Financial Times 17,101 by SLORMGORM

by

An enjoyable start to the week from SLORMGORM…

As one expects from this setter, a solid set of clues with good surfaces. A very satisfying solve.

 

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Look good with jacket from Ecuador (6)
GANDER

G (good) + AND (with) + E[cuado]R (jacket from)

5. Piratical type shot by a skipper at noon (8)
PICAROON

PIC (shot) by A + ROO (skipper) at N (noon)

9. Republican avoiding Buds and bad spirits (6)
FIENDS

F[r]IENDS (buds, R (republican) avoiding)

10. The setter of this crossword is right rude (8)
IMPROPER

IM (the setter of this crossword) + PROPER (right)

11. Tory Euro MP in race shows disdain (8)
CONTEMPT

CON (Tory) + ((E (Euro) + MP) in TT (race))

12. Criminal released by half-cut solicitor (6)
OUTLAW

OUT (released) by LAW[yer] (solicitor, half-cut)

13. Ring around large piece of lagging (4)
CALL

CA (around, circa) + L (large) + L[agging] (piece of)

15. New monarch and I like barbershop quartets (8)
HARMONIC

(MONARCH and I)* (*new)

18. Orang playing with rat with a big head? (8)
ARROGANT

(ORANG with RAT)* (*playing)

19. Eat at home with contrary editor coming round (4)
DINE

IN with (ED)< (editor, <contrary) coming round

21. Genuine young lady in The States? (6)
REALMS

REAL (genuine) + MS (young lady)

23. Welsh lock tackling first-class attendant (8)
WAITRESS

(W (Welsh) + TRESS (lock)) tackling AI (first class)

25. Ex-pupil, 23, could be one who is studying (8)
OBSERVER

OB (ex-pupil, old boy) + SERVER (23, waitress)

26. A place some people might go to see actors (6)
AGENTS

A + GENTS (place some people might go)

27. Dames rue bust being determined by dimensions (8)
MEASURED

(DAMES RUE)* (*bust)

28. A small and kind group (6)
ASSORT

A + S (small) and SORT (kind)

DOWN
2. Comrade in a Soviet plane heading to Omsk (5)
AMIGO

A + MIG (Soviet plane) + O[msk] (heading to)

3. Academic with a report on old sculptor (9)
DONATELLO

DON (academic) with A + TELL (report) on O (old)

4. Carry on about problem getting ecstasy (6)
RESUME

RE (about) + SUM (problem) getting E (ecstasy)

5. New point that changed communist party (5,3,4,3)
PAINT THE TOWN RED

(NEW POINT THAT)* (*changed) + RED (communist)

6. Trophy on table in storage unit (8)
CUPBOARD

CUP (trophy) on BOARD (table)

7. Sailor entering rubbish place to sleep (5)
ROOST

OS (sailor, ordinary seaman) entering ROT (rubbish)

8. Work with energy helping campaign (9)
OPERATION

OP (work) with E (energy) + RATION (helping)

14. A naive brief getting competent is nice (9)
AGREEABLE

A + GREE[n] (naive, brief) getting ABLE (competent)

16. Disorganised solderers needing organising (9)
ORDERLESS

(SOLDERERS)* (*needing organising)

17. Go to see festival (8)
PASSOVER

Double definition

go = pass over = die

20. Scoundrel breaking American spies’ bug (6)
CICADA

CAD (scoundrel) breaking CIA (American spies)

22. English football team is ahead, I’m told (5)
LEEDS

“LEADS” (is ahead, “I’m told”)

24. Fabulous beast seated by vacuous youngster (5)
SATYR

SAT (seated) by Y[oungste]R (vacuous)

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,101 by SLORMGORM”

  1. I agree, Teacow; some lovely surfaces including 5d and 20d among my favourites, along with DONATELLO.
    There were a few which this blog helped to explain or confirm so thanks to Teacow and Slormgorm for the fun.

  4. Most answers went in steadily enough but “die” for ‘Go’ didn’t occur to me so I couldn’t parse PASSOVER at 17d satisfactorily and I spent a while thinking of different sorts of ‘actors’ at 26a before realising that AGENTS fitted the wordplay nicely.

    The amusing surface for MEASURED was my pick of the day.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow

  6. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow. Lots of fun. I needed help parsing PICAROON and especially enjoyed 5 down.

  7. Many thanks to TC for the usual great blog and to all who solved and commented.

    Hope to see you all next time around, but until then its cheers and chin chin from me. 🙂

  8. Somehow I never got that the states could realms. And so instead of passover I thought there must be some British festival called the makeover, or walk over or even the hangover! But the rest was very enjoyable with my favorite being Donatello

  9. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    Gone are the days of the write-in Monday puzzles – wasn’t overly difficult but with enough grist in it to keep one busy for about the average time. A lot of lovely charades and enough misdirection to keep one on one’s toes. Particularly liked PICAROON and sorting out the long anagram at 5d.
    Finished in the NW corner with GANDER, RESUME and FIENDS – all of which were simple enough in hindsight but cleverly made to not be beforehand.

Comments are closed.