Financial Times 17,639 MUDD

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A pleasant challenge from MUDD.

FF:7 DD:7

A couple of parses might have room for improvement.

ACROSS
1 HIPPOCRATES
Those bearing heavy loads for old physician? (11)

HIPPO ( denoting heavy ) CRATES ( loads ) .. not too happy with my parsing
7 SET
TV or radio tune (3)

triple def
9 RENAL
Learn to brew using filters? (5)

[ LEARN ]*
10 NORMALISE
Scandinavian touring country put things in usual manner (9)

NORSE ( scandinavian ) around MALI ( country )
11 BLOODSHED
Passion dropped for butchery (9)

BLOOD ( passion ) SHED ( dropped )
12 LEAST
Lowest point on back of heel (5)

L ( heeL, last letter ) EAST ( point )
13 CHIPPER
Jolly carpenter, say (7)

cryptic def

15 STEM
Stop contributing to funds, temporarily (4)

hidden in "..fundS TEMporarily.."
18 WEAR
Don Quixote’s back put into crusade (4)

E ( quixotE, back ) in WAR ( crusade )
20 TERRACE
Deck, where boy cut card (7)

TERRy ( boy, cut ) ACE ( card )
23 COPSE
Nails ending in some wood (5)

COPS ( nails ) E ( somE, last letter )
24 CARTRIDGE
Case in bank put on trolley (9)

CART ( trolley ) RIDGE ( bank )
26 ARISTOTLE
Noble head on the discontented Lebanese philosopher (9)

ARISTO ( noble ) T ( The, first letter ) LE ( LebanesE, discontented i.e. without inner letters )
27 BANAL
Refuse almost all stock (5)

BAN ( refuse ) ALl ( almost )
28 RAG
Jazz magazine (3)

double def
29 YELLOWSTONE
National Park where chicken put to death (11)

YELLOW ( chicken ) STONE ( put to death )
DOWN
1 HARDBACK
Impenetrable second book (8)

HARD ( impenetrable) BACK ( second )
2 PANGOLIN
Leg across a surprisingly long, scaly animal (8)

PIN ( leg ) across { A [ LONG ]* }
3 OILED
Greasy attention seeker came first (5)

OI ( attention seeker, to call someone ) LED ( came first )
4 RANCHER
Farmer managed chickens initially and cattle briefly? (7)

RAN ( managed ) C ( Chicken, briefly ) HERd ( cattle, briefly )
5 TIRADES
One overwhelmed by jobs, rants (7)

I ( one ) in TRADES ( jobs )
6 SMALL BEER
A half a trifle (5,4)

cryptic def
7 SPIRAL
Pair swerving left after first of skiers go downhill fast (6)

S ( Skiers, first letter ) [ PAIR ]* L ( left )
8 TWENTY
Figure walked off in case of treachery (6)

WENT ( walked off ) in TY ( TreacherY, case of i.e. end characters )
14 PRESENTLY
Reply sent off in the next hour or so? (9)

[ REPLY SENT ]*
16 FANDANGO
Cooler dancing and vitality in dance (8)

FAN ( cooler ) [ AND ]* GO ( vitality )
17 REVEILLE
Wake–up call, on French city invaded by English (8)

RE ( on ) [ VILLE ( french city ) containing E ( english ) ]
19 RECITAL
Random article in account (7)

[ ARTICLE ]*
20 TORPEDO
Deport foreign leader of opposition, wreck (7)

[ DEPORT ]* O ( Opposition, first letter )
21 ECLAIR
Large cracks spoiled a rice cake (6)

L ( larger ) in [ A RICE ]*
22 SPRING
Shop cleared out, jewellery in vault (6)

SP ( ShoP, cleared out ) RING ( jewellery )
25 REBUS
Puzzle book stolen by litigant turned up (5)

B ( book ) in reverse of SUER ( litigant )

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,639 MUDD”

  1. Pleasant indeed. I found the top half took more time and thought than the bottom.

    My parsing of 1ac was the same as yours, Turbolegs and I was none too happy with it either.

