Financial Times 17,071 by SLORMGORM

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Thanks to Slormgorm for a breezy Easter Monday puzzle.

Most enjoyable with a good range of clues. A few GK points in the mix, but not too challenging. Many thanks to Slormgorm.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Brother laughs about union commotion (8)
BROUHAHA

BRO (brother) + HAHA (laughs) about U (union)

5. Old ladies without a minute for rest (6)
OTHERS

[m]OTHERS (old ladies, without M (a minute))

8. Function after kicking drugs? Wrong! (3)
SIN

SIN[e] (function, after kicking E (drugs))

9. Old foreign king and sharif Noah upset (4,2,4)
SHAH OF IRAN

(SHARIF NOAH)* (*upset)

10. A large Scotsman hiding outlaw European (8)
ALBANIAN

A + L (large) + IAN (Scotsman) hiding BAN (outlaw)

11. Firm with section holding communist beliefs (6)
CREDOS

CO (firm) with S (section) holding RED (communist)

12. Parasite taking tip of leaf off flower (4)
OUSE

[l]OUSE (parasite) taking L[eaf] (tip of) off

14. On which a knight might attack a castle? (10)
CHESSBOARD

Cryptic definition

17. Speaking to criminal saddens girl no end (10)
ADDRESSING

(SADDENS GIR[l] (no end))* (*criminal)

20. Girl in form head of college expelled (4)
LASS

[c]LASS (form, C[ollege] (head of) expelled)

23. Bad actor after good books in New York? (6)
GOTHAM

HAM (bad actor) after G (good) + OT (books)

24. Offhand potholer punched by boxer (8)
CAVALIER

CAVER (potholer) punched by ALI (boxer)

25. Awful harmonics start to trouble Queen fan (10)
MONARCHIST

(HARMONICS + T[rouble] (start to))* (*awful)

26. State authority (3)
SAY

Double definition

27. Sits about drinking a Sol to show inactivity (6)
STASIS

(SITS)* (*about) drinking A + S (sol)

28. Cow one spotted briefly by English queen (8)
DOMINEER

DOMIN[o] (one spotted, briefly) by E (English) + ER (queen)

DOWN
1. Captain by a river heading up a set of steps (5,4)
BOSSA NOVA

BOSS (captain) by A + AVON< (river, <heading up)

2. TV programme reviewed second point on America (7)
OMNIBUS

MO< (second, <reviewed) + NIB (point) on US (America)

3. Husband sitting topless watering the garden? (6)
HOSING

H (husband) + [p]OSING (sitting, topless)

4. Principal longs to have reasons some dodge IT (9)
HEADACHES

HEAD (principles) + ACHES (longs)

5. Workplaces not having cold treats anymore? (7)
OFFICES

OFF ICES (not having treats anymore)

6. Loner who’d put out one who gives a hoot (6,3)
HORNED OWL

(LONER WHO’D)* (*put out)

7. You interrupting drove my hostility (7)
RANCOUR

U (you) interrupting RAN (drove) + COR (my)

13. Listening devices one sherpa moved around (9)
EARPHONES

(ONE SHERPA)* (*moved around)

15. Country hospital by sea lacking drug and oxygen (3,6)
SAN MARINO

SAN (hospital) by MARIN[e] (sea, lacking E (drug)) and O (oxygen)

16. Vessel seen from Dorset and Rye at sea (9)
DESTROYER

(DORSET + RYE)* (*at sea)

18. Party men mass and beat half-cut lackey (7)
DOORMAT

DO (party) + OR (men) + M (mass) + [be]AT (half-cut)

19. South African male with spin like Wimbledon champ (7)
SAMPRAS

SA (South African) + M (male) with PR (spin) + AS (like)

21. A time children can be in disagreement (2,5)
AT ISSUE

A + T (time) + ISSUE (children)

22. Cocktail belonging to me Bond picked up (3,3)
MAI TAI

“MY TIE” (belong to me, bond, “picked up”)

22 comments on “Financial Times 17,071 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Thanks for the blog, a puzzle full of good clues as always. I will pick out DOMINEER for the “spotted”, HEADACHES for a great definition ( although the actual I . T . gives me headaches ) and HORNED OWL for a great anagram.
    Did not know GOTHAM= NEW YORK ? I thought it was a made-up city but my Batman knowledge is minimal.

  2. Gotham is an old nickname for NYC that predates Batman. In the DC universe, Gotham seems to be more closely based on Chicago these days and Metropolis on New York but, originally, the name was chosen as a reference to NYC. When starting the Fantastic Four in ‘61, Stan Lee deliberately based them in New York, rather than use a made-up city name.

  3. I agree with Roz on her favourites and add BOSSA NOVA ( good def) and SAMPRAS (out of admiration for Pistol Pete). DOMINEER was my last one in as I kept persisting with the wrong spotted item and bovine breeds – got there eventually.
    A very pleasant Easter Monday puzzle; thanks to Loonapick and Slormgorm.

  6. I twigged that ‘Cow’ at 28a was going to be a verb, but still couldn’t get DOMINEER, being stuck on “isee” for ‘spotted briefly’. As a non-UK solver, it also took a while to get OMNIBUS.

    Favourite bit for me was the ‘reasons some dodge IT’ def for HEADACHES. Guess who the setter is?

    Thanks to Teacow and Slormgorm

  7. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow. Lots of fun. I needed help parsing the “cor” in RANCOUR but had no trouble with GOTHAM or DOMINEER. I well remember OMNIBUS, a huge success in the early days of US TV thanks to Alister Cooke. .

  8. Strange coincidences , we had a UK OMNIBUS , an arts programme for many years.
    Also ” Letter from America” on Radio 4 by Alistair Cooke, the same person ?

  11. Thanks Slormgorm for a pleasant crossword. I enjoyed many clues including OTHERS, GOTHAM, BOSSA NOVA, and SAMPRAS. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  14. Hello Harry , it is an exclamation , we say MY or sometimes MY WORD or we say COR for something unusual or impressive.

  16. Isn’t COR short for cor-blimey?. A kinda less blasphemous version of the old oath “god blind me”. Might have been last year we had a puzzle themed on such terms. There was a name given to them, but I don’t remember what it was.

  18. Yes I think you are right Greg, they are called minced oaths. There is also Gor-blimey but that never seems to get shortened to Gor .

  19. A belated Happy Easter to all from a just-back-from-an-Easter-getaway me. Many thanks to TC for the blog and to all who solved and commented. Hope to see you all next time around. 🙂

  21. Very enjoyable. Only a few things stumped me — I wasn’t aware that Sydney Adventist Hospital was SAN until I googled.

    OR for men? (Is this a British initialism?)

    S for sol?

  22. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    Very late for this one – did it on the day but only got to check it off today. A typical puzzle by this setter, not particularly hard but most enjoyable to do.
    Knew about GOTHAM as nickname for NY – it was apparently “popularised by Washington Irving and others in Salmagundi, a series of satirical sketches (1807-1808), and makes reference to English popular tales about Gotham, a village near Nottingham, England, whose villagers were depicted as feigning stupidity and foolishness in order to avoid government impositions”.
    Finished down the bottom with the tricky SAY, STASIS and DOMINEER.

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