Financial Times 17,879 by SLORMGORM

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SLORMGORM kicks off the week…

I'm writing this blog from Lewes (a break from London), after having watched (and mildly officiated in) the world Toad's championship on Saturday, and then Lewes LFC beat Cheltenham 3-0 on Sunday.

A solid, and enjoyable puzzle, as one expects from this esteemed setter. 8d took me a while to parse though.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Corrupt period like the 70s ends in nought (8)
DECADENT

DECADE (period like the 70s) + N[ough]T (ends in)

5. Everyone’s down about backsliding US city (6)
DALLAS

(ALL (everyone), SAD (down) about))< (<backsliding)

10. One who revolts you? Shilling-grabbing nosy type! (7)
UPRISER

U (you?) + (S (shilling) grabbing PRIER (nosy type))

11. In a flash, heads for North Glasgow Street (7)
AMONGST

A + MO (flash) + N[orth] G[lasgow] (heads for) + ST (street)

12. Where all of the waiters might be actors? (9)
GREEN ROOM

Cryptic definition

13. I made an entire nation lose their marbles! (5)
ELGIN

Cryptic definition

15. Take a break to conserve energy or start over? (5)
RESET

REST (take a break) to conserve E (energy)

16. Possible hospital garb in a cupboard (8)
WARDROBE

WARD ROBE (possible hospital garb)

19. Support for alcoholics excludes flipping cash (3,5)
BAR STOOL

BARS (excludes) + (LOOT)< (cash, <flipping)

20. Skilful lawyer overturned case of Europop tenor (5)
ADEPT

(DA)< (lawyer, <overturned) + E[uropo]P (case of) + T (tenor)

21. Beer time? Run inside at the ready! (5)
ALERT

(ALE (beer) + T (time)), R (run) inside

23. Saint Olav’s transformative redemption (9)
SALVATION

(SAINT OLAV)* (*transformative)

25. Fancy a spirit and drop of eggnog? Slormgorm’s first! (7)
IMAGINE

(A + GIN (spirit) and E[ggnog] (drop of)), IM (Slormgorm's first)

27. Claret producer is despicable dude (7)
BLEEDER

Double definition

28. Numbers broken into by Tyneside tango groups (6)
NONETS

NOS (numbers) broken into by (NE (Tyneside, North East) + T (tango))

29. Why understudies were used in Tom Hanks film? (4,4)
CAST AWAY

Double (cryptic) definition

DOWN
1. Boring toil is ruddy awful, German admitted (8)
DRUDGERY

(RUDDY)* (*awful), GE (German) admitted

2. One with much wind stank a creep out (6,5)
CARPET SNAKE

(STANK A CREEP)* (*out)

3. Parts worried nudist is covering up close to fire (9)
DISUNITES

(NUDIST IS)* (*worried) covering [fir]E (close to)

4. Drug smuggler managed to turn cocaine over (5)
NARCO

(RAN)< (managed, <to turn) + C (cocaine) + O (over)

6. Love a party with unending wine (5)
ADORE

A + DO (party) with RE[d] (wine, unending)

7. Member of revolutionary set (3)
LEG

(GEL)< (set, <revolutionary)

8. Reclassifying 2nd and 3rd, mark material (5)
SATIN

STAIN (mark, reclassifying 2nd and 3rd)

9. Bishop just getting to grips with a large petticoat (8)
BALMORAL

(B (bishop) + MORAL (just)) getting to grips with (A + L (large))

14. Light dew and blowing winds around Albania’s capital (5,6)
GABLE WINDOW

(DEW and BLOWING)* (*winds) around A[lbania] (captial)

16. Where one finds logs of court duke discarded (8)
WOODSHED

WOO (court) + D (duke) + SHED (discarded)

17. Way a bloke could become an old American criminal (4,5)
ROAD AGENT

ROAD (way) + A + GENT (bloke)

18. One seemingly with Wings or one of the Police with Charles? (8)
STINGRAY

STING (one of the Police) with RAY (Charles)

21. A porky knight from another part of the world (5)
ALIEN

A + LIE (porky) + N (knight)

22. Head of theology isn’t commonly dirty (5)
TAINT

T[heology] (head of) + AINT (isn't, commonly)

24. House artist behind Long Island band originally (5)
LIBRA

RA (artist) behind (L (long) + I (island) + B[and] (originally))

26. First signs of ancient woman’s new bristly growth (3)
AWN

A[ncient] W[oman's] N[ew] (first signs of)

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,879 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Liked the cryptic defs GREEN ROOM and ELGIN. Also liked CAST AWAY.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.
    UPRISER (a minor point)
    S-grabbing PRIER.

  2. An accessible Monday solve and though I wasn’t familiar with either that ‘petticoat’ or ROAD AGENT, both were clear enough from the wordplay.
    I liked AMONGST (for the blink-and-you-miss-it definition), BLEEDER, GREENROOM and CARPET SNAKE (for the amusingly deceptive surface).
    Thank you, Slormgorm, and Teacow

  3. 2d CARPET SNAKE and 14d GABLE WINDOW are a couple of wind-ups, masquerading as burps, trumps or gusts.
    The solution to 14d even cheekily contains the other pronunciation and a GA[b]LE. I especially iked it.

  4. I waited until the grid was almost complete before entering GREENROOM although the idea had occurred much earlier. I was surprised to find it’s not two words. And the opposite problem with CAST AWAY which I assumed would have been one word! BALMORAL as petticoat is new to me – I am aware of the hat. I’d agree with KVa’s parsing of UPRISER. ALERT is very typical of this setter and made me smile.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.

  5. Learned something from this solid and clever puzzle: BALMORAL and AWN were new to me as well as the World Toad Championship. I hope it was enjoyable.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  6. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

    10ac: Collins 2023 pp 1585 and 1606 give prier as a variant spelling or pryer, which has the explicit definition “a person who pries”. Whether agent nouns of this type can be considered a regular formation from their verbs appears to be a grey area, so it is good to have this one explicitly in a standard dictionary.
    12ac: Collins p 857 gives greenroom as one word.

  7. I found this difficult to complete. Could someone explain how a claret producer is a bleeder? Winemaking jargon?

  8. Cineraria@7 re 27ac (BLEEDER). It is using “claret” to mean blood. This meaning is in ODE 2010 p 320 where it is marked as “archaic, informal”.

  9. Good things come in threes: my third puzzle of the day, and a trio of excellence.
    So….a ROAD AGENT is, or was, a highwayman in the Wild West – trust our American cousins to take the romance out of it! A new one on me, but the wordplay was kindly benign.

    GREENROOM is one word, CAST AWAY is two; both eyebrows raised, but it must be so.

    Many, many things to like in this challenge, but particularly STINGRAY…(or is that STING RAY?)

    Thank you, Slormgorm & Teacow
    ( Where else but in cryptic world would you see a sentence like that? )

  10. I enjoyed the puzzle but am mystified as to why the definition of GABLE WINDOW is light. It provides light but it is not light nor does it mean to light, at least as far as I know. “And the lord said let there be GABLE WINDOW”?

  11. 14dn: Collins 2023 p 1135 has definitions for the noun light including “9 anything that allows the entrance of light, such as a window or compartment of a window”.

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