Comments on: Financial Times 13,655 / Monk

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:13:48 +0000

Dreadnought.
Well pointed out.
Before donning my pedant’s hat I should make sure that my facts are right!
My apologies to Monk.

By: Dreadnought

Dreadnought — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:22:39 +0000

Yes, thanks to Monk and Gaufrid. and I’m still trying to find Mr Topil….
Scarpia, I believe the overthrow can be an extra, if it is part of running for a leg-bye, or bye or even wide or no ball, if the batsman has not touched the ball. So “possibly overthrow” is ok, I think.
And I did enjoy 2d!

By: Monk

Monk — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:47:57 +0000

Thank you for your positive blogs. This entry is to credit Colin Inman, the FT crossword editor, with the idea of inserting the preamble. It was added between submission and publication, and the precise wording was agreed by us at the 11th hour. Apologies to Gaufrid and Scarpia, respectively, for “in (the) red” and “overthrow=extra”.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:33:40 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
Very pleased to see M on K back in crosswordland.
This,like his Indy puzzle of a few weeks ago,was easily up to his usual high standard.
The preamble was very helpful in the end,though on first reading it didn’t seem to make sense.
IF-THEN was new to me but was fairly clued.
To be pedantic,an overthrow is not an extra but is added to the batsman’s total.
Favourite clue,the very witty 2 down.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:03:37 +0000

Hi Tony
Chambers defines ‘soft-shell’ as “adjective, having a soft shell or moderate in policy or principles” and “noun, a soft-shell crab, clam, or river-turtle; a moderate”.

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:58:26 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid. I am not sure I understand your explanation of 4a. Where does SOFT SHELL come from? I think it should mean moderate for the clue to work as you suggest, but as far as I can tell it is either a crab or a new kind of jacket. I thought “not hard” was SOFT which left me wondering where SELL came from. Or at a pinch the whole clue could be regarded a a non-cryptic one.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:25:45 +0000

This appeared to be a doddle with the big helping hand contributed by Monk to the across answers. However, I soon realised that there was some fiendish wordplay in the down clues to restore the balance. I got there in the end with Nautch, the only word new to me, from the wordplay. I finished with Phlox, my worst nightmare, the name of a flower with only the second and fourth letters checked. On the way there were fond memories of reading Catch-22 in the 1960’s and not-so fond memories of coding If…Then statements in Cobol programs in the 1970s.

I was slightly surprised by Gaufrid’s allusion to Monk’s first appearance in 18 months since I remembered doing one of his puzzles last month. I now realise that it was in the Indy and that Monk appears to be one of the few setters who is allowed to port his name from paper to paper.

Now back to Youtube to catch up with Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls.

By: smiffy

smiffy — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:35:30 +0000

Oh frabjous day! Callooh, Callay!
I’d long since assumed that Monk had become permanently hors de combat, so was more than a little gobsmacked to see his byline re-appearing today.

A very welcome return to the fray. The likes of 10A, 24A, 2D and 18D all providing “quality assurance” that continuity levels have not dipped. Stumped by my own ignorance at 22D, but today I’m more than willing to indulge a smidgen of obscurity.

By: jmac

jmac — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:18:39 +0000

I really enjoyed this – pleasantly teasing. Thanks for your helpful blog Gaufrid which cleared up a few loose ends in the parsing department.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:44:26 +0000

Hi Gaufrid – thanks for the blog.

This was fun – and a welcome antidote to today’s Enigmatist, which I tackled first.

The meaning of the intriguing preamble was, as you say, soon sussed and made the across answers relatively easy – though enjoyable – to solve. The only obscurities, for me, were IF-THEN and HEFT [in that sense - I knew the word only in the context of grazing sheep] but the cluing of both was very straightforward.

My favourite clue was TWENTY-TWO, for the ‘catchy number’ – lovely surface.