Financial Times 17,827 by MONK

by

Thanks to Monk for this morning’s puzzle.

I found this to be a very pleasant and smooth solve. I haven’t spotted a theme or Nina, but let us know in the comments if you have. Many thanks to Monk!

ACROSS
1. Fungus beginning to affect bulb that’s left out (6)
AGARIC

A[ffect] (beginning to) + GAR[l]IC (bulb, L (left) out)

5. Careless scuttle after ladies’ underwear (8)
SLIPSHOD

HOD (scuttle) after SLIPS (ladies’ underwear)

9. Slippery sort — American prisoner nothing holds (8)
ANACONDA

A (American) + (CON (prisoner); NADA (nothing) holds))

10. Poles drinking unusually pale port (6)
NAPLES

N,S (poles, i.e. North and South) drinking PALE* (*unusually)

11. Native Scandinavians entering petition (8)
SUDANESE

DANES (Scandinavians) entering SUE (petition)

12. Zulu endlessly declines stringed instrument (6)
ZITHER

Z (Zulu, NATO alphabet) + [w]ITHER[s] (declines, endlessly)

13. New garden incorporates top-notch irrigation? (8)
DRAINAGE

GARDEN* (*new) incorporates A1 (top-notch)

15. Finally find baby wipes absorbing last of unmentionable stains (4)
DYES

[Fin]D [bab]Y [wipe]S (finally) absorbing [unmentionabl]E (last of)

17. Rush without finishing quarrel (4)
SPAT

SPAT[e] (rush, without finishing)

19. A number of bits and extra hard drills, incidentally (2,3,3)
BY THE BYE

BYTE (a number of bits) and BYE (extra, in cricket); H (hard) drills

20. The other one swims around fine island (6)
NOOKIE

ONE* (*swims) around (OK (fine) + I (island))

21. King once sadly aware about tense major conflict (5,3)
GREAT WAR

GR (King once, George Rex) + AWARE* (*sadly) about T (tense)

22. Definitely a silly rogue (3,3)
I’LL SAY

(I’LL SAY)* (*rogue)

23. Chap who conveys celebrity bearing? (8)
ALISTAIR

A-LIST (celebrity) + AIR (bearing)

24. Track back, scent being picked up? I’ve no idea (3,5)
GOD KNOWS

DOG< (track, <back) + “NOSE” (scent, “being picked up”)

25. Interminable moan surrounding extremely obscure gardening job (6)
HOEING

[w]HING[e] (moan, interminable) surrounding O[bscur]E (extremely)

DOWN
2. Following a couple of drinks, setter’s game (3,5)
GIN RUMMY

Following GIN + RUM (a couple of drinks); MY (setter’s)

3. Sporting legend briefly identified by VAR? (8)
RICHARDS

I think the setter is referring to Sir Viv Alexander Richards, cricket legend

‘Briefly identified by’, meaning these are initials

4. Canteen cooking tips from ruby anniversary (9)
CENTENARY

CANTEEN* (*cooking) + R[ub]Y (tips from)

5. Lurking danger of Ken, in haste, freaking out on pot (5,2,3,5)
SNAKE IN THE GRASS

(KEN IN HASTE)* (*freaking out) on GRASS (pot)

6. Sweet stuff to follow half a portion of seafood (7)
PRALINE

LINE (stuff) to follow PRA[wns] (seafood, half a portion of)

7. Haul out and jump across old exercise equipment? (4,4)
HULAHOOP

HAUL* (*out) and HOP (jump) across O (old)

8. Deliberately damage Conservative pinned by journalist over bar (8)
DESTRUCT

C (Conservative) pinned by (ED< (journalist, <over) + STRUT (bar))

14. Nonsense ultimately plaguing reversal of decline in Celtic language (9)
GIBBERISH

[Plaguin]G (ultimately) + (EBB< (decline, <reversal of) in IRISH (Celtic language))

15. Relative bitten by docked wild dog — it’s frightening (8)
DAUNTING

AUNT (relative) bitten by DING[o] (wild dog, docked)

16. Distinguished henna every so often on fake blonde (8)
ENNOBLED

[h]E[n]N[a] (every so often) on BLONDE* (*fake)

17. Monk almost checks private group (8)
SEPTETTE

SETTE[r] (Monk, almost) checks PT (private)

18. Ancient tongue from Kakinada translated (8)
AKKADIAN

KAKINADA* (*translated)

