Financial Times 15091 by MONK

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More of the good stuff from Monk.

Another totally solid puzzle.  I remeber the days when one could find hairs to split in the clues for Monk puzzles, not any more.  I did think I had found some today but in most cases Chambers backs him up and in the rest all became clear when I finally located my reading glasses.

Every solution contains the letter H. I failed to spot this whilst solving the puzzle.   …and muffyword points out that there are also four large black Hs sliding diagonally down the grid from top left to bottom right

Thanks Monk, a great puzzle.

completed grid
Across
1 HAGGIS
A child’s horse is into his food (6)

A GG (horse, for a child) in HIS
5 MUSHROOM
Cornmeal needing space to grow (8)

MUSH (cornmeal) with ROOM (space)
9 HEADWIND
Bluster by chief opposition to progress? (8)

WIND (bluster) following (by) HEAD (chief)
10 HEARTY
Make out tinny, hollow sound (6)

HEAR (make out) TinnY (hollow, no middle)
11 ACHILLES HEEL
Shivering in water around bank is a sign of weakness (8,4)

CHILL (shivering) in SEA (water) reversed (around) HEEL (bank, lean over)
13 SIKH
Reportedly look for religious disciple (4)

sounds like (reportedly) ‘seek’ (look for)
14 OVERHEAR
Pick up deliveries in the arena, centrally (8)

OVER (deliveries, cricket) then ‘in tHE ARena’ (centrally, some letters at the centre)
17 SHARE-OUT
Distribution of Thoreau’s novel (5-3)

(THOREAU’S) * anagram=novel
18 THOU
A very small measure of you in a previous life? (4)

double definition – a thou is a thousandth of an inch, in a previous life indicates archaic
20 COMMONWEALTH
Vulgar riches displayed by body politic (12)

COMMON (vulgar) WEALTH (riches) – an easy clue that took me ages to solve
23 BETHEL
Bishop marrying girl in jolly place of worship (6)

B (bishop) with (marrying, joined with) ETHEL (girl) – a chapel for sailors (Royal marines are known as Jollies)
24 OUTRIGHT
Maths subject on open-access course wanting head teachers to start at once (8)

OU TRIG (Open University Trigonometry, maths subject on open access course) with (wanting) H (head) and Teachers (to start, first letter of)
25 HALLOWED
Revered passage submitted without introduction (8)

HALL (passage) bOWED (submitted) missing first letter (introduction)
26 HEELER
Dog’s disc, not wide, about to be returned (6)

wHEEL (disc) missing W (wide) then RE (about) reversed (to be returned) – a breed of dog
Down
2 AHEM
Answer on edge – “I’m here” (4)

A (answer) on HEM (edge)
3 GODFATHER
Sponsor daughter and gross husband to stop one after the other (9)

D (daughter) and FAT (gross) H (husband) GOER (one after the other) – ‘the other’ being sex in this case, love it!
4 SMITHY
Forge title of Cambridge University in short (6)

MIT (title of a University in Cambridge, Massachusetts) in SHY (short) – more excellent misdirection!
5 MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD
Moderate drivers may go over it (6-2-3-4)

double definition
6 SCHLEGEL
School set to host extremely louche old poet from Germany (8)

SCH (school) GEL (set) contains (to host) LouchE (extreme letters of) – August Wilhelm Schlegel, German romantic poet and translator
7 REACH
Pass right over topless bathing area? (5)

R (right) on (over) bEACH (bathing area, topless) – to reach (vt) is to hand, pass.  Not a usage I had ever come across before.
8 ON THE WAGON
Dry article on sportsman’s partner in back numbers (2,3,5)

THE (the indefinitie article) on WAG (sportsman’s partner) in NO NO (number, twice) reversed (back) – wags are ‘wives and girlfriends’ of footballers etc, so a WAG would be just one of them
12 LIGHT OPERA
Somehow Elgar repeatedly exposed antiphony in work by G&S, say (5,5)

anagram (somehow) of ELGAR and anTIPHOny (exposed, removed outer letters, repeatedly=twice)
15 HITCH-HIKE
Digitally gain access to lift (5-4)

cryptic definition – your thumb is a digit
16 HOUNSLOW
Dog briefly plodding in London borough (8)

