The grid is a little unusual having eight words with two adjacent unchecked letters. This made solving the puzzle difficult as even a half-filled grid left long stretches of empty cells.
Added to the difficulty of the grid some of the solutions are not exactly commonly used words either. As is often the case with Monk he provides a way out if one is smart enough to see it. In this case the unchecked lights are doubled for a reason – the letters in the two unchecked lights are the same.
Unfortunately I wasn’t smart enough to see this and I had to grind out the solution the hard way. Thanks Monk for another super puzzle.
Gaufrid points out that the doubled letters spell DOUBLETS (twice!).
Gozo points out that the remaining double letters in the solution spell out SAME, shaded blue in the grid.
Finally, stop is used as an inclusion indicator three times. Intentional or not?
| Across | ||
| 1 | INTENT |
End of trendy red wine (6)
IN (trendy) TENT (a deep red Spanish wine) |
| 5 | ADDUCTOR |
Muscle put on by corrupt copper on retirement (8)
ADD (put on) then ROT (corrupt) CU (copper) reversed (on retirement) |
| 9 | FREEHAND |
Release control made without using mechnical devices (8)
FREE (release) control (hand, example?) |
| 10 | OBSESS |
Fat heartless swines emptied haunt (6)
OBeSE (fat, heartless) then SwineS (emptied, no middle letters) |
| 11 | JALAPENO |
Short bird with single mate knocked back some hot stuff (8)
JAy (bird, short) with ONE PAL (single mate) reversed (knocked back) – chilli |
| 12 | HAZARD |
South Africa entered into tough venture (6)
ZA (South Africa, IVR code) in HARD (tough) – to take a chance |
| 13 | EVIDENCE |
Testimony of retiring editor stopping show (8)
ED (editor) reversed (retiring) inside (stopping, like a cork) EVINCE (show) |
| 15 | BYRD |
Composer is bloody rattled, repeatedly gutted (4)
BloodY and RatteD missing middle letters (gutted) – repeated indicates each word is individually gutted, not the whole phrase |
| 17 | MAAM |
Refined woman that can turn either way (4)
MAAM is ‘madam’ in a refined (posh) manner of speaking, and a palindrome (that can turn either way) |
| 19 | IMMATURE |
Green activist told at first to enter confine (8)
Activist Told (first letters of) in IMMURE (confine) |
| 20 | RATHER |
Somewhat hard to stop a type of judge? (6)
H (hard) inside (to stop, like a cork) RATER (a type of judge) |
| 21 | EPISODIC |
Sporadic copies I’d revised (8)
(COPIES I’D)* anagram=revised |
| 22 | OPORTO |
Nothing left by head of organisation that’s located in Europe (6)
O (nothing) PORT (left) Organisation (head, first letter of) |
| 23 | UXORIOUS |
Really into Dutch university by old port (American) (8)
U (university) X (by, times) O (old) RIO (port) US (American) – dutch is slang for wife |
| 24 | MADRASSA |
Faith school dramas unfolding since being rejected (8)
DRAMAS* anagram=unfolding then AS (since) reversed (being rejected) – an Islamic religious school |
| 25 | MILDEW |
Daughter in a race, initially wearing white coat? (6)
D (daughter) in MILE (a race) then Wearing (initial letter of) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | NORMALLY |
Standard supporter most of the time (8)
NORM (standard) ALLY (supporter) |
| 3 | ELEVATED |
Raised tax in English city in the north, not south (8)
VAT (tax) in E (English) LEEDS (city in the north) missing S (south) |
| 4 | TRAPEZIUM |
Almost swing over atrium, half- splitting wrist bone (9)
TRAPEZe (a swing, almost) on atrIUM (half missing, splitting) |
| 5 | ANDROMEDA NEBULA |
Unnamed adorable drunk that’s a long way away (9,6)
(UNNAMED ADORABLE)* anagram=drunk |
| 6 | UMBRAGE |
Shadow over extremely grave offence (7)
UMBRA (shadow) over GravE (extremes of) |
| 7 | THE GABBA |
Foreign stadium initially to host, say, Eurovision legends (3,5)
To Host (initial letters of) then EG (say) ABBA (Eurovision legends) – Brisbane cricket ground |
| 8 | RESIDUUM |
What’s left dies horribly with you, ultimately in odd surroundings (8)
DIES* anagram=horribly with yoU (ultimately, last letter) in (surrounded by) RUM (odd) |
| 14 | CRUCIFORM |
Gang get reported over criminal record, making you sort of cross (9)
CRU CI sounds like (reported) crew (gang) and see (get) tehn FORM (criminal record) |
| 15 | BEERBOHM |
Caricaturist is right to stop BBC with a level of resistance (8)
R (right) inside (to stop, like a cork) BEEB (the BBC, slang) with OHM (level of resistance) – Max Beerbohm |
| 16 | ROOTHOLD |
About to leave cohort breaking up ancient footing (8)
cOHORT* anagram=breaking up missing C (circa, about) then OLD (ancient) |
| 17 | MEMORIAL |
Record note on UAE currency (8)
MEMO (note) on RIAL (UAE currency) |
| 18 | ATTITUDE |
Tiny alteration in height, and hence position (8)
ALITUDE (height) with one letter changed (tiny alteration in) |
| 19 | INERTIA |
I almost trained wild sloth (7)
I then TRAINEd* anagram=wild – I wasted a long time trying to invent names for wild sloths from the letters (I ALMOST)* |
definitions are underlined
Well done PeeDee. And as for Monk, well, more than a little breath-taking. Thanks.
