Financial Times 17,085 by MONK

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Another interesting puzzle form Monk, pretty stiff but do-able. Thank you Monk.

In the edge of the grid we have one of my favourite Spoonerisms: BUSTER KEATON: the news from the Little Bighorn – CUSTER BEATEN. Characters and events contemporary to the Reverend Spooner’s lifetime, if not quite concurrent.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7 LONGISH
Rather tedious record about northern single mum (7)
LOG (record) contains N (northern) then I (single) SH (mum, silence)
8 ANORAK
One artist cutting fine bore, perhaps (6)
AN (one) then RA (Royal Academician, artist) inside OK (fine)
10 BEAU
Dandy or Beano missing out on backing by Universal (4)
BEAno missing (missing out) ON reversed (backing) then U (Universal)
11 SWEETIE-PIE
Love that is stopping two potential courses (7-3)
IE (i.e. that is) inside (stopping, like a cork) SWEET and PIE (two potential courses of a meal)
12 UTOPIA
Perfect state of top-notch dope you brought back (6)
AI (A1, top-notch) POT (dope) U (you, abbreviation in messages) all reversed (brought back)
13 PASADENA
Pranged most of SEAT Panda somewhere in California (8)
anagram (pranged, crashed) of SEAt (most of) and PANDA
15 SHRINKING VIOLET
Family gripped by his revolting novel, one with a limited circulation? (9,6)
KIN (family) inside (gripped by) anagram (novel) of HIS REVOLTING – a person who avoids social interactions, who limits their circulation
18 TAWDRILY
Cheers wife, laconically, in garish fashion (8)
TA (cheers) W (wife) DRILY (laconically)
20 VOODOO
Type of magic spectacles repeatedly introduced by Roman cardinals (6)
OO OO (a pair of spectacles repeated, a visual impression of) each preceded (introduced) by V or D (two Roman numerals, cardinal numbers)
22 ESCALLOPED
Baked in sauce, can it be served up as cold, please? (10)
anagram (implied following on from the definition, how the letters can be served up) of COLD PLEASE – served in a scallop shell with sauce and usually breadcrumbs
24 EARN
Teach informally, ignoring capital gain (4)
LEARN (to teach, informal) missing first letter (capital). Growing up in NW England learn was commonly used to mean teach, as in that will learn you (that will teach you!). My mother, an English teacher, often commented how some well-meaning southerners “correct” this. But teach is the original meaning of the word learn and had remained so in this area, so their own use of learn to only mean to be taught was the actual corruption.
25 RAJAHS
Eastern princes taking mostly bogus beer to the west (6)
SHAm (bogus, mostly) JAR (beer) all reversed (to the west, right-to-left as on a map)
26 ROSETTE
Award established to break mechanical repetition (7)
SET (established) inside (to break) ROTE (mechanical repetition)
DOWN
1 CLIENT
Customer right to retain possession in court (6)
LIEN (right to retain possession) inside CT (court)
2 UNSUPPLIED
One stopping inflexible daughter being dissatisfied? (10)
I (one) inside (stopping, like a cork) UNSUPPLE (inflexible) then D (daughter)
3 SITS BACK
Plays no further part, being partly chastised by implication? (4,4)
SITS BACK (reversed) might be (by implication) STIS which is found inside (partly) chaSTISed
4 THREEPENNY OPERA
Hero Peter Pan having yen to change musical play (10,5)
anagram (to change) of HERO PETER PAN with YEN
5 EARTHS
Wants to have entry barred in grounds in US (6)
dEARTHS (wants) missing first letter (to have entry barred) – earth is an electrical term, called ground in the US
6 ROVE
Wander about wood – that’s no good (4)
gROVE (wood) missing G (good)
9 ALIENEE
Foreign, extremely evasive transferee of another’s property (7)
ALIEN (foreign) then outer letters (extremely) of EvasivE
14 DEO VOLENTE
God willing wavering devotee only briefly (3,7)
anagram (wavering) of DEVOTEE ONLy (briefly)
16 HEAD SEA
Leaders wager regularly over opposition in the main? (4,3)
HEADS (leaders?) then every other letter (regularly) of wAgEr reversed (over) – the main is the sea
17 VIVIDEST
Most intense view curtailed – see inside (8)
VISTa (view, curtailed) contains (with…inside) VIDE (see)
19 ILL-USE
Badly treat leaderless bullies – fantastic (3-3)
anagram (fantastic) of bULLIES missing first letter (leaderless)
21 O’BRIEN
Robin upset about end of Dame Edna for one (6)
anagram (upset) of ROBIN containing last letter (end) of damE – writer Edna O’Brien for example
23 ARAB
What could be central to both yard and stable? (4)
AR and AB are the centres of yARd and stABle – an Arab is a type of horse

