Financial Times 18,094 by SLORMGORM

by

SLORMGORM kicks off the week…

A solid and gentle puzzle, with a few chuckles along the way.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Felt rather aged after Operation Overlord (6,3,5)
ALFRED THE GREAT

(FELT RATHER AGED)* (*after operation)

10. Relatives in usual hang-outs taking heroin (5)
AUNTS

[h]AUNTS (usual hang-outs, taking H (heroin))

11. Reason pig gambols about in the country (9)
SINGAPORE

(REASON PIG)* (*gambols about)

12. Policeman detaining a Yankee for loitering? (7)
STAYING

STING (policeman) detaining (A + Y (Yankee))

13. European fast to bury Slormgorm in earth? (7)
ELEMENT

(E (European) + LENT (fast)) to bury ME (Slormgorm)

14. I write comments about heavyweight making a coming back (5)
NOTER

(RE (about) + TON (heavyweight))< (<making a comeback)

16. A large amount of snowfall? (9)
AVALANCHE

Double definition

19. A bloke hospital department fixed for good (9)
PERMANENT

PER (a) + MAN (bloke) + ENT (hospital department)

20. A pine or hazel primarily? (5)
AITCH

A + ITCH (pine)

22. Betters on one of the roulette colours and 29? (7)
REDCAPS

CAPS (betters) on RED (one of the roulette colours)

25. Socially aware seaside town to ban book (5-2)
RIGHT-ON

[b]RIGHTON (seaside town, to ban B (book))

27. A group working noisily down in the pit? (9)
ORCHESTRA

Cryptic definition

28. Wind up speaker that is out of time (5)
ANNOY

[t]ANNOY (speaker, that is out of T (time))

29. I’m erotic and I’ll pay off MP (8,6)
MILITARY POLICE

(IM EROTIC and ILL PAY)* (*off)

DOWN
2. Network with one hiring players for City (9)
LANCASTER

LAN (network) with CASTER (one hiring players)

3. Contrary Teacher greeting sage in India (5)
RISHI

(SIR)< (teacher, <contrary) + HI (greeting)

4. Mark out bit of edging by indicator in Escort (9)
DESIGNATE

(E[dging] (bit of) by SIGN (indicator)) in DATE (escort)

5. Thin geriatrics passing around joint (5)
HINGE

[t]HIN GE[riatrics] (passing around)

6. A male with a gut wandering around in a state (9)
GUATEMALA

(A MALE with A GUT)* (*wandering around)

7. King wanting horse and end to terrible weather? (5)
ERODE

[h]EROD (king, wanting H (horse)) and [terribl]E (end to)

8. House in field (7)
THEATRE

Double definition

9. Cloth rep raised charge? Very brazen ultimately! (6)
PARSON

(RAP)< (charge, <raised) + SO (very) + [braze]N (ultimately)

15. A dragnet set up to snare old American criminal (4,5)
ROAD AGENT

(A DRAGNET)* (*set up) to snare O (old)

17. Toxic gases Pam farted explosively (9)
AFTERDAMP

(PAM FARTED)* (*explosively)

18. Unresponsive dude given a shot in the arm (9)
CATATONIC

CAT (dude) given A + TONIC (shot in the arm)

19. Salesman turns up with document to complete? Go on! (7)
PERFORM

(REP)< (salesman, <turns up) with FORM (document to complete)

21. Around end of July, polishes shades (6)
HONEYS

around [jul]Y (end of), HONES (polishes)

23. City to stop youth getting put up for transfer (5)
DECAL

EC (city) to stop (LAD)< (youth, <getting put up)

24. One involved with celebrity music producer (5)
SITAR

I (one) involved with STAR (celebrity)

26. Greek having trouble in vessel (5)
GRAIL

GR (Greek) having AIL (trouble)

11 comments on “Financial Times 18,094 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Three new words:
    HONEYS, (dark
    glasses)AFTERDAMP and ROAD AGENT but all fairly clued. Agree with Teacow’s assessment .
    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow.

  2. Wasn’t aware that Honeys could be sunglasses and assumed it referred to the honey colour (not sure this can be pluralised).
    A horse, a horse. My kingdom for a horse. My Shakespearean knowledge is virtually zilch but at least I know that wasn’t Herod.

  3. My weekend had a very GUATEMALAN flavor (literally–a Guatemalan snack at an international food festival, a show on TV on Guatemalan cuisine, and a meal at a Guatemalan restaurant), so I was amused at the coincidence of one more allusion.

    Hovis: Richard III.

  4. Thanks Slormgorm for a witty crossword with my favourites being AUNTS, STAYING, ERODE, and SITAR. I nho ROAD AGENT as a criminal but America is a big place I guess. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  5. I appreciated the gentle and well-constructed cluing and ticked ORCHESTRA and AITCH

    There were a few too many stretched synonyms and new words. Further, they seemed concentrated in the down clues which unbalanced the puzzle, and I found the acrosses really easy and the downs challenging in places.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

  6. Quite a few delayed PDMs today (9dn, 12ac, 20ac to name but three) but we got everything in the end. The shades and the American criminal (a highwayman according to Chambers) were new to us. We didn’t think 6ac was particularly cryptic, and delayed entering it till we had all the crossing letters.
    Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow.

  7. I remembered ROAD AGENT from previous cryptics. A quick look in the archives show that SLORMGORM used it last October followed quickly by ECCLES (in the Independent) last November.

  9. Like Hovis@2 I thought HONEYS@21d were different shades of yellow/orange/brown.

    I enjoyed this puzzle. Favourites included the musical policeman in 12a STAYING, the brilliantly treeless solution at 20a AITCH, the paradoxical blackmail scandal at 29a MILITARY POLICE, and the fat tourist in Central America at 6d. I also appreciated the different clue for the ORCHESTRAL chestnut at 27a.

    Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow for the fun.

  10. Sunglasses … sunnies, yes, but honeys? I too thought honey colours. And for road agent I’d have guessed salesman rather than highwayman, but ylayl. Smooth puzzle, ta Slormgorm and Teacow.

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