Financial Times 14,520 by MONK

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Another great puzzle from Monk and only middling difficulty (i.e. merely hard).  Thank you Monk.

Down the sides of the puzzle are HANGOVER and OVERHANG, which for once I did spot and which aided in solving the final couple of clues.

ft 14520

Across
1 OUTFITS Threads through remote attacks (7)
OUT (remote) FITS (attacks) – definition is ‘threads’, slang for clothes
5 IN TOUCH Brief journey in Arran, perhaps with relations? (2,5)
TOUr (journey, brief=shortened) in INCH (island, Scottish, Arran perhaps) – definition is ‘perhaps with relations?’, one could be in touch with relations.  The definition seems a bit vague to me, unless there is some cryptic meaning that I have overlooked of course.  Also, I always thought of an inch as being specifically a small island in a river or loch (unlike Arran), but that may be just me.
10 VERBAL DIARRHOEA Dippy labrador with heavier, solid jaw? (6,9)
 anagram (dippy) of LABRADOR with HEAVIER – definition is solid (non-stop) jaw (talk)
11 ETHNIC Exotic event horizon, idyllic on the outside (6)
EvenT HorizoN IdylliC (outside letter of) – definition is ‘exotic’
12 SPACE MAN Distant traveller, expert male, tucked into spread (8)
ACE (expert) M (male) in SPAN (spread)
13 RANCHMAN Greedy landlord without name who takes stock? (8)
N (name) in RACHMAN (notorious London landlord) – he takes cattle (stock)
15 EARWIG Mostly noble anti-royalist once reported a flatterer (6)
EARl (noble, mostly) WIG sounds like “Whig” (anti-royalist once) – someone who ingratiates themselves to gain one’s confidence
17 HIDING Thrashing in secret (6)
double definition
19 PROSPERO Exiled king needs to get on well, having nothing (8)
PROSPER (get on well) with O (nothing) – character from Shakespeare’s The Tempest
21 ADORABLE Endearing half-hearted mob following a party (8)
RABbLE (mob, half-hearted) following A DO (party)
23 CHEKOV Chase cut short, final blow stopping dramatist (6)
KO (final blow) in (stopping, like a cork) CHEVy (Chevy Chase, actor cut short)
25 NOUVELLE CUISINE Reduced fare that’s only natural? (8,7)
cryptic definition – a style of French cookery that emphasises on smaller portions, fewer courses and very fresh ingredients lightly cooked
26 G-STRING Leer about extremely short girl’s top and thong (1-6)
GRIN (leer) containing (going about) ShotT (extremes of) then G (top of girl)
27 PEDDLER One commiting traffic offences? (7)
cryptic definition – someone who peddles stolen goods, like a bicycle for instance
Down
2 URENT Burning for attention – that’s no good (5)
URgENT (for attention) missing G (no good) – definition is ‘burning’
3 FIBONACCI Mathematician’s lie about half-chance (9)
FIB (lie) ON (about) ACCIdent (chance, half of) – the Middle Ages mathematician Leonardo Pisaro Bigollo
4 TELECOM Information system’s permit revoked by European committee (7)
LET (permit) reversed (revoked, taken back) by E (European) COM (committee)
6 NARRATE Tore up estimate to get recount (7)
RAN (tore) reversed (up) RATE (estimate)
7 OCHRE Enoch reproachful about colour (5)
found in enOCH REproachful
8 CHEVALIER A vile lunatic interrupting rock star that’s gallant (9)
(A VILE)* anagram=lunatic in (interrupting) CHER (rock star)
9 BITS AND PIECES Ban pesticides sprayed round miscellanea (4,3,6)
(BAN PESTICIDES)* anagram=sprayed around
14 ACID DROPS Get spots after biting sweets (4,5)
DROPS (spots, of rain) after ACID (biting) – sweet-and-sour confection
16 REPRESSED About to get media journalist withdrawn (9)
RE (regarding, about) with TRACT PRESS (media) ED (editor, journalist) – definition is ‘withdrawn’
18 GOBELIN Foreign Legion guarding entrance to Bayeau Tapestry (7)
LEGION* anagram=foreign including (guarding) B (first letter of Bayeau) – a tapestry from the Gobelin factory in Paris
20 OCCLUDE Climate on vacation changed with cloud cover (7)
anagram (changed) of ClimatE (on vacation=being vacated, emptied) with CLOUD – definition is ‘cover’
22 ROVER Runs across wanderer (5)
R (run) OVER (across)
24 OUNCE Turn out non-black cat (5)
bOUNCE (turn out, of a nightclub say) missing B=black – definition is ‘cat’

