Financial Times 16,829 by SLORMGORM

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A Monday morning SLORMGORM to start the week…

This felt a lot more fiddly than normal but I still rather enjoyed it. 5d and 20d were probably my favourites,

 

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. I serve lamb freshly-done with side of red fish (6,5)
SILVER BREAM

(I SERVE LAMB with R[ed] (side of))* (*freshly-done)

7. Music member of The Police won’t start on piano (3)
POP

[c]PO (member of the police, Crime Prevention Officer, won’t start) on P (piano)

or, more likely (thanks Pelham Barton@2):

[c]OP (member of the police, won’t start) on P (piano)

9. Chauffeur dropping off Democrat in Mississippi? (5)
RIVER

[d]RIVER (chauffeur, dropping off D (democrat))

10. Pinching rear of colleagues and teacher, face this? (9)
DISMISSAL

DIAL (face) pinching ([colleague]S (rear of) and MISS (teacher)) &lit

11. Duck or watch (9)
GOLDENEYE

GOLDEN (or) + EYE (watch)

12. Look into supporting platform on which Foot stood? (5)
FLOOR

LO (look) into FOR (supporting)

13. Knight charges eastern battleground to capture gun (7)
ENFIELD

N (knight), (E (eastern) + FIELD (battleground)) to capture

15. Not hearing case of defence leads to almighty furore (4)
DEAF

D[efenc]E (case of) + A[lmighty] F[urore] (leads to)

18. Tins and jugs (4)
CANS

Double definition

20. Fractious rubbish about drugs written by viscount (7)
PEEVISH

PISH (rubbish) about (EE (drugs) written by V (viscount))

23. One in Balmoral, perhaps, heading to inspect land (5)
HAITI

I (one) in HAT (Balmoral perhaps) + I[nspect] (heading to)

24. Idiot messed around with car, installing new gauge (9)
INDICATOR

(IDIOT with CAR)* (*messed around) installing N (new)

26. Bones mates and tar cooked up close to Tahiti (9)
METATARSI

(MATES and TAR)* (*cooked up) + [Tahit]I (close to)

27. With nothing on, king drops in on contrary clergyman (5)
NAKED

K (king) drops in on (DEAN)< (clergyman, <contrary)

28. Smack? Not good to have smack! (3)
TAN

TAN[g] (smack, as in a tinge or hint, not G (good))

29. Shades sullen girls opened by back of lodging (4,7)
DARK GLASSES

(DARK (sullen) + LASSES (girls)) opened by [lodgin]G (back of)

DOWN
1. Small husband in wig showed silent indifference (8)
SHRUGGED

S (small) + H (husband) + RUGGED (in wig)

2. Hugely enjoy being in intimate relationships (4,4)
LOVE LIFE

LOVE (hugely enjoy) + LIFE (being)

3. I’m told possible description of Noddy’s pal is weird (5)
EERIE

“eary” (possible description of Noddy’s pal, Big Ears, “I’m told”)

4. Shock of retirement? (7)
BEDHEAD

Cryptic definition

5. Hotel is often avoided by people in this London area (4,3)
EAST END

Cryptic definition

Referring to H-dropping, H being Hotel

6. Old lady with walker seen around in processing unit (9)
MAINFRAME

(MA (old lady) with FRAME (walker)) seen around IN

7. Minister for Sport must be sacked, article held (6)
PASTOR

(SPORT)* (*must be sacked), A (article) held

8. Crack on the bottom of china of poor quality (6)
PALTRY

TRY (crack) on the bottom of PAL (china, rhyming slang for mate)

14. Came up with a diet to get to size-zero, possibly (9)
EMACIATED

(CAME)< (<up) with (A DIET)* (*possibly)

With clarification from the setter (thanks Hoskins/Slormgorm@14)

(CAME with A DIET)* (*up)

16. Kiss with mate ruffled bloomers (8)
MISTAKES

(KISS with MATE)* (*ruffled)

17. First two bits of hazel breaking scared wild game (8)
CHARADES

HA[zel] (first two bits) breaking (SCARED)* (*wild)

19. Troublemaker in prison kidnapping bishop and earl (7)
STIRRER

STIR (prison) kidnapping (RR (bishop) and E (earl))

20. Marmalade lover loses weight walking on foot (7)
PADDING

PADDING[ton] (Marmalade lover, loses TON (weight))

21. Police house in New York in which many sing? (3,3)
THE MET

Double definition

22. I might have a hand in teetotaller’s wearing manner (6)
MITTEN

TT (teetotaller) wearing MIEN (manner)

25. One in Boris’ party having brief carefree dance (5)
CONGA

CON (one in Boris’ party) having GA[y] (carefree, brief)

23 comments on “Financial Times 16,829 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Enjoyed this but found the NE corner a little tricky. Favourites included those references to prison, Paddington and Big Ears. Wondered if the latter would be universally understood but the crossers and definition were probably enough.
    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  2. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    7ac: I had this as [c]OP following P, but I think it works either way.

