Financial Times 16,782 by MOO

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A playful and and sometimes testing Tuesday offering.

Loads to enjoy, with tongue-in-cheek wordplay and cunning definitions throughout. Thanks very much, Moo.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 SISTER
Way English teacher embraces fellow feminist? (6)
ST[reet} + E[nglish] ’embraced’ by SI.R (‘teacher’).
4 TRUMPETS
Proclaims loose woman must move south (8)
sTRUMPET (‘loose woman’), its S[outh] moved to end.
10 EGGHEAD
Brainy chap giving you an E? (7)
‘E’ being the head of ‘Egg’.
11 KINDRED
Embarrassed by joke about northern relations (7)
KI.D (to ‘joke’) around N[orthern] + RED (’embarrassed’).
12 PORN
Sleazy material signalling Putin’s end? (4)
P OR N (= either end of PutiN).
13 RETIREMENT
Entire term wasted in seclusion (10)
Anagram (‘wasted’) of ENTIRE TERM.
15 STAYED
Continued to be respectable, by all accounts (6)
Homophone of ‘staid’ (‘respectable’).
16 FINANCE
Intended to secure new backing (7)
FI.ANCE (one’s ‘intended’) around N[ew].
20 FEATHER
Just one of the things that get you down? (7)
Cryptic definition. You need a lot of feathers for a down-filled pillow.
21 PLANET
Spy carrying English revolver perhaps (6)
PLAN.T (a mole, a ‘spy’) around E[nglish] + cryptic def of what planets do (‘revolve’).
24 SETTLEMENT
Agreement reached in Hamlet? (10)
Double def.
26 LICE
Fabricate story about Tory parasites (4)
LI.E (‘fabricate story’) around C[onservative].
28 BANANAS
Bachelor taking grandma’s crackers (7)
BA (‘graduate’) + NANAS (= “grandma’s”).
29 IMAGINE
Picture Moo repeatedly swigging a drink (7)
I & ME (Moo, our setter, twice) around A GIN.
30 ROCKETED
After rebuke, editor went through the roof (8)
ROCKET (‘rebuke’) + ED[itor].
31 KERNEL
Officer said to exemplify heart (6)
Homophone (‘said’) of colonel (‘officer’).
DOWN
1 SHEEPISH
Rather abashed, a bit like Dolly (8)
Joky def, ‘Dolly” being the famous cloned sheep.
2 SUGAR CANE
Bizarrely, US carnage results in something sweet (5,4)
Anagram (‘bizzarely’) of US CARNAGE.
3 EDEN
PM enraged English nurses (4)
Hidden in ‘enragED ENglish’. Anthony Eden, PM 1955-7.
5 RAKE IT IN
Make a lot of money? As playboy I can! (4,2,2)
RAKE (‘playboy’) + I + TIN (‘can’).
6 MONTE CARLO
Casino here abruptly told Cameron to get lost (5,5)
ANAGRAM (‘to get lost’) of TOLd (ending early, ‘abruptly’) + CAMERON.
7 EYRIE
Dictator’s sinister observation post (5)
Homphone (“dictator’s”) of ‘eery’ (‘sinister’) in one pronunciation, with echoes of Hitler’s Berchtesgaden ‘eagle’s nest’ retreat as possible &lit.
8 SEDATE
Pacify half-pissed female causing trouble (6)
Half of ‘pisSED’ + ATE (pronounced ‘Ah-tay’, Greek goddess of mischief).
9 ADDER
In summer, run without a top on (5)
{L}ADDER (‘run’ without top letter). One who adds, a ‘summer’.
14 PESTILENCE
Splenetic European spreading disease (10)
Anagram (‘spreading’) of SPLENETIC + E[uropean].
17 CONDITION
State qualification (9)
Double definition.
18 LET ME SEE
Blind man’s request? I’ll think about it (3,2,3)
Cryptic def.
19 ETHEREAL
Spiritual guide the realm’s imprisoned (8)
Hidden in “guidE THE REALm’s”.
22 ISOBAR
Drunken Boris snorting a line (6)
Anagram (‘drunken’) of BORIS includes A.
23 INUIT
Brief stay in Paris for occupant of White House? (5)
1 NUIT (= fancifully, ‘une nuit’, one night in French, thus a ‘brief stay’), & cryptic def of the occupant of an igloo.
25 TONIC
Drink that’s almost too nice (5)
TOo + NICe, both ‘almost’ complete.
27 BARE
Reveal fifth stop on pub crawl (4)
I.e., “BAR E”, possible fifth venue of a pub crawl.