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,085 by MONK”

  2. Thanks for the blog, completely missed the perimeter , I have seen this Spoonerism a few times in other puzzles . Very good clues here , only ALIENEE a bit obscure but the word play was very fair. SHRINKING VIOLET was my favourite.
    A very minor typo for 18AC she DRILY notes.
    [ I had a boyfriend at New College once and on the staircase going up to his room were many caricatures of Rev Spooner , each with a different saying. I was told most of them are not actually genuine ]

  4. I know the purists might not like the Nina being used to help solve the puzzle, but that’s what I had to do today. The NE corner was troublesome and I needed a few of those first and last letters to finish things off.

    I didn’t know ESCALLOPED or ALIENEE, nor the plural EARTHS as an electrical term. Favourite was ARAB. Very good to have the Nina both as a solving aid and as a nice Spoonerism.

    Thanks to Monk and PeeDee

  5. A tricky crossword but the usual enjoyment factor one expects from Monk, although I did forget to look for his Nina until I’d finished. I did like this one very much

    Thanks to Monk and PeeDee

  6. Liked VOODOO and ARAB, also got stuck at top right, though OK in the end. EARTHS was particularly unobvious. It may seem trivial, not to mention ironic, but the perhaps in 8ac genuinely prevented me from solving the clue. A bore is not an example of an anorak, anorak is defined as a bore.
    Thanks Monk, PeeDee

  8. As this was a Monk, my first look at the grid made me suspect a Nina. Like WordPlodder@4 I found this helpful in sorting out the tricky NE corner.
    ESCALLOPED seemed the obvious anagram, but is an unfamiliar (and rather ugly) word, so I looked in Chambers: the only meaning it gives is “covered in scallop shells” in heraldry…. but it went in, anyway.
    Credit to Monk for such an ingenious puzzle incorporating the Nina without too many obscurities.

  9. Mark_A @ 7 … not for me to decide whether or not 13A is “not very clever” but, more importantly, it’s accurate, as confirmed here .

  12. Thank you PeeDee, completely missed the excellent Nina which would have helped in a few places as I found this pretty tricky though very fair (lots of new words/phrases for me but all gettable from good clueing) except for that pesky “perhaps” per James@6. (Perhaps it was just intended to encourage us to think more laterally? and i wouldn’t have missed the “as” in 22a either, and come to think of it there is TOP in both clue and soln of 12A though coming from different places – is this something other people care about? Maybe I shouldn’t either). But this detracts from the great pleasure obtained from winkling out the solutions, thanks Monk.

  13. Jay – I remember that puzzle well, one that I blogged on this site I think. I have seen the same Spoonerism in a Boatman puzzle in the Guardian too.

  14. Stiff but, as you say, do-able. For once we spotted the nina which also helped us complete the NE corner (a D’oh! moment when we got ANORAK, and ALIENEE had to be checked in Chambers).
    We liked PASADENA, recalling the Temperance Seven number from longer ago than we care to remember, as well as RAJAHS.
    Thanks, Monk and PeeDee

  15. Thanks Monk and loonapick
    Found this one quite tough and like others was only able to complete the NE corner with the help of the clever perimeter Spoonerism nina. Had to have three cracks at 3d before being able to come up with SITS BACK – so simple in hindsight. Got caught up with two lots of IE in 11a until again seeing the obvious. Did enjoy untangling the long crossing anagrams, especially SHRINKING VIOLET which yielded the perimeter answers.
    UNSUPPLIED was an unlikely answer until getting the right view of ‘dissatisfied’ with ALIENEE, DEO VOLANTE (which I had to google the Latin translation to get) and the Irish author were all unknowns. HEAD SEA had to be confirmed.
    Tough but fair.

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