Financial Times 17,227 by SLORMGORM

by

SLORMGORM kicks things off this week…

Apologies for the lateness of this blog… I'm working in a different time-zone!

A solid set of clues, as one expects from this setter. 4d was something I vaguely recalled seeing before in a crossword, but I had to check it, and I'm not sure that I've not missed something in 27a, but all in all a fun solve.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Does this primarily after Boris’ disgraces? (8)
ABSTAINS

A[fter] B[oris] (primarily) + STAINS (disgraces) &lit

5. Surfacing sailor by west-flowing river (6)
TARMAC

TAR (sailor) by (CAM)< (river, <west-flowing)

10. Tennis star fraudsters picked up by the ears (7)
CONNORS

"conners" (fraudsters, "picked up by the ears")

Jimmy Connors

11. Sick English convict repelled criminal (7)
ILLEGAL

ILL (sick) + E (English) + (LAG)< (convict, <repelled)

12. Given a fresh line-up, team steal draw (9)
STALEMATE

(TEAM STEAL)* (*given a fresh line-up)

13. Famous swinger in court with detective sergeant (5)
WOODS

WOO (court) with DS (detective sergeant)

Tiger Woods

15. Earl associated with low-calorie cream (5)
ELITE

E (Earl) associated with LITE (low-calorie)

16. Drunk pirates hugging male monkeys? (8)
PRIMATES

(PIRATES)* (*drunk) hugging M (male)

19. Whatever is a New York happening? (8)
ANYTHING

A + NY (New York) + THING (happening)

20. Suit and tie? (5)
MATCH

Double definition

21. Greek character guided back by volunteers (5)
DELTA

(LED)< (guided, <back) by TA (volunteers)

23. One who tells tales in court near Barking (9)
RACONTEUR

(COURT NEAR)* (*barking)

25. Tumbler Rod briefly stored in a Conservative club (7)
ACROBAT

RO[d] (briefly) stored in (A + C (conservative) + BAT (club))

27. Might one say Bright Eyes or Tapestry? (7)
ARTWORK

ART WORK (Bright Eyes, a song by Art Garfunkel)

28. Sausages, but no starter in French place (6)
ANGERS

[b]ANGERS (sausages, but no starter)

29. Large men breaking barrier in city abroad (8)
FLORENCE

(L (large) + OR (men)) breaking FENCE (barrier)

DOWN
1. Upset about price news chief solicited (8)
ACCOSTED

(CA)< (about, <upset) + COST (price) + ED (news chief)

2. Breathtaking lass going out with Etonian (11)
SENSATIONAL

(LASS with ETONIAN)* (*going out)

3. On radio, a pitch intended to make amends (9)
ATONEMENT

A + TONE (pitch) + "meant" (intended, "on radio")

4. Tree native to Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt (5)
NYSSA

[Germa]NYS SA[xony-Anhalt] (native to)

6. Let everybody old put on top in winter (5)
ALLOW

ALL (everybody) + O (old) put on W[inter] (top of)

7. Publication mostly eager to be turned around (3)
MAG

(GAM[e] (publication, mostly))< (<to be turned around)

8. Names of contacts (5)
CALLS

Double definition

9. What joiners are doing is absolutely fascinating (8)
RIVETING

Double definition

14. Extremely happy oven more hot after repairs (4,3,4)
OVER THE MOON

(OVEN MORE HOT)* (*after repairs)

16. Sex in home for monks is first concern (8)
PRIORITY

IT (sex) in PRIORY (home for monks)

17. Commercial watchdog, one giving warning (9)
ADMONITOR

AD (commercial) + MONITOR (watchdog)

18. Native American singer gets fine on couple of Es (8)
CHEROKEE

CHER (singer) gets OK (fine) on EE (couple of)

21. Lawyer describing hit causes a hoo-ha (5)
DRAMA

DA (lawyer) describing RAM (hit)

22. Bend on a road caught out woman (5)
AMBER

[c]AMBER (bend on a road, C (caught) out)

24. Fawn seen in cold and bitter lake (5)
CRAWL

C (cold) and RAW (bitter) + L (lake)

26. Artist getting good or poor quality paper (3)
RAG

RA (artist) getting G (good)

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,227 by SLORMGORM”

  1. In 16a, with a simple swapping of the second and third letters, I felt the ‘pirates’ were tipsy at best 🙂

  2. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    3dn: Given the positioning of the words in the clue, I think this is better taken as ATONEMENT sounding like “a tone meant”.

  3. Thanks for the blog, 27Ac seems fine to me.
    I did not know NYSSA so I was glad it was a hidden word.
    Lots of good clues today , I really liked it.

  4. Thanks Slormgorm for your usual array of good clues. NYSSA and ADMONITOR were two that I checked after solving and I missed AMBER entirely. I liked CHEROKEE and I found it interesting that Cher was the singer in the wordplay; she once claimed she had Cherokee blood and one of her hits was called “Half-Breed.” Thanks Teacow for the blog and parsing ARTWORK; I did not know the Art Garfunkel song Bright Eyes.

  5. A few smiles today, but also a few groans. I groan whenever I see sex for IT, or when I come across one of those two-letter British initialisms that I’m trying hard to remember, with limited success, like OR or TA. But at least I remembered the Cam river.

    What’s the definition for ABSTAINS in 1a? Surely not just “does this”? I’d not heard of ADMONITOR, NYSSA nor Jimmy Connors.

  6. Many thanks to TC for blogging for managing to get it up from another timezone and to all who solved and commented.

    @GDU – the abstains def is part of the surface for the def in a semi&lit style.

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

  7. Nice to see Connors. I thought of him instead of McEnroe when doing last week’s everyman yesterday.
    And I’m sure Slormgorm knows Cher’s mother claims Cherokee heritage, as well as Irish and German (so says Wiki).
    Isn’t camber a curvature of a roads surface (eg for drainage) rather than a bend?

  8. Put in balsa instead of Nyssa the whole top left broke. Next time I’ll use a stronger wood when making the model.

  9. Greg @7 I had similar thoughts for cAMBER but I decided it can be a bend in the surface if viewed in cross-section rather than the normal bend in the road’s direction.
    Very good Anil@8 balsa wood is great for making very light models but not for holding things together.

Comments are closed.