Financial Times 17,346 by MONK

by

MONK is today’s setter.

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me – a few obscurities (MUMMERSET?) alongside some gems (SAN MARINO!). However, I have added some new terms and crossword cues to my knowledge base. There’s a pattern of the long perimeter terms all starting with the same three letters. I imagine that would have been helpful if you had picked it up mid-solve đŸ˜‰ Any better ideas for 5d?

Thank you MONK!

ACROSS
1. Entrepreneur resides at work in cold, cold retreat (5,8)
CLIVE SINCLAIR

(LIVES IN (resides at work)) in C (cold), C (cold) + LAIR (retreat)

10. Pablo Neruda embraces hermit (5)
LONER

[Pab]LO NER[uda] (embraces)

11. Touring rugby player withdrawn around November, cut for missing a match (9)
NONPAREIL

LION< (touring rugby player, <withdrawn) around N (November) + PARE (cut)

12. Mostly unpleasant occurrence having caught out former star in court (7)
NASTASE

NAST[y] (unpleasant, mostly) + [c]ASE (occurrence, C (caught) out)

13. Mahler raving about a European city (7)
HAARLEM

(MAHLER)* (*raving) about A

14. Slices first of chicken joints (5)
CHIPS

C[hicken] (first of) + HIPS (joints)

15. What’d be picked up from supposedly West Country ham? (9)
MUMMERSET

Cryptic definition

Mummerset is a fictional English accent used by actors/hams

18. Might robotic lumberjack reportedly have this raised power? (9)
LOGARITHM

Cryptic definition (“LOGGER RHYTHM”)

20. Anxiety of Franco’s people, say, but not his (5)
PANIC

[His]PANIC (Franco’s people say, not HIS)

21. Daily free houses for king (7)
RICHARD

CHAR (daily); RID (free) houses

24. Joy Division finally runs into ex- president’s ex (7)
NIRVANA

[divisio]N (finally) + R (runs) into IVANA (ex-president’s ex)

25. Fleet almost uncovered poetic sea creature (9)
ARMADILLO

ARMAD[a] (fleet, almost) + [b]ILLO[w] (poetic sea, uncovered)

26. America’s killing old British chemicals company — that’s no good (5)
ICING

ICI (Old British chemicals company) + NG (no good)

27. Actor/director breaking into cold sweat (5,8)
CLINT EASTWOOD

(INTO COLD SWEAT)* (*breaking)

DOWN
2. Way to stop bringing down Scandinavian politicians? (9)
LANDSTING

ST (way) to stop LANDING (bringing down)

3. Block clergyman over invective (7)
VERBALS

(SLAB (block) + REV. (clergyman))< (<over)

4. Must Helen corrupt possibly pithy sort of coverage? (3,6)
SUN HELMET

(MUST HELEN)* (*corrupt)

5. Oddly enough, ‘tenth’ suggests a different fraction (5)
NINTH

Cryptic definition

Hinting at an odd (ODDLY), but lower value (ENOUGH) fraction

6. Unplanned escape of eagle flying around out-of-bounds lake (7)
LEAKAGE

(EAGLE)* (*flying) around [l]AK[e] (out of bounds)

7. Perfect statement of the obvious by croupier? (5)
IDEAL

Cryptic definition (“I DEAL”)

8. Heartless cardinal involved with illicit drug tests, perhaps (8,5)
CLINICAL TRIAL

(CAR[di]NAL (heartless) + ILLICIT)* (*involved)

9. China, pursuing carbon left by India, coins term for global issue (7,6)
CLIMATE CHANGE

MATE (China) pursuing C (carbon) + L (left) + I (India) + CHANGE (coins)

16. Significant flash blokes two guys regularly visited (9)
MOMENTOUS

MO (flash) + MEN (blokes) + T[w]O [g]U[y]S (regularly visited)

