Financial Times 17,430 by MONK

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Good to see Monk back in the Wednesday morning slot.

I found this quite tough going, but overall a fair challenge, so many thanks to Monk.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. Behind award for cycling (5)
ABAFT

BAFTA (award, for cycling)

10. Papal ambassador backing revision of Catholic union (9)
PRONUNCIO

PRO (backing) + (C (Catholic) + UNION)* (*revision of)

11. Extol Anglo-Albanian singer, one succumbing to pressure, making a comeback (7)
APPLAUD

DUA LIPA< (Anglo-Albanian singer); I (one) succumbing to P (pressure);<making a comeback

12. Finding this newspaper outside shelter, journalist moved rapidly (7)
FLEETED

FT (this newspaper) outside LEE (shelter) + ED (journalist)

13. Test case essentially linked to Express (5)
ASSAY

[c]AS[e] (essentially) linked to SAY (express)

15. Ireland, e.g. after Reformation, divided on a new basis (9)
REALIGNED

(IRELAND EG)* (*after reformation)

17. Apparel taken by old foe unexpectedly depressed Puck (5,10)
ROBIN GOODFELLOW

ROBING (apparel) taken by (OLD FOE)* (*unexpectedly) + LOW (depressed)

19. Chicken today went badly (9)
WYANDOTTE

(TODAY WENT)* (*badly)

21. Shiatsu techniques holding back stellar group (5)
CETUS

[shit]SU TEC[hnique]< (holding, <back)

23. Inauspicious and ordinary, diminished by stifling love (7)
OMINOUS

O (ordinary) + MINUS (diminished by) stifling O (love)

25. Second onlooker losing specs when changing in Tube? (7)
SNORKEL

(S (second) + ONL[oo]KER (losing specs))* (*when changing)

The ‘?’ indicating the need for a bit of lateral thought

27. Conductor’s back to work line before broadcast of Mikado? (9)
KLEMPERER

[wor]K (back to) + L (line) + “EMPEROR” (Mikado?, “broadcast”)

The ‘?’ denoting an indirect definition. Mikado is a Japanese emperor’s title.

28. Composer left mobbed by crowd (5)
HOLST

L (left) mobbed by HOST (crowd)

DOWN
1. Fruit and nuts, for the most part (6)
BANANA

BANANA[s] (nuts, for the most part)

2. Rob and Mike dividing blame (4)
RAMP

M (Mike) dividing RAP (blame)

3. Keep calm partner heading towards something (6,2)
STEADY ON

STEADY (partner) + ON (heading towards something)

4. Plant and wider rocks in pool, perhaps (10)

SPIDERWORT

(WIDER)* (*rocks) in SPORT (pool, perhaps)

5. Hang around block (4)
LOAF

Double definition

6. Partially exhume rib bones (6)
HUMERI

[ex]HUME RI[b] (partially)

7. Tax lost by country delaying last of fiscal books (4,3,3)
SCOT AND LOT

SCOTLAND (country, delaying [fisca]L (last of)) + OT (books, Old Testament)

8. Yard gatecrashes rank party with hubbub (8)
ROWDYDOW

YD (yard) gatecrashes (ROW (rank) + DO (party) + W (with))

14. Run into general absorbed by puzzle about Captain Nemo? (10)
SUBMARINER

R (run) into MAIN (general) absorbed by REBUS< (puzzle, <about)

The ‘?’ because Captain Nemo is just an example of a submariner, so it is not a direct definition

16. Speakers in sideboard included in promotions (10)
ADDRESSERS

DRESSER (sideboard) included in ADS (promotions)

17. Startles, pressing hooter such as crew might use? (8)
ROWLOCKS

ROCKS (startles) pressing OWL (hooter)

A rowlock is part of a boat that holds/supports the oar

18. Electrician extremely reluctant to break cover of cassette deck (8)
ENCLOTHE

E[lectricia]N (extremely) + (LOTH (reluctant) to break C[assett]E (cover of))

20. Loose excrement picked up in flat (6)
DROOPY

POO< (excrement, <picked up) in DRY (flat)

22. Leaves seaport north of Sweden (6)
SPLITS

SPLIT (seaport) + S[weden] (north of)

24. Agile agent crossing river (4)
SPRY

SPY (agent) crossing R (river)

26. Terms of special licence overseen by state channel (4)
KYLE

[specia]L [licenc]E (terms of) overseen by KY (state, Kentucky)

26 comments on “Financial Times 17,430 by MONK”

  1. I think today’s theme is ‘things I’ve never heard of’ 🙂 Managed to finish using a lot of guessing from the wordplay and then checking.

