FT 17,588 by Slormgorm

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An interesting Slormgorm puzzle this morning.

I learned a couple of things from today's puzzle – I had never heard of bandoline, and I didn't know that an ingle was a Scottish thing – I thought it was a standard English word. There were at least 3, maybe 4, &lits in today's puzzle, so this was a very clever crossword. Not convinced by 8dn, although I see what Slormgorm was trying to do, but I did like GOODNIGHT as well as the &lits.

Thanks Slormgorm.

ACROSS
1 DRAGOON
Force fearsome person to accept love (7)

DRAGON ("fearsome person") to accept O (love, in tennis)
5 ETCHING
Attractive fellow left impression (7)

F (fellow) left (f)ETCHING ("attractive")
9 SWISH
Small desire to be fashionably posh (5)

S (small) + WISH ("desire")
10 GOODNIGHT
I’m going to bed Goth with dog in Barking (9)

*(goth dog in) [anag:barking]
11 USHERETTE
In-house worker moving around Hue street (9)

*(hue street) [anag:moving around]
12 ELEMI
Resinous substance Pelé mistakenly smuggled (5)

Hidden in [smuggled] "pELE MIstakenly"
13 BLURB
Promotional copy of obscure book (5)

BLUR ("obscure") + B (book)
15 ADAPTABLE
Flexible board on a house (east-facing) (9)

TABLE ("board") on A + <=PAD ("house", east-facing)
18 PRESIDENT
Putin is one ultimately camp occupier (9)

[ultimately] (cam)P + RESIDENT ("occupier")
19 DENSE
Closely-set poles blocking Scottish river (5)

N + S (North and South, so "poles") blocking DEE ("Scottish river")
21 SACKS
Rifles and axes (5)

Double definition
23 SNOW GLOBE
Present got in front of Santa World? (4,5)

NOW ("present") got in [front of] S(anta) + GLOBE ("world") and & lit
25 ANDROMEDA
Princess man adored without restraint (9)

*(man adored) [anag:without restraint]
26 MAINE
Cardinal getting ecstasy is a state (5)

MAIN ("cardinal") getting E (ecstasy)
27 EARNEST
Serious king left to go home (7)

(l)EAR ("king, with L (left) to go) + NEST ("home")
28 TANGENT
Chap succeeding Brown’s almost irrelevant (7)

GENT ("chap") succeeding TAN ("brown")
DOWN
1 DISTURB
Insult flipping short savage making trouble (7)

DIS ("insult") + [flipping] BRUT(e) ("savage, short)
2 ACID HOUSE
A conservative playing hideous type of tunes (4,5)

A + C (Conservative) + *(hideous) [anag:playing]
3 OTHER
One serving tea without drop of milk’s unusual (5)

(m)OTHER ("one serving tea", as in "shall I be mother?") without [drop of] M(ilk)
4 NIGHTMARE
Headless horseman seen on horse in this? (9)

[headless] K(night) ("horseman") seen on MARE ("horse") and semi &lit
5 ERODE
Pair of eejits will case bar to find spoil (5)

[couple of] EE(jits) will case ROD ("bar")
6 CONCEITED
Arrogant type like Bojo sitting in hearing (9)

Con. (Conservative, so "type like Bojo") + homophone [in hearing] of SEATED ("sitting")
7 INGLE
Some renovating lead fireplace in Fife (5)

Hidden in [some] "renovatING LEad"

An ingle is a fireplace in Scotland. Must admit I thought this was a universal word, didn't realise it was only in Scotland that we had inglenooks?
8 GET WISE
Figure out what to do if Morecambe’s fully booked? (3,4)

If Eric Morecambe was fully booked, one may have approached Ernie Wise, his partner, although in reality, he would probably have been busy too, given that they were a double act!
14 BRIMSTONE
Bishop invigorated sermon with it! (9)

*(b sermon it) [anag:invigorated] where B = bishop and &lit
16 ASTRONAUT
Aviator primarily flying to Saturn? (9)

A(stronaut) [primarily] + *(to saturn) [anag:flying]
17 BANDOLINE
Hair product G’n’R perhaps gets over Slash? (9)

BAND ("Guns 'n' Roses, perhaps) gets O (over, in cricket) + LINE ("slash")
18 PASSAGE
Release a bit of gas on bowel’s fourth movement (7)

PASS ("release") + A + [bit of] G(as) on (bow)E(l) ['s fourth instalment]
20 ELEMENT
European ousting leader of Attlee & Co? (7)

E (European) ousting C as leader of CLEMENT Attlee is E(LEMENT) and Co is Cobalt, one of the elements.
22 CIDER
Drink of wine one catholic knocked back (5)

<=(RED ("wine") + I (one) + C (catholic), knocked back)
23 SCENT
Clue transmitted over the airwaves (5)

Homophone [over the airwaves] of SENT ("transmitted")
24 GAMIN
Neglected kid mostly playing Nintendo? (5)

[mostly] GAMIN(g) ("playing Nintendo?")

