At the risk of repeating myself… another great puzzle from Monk. Thank you Monk.
I have not spottted the Nina, theme, grid-fill starter or whatever you want to call it yet but I am sure there is one to be found in here somewhere.
| Across | ||
| 7 | FETA | Cheese, a little green one, with nothing at all for wrapping (4) |
| ET (ET, little green man) inside (with…for wrapping) FA (nothing at all) | ||
| 8 | FOREFINGER | International ministry adding English folio in double index (10) |
| FO (Foreign Office, international ministry) then E (English) F (folio) in RINGER (double) | ||
| 10 | LIGETI | Will I get indemnified covering this musician? (6) |
| found inside (covered by) wilL I GET Indemnified – Gyorgy Ligeti, Hungarian composer | ||
| 11 | PROFOUND | Intense academic, old, turned on and off (8) |
| PROF (academic) O (old) tUrNeD (every other letter, on and off) | ||
| 12 | FILTRATE | Result of straining pro overturned in report (8) |
| TART (prostitute, pro) reversed (overturned) in FILE (report) | ||
| 13 | RATIFY | Approve traitor on condition that morality is finally observed (6) |
| RAT (traitor) IF (on condition that) moralitY (last letter of, finally observed) | ||
| 15 | INCONSIDERATE | New direction for stopping bad reaction and rash (13) |
| N (new) SIDE (direction) inside (for stopping, like a cork) anagram (bad) of REACTION | ||
| 18 | FERRET | Thoroughly investigate bishop for breaking plates in Lambeth? (6) |
| RR (Right Reverend, bishop) inside (for breaking) FEET (“plates of meat”, rhyming slang, in Lambeth perhaps) | ||
| 20 | HAWTHORN | Tree god, sporting beard, on horse (8) |
| THOR (god) inside (sporting, wearing) AWN (beard, of barley) following (on) H (horse) | ||
| 22 | TROMBONE | Some brass rubbings orginally pinched by grave individual (8) |
| Rubbings (first letter, originally) inside (pincvhed by) TOMB (grave) and ONE (individual) | ||
| 24 | NANTES | Port wine, a quarter of it, consumed by bum (6) |
| A wiNe (one letter, a quarter of) inside (consumed by) NATES (bum). “A quarter of could also” mean N (North), a quarter of the compass. | ||
| 25 | FORECASTLE | Warning man on board in crew’s quarters (10) |
| FORE (warning, in golf) CASTLE (man on a chess board) | ||
| 26 | AS IF | Seeing that limitless existence – pull the other one (2,2) |
| AS (seeing that) then LIFE (existence) missing the outside letters (with no limits) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEFINITIVE | Final Indie and FT vie for circulation (10) |
| anagram (for circulation) of INDIE and FT VIE | ||
| 2 | MAJESTIC | Sublime joke not good for charming? (8) |
| JEST (joke) replacing (for) G (good) in MAgIC (charming) | ||
| 3 | AFRICA | Several countries collectively deploy force in republic, ignoring cost (6) |
| F (force) into costA RICA (republic) missing COST | ||
| 4 | OF COURSE | In Troon, take out good new driver by all means (2,6) |
| goLF COURSE (Troon perhaps) missing G (good) and L (learner, new driver) | ||
| 5 | ON FOOT | Running against former Labour leader (2,4) |
| ON (against) and Michael FOOT (former Labour Leader) – might also have been BY FOOT | ||
| 6 | TEEN | Youngster clear about English uprising (4) |
| 9 | REPLENISHMENT | Renewal of Pilsner – the men are blotto (13) |
| anagram (blotto, drunk) of PILSNER THE MEN | ||
| 14 | FLEUR-DE-LIS | Desire full bust? – here’s Iris (5-2-3) |
| anagram (bust) of DESIRE FULL | ||
| 16 | NATIONAL | Answer for nothing in hypothetical subject (8) |
| NoTIONAL (hypothetical) with A (answer) replacing O (nothing) | ||
| 17 | ATHENIAN | After that, avifauna regularly circulating about capital (8) |
| THEN (after that) inside (with…circulating, going round) AvIfAuNa (regularly) | ||
| 19 | RAM-JET | Propulsion unit black following crash (3-3) |
| JET (black) following RAM (crash) | ||
| 21 | WINTER | Season with berry, reportedly (6) |
| W (with) then INTER (bury) sounds like (reportedly) berry | ||
| 23 | RIOT | Fight island to stop corruption (4) |
| I (island) inside (to stop, like a cork) ROT (corruption) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks PeeDee
I think you have an error at 6dn. Your parsing leads to WEEN (E in NEW reversed) not WEAN. I entered TEEN – NET (clear) around E (English) reversed (uprising).
Should 6D be “teen”? — given that to clear is also to net, as in a salary after taxes, around E (English). Otherwise I read the blog as “new” around “a”, which seems to leave “English” out of the equation. Maybe I’m missing something.
@1 Gaufrid — thanks for confirmation. And to PeeDee for blog, without which I could not parse 26A.
Strangely, my first 6 answers all contained the letter F and I wondered if this would be thematic. It proved not to be, so I’ve no eff-in clue (pardon the fr-ench) of any theme. I also wrote WEAN for 6d but couldn’t parse – TEEN of course. Other than that, I did cheat to get 12a – a tough but fair clue. Great stuff, thanks to all.
Yes, I got in a muddle on 6dn. I will fix the blog later.
Lovely stuff from Monk as to be expected. And from his past form, I always go looking for that little extra something but of course he is not obliged to put his moniker on every puzzle, But they are all good.
Thanks all.
I too started off thinking that the letter F would feature throughout but soon gave up on that one. There are three lurking rats in there to accompany the ferret, but that may be just coincidence
Thanks to Monk for a nice brain-stretching and to PeeDee for the explanations
Nice puzzle with some nice devices.
I don’t usually do the FT puzzle these days, but I made the effort to get a copy when I heard that Monk was today’s setter. Well worth doing so. Many thanks.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Interesting and challenging crossword as we’ve come to expect from this setter. A wide variety of devices used that had as much work in the word play as seeing the definitional solution in most clues. In particular, FETA, FILTRATE and FERRET (my last in) took me much longer to work out the ‘how’ as the ‘what’.
Thanks PeeDee and all other bloggers for nice comments. I had no idea this had already come out, hence my late visit. The Nina-spotters nearly got it: my notes say “Every answer contains at least one F and/or one T”! If it’s of any comfort, “hidden” Ninas such as this elude my memory by the time they’re blogged! Merry hung parliament to one and all.