Financial Times 17,887 by MONK

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Great fun from Monk as ever.

A couple of new words for me, but all solvable, with some very witty clues. A nod to ‘army manoeuvres’ which I loved.

 

We have not just a pangram, but a double pangram, with each letter of the alphabet appearing at least twice. And while, in other crosswords, the vocabulary sometimes has to seemingly contort to accommodate these clever devices, by comparison, this one from Monk feels effortless.

 

Many thanks to the setter.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Last traces of Black Country block walls in abandoned station (6)
SKYLAB

[blac]K [countr]Y (last traces of); SLAB (block) walls

5. So few, say, travelling ancient road (5,3)
FOSSE WAY

(SO FEW SAY)* (*travelling)

9. Terribly clean lines through Spanish city (8)
VALENCIA

CLEAN* (*terribly) lines VIA (through)

My thoughts are with the people of Valencia in the floods they’re experiencing

10. Hint — start to price former editor’s liquid asset? (4-2)
TIPP-EX

TIP (hint) + P[rice] (start to) + EX (former)

11. Large island, a result of volcanic activity, not the first seen by Japan (4)
JAVA

[l]AVA (a result of volcanic activity, not the first) seen by J (Japan)

12. Dog, overwhelmed by duties, bolted by river when recalled (2,7)
ST BERNARD

(overwhelmed by DEBTS (duties): RAN (bolted) by R (river))< (<when recalled)

13. Mercury and Venus conclude with tweaked notes, ending in unusual pair (8,7)
INFERIOR PLANETS

INFER (conclude) with (NOTES + [unusua]L (ending in) + PAIR)* (*tweaked)

16. One normally contributing to army manoeuvres? (9,6)
TRAPEZIUS MUSCLE

Cryptic definition

A play on the word ‘army’ which in this case means ‘of the arm’

19. English supporter lying about cricket trophy talks incessantly to Australian (9)
EARBASHES

E (English) + BRA< (supporter, <lying about) + ASHES (cricket trophy)

21. Impartial judge, out of practice, losing case (4)
JUST

J (judge) + [r]UST[y] (out of practice, losing case)

23. Imagine chap mostly consumed by passion (6)
FIGURE

GU[y] (chap, mostly) consumed by FIRE (passion)

24. Articulate 1970s rock band that Norman perhaps books (8)
ELOQUENT

ELO (1970s rock band, Electric Light Orchestra) + QUE (that, Norman perhaps, referring to the language) + NT (books, New Testament)

25. Invasive plant, apparently medium or big in Scotland, discovered in middle of lockdown (8)
KNOTWEED

NOT WEE (apparently medium or big in Scotland) discovered in [loc]KD[own] (middle of)

26. They give sign of assent, reversing old void rules (6)
DONORS

NOD< (sign of assent, <reversing) + O (old) + R[ule]S (void)

DOWN
2. Blow in the manner of marsupial (5)
KOALA

KO (blow, knockout) + A LA (in the manner of)

3. You and I climbing in holidays — one will be standing in mountain air (3,4)
LEE WAVE

WE< (you and I, <climbing) in LEAVE (holidays)

4. Resists fine shelled food and drink (5,4)
BUCKS FIZZ

BUCKS (resists) + F (fine) + [p]IZZ[a] (food, shelled)

5. Riding site made Balfour go off keeping a couple of horses (11,4)
FLAMBOROUGH HEAD

(MADE BALFOUR GO)* (*off) keeping HH (a couple of horses)

6. Lecher brooded over attention in speech (5)
SATYR

SAT (brooded) over “EAR” (attention, “in speech”)

7. One stopping outside plot leaves shed light on (7)
EXPLAIN

I (one) stopping (EX (outside) + PLAN (plot))

8. Obsessed about bubbly coed getting tense narrative (9)
ANECDOTAL

ANAL (obsessed) about (COED* (*bubbly) getting T (tense))

14. Countryman’s wearing no pants (9)
NORWEGIAN

(WEARING NO)* (*pants)

15. Old cheese crackers dryish, oddly mellow (9)
LYMESWOLD

(D[r]Y[i]S[h] (oddly) + MELLOW)* (*crackers)

17. Norm still scrubbing middle floor (7)
PARQUET

PAR (norm) + QU[i]ET (still, scrubbing middle)

18. Core of virtuoso journalists stay for a day (7)
SOJOURN

[virtuo]SO JOURN[alists] (core of)

20. Tree expert tackles what’s behind disease (5)
ABELE

ABLE (expert) tackles [diseas]E (what’s behind)

22. Equipment for detecting crime after boy comes forward (5)
SONAR

ARSON (crime) after SON (boy) comes forward

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,887 by MONK”

  1. A wonderful puzzle! Spotted the double pangram and was able to finish with the exception of AB(E)LE! Not so able, after all!
    I did laugh out loud at ‘army manoeuvres’ and FLAMBOROUGH HEAD was a great help.
    Struggled to parse ST BERNARD and SATYR though.
    Thanks to Monk for a worthy test and to Oriel for filling in those gaps.

  2. 6d SATYR – the second half is a schwa, with an optional r: uh(r). Can’t think of anyone who pronounces ear that way.

  3. I saw the encore pangram and almost forgot about the news (and I dont mean Man City losing to Sporting)’
    Thanks all.

  4. Wow! I did not know 5A, 13A, 19A (why the reference to “Australian”). Also 3D, 5D, 15D and 20D.

    This is the toughest FT puzzle that I have ever seen.

    Thanks to all.

  5. Thanks Monk and Oriel

    19ac: earbash is marked Austral and NZ slang in Collins 2023 p 621 and Aust inf in Chambers 2016 p 483.

  6. Lots of excellent clues to ponder. Only one reveal for me, the nho ABELE, although it was well clued. My excuse is that I had already used most of my solving energy tackling the equally excellent Vlad on the G. Can I have a sit down now please? Thanks O and M

  7. Vicious but fair with a lot of words and expressions new to me e.g. 3 down, 16 across (witty clue though) and 20 down. And why is FLAMBOROUGH HEAD “riding site”? Clearly Monk abd Oriel are smarter than I am – hearty congratulations to both

  9. Beak @7 Flamborough Head is in Yorkshire, which was once one large county divided into Ridings and is now three counties. Like Rutland, Yorkshire prefers its Ridings.

    Thank you to Monk and Oriel.

  11. Thanks Monk. Despite revealing the nho LEE WAVE, FLAMBOROUGH HEAD, and LYMESWOLD as well as TRAPEZIUS MUSCLE (not a fan of cryptic definitions that are 15 letters long) I mostly enjoyed this. Monk’s clue writing is impeccable and I liked SKYLAB, VALENCIA, JUST, NORWEGIAN, SOJOURN, and SONAR. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  12. Challenging as usual from Monk but we got all except ABELE (fixated on some variant of ‘acer’) though a few were not fully parsed. We spotted the double pangram, though, and it helped in the NE corner.
    Thanks, Monk and Oriel.

  13. Far from effortless. Got a few answers, then dismayed by the obscurity of FLAMBOROUGH HEAD decided it was going to be too full of esoterica and decided to abandon.

  15. Pieced together Lymeswold and then had the adventure of learning about it. Thanks for the research diversions (for that as well as ABELE and FLAMBOROUGH HEAD), taking us away from politics for a bit.

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