    Maybe it was just me, but I did not think Mudd’s usual wit made much of a showing today. if I have to name favourites they would be TWENTY and PRESENTLY for their surfaces.

    Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs

  2. I parsed 1a as CRATES which contained HIPPOS (ie HIPPO CRATES) would be ‘bearing heavy loads’. I had trouble seeing the third def for SET, which does work as a verb as in to tune the radio (funnily enough) to a specific frequency and with the random ‘boy’ TERR(y) at 20a.

    Favourite was 26a for which I spent too long searching for an unhappy ‘Lebanese philosopher’ until crossers came to the rescue.

    Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs

  3. Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs!
    Parsed HIPPOCRATES as WP@2.

    SMALL BEER could even be considered as a DD,
    considering ‘a half’ is ‘half a pint of beer’.

  4. I agree with Martyn about the quality of the puzzle but it was still enjoyable.Perhaps we need a break from REVEILLE?
    Typo in blog for 27ac which should read :AL(almost ALL)
    Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs.

  5. Enjoyable.
    I liked TWENTY, TERRACE, TORPEDO and ECLAIR.
    The appealing PANGOLIN was the very first creature that popped into my head as it has, unfortunately, fared very badly in my neck of the woods.
    Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs for a sound blog.

  6. Parsed 1a as WordPlodder and KVa. Wasn’t very impressed by the anagram fodder for PRESENTLY where SENT isn’t anagrammed at all but the surface was well done.

  8. Peter @7: RENAL relates to the kidney which is where much of the filtration of waste occurs, hence ‘using filters’

  9. Thanks for stopping by, folks.

    SM@4: The syntax I use is only capitalized letters are part of the solve. The 3rd character in ALL looks like an I when written in small letters so I understand the confusion it could cause. My parsing was the same as yours.

    Regards,
    TL

  10. Apols: crossed with KVa re RENAL. I think I’m aligned with the general view on this one, though I will confess to a smile on parsing HIPPO CRATES – which, I guess, are actually a Thing going by the TV programmes I’ve seen in which the beasts are knocked out and then transported.

    I didn’t get the third part of the triple def, concluding that a ‘radio set’ could conceivably be a tune. Triples are tricky – the temptation is always to conclude the clue is solved once two defs have been identified, unless there is obvious fodder left over.

    I do agree with the random ‘boy/girl’ name thing on the whole – although I note that it is a device much employed in the Times which is supposed to be the bellwether when it comes to UK crosswords. But, then, I guess if they are denying their setters the use of many names due to the ‘no living person’ rule, maybe they get some slack.

    Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs

  13. I thought of Hippo as a brand name for a big bag to use as a skip, but that’s overcomplicating. I agree with KVa that SMALL BEER is a DD.

  14. Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs

    6dn (SMALL BEER): I would call this “two meanings, the first literal and the second figurative”. I have said on previous occasions that this is often a very effective way of cluing an answer of more than one word.

    7ac: I originally put AIR in here, but it did not take long to see in 7dn that the anagram of PAIR had to come after the S from “first of skiers”. I am happy that SET is a better answer, but I am not convinced that there are really three definitions here. Let me ask would you be happy with “TV or radio” with nothing else as a satisfactory double definition clue? No quarrel if you would, but I prefer to think of “TV or radio” as one definition and “turn” as a verb (thanks -WP@2) as the second. The word “or” seems awkwardly placed in the clue if there are really meant to be three definitions.

  15. Well, I thought HIPPO CRATES was brilliant – made me laugh.

    Agree with Pelham Barton’s analysis of 6d and 7a.

    Jazz mag had a very specific meaning when I was in my adolescence. I’m sure Mudd had the same meaning in mind. Cheeky.

    Thanks, Mudd and Turbolegs

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