Financial Times 13,818 / Mudd

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A pleasant stroll with Mudd today whilst Shuchi’s on vacation. There’s not a lot for me to comment on, except for perhaps 2dn where I think part of the wordplay is a little loose (though it didn’t particularly affect solvability).

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Across
1 HOUSE SPARROW HOW (question) around OUSE’S (river’s) PARR (fish)
10 OVERDID O (old) VERDI (composer) D (500)
11 DIG DEEP [bi]G DEE (river) in DIP (swim)
12 TWIST double def.
13 BOOT HILL BOOTH (Salvation Army man)ILL (sick)
15 AMY JOHNSON A MY (setter’s) JOHN’S (smallest room’s) ON (now showing)
16 DRAT DRA[f]T (sketch that’s not strong)
18 SEEK homophone of ‘Sikh’ (Granth reader) – Granth: “The holy book of the Sikhs” (Chambers).
20 WATERHOUSE *(HOW E ART) USE (employ) – or his wife Esther.
22 NITROGEN *(RINGTONE)
24 PIECE double def.
26 CYANIDE *(NICE DAY)
27 PHASE IN P[olitical] HAS EIN (German article)
28 TOGETHERNESS TO GET (understand) HER NESS (head)
Down
2 OBESITY OBEY (heel) around SIT (pose) – I’m not sure that heel and obey are strictly synonymous. The closest connection I can see is “(of a dog) to follow well” (Chambers) but a well-trained dog might do this without the need for a command that must be obeyed.
3 SEDITION S[erious) EDITION (issue)
4 SIDE double def.
5 AND SO TO BED *(DON BOASTED) – Samuel Pepys’ signature phrase.
6 RIGHT double def.
7 WEENIER IE (that is) in *(NEWER)
8 POSTMAN’S KNOCK POST (publish) MAN’S (someone’s) KNOCK (innings)
9 SPILL THE BEANS *(ELEPHANT BLISS)
14 ENGAGEMENT double def.
17 CHAPLAIN CHAIN (group) aroundA PL(platoon)
19 EXTRACT double def.
21 USELESS SELES (tennis player) in US (America)
23 OWING [r]OWING (top sport)
25 EPEE P (power] in EEE (ease, we hear)

 

10 comments on “Financial Times 13,818 / Mudd”

  1. Thanks for the blog Gaufrid, and thanks to Mudd, lLots of great clues. Re OBESITY, I think a dog that walks at heel is certainly being obedient, and as Chambers gives obedient as “ready to obey”, I think the clue is fair enough, although I agree that the terms are not precisely synonymous.

  2. Thanks Mudd for a good deal of fun and Gaufrid for the blog. Favourite clues 9dn for the delightful anagram fodder and 26ac for a particularly apposite anagram indicator.

    I was completely happy with 2dn. I think the definition for heel that Gaufrid has quoted fits “obey”: if not to an immediate command, then to the way the dog was trained.

  3. Thanks Gaufrid and Mudd. I enjoyed this. For some time I was tempted by “football match” for “game” at 8d (which fitted the crossing letters I had at the time), so was held up in the SW. Once I googled Granth to get the S in 18a, things fell into place quite quickly.

    25 is neat and economical. I agree that 2 is libertarian – but the combination of two “dog commands” is appealing.

  4. Given the original blogger is absent frequently, it will be nice to have a new blogger for Friday FT, I think.

  5. Hi David @4
    I take from your comment that you don’t like the style of my blogs! 😉

    Seriously though, for most of this year Shuchi has work commitments on the last Friday of each month which prevent her from blogging so I agreed to stand in for her until the situation changes. In addition, there may have been, like today, an odd occasion when she has been away but she will still have covered 75% of the Friday puzzles this year.

  7. Hi Ferret
    An interesting thought. Had this been a non-cryptic puzzle (ie just straight definitions), and had a space been omitted from the clue so that it became ‘American gunman’, I might be inclined to agree.

  8. Failed on
    2d-never thought of heel =obey
    8d I was convinced innings =score until I got 26a.
    23d I was convinced it was some sort of sport associated with the head or carried on at a height.
    15a Never heard of her and thought smallest room was going to be loo.
    22a Didn’t spot the anagram

    I’m happy with oyur blogging Gaufrid!

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