Financial Times 18,120 by MONK

by

Thanks to Monk for an enjoyable challenge.

Monk is on top form with this witty puzzle. Some lovely surfaces, and clever misdirections made for an enjoyable solve.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Survived Western Offensive by Germany (5)
LIVED

EVIL< (offensive, <Western) by D (Germany)

4. Assigned place in central part of Ronaldsay (9)
ALLOCATED

LOCATE (place) in [Ron]ALD[say] (central part of)

9. Dramatist essentially sends back your changes (9)
AYCKBOURN

([se]N[ds] BACK YOUR)* (*changes)

10. It strengthens 21ac by initially increasing capacity (5)
TONIC

TON (21ac) by I[ncreasing] C[apacity] (initially)

11. Lost leaders land in strait (11)
DARDANELLES

(LEADERS LAND)* (*lost)

13. Very good FBI agent withdrawn (3)
DEF

FED (FBI agent, <withdrawn)

14. Royal Engineer mostly stops surprise attack around exit (9)
DISAPPEAR

SAPPE[r] (Royal Engineer, mostly) stops RAID< (surprise attack, <around)

17. Chat mainly on port wine (5)
RIOJA

JA[w] (chat, mainly) on RIO (port)

19. Compound found in bovine leather that’s not hard (5)
OXIDE

OX [h]IDE (bovine leather, that’s not H (hard))

20. Work backing up on job ends in even more pointless delays (9)
POSTPONES

(OP< (work, <backing up) on POST (job)) + [eve]N [mor]E [pointles]S (ends in)

21. Heading for trouble, addicted to fashion (3)
TON

T[rouble] (heading for) + ON (addicted to)

From the French ‘ton’ or ‘bon ton’

22. Fake ancient hut, dodgy on the face of it (11)
INAUTHENTIC

(ANCIENT HUT)* (*dodgy) on I[t] (the face of)

25. Fool one heartless little sod (5)
IDIOT

I (one) + DI[v]OT (little sod, heartless)

26. Girl and father consuming 27 somewhere in the Himalayas (9)
ANNAPURNA

ANNA (girl) + (PA (father) consuming URN (27, from the clue numbered as such))

28. Opening publicity about female’s place on Tyneside (9)
GATESHEAD

GATE (opening) + (AD (publicity) on SHE (female))

29. Submit for consideration British pork pie wraps (5)

TABLE

B (British); TALE (pork pie) wraps

‘Pork pie’ is rhyming slang for ‘lie’, or ‘tale’ in this instance

DOWN
1. Ground beset with game overwhelming northern resort (9)
LLANDUDNO

LAND (ground) beset with ((LUDO (game) overwhelming N (northern))

2. Event-review process stopped by independent Conservative minister (5)
VICAR

VAR (event-review process) stopped by I (independent) + C (Conservative)

VAR: Video Assistant Referee

3. Society miss sort of bachelor bowled over (3)
DEB

BED< (sort of bachelor, <bowled over)

DEB: the abbreviation for ‘debutante’

BED: a Bachelor of Education

4. Blue river south of Arizona (5)
AZURE

URE (river) south of AZ (Arizona)

5. Publicans requiring large house along with taps (9)
LANDLORDS

L (large) + LORDS (house); AND (along with) taps

The House of Lords and House of Commons are the two chambers that make up British Parliament

6. OAPs chatter about misfortune (11)
CATASTROPHE

(OAPS CHATTER)* (*about)

7. Tense single twin daughters have softened (5,4)
TONED DOWN

T (tense) + ONE (single) + DD (twin daughters) + OWN (have)

8. Met up for coffee (5)
DECAF

FACED< (met, <up)

12. Software advanced in repeat sales finally rises in value (11)
APPRECIATES

APP (software) + (A (advanced) in RECITE (repeat)) + [sale]S (finally)

15. Boffin starts to study colonised tiniest bats (9)
SCIENTIST

S[tudy] C[olonised] (starts to) + TINIEST* (*bats)

16. Senior academic barely checking small map finds beach walk (9)
ESPLANADE

[r]EADE[r] (senior academic, barely) checking (S (small) + PLAN (map))

In a UK university context, a Reader is a senior academic position above Senior Lecturer and below Professor.