  2. Yes lots of TILTs and NHOs. I enjoyed it though.
    At least I know how to pronounce ROWLOCKS
    Thanks M&O

  3. My knowledge of Star Trek and Latin came in handy for CETUS: Risa the “pleasure planet” is also known as Epsilon CETI B II,

  4. Thanks Monk and Oriel

    As I type this, there is an unfortunate typo in the parsing of 21ac, which should of course begin [shiat]SU.

  5. Same initial comment as Hovis @1; I expanded my vocabulary by five words/terms and learnt a new constellation in CETUS. Managed to finish with the grid filled correctly and with the unknowns entered via wordplay and crossers.

    I liked KYLE for the memory of crossing to Skye from KYLE of Lochalsh by car ferry many moons ago – no bridge then.

    Thanks to Monk and Oriel

  6. Reliably good from Monk-I was hoping someone could find an Easter egg that may have escaped me
    Thanks all.

  7. Thanks Monk for a super crossword. I did have to check my guesses on occasion and I failed with KYLE but overall I enjoyed the challenge. My top picks were APPLAUD, SUBMARINER, DROOPY, and OMINOUS. I searched for a nina to no avail. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  8. I’m with Hovis: so many things that I have never heard of.

    Kyle, Rowdydow, Scot and Lot, Ramp = Rob.

    Re 12A: is “fleet” really a verb?

  9. On reflection, my first sentence should have been “so many things of which I have never heard”. “Never end a sentence with a preposition” was drummed into me at grammar school in the 1960s.

  10. I’m with Hovis and others – what a lot of words I never knew existed, although I’m always pleased to learn a new chicken name

    Thanks to Monk for the extreme brain-mangling and to Oriel for the blog.

  11. Thanks for the blog, I like puzzles like this , good to learn new words. A bit like Azed at times but the clues were generally very fair and letters in the grid helped .
    We have BANANA SPLITS which I used to love, almost got DROOPER and SNORK, no sign of BINGO or FLEAGLE ? I am not good at finding these things.

  13. Must be spelt FLEEGLE , just about there, bending round from FLEEt .
    Same for DROOPER and SNORKY .

  14. [Peter @9: On ending a sentence with a preposition: Winston Churchill famously said, “That’s a situation up with I shall not put.” ]

  15. Am I alone in thinking Nina? There ought to be something in here to justify all those obscure, or at least very infrequently-seen words. I’m looking round the interior unch-rings without success.

  18. A splendid crossword. So cleanly and fairly clued. Yes, I have resorted to Google to look up or check things (had no idea Dua Lipa was part Albanian – let alone that the chicken breed existed) but no Reveals so I consider that a finish. Too many super clues to nominate a favourite – those that were the most enjoyable to wrestle apart were SNORKEL, SPIDERWORT, ROWLOCKS and ENCLOTHE.

    Well done Roz, habitual non-noticer of themes, to spot what was going on and to demonstrate, again, your eclectic knowledge.

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  19. Bingo, Drooper, Snorky, and Fleegle. Ah, yes. Very nice. I wish I had caught the theme, since I could not get KYLE.

  20. Quite enjoyable for a while but then became quite annoying Scot and lot for pitys sake but did know otto

  22. A rare clean sweep for me today, with this comfortably the toughest going. Lots of NHOs for me, including ROWDYDOW, SCOT AND LOT, WYANDOTTE, and KLEMPERER, not to mention the entire theme, but just about got there through some fair if challenging wordplay.

    SNORKEL was my standout of an enjoyable tussle.

    Thanks Monk & Oriel

  23. [Thank you PM@18, I do usually miss themes, when I get one everyone else is way ahead. Clearly childish 70s culture is my speciality, the Sprogs got me the Banana Splits DVD , I used to tell them about it and taught them the song, a lot more fun than Teletubbies. ]

  24. Penny just dropped : Banana Splits indeed . Congratulations to Roz but this theme is as unknown to me as SCOT AND LOT. A amazing mix of ancient and modern obscurities .

    Thank you Monk for the mental torture and Oriel for the explanations .

  25. Thanks to Monk and Oriel. Definitely a tough one, with several new words requiring dictionary checking, but I got there in the end.

    Following on Peter@9 and Tony@14, my teacher cleverly told us that “A preposition is a bad thing to end a sentence with.”

  26. Well done Roz@11,12,13 for spotting the Banana Splits theme.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banana_Splits
    In 1969 I was already too old for this – I saw it as a cheap rip-off of the Monkees and found the canned laughter grating.
    Music: surprised to find that Barry White wrote Doin’ The Banana Split and Gene Pitney wrote Two Ton Tessie
    Prepositions: “Mother, what did you bring that book that I don’t like to be read to out of up for?”
    Latin: belatedly remembered CETUS means whale (cf cetacean).

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