Financial Times 17,215 by SLORMGORM

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SLORMGORM kicks things off this week…

Well… I’m not sure how to parse 10a (and I’ve been through various permutations), and 12a feels wrong, so, sorry about that. I did, however, enjoy the rest of this crossword!

Thanks SLORMGORM!

 

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Old relation requires a lawyer in Spanish city (7)
GRANADA

GRAN (old relation) requires A + DA (lawyer)

5. Backsliding US agent liberal had let down (7)
DEFLATE

(FED)< (US agent, <backsliding) + L (liberal) + ATE (had)

9. Deliberately provoke Greek character with books (5)
TAUNT

TAU (Greek character) with NT (books, New Testament)

10. Meat and game that’s accompanied by old wine (9)
LAMBRUSCO

LAMB (meat) and RU’S (game that’s) + C (accompanied) by O (old)

I’m not totally happy with this parsing

11. Put simply, I’ll say ABC in the wrong order (9)
BASICALLY

(ILL SAY ABC)* (*in the wrong order)

12. Woman seen in paintings around cold island (5)
TRACI

(ART)< (paintings, <around) + C (cold) + I (island)

13. Male sheep in Dhaka’s outskirts creates excitement (5)
DRAMA

RAM (male sheep) in D[hak]A (outskirts)

15. One might change colour of home and clean up (9)
CHAMELEON

(HOME and CLEAN)* (*up)

18. Football squad near Kent having small snack (9)
ELEVENSES

ELEVEN (football squad) near SE (Kent , South East) having S (small)

19. Soldiers first to attack large mountain kingdom (5)
REALM

RE (soldiers) + (A[ttack] + L[arge] + M[ountain] (first to))

21. Island put a limit on rebellious island leaders (5)
CAPRI

CAP (put a limit on) + R[ebellious] I[sland] (leaders)

23. Criminal lied about being helped to get free? (6,3)
BAILED OUT

(LIED ABOUT)* (*criminal)

25. Kitty brought over fruit and a big cheese (3,6)
TOP BANANA

(POT)< (kitty, <brought over) + BANANA (fruit)

26. Elegance of movement in good competition (5)
GRACE

G (good) + RACE (competition)

27. Fire-breathing beast eats old cavalryman (7)
DRAGOON

DRAGON (fire breathing beast) eats O (old)

28. Tank tops (7)
TURRETS

Cryptic definition

DOWN
1. Visit live drama at front or hit the hay? (2,2,3)
GO TO BED

GO TO (visit) + BE (live) + D[rama] (at the front)

2. A fool and son willing to try a hopeless venture (1,4,4)
A MUGS GAME

A + MUG (fool) and S (son) + GAME (willing to try)

3. A jerk with tip of toe stuck in loft (5)
ATTIC

A + TIC (jerk) with T[oe] (tip of) stuck in

4. Everyone needs to take on British rugby team (3,6)
ALL BLACKS

(ALL + LACKS (needs)) to take on B (British)

5. An idiot as well as a sucker? (5)
DUMMY

Double definition

6. Awfully fiery arts student just started at college (5-4)
FIRST-YEAR

(FIERY ARTS)* (*awfully)

7. A brew taken around bow of ship away from port? (2,3)
AT SEA

(A + TEA (brew)) taken around S[hip] (bow of)

8. EU leader’s proposal creating strong feeling (7)
EMOTION

E[u] (leader) + MOTION (proposal)

14. Drink shot on camera? I must be involved in that! (9)
AMERICANO

(ON CAMERA)* (*shot), I must be involved in that

16. One who attacks Alsatians must change (9)
ASSAILANT

(ALSATIANS)* (*must change)

17. Fancy beer served up by contrary old boy to judge (9)
ELABORATE

(ALE)< (beer, <served up) by (OB)< (old boy, <contrary) + RATE (to judge)

18. Went out to drink drop of Cognac in a buzzy mood (7)
EXCITED

EXITED (went out) to drink C[ognac] (a drop of)

20. Male milliners will not start to have affairs (7)
MATTERS

M (male) + [h]ATTERS (milliners, will not start)

22. Type of music written by secretary for American Dad (5)
POPPA

POP (type of music) written by PA (secretary)

23. Head of shower with touch of blue on top of it (5)
BRAIN

RAIN (shower) with B[lue] (touch of) on top of it

24. Paper with French article about English barman (5)
ELGAR

(RAG (paper) with LE (French article))< (<about)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,215 by SLORMGORM”

  3. I seem to be finishing most of the FT and Guardian puzzles more quickly these days. Either they’re getting easier or I’m becoming more capable as I gain experience. The two puzzles once used to occupy me for most of the day. Mind you, there are still a few compilers on my “don’t attempt” list.

