Financial Times 17,752 by MOO

24 comments on “Financial Times 17,752 by MOO”

1. We have a Perisher Valley in our skifields. I always assumed it was called thus as it’s cold enough to cause people to perish. I’ve never heard of PERISHER to mean “rogue”. But I found it in Collins as “British, informal, old fashioned” — so no wonder it was unfamiliar.

   I was a bit puzzled by back/defender (1d) and drunken/cut (15a). And I don’t like the use of just “of” as an inclusion indicator (11a).

   I usually conquer Moo’s but only got about half of this out. Maybe I wasn’t on the right wavelength.

   Thanks for the blog, Teacow.

2. Thanks Moo and Teacow

   11ac: I see what Geoff@1 is getting at. Perhaps think of=from.

   15ac: This comes up from time to time. “Half-cut” is a better known term.

   1dn: Back=defender as a player in a wide range of games.

3. Enjoyed this and found it quite straightforward . Is Eton the only school in crossword land?
   Thanks to Moo and Teacow.

4. Very enjoyable and smoothly clued throughout. No concerns about ‘of’ as a hidden indicator in its ‘from’ or ‘out of’ sense.

   Favourites inc the lovely anagrams for ERSTWHILE, LABORATORY and SMOKING GUN and the neat def for ANGLER.

   SM@3: we occasionally see Harrow and Stowe but Eton, as well as conveniently being ‘note’ in reverse, has so many more uses in wordplay so I think it’s here to stay. Even were it to be razed to the ground, I suspect, like queen = ER, it would live on in crosswordland.

5. Further to 2 re 15dn:
   Collins 2023 has cut adj 51 Brit a slang word for drunk. I found the relevant meaning under half-cut in Chambers 2016, ODE 2010, and SOED 2007, but did not find this meaning for cut on its own.

6. Lots of nice misdirection. I do like clues such as 8D, it’s so easy to ignore words like IN. I also liked SLIP UP, altho I prefer a nice ale. 4A was also a fave.
   People don’t seem to much use either Beeb or Auntie these days, perhaps because its reputation has been somewhat dented of late.
   Not having had the benefit of a classical education (so helpful for crosswords) I didn’t know about the vocative case, (Ian Hislop is so right) but I do like to take away some new learning. I vaguely remember a comic strip called The Perishers; the word’s a bit dated now.
   Thanks Moo, thanks Teacow. (Happy bovine conjuncture 😊)

7. Thanks Postmark@4. I suspect your conclusion is quite right. It would be harder to fit in Winchester or Westminster.

8. DNF due to 26d, which I don’t think I would have ever got, clued as it was…thinking of prisons and traps and Spanish translations of every word in the clue…
   Of course perhaps “Games Up, Buddy” would have been too simple.
   Thank you to Moo and Teacow

9. Thanks Moo for an excellent crossword. My top picks were ANGLER, ENGELS, LABORATORY, ENNUI (one of the better surfaces I’ve seen for this tired word), TRENDY (like the sneaky definition), TURBOT, and SLIP-UP. I couldn’t parse BEEB or HAMPER and got MATE solely on ‘amigo’. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

10. I very much enjoyed the GK in this smooth puzzle over an afternoon pint. Rather pleased to have decoded all without recourse to any reference work. Luckily I had occasion just last week to look up the etymology of cut as drunk having come across it in another puzzle. That time I did wonder at it as I’d only previously heard it as half-cut. This is what I found

    Thanks Moo and Teacow

11. Got myself in a knot with 17d thinking how hard it was to find an arrangement of 5 successive consonants from those available, but there they are in ERSTWHILE. No doubt this is commoner than I thought. What’s the record for successive consonants in acceptable words?

12. [BeelzeBob @11: catchphrase has six and is a ‘normal’ word in everyday use. There are others. To get to seven or above, I believe you need to look at words of non-English origin, perhaps associated with surnames such as Hirschsprung’s disease.]

13. Excellent crossword, not a dud clue anywhere IMO, keep it up, Moo.

14. [Some people might claim that the word “rhythms” contains seven consonants and no vowels, but this is clearly not true: the Y is working as a vowel here. The same goes for Welsh words where W is also a vowel. The rules of games such as Countdown have no authority here. And yes, you can pluralise “rhythm”: ODE 2010 gives the example melodies with deep African rhythms.]

15. Nice surfaces throughout.

    Thanks Moo and Teacow

16. An enjoyable solve. We did wonder if there was a mini-theme of moth-eaten prime ministers but probably not!
    Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

17. A great crossword but 19a, I cannot see the Instruction to replace the Lead letter with an E, or is it me, or am I missing something?

    Thank you to Moo and Teacow

18. 19ac: The words “bringing in new leader” are taken as an instruction to change the first letter of ANGELS, without saying what the replacement should be. While some people feel that this is an insufficient instruction, the policy observed by Moo and accepted by the FT editor is that this clue is sufficient as it stands. It is one of the matters on which opinion is divided within the wide world of crossword setting.

19. I thank you

20. I enjoyed this a lot, with MOTH-EATEN a particular fine surface.

    ENGELS was the only clue that really held me up – ANGEL for an investor isn’t the first synonym that comes to mind, although it’s perfectly fair & does appear sometimes, usually as an entry in its own right.

    I’m another who got to ‘cut’ via the more familiar ‘half-cut’. Not the biggest fan of ‘of’ as a hidden indicator, but it’s justifiable.

    Thanks Moo & Teacow.

21. [I enjoy asking people to come up with a common nine-letter word with only one vowel. To save people agonising, it’s STRENGTHS.]

22. BB @ 11 Knightsbridge also has six.

23. Lots of fun. didn’t know been was bbc and also called auntie. Enjoyed TRENDY, TRUSSED and ICE SHEET. thank you all

24. Late night solve.. enjoyed a lot.. was held up by BEREFT until the obvious penny dropped… enjoyed the link Blah@10, looking forward to the use of FOXT or SUTTLE in the future… interesting how they just made it up as they went along in the heady days of the 17/18th C.. from what feels like equally long ago, I too recall the comic strip ludosmoll@6..
    Thanks Moo n teacow…

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