Financial Times 17,557 by MONK

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A tricky puzzle from Monk this morning.

Plenty to enjoy nonetheless, so many thanks to the setter!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Multinational capital rolled into football club (5)
FRANC

RAN (rolled) into FC (football club)

4. Attitudes on setter’s burdens (7)
IMPOSES

POSES (attitudes) on I’M (setter’s)

8. Northern Ireland with both sides in semi final? No (4)
NISI

NI (Northern Ireland) with S[em]I (both sides in)

9. Sadly, 50% of “we care” banks respond impudently (6,4)
ANSWER BACK

(W[e] (50% of) + CARE BANKS)* (*sadly)

10. Call to action intermittently set back female (6)
NICOLA

[c]A[l]L [t]O [a]C[t]I[o]N< (intermittently, <set back)

11. Perhaps third squad reportedly prepare for gymnastics exercise (8)
CRUCIFIX

“CREW C” (perhaps third squad, “reportedly”) + FIX (prepare)

12. Planning to get better inside, half of errant indigestion treated (8,6)
INTERIOR DESIGN

(ERR[ant] (half of) + INDIGESTION)* (*treated)

14. Article correct about media worker, say, supplying drug (14)
ANTIDEPRESSANT

AN (article) + EDIT< (correct, <about) + PRESS (media) + ANT (worker)

18. No way approve ambassador’s lines (4,4)
LIKE HELL

LIKE (approve) + HE (ambassador, i.e. His/Her Excellency) + LL (lines)

19. Drivers en masse entering the old country (6)
THRACE

RAC (drivers en masse, i.e. Royal Automobile Club) entering THE

21. Confinement, note, in a form of funeral (10)
INTERNMENT

N (note) in INTERMENT (a form of funeral)

22. Flirty girl in short little skirt wanting kiss (4)
MINX

MIN[i] (little skirt, short) wanting X (kiss)

23. Put out message when denied opening in court (7)
EXTINCT

[t]EXT (message, when denied opening) + IN + CT (court)

24. Basically misquote regularly selected hearsay (3-2)
SAY-SO

[ba]S[ic]A[ll]Y [mi]s[qu]O[te] (regularly selected)

DOWN
1. Dutch provincial, not available, is returning after one day (7)
FRISIAN

(NA (not available) + IS)< (<returning) after FRI (one day, i.e. Friday)

2. Sort out bits of grammar analysis in Our Mutual Friend (5)
AMIGO

(G[rammar A[nalysis] I[n] O[ur] M[utual])* (bits of, *sort out)

3. Some butter in tea bread (7)
CHAPATI

PAT (some butter) in CHAI (tea)

4. With which flies can safely be undone in public? (6,9)
INSECT REPELLENT

Cryptic definition

5. Mrs Grundy inspires Elgar’s first two overtures? Just the one (7)
PRELUDE

PRUDE (Mrs Grundy) inspires EL[gar]’s (first two)

6. Aids those on bench, team checking one for inclusion (9)
SUBSIDIES

SUBS (those on bench); SIDE (team) checking I (one) for inclusion

7. Marshal notices division (7)
SECTION

(NOTICES)* (*marshal)

13. Most immoderate texts, mere fragments (9)
EXTREMEST

(TEXTS MERE)* (*fragments)

14. Property-transfer beneficiary originally called following a fabrication (7)
ALIENEE

NEE (originally called) following A LIE (a fabrication)

15. Not a time to sit in den — so busy (4,3)
DIES NON

(IN DEN SO)* (*busy)

16. Ranks Virginia, Georgia and a couple of Carolinas, for example (7)
ESTATES

Cryptic definition:

E STATES (i.e. Eastern States of the USA)

17. Kings to avoid whisky? I’m afraid that’s not possible (2,3,2)
NO CAN DO

[k]NOC[k]ANDO (whisky, Ks (kings) to avoid)

20. Manx cat’s weird, probably gutted (5)
RUMPY

RUM (weird) + P[robabl]Y (gutted)

44 comments on “Financial Times 17,557 by MONK”

  1. Yes , this was tricky but all was fairly clued. Three clues ( 17d and 18d) I worked out but needed the blog for explanation.RUMPY for a Manx cat, CRUCIFIX as an exercise and Knockando were unknown.

    The opening instruction was a mystery to me.