18. Italy included in new sea-coast link (9)
ASSOCIATE

(SEA COAST + I (Italy) included)* (*new)

21. Slim gentlemen’s first obsession (5)
THING

THIN (slim) + G[entlemen]’s (first)

23. Bowled over, head journalist put in accord (5)
TUNED

NUT< (head, <bowled over) + ED (journalist)

24. Brief project beginning for Bronski Beat (5)
THROB

THRO[w] (project, brief) + B[ronski] (beginning for)

27. Picked up excellent container (3)
POT

TOP< (excellent, <picked up)

16 comments on “Financial Times 18,120 by MONK”

  1. Best of the GIFT puzzles today, imho. No offence to the others. Superb surfaces throughout and some very elegant constructions in lovely succinct clues. Nothing to fault and a cop out, today, ref favourite clues as it’s one of those days when I could tick pretty much everything.

    Very slight typo in the blog: the definition for SCIENTIST has somehow become ‘Boff’.

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  4. This indeed was a good puzzle. PostMark @1 was spot on.
    I found it more accessible than yesterday’s which was a real struggle.
    Not sure how taps fits into 5 ac.
    Thanks to Monk and Oriel.

  5. SM @4: For ‘taps’, this from Chambers:
    verb (tapped, tapping) to get liquid from (a barrel or a cavity in the body, etc) by piercing it or opening it with, or as if with, a tap. So in the clue, the word ‘AND’ taps ‘L’ and ‘LORDS’

  8. PostMark @1 Well, it’s been a good day for crosswords all round, but I am inclined to agree with you. I don’t usually pick anagrams as a favourite but CATASTROPHE is such a brilliant clue (and, too often, a description of my social life).

  9. I endorse the positive comments. I found this approachable, particularly the right hand side, and enjoyed the variety of clues. I even had most of the GK needed for a change.

    I particularly liked AZURE for its surface, TONED, DOWN, DECAF and thought IDIOT was clever. I am a sucker for a good anagram, Petert@8, but not knowing what OAP is, I could not tick CATASTROPHE.

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  10. Whilst concurring with all today’s appreciative comments, I have a slight grouse which does not relate just to this puzzle. Increasingly I’m finding the word “essentially” being forced to mean “the letter(s) in the middle of”. In today’s example, clue 9, the letter N is no more essential to the word “sends” than S E or D. If the intention is to use “essential” in a more metaphysical sense, then surely the essence of the word “sends” (if such a plain word is capable of having an essence) is something that transcends any of the letters that spell it.

  11. Monk can be tricky at times, though always fair. This one we found quite accessible although we had some head-scratching moments, mainly over parsing obvious answers. One such was for LANDLORDS; when we saw the parsing we took ‘taps’ in the context of wire-tapping for getting into something but the barrel analogy is just as valid.
    Plenty to like, including OXIDE, ANNAPURNA, LLANDUDNO, CATASTROPHE and, for its apt surface, SCIENTIST.
    Thanks, Monk and Oriel

  12. Thanks Monk for a superb crossword that had the ideal amount of challenge for me. I did guess a few from the crossers but I was always able to tease apart the often brilliant wordplay at hand. My top picks were POSTPONES, GATESHEAD, LANDLORDS, TONED DOWN, and DECAF but in reality all the clues were good.Thanks Oriel for the blog.
    Babbler @10: Collins lists ‘heart’ as a synonym of ‘essence’ so I’m OK with essentially indicating the middle letter(s).

  13. Thanks for your comment (12) Tony, but I’m not persuaded by the argument that because “heart” can sometimes mean “essence”, the word “essential” can necessarily be made to mean “at the heart of”. The 20th definition of “heart” in the OED is “The vital, essential or efficacious part; essence.” and the latest citation is from 1889: “The church of a monastery was the heart of the place”. I don’t find that convincing support for the crossword compilers’ usage.
    I shall just have to go on being grumpy.

  14. Great puzzle, which for me equates to being able to get through it without being completely mystified. Monk has mystified me on occasion, but today I found this just delightful. Not going to enter the debate around ‘essentially’, but entering crosswordland seems to require a recalibration. For me the worst offenders are the variety of words used for anagram indicators, some of which are hard to justify. Today’s were pretty good ‘bats’,’about’, and ‘new’… all good.
    Thanks Monk n Oriel

  15. this was a lot of fun. though having never heard of LLANDUDNO or AYCKBOURN and having them cross created failure in the upper left for me! thank you all.

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