Financial Times 17,387 by ZAMORCA

An excellent challenge from ZAMORCA this Friday.

FF: 9 DD: 8

A pangram to boot.

ACROSS
1	GOSSIP	Chatterbox is so rude interrupting Doctor (6)
		[ IS SO ]* in GP ( doctor )
4	APLOMB	Demolish lamb chop left by child with ease (6)
		[ LAMB chOP ( without CH – child ) ]*
8	ASSUAGE	Calm since America’s revolutionary period (7)
		AS ( since ) SU ( america = US, reversed ) AGE ( period )
9	DIVERSE	Revised broadcast engaging with all kinds of people (7)
		[ REVISED ]*
11	DOWN AND OUT	Drink with old university team leader who’s destitute (4-3-3)
		DOWN ( drink ) AND ( with ) [ O ( old ) U ( university ) T ( Team, starting letter ) ]
12	SEEK	Look for son with cry of alarm (4)
		S ( son ) EEK ( cry of alarm )
13	EIDER	Kind of duck found in patchy reed round island (5)
		[ REED ]* around I ( island )
14	PASSABLE	OK, moral tale’s not religious at first, but includes saints (8)
		PArABLE ( moral tale, without R – Religious, first letter, with SS – saints )
16	GOLF CLUB	Maybe putter around in VW Lupo, not half bad to start with (4,4)
		C ( around ) in [ GOLF ( vw ) LUpo ( not half ) B ( Bad, starting letter ) ]
18	OOMPH	Love and money put into ordinary pub brings glamour (5)
		[ O ( love, 0 ) M ( money ) ] in [ O ( ordinary ) PH ( pub , Public House ) ]
20	PUMA	I’m not sure hiding in parking area’s way to find big cat (4)
		UM ( ~ i’m not sure ) in [ P ( parking ) A ( area ) ]
21	WRITTEN OFF	Legal document has note ordering fines to be cancelled (7,3)
		WRIT ( legal document ) [ NOTE ]* FF ( fines )
23	INTERIM	Provisional time in training run’s entered (7)
		[ TIME IN ]* containing R ( run )
24	VISITOR	Tourist has very little information about riots (7)
		V ( very ) I ( Information, little ) [ RIOTS ]*
25	EXPORT	Former partner left to sell abroad (6)
		EX ( former partner ) PORT ( left )
26	AT ONCE	Heavyweight champion’s boxing right now (2,4)
		TON ( heavyweight ) in ACE ( champion )
DOWN
1	GUSTO	Delight in organising US tour (5)
		hidden in “..organisinG US TOur”
2	STUNNED	Shocked by studies set up about shortage of fish (7)
		reverse of DENS ( studies ) around [ TUNa ( fish, shortened ) ]
3	IN GENERAL	For the most part, army officer’s behind rise in tax (2,7)
		GENERAL ( army officer ) after reverse of NI ( tax, National Insurance )
5	POINT	Mark position (5)
		double def; latter possibly referring to a field position in cricket
6	OPEN SEA	Work in French waters now and then, turning up far from land (4,3)
		OP ( work ) EN ( in, french ) SEA ( wAtErS, now and then, reversed )
7	BY STEALTH	Unobtrusively getting close to small bird on empty towpath (2,7)
		BY ( close to ) S ( small ) TEAL ( bird ) TH ( TowpatH, empty i.e. without inner letters )
10	JOE PUBLIC	People judge police violent arresting union boy (3,6)
		J ( judge ) { [ POLICE ]* containing [ U ( union ) B ( boy ) ] }
13	ELOQUENCE	Fine words moved Queen taking look inside church (9)
		{ LO ( look ) in [ QUEEN ]* } CE ( church )
15	SHORTLIST	Little tip for group of preferred candidates (9)
		SHORT ( little ) LIST ( tip )
17	FLARE-UP	Quietly supports upcoming artist during terrible fuel crisis (5-2)
		P ( quietly ) after { AR ( reverse of RA – artist ) in [ FUEL ]* }
19	MANSION	Staff numbers climb with one occupying huge house (7)
		MAN ( staff ) [ I ( one ) in reverse of NOS ( numbers ) ]
21	WHIRR	Briefly fancy luxury car’s making vibrating noise (5)
		WHIm ( fancy, without last letter ) RR ( luxury car, Rolls Royce )
22	FROZE	Put in cold storage with zero Fahrenheit setting (5)
		&lit; [ ZERO F ( fahrenheit ) ]*

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,387 by ZAMORCA”

Geoff Down Under

#1 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 02:09

Very enjoyable, thank you Zamorca. Tried in vain to parse IN GENERAL — we don’t have National Insurance here. I wouldn’t have equated oomph and glamour, but I guess it works.

KVa

#2 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 04:49

Thanks, Zamorca and Turbolegs!
Liked PASSABLE, GOLF CLUB, POINT, WHIRR and FROZE.

DuncM

#3 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 11:30

Good fun all round. Puma my favourite – the image conjured up made me chuckle.

Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs.

Petert

#4 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 12:32

I liked PUMA for the surface, too. In fact, I thought the surfaces were very smooth all round. Thanks, both.

Nick

#5 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 13:55

One small query: how is LIST a tip?

Petert

#6 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 14:01

Nick@5 If a ship lists it tips to one side.

Roz

#7 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 14:01

Thanks for the blog, a very neat set of clues , PASSABLE was very clever.
Nick@5 think of ships listing as they are about to tip over.

WordPlodder

#8 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 14:10

The usual v. enjoyable puzzle from Zamorca with the now expected pangram. I couldn’t parse IN GENERAL either, took a while to see APLOMB and ASSUAGE and just about missed the hidden GUSTO. FROZE was a nice way to finish.

Thanks to Zamorca and Turbolegs

Tony Santucci

#9 - Fri 14th Apr 23, 16:19

Thanks Zamorca for a top notch crossword with plenty of clever surface readings. My favourites included DIVERSE, DOWN-AND-OUT, WRITTEN OFF, AT ONCE, and OPEN SEA. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.