Financial Times 18,070 by MOO

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MOO kicks off the week…

A very enjoyable puzzle. 26a was new to me, though it feels like I must have come across it before in a crossword.

Thanks MOO!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Money made by yours truly backing prince (6)
MOOLAH

MOO (yours truly) + (HAL)< (prince, <backing)

4. One Muslim scholar upset, being fed old cheese (8)
HALLOUMI

(I (one) + MULLAH (Muslim scholar))< (<upset) being fed O (old)

9. Show womaniser has had change of heart (5)
RODEO

ROMEO (womaniser, change of heart (M changing to a D))

10. Midday air refreshed farm worker (9)
DAIRYMAID

(MIDDAY AIR)* (*refreshed)

11. Everything in Express is facile (7)
SHALLOW

ALL (everything) in SHOW (express)

12. Chancellor’s penultimate budget speech (7)
ORATION

[chancell]O[r] (penultimate) + RATION (budget)

13. Voice emerging from chemical toilet (4)
ALTO

[chemic]AL TO[oilet] (emerging from)

14. Married sister’s desperate for lover (8)
MISTRESS

M (married) + (SISTERS)* (*desperate)

17. Patient left (8)
RESIGNED

Double definition

19. Brand-new Polo? (4)
MINT

Double (cryptic) definition

22. Republican in bar providing quote (7)
EXCERPT

R (republican) in EXCEPT (bar)

24. Extreme anger with 100 expelled by Tory leader (7)
INTENSE

INCENSE (anger, with C (100) expelled by T[ory] (leader))

25. Customers tell niece off (9)
CLIENTELE

(TELL NIECE)* (*off)

26. Hunter caught in Siberian forest (5)
TAIGA

"tiger" = TAIGA (hunter, "caught")

27. Feature of house, perhaps (8)
PROPERTY

Double definition

28. Kind of chap the Spanish will turn back (6)
GENTLE

GENT (chap) + (EL)< (the, Spanish, <will turn back)

DOWN
1. Evangelist’s servant shot (8)
MARKSMAN

MARK'S MAN (evangelist's servant)

2. Model’s art problematic for Michelangelo? (3,6)
OLD MASTER

(MODELS ART)* (*problematic)

3. A vote essentially about lunar mission (6)
APOLLO

A + POLL (vote) + [ab]O[ut] (essentially)

5. One’s mistress not quite lying flat? (1,3,2,3,4)
A BIT ON THE SIDE

Double (cryptic) definition

6. Expose what nudists did on beach? (3,4)
LAY BARE

Double (cryptic) definition

7. Satsuma missing a little flavour (5)
UMAMI

[sats]UMA MI[ssing] (a little)

8. I eat after ten (6)
IODINE

DINE (eat) after IO (ten)

10. Way in which Farage might exercise power? (7,6)
DOWNING STREET

Cryptic definition

15. Researcher incites riots in street (9)
SCIENTIST

(INCITES)* (*riots) in ST (street)

16. Guide on time for cheapest accommodation (8)
STEERAGE

STEER (guide) on AGE (time)

18. Choke, spitting out large rum (7)
STRANGE

STRANG[l]E (choke, spitting out L (large))

20. Side missing out on maiden trophy: storm brewing here? (6)
TEACUP

TEA[m] (side, missing out on M (maiden)) + CUP (trophy)

21. Sculpture university put in position (6)
STATUE

U (university) put in STATE (position)

23. City firm acquiring Sky (5)
CAIRO

CO (firm) acquiring AIR (sky)

27 comments on “Financial Times 18,070 by MOO”

  1. A pleasant surprise to see Moo crop up today.
    I made steady progress with this until left with a handful including two great double definitions – RESIGNED and MINT – which made me put my thinking cap on.
    Loved IODINE, STRANGE, MARKSMAN and DAIRYMAID but perish the thought of 10d!
    Thanks to Moo and Teacow, a lovely double bill.

  2. Lovely puzzle – just right for a Monday. Took ages to get MOOLAH though as when I opened the puzzle it gave the setter as Mudd.

    Liked: HALLOUMI, MINT, TAIGA, APOLLO, IODINE (as usual took a while to recognise the symbol as description)

    Thanks Moo and Teacow

  4. The same, Fiona @2, in fact I clicked the Puzzle Info box to check, and then thought How does Mudd get to = moo? Hey ho.

  5. Yes, Fiona and Grant, me too! Thought I’d imagined it and was surprised to see Mudd again so soon. 1A was always going to be MOOLAH but I did spend time trying to make Mudd, me and I work.
    Moo, your name was Mudd for a little while there!

  6. I agree that this was a most enjoyable puzzle with a clear blog. Is the definition for 8d missing?

    Thanks Moo and Teacow.

  7. Lots of smiles today

    I echo Diane@1’s praise for the double definitions and I really liked some of the anagrams with no bits added or subtracted. Many ticks today, most already mentioned.

    Thanks Moo (Mudd?) and Teacow

  8. Thanks Moo and Teacow

    SM@6 re 8dn: I (underlined in the blog) is the chemical symbol for iodine.

  10. Looks like we all got misdirected by the mis-accreditation of the puzzle; that is a positively demonic trick by the setter!!! Nice gentle puzzle, otherwise, with the delightful DAIRYMAID being COTD for me.

    Thanks both

  11. Iodine held me up for ages.
    Despite having the level chemistry long long time ago……

    Thank you

  12. Thanks for the blog , definitely Moo in the paper . Good set of concise clues . I hope 10D is not an accurate prediction , For IODINE I am always suspicious when a clue starts with I or As .

  13. We downloaded the crossword from the website and it was correctly attributed to Moo there.
    An enjoyable and not too difficult solve, although we weren’t sure at first if the answer 26ac was the animal or the forest till crossing letters confirmed it was the latter. As for 10dn – heaven forbid!
    Thanks, Moo and Teacow.

  14. Do you think the MOOLAH and the reversed mullah, and the MISTRESS and A BIT ON THE SIDE were intentional echoes?

  15. I was stuck in the Mudd too, it really held me up! Otherwise good and I also admired the DAIRYMAID.

  16. Thanks Moo for a great set of clues with my top picks being SHALLOW, ALTO, CLIENTELE, EXCERPT, SCIENTIST, and TEACUP. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  17. Roz@12 – thanks for the tip about I or A at the beginning of the clue. I will try to remember it.

    Martin@15 – “stuck in the Mudd” indeed. Me too. MARKSMAN was one of my last clues in, and I needed the M to see MOOLAH and realize what was going on.

  20. [How about this?

    A formerly gnarled organ (5)

    This is based on memory of some out of date periodic tables that were on display in my school’s chemistry department fifty five years ago – and, yes, they were already out of date then. I cannot find support for this in SOED 2007, but Wikipedia currently says that the relevant symbol was used prior to 1957.]

  22. Arsenic turns up quite often in crosswords and is fundamentally linked . It has one stable isotope with 75 nucleons and each contains three quarks so 225 quarks in total .
    225 is equal to …… ?

  23. [Another one possibly worth remembering is At for astatine, which can be found in some puzzles blogged on fifteensquared, most recently Independent 11,808 and Azed 2710, both in 2024.]

  27. A nice and not too hard puzzle. Had to find “steerage”, a new word for me, from the pattern obtained from the crossers using “the crossword solver.”

    26AC At first I didn’t think of “caught” as an homophone indicator.

    2D: “art models are” instead of “model’s art” would have made a better surface imo.

    I liked 6D and 8D.

    Thanks to Moo and Teacow.

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