19. Monarchy having sex in mind? (7)
BRITAIN

IT (sex) in BRAIN (mind?)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,827 by MONK”

  1. Solved this surprisingly quickly for a Monk puzzle though I needed Oriel’s help parsing a few including that ‘VAR’. I do remember Viv Richard’s and thought a cricketer was intended but I didn’t know his initials. I then got sidetracked looking for a theme and wondered instead if there was a sportsman named Alistair (23a) Richards.
    I couldn’t find any theme or trick but feel there is yet something there.
    Besides this, I enjoyed the puzzle and nominate GOD KNOWS and NOOKIE as my top picks.
    Thanks to Monk and Oriel.

  2. There are cricket references to ‘slips’ and ‘bye’ so I’m guessing the theme relates to the sport.

  3. RICHARDS was about all that fitted, but I had no idea who it was. AGARIC was my lexicon expander, along with NOOKIE. Doing these and the Guardian’s puzzles for a few years has introduced me to so many words for sexual intercourse, and I am very grateful. 🙂

  4. Thanks for the blog , very good puzzle with lots of neat and clever clues.
    Unusual to see double unchecked letters, most of them a repeat letter ??

    RICHARDS – I am reliably informed that it is – Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, so the clue does not really work . In scorecards he was IVA Richards.
    Our senior lab technician is from Antigua.

    Fly AGARIC is a magic mushroom , bright red with white spots like the ones that pixies sit on.

  5. 3d RICHARDS – Guessed Sir Viv’s middle name might be Ant(h)ony, but cqba checking.
    21a GREAT WAR – The “King once” had his name in Latin on the coinage, e.g. “GEORGIVS VI REX”
    Charles could have been Carolus, but he’s gone for “CHARLES III REX”, to be more approachable. (Why not Chas?)
    [?typo 17d SE(PTE)TTE[r] – “private” = PTE]
    Thanks M&O

  6. [19a Oed.com has entries for BY THE BY, but not for BY THE BYE, although there are plenty of Quotations using the latter form
    — from Byron, Jefferson, Dickens, et al.]

  12. Thanks to Monk for a satisfying and pretty straightforward puzzle. My only mini-quibble would be in 13: I don’t think “irrigation” can really be made to mean “drainage” – the former is the process of adding liquid, the latter the process of taking liquid away. But hey-ho, we have to allow some flexibility to the setters.

  13. A pleasant solve. I found it a bit difficult in places, but reasonably approachable. There were some nice surfaces and my favourites were GIN RUMMY, NAPLES, SPAT and BRITAIN. Like others, I needed Oriel’s help to parse a couple of clues

    The main source of difficulty for me was the vagueness of several definitions (such as chap for ALISTAIR). And it is impossible to turn Kakinda into AKKADIAN without knowing the word (I didn’t) or waiting for the crossers and searching the internet (I did). Along with GDU@3, “the other” is a new term. Do people really say that?

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  14. Thanks Monk for a great set of clues with my top picks being DYES (nice surface), ALISTAIR, GOD KNOWS, GIN RUMMY, SNAKE IN THE GRASS, HULA HOOP, and DAUNTING. I revealed RICHARDS; I hadn’t heard of the cricket player and there was no cryptic wordplay to give me a hint. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  15. Disappointed to discover that REFS MISS was not a famous steeplechaser, but Sir Vivian came to mind soon enough. A very pleasant puzzle.

  16. Nice spot, FrankieG@7, and nice nina, Monk. That explains the odd word choice for 18d AKKADIAN, when the more familiar ARCADIAN would otherwise have fit, and been easier to clue.

    I figured that RICHARDS would be the sporting legend at 3d, but I didn’t know his middle initial so I couldn’t parse it. Monk’s use of VAR in the clue was brilliant as it misdirected us to a different sport.

    Thanks, Monk for the excellent puzzle and Oriel for the helpful blog.

  17. Good catch Mark@11. I had the same thought as Roz@4 on Richards. He was always I V A Richards, similar to Alan Phillip Eric Knott.

  18. Not much to add.. apart from those double letters being in line across or down so not random, in fact spells MONK x2, altho the B gets in the way a bit… also apart from 6 solutions all the words have 2 letters repeated, some 3, eg ANACONDA, AKKADIAN.. a lot of As… don’t necessarily think it adds or takes away, but interesting…
    Lots to enjoy
    Thanks MONK n Oriel

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