    Thank you Monk and Orirl

  7. My COD: CRUCIFIX
    Didn’t actually have a head start. Only after completing the puzzle, I remembered the
    special instruction/note. Spotted the connection.

    INSECT REPELLENT
    The surface was supposed to mislead us towards ‘unzipping in public’. I thought of that
    angle only after arriving at the solution.

    Thanks, Monk and Oriel.

  8. Thanks Sayer and Andrew. Very clever .
    Pity I did not understand the cryptic instruction before starting the puzzle.

  10. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out the instruction either, SM – kicking myself now!
    I did manage to finish and enjoyed teasing out most of the answers. I was familiar with the gymnastics exercise – a feat of great strength and poise – even if I didn’t fully parse it. Likewise, NO CAN DO which I guessed from the definition.
    A couple of others I didn’t know were, thankfully, anagrams. So I agree that the grid was fair.
    I also enjoyed the ‘bits’ (2d) and ‘regular’ (24a) directives being a little different from usual.
    Thanks to wily Monk and Oriel.

  11. Re 7D, I am not sure how “marshal” indicates an anagram. Oh maybe I do. “Marshal” means to bring things together, so maybe that’s it.

    Re 5D; I didn’t know that “Mrs. Grundy” was a prude. I remember that “Solomon Grundy was born on a Monday” but don’t remember the rest of the poem apart from when he dies.

    Re 10A: I know that I have said this before, but I really have a problem with “female” as a definition of a random woman’s name.

    Re 15D: just as well I studied law at University and Latin in Grammar School.

  12. The only “rumpy” that I know (20D) is coupled with “pumpy” and has nothing to do with a tailless cat. But, as I think about it, it may have something to do with another word for a cat which is “pussy”. Oh , I wish that I didn’t have such a dirty mind!

  13. Peter @11
    Please look up the Wikipedia article on Mrs Grundy and also Roget’s Thesaurus . I do not think there is any connection between prudery and the Solomon Grundy poem.

  14. Nice acrostic nina. I assume the instructions people are referring to above appeared in the online version. I print it out and there were no such instructions.

  15. Thanks Monk and Oriel

    7dn (SECTION): The first definition of marshal vt in Chambers 2016 is “to arrange in order”. I was familiar with this meaning from marshalling yard, defined in Chambers as “a place where railway wagons are sorted out and made up into trains”.

  16. Thanks, SM, for the link to the reference to Mrs. Grundy in Wikipedia. I don’t like to use any online search engines to complete crosswords but I found the article you suggested very interesting, especially as it was totally unknown to me.

  17. Thought “hearsay” was a pretty loose definition for SAY-SO, as well giving away half the answer. “It’s in Chambers” of course.

  18. So marshal is the infinitive. You must put notices into order. The surface — which has no real grammar, it’s all an illusion — makes you think of the noun, setting up a little scene, and that’s sort of what crossword setting is all about.

  19. Pamela, , I have noticed your comments this past week as you being a newcomer to this site and I love them. You will probably find some humour in my use of newcomer”!

    I hope that you stay around. We need some light entertainment and some sexual innuendo.

    Lurker not poster.

  20. Thanks for the blog, very neat set of clues with some clever wordplay. I did not know FRISIAN but the construction was very fair . The last whisky I bought was Knockando , not for me , a present. I was asked to get Speyside and I liked the name, a very clever clue.

  21. FrankieG@17: It has long been my view, stated occasionally on this site, that “It’s in Chambers” is always a fair answer to a question about the validity of a meaning, but never to a question of obscurity (for a daily puzzle). I would now add that it is never an answer to a question of a definition being too obvious. I think that means we are agreeing on the final point.
    With regard to the first point, I do not claim that Chambers is infallible, merely that it places too much responsibility on setters to ask them to overrule any of Chambers, Collins, or the ODE.

  22. Sidling into pedants’ corner, I would use OED as an acronym for the Oxford English Dictionary ( Pelham Barton@21). I hope the ODE acronym is not in Chambers.

  23. SM@22
    Agree with you on OED.
    There was some discussion on OED vs ODE, triggered by a clue in an Inquisitor puzzle by Cranberry ( a recent one).

  24. SM, KVa: No, I meant the Oxford Dictionary of English – the single volume one. OED is in Chambers for the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary.

