Financial Times 17,541 by MUDD

by

A solid challenge from MUDD this Friday.

FF: 9 DD: 8

I have one clue that I might need some help with.

ACROSS
1 DAMAGE
Cost in silver borne by lady (6)

AG ( silver ) in DAME ( lady )
4 TROPICAL
Very hot, current clothes right (8)

TOPICAL ( current ) containing R ( right )
9 SIGHED
Team, we hear, sounded fatigued (6)

sounds like SIDE ( team )
10 SPARKING
Exciting fight with man (8)

SPAR ( fight ) KING ( man )
12 PUBLICAN
Joke about line penned by writer, a local employee (8)

PUN ( joke ) around { [ L ( line ) in BIC ( writer ) ] A }
13 LOUNGE
Fencer’s move to secure old room (6)

LUNGE ( fencer's move ) containing O ( old )
15 NICE
Sunny European holiday destination? (4)

double def
16 ABSTEMIOUS
A bus time so unreliable, on the wagon! (10)

[ A BUS TIME SO ]*
19 CUSTARD PIE
Missile aimed at stooge, dupe has scar, it being splattered (7,3)

[ DUPE SCAR IT ]*
20 STOP
Refrain from knocking over crockery (4)

reverse of POTS ( crockery )
23 RESIDE
Live wires ideally locked up? (6)

hidden in "..wiRES IDEally.."
25 HEAR HEAR
A bird has been rescued by that woman — bravo! (4,4)

[ A RHEA ( bird ) ] in HER ( that woman )
27 ORIGINAL
First test in which spirit shown by opener for India (8)

ORAL ( test ) containing [ I ( India, first letter ) GIN ( spirit ) ]
28 UNFAIR
Not just fun playing tune (6)

[ FUN ]* AIR ( tune )
29 NORTH SEA
Another fluid containing second source of gas (5,3)

[ ANOTHER ]* containing S ( second )
30 REALLY
Are you sure about friend? (6)

RE ( about ) ALLY ( friend )
DOWN
1 DUSTPAN
Miscreant spat into greyish-brown receptacle filled with dirt (7)

[ SPAT ]* in DUN ( greyish-brown )
2 MEGABUCKS
A bomb disrupting game north of English county (9)

[ GAME ]* BUCKS ( english county )

3 GAELIC
Beginning in German, Alice translated language (6)

G ( German, first letter ) [ ALICE ]*
5 RIPE
A final farewell to European tender (4)

RIP ( final farewell, Rest In Peace ) E ( european )
6 PARDON ME
Spinning more, and going under top of pad, how’s that? (6,2)

P ( Pad, first letter ) [ MORE AND ]*
7 CAIRN
Landmark comprising stones arranged in arc (5)

[ IN ARC ]*
8 LEGLESS
Intoxicated members barred? (7)

cryptic def; LEG ( member )
11 LAMBADA
Priest defending sinful dance (7)

LAMA ( priest ) containing BAD ( sinful )
14 STRIKER
Footballer, one not working (7)

double def
17 ON THE BALL
Alert — as 14 down might be? (2,3,4)

cryptic def; see 14d
18 SANDWICH
Part of a round where Open Golf sometimes played (8)

cryptic def
19 CARTOON
Drawings etc in business on animation (7)

[ ART ( drawings ) in CO ( business ) ] ON
21 PORTRAY
Describe fish beneath harbour (7)

PORT ( harbour ) RAY ( fish )
22 TRANCE
Record featuring new dance genre (6)

TRACE ( record ) containing N ( new ); i am not sure about this as this is a type of music rather than dance so i expect to be corrected here. did think of prance but couldnt fit a parse
24 SKIER
More merry having taken Friday off, one going downhill fast? (5)

friSKIER ( more merry, without FRI – friday )
26 PAGE
Call for sheet of paper (4)

double def

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,541 by MUDD”

  2. SANDWICH
    Is it a DD instead of a CD?
    Part of a round: referring to a round of sandwiches, I think.
    The second def: referring to the Sandwich Golf Club.

  5. Mudd is in good form with today’s puzzle, just the right level of challenge.
    I liked ‘a bomb’ cluing MEGABUCKS, as well as CUSTARD PIE, LAMBADA and NORTH SEA best.
    Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs (for confirming the golf venue in 18d). I agree with KVa re round for SANDWICH, so a double definition for me too.

  6. That was meant to be a double def. That’s why I had underlined both definitions. Made an error transcribing from phone to comp. Apologies.

  9. FrankieG @ 3. Was looking out for that after my comment yesterday> That helped me solve 2d! and @3 Kent is sometimes a clue for SE . What fun we have with short shires.

  10. I had ROAR (tender homophone) for 5d thus 10a was my dnf . By the way SPARKING used to mean KISSING when I was young 70 years ago.

  11. It took me a while to get through this one, as Mudd showed his serious side. So saying, several great surfaces meant I had lots of ticks today, including DAMAGE SIDE HEAR HEAR DUSTPAN TROPICAL GAELIC, and the list goes on

    A couple of question marks too. I had never heard of the SANDWICH course, but it turns out it is the Royal St George club that is located in Sandwich. Hmmmmm. And I agree with Frankie that “part of a round” does not really work. Let’s be charitable and say SPARKING and TRANCE are new.

    Always nice to see Mudd. Thanks Turbolegs and thanks Mudd

  12. john@9 – yes I noticed your “two … in a row” yesterday – I’m expecting Berks or Wilts tomorrow. But where’s Geoff Down Under?

  13. Thanks Mudd for an excellent crossword which had the perfect amount of challenge for me. Everything eventually fell into place with my top picks being PUBLICAN, CUSTARD PIE (loved the missile aimed at stooge), ORIGINAL, UNFAIR, LAMBADA (nice surface), and PORTRAY, the latter for its simplicity. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  16. FrankieG@7 and Martyn@11
    SANDWICH
    A round is also a slice of bread (even if the slice is square or rectangular).
    Now we have two rounds and some filling in ‘a round’ (a sandwich!).
    It’s going round and round (Well. Not as complex as a narco nabbing a narco who is involved in narco or using narco!)

    On a serious note, the ‘part’ doesn’t seem to have any part in our scheme of things. Mudd
    may drop in and clarify…

    ‘Part’ per se doesn’t mean ‘sandwich’. right? Maybe as a verb or whatever…

  18. Or four sandwiches if you’re cutting your round into dainty teas, as per tea trolleys or cake stands, so one sandwich is part of a round of sandwiches. That I didn’t have a problem with when I saw it, LOI.

    Thank you to Turbolegs and Mudd.

  19. Here’s one I prepared earlier but forgot to post:
    Further to SANDWICH – a bog-standard sandwich is two slices of pre-sliced probably white bread with something in between, cut diagonally into two triangles, and then stuck in a plastic-lined triangular cardboard box – that takes longer to disassemble and recycle than it would take to make the sandwich yourself – and then sells for an arm and a leg in M&S and Waitrose. Can we take it that each half is still a sandwich, forming “Part of a round”?
    It’s a bit like the discussion we had a while back about a sheet of paper being two sides or pages. Petert@17 is a tad more concise. 🙂

  20. Just started on C4 – The Secret World Of… Series 2 Episode 4: …Sandwiches
    ‘Jo Brand unwraps the story of Britain’s sarnie supremo, from M&S and Subway to Greggs’ – Coincidence? – I don’t think so.

  21. I thought the clue for SANDWICH was a bit lame. All else OK. And Frankie G, I can handle Bucks for Buckinghamshire. Hants for Hampshire the other day was a bigger challenge.

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