  3. Enjoyed this for the main part but with a few misgivings. In 13a, “charges” and “capture” seem to both doing the same job referencing the inclusion. I feel that there is no anagram indicator for “diet” in 14d. The blog suggests the final “possibly”, but that doesn’t work for me, nor should it work for anybody, I feel.

    Loved a lot of the constructions. It takes a seasoned setter to take a simple word like DEAF and weave such a nice surface around it. Was unfamiliar with BEDHEAD referring to BED HAIR but Chambers confirmed this alternative meaning.

  4. Oh, I also had 7a as Pelham @2. I think it is more usual for “on” to mean “following” in an across clue but “preceding” in a down clue.

  5. I also had COP for 7a. Hovis may be interested to know that there’s a line of hair products named BED HEAD for those desirous of acquiring artfully tousled tresses.

  6. Thanks Pelham Barton@2 (and others!)… I’ve added the more likely COP parsing.
    I agree with Hovis@3 regarding the anagrind (or lack thereof) in 14d… it was the best I could come up with.

  7. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    Quite chunky for the Monday time slot and enjoyed it – particularly the NE and SW corners, both of which took a while to work through.
    BEDHEAD was a new term and thought that the GOLDENEYE clue was really economic and very clever. Wasn’t across Paddington Bear enough to know about his penchant for ‘marmalade’, actually thought that it must be a pet. Slowed myself up by writing in MAID as the first bit of MAINFRAME initially.
    Finished in the SW with THE MET, HAITI and MITTEN the last few in.

  11. OK, I ultimately thought of that too.
    However, I wasn’t aware of the fact that such a walking aid can simply be called ‘frame’.
    Not part of my life yet …..

  12. I became stuck in the NW corner, being on the point of giving up until I finally saw ENFIELD which helped with the crossers I hadn’t been able to get. I had no idea about the ‘Marmalade lover’ so 20d remained unparsed. I’m v. familiar with the term FRAME for ‘walker’ in its two main variants, a pick-up frame or a wheelie walker.

    Quite a stiff start to the er… working week. Off to do the Slormgorm in another existence in the Indy and I’m hoping for something a bit gentler.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow

  13. Thanks to Slormgorm for a good Monday exercise, which took a bit longer than usual. Only slight quibble was on 14d as noted above. I wasn’t familiar with that meaning of “bedhead”, either, so that’s my education for the day.

  14. Many thanks to Teacow for the nice blog and to all who solved and commented.

    I think I labelled this easyish in difficulty, but as always there can be unforeseen stumbling blocks so apologies if it gave anyone too much of a headache on the first day back at work.

    Hovis, 13a ‘to capture’ is the link to def ‘to get/capture’ the answer. However, I fancy using it in a clue with an inclusion was, although for me correct, prolly making things unduly harder/confusing for the solver. In 14d the anagrind is ‘up’ and the ‘with’ there to make include the rest of the fodder.

    Cheers to all and see you next time around. 🙂

  16. Hoskins/Slormgorm @14. How can “up” be the anagrind when is denoting the reversal of “came” in a down clue?

  17. Hovis, as Slormgorm made clear (I think) ‘up’ is not a reversal indicator here.
    True, if it were, that could give ‘Came up’ = EMAC, and, as you say, then we would get stuck.
    However, EMAC is also an anagram of ‘Came’ (as part of the total fodder ‘Came + a diet”) with the often much-discussed ‘up’ as the indicator.
    And therefore, ‘possibly’ must be part of the definition.

  18. I think CAME up ( mixed up ) with A DIET is one whole anagram. The CAME becoming EMAC is just coincidence.

  21. Thanks Slormgorm for the Monday challenge. I missed MITTEN, TAN, and PADDING (did not know Paddington) and could not parse PALTRY or EERIE so thanks Teacow. “Up” by itself as an anagram indicator is new to me so I’ll have to add it to the ever-growing list. Favourites included PEEVISH, NAKED, and BEDHEAD, a very common term in the US.

  22. As ever, it is always a pleasure to get feedback from the setter in this blog.
    So, many thanks to Hovis/Slormgorm@14 for clarification on 14d. I was blinded by “up” being the reversal of CAME. Have amended the parsing accordingly.

  23. How about TILTON for 22d? I think it works as &lit (I and L (hand) in TT + ON (wearing)) – she was an American journalist and temperance worker (though I confess of never have heard of her without the help of Google…)

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