7. Sick of Paris, having eaten English lunch? (4)
MEAL
MAL (sick, of Paris) having eaten E (English)
8. A clergyman cuddling daughter is direct (10)
ADMINISTER
A MINISTER (a clergyman) cuddling D (daughter)
10. Rip off an item of clothing (6)
FLEECE
11. Hand out endless beer? That’s logical! (8)
RATIONAL
RATION (hand out) + AL[e] (beer, endless)
12. Type of jazz released due to head of Mercury (4,4)
FREE FORM
FREE (released) + FOR (due to) + M[ercury] (head of)
13. Posh performer taking bit of penicillin will make recovery (6)
UPTURN
U (posh) + TURN (performer) taking P[enicillin] (bit of)
15. A shocking bit of weather seen by the globe? (4,9)
BALL LIGHTNING
18. American ace on medicine is petrifying female (6)
MEDUSA
US (American) + A (ace) on MED (medicine)
20. People providing help for a few punters (8)
ABETTERS
22. Getting drunk? I can’t with ale or port (8)
ALICANTE
(I CAN'T + ALE)* (*getting drunk)
24. Short periods of time can be magical things (6)
SPELLS
25. After dressing, greet a nice relative (5-5)
GREAT-NIECE
(GREET A NICE)* (*after dressing)
26. Loud sound out of one hooter (4)
NOSE
NO[i]SE (loud sound, out of I)
1. Ordeal pleb suffers is worthy of contempt (10)
DEPLORABLE
(ORDEAL PLEB)* (*suffers)
2. Rude beauty scratching bottom makes bloomer (8)
BLUEBELL
BLUE (rude) + BELL[e] (beauty, scratching bottom)
3. Look in wonder at old boy that’s upended outhouse (6)
GAZEBO
GAZE (look in wonder at) + OB< (old boy, <upended)
4. Coach popular with supporter around club (8)
INSTRUCT
IN (popular) with STRUT (supporter) around C (club)
5. Group using some bass or treble (6)
ASSORT
[b]ASS OR T[reble] (using some)
6. Paper Arab leader put round European cheese (4)
FETA
FT (paper) + A[rab] (leader) put round E (European)
9. Madman eagerly crashed into old Escort (4,9)
MARY MAGDALENE
(MADMAN EAGERLY)* (*crashed)
14. Large dress needs alterations whatever the cost (10)
REGARDLESS
(LARGE DRESS)* (*needs alterations)
16. Liberal bringing in money for education (8)
LEARNING
L (liberal) + EARNING (bringing in money)
17. Ultimately, need hint to get a letter jumble (2,3,3)
IN THE END
(NEED HINT)* (*to get a letter jumble)
19. Naked relation briefly appears on commercial (6)
UNCLAD
UNCL[e] (relation, briefly) appears on AD (commercial)
21. One who is taking seven around small festival (6)
EASTER
EATER (one who is taking seven) around S (small)
23. Fat boy eats last grain of sugar (4)
LARD
LAD (boy) eats [suga]R (last grain of)
Crossword doesn’t seem to be available on website today
Found it here :-
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/84dc4605-26d6-4f99-9dfa-755f0bd0a4fa
Sorry, Mark, your Google reference doesn’t help me
odd.
just typed ft crossword 16563 into google and it came up
Tried googling. I’m still getting told to subscribe. As I’m only interested in the crossword I’m not going to take out an expensive subscription.
literally typed “ ft crossword 16563” into google then click on first link.
still works for me.
@6 mark: It worked for me. Thanks. Some of us ran into a pay wall some weeks back and it went away after a few days. We can only hope.
Mark’s link @ 2 just goes to the pay wall. His recommendation @6 worked for me. Thanks Mark
Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
Nothing too difficult, although it took a little while to get BALL LIGHTNING as the last one – a new term for me.
Had ABETTORS at 20a – both seem to be acceptable spelling. Thought that ‘taking seven’ was another term for EATING, but ‘one taking meal’ (answer of 7a) made more sense.
Nice entry into the week.
Mark – thanks. the link worked for me. now for the grauniad.
you’re welcome.
it’s the same problem that occurred several weeks ago and the same solution worked for me then too. it’s a bit weird.
Paywall now removed. Strange
Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
At first I hit the pay wall on my desktop but I got to the crossword a few minutes afterward on my phone. That is harder for me to decipher that most of this fine puzzle by Slormgorm. Favourites were MEAL, SPELLS (good surface), MARY MAGDALENE, and UNCLAD (funny surface.) I failed at ABETTERS because I had an “e” as the 1st letter due to a lazy misspelling of Magdalene. Thanks to both.
I recall finding Slormgorm’s previous offering a bit of a slog but this one fell into place quickly by my standards. LOI was the rather easy Rational, preceded by Feta. I’ve heard of ball lightning but had idea what it is, and I’m not much the wiser having looked it up on Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
We fairly raced through this – just as well, as we’d struggled with the Indy. We did think a couple of the anagrams, for ALICANTE and GREAT-NIECE, were rather too obvious, but we liked DEPLORABLE and REGARDLESS.
Thanks, Slormgorm and Teacow.
Like allan_c, I raced through this.
A quick look at it after midnight plus my morning bowl of cereal were enough.
All good and in a way the perfect Quiptic, were this not the FT.
Just one thing, 20ac’s ABETTERS was not a problem at all – although, yes, for Americans there might be an O for the second E – but where does ‘few’ come in?
Many thanks Teacow for the blog & Slormgorm for a gentle puzzle (wot, no drugs whatsoever?)
Thanks Slormgorm & Teacow.
Sil: I think “few” is there to allow “punters” to be plural after “a”.
Yes, psmith, that’s what I thought but is it OK?
Thank you to Slormgorm and Teacow. Fairly smooth sailing today, though we failed to parse EASTER, and like allan_c we felt the two anagrams were rather obvious. A good gentle start to the week.
Sil: I was somewhat delayed by “few” when solving, but concluded that it had been introduced because “pupil” (singular) followed by a separate indicator for “s” would have needed more words.
Usually, typing in the puzzle no into Google, as Mark suggests, works for me too but had to wait till late in the day for the pleasure of solving this grid from Slormgorm. Completed at a steady canter with much to enjoy. And even if GREAT NIECE was barely concealed, MARY MAGDALENE was a well hidden find. GAZEBO, UNCLAD, LARD and BLUEBELL were my favourites.
MEDUSA was my LOI. Easy enough in retrospect but whenever I see ‘female’ or ‘bloomer’ as in 2d, I know there’s a long list of possibles to consider.
Thanks Teacow and Slormgorm for the fun.
A bit late but for Tiffin’s sake, you should parse the “seven” in 21d as a cross reference to 7a: “meal.” Clever and a bit of a misdirection.