Financial Times 18,082 by SLORMGORM

SLORMGORM kicks off the week…

A solid puzzle with some nifty surfaces, as one expects from this setter. I may have missed something in the parsing of 1a though.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS

1. Aristocrat attending formal meal wears me out! (6,6)

DINNER JACKET

Cryptic definition (not really sure about this)

10. Ducati E-bikes? Primarily not heavy transport! (7)

DELIGHT

D[ucati] E[-bikes] (primarily) + LIGHT (not heavy)

11. Time passing by without a partner can be top (7)

SINGLET

T (time) passing by SINGLE (without a partner)

12. Blockhead originals from Ian Dury: iconic old tunes (5)

IDIOT

I[an] D[rury] I[conic] O[ld] T[unes] (originals from)

13. Great film about a person with several mates? (8)

BIGAMIST

(BIG (great) + MIST (film)) about A

15. Shocked into action by vile gas and runs (10)

GALVANISED

(VILE GAS AND)* (*runs)

16. Bit of copper off metal enclosures for donkeys (4)

AGES

[c]AGES (metal enclosures, C[opper] (bit of) off)

18. Dog sounds a right faff (clean-ups ultimately) (4)

ARFS

A + R (right) + [faf]F [clean-up]S (ultimately)

20. Stiff containers in a cargo ship at sea (10)

SARCOPHAGI

(A CARGO SHIP)* (*at sea)

22. US police artist regularly avoided SoHo hot spots (4,4)

HEAT RASH

HEAT (US police) + RA (artist) + S[o]H[o] (regularly avoided)

24. Dude appearing in Love Island from Muscat? (5)

OMANI

MAN (dude) appearing in (O (love) + I (island))

26. Going on horse and trap’s great at front (7)

NAGGING

NAG (horse) and GIN (trap) + G[reat] (at front)

27. Name of male outlaw seen around Spilt (7)

BRENDAN

BAN (outlaw) seen around REND (split)

28. Treat this with spray and with a massage (6,6)

DANISH PASTRY

(THIS with SPRAY AND)* (*with a massage)

DOWN

2. Sick leave can create hostile feelings (3,4)

ILL WILL

ILL (sick) + WILL (leave, as in hand down)

3. Alcoholic drink consumed prior to crash? (8)

NIGHTCAP

Cryptic definition

4. Judge one singing to The Police fifth- class (4)

RATE

RAT (one singing to the police) + E (fifth-class)

5. Sobriety’s nice, beats getting drunk around noon (10)

ABSTINENCE

(NICE BEATS)* (*getting drunk) around N (noon)

6. African state bordered by Lake Nyasa (5)

KENYA

[la]KE NYA[sa] (bordered by)

7. Lanky tailless top dog yapping from trap? (7)

TALKING

TAL[l] (lanky, tailless) + KING (top dog)

8. Accounts assistant fudged hand-made icing (6,7)

ADDING MACHINE

(HAND MADE ICING)* (*fudged)

9. Workers in numbers assist in attic renovating (13)

STATISTICIANS

(ASSIST IN ATTIC)* (*renovating)

14. TV signal is rubbish for shows like Heartbeat etc. (5,5)

VITAL SIGNS

(TV SIGNAL IS)* (*rubbish)

17. We’re against old show-offs keeping quiet (8)

OPPOSERS

(O (old) + POSERS (show-offs)) keeping P (quiet)

19. Weary German editor with The Standard? (7)

FLAGGED

(G (German) + ED (editor)) with FLAG (the standard)

21. I might decorate a screw in prison (7)

AWARDER

A + WARDER (screw in prison)

23. Rule of cats and dogs you’ve heard about? (5)

REIGN

"rain" = REIGN (cats and dogs, "you've heard about")

25. Shortened measure of the best spirits paired with starters (4)

TBSP

T[he] B[est] S[pirits] P[aired] (starters)

13 comments on “Financial Times 18,082 by SLORMGORM”

KVa

@1 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 08:46

DINNER JACKET
Aristocrat is referring to the jacket brand ‘Aristocrat’?
JACKET attending/at DINNER
Def: Wears me out? Or the whole clue?

KVa

@2 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 09:07

BIGAMIST
Does ‘several’ fit in?
REIGN
Rain cats and dogs: Does ‘cats and dogs’ mean ‘rain’?

Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.

RamblingMan

@3 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 11:58

I think there is a typo in 27A? To me the last word should be Split (a synonym of ‘rend’). However it is Spilt in the original puzzle.

Roz

@4 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 12:44

Thanks for the blog , a lot of clever clues , neat wordplay and interesting definitions .
Agree with KVa@1 , Aristocrat jackets seem very popular with the scary Goth girlies .
KVa@2 , several can mean more than one so BIGAMIST is fine .
Agree with RamblingMan@3 definitely a misprint in the paper .

Hovis

@5 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 13:00

Roz @4. Not wishing to put words into KVa’s mouth, so to speak, I felt that his comment on ‘several’ was that this naturally leads to ‘polygamist’, rather than your bog standard bigamist.

Contractacus

@6 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 13:41

1A think of the aristocrats in Downton Abbey wearing their dinner jackets every evening. Those jackets are going to get worn out quickly. That is the way I read it.

Petert

@7 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 16:07

I think the definition of FLAGGED is ” with Standard’ and it’s flag – weary + G German + Ed. It’s more or less the same, but seems more natural to me.

Perplexus

@8 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 16:32

I parsed FLAGGED in the same way as Petert@7: either parsing works, of course, but I agree that the “with standard” definition is a touch more satisfactory.

Tony Santucci

@9 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 16:43

Thanks Slormgorm. Aside from missing AWARDER this was easy pickings with my top choices being DELIGHT, BIGAMIST (reminds me of the old joke, ‘you can’t have your Kate and Edith too’), GALVANISED, SARCOPHAGI, and ABSTINENCE. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

allan_c

@10 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 17:23

A solid puzzlw with nothing controversial. We weren’t aware of the Aristocrat brand but the answer to 1ac was clear enough. As for 27ac it was a case of seeing what one wanted to see – the misdirection of the uppercase S directed attention away from the typo and we didn’t notice it till it was pointed out.
Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow.

Martin

@11 - Mon 16th Jun 25, 19:45

Good puzzle. I feel like my efforts were inversely proportional to the difficulty of the clues. Aristocrat jacket doesn’t mean anything to me, even after a quick Google. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.