When PeeDee asked me to stand in for him today my initial though was “I hope I get a puzzle that I can get my teeth into” and I even considered the possibility of it being a Monk, one of my favourite setters. I was not disappointed!
After a slow start (only two entries during my first pass through the clues) I made steady progress with the four quadrants being completed in an anticlockwise fashion starting with the SE corner. Some inventive cluing made this one of the hardest FT puzzles in recent times (in my opinion, of course) but most enjoyable.
Monk invariably has some sort of theme going on but it was only after completing the grid that I looked to see what it might be this time. I quickly noticed that the unchecked letters around the perimeter were the relevant compass points. I don’t think seeing this earlier would have made much difference to my solving time.
Thanks Monk for a good mental workout.
Across
1 Study group from hospital in Midland town (8)
WORKSHOP – H (hospital) in WORKSOP (Midland town)
9 Capital friend interrupting a brief custom (3,5)
ABU DHABI – BUD (friend) in (interrupting) A HABI[t] (a brief custom)
10 Lift-shaft in good condition (4)
WELL – double def.
11 Excess tax collection disheartened average criminal (12)
EXTRAVAGANCE – anagram (criminal) of TAX C[ollectio]N AVERAGE
13 With tougher casing, start to split screw (6)
WARDER – W (with) [h]ARDER (tougher casing, start to split)
14 One getting beaten over scuffle about a race (8)
OMELETTE – O (over) MELEE (scuffle) around (about) TT (race)
15 Main criticism – no time to be queasy (7)
SEASICK – SEA (main) S[t]ICK (criticism – no time)
16 Material in office discovered about husband in retirement (7)
CHIFFON – [i]N OFFIC[e] (in office discovered) around (about) H (husband) reversed (in retirement)
20 Possibly watch unruly core in schoolroom, say, from the back (8)
HOROLOGE – anagram (unruly) of [sc]HOOLRO[om] (core in schoolroom) EG (say) reversed (from the back)
22 Rent boy almost corrupted these sisters (6)
BRONTE – anagram (corrupted) of RENT BO[y]
23 Shortened supplement is about uninitiated legal complaint (12)
APPENDICITIS – APPEND[ix] (shortened supplement) IS around (about) [l]ICIT (uninitiated legal)
25 Bird seed nibbled from both sides (4)
ERNE – [k]ERNE[l] (seed nibbled from both sides)
26 Expecting type of moth to appear in pairs (8)
PREGGERS – EGGER (type of moth) in (to appear in) PRS (pairs)
27 You fish without permit, missing start of open season? (8)
YULETIDE – Y[o]U (you … missing start of open) IDE (fish) around (without) LET (permit)
Down
2 Finished work is put behind one (8)
OVERTAKE – OVER (finished) TAKE (work)
3 Poor Alice spooked, looking through this? (12)
KALEIDOSCOPE – anagram (poor) of ALICE SPOOKED
4 Bumpkin almost grasping one short tale of the past (8)
HISTORIC – HIC[k] (bumkin almost) around (grasping) I (one) STOR[y] (short tale)
5 Usual trouble put over by self-contradiction (7)
PARADOX – PAR (usual) ADO (trouble) X (by)
6 Rock Hudson finally gets to change in non-masculine fashion (6)
NUTATE – [hudso]N (Hudson finally) [m]UTATE (to change in non-masculine fashion)
7 Jonathan regularly cut bread (4)
NAAN – [jo]NA[th]AN (Jonathan regularly cut)
8 A number of votes split by one in Roman times (8)
NINETEEN – I (one) in XX (votes) gives XIX which is nineteen in Roman numerals
12 Time to agree? (3,2,7)
AGE OF CONSENT – cryptic def.
15 Drink break before psalms, outside church (8)
SCHNAPPS – SNAP (break) PS (psalms) around (outside) CH (church)
17 Confirmed garment for order that’s buyable regularly (8)
HABITUAL – HABIT (garment for order {nuns}) [b]U[y]A[b]L[e] (buyable regularly)
18 Got most of refutation overturned after old boy finally left (8)
OBTAINED – OB (old boy) [lef]T (finally left) DENIA[l] (most of refutation) reversed (overturned)
19 Getting intimate after meal, leaves in a hot state in this? (3,4)
TEA COSY – TEA (meal) COSY (intimate)
21 Very many decapitated heads (6)
OODLES – [n]OODLES (decapitated heads)
24 Agents blowing cover to find food (4)
PIES – [s]PIES (agents blowing cover)
Thanks for the blog Gaufrid. I had the same experience as you, except that my quadrants fell in clockwise from the SE. The compass points helped me with NAAN, which was better than my first guess of OAHN. This was my longest solving time for the FT since the 22nd May (also Monk).
I especially liked CHIFFON, NINETEEN, WORKSHOP and TEA COSY.
Put me down for the slow start too, but it did fall into place once I got on the Monk wavelength. I particularly liked the ‘different’ way of cluing NAAN.
Thanks to Monk and Gaufrid too.
This is so difficult that it has put me in a foul mood…
Sorry, I forgot to thank you for the blog, Gaufrid.
re: 14ac – Clueing ‘TT’ as just ‘Race’ is pretty poor. ‘Island Race’ is much better – it is less obscure but also a great misdirection.
Thank you Gaufrid. I found this hard too, NINETEEN defeated me. I thought the shape of the grid added to the difficulty.