Financial Times 17,825 by MOO

by

MOO provides this bank holiday’s puzzle…

An enjoyable and well constructed puzzle. 10ac took me a while to parse satisfactorily.

 

Thanks MOO!

ACROSS
1. Get down with His Majesty? That’s a sore point (6)
CROUCH

CR (His Majesty) + OUCH (that’s a sore point)

4. I bad-mouth a Cypriot maybe (8)
ISLANDER

I + SLANDER (bad-mouth)

10. It could be an opinion piece in the Guardian? (7)
ARTICLE

Double (cryptic) definition

It could be “an”

11. Hurried to grab first man, running back fast (7)
RAMADAN

RAN (hurried) to grab (ADAM)< (first man, <running back)

12. Praise faculty in speech (4)
CITE

“sight” = CITE (faculty, “in speech”)

13. Pal thus making erotic entertainment? (3,7)
LAP DANCING

PAL = (LAP)* (*dancing)

16. Park employee, new arrival losing way (6)
RANGER

[st]RANGER (new arrival, losing ST (way))

17. Worried you might find Rosemary here? (2,1,4)
IN A STEW

Double (cryptic) definition

20. Cambridge University admitting old lady, an expatriate (7)
MIGRANT

MIT (Cambridge (Massachusetts) university) admitting GRAN (old lady)

21. Mistake by model, troublesome youngster (6)
TERROR

ERROR (mistake) by T (model)

24. Constituent and I get dinner out (10)
INGREDIENT

(I GET DINNER)* (*out)

25. Long time spent in a stupor, might one say? (4)
DAYS

 

“daze” = DAYS (a stupor, “might one say”)

27. First articles set before a non-believer (7)
ATHEIST

IST (first), A THE (articles) set before

29. New queen a cracker — but a little obsessive? (7)
NERDISH

N (new) + ER (queen) + DISH (a cracker)

30. A seaman said to be the mugger? (8)
ASSAILER

“a sailor” = ASSAILER (a seaman, “said”)

31. Seed of a never-ending comic strip? (6)
PEANUT

PEANUT[s] (comic strip, never-ending)

DOWN
1. Risky holding royal personage in court (8)
CHANCERY

CHANCY (risky) holding ER (royal personage)

2. Bill can be so wonderful! (11)
OUTSTANDING

Double definition

3. American leaving drink, the clown (4)
COCO

COCO[a] (drink, A (American) leaving)

5. Second nuclear missile demanding attention (8)
STRIDENT

S (second) + TRIDENT (nuclear missile)

6. A department head covering up department’s conduct (10)
ADMINISTER

(A + MINISTER (department head)) covering up D (department)

7. Old man having heart transplant? It won’t work (3)
DUD

DAD (old man, having heart transplant, i.e. replacing the A with a U)

8. Break promise, trapped by Chinese general on way north (6)
RENEGE

([Chines]E GENER[al] (trapped by))< (<on way north)

9. Two males, one with no need for Viagra? (2-3)
HE-MAN

HE MAN (two males)

14. Predictable condition of Iberian into rum (11)
INEBRIATION

(IBERIAN INTO)* (*rum) &lit

15. Individual in residence breaking court order (6,4)
DECREE NISI

I (individual) in (RESIDENCE)* (*breaking)

18. Too inept to move stealthily (2,6)
ON TIPTOE

(TOO INEPT)* (*to move)

19. Senior officer supports head of state on Panama, perhaps (5,3)
BRASS HAT

BRAS (supports) + S[tate] (head of) on HAT (Panama, perhaps)

22. Capital of country held by army once (6)
TIRANA

IRAN (country) held by TA (army once)

23. Ridiculous episode beginning and ending like this (5)
INANE

IN AN E (the beginning and ending of episode)

26. Lake where vicar’s lost in daydream (4)
ERIE

[rev]ERIE (daydream, REV (vicar) lost)

28. Enjoys shiatsu every now and then (3)
HAS

[s]H[i]A[t]S[u] (every now and then)

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,825 by MOO”

  1. Noticed Liz outnumbering Chas 2 to 1: 29a NERDISH, 1d CHANCERY, 1a CROUCH.
    Checked that 31a PEANUT[s] (1950–) is indeed “never-ending”, with reruns since 2000.
    Thanks M&T

  3. An enjoyable bank holiday diversion. Not sure that CITE is necessarily ‘praise’ and I don’t think we’ve ever come across ASSAILER rather than ‘assailant’ but it’s in the dictionary so no problems. We took ages, though to get CROUCH, thinking the definition was ‘sore point’.
    Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

  4. I didn’t have a problem with CITE as praise – as you cite someone’s opinion or work when relying on it.

    Thank you to Teacow and Moo.

  5. Thanks Moo and Teacow. Nice to see the return of an old favourite with the indication for MIT at 20ac.

    12ac: As well as the meaning for cite given by Shanne@4, Collins 2023 p 378 gives us “to mention or commend (a soldier, etc) for outstanding bravery or meritorious action”, which I think fits even better for “praise”.

  6. Couldn’t get 22d, so DNF, but otherwise very few problems…

    For 3d, the first train of thought was drink=booze, so clown=Bozo, which was quickly proved wrong…

    Couldn’t parse “Outstanding”, now I think it was quite a clever construct.

    Liked “On tiptoe” and the puzzle on the whole.

    Thank you to Moo and Teacow

  7. Thanks Moo for an excellent set of clues, all with easy-to-read surfaces. My top picks were CROUCH (LOI), ARTICLE, LAP DANCING, DUD, INEBRIATION, ON TIPTOE, BRASS HAT, and INANE. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
    FrankieG @1: I’m not sure Moo would use ‘ER’ twice to mean queen/royal. CHANCERY could be R (king or royal) in CHANCEY, an alternate spelling of ‘chancy’ found in Chambers.

  8. Really an enjoyable puzzle. No holiday over here, but I hope my friends on the east end of the pond are enjoying their day off. Thanks to Moo and Teacow for a great blog.

  9. Shanne & PB @ 4&5: I was thinking of CITE in the context of, citing something/someone as being awful, bad, etc. I could cite L** T**** as a terrible PM for example. I did say ‘not necessarily praise’.

  10. CITE seems to be one of those words that has multiple divergent meanings.

    As already mentioned, you can cite as a positive example or as a bad example.

    And in Rugby Union ‘citing’ is the post facto reporting of an alleged act of foul play that wasn’t spotted and penalised during the game.

    Rum old language, English.

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