Financial Times 17,269 by SLORMGORM

by

SLORMGORM begins the week….

Despite feeling a little delicate after celebrating the football yesterday, I very much enjoyed this crossword. A great set of clues with some lovely surfaces, as one expects from this setter, my favourite being 10a.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Pagan woman in Fife US cops got a lead on (7)
HEATHEN

HEN (woman in Fife), HEAT (US cops) got a lead on

5. Flipping embarrassed, having slipped by river (7)
DERWENT

(RED)< (embarrassed, <flipping) having WENT (slipped by)

9. On the point of a fight (5)
ABOUT

A + BOUT (fight)

10. What corporation taxes changed in law site (9)
WAISTLINE

(IN LAW SITE)* (*changed)

Corporation meaning belly

11. Old paid employee nursing bishop’s attentive (9)
OBSERVANT

(O (old) + SERVANT (paid employee)) nursing B (bishop)

12. The First Lady books to see a sports meet (5)
EVENT

EVE (the first lady) + NT (books, New Testament)

13. Weak and woozy (5)
FAINT

Double definition

15. Inferior court ultimately employed no English judge (5-4)
THIRD-RATE

[cour]T + HIR[e]D (employed, no E (English)) + RATE (judge)

18. Karate student seen by strip of land around town (5,4)
GREEN BELT

Double definition

19. Clubs in contests without runs after first of matches (5)
MACES

[r]ACES (contests, without R (runs)) after M[atches] (first of)

21. Man hugging foremost of pines in wood (5)
MAPLE

MALE (man) hugging P[ines] (foremost of)

23. A vet with a kilt flapping about’s very gassy! (9)
TALKATIVE

(A VET with A KILT)* (*flapping about)

25. Duelists worried about a state of tiredness (9)
LASSITUDE

(DUELISTS)* (*worried) about A

26. Some seen inside bare national stadium (5)
ARENA

[b]ARE NA[tional] (some seen inside)

27. Official restricting E expresses hesitation for joints (7)
REEFERS

(REF (official) restricting E) + ERS (expresses hesitation)

28. Perhaps buy a meal for editor given medical care (7)
TREATED

TREAT (perhaps buy a meal for) + ED (editor)

DOWN
1. Set out reason deputy must take lead role? (4,3)
HEAD OFF

Double (cryptic) definition

2. Wretched existence seen in Lassie’s biography? (1,4,4)
A DOGS LIFE

Double definition

3. One really dislikes milliner half the time (5)
HATER

HAT[t]ER (milliner, half the T (time))

4. Recently-built Englishman’s home in English city (9)
NEWCASTLE

NEW (recently built) + CASTLE (Englishman's home)

5. Wander aimlessly around Germany and Split (5)
DRIFT

D (Germany) and RIFT (split)

6. Roguish type getting mother a port in Holland (9)
ROTTERDAM

ROTTER (roguish type) getting DAM (mother)

7. Roofer possibly knocked over last of ice cream (5)
ELITE

(TILE)< (roofer possibly, <knocked over) + [ic]E (last of)

8. House in which several acts might be looked at? (7)
THEATRE

Cryptic definition

14. Fruit eaten in a sloppy manner with grin (9)
TANGERINE

(EATEN with GRIN)* (*in a sloppy manner)

16. Celt I lent pants is great thinker (9)
INTELLECT

(CELT I LENT)* (*pants)

17. One who plans travelling in the arctic (9)
ARCHITECT

(THE ARCTIC)* (*travelling in)

18. Better move slowly with heartless gangster around (7)
GAMBLER

AMBLE (move slowly) with G[angste]R around

20. One often seen waiting in jam on a road (7)
STEWARD

STEW (jam) on A + RD (road)

22. Old hat of father’s seen half moth-eaten! (5)
PASSE

PAS (of father) + SE[en] (half moth-eaten)

23. Support the British prime minister (5)
TRUSS

Double definition

24. A possible vampire close to me? Calm down! (5)
ABATE

A + BAT (possible vampire) + [m]E (close to)

9 comments on “Financial Times 17,269 by SLORMGORM”

  1. My guess is that this was written a while back and that the word ‘the’ should have been removed from 23d. A minor point at best but an easy change to have been made.

  2. Perhaps Slormgorm read my comment under Mudd’s the other day, where I confused the Tamar River, which is in northern Tasmania, with the Derwent, which runs through Hobart! Or maybe not. I’m chuffed to see some Aussie rivers, while overlooking the fact that we probably named them after English ones. 🙂

    For quite a while I had AMSTERDAM for 6d, and looked everywhere for a definition for AMSTER. I wondered why Englishmen’s homes are castles, but then remembered “a man’s home is his castle”, yes? I thought 23d was a bit outdated, but then realised it doesn’t say current prime minister, so fair enough.

    I found this very enjoyable, with lots of great clueing. Thanks, Slormgorm & Teacow.

  3. Good point, Hovis re 23D.

    I confess that I had to use an Internet search engine to find the druggy version of reefers and joints. The only Reefers I know are Jimmy Buffett’s backing band.

  4. Good start to the week with my favourites being the ‘What corporation taxes’ def for WAISTLINE and the ecologically aware MAPLE.

    Poor old Liz TRUSS; who would have guessed she would be PASSÉ after seven weeks or whatever. As noted by Hovis @1, looks like it may have caught our Editor by surprise.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow

  5. A nice straightforward start to the week and my only “hmmmm” was, like others, on 23 down where the definite needs to be replaced by the indefinite article. The clue gives us a fine idea of when the puzzle was set.

    Thanks to all.

  6. Thanks for the blog, usual high quality that we are used to from this setter. Every clue seemed to work so neatly , only TRUSS jarred , out of date already.

  7. Thanks Slormgorm for the fun. Like others I enjoyed WAISTLINE along with THIRD-RATE, REEFERS, ELITE, and GAMBLER. TRUSS will have a much longer run in crosswords than she had in office — whenever an officials last name is also a common word we can never be rid of them. Hence Trump will never go away. May and Bush seem immortal as well. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  8. Many thanks to TC for a great blog and to all who solved and commented.

    Hope to see you all next time around, but until then its cheers and chin chin from me. 🙂

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