Financial Times 17,677 by SLORMGORM

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SLORMGORM starts off the week

Great mix of clues with nice surfaces, as one expects from this setter, with a few that made me chuckle.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Cheeky types people sit on? (8)
BUTTOCKS

Double (cryptic) definition

5. Head of Gucci adored wearing hand warmers (6)
GLOVED

G[ucci] (head of) + LOVED (adored)

10. Sentence Tory and Democrat in hearing (7)
CONDEMN

CON (Tory) and "dem" = DEMN (Democrat, "in hearing")

11. Cough, having picked up joint in London area (7)
HACKNEY

HACK (cough) having "knee" = NEY (joint, "picked up")

12. Pasty idiot kidnaps British swimmer (9)
WHITEBASS

(WHITE (pasty) + ASS (idiot)) kidnaps B (British)

13. King Charles punched weakling? Fight! (5)
SCRAP

CR (King Charles) punched SAP (weakling)

15. At one time rob First Lady on Rhode Island (5)
RIEVE

EVE (first lady) on RI (Rhode Island)

16. Duke into nitrogen-enriched fruit and nut wrap (8)
BANDANNA

D (duke) into (N (nitrogen) enriched BANANA (fruit))

19. A rubbish essay summary (8)
ABSTRACT

A + BS (rubbish) + TRACT (essay)

20. Male caught in bed with English philosopher (5)
COMTE

M (male) caught in COT (bed) with E (English)

21. One stitches up wise man cuddling wife (5)
SEWER

SEER (wise man) cuddling W (wife)

23. US sees maths spelt incorrectly (3,6)
THE MASSES

(SEES MATHS)* (*spelt incorrectly)

25. A fellow arresting outlaw in desert (7)
ABANDON

(A + DON (fellow)) arresting BAN (outlaw)

27. We messed around with large hose etc. (7)
LEGWEAR

(WE with LARGE)* (*messed around)

28. Time our man Slormgorm finds Ms Right? (3,3)
THE ONE

T (time) + HE (our man) + ONE (Slormgorm)

29. Part of nasty list shocked Barnet workers (8)
STYLISTS

[na]STY LIST S[hocked] (part of)

DOWN
1. Slow defender gets prize (not first) (8)
BACKWARD

BACK (defender) gets [a]WARD (prize, not first)

2. Wrestling, one wins belt causing injury (6,5)
TENNIS ELBOW

(ONE WINS BELT)* (*wrestling)

3. Done with program, right? Work too hard! (9)
OVEREXERT

OVER (done with) + EXE (program) + RT (right)

4. Informal sort of family lawyer (5)
KINDA

KIN (family) + DA (lawyer)

6. Beats in musical phrases (5)
LICKS

Double definition

7. Russian man typically fails to start vehicle (3)
VAN

[i]VAN (Russian man typically, fails to start)

8. Stop talking and do a household chore (3,2)
DRY UP

Double definition

9. Old crack oddball found on base of box (8)
CHESTNUT

NUT (oddball) found on base of CHEST (box)

14. Those in charge of clowns arresting Ms Wrong (11)
RINGMASTERS

(ARRESTING MS)* (*wrong)

16. Bishop enduring severe criticism (8)
BLASTING

B (bishop) + LASTING (enduring)

17. A&R alter piece from Lulu and Gabriel? (9)
ARCHANGEL

AR (A&R) + CHANGE (alter) + L[ulu] (piece from)

18. Standards by Steps (8)
MEASURES

Double definition

21. Well-turned out as Sting (5)
SMART

Double definition

22. Song and dance in service is a gas (5)
RADON

ADO (song and dance) in RN (service)

24. Story about grasping Catholic gets acclaim (5)
ECLAT

(TALE)< (story, <about) grasping C (catholic)

26. Get on a giraffe on vacation (3)
AGE

A + G[iraff]E (on vacation)

12 comments on “Financial Times 17,677 by SLORMGORM”

  1. I agree – lots of good clues. I enjoyed doing this one.

    Favourites included: KINDA, ABSTRACT, BANDANNA, CHESTNUT, RIEVE, THE MASSES

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

  2. I too enjoyed this one and agree with Teacow’s summary. A pretty quick solve.

    My favourites included The Masses, Abandon, Legwear, and Kinda. Can’t remember ever encountering BS as rubbish (clever) but was rather unconvinced by the Buttocks clue.

    Thanks to all.

  3. Of all the setters I encounter, Slormgorm/Hoskins is the one I can most imagine staring at an empty grid and plumping for BUTTOCKS as 1 across. Plenty of the KINDA fun I’d expect with the anagram for TENNIS ELBOW my favourite. I’ve not encountered program = EXE before so thanks to Teacow for explaining that snippet.

    Thanks both

  4. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow!
    Loved BANDANNA (for the lovely def) and THE MASSES (for the misleading S in the def).

    RADON
    Should it not be A DO instead of ADO?
    OVEREXERT
    .EXE is a file extension. Does it qualify as a program? Or is EXE an abbreviation of some word meaning program?

  7. GDU@6
    EXE is an executable file. Yes. I was stuck with .EXE (which is of course an extension for an EXE file). Thx.
    ‘A song and dance’ is ADO/fuss. I was stuck with DO. Thx again.

  8. Thanks Slormgorm. I found this smooth sailing for the most part but I still failed with ABSTRACT and CHESTNUT and couldn’t fully parse OVEREXERT. My top picks were HACKNEY, THE MASSES, ABANDON, TENNIS ELBOW, KINDA, and RADON. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  9. I ripped through this, but finished with a couple unparsed. I did not see EXE either (nor RT, for that matter) and did not parse ARCHANGEL. Favourites have been mostly mentioned, and I give an honorable mention to ABSTRACT for the BS.

    I found it lighthearted and well constructed with, as Teacow wrote, an interesting mix of clues.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

  10. Thanks for the blog, enjoyable puzzle with a neat set of clues.
    Did not know EXE but the clue was fine , good to see Ms Right and Ms Wrong.

  11. Spent too long on dead ends (I wanted to put in EXALT and THE STATES). Eventually gave up trying to parse/shoehorn in, deleted, started those clues again and all became clear.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

  12. [ Roz@10, at Carleton University in our Civil Engineering department in the ‘90’s we had a Professor Wight and a Professor Wong. ]

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