Financial Times 16,737 by MOO

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A clever puzzle from Moo.

On Monday I was accused of being "snooty" as I said that the Guardian puzzle that day had been the easiest I had solved for a while, so I will try to avoid that trap today. That said, this was certainly not the hardest FT puzzle I have ever had to blog about, although it did require a little bit of general knowledge and the parsing of a couple of the answers did not jump out at me immediately, especially ASSIGN where I was off, looking down rabbit holes for the name of a dictator that would fit the _S_I_N pattern.

This was however a very clever innovative puzzle with some nice misdirections.

Thanks Moo.

ACROSS
1 BY CHANCE
Boy dropping round, shot accidentally (2,6)

B(o)Y [dropping O ("round")) + CHANCE ("shot")
5 RANSOM
Veteran sommelier pocketing pay–off (6)

Hidden in [pocketing] "veteRAN SOMmelier"
9 CHAMPION
Penny sporting dreadful Mohican, or a number one? (8)

P (penny) sporting *(mohican) [anag:dreadful]
10 ASSIGN
Give a wave to dictator (6)

Homophone [to dictator] of A SINE ("a wave")
12 PASTERNAK
Boris in trouble with the Soviets once? (9)

(Not very) cryptic definition, referring to the writer Boris Pasternak, who was forced to decline the Nobel Prize for Literature by the Communist Party of the USSR in 1958.
13 SIGMA
The end of Athens, as described by Homer? (5)

Cryptic indication of the letter S (SIGMA in the Greek alphabet) – [the end of] (Athen)S, although of course Homer would have known Athens as Athina, so he's have put an alpha at the end.
14 ACID
American cops procuring tart (4)

A (American) + C.I.D. ("cops")
16 EMANATE
Worried by underwriter’s return in spring (7)

ATE ("worried") by <= NAME ("underwriter") ['s return]
19 ACCUSED
Right to abandon wretched woman in the dock? (7)

R (right) to abandon ACCU(r)SED ("wretched")
21 BUTT
Aunt Sally’s derrière (4)

Double definition, the first referring to a target, as in the "BUTT of a joke". An Aunt Sally was a target at a country fair, at which balls or sticks were thrown.
24 CORAL
Almost everyone’s after my woman (5)

[almost] AL(l) ("everyone") after COR ("my")
25 WRESTLING
Sport for which girls went mad (9)

*(girls went) [anag:mad]
27 THIEVE
Nick, youth I eventually ensnare (6)

Hidden in [ensnare] "youTH I EVEntually"
28 MITIGATE
Reduce international attendance at Cambridge University (8)

I (international) GATE ("attendance" at a sports event) at M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) which is an American "university" based in "Cambridge", Massachusetts
29 CON MEN
Some Tory supporters are cheats (3,3)

"Tory" (Conservative Party) "supporters" could be described as CON MEN (I'll keep my own politics out of this!)
30 REVEREND
Vicar always has to tear about (8)

EVER ("always") has REND ("to tear") about
DOWN
1 BICEPS
Writer tied to bedpost from time to time? It shows flexibility! (6)

BIC (pen, so "writer") tied to (b)E(d)P(o)S(t) [from time to time]

The biceps is a flexor muscle.
2 CLASSY
Posh girl carrying crummy case? The opposite (6)

C(rumm)Y [case] carrying LASS
3 APPLE
First Lady was tempted by such wealthy company (5)

Double definition
4 CROWNED
Boasted about Meghan finally being made queen? (7)

CROWED ("boasted") about (Megha)N [finally]
6 ASSISTANT
Satanists abroad? Help! (9)

*(satanists) [anag:abroad]
7 STINGRAY
Penny-pinching painter taken in, one to be wary of (8)

STINGY ("penny-pinching") with RA (member of the Royal Academy of Arts, so "artist") taken in
8 MAN-EATER
Married a smarter woman with quite an appetite (3-5)

M (married) + A + NEATER ("smarter")
11 SKYE
Island once part of Murdoch’s domain, they say (4)

Homophone [they say] of SKY, a broadcasting company that until 2018 was "part of (Rupert) Murdoch's domain"
15 C’EST LA VIE
Resignation statement of Emmanuel Macron? (4,2,3)

C'EST LA VIE (that's life) could be considered a "statement" of "resignation". The reference to Emmanuel Macron indicates that we are looking for a French phrase.
17 NARCOTIC
Crashed car into back of Merc, under influence of this? (8)

*(car into) [anag:crashed] back of (Mer)C
18 SCORPION
Arachnid found in house at noon (8)

SCORPIO ("house" in astrology") at N (noon)
20 DOWN
What makes duckling fluffy and sad? (4)

Double definition
21 BEEHIVE
A style that has the workers buzzing? (7)

The BEEHIVE was a hairstyle popular in the 1960s.
22 TIRADE
Outburst of one that’s stuck in traffic (6)

I (one) stuck in TRADE ("traffic")
23 AGREED
A deadly sin? I’m of the same opinion (6)

A + GREED ("deadly sin")
26 TRIPE
Son kicked out of bar? Rubbish! (5)

S (son) kicked out of (s)TRIPE ("bar")

8 comments on “Financial Times 16,737 by MOO”

  1. Re 3d. I think I should comment on the fact that the “forbidden fruit” wasn’t specified to be an apple. As many know, the word “apple” did once refer to any fruit (not berries) but that is not its current (currant?) meaning, so the clue for 3d is a little suspect but, I guess, acceptable given the common assumption that it was an apple. As Nick Hewer once said on Countdown, maybe Eve had a nice “pear”.

    I felt the crossword as a whole was ok but didn’t float my boat in places, especially 12a.

  2. Hovis

    Agreed about 3dn – “apple” as the forbidden fruit just seems to have come into common currency. It was only a work of fiction, anyway!

  3. APPLE, STINGRAY, WRESTLING and TRIPE were my picks of the day. Accepting the ‘forbidden fruit’ point Hovis makes, there are enough apples depicted in art history for this not to bother me particularly. Moo certainly kept me on my toes.
    After a false start of an admittedly unparsed ‘minimise’ for MITIGATE, I found this not so difficult to complete as to parse so thanks to Loonapick.

  4. Thanks to Moo and loonapick. I agree with Diane. Easier to solve than to parse, especially ASSIGN but also BUTT (I didn’t know Aunt Sally).

  5. A fairly easy solve but very enjoyable.
    In 1dn our collective mind boggled at the idea of the writer tied to the bedpost – what would the 30ac say?
    But we too thought 12ac wasn’t very cryptic. And we weren’t sure how many solvers for whom the FT is not staple fare would be able to equate names with underwriters in 16ac.
    Favourites were BY CHANCE and STINGRAY.
    Thanks, Moo and loonapick.

  6. Thanks Moo and loonapick
    Found this to be a solid workout without being overly difficult, starting off in the NE corner with RANSOM and finishing back there about 40 minutes later with ASSIGN and the clever MAN-EATER. A few clues that I’d seen a bit of lately – DOWN, BEEHIVE, TIRADE and AGREED.
    Got PASTERNAK from the ‘Boris’ part and was trying to work with PAST (‘former’) and disappointed not to get somewhere with that. Did like the clue for C’EST LA VIE.

  7. Had some trouble with the upper half — PASTERNAK, SKYE, and EMANATE just wouldn’t drop but I had fun with clues like BY CHANCE, STING RAY, and TRIPE. Thanks Moo and to loonapick (don’t be silenced by a few malcontents on the Guardian blog) for parsing.

  8. Surely “artist” should be used in 7d instead of “painter”? A Royal Academy member could work in a medium other than paint.

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