Financial Times 15073 by MONK

9 comments on “Financial Times 15073 by MONK”

1. Thanks Monk and PeeDee. I think we should note that the symmetrically placed pair of answers at 13ac/19ac (DEAD CERT) are related to the Nina.

2. Very enjoyable. I had trouble in the SW corner too and to a lesser extent in the NE. Perhaps if I could only cure myself of my inability to spot Ninas, I’d get on much better.

   Thanks to Monk and PeeDee too.

3. Thanks Pelham- got the nina but missed dead cert-aalso fluffed 2d stupidly putting earn instead of Earp
   Great puzzle as usual.

4. Thanks indeed to Monk for an excellent but fair challenge and to PeeDee for an entertaining and informative blog. I needed the Nina to make headway in the SW. My LOI was 1ac ‘Earp’ as I couldn’t stop myself thinking about the Earl Marshall ie. Duke of Norfolk, and could see no had no way how this related to the US!

5. An enjoyable challenge; thank you Monk. I liked 11ac especially – once I’d mastered its spelling!

   Thanks to PeeDee for the blog; needed you to point out the Nina. Like crypticsue @2 I can never spot them – in my case I think the inability is incurable!

6. This was good fun although it called for careful parsing and spelling. I have never had to write tu whit tu whoo but I doubt if I would have spelt it like that. Uttar Pradesh was also tricky but the wordplay was clear. I was not so happy about Poppadum where there are many alternative spellings. Sadly, I went for Poppadom, convincing myself that a dome was the tip of a basilica. This being a Monk, I did look for a nina and it helped me with my final answer, Cointreau.

   I have never done a Monk in less than an hour before so I took it with me to my hospital appointment today. I finished it in 35 minutes, despite the unfortunate Poppadom, and then had to stare at the wall for another half hour before my consultant was ready for me.

7. lenny@6: Having read your comment, I realise that I too had POPPADOM at 16dn. “-DUM” is clearly better, and the version shown in the official solution. The question remains whether “-DOM” is a valid alternative: a lot of the definitions of dome¹ in Chambers 2008 are tantalisingly close to either tip¹ (extremity) or tip² (rubbish dump), but there is not one that I would regard as convincingly close enough. I suppose for a non-prize crossword we must decide for ourselves whether we have a valid answer or not.

8. Thanks PeeDee and Monk.

   Yet again failed to spot the Nina.

   Otherwise all fair and nicely clued.

   MACARONI for a dandy was new to me but just needed a quick check of the dictionary.

9. Thanks Monk and PeeDee

   Completed this one yesterday, where it took a good part of afternoon / evening on and off to get through it. Found that just had to keep grinding away at the clues until eventually reached the SE corner where ERASMUS, MACARONI and SNIP (originally had LOOP) were the last to fall.

   Found myself nearly needing as much or more time parsing what had to be the answer- CONTESSA, CHORIZO, ERASMUS (with a meaning of SUM that I previously didn’t know) and BEHIND were all good examples of this. Had not heard of the band ELBOW before, but after listening to them am glad that I found out about them !!

   Completely missed the nina and the related DEAD CERT entry.

   Had no issues with the DUM part of 16d, it just took a long time to find the POP part. Had originally written in TO-WHIT TO-WHOO at 11a until finding the ballerina dress – and then had to check the alternative spelling. Interesting to see the channel DAVE appear – it was also in an old Io puzzle that I finally finished today.

   A good challenge to have put to bed.

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