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,782 by MOO”

  1. I really enjoyed this. Plenty of clues that weren’t obvious on first reading with some clever wordplay, eg for STRUMPET and definitions, eg the cryptic def for FEATHER. Some nice mis-direction as well with the capitalisation of ‘White House?’ at 23d, which I fell for, confidently entering early on what I thought was sure to be the correct answer in ‘Biden’. I’m SHEEPISH to admit I missed the now obvious parsing of PORN.

    One of the best Tuesday FT’s in a while.

    Thanks to Moo and to Grant

  2. Easily the best Moo crossword yet. Lots of sneaky clues kept me thinking. Ultimately failed on the wonderful 23d. I ended up entering an unparsed SNAIL, not that the shells are usually white and came here to see the real solution. TRUMPETS & PLANET took me a while and SISTER was my LOI. Favourite was probably ISOBAR with INUIT a close second.

  3. Greatly enjoyed this although I too failed to get INUIT having also instantly fell into the Biden trap. Great clue and authoritative blog. Thanks to all.

  4. A typically audacious solve from Moo that required the ‘thinking cap’ but with much amusement as a reward.
    INUIT didn’t trouble me but I did consider ‘weather’ briefly for FEATHER and an unparsed ‘roll in it’ for 5d until KINDRED came along. It was BARE which stumped me though looking at it now, I can’t think why.
    Thanks for the fun, Moo, and Grant for the very early blog which I determined, successfully, not to peek at until I’d done.

  6. Thanks to Grant and Moo.
    Liked the cunning definitions. Didn’t see the feathery down in 20 across. Instead took the cunning defn. as reference to “getting down/getting under the WEATHER”. And, that state could mean that “you’re down/in low spirits”.

  7. I’m with you, Hovis@2. I had the correct cross letters for 23d, and I speak passable French (for an American), but I still didn’t see une nuit until I saw the blog. And I’ve never seen “rocket” to mean rebuke before. CRS or other British slang?
    Thanks Moo and Grant for an enjoyable entertainment.

  8. I fell into the Biden trap at 23d as well – what a brilliant piece of misdirection.
    EdK@7: Yes, rocket is a slang term for a severe reprimand, in expressions like “give someone a rocket”.

  9. Very good fun. I loved FEATHER and (when I eventually got it), INUIT. TRUMPETS and BARE also satisfying to crack. One of the best FT puzzles for some time.

  10. Several defeats here.. not helped by putting CHASED in for 15ac.. seemed plausible at the time.. also not helped by starting with 5th of REVEAL and looking for CRAWL as def.. not sure that crawl helps in any way to solve.. way too clever for me before I even got to INUIT… ah well
    Thanks MOO n Grant Baynham

  11. Tricky in places but enjoyable. We couldn’t parse SEDATE, having forgotten the Greek goddess, and thought like scchua of ‘weather’ instead of FEATHER. We took a while to get EYRIE as we’ve always pronounced it ay-ree – one of three pronunciations given in Chambers.
    Thanks, Moo and Grant.

  12. Disappointingly, didn’t complete the SE corner but still very enjoyable.
    Thanks to Moo and to Grant Baynham for the much needed blog.
    Guessed 8D correctly but Ate new to me.
    Fave was 27D (even though I failed to parse it…)

  13. This is the first Moo puzzle I’ve done – and I hope to get the chance to do another one soon. Like everyone else I thought it was excellent. We were also in the BIDEN club and came here without having got the brilliant INUIT. I’ll have to remember the goddess Ate as I didn’t parse her in SEDATE. FEATHER was another gem amongst many. Thanks to Moo for a satisfying solve after this morning’s mauling by Brummie, and to GB for a great blog.

  14. Top-notch crossword which I could not complete with BARE and INUIT out of my reach — thanks Moo. I liked TRUMPETS, KINDRED, and ISOBAR (funny surface) among others. I guessed but could not fully parse PORN, EGGHEAD, and SEDATE so thanks Grant for that.

  15. Thanks Moo and Grant
    This one had stayed in the too hard basket for a couple of weeks with three left undone. Was able to get EYRIE (an errant PROMISES in at 4a certainly didn’t help) and FEATHER out last night and finally saw STAYED tonight to finish off what was a very challenging and enjoyable puzzle.
    Confidently got INUIT mid-solve, but I didn’t note down the parsing and not sure whether I saw it back then or not. ATE is the goddess of mischief well-remembered from my time of doing straight puzzles with my grandmother back in the 60’s.
    As noted by others, lots of innovative and well put together clues.

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