Financial Times 16,811 by MOO

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Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Moo this morning!

A very witty grid with several enjoyable cryptic definitions, some clever anagrams, and nothing to quibble about from me. Thank you Moo!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Overdone, as ham so annoyingly is (10)
THEATRICAL

Cryptic clue

6. The Speaker’s bitter cry (4)
ROAR

“RAW” (“the speaker’s”) as in a raw / bitter winter’s night

10. Two rivers in the countryside (5)
RURAL

R (river) + URAL (river)

11. Charlie to quit drugs? It might restore marital harmony (9)
MEDIATION

MEDI[c]ATION (drugs, C (charlie) to quit)

12. Son given 9p – or a little less? (8)
SIXPENCE

S (son) given IX (9) + PENCE (p)

13. Liberals inspiring revolutionary period? That’s right (5)
LEGAL

LL (liberals) inspiring AGE< (period, <revolutionary)

15. The drugs that’ll make you a star? (7)
HEROINE

HEROIN + E (ecstacy) (two drugs)

17. Kitchen help in dispute with posh young girl? Not half! (7)
SPATULA

SPAT (dispute) with U (posh) + LA[ss] (young girl, not half)

19. Reaches a conclusion in Angers (5,2)
WINDS UP

Double definition

21. Pizza from area east of Golden State (7)
CALZONE

ZONE (area) east of CAL[ifornia] (Golden state)

22. Beautiful women ignoring one for quite a while (5)
HOURS

HOUR[i]S (beautiful women, ignoring I (one))

24. Dishonest Moo afraid to show his face (5,3)
LYING LOW

LYING (dishonest) + LOW (moo)

27. A mistake providing clue for “pets”? (5,4)
FALSE STEP

Cryptic definition: (STEP)* (*false) = pets

28. Quick-witted soldier drinking beer? The opposite (5)
AGILE

ALE (beer) drinking GI (soldier) (opposite of soldier drinking beer)

29. Popular spot for a hanging? (4)
TATE

Cryptic definition

30. Recognised CID reacted badly (10)
ACCREDITED

(CID REACTED)* (*badly)

DOWN
1. Hear nothing can stop someone like Boris (4)
TORY

TRY (hear), O (nothing) can stop

2. Last of quiche Lorraine prepared beforehand (7,2)
EARLIER ON

[quich]E (last of) + (LORRAINE)* (*prepared)

3. Advice about unusual case that appears in spring (5)
TULIP

TIP (advice) about U[nusua]L (case)

4. Enormous Frenchmen plunged into tempestuous Seine (7)
IMMENSE

MM (Frenchmen, monsieur + monsieur) plunged into (SEINE)* (*tempestuous)

5. For speech, daughter puts on a frock (7)
ADDRESS

D (daughter) puts on A DRESS (a frock)

7. Having Pole chucked out leaves one unsettled (5)
OWING

OW[n]ING (having, N (pole, north) chucked out)

8. R for a gang boss? (10)
RINGLEADER

Cryptic definition: R leads in the word “ring”

9. Way in which cloud descends on shopping centre (4,4)
PALL MALL

PALL (cloud) descends on MALL (shopping centre)

14. Gossip, as Jack Sprat’s missus might? (4,3,3)
CHEW THE FAT

Cryptic clue: from the nursery rhyme “Jack Sprat could eat no fat / His wife could eat no lean / And so betwixt the two of them / They licked the platter clean…”

16. Demanded I vigorously dissent (8)
INSISTED

I + (DISSENT)* (*vigorously)

18. Medical woman having glorious time when drunk (9)
UROLOGIST

(GLORIOUS + T (time))* (*when drunk)

20. Wise of boys in blue briefly to secure city centre (7)
POLITIC

POLIC[e] (boys in blue, briefly) to secure [c]IT[y] (centre)

21. Cheerful transport company has new leader (7)
CHIPPER

[s]HIPPER (transport company, has new leader)

23. Gloomy place in which Jean-Paul Sartre conducted his affairs? (5)
UNLIT

Cryptic definition: UN LIT (a bed, French)

25. £1,000 fine (5)
GRAND

Double definition

26. Went a long way north (4)
PEED

DEEP< (a long way, <north)

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,811 by MOO”

  1. Why does a urologist have to be female? I may have missed something
    Whatever gender, they are all involved in researching the trickle down effect

  2. I wondered the same, Copmus, but found much to like in this amusing grid. Pursuing such female-centric answers might have produced a ruder parsing for 24A!
    GRAND, HOURS, WINDS UP, PEED, UNLIT…the list of likes goes on.
    The vague definition of ‘kitchen help’ delayed my solving 17A but it was parsable. There were a few I needed to confirm here in the parsing but a relatively steady solve overall.
    Thanks to Moo and Teacow.

  3. Thanks Moo and Teacow.
    18dn: I agree with copmus@1. Why not just “Medic having …” As it is, it needs the definition by example to be indicated as something like “Medical woman, perhaps, having …” Having said all that, I see it as a minor blemish on a very enjoyable puzzle.

  4. A DNF (missed out on ROAR) but I liked this. Plenty of good ones, with UNLIT being my pick. It would be nice to think J-PS would have appreciated this himself, though in my ignorance I’m not sure how big a part having a sense of humour fitted in to his view of the world.

    A bit of affirmative action at 18d was OK with me as there are a lot more female UROLOGIST(s) around these days. ‘Went’ well with PEED too.

    Thanks to Moo and Teacow

  5. Thanks Moo and Teacow

    I thought the medical woman was just a bit of Arachne-esque misdirection by gender.

  6. Thanks to Moo and Teacow.
    If 18d had been clued ‘medical man…’ would anyone have commented? I saw it like Simon S – clever bit of misdirection and maybe making a point.

  7. Thanks for the blog, agree with both comments above on the welcome use of woman.
    Diane@2 has picked out my favourite clues, especially UNLIT.

  8. Can only assume the “medical woman” is meant as a misdirect to make you believe you are looking for answer meaning “medical” . The woman cryptically might send you off looking for “w” as part of the answer. The surface was mildly unsatisfactory for that strange misdirection, I thought.

  9. A very good puzzle, I thought, and I agree entirely with Simon S, Sourdough and Roz on the “woman” issue. My only twitch was when I rather reluctantly finally put in ROAR, which may work in an estuary accent, but not for much of the rest of the population (notably the Scots). Otherwise good fun and a decent level of difficulty for a Monday.

  10. Lots to like especially AGILE, OWING, RINGLEADER, PEED, and my clue of the day, FALSE STEP — thanks Moo. UROLOGIST could have been defined as “medical person” but man or woman works as well; it was clear from the start that an anagram of glorious+t would yield the answer anyway. My only difficulty was ROAR/raw — my ears never would have made that connection. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  11. Very enjoyable. We’ve no problem with ‘medical woman’ and agree with others that it might have been a bit of misdirection – in fact we did wonder for a moment or two if we were looking for the name of a pioneering woman in some field of medicine.
    Hard to pick a favourite but we’ll go for CALZONE, with an honourable mention for LYING LOW because of the misdirection of ‘Moo’.
    Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

  13. Thanks Moo and Teacow
    Actually got to this one yesterday but only to correct it today. Pretty straightforward but with a good level of interest in getting them out and appreciating the surfaces.
    Liked CHIPPER and RINGLEADER.
    Finished up the top with ROAR (fortunately the homophone worked for me, just finding the right one was tricky), THEATRICAL (tricky cryptic definition) and the clever TORY as the last one in.

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