Financial Times 16,521 by ZAMORCA

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A ZAMORCA to start off Monday…

Not much to say really… nothing too taxing here, though the precise parsing of some of them was a little awkward. I suppose 7d might be a bit obscure for overseas solvers.

A nice gentle start to the week.

Thanks ZAMORCA!

image of grid

ACROSS
1 Can briefly attempt to acquire self esteem in class (8)
CATEGORY

CA[n] (briefly) + TRY (attempt) to acquire EGO (self esteem)

5 Tears fringes off rug to see insect (6)
EARWIG

[t]EAR[s] (fringes off) + WIG (rug)

9 Regularly bring in sparkling wine to entertain large street party (8)
CARNIVAL

([b]R[in]N[g] I[n] (regularly), CAVA (sparkling wine) to entertain) + L (large)

10 Harry’s smalls wearing well (6)
HASSLE

SS (smalls) wearing HALE (well)

12 Single woman journalist’s following peacekeepers (5)
UNWED

(W (woman) + ED (journalist)) following UN (peacekeepers)

13 Tramp accepts employment at home on the water (9)
HOUSEBOAT

(HOBO (tramp) accepts USE (employment)) + AT

14 Finish letters from friend in Greece (6)
ENDING

[fri]END IN G[reece] (letters from)

16 Finally lost sanity in betrayal of the state (7)
TREASON

[los]T (finally) + REASON (sanity)

18 Game of strategy’s too complicated to grip male students (7)
OTHELLO

(TOO)* (*complicated) to grip (HE (male) + LL (students))

20 Don’t slouch, son! These exercises strengthen abs (3-3)
SIT-UPS

SIT UP (don’t slouch) + S (son)

22 Service request: allow America to finance hosting Russian leader (3,2,4)
LET US PRAY

LET (allow) + US (america) + PAY (to finance) hosting R[ussian] (leader)

23 A quiet brook’s long lost part of spring (5)
APRIL

A + P (quiet) + RIL[l] (brook, L (long) lost))

24 Dodgy tradesman’s bully with young lad (6)
COWBOY

COW (bully) with BOY (young lad)

25 Party worker after a short time is in command (8)
DOMINANT

DO (party) + (ANT (worker) after MIN (short time))

26 Spoil sculpture with hard varnish (6)
POLISH

(SPOIL)* (*sculpture) with H (hard)

27 Main line during disorder is continuous (8)
SEAMLESS

SEA (main) + (L (line) during MESS (disorder))

DOWN
1 Part of magic act uses plant (6)
CACTUS

[magi]C ACT US[es] (part of)

2 Worthwhile to net bucks and withdraw from fight (5,2,3,5)
THROW IN THE TOWEL

(WORTHWHILE TO NET)* (*bucks)

3 Good skin’s hard work! (5)
GRIND

G (good) + RIND (skin)

4 Terrible driver takes zero notice cutting right hand turn going north (4,3)
ROAD HOG

((O (zero) + AD (notice)) cutting RH (right hand)) + (GO (turn))< (<going north)

6 A labyrinth’s intended, it’s said, to create awe (9)
AMAZEMENT

A + MAZE (labyrinth) + “meant” (intended, “it’s said”)

7 Riding lovely horse following direction for seaside town (6-5-4)
WESTON-SUPER-MARE

(ON (riding) + SUPER (lovely) + MARE (horse)) following WEST (direction)

8 Welcome to enter gig free (8)
GREETING

(ENTER GIG)* (*free)

11 Stop queen having sex (4)
QUIT

QU (queen) having IT (sex)

15 Misapprehensions when setter replaces article in references (9)
ILLUSIONS

I (setter) replaces A (article) in ALLUSIONS (references)

17 Idiot put carbon under top secret note on page of old sized paper (8)
FOOLSCAP

FOOL (idiot) + (put C under S[ecret] (top)) + A (note) on P (page)

19 Lady’s fingers get approval by recognised artist (4)
OKRA

OK (approval) by RA (recognised artist)

20 Way to secretly watch agent crack (7)
SPYHOLE

SPY (agent) + HOLE (crack)

21 Establish first class record stacking up dishes (6)
PLATES

(SET (establish) + A (first class) + LP (record))< (<stacking up)

23 Mao and Xi reformed in principle (5)
AXIOM

(MAO and XI)* (*reformed)

8 comments on “Financial Times 16,521 by ZAMORCA”

  3. Pleasant gentle start to the week, with (as Teacow says) a couple of awkwardnesses. Thanks, both

  4. Yes, I thought we were on for a pangram too but I could find no ‘J’. This was a very pleasing one-coffee-crossword to start the week. UNWED was my FOI followed by 2d, after which the answers fell into place very quickly. HASSLE was last – more guesswork than parsing – one of those small but (sometimes tricky) simple clues. I particularly liked 13a and 22a while 23d raised a wry smile. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow.

  5. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow

    Started by confidently writing in SESAME at 1d !!   After not finding much joy with the crossers up there, headed down to the topical AXIOM and worked my way across the bottom from there.  Not too many holdups from then and eventually got UNWED to invalidate the original 1d – head-slapped when saw the hidden CACTUS a little later.

    WESTON-super-MARE was very clearly clued and after resolving the wordplay, the resort town rang faint bells of recognition.  Some nice charades to work on along the way to what turned out to be a Monday-standard but very enjoyable puzzle.  Lots of good surfaces to look back on and admire afterwards.

    Finished in the NE corner with that town, the cleverly constructed SEAMLESS that took a while to see and HASSLE which was also my last one in.

  6. Generally pleasant with favourites being EARWIG, LET US PRAY (great surface), DOMINANT, and the simple QUIT. WESTON-SUPER-MARE and FOOLSCAP were new to me but easily parsed. I’m unfamiliar with OKRA as “lady’s fingers” so I’ll add that to my vocabulary. Thanks to both.

  7. As Teacow says, nothing too taxing here and a nice gentle start to the week.

    The surface of 2dn suggested something on the lines of ‘take the money and run’, although the crossing letters we had made the answer obvious.  And 15dn reminded us of a misprint in a programme which promised us a presentation about ILLUSION in Elgar’s music.

    Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.

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