chap) with T (time)

18. Woman in prison on ship I regularly tether (8)
BRIGITTE

BRIG (prison on ship) + I + T[e]T[h]E[r] (regularly)

21. A lot of young guys filled with love (5)
LOADS

LADS (young boys) filled with O (love)

22. A soprano tucks into dram for bit of breakfast (5)
TOAST

A + S (soprano) tucks into TOT (dram)

24. Fish seen by daughter on a lake in Italy (5)
GARDA

GAR (fish) seen by D (daughter) on A

26. In hearing, marine could be witness (3)
SEE

“SEA” (marine, “in hearing”)

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,000 by SLORMGORM”

  2. @2steven: I also would be interested in the ‘why’. But the word (also spelled kow) can mean a branch or a bunch of twigs, according to the second entry for ‘cow’ in a Chambers dictionary page I found online. I guess that makes it fair game.

  3. I wondered who would have the honour of setting no. 17,000 – happy that it was Slormgorm with, as Teacow says, those ‘simple but not obvious’ clues. Into that category, I would place REPORT which was my LOI and took an eternity to spot despite its clean simplicity. ONE was of the same ilk.
    Sorry, Steven, I have no idea why Scottish cows are BRANCHES but the cluing left no doubt.
    GO ASTRAY had a choice surface and I also liked APPROACHING, APHRODISIAC and LEG IT.
    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  4. I must add that I admired 23a for its surface. Despite its widespread use, ‘concerning’ as adjective makes me wince as much as grinding gears. I prefer to see it in the sense of a preposition but that’s just me.

  5. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    1ac: I filled this in from the wordplay. Chambers 2014 gives cow[3] (Scot) n a branch, bunch of twigs, besom. In my view, that means it cannot be faulted for validity, but I have a lot of sympathy for the view that it could be considered too obscure a meaning for a daily newspaper puzzle.

  8. I had no idea about BRANCHES either, thinking it must be an alternative term for bovine creatures such as Highland cattle. Thanks to ub@2 and Pelham @5 for looking it up, something I was too lazy to do. I was happy not to have other obscurities, either vocab or GK.

    I liked the use of ‘bloomer’ in 20a which almost made it an all-in-one, and the “eric-less” ‘Morecambe’ at 7d.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow

  10. Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable puzzle. 1AC is a bit strange but well clued, it does reference the Scottish origin and as Diane says the wordplay was very fair.
    Personally I do not mind the odd obscurity, learn something new.
    SHEATH was my favourite, naughty and political. If Cyclops ever needs a new setter then Slormgorm would be ideal.

  11. Thanks Teacow, and ub@2 and Pelham Barton@7, never heard of that meaning of cow and even with clear wordplay it was my penultimate as I couldn’t get CHORISTER, not realising that O was a disc (though I have seen it as ring or circle). Took me a while to twig the Linesman too! Not for the first time I thought the OBSCENE clue was my favourite, thanks Slormgorm.

  12. I “Googled” Scottish cows until the cows came home – pun intended – and found nothing so thanks ub and Pelham.

  13. Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow – milestone puzzle no. 17000!

    I didn’t understand BRANCHES either; thanks to all who explained. For YEATS I got hung up for a long time, thinking from wordplay it must be YATES which is the name of several both English and American football players (including a former offensive lineman here). Then APHRODISIAC became apparent and I finally got what “Linesman” meant. Cryptic customs like that still throw me. CHORISTER was a favorite.

  14. Thanks Slormgorm, that was satisfying. I had the same question as others about BRANCHES but whenever I see “Scottish” in a clue I know I’m going to be learning something. I was another who had Yates before YEATS — both worked with the wordplay — but 14d made it obvious that T could not be the 1st letter. Favourites included REGARDING, CHORISTER, and TIERS. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  15. Many thanks to The TeaBranch for a great blog and to all who solved and commented.

    I figured the Scottish word would be okay as the WP was pretty straightforward and the crossers would help.

    Cheers to everyone and hope to see you next tie around. 🙂

  16. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    Finished this on the day but only got to checking off today – with big question marks on BRANCHES. So good to see that there was a non-four-legged Scottish cow meaning that made sense of the clue.
    Had a similar experience with YEATS as a couple of others – initially going down the YATES path until proven otherwise after getting the APHRODISIAC. These ended up being the last two entries.
    Some cute clues with AT STAKE, SHEATH and APRHODISIAC where the definitions were craftily hidden in the clue wording. A good start to the week.

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