Thanks PeeDee
The double letters in the grid are an anagram of DOUBLETS.
I have to take issue with 17dn, assuming Chambers is correct. The unit of currency in the UAE is the dirham (=100 fils). Rial is the currency in Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the Yemen Arab Republic.
I just assumed that the Rial must be the UAE currency because it fitted the clue. Shame on me for not checking.
He’s such a great setter. Doh! had adjustor instead of abductor- knew it didnt parse properly and missed the hidden extra which should have pointed the way. Also had hazard as South Africa can be SA or SA- is that right?
copmus@4 ZA is the IVR code for South Africa so the solution is HAZARD – worth remembering as it has confused me more than once
Having stated that Monk was the setter who gave me the most trouble, today’s puzzle didn’t seem quite so bad, or so I thought until I got to the SE corner. Confusion with the currency held me up too.
Thanks to Monk for a nice mental workout – clever stuff with the DOUBLETs- and thanks to PeeDee
Thanks compus and crypticsue – HAZARD is definitely correct. At the time HASARD seemed so plausible, now I cannot think why.
ZA is Boer for Zuid Africa
Thanks Monk & PeeDee. I was mentally grumbling at the double unches while solving this, and (therefore?) missed the doublet gimmick: I should have known better. The FT has a lot of rather horrible grids, and in fact this one (which I don’t remember seeing before) is better connected than some of them.
I struggled with this early this morning and, like Andrew @9, completely missed the doublet “gimmick”.
Managed to complete it apart from 7d – I’d never heard of it, but then my knowledge of cricket grounds is woefully lacking! Thank you for that information, Pee Dee, and, indeed for the excellent blog – didn’t envy you your task.
Thank you too to Monk for the puzzle – a good workout for my brain at 7am!
Thanks Peedee for an excellent blog, Monk for a super workout and Gaufrid for the nina.
I think I much have locked into Monk’s frequency pretty quickly as I found this easier than most of his other challenges. Echo Geoff on 17dn. I did google a bit subsequently and learnt that Dubai which is part of the UAE had the ri(y)al until 1973. Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates_dirham
Cheers
TL
Another inventive puzzle by Monk compiled on a lovely grid. I have absolutely no qualms about double unches. Indeed all the words affected still have 4 out of 8 letters checked. Has anyone else noticed that four other Across solutions (9, 10, 17 and 19) also have doubled letters which when arranged spell SAME? I wonder whether that is a coincidence.
The sheer cleverness of this completely passed me by. I wonder what, if anything, it says of solvers like me who are so focused on the individual clue that they fail to see the whole puzzle?
Whatever, this was a real tour de force.
On the grid, all the consecutive unches do look a little fordidding. On the other hand, there are all the underunched lights. You don’t even need to solve 15a and 17a.
Overall checking comes out at 55%, which is pretty much par for the course.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Really nice puzzle with the very clever ‘same’ ‘doublets’ a step too far for me !!!!
Started off easily enough with NORMALLY and BYRD going straight in, but as with others, things slowed up soon after. Eventually finished it over a bowl of soup at lunchtime on a freezing first day of winter in Melbourne – think snow down to the 500m mark today !! BEERBOHM, RATHER and OPORTO were the last few in.
Was gobsmacked to see THE GABBA listed as a foreign stadium 🙂 – for interest it is derived from the Brisbane suburb of Woollongabba (an aboriginal word) where it is situated.
I like the word UXORIOUS for some reason … certainly not for it’s meaning … and thought it was beautifully clued here. Had the same experience of trying to find the (I ALMOST) sloth for a while.
Thanks Monk and Turbolegs.
Had to admit defeat in the SE corner. I know that the UAE currency is the Dirham and so I can claim some moral superiority but deep down know that Monk is the better man.
I still don’t get the ‘I’ in Cruciform – can you explain.
Neede to google the medical names but otherwise fair.
Monk remains my most feared regular FT setter.
Is this guy for ‘Rial’?
Hello Hamish,
I think the I is just part of the homophone. The first part of the word crufiform CRUCI sounds like “crew see”.
If Monk is your most feared what do you make of Io? He is my real nemesis.
Hi PeeDee,
Thanks for clarifying – especially as I called you Turbolegs (I’m mortified).
For some reason, I seem to be closer to Io’s wavelength most of the time.
I hope to be a more regular contributor as I catch up – only 2 weeks behind on the FT but 9 weeks on the Guardian!