Financial Times 16,943 by MOO

by

Definitely not a typical Monday puzzle!

A challenge indeed, but most enjoyable, from Moo this morning. I found myself overthinking many clues until the penny finally dropped, although in retrospect, I do think it was very fair and so an excellent puzzle in my opinion. Many thanks to Moo.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. The Prince of Wales? He likes a drop or two (6)
BOOZER

Double definition (The Prince of Wales being a common pub name)

4. Onerous part of Rishi Sunak’s job (6)
TAXING

Double definition

8. Is youngster allowed to eat here? (7)
CAN TEEN

Cryptic definition (can teen?)

9. Head honcho a few may find offensive (7)
NOISOME

No. 1 (head honcho) + SOME (a few)

11. Vote sees half of people initially backing foreign cities (10)
PLEBISCITE

[peo]PLE (half of) + B[acking] (initially) + (CITIES)* (*foreign)

12. Moving round in London district on your bike (4)
SHOO

Moving O (round) in SOHO (London district)

13. Tycoon who’s childless, did you say? (5)
BARON

“barren”, (childless, “did you say?”)

14. Is wholly wrong, in manner of parliamentarian? (8)
OWLISHLY

(IS WHOLLY)* (*wrong)

Referring to the collective noun – a parliament of owls

16. Island backing Tory firm (8)
CONCRETE

CRETE (island) backing CON (Tory)

18. Establish nothing must interrupt supply (5)
FOUND

O (nothing) must interrupt FUND (supply)

20. Bride against disclosing conception (4)
IDEA

[br]IDE A[gainst] (disclosing)

21. Pipe cracked each summer (10)
MEERSCHAUM

(EACH SUMMER)* (*cracked)

23. Boris sometimes filling you with horror? (7)
KARLOFF

Cryptic definition (Boris Karloff was an iconic horror film actor)

24. Hold murderer carrying old religious text (7)
CONTAIN

CAIN (murderer) carrying O (old) + NT (religious text, New Testament)

25. Briefs almost all of them on veto (3,3)
THE BAR

THE[m] (almost all of) on BAR (veto)

26. The dash of the Saxe-Coburgs? (6)
HYPHEN

Cryptic definition

DOWN
1. Wail about Romeo provoking a punch-up (5)
BRAWL

BAWL (wail) about R (Romeo)

2. Odd at first to be in credit for some time (7)
OCTOBER

O[dd] (at first) + TO BE in CR (credit)

3. From then on, at no time losing head over wrongdoing by church (4,5)
EVER SINCE

[n]EVER (at no time, losing head) over SIN (wrongdoing) by CE (church)

5. Love a way in for dictator (5)
ADORE

O (love) A + “door” (way in, “for dictator”)

6. Is certain to be among first on board (7)
INSISTS

IN (to be among) + IST (first) on board (in SS)

7. Took a risk, I hear, and jumped (9)
GAMBOLLED

“gambled” (took a risk, “I hear”)

10. T for kitchen utensil? (3,6)
TIN OPENER

Cryptic definition (“T” opens “TIN”)

13. Report surprising resistance to a CBS ad (9)
BROADCAST

(R (resistance) TO A CBS AD)* (*surprising)

15. Falsehoods overshadowing female politician’s account (4,5)
LIFE STORY

LIES (falsehoods) overshadowing F (female) + TORY (politician)

17. Idiot that gets right up your nose? (7)
CHARLIE

Cryptic definition (“charlie” is a slang name for cocaine)

19. Disentangle problem in security council (7)
UNHITCH

UN HITCH (problem in security council)

HIT (problem) IN UNCH (security council)

An error perhaps? UNCh is sometimes used to refer to the United Nations Charter, which is not the same as the UNSC (Security Council)

21. Family dilemma, fiancée gathers (5)
MAFIA

[dilem]MA FIA[ncee] (gathers)

22. Coalition’s sore point: billions missing (5)
UNION

[b]UNION (sore point, B (billions) missing)

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,943 by MOO”

  1. I parsed 19d as a ‘problem in security council’ = a UN HITCH. OK, maybe a bit loose for UN to be equated with ‘security council’ but I still think it works.