HOUNd (dog, briefly) SLOW (plodding)
19 GLITCH
Left long after gremlin initiated bug (6)

L (left) ITCH (long) following (after) Gremlin (initial letter of)
21 MOHEL
Miniature tool cutter initially made hole incorrectly (5)

Made (initial letter of) and HOLE* anagram=incorrectly – an official Jewish circumciser, someone who cuts the “tools” of small children
22 SHOE
Maybe Oxford scholar’s opening theorem regularly scanned (4)

Scholar (opening leter of) thna tHeOrEm (regularlt scanned,  every other letter read)
*anagram
definitions are underlined

15 comments on “Financial Times 15091 by MONK”

  1. Thanks PeeDee and Monk,

    I had term for a while at 22d – nearly works.

    There are some big black Hs in the grid, and there could be a thematic play on the first 3 words of the solution to 5 down.

    This was great, and I share your love of the wordplay for 3 down.

  2. Great stuff as usual from Monk and thanks for blog.I was looking for the Monk signature at the end and missed the H connection.I went “ouch” at the thought of 21 but learnt a new word from crossers and wordplay.Beautiful set of clues.

  4. PeeDee
    Re your comment against 7d, in a family meal at home or even at a restaurant, wouldn’t we say sometimes, “Could you reach me aloo tikkis, please?”

  5. rishi @4 – yes I can imagine that. I had not though of reach explicitly meaning pass though. My assumption was that the phrase is a polite affectation.

    For example: “Can you reach the salt?” is literally a request to know if your arm is long enough to get to the salt from where you are sitting. Since your arm is obviously long enough to reach the salt (it is right in front of you) and mine isn’t, then the inference is I want you to pass it to me. I had always thought the meaning was implied from the sentence and its context rather than by the meanings of the individual words.

  7. What a fun crossword, thank you Monk, and thank you for the blog PeeDee.

    Perhaps this is celebrating the Hooray Henrys, those of the Stock Exchange and those who read the FT? (Another thought was hedgehoggy, but not sure if he appears on this site.)

  9. Muffyword@1
    Wrt your reference to the big Hs in the grid.
    The Guardian must be using this grid at least for five decades.
    It is — rather was — very familiar to me.
    This was one of the grids that the first setter of The Hindu Crossword used when the Indian paper launched it in 1971.
    None of the present setters uses it.
    Grids may not be under copyright but I believe a setter must strive to create his own grids.
    When crosswords are published anonymously, readers can identify a setter with his grids if original and used repeatedly.
    The Times setters cannot be guessed as anyone may use any of the given grids, I suppose. Am I right?

  10. Thanks Monk and PeeDee

    I spotted the large Hs, but completely missed the ubiquity of the small ones.

    My small query is that surely an Achilles Heel is a point of weakness rather than a sign? Doesn’t detract from an excellent puzzle though.

  12. @9 Rishi

    The Independent is the only paper which does not have a prescribed menu of grids which setters must use unless they get special permission.

  13. Thanks PeeDee and Monk.

    All parsed correctly but missed the Hs.

    Hadn’t heard of SCHLEGEL before and MOHEL also a new word which made me wince – quite a Paulian definition.

    Really liked SMITHY as well.

    One small quibble is 14ac. The clue says ‘deliveries’ (plural) and you have written OVERS (plural) in the blog – but the S ain’t there!

  15. Thanks Monk and PeeDee

    Only got to this one late on Sunday night after a pretty full on weekend.

    It started off meekly enough with HAGGIS being almost a write-in. Some awesome clues to follow though and some superb misdirection. Especially liked MOHEL and HITCH HIKE.

    Wasn’t able to parse LIGHT OPERA – had looked for an anagram of ‘Elgar’ twice – and because I found ‘glare’ = LIGHT, it gave me hope for a while, until it didn’t !! Also missed the plethora of H’s – what a stunning achievement !!

    Finished in the SW corner with BETHEL (that I didn’t know as a seaman’s chapel), HOUNSLOW (which I didn’t know as a part of London – and the site of the it’s first civilian airport, apparently) and HALLOWED as the last one in.

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