A fast solve but with some very pleasing and innovative surfaces.
My first MOO, I think, and it’s been a pleasure. Thanks to her or him.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SLAUGHTER | Execute composition of Elgar thus (9) |
| Anagram (‘composition’) of ELGAR THUS. | ||
| 6 | HIPPO | Beastly African in post office (5) |
| HIP (‘in’) + P[ost] O[ffice]. | ||
| 9 | LASSO | Catch girl with nothing on (5) |
| LASS + 0. | ||
| 10 | BATTLEAXE | Fierce old woman fighting against sack (9) |
| BATTLE (‘fighting’) + AXE (to ‘sack’). | ||
| 11 | TENDERISER | You might apply this to your cuts (10) |
| Cryptic def: cuts of meat, obvs. | ||
| 12 | FLEE | Leg it with circus performer, did you say?(4) |
| Homonym of ‘flea’ (‘circus performer’). | ||
| 14 | MASSEUR | On reflection, regrets uncle becoming a manipulative type (7) |
| Reversal of both RUES (‘regrets’) + (Uncle) SAM | ||
| 15 | TWEETED | Time small boy in Scotland sang (7) |
| T[ime] + WEE TED (‘small boy in Scotland’). | ||
| 17 | DESERTS | Leaves sweets for the Speaker (7) |
| Homonym of ‘desserts’. | ||
| 19 | STIPEND | Pay saint very little money to conclude (7) |
| S[ain]T + 1P + End. | ||
| 20 | ACNE | Spots Bill heading north-east (4) |
| AC[ount] (‘bill’) + NE, compass ‘heading’. | ||
| 22 | BLIND DATES | Bedsit land unexpectedly provides romantic prospects (5,5) |
| Anagram (‘unexpectedly’) of BEDSIT LAND. | ||
| 25 | TESTIFIER | I swear, getting grumpier with F1 interruptions (9) |
| TESTI.ER (‘grumpier’) includes F1. | ||
| 26 | OBESE | Fat old cow’s complaint about Spain (5) |
| O[ld] + BSE (‘cow’s complaint’) includes E[spana]. | ||
| 27 | RHYME | A sound agreement? (5) |
| Cryptic def. | ||
| 28 | DEPOSITOR | I doorstep desperate bank customer (9) |
| Anagram (‘desperate’) of I DOORSTEP | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SPLAT | Climbing mountains tricky at first. Don’t fall like this! (5) |
| Reversal (in this down clue) of ALPS = 1st of T{ricky}. | ||
| 2 | ARSONISTS | Criminals first to feed penniless priests (9) |
| pARSON.S (‘”penniless” priests’) surrounds 1ST. | ||
| 3 | GOOSEBERRY | Poke Chuck in bottom. His company’s not wanted (10) |
| Instruction to ‘GOOSE (Chuck) BERRY’. | ||
| 4 | TUBBIER | Objection about Brie – unfortunately it makes you fatter (7) |
| Reversal of BUT (an ‘objection’) + anagram (‘unfortunately’) of BRIE. | ||
| 5 | RETREAT | Parisian to be held by snitch in hideout (7) |
| ETRE (verb ‘to be’ in France) held by RAT (a ‘snitch’). | ||
| 6 | HOLY | Religious theory regularly baffles novice (4) |
| Alternate letters of ‘tHeOrY’ surround L[earner], a ‘novice’. | ||
| 7 | PEARL | She‘s right to wear ring (5) |
| R[ight] surrounded by PEAL (to ‘ring’). | ||
| 8 | OPEN-ENDED | Frank finished with no definite conclusion (4-5) |
| Simply, OPEN + ENDED. | ||
| 13 | HER INDOORS | He introduces Ron and Doris, errant wife (3,7) |
| HE + anagram (‘errant’) of RON & DORIS. The shade of George Cole’s never-seen wife in the TV series ‘Minder’. | ||
| 14 | MEDIA STAR | TV celebrity radiates male embarrassment (5,4) |
| Anagram (’embarrassment’) of RADIATES & M[ale]. | ||
| 16 | TREATMENT | What you may get if patient? (9) |
| Cryptic def. | ||
| 18 | SULLIED | Dishonoured bride ill-used to a degree on journey north (7) |
| First bit (‘to a degree’) of ILLUSED reversed ‘northward’ in this Down clue. (Nope: See Steven’s correction below). | ||
| 19 | SUNTRAP | Hot spot where paper has revolutionary role (7) |
| SUN (newspaper’) + PART (‘role’) reversed. | ||
| 21 | NASTY | Vegan’s latest pie quietly chucked out? It’s horrible! (5) |
| Last of ‘vegaN’ + pASTY without P[iano]. | ||
| 23 | STEER | A Hereford pilot? (5) |
| Double def, 1st cryptic of possible bovine. | ||
| 24 | VICE | Sex before church is a sin (4) |
| VI (Latin for 6, as is ‘sex’) + CE (‘church’). My CoD. | ||
I agree a speedy solve, but enjoyable. Thanks setter and blogger.