15 comments on “FT 17,588 by Slormgorm”

  1. Thanks, Slormgorm for this fun puzzle and loonapick for the detailed blog!
    Liked all the &lit clues very much. And more.

  2. That was fun. I too liked the & lit clues and gtoaned when I got GET WISE, my LOI, as I wasn’t convined either.

    Thank you to Slormgorm and loonapick.

  3. Re 2D: I thought that “hideous type of tunes” was the definition! Although as I reconsider, “tunes” has nothing to do with the answer.

    Re 18A: “dictator” was my first thought but it was one letter short.

    Thanks, loonapick.

  4. Thanks Slormgorm and Loonapick

    4dn (NIGHTMARE): I think this counts as a complete “& lit” clue: the words “in this” can be considered as part of the cryptic instruction, and the whole clue, with the question mark, works for me as a definition by example for the answer.

    7dn (INGLE): I was surprised at the indicator for a Scottish word, but Collins 2023 marks the word as archaic or dialect.

    8dn (GET WISE): This would have been a perfect clue while M&W were both still alive. They did work occasionally as individuals, especially towards the end of Eric Morecambe’s life. But that was nearly forty years ago now. I have a lot of sympathy for the view that the idea behind the clue was too good to waste.

    20dn (ELEMENT): We are getting used to chemical symbols defining the names of specific elements. I really liked the use of “Co?” – with the question mark, as with 4dn – as a definition by example for the word ELEMENT itself.

  5. Most enjoyable puzzle and very clear blog.
    My wife is Scottish and was surprised that INLGE was considered as Scottish word.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Loonapick.

  6. Like Pelham Barton @4, I enjoyed ELEMENT on several levels and empathise with Peter re ACID HOUSE.
    SNOWGLOBE, CONCEITED and BRIMSTONE were among other picks in a grid which was eminently enjoyable overall.
    Thanks both to Slormgorm and Loonapick.

  7. I enjoyed it, but I did find it difficult in parts, and was unable to parse three or four clues before I ran out of time. As usual, several new words to learn, but just within limits. Thanks explaining it most of it – but I do have one question: why is “pair of eejits” EE? Specifically why is an eejit E? Is it a standard abbreviation I do not know (of a word I do not know), as I cannot see a head selection indicator.?

    Favourites mentioned above, GET WISE, BRIMSTONE and ASTRONAUT.

    Thanks to both Slormgorm and Loonapick

  8. Martyn@7: I took “pair of eejits” to mean a pair of letters from the word “eejits”. It is certainly not a standard abbreviation, but I think it works better than some of the other devices that are commonly used in crosswords.

  9. Two “Scottish” clues, appropriate for St Andrew’s Day – “eejit” is ‘Hiberno-English’ (ie !rish English – often preceded by “fecking”) ‘and Scottish English’
    https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/3mbl56y
    ‘eejit n. also eedgit, eedjit, eegot, eejut, e-jit, ejot, idjeet, idjet, idjit, idjut, ijet, ijit, ijjit, ijiot, ijut’ – [mispron. of SE idiot] – (usu. Irish)’
    Citations include S. O’Casey, B. Behan, B. Geldof, and R. Doyle.

  10. Martyn@7 As PB said it’s the doubling if the e in eejits that matters, not that it’s the first letter. It could have been a pair of teeth or a couple of weeks.

  12. Petert@10: Actually I am not sure I did say quite that, but I agree with what you appear to be saying. I would support anyone who says that the indicator “pair of” is best kept for instances where the same letter appears twice consecutively in a word.

  13. This was fun. for half. The other half was hideous for me. I’m not sure which half was which at this point. But thank you loonapick for at least giving me a fighting chance next time I encounter some of these clues and lights. I have to say, some of the interpretations are streched just to the end, but I do see they are legit.

  15. I don’t think anyone has commented on the specific reference to Fife in 7d. It alludes to the East Neuk (the easternmost part of the county), hence the ingle connection

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