Financial Times 17,995 by MOO

MOO kicks off the week…

Not sure about the parsing of 21a, but everything else was fine. An enjoyable Monday morning solve.

Thanks MOO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS

1. Second rubbish band (6)

STRIPE

S (second) + TRIPE (rubbish)

4. Nice man who might escort you to the station? (8)

GENDARME

Cryptic definition (Nice being in France)

10. Sincere, if disturbed, ingénue (7)

GENUINE

(INGENUE)* (*if disturbed)

11. Port with a little more flavour (7)

TANGIER

Double definition

12. Top dog by the sound of it (4)

PEAK

“peke” = PEAK (dog, “by the sound of it”)

13. Driver must do this, giving rise to rage (6,4)

CHANGE GEAR

CHANGE GEAR being a cryptic definition of RAGE

15. Become angry with wise man to whom Moo must report? (3,3)

SEE RED

SEER (wise man) + ED (to whom Moo must report)

16. Mess with one’s husband’s dope (7)

HASHISH

HASH (mess) with IS (one’s) + H (husband)

20. Top Gear even better (4,3)

FLAT CAP

FLAT (even) + CAP (better)

21. Manage somehow with just two cooks (4,2)

MAKE DO

MAKE DO (two cooks)

24. Enhance reputation of remarkable Agra design (10)

AGGRANDISE

(AGRA DESIGN)* (*remarkable)

26. Small sweet for Charlotte? (4)

SPUD

S (small) + PUD (sweet)

28. Move slowly clear of police search (7)

DRAGNET

DRAG (move slowly) + NET (clear)

29. Grand relations protecting woman in a pickle (7)

GHERKIN

(G (grand) + KIN (relations)) protecting HER (woman)

30. Shake: a healthy choice for breakfast? (8)

BRANDISH

Double (cryptic) definition (bran dish)

31. Agreed to get hold of Charlie right away (2,4)

AT ONCE

AT ONE (agreed) to get hold of C (Charlie)

DOWN

1. Notice doctor tossing penny (8)

SIGNPOST

(TOSSING P (penny))* (*doctor)

2. Sound familiar, as Quasimodo did? (4,1,4)

RING A BELL

Double (cryptic) definition

3. Setter in apartment suffered (4)

PAID

I (setter) in PAD (apartment)

5. Chap from posh school embracing son, a Balt (8)

ESTONIAN

ETONIAN (chap from posh school) embracing S (son)

6. D for dunce? (10)

DUNDERHEAD

D being the head of D[under]

7. Get some sunshine, did you say? (5)

RAISE

“rays” = RAISE (some sunshine, “did you say”)

8. Mistakes made by little rascals initially ignored (6)

ERRORS

[t]ERRORS (little rascals, initially ignored)

9. Henry visiting shop in capital (5)

DELHI

H (Henry) visiting DELI (shop)

14. Arrested in Barking and cuffed (10)

RESTRAINED

(ARRESTED IN)* (*barking)

17. Hide from Dolly? (9)

SHEEPSKIN

Cryptic definition (referring to the cloned sheep)

18. Instructions given by male on romantic occasions (8)

MANDATES

MAN (male) on DATES (romantic occasions)

19. Summarise studies into geometric shape (8)

CONDENSE

DENS (studies) into CONE (geometric shape)

22. Rapper in her second-best woolly? (5,1)

CARDI B

Double (cryptic) definition

23. Brussels importing petrol in recession? It’s routine (5)

USAGE

(EU (Brussels) importing GAS (petrol))< (<in recession)

25. Afghan army securing the country (5)

GHANA

[af]GHAN A[rmy] (securing)

27. Outwit heartless rotter (4)

BEST

BE[a]ST (rotter, heartless)

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,995 by MOO”

MAKE DO
I think the parsing in the blog is correct
cook=MAKE, cook=DO (two cooks)

Thanks for the blog – an enjoyable Monday solve, indeed.

Re 31ac, I took ‘agreed’ as AT ONE. I agree with KVa re the two cooks.

Thanks to moo for the puzzle.

Eileen @2, thanks for AT ONE. I was struggling to see how ATONE could be correct.

Thanks Moo and Teacow. I was at one with Eileen on 31ac. I solved this puzzle waiting for, and then travelling on, a local train, and wearing a flat cap, so I really should have got 20ac more quickly than I did.

Always like to see Moo and Teacow on a Monday, it’s like old times!
This was a lot of fun with ticks for RESTRAINED and TANGIER for their surfaces, FLAT CAP and SPUD (definitions), PAID, SHEEPSKIN and the one which made me laugh most, CARDI B.
Thanks, Moo, for raising my spirits and Teacow for doing the honours.

Thanks Eileen@2… I’ve added the necessary space. That was my intended parsing.

As said an enjoyable start to the week.

Favourites: DUNDERHEAD, GHERKIN, BRANDISH, SPUD

Thanks Moo and Teacow

I cannot pretend to like 6D. This sort of thing is just about OK where, for example, GATESHEAD is used to indicate G, as when spoken aloud it sounds like GATE’S HEAD, but DUNDER HEAD does not mean “head of Dunder”. This is worse than, for example, using “Labour leader” to indicate L, as the solver is required both to split up a word (which, in this case, isn’t present in the clue) and ignore the lack of a possessive indication.

I was flummoxed and amused when I found the blog had been translated into French. God knows how this happened.
It was a straight-forward and fun puzzle in English, although I do agree with Rudolf@8 about DUNDERHEAD.
Thanks Moo and Teacow

Thanks Moo, that was very enjoyable with readable, sensible surfaces throughout. My top picks were TANGIER, CHANGE GEAR (I still drive a stick shift!), HASHISH, PAID, RESTRAINED, and MANDATES. I couldn’t parse MAKE DO and I thought ‘of’ in DRAGNET was an unfortunate case of ‘wordplay of definition’. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

Most enjoyable. We were a little puzzled by 6dn, thinking of a dunce’s cap marked with the letter D which would be on one’s head rather than ‘D under head’, so thanks for the parsing there. And we’d never heard of CARDI B but that was the obvious answer, confirmed by googling.
Favourites were GENDARME and MAKE DO.
Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

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