Financial Times 17,947 by MOO

by

MOO kicks of the week…

A very enjoyable Monday morning puzzle.

Thanks MOO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Cock-eyed detective inspector sloped off (8)
LOPSIDED

(DI (detective inspector) + SLOPED)* (*off)

5. Camilla did appear somewhat snooty (2-2-2)
LA-DI-DA

[camil]LA DID A[ppear] (somewhat)

10. Sailors having last bit of mince served raw (7)
TARTARE

TAR TAR (sailors) having [minc]E (last bit of)

11. Big fan of Chanel getting prize at fair (7)
COCONUT

COCO NUT (big fan of (Coco) Chanel)

12. This coffee has remarkably nice aroma (9)
AMERICANO

(NICE AROMA)* (*remarkably)

13. Darling daughter in A&E right after summer (5)
ADDER

(D (darling) + D (daughter)) in A&E, R (right) after

15. Retired couple in Georgia producing cheese (5)
GOUDA

(DUO)< (couple, <retired) in GA (Georgia)

16. BBC programme made by old queen in a hat (8)
PANORAMA

(O (old) + R (queen)) in PANAMA (hat)

19. I would back college head as governor (8)
DIRECTOR

(ID)< (I would, <back) + RECTOR (college head)

20. Charlie stuck in desert sands, the fool (5)
DUNCE

C (Charlie) stuck in DUNE (desert sands)

21. Court welcoming new poet (5)
DANTE

DATE (court) welcoming N (new)

23. Fan of old farmer’s vehicle (9)
EXTRACTOR

EX (old) + TRACTOR (farmer's vehicle)

25. High Barnet, place of much activity (7)
BEEHIVE

Double definition

Barnet being rhyming slang for hair

27. Robbery involving an attack on sheep? (3,4)
RAM RAID

RAID (attack) on RAM (sheep)

28. Agreement to provide care ending in tragedy (6)
TREATY

TREAT (provide care) + [traged]Y (ending in)

29. Noblewoman considers taking drugs (8)
COUNTESS

COUNTS (considers) taking ES (drugs)

DOWN
1. Greatly disturbed about husband’s sloth (8)
LETHARGY

(GREATLY)* (*disturbed) about H (husband)

2. Mistreatment of EU inspector condemned (11)
PERSECUTION

(EU INSPECTOR)* (*condemned)

3. Ian unexpectedly turning up in China dead (9)
INANIMATE

(IAN)* (*unexpectedly) + (IN)< (<turning up) + MATE (china)

4. Purge rebellious soldiers in East Africa (5)
ENEMA

(MEN)< (soldiers, <rebellious) in (E (East) + A (Africa))

6. Caught His Majesty among drunks once, in capital (5)
ACCRA

(C (caught) + CR (His Majesty)) among AA (drunks once)

7. Local idiot removing his clothes? (3)
INN

[n]INN[y] (idiot, removing clothes)

8. Busy steps American must climb (5)
ASTIR

STAIR (steps, A (American) must climb (i.e., the A moves to the top))

9. Ship, one with cargo of oloroso? (8)
SCHOONER

Double (cryptic) definition

A schooner being a large sherry glass

14. Prove Republican should feature in rogues’ gallery (11)
DEMONSTRATE

R (republican) should feature in (DEMONS (rogues) + TATE (gallery))

16. Did nothing much, under Harry’s spell perhaps? (8)
POTTERED

Double (cryptic) definition

Referring to Harry Potter

17. Models ran around, finding something for dinner (3,6)
RED SALMON

(MODELS RAN)* (*around)

18. What’s up with newly-weds in these islands? (8)
HEBRIDES

(EH)< (what, <up) with BRIDES (newly-weds)

21. Launch of French boat put back (5)
DEBUT

DE (of, French) + (TUB)< (boat, <put back)

22. Poet in loo almost keeling over (5)
ELIOT

(TOILE[t] (loo, almost))< (<keeling over)

24. Body of small duck found at foot of hill (5)
TORSO

(S (small) + O (duck)) found at foot of TOR (hill)

26. Woman having fling in Bow, they say (3)
EVE

"'eave" = EVE (fling, as pronounced in Bow, "they say")

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,947 by MOO”

  1. I enjoyed this – some very funny clues

    Favourites included: BEEHIVE, DUNCE, RAM RAID, DANTE, INANIMATE

    Thanks Moo and Teacow

  2. Thanks Moo and Teacow
    13ac: I think you need to take the two Ds together. DD for “darling daughter” is in Collins 2023, but I did not find D on its own for “darling” anywhere.

