Financial Times 17,173 by SLORMGORM

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Monday morning kicks off with a SLORMGORM…

A pretty speedy but satisfying puzzle from SLORMGORM this morning, I've not seen an ounce in crossword land for ages, so 6d provided a welcome sighting.

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7. Clue is success, Neo at first admitted (4)
HINT

HIT (success), N[eo] (at first) admitted

8. Remark written about university duty (10)
COMMITMENT

COMMENT (remark) written about MIT (university)

10. A lawyer goes over info in schedule (6)
AGENDA

(A + DA (lawyer)) goes over GEN (info)

11. Sadly no bunker is still in one piece (8)
UNBROKEN

(NO BUNKER)* (*sadly)

12. Famine upset good man – that’s plain (8)
MANIFEST

(FAMINE)* (*upset) + ST (good man)

13. A French model by Parisian street’s dishonest (6)
UNTRUE

UN (a, French) + T (model) + RUE (street, Parisian)

15. Something on a heathland one might trip on? (5,8)
MAGIC MUSHROOM

Cryptic definiition

18. Tempt nurse with piece of topaz and diamonds (6)
ENTICE

EN (nurse) with T[opaz] (piece of) and ICE (diamonds)

20. Fellow involved in robbery is playboy, perhaps (8)
HEDONIST

DON (fellow) involved in HEIST (robbery)

22. Fiery old bird (8)
FLAMINGO

FLAMING (fiery) + O (old)

24. Compass attachment in brig I’m balancing? (6)
GIMBAL

[bri]G IM BAL[ancing] (in)

25. Test rum inn put out in measuring device (10)
INSTRUMENT

(TEST RUM INN)* (*put out)

26. Nothing close to unbeatable Egyptian runner (4)
NILE

NIL (nothing) + [unbeatabl]E (close to)

DOWN
1. Awful long mink worn by South African swimmer (4,6)
KING SALMON

(LONG MINK)* (*awful) worn by SA (South African)

2. Reputation of substitute appalling ultimately (8)
STANDING

STAND IN (substitute) + [appallin]G (ultimately)

3. Earl stuck under waste metal in sticky situation (6)
SCRAPE

E (earl) stuck under SCRAP (waste metal)

4. Spray that a coiffeur might use in Bow? (8)
AIRBRUSH

[h]AIRBRUSH (a coiffeur might use, in Bow ("h" dropped by Cockney))

5. Bring in fortified wine after one slice of Manchego (6)
IMPORT

PORT (fortified wine) after (I (one) + M[anchego] (slice of))

6. Cat you lost at some point in the past (4)
ONCE

O[u]NCE (cat, U (you) lost)

9. Where some old American leaders appear stony-faced? (5,8)
MOUNT RUSHMORE

Cryptic definition

14. Must-see broadcast sublime as filled with touch of nostalgia (10)
UNMISSABLE

(SUBLIME AS with N[ostalgia] (touch of))* (*broadcast)

16. Neat crop if conservative thin on top (5-3)
CLEAN-CUT

CUT (crop), (C (conservative) + LEAN (thin)) on top

17. A mentor excited, having acquired new trinket (8)
ORNAMENT

(A MENTOR)* (*excited) having acquired N (new)

19. Hot friend one put into a cooler? (6)
INMATE

IN (hot) + MATE (friend)

21. Unpleasant type breaking underworld fingers (6)
DIGITS

GIT (unpleasant type) breaking DIS (underworld)

23. Country estate (4)
LAND

Double definition

13 comments on “Financial Times 17,173 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Nice and easy does it ? a gentle offering from Slormgorm to ease us into the week.
    Solved with a minimum of fuss; just a rethink necessary for 16d where I had lazily pencilled in ‘close-cut’ for ‘neat crop’ before 18’s ‘diamonds’ forced me back to reconsider both parsing and definition.
    My picks were HEDONIST, AIRBRUSH and DIGITS.
    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow.

  3. I was defeated by Vulcan’s in the Guardian, but my self-esteem was restored with this one, that I finished almost before I started. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t enjoyable. The only thing that stumped me was Bow in 4d — must brush up on my British geography.

  4. Unquestionably the quickest cryptic I have ever solved. So enjoyable and memorable for that reason alone. To think, some of you find them all as easy to do as I found this!

  5. Thanks for the blog, fairly easy but the clues are very neat and precise with lots of variety. I enjoyed it and when I was learning cryptics I would have absolutely loved it.
    My favourite was MAGIC MUSHROOM , our setter clearly knows the fondness of Liberty Cap for heathland.
    Geoff@3 do you know the rhyme “Oranges and Lemons” ? It ends with the great bell of BOW.

  6. I agree that this was on the easy end of the spectrum but I confess that I did not know 24A, although the cross letters led me to see the obvious answer.

    Does anyone else dislike “touch of”, hint of” etc. to indicate the first letter of a word -as in 14D?

  7. As others have commented, not too difficult but v. enjoyable at the same time. MAGIC MUSHROOM was my favourite, even though I spotted the correct sense of ‘trip’ almost straight away.

    I agree with you Peter @6 about “touch of” etc to indicate the first letter of a word. Not my favourite device and if anything I think it’s becoming more widely used.

    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow

  8. Thanks Teacow – funny, it took me a while to remember the O(u)NCE have run through plenty of other felines in my head, how soon these things slip from the mind! A rare “ink on pink” solve for me, accompanied by a pint, and both very enjoyable – always good to see a FLAMINGO, thanks Slormgorm.
    Re: touch of, bit of etc – I don’t like it either as it is so unspecific – while the convention seems clear, upon first acquaintance it could almost be a string of any length from any part of the word – when I started solving (not that long ago) it took a while to be confident that it would mean just the first letter – and recently (another setter) I saw some such variant used for the first two letters – grrr!

  9. Many thanks the TC for the blog and to all who solved and commented.

    Bit/touch/dash etc is just a convention for first letters as Gazzh points out. ‘Bits of this’ could equal TH[is], I suppose. Just gotta go with convention sometimes.

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

  10. Well I tried to overcomplicate 15a. Thought it might be something=magic, then a reverse anagram (mush) of moor (heathland).

  11. Apologies, I thought I’d overcome novice status by now, but I fail to see why ounce=cat, or DIS=underworld? Could someone please enlighten me?

  12. Mikey@11 the OUNCE is the snow leopard , a very elusive member of the cat family from the mountains of Asia .
    DIS is from mythology , the Roman underworld or hell.

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