    I’ve never seen “up” as an anagrind before. A bit odd. And I’m not keen on 10a … why is C accompanied? (Just looked up and saw KVa’s alternative parsing, which is more likely correct, but I must say I wouldn’t have got scilicet in a pink fit.)

    I’m afraid “barman” for a composer elicited a groan rather than a smile. And I’ve never seen Traci spelt this way (although, I guess, anything’s possible). But at least I’m slowly getting to know the Britishisms, that Kent is in the southeast and that RE are soldiers!

  4. Finished at a fair clip, like Geoff. No problem with TRACI; a lot of names formerly ending in ‘y’ are increasingly spelt this way though I defer to KVa’s parsing of LAMBRUSCO.
    I liked A MUG’S GAME and the neat switch from big cheese’ to TOP BANANA.
    I entered TURRETS last of all thinking it was unlikely to be ‘tureens’.
    Thanks for the entertainment, Slormgorm and to Teacow.

  5. Like GDU , I have never seen “Traci” spelled like this. Tracy, Tracey – yes. I just conducted an Internet search and the only “Traci” that came back is a porn star who was two years under the US age of consent when she started her “career” as an “adult entertainer”. Anyway, as we had a similar discussion once or twice in the last week: is “woman” really an adequate definition for a female name? Especially one within an unusual spelling as this one?

    I also agree with GDU’s questioning of “up” as an indicator of an anagram.

    Once again, may I object to clues like “drop of Cognac” giving the first letter of the word: “hint of…” and others like this. There must be easier ways to indicate a single letter… “Carbon” and “about” come to mind.

    GDU – I have come across “barman” many times and I really like it; but, then, I’m a musician!

  8. We all have our little foibles, I suppose, but I quite like barman for composer, Carmen for AA or RAC, and so on. Traci on Google brought up a couple of US actors / singers, a Canadian TV presenter and a Canadian wrestler, so fair enough, but I agree with Peter@5 that ‘woman’ is a rather loose definition for such an unusual name.
    Enjoyed most of this, though, in spite of being mostly quite easy.
    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.

  9. Thanks Slormgorm & Teacow

    ‘up’ as an anagrind is, I think, OK if you look at it in the sense of ‘excited’ or ‘stirred’.

  10. Thanks for the blog, SC is often used by Azed but rare for a daily puzzle. I think TRACI is just one of those awkward spots in the grid which is hard to fill and the clue was very fair.
    The rest of the clues were, as usual, neat and concise and amusing.

  11. By far my fastest solve ever, despite being held up for a few minutes at the end by the obvious Americano. Almost a write in.

    I rather like Barman.

    I too didn’t like Traci and couldn’t parse Lambrusco. Thanks for the help

  12. Thanks Slormgorm for the fun. I needed a look-up for A MUGS GAME, a new expression to me but all else was quite effortless. My top choices were BRAIN and BASICALLY; I couldn’t fully parse LAMBRUSCO so thanks Teacow for the blog.
    [Is it me or did the Saturday Buccaneer crossword have many familiar clues? I kept having Deja vu while solving it. I’m looking forward to Pete’s blog on that one.]

  13. Though I don’t usually comment, I always do Slormgorm/Hoskins puzzles. No prizes for guessing which clue was my TOP BANANA today! Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  14. Many thanks to TC for the usual fine blog and to all who solved and commented.

    SC is a bit obscure for those who didn’t have a grammar school education like me … ach, who am I kidding, I occasionally attended a school for oiks and the closest I ever got to Latin was misspelling why I had arrived three hours after the nine o’clock bell. Traci was questioned by the Editor and a new word chosen, but didn’t make it into the final cut. On the subject of Barman, it is a bit Marmite so apologies to those who didn’t likes it.

    Hope to see you all next time around, but until then it only remains for me to say good to see you Kitty and cheers and chin chin to all. 🙂

  17. It certainly wasn’t my first one in, but I have no complaint about 12a TRACI. I don’t like the fad of changing the y to an i in girls’ names (I’ve seen Luci, Nanci, and Toni as well as Traci), but it is common enough to be OK for a crossword clue. I also don’t mind a loose definition as long as the rest of the wordplay leads clearly to the solution.

    Thanks, Slormgorm for the excellent fun and Teacow for the lucid blog.

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