18d is a hidden reverse in ‘bride ill-used’
To Steven @1.
Oops. Blog so annotated. Careless mistake, thanks.
Yes, and with a new compiler comes a fresh voice, making it a bit slower for me. Some nice ones — I enjoyed 14ac MASSEUR and 10ac BATTLESEX, but LOI was 6ac HIPPO. Thanks Moo and GB
Thanks for the blog, Grant.
I haven’t tried a Moo puzzle before but I enjoyed this one, especially the clever anagram @ 22ac BLIND DATES and 5dn RETREAT.
The fat old cow @26ac and the errant wife @13dn made me laugh.
Many thanks, Moo, for the fun.
Moo’s third outing. I felt this was better than the last one but, perhaps, not as good as the debut. Nice of Moo to have STEER as one of the solutions. When I first read 14a, I wonder if the reflected “uncle” might be Moo. It seems ages since I last saw “oom” for “uncle” in a cryptic (it’s South African for those who haven’t seen this before). Thanks Moo and Grant.
I found this harder than others, not helped by taking ages to see the SLAUGHTER anagram. What really held me up though were TENDERISER, only obvious in retrospect and especially GOOSEBERRY, never having heard of the ‘unwanted person’ sense, nor GOOSE for ‘Poke’.
I liked the onomatopoeic SPLAT and the not so simple PEARL.
Good to have the FT puzzle available again.
Thanks to Moo for the challenge and to Grant
Completed fairly quickly, but very enjoyable with a number of witty clues. Thanks to Grant for fully explaining 24d.
I was glad when the girl in 7d turned out to be a pearl and not a troll.
Some very smooth and pleasing surfaces in this butcher’s delight of a crossword. The Hereford is indeed a tasty side of beef. I,too, was tickled by the ‘fat old cow’ and enjoyed ‘testifier’.
Thanks Moo and Grant.
Very enjoyable — MASSEUR, HIPPO, ARSONISTS, and SPLAT were favorites. I agree with Grant about “pleasing and innovative surfaces.” Was unable to get TWEETED and couldn’t parse ACNE. Thanks Moo.
A pleasant enough solve but we didn’t find it as satisfying as we might have done. A few of the clues seemed familiar and one of us was convinced for a while that this was an accidental reprint of a previous puzzle. But we think it’s just that different compilers will often independently come up with similar clues for the same word.
Some nice touches, though. We liked HIPPO, TENDERISER, SPLAT and HER INDOORS. On the other hand, we didn’t think TREATMENT was particularly cryptic.
Thanks, Moo and Grant.
Tsk, tsk: flee is a homophone of flea, not a homonym. As a punishment, I’ll send you the article I’ve just sent to Shakespeare Quarterly about the homophones of ay and no in King Lear. (When they send it back rejected, naturally).
Had been having problem downloading the FT puzzle since Saturday but glad that things are now back to normal. My COD was 24d just as Grant. 23d a write-in for me.
To Mycroft @12:
While aware of the theoretical distinctions, I’m perfectly happy to use ‘homonym’ & ‘homophone’ as virtually synonyms, certainly for the purposes of crossword clues. Vide Chambers defs for both.
I & others wd be be fascinated to see yr SQ monograph. I’m surrounded by bloomin’ Shakespeare scholars in this family.
Thanks Moo and Grant
A witty and enjoyable puzzle that took just over the half hour to complete. Particularly enjoyed a couple where the word fell out but then taking some time to understand why cryptically – GOOSEBERRY and VICE. HER INDOORS was a new term for me and brought a near chuckle when it went in.
Finished in the SW corner with the cleverly hidden SULLIED and TESTIFIER the last couple in.