Financial Times 17,944 by MUDD

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A straughtforward offering from Mudd this morning.

A steady solve with nothing holding me up too long. This had the feel of a Monday Guardian with a few double definitions and the repeated "some" to indicate hidden words. The clue for PASTA was brilliant.

Thanks Mudd.

ACROSS
1 BISECT
Cut part, dry inside (6)

BIT ("part") with SEC ("dry") inside
4 ESPRESSO
Coffee: fuel people needed after energy sapped, pleasurable rush initiated (8)

ESSO (petrol company, so "fuel people") needed after E(nergy) S(apped) P(leasurable) R(ush) [initiated]
9 CURER
Smoker, say, successful doctor? (5)

Double definition
10 PRINCIPLE
Discussion of main guideline (9)

Homophone/pun/aural wordplay of [discussion of] PRINCIPAL ("main")
11 SOPRANO
Voice of wet competed with leader of Opposition (7)

SOP ("wet") + RAN ("competed") with [leader of] O(pposition)
12 EMIRATE
Irish entering China after European country ruled by prince (7)

Ir. (Irish) entering MATE ("china") after E (European)
13 DALE
Valley in Rhondda, legendary (4)

Hidden [in] "rhondDA LEgendary"
14 HOLISTIC
This oil, extraordinarily cold, treating everything (8)

*(this oil) [anag:extraordinarily] + C (cold)
17 BADINAGE
Not good time to engage in playful banter (8)

BAD ("not good") + AGE ("time") to engage IN
19 RAJA
Indian prince letting in a little light from the East (4)

<=AJAR ("letting in a little light", from the East, i.e. from right to left)
22 IMPASSE
Deadlock, devil and fool ending in stalemate (7)

IMP ("devil") + ASS ("fool") + [ending in] (stalemat)E
24 INSTANT
Second, fourth and fifth absent in insect, termite (7)

[fourth and fifth (letters) absent in] INS(ec)T + ANT ("termite")
25 EASTER EGG
Item filled with sweets, segregate supply (6,3)

*(segregate) [anag:supply]
26 ROTOR
Turner, some hero, tormented (5)

Hidden in [some] "heRO TORmented"
27 STAGNATE
Neat moves by male, idle (8)

*(neat) [anag:moves] by STAG ("male")
28 STOREY
Stage where tale told? (6)

Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [told] of STORY ("tale")
DOWN
1 BACKSIDE
Bottom team has support initially (8)

SIDE ("team") has BACK ("support") initially
2 STRIP CLUB
Band member in suit in seedy establishment (5,4)

STRIP ("band") + CLUB ("member in suit")
3 CORRAL
Pinkish gagging order finally shut people up (6)

CORAL ("pinkish") gagging (orde)R [finally]
5 SPINE-TINGLING
Scary old weapon loaded with wood and metal, gun originally (5-8)

SLING ("old weapon") loaded with SPINE ("wood") and TIN ("metal") + G(un) [originally]
6 RECEIPT
Some docket, piece run up, proof of purchase (7)

Hidden backwards in [some…up] "dockeT PIECE Run"
7 SEPIA
Dark colour constant in water (5)

PI (mathematical "constant") in SEA ("water")
8 OPENER
Key member of cricket team? (6)

Double definition
10 PRONOUNCEMENT
Declaration in type of word, bond (13)

PRONOUN ("type of word") + CEMENT ("bond")
15 CHARACTER
Stamp letter (9)

Double definition
16 MASTERLY
Nearly half off sterling in month accomplished! (8)

[nearly half off] STERL(ing) in MAY ("month")
18 DISCERN
With record on, queen and knight make out (7)

ER (Elizabeth Regina, so "queen") + N (knight, in chess notation) with DISC ("record") on
20 SINEWS
Tendons pristine in relative (6)

NEW ("pristine") in SIS ("relative")
21 ESPRIT
Dash it, dodgy reps coming first! (6)

IT with *(reps) [anag:dodgy] coming first
23 PASTA
In alphabetical order, where ‘B’ is for ‘Bucatini’, say? (5)

Double definition

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,944 by MUDD”

  1. Good fun, no quibbles, plenty of smiles. It took me a while to equate character with stamp, but I think I get it. (One clue for “character” that is etched in my hall of fame, seen many years ago, is Letter or card.)

  2. I am completely aligned with our blogger’s summary.

    I liked this a lot and had many favourites. As GDU wrote, plenty of smiles. I ticked INSTANT, PASTA, RAJA, CHARACTER, STOREY, HOLISTIC, RECEIPT, DISCERN, and PRONOUNCEMENT. I told you there were many.

    I have 2 questions. What EASTER EGG is filled with sweets? I only know empty chocolate eggs. And how can “supply” be an anagrind?

    Thanks Mudd and loonapick

  3. Martyn@2

    Some chocolate Easter eggs used to have bags of sweets in them – I don’t know if it still happens.

    Supply. – think “in a supple way”, so supple-ly if you will.

