As usual with Monk, some delightfully misleading clues and some excellent construction. It was a pleasure to solve and blog this one.
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Across
1,6,28 FINANCIAL TIMES CROSSWORD *(MAN N FACILITIES) CROSS (adverse) WORD (news)
9 ANCHORS A CHOR[d] (short string) in NS (poles)
10 VETERAN [Yorkshir]E in VET (Herriot) RAN (managed)
11 CATCH CAT (cool dude) C (caught) H (heroin)
12 CAKE HOLES [soc]K in *(SHOELACE)
14 USE US (America) E[astern]
15 TRIPLE CROWN L (long) in TRIPE (claptrap) CROWN (boasted about)
17 BARNSTORMER N (north) STORM in BARE (basic) R (right)
19 BIS B[est] I[n] S[how]
20 SEVENTEEN EVEN (flat) in ST (street) [b]EEN
22 LIMIT MI (motorway) in LIT (came to rest)
24 MOONLIT MOON (display cheek) LIT (literally)
26 AVARICE AVA (girl) RICE (food)
27 DAILY dd
Down
1 FRANC FRAN (girl) C (about)
2 NECKTIE NECK (kiss) TIE (couple)
3 NEOPHYTES *(HYPNOTEES)
4 INSECTIVORE cd
5 LEV hidden in ‘eLEVen’
6 TITCH TIT (tiny bird) CH (taps, cold and hot)
7 MORELLO MORE (extra) L (large) LO (look)
8 SING-SONGS SING SONG (repeatedly celebrate) S (small)
13 KILIMANJARO I MAN (one chap) JAR (drink) in KILO (weight)
14 UNBOSOMED dd
16 CARTLOADS CAR (vehicle) L (learner) in TOADS (hateful types)
18 RAVIOLI VIOL (something stringy) in [o]R[g]A[n]I[c]
19 BAMBINO BAMBI (deer) ON reversed
21 NELLY NELL (girl) Y (unknown)
23 TWEED TWEE (dainty) D (little daughter)
25 TIC T[w]I[t]C[h]
Why are there so few responses to FT blogs?
I asked this question for my Monday FT blog which only appear ten days after the puzzle and someone said that by that time, everybody would have forgotten the answers.
Monk on Wednesday is current and yet there is no response to Gaufrid’s excellent blog of a very delightful Monk’s puzzle.
May I be permitted to advance another theory …
the free FT puzzle site at http://www.ft.com/arts/crossword
only allows you to print an image of the FT puzzle with its small font. Whenever I print the FT puzzle to solve, I find it such a great ordeal to make out the letters (I am over 60 and should be excused for having less-than 20-20 eyesight)
If I may, please present the on-line version of the FT puzzle in text form so that people like me can copy to another document to enlarge the font (to say 14 point)and solve without tears.
It is almost a truism that aficionados of cryptic crossword puzzles are old codgers at least half a century old with failing eyesights and for the FT puzzle to be presented in such an optically- challenging way will win it no new friends.
I hope setters like Dante, Cinephile, Mudd, etc who know the power-that-be at FT can help to convey my suggestion.