    I agree this was a good puzzle, with some good defs, in particular, the cryptic def for 23a, ‘Briefs’ for 25a and ‘The dash of the Saxe-Coburgs?’ for 26a. I couldn’t get the parsing for INSIST and missed the precise meaning of my second drug-related clue in a couple of days with CHARLIE. I’ve got to say, I’m not too fussed!

    Thanks to Moo and Teacow

  2. I took 19d to be UN HITCH. 5d should be a homophone of “a door”.

    Loved this. Very hard for a Moo, particularly the NW, but I like a struggle. Pleased to remember and correctly spell MEERSCHAUM.

    PLEBISCITE was new for me but guessed it from the wordplay and this opened up the top left quadrant for me.

  3. Teacow, re 19D: I took “problem” to be “hitch” and “security council” to be “UN”. That leaves the “in” as being not needed. I also don’t understand why you think that “hit” means “problem”. Not a good clue in my opinion.

    Re 11A – this is the first time that I have seen “foreign” as an anagram indicator.

    Thanks for your efforts.

  5. Thanks to the commenters! Just a brain glitch at 5d, and your solutions to 19d are far more sensible than mine – I’ll amend the blog.
    Peter@3, I was thinking along the lines of “take a hit” – “encounter a problem” but that’s irrelevant as it’s clearly wrong anyway…

  6. Enjoyed this very much though parsing was a rather tricky in some cases. OWLISHLY was my favourite today as I’m rather partial to collective nouns.
    I parsed UNHITCH as did others but wondered if it is really the same as ‘disentangle’ which suggests disorder…unless, of course, it’s a reference to dissolving messy marital ties.
    Thanks both to Moo and Teacow.

  7. Thanks Moo and Teacow. Quite enjoyed the puzzle, with a couple of minor observations.

    4a – While I got the answer right, I didnt know who Rishi Sunak was and dont think he is well know enough outside the UK to be of significance so I thought it was a touch unfair for non-UK solvers. This opinion is either valid or exposes my ignorance to the world; I hope its the former.

    23a – One of those clues which you can get if you know it but impossible to work out from deconstructing ( which is ok for some, I guess). I wonder if “LARK” could have been used as a reverse anagram clue for KARL OFF.

    I failed on 25a and 17d. A lot of fun solving the rest, 🙂

    Regards,
    TL

  8. I got everything (with a little help from the XWord Solver+ app) except 12a. I’d never heard of “on your bike” to mean go away. I suppose the good news is that, apparently, I’ve never been so obnoxious in the UK as to cause someone to say that to me.

    After solving BOOZER and TAXING, I was expecting a pangram, but I couldn’t find J nor Q. Thanks to Moo for a fun solve and Teacow for the explanations—and for reassuring me that even the experts make occasional mistakes. 🙂

  9. Thanks Moo and Teacow
    A Monday toughie for sure which took more than double my average solve time – especially held up in the top half. A lot of cleverly disguised clues which kept one on their toes throughout. Started off with FAMILY, quickly followed by KARLOFF (with a slight shrug) and MEERSCHAUM (funny what words stick at the upper edge of the mind).
    Second time in recent days that ‘brief’ = lawyer / barrister has appeared. Did like OWLISHLY which took longer than it should have to sort out the anagram, but fell quickly when the ‘parliament’ collective noun penny dropped.
    Oddly enough, after being held up for so long at the top, finished in a flurry at the end with the clever OCTOBER, BOOZER and CANTEEN.

  10. This took awhile and I gave up without solving either CHARLIE or THE BAR. All else eventually disentangled. I figured 4a was a double definition — DD’s double my chances at guessing correctly so I didn’t need to know who Rishi Sunak was. I thought much of this crossword was quite clever and favourites included OWLISHLY, CONCRETE, ADORE, LIFE STORY, and HYPHEN. Thanks to both.

  11. We managed to solve everything with no real problems although we were led astray a few times – for example in 23ac thinking it referred to Bojo until we had the crossing letters A and F. Lots to enjoy, though: favourite was OWLISHLY.
    Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

  14. Hi Turbolegs@7
    Was reading through comments again and think that having the current Chancellor of the Exchequer as a solution in the premier financial daily is probably more than fair. 🙂

Comments are closed.