  3. Oed.com – Join your local (not just UK) library and get free access – has an entry for “DD colloquial (originally and chiefly in electronic communications). 1996–
    Dear (or darling) daughter; a person’s daughter. Sometimes humorous or ironic.
    1996 Don’t forget, my DD (dear daughter) was a drama major too. rec.crafts.textiles.needlework 6 May (Usenet newsgroup, accessed 12 Jan. 2016)
    2014 DD was asleep, so I found the time to post this on the Am I Being Unreasonable thread. Guardian (Nexis) 27 September (Weekend Supplement) 15″

  4. Great fun, especially 14d, where the “rogues’ gallery” had to be ‘lift and separate’d by a Republican. Now who could that possibly be?
    25a “High Barnet” was another L&S, if you’re a Londoner, of a Tube station.
    Also liked 26d ‘EAVE [Note that GeneratePress insists on getting the apostrophe the wrong way up.]
    [TiLT: a 9d SCHOONER can mean very different glasses in the UK, Australia, Canada, the US, … and Newcastle.]

  5. Fun, Monday-ish crossword – another one for improving beginners.

    High Barnet isn’t just a tube station, it’s an area – I’ve been litter-picking there, and tutoring to cover someone else. And barnet is a bit of cockney rhyming slang that’s used a lot – coming in with a new hiar style is often greeted with “nice barnet!”

    Thank you to Teacow and Moo.

  6. Oh dear, rhyming slang crossing in two clues all combined with “woman” as the clue for a name. And FrankieG@4 is correct – a schooner of sherry where I grew up would definitely put you over the top

    Apart from the SW corner, I am aligned with others – enjoyable and approachable. Similar favourites to Fiona@1

    Teacow are you always assigned to Moo?

    Thanks Moo and Teacow

  7. Greatly enjoyed this . The only clue that I struggled with ASTIR, but got there in the end.
    I also learnt that RED SALMON is a Pacific salmon, also known as sockeye salmon, echoing 1ac.
    Thanks to Moo and Teacow.

  8. Thanks Moo for a most enjoyable crossword. I never heard of a RAM RAID but it was easy enough to guess. Lots of great clues including the very funny LA-DI-DA, TARTARE, DIRECTOR, DUNCE, LETHARGY, and TORSO. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  11. All solved and, except for ASTIR, parsed (we didn’t see it as ‘stair’ with the A moved and wondered how ‘rits’ could be steps). Plenty to enjoy, including TARTARE, EXTRACTOR and SCHOONER.
    Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

  12. 13ac: Further to the earlier comments, the full entry for the relevant meaning of DD in Collins 2023 p 513 is “dear or darling daughter: often used facetiously in social media”. DD can also mean direct debit or Doctor of Divinity. Given the dates of the citations in oed.com quoted by Frankie, it is not surprising that the “darling daughter” meaning is not in any of Chambers 2016, ODE 2010 or SOED 2007.

    Collins p 268 has the entry for BS as Bachelor of Surgery, British Standard(s), and Bahamas. Chambers 2016 has these three, together with Building Society and a less polite one that is marked as US slang. ODE and SOED have other meanings as well, but none of the four mentioned here has “beloved son”.

    While I accept that online sources have the advantage of being able to stay up to date more readily than print sources, I am reluctant to depend on oed.com, especially on questions of obscurity rather than validity of meaning.

  13. This was quite enjoyable, with lots of wit to go around. I could quibble that dunes occur in plenty of places that definitely aren’t deserts*, but since “desert sands” suggests DUNE pretty reaidily, the clue does its job.

    * The shores of Lake Michigan, for example. The beach a mile from my home–the one at Montrose Point, Chicago–has ongoing dune-formation processes, thanks to the prevailing wave and wind action. Over the last 50 years or so, they’ve gone from trying to halt this, to not intervening in any way, to actively encouraging it; there’s now a dune ecosystem on the eastern half of the beach that various migratory birds seem to quite favor.

  15. 6dn in reply to Heather @14: the indication for AA is “drunks once”. As I read it, this is indicating that AA represents people who have been drunks but no longer are.

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