  25. I saw it was Monk, wondered whether to even start, but then took everyone’s advice from last time and gave it a crack. I stared at it for a while, got a few clues out (many were “eh?” rather than “oh!”) then decided I did not have time to finish, so I stopped. Several unknown terms already mentioned, and special instructions were definitely not in the online version that I printed out.

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  26. Thanks for the clarification PB @14.
    I have a Concise Oxford English Dictionary and a two volume Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. I am not clear on the differences between the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English. I think the concise is as it says vis a vis the OED but how it compares to the ODE I do not know. Perhaps a friendly lexicographer could elucidate?

  28. SM@26: I would probably have done better to end comment 21 with something like “any of Chambers, Collins, or similar sized dictionaries from the Oxford stable.” I have come to regard the ODE as the one that is nearest in size to Chambers and Collins, and hence the one to cite when I am trying to indicate that I am giving no special authority to Chambers in the context of the FT crosswords. If that is not the case, I would like to be corrected with evidence.

  29. Thanks Monk for an excellent crossword. I printed out this puzzle and there were no “special instructions” on my copy so I missed the nina. I didn’t know CRUCIFIX as an exercise but I imagine it’s the same as an iron cross. I couldn’t parse the clever NO CAN DO and bits of other clues but generally this was smooth sailing. My top picks were NICOLA, ANTIDEPRESSANT, LIKE HELL, AMIGO, and PRELUDE. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  30. [Martyn @25: It took me several years to get on Monk’s “wavelength” but I found it was worth the effort. Along with Rosa Klebb, Basilisk, Neo, and Leonidas he ranks in my “top five FT setters”.]

  31. Thanks FrankieG and Pelham Barton. Not only learned some new words today. but also something about modern dictionaries . Perhaps it will soon be time for some Knockando.

  32. Tony @29 I have seen CRUCIFIX on the gymnastics, men on the rings , have to keep still supporting all their weight with the arms horizontal . It looks so difficult.

  33. Roz @32: I too have seen CRUCIFIX in gymnatics but always knew it as the “iron cross”. It looks very difficult, especially the L-sit variation.

  35. Made little headway in half an hour this morning and so returned this evening and managed it all other than 15 down. I’m sure you Latin scholars like these types of clues but for me that are pain in the backside – and remove a lot of the pleasure.

    This one was very much at the far end of my ability, so I was pleased to do all but the Roman.

  37. I enjoyed this. Level of difficulty as expected from Monk (maybe a bit gentler than he can be) with the Nina / acrostic as a nice reward for getting everything out. Same unknowns as many others; with any luck I’ll remember a few new words, especially the unlikely RUMPY and even as a non whisky drinker, maybe KNOCKANDO.

    Thanks to Monk and Oriel

  39. Oriel, thanks for the blog, which I needed in several cases. Some of the definitions were a bit obscure, and an explanation in the blog would have been useful – e.g., 11a CRUCIFIX, 15d DIES NON. (I had enough Latin and law to get the latter, but I suspect I might be in the minority.)

    Again, if you are not a whisky drinker, Knockando in the clue for 17d would be pretty obscure (also not an issue for me). I’m imagining a clue that has GLENFARCLAS as fodder clued as “whisky”.

    May I offer a friendly suggestion to Paul b@18. If you’re going to discuss a clue without spelling out solution, it would be helpful to cite the clue number, to save us having to read through all the clues to see what you are talking about.

    Thanks to Monk for the stiff challenge, and to Oriel for the helpful blog.

  40. Well cellomaniac, the clue had been discussed two posts previously, so I credited contributors here with enough intelligence to make the connection. You’ll see I used ‘marshal’ and ‘notices’, words from the clue, in my message to help people along a bit, you know, just in case.

    I appreciate the friendliness of your suggestion though.

  41. Very late – I started yesterday but had to stop within a clue or two for other things. Finding a window this afternoon, I thoroughly enjoyed it – though I was beaten by CRUCIFIX. A nho and I got fixated that the ‘C’ possibly indicating ‘third team’ was that initial C. With a whimsical homophone to negotiate and an unknown solution, I could make no progress. Loads to like but I won’t list them now as I suspect this comment will never be seen! But credit is due so I’m popping in to give it.

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  42. Can someone actually say what the special instructions were for us late comers they are not on the currently available online version.

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