FT 12,567 by Monk

Having a little extra time today, and seeing it was Monk, tackled this.    Very hard and very inventive as I’ve learned to expect.     And there is a theme, referred to after the clue explanations.

Solving time:   51  mins

ACROSS

1 MI’S CHIEF

9 RED DWARF   Doc, one of the seven.

10 TEN ACE

12 U (P (THE D)) UFF      Expecting is the definition

13 T (OTT) Y

14 AS IF    First letters

24 A LOO F    loo = bog

28 TO (E-NA) ILS     Leg ends   Good to have the ” ”

29 RETUR(n) F

30 T (APE) WO RM

DOWN

1 MARQUE (e)

2 SEDATE    Seated with the last letter D raised.

3 HA(W)KE   Oz = Australia    25 = TOP BANANA

7 ABATTOIR    Super cryptic definition    Lower = one who lows = cow

8 EVERY ONE    Ever(l)y Brothers from 1950s    single = one

11 E-FIT     Cockney rhyming slang for face, I think. (boat race)

23 P ASS I M    Brown = Gordon Brown (PM) !

26 pANNIEr

Theme:    The 8 lines with across clues have 2 words in each.   The first ends in F, the second begins in T giving 8 FTs.

4 comments on “FT 12,567 by Monk”

  1. Re 1A Spy’s boss slightly misread malicious behaviour

    I couldn’t see the relevance of the “slightly misread” bit (other than for the surface). Can you clarify?

  2. I did not fully understand the wordplay. The boss I took as chief leaving mis – I thought it might be MI5 shortened with ‘s to follow. Earlier on I thought it might refer to M – James Bond’s boss if memory serves. Solution confirmed as correct today.

  3. I thought it was MI’s (i.e. Military Intelligence’s) but now you mention MI5 I guess the idea is if you slightly misread MI5CHIEF you get MISCHIEF

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