  5. I know I’ve said this before but a termite is not an ant. To quote Chambers ‘…only superficially like an ant’. It is known as a ‘white ant’, but still not an ‘ant’.
    Also not keen on the clue for MASTERLY. Is 3/8 ‘nearly a half’ – not in my opinion – it’s more than 12% off.

  6. Thanks Mudd and Loonapick

    25ac: Fickle memory agrees with Loonapick@3 regarding easter eggs, but I have not been able to find support for this in any of the usual dictionaries, nor in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, of which I have the 1999 and 2018 editions.

    16dn: I think 3/8 is as near as you can get to a half among fractions with denominator 8.

    23dn: Pedantically, I would call the first half of this wordplay, as it defines PAST A, for which the enumeration would be (4,1) not (5).

    When I have reason to look for a pangram, I start at A and stop at the first missing letter until it appears. Today, I noticed A, B, C, D, and E in my second answer (1dn) but never got further through the alphabet.

  7. 24ac: The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 2007 has the following:
    p 88 ant A 2 = white ant (a) s.v. WHITE adjective. This is dated from the late 17th century, but not marked as archaic or obsolete.
    p 3624 white ant(a) = TERMITE.
    I accept that for many formal purposes, it is necessary to distinguish between white ants (termites) and other types of ant, but if enough people use the term ant to include termites, it becomes a standard meaning. That is how living languages work.

  8. I found this Muddy masterly, and I couldn’t find anything whatsoever to take issue with, or not to like.
    EASTER EGG….yep, the Cadbury egg filled inside with chocky buttons is a favourite, but there are many more varieties, and…other suppliers are available.
    “Supply” as an anagram indicator? Well, the anagram itself is so novel and clever, a bit of leeway seems only fair. I took it as, “these letters [ thus] supply” EASTER EGG; but loonapick @ 3 surely puts it better. “Supplely” is indeed the “official” spelling, but if “flexible” becomes “flexibly”, then I’m happy with “supple” becomes “supply”. This is a cryptic puzzle, after all.

    Ditto, perhaps PASTA should be PAST A (4,1), but the quality of the clue counts more….plus, “Bucatini, say” is the Definition by Example, so, PASTA (5).
    I’d say it’s [ wordplay = definition], rather than a d/d.

    “nearly half off sterling” , 16(d): words are made of unitary letters. In an 8- letter word, 3 letters is as near as you can get to half, ( other than half itself). Mudd comes out clean, again, for me.

    100% Muddy Marvellous.
    Ta Mr M, + loonapick

  9. 25ac: “supply” (with the stress on the first syllable) occurs often enough as an anagram indicator that it is well worth remembering. We had it twice in the FT in the last quarter of 2024 (FT 17,857 and FT 18,999).

  10. Pelham @7. After your comment, I looked up ‘Ant’ in Chambers and it does give ‘loosely, a termite’ as one of the definitions. I have a feeling that some ant-eaters won’t touch a termite (can’t be bothered to check this though) but, on this basis, I have to withdraw my criticism.
    As for 3/8 being as near as you can get to a half with denominator 8 (ignoring 4/8), the question remains as to where you draw the line. Is 1/4 almost 1/2? As I said @5, I’m just expressing an opinion. To me 37.5% is well short of 50%.

  11. Hovis@10: Thanks for that. On the 3/8 issue, I would certainly raise an eyebrow at a setter using “nearly half” to mean one letter only from four, and I am not sure about two from six. I am only too glad to acknowledge that we have different opinions on where we would prefer the line to be drawn. Wouldn’t life be boring if we all thought the same thing all of the time?

  12. I had no problem with 23d being designated as 5 letters as I read the definition as “bucatini say” – not a double definition . Incidentally it was my LOI.

  13. A straightforward and enjoyable solve, with no quibbles about ants, halves or anything else. We liked BADINAGE, SECOND and SPINE-TINGLING among others.
    Thanks, Mudd and loonapick.

  15. Correction to 9: I have just noticed that I put FT 18,999, which has clearly not happened yet. I meant Basilisk’s final puzzle FT 17,899 as the last time “supply” was used as an anagram indicator in an FT puzzle.
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/11/20/financial-times-17899-by-basilisk/

    I noted on that occasion that all three of the “large single volume dictionaries” give both spellings supply and supplely for the adverb from supple. The same is true for the two volume SOED which I cited earlier in this set of comments. Presumably the reason that the spelling supplely exists at all is to avoid clashing with the word supply with the stress on the second syllable. There are no such eight letter alternatives for simply or triply.

    In any case, we can be confident that the adverb supply is a regular formation from supple and not a whimsical creation for cryptic crosswords akin to such words as flower meaning a river.

  16. 3/8 as nearly half — isn’t this a question of granularity, or relative size of 1 ‘notch’? Whilst I’m happy with 3 as nearly half of 8, I’d probably frown at 38 or even 39 as nearly half of 100.

    With thanks to Mudd and loonapick for today’s fun and elucidation.

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