17. Burma wanting housing for many in Chinese republic (3,6)
SAN MARINO

([my]ANMAR (Burma, wanting M[an]Y (housing for)) in SINO (Chinese)

19. African managed to grasp stick (7)
RWANDAN

RAN (managed) to grab WAND (stick)

20. Six unmixed drinks having wide range (7)
PURVIEW

VI (six); PURE (unmixed) drinks; having W (wide)

22. Animal became lost, but only a bit (5)
CAMEL

[be]CAME L[ost] (only a bit)

23. Gently and sweetly send up online buffoon? (5)
DOLCE

E-CLOD< (online buffoon, <send up)

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,346 by MONK”

  3. Not often I complete a Monk grid without aids (parsing is another matter) – it’s a good feeling!
    Spotting the repeating letters in the answers at the edges halfway through us exactly what helped to crack the framework, as Oriel said.
    So much to like with clever clues and some interesting individuals referenced.
    MUMMERSET was amusing, as was 23d’s “e-clod”.
    My pick, though, was 24a both for the wordplay involving Joy Division and for the poignancy connecting that band’s front man and that of the one mentioned here.
    Hands-down the puzzle of the week for me.
    Thanks to Monk and Oriel whose blog gratefully digested.

  6. I initially thought this was going to be very tough, but it turned out not to be too bad, for a Monk anyway. Had to take a wordplay punt on the ‘Scandinavian politicians?’ at 2d and didn’t know the ‘poetic sea’ at 25a but could work out the rest, except the significance of the 4 x CLI; ??4 x 151.

    Favourites were the N IN TH, the clever SAN MARINO and the good (even if it wasn’t too bad) LOGGER RHYTHM homophone.

    Thanks to Oriel and Monk

  7. With NINTH, using N in TH, I just wondered why ‘enough’ was needed, but got the joke. It’s a nice puzzle from Monk.

  8. Well done KVa@1 & Hovis@2 for parsing NINTH. It’s a very clever clue.
    I liked everyone else’s favourites. I also liked VERBALS.
    Thanks M&O

  9. Thanks for the blog, a lot of very clever clues. I only heard of MUMMERSET last year in a Brummie puzzle.
    I will add SUN HELMET to the list of favourites for “pithy” and CLIMATE CHANGE for the misleading “coins” .

  11. MUMMERSET was the accent used by Walter Gabriel and Bert Fry in The Archers, wincingly so to my family’s ears as we knew the Dorset/Somerset borders well, which takes my knowledge of that word back a good 50 years.

    Is it Monk’s 151st crossword for the FT?

    Thank you to Monk and Oriel.

  12. Thanks Monk and Oriel
    18ac: I thought someone would quibble about the definition of logarithm. For once, Chambers 2014 actually has a fully correct explanation of a technical term that fits within my knowledge: “The logarithm of a number N to a given base b is the power to which the b must be raised to produce the N”. For example, 10 to the power 3 equals 1000. The logarithm of 1000 to the base 10 is 3. It seems to me that “raised power” is a perfectly reasonable way of abbreviating “power to which a number is raised”.

  13. Thanks Monk for an expertly crafted crossword. It was not as difficult as I had feared thought I couldn’t parse the very clever NINTH, NONPAREIL, or RICHARD. My top choices were NIRVANA (for the reasons Diane mentioned), CLINT EASTWOOD, the much praised SAN MARINO, PURVIEW, and DOLCE. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  14. A bit of a struggle today – particularly in the NE corner. But we did manage to work out LANDSTING having previously encountered -t(h)ing for a parliament or assembly in various Scandinavian languages. We liked NONPAREIL, ARMADILLO and NINTH.
    Thanks, Monk and Oriel.

  15. Very difficult for me in part because I couldn’t think of the words for specific people properly since I am a dunce at popular people and culture! Like Ivanka, natase, clive Sinclair, count Eastwood. And never heard of mummerset. But enjoyed climate change, clinical trials, and San Marino!

    Thank you

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