*anagram

15 comments on “Financial Times 14,520 by MONK”

  1. Thanks Peedee and Monk. Quite a neat puzzle this – Gobelin was new to me.

    You might want to correct the explanation for 16d (*TRACT)

  2. Thanks turbolegs, fixed now. I wrote in RETRACTED as a first go and then changed it to REPRESSED (which is better) later as I found clashes with other solutions. Somewhere along the way original explanation got left behind.

  3. Thanks PeeDee and Monk,

    Isn’t IN TOUCH defined by “with relations” (“relations” as in “contact”) and “Arran, perhaps” is the “inch”?

    Great Puzzle.

  5. Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.

    Re INCH in 5ac: No, not just you! Your comment is quite correct.
    In Scotland, an inch is a small island. The word would not be used to describe the Isle of Arran.

  6. Was there a ‘hidden’ indicator for 7D? ‘about’ is the only possibility but does it suffice?
    Another great puzzle from Monk and thanks to PeeDee for the blog.

  7. I wondered about ‘about’ too in 7dn. Enoch reproachful sort of goes about ochre, but really I think it is Eno proachful that goes about ochre, so I decided it was not clear enough to include in the blog.

  8. Yes PeeDee a bit of a mystery.

    I was also wondering whether our peddler friend in 27A was maybe involved in some drug trafficking.

  9. Thanks, Peedee,I didn’t complete it without your help.you showed me some new to me cryptic conventions in1a and 11a.I thought 25a and27a were a bit weak as a cryptic clues, but there were many interesting ones.In gaelic , I think both Inch and Innish mean island (Inis).

  11. Re 19a I never really worked out why Monk called Prospero an “exiled king” (as opposed to duke). In the end I think it might just have beeen a slip.

  12. Many thanks to PeeDee for another super blog and to all for positive feedback, but I’ve really posted to respond to Herb@11‘s correct observation. At 19ac I took the definition from the Tea package, in which the 1907 Nuttall’s Encyclopaedia gives [one of the chief characters in Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” an exiled king of Milan, who, during his exile, practises magic, and breaks his wand when he has accomplished his purpose]. Had I taken the minute required to walk to my 1949 Shakespeare collection, I’d have found [the right Duke of Milan], so apologies to all for the confusion. Lesson learned: walk, don’t sit.

    As for INCH, I just used the Chambers’ [an island; a low-lying meadow beside a river], so that seems to me to make it fair game as it can be confirmed in the sense intended. On which very note, Alan Connor’s cracking Two girls, one on each knee talks about this situation, in which both solvers and setters know that a reference source confirms a “rule”, perhaps even “code”, even though it might not be the everyday usage.

  13. Hi Monk, I looked up inch Chambers at the time when writing the blog, and it does give island (Scot) as a definition. The other dictionaries I checked, including the OED gave ‘small island’ or similar.

    Had the clue stated ‘island’, then there would certainly be no issue in writing ‘inch’ into the solution, a simple swap of one dictionary word for another. But as the clue stated ‘Arran perhaps’, then I don’t think it really works. Arran is a Scottish island for sure, but it is certainly not an inch.

    All inches may be islands, but not all islands are inches.

    PS, please take this in the spirit of pedantry in which it is intended, it really did not spoil the enjoyment crossword at all!

  14. Sorry: I thought the debate was about [inch ?= island]. In my partial defence, I’ve just surfaced from two days of marking finalist exams on Numerical Methods, hence jellification of brain. And no negativity taken, PeeDee, not even an inch 🙂

  15. PeeDee
    Monk’s second paragraph in comment 12 certainly deserved a reply.
    You took the words out of my mouth – but expressed them far more eloquently.
    Thanks, Mike.

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