Financial Times 18,157 by MONK

by

Thanks to Monk for this morning’s challenge.

A most enjoyable challenge – some fabulous anagrams, and a couple of clever tricks that took a while for the penny to drop.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. No 6 in this paper’s fiscal reports etc. (10)
FINANCIALS

FINANCIAL [time]S (this paper, no TIME (from 6 across))

6. Herb reportedly in season (4)
TIME

“THYME” (herb, “reportedly”)

10. Just missing opening record in dance (3-4)
ONE-STEP

[h]ONEST (just, missing opening) + EP (record)

11. Computer plot confused with map (7)
PALMTOP

(PLOT with MAP)* (*confused)

12. Abandoning endeavours here, hotheaded ref not bending (3,3,2,3,4)
THE END OF THE ROAD

(HOTHEADED REF NOT)* (*bending)

13. Overlook Jewish festival (8)
PASSOVER

PASS OVER (overlook)

14. Thinker perhaps beginning to unravel in nervous condition (6)
STATUE

U[nravel] (beginning to) in STATE (nervous condition)

16. Damage cover of inspection panel (6)
INJURY

I[nspectio]N (cover of) + JURY (panel)

18. Field-leading medic enters wooded area (8)
FOREMOST

MO (medic, medical officer) enters FOREST (wooded area)

21. Green stone Victorians dressed (15)
CONSERVATIONIST

(STONE VICTORIANS)* (*dressed)

23. Appealing to the public, East London Borough rings you (7)
POPULAR

POPLAR (East London Borough) rings U (you, text speak)

24. Conservative and Republican not side-by-side in agreement? One can but imagine such a thing (7)
UNICORN

C (Conservative) and R (Republican) not side-by-side in UNION (agreement)

25. Bird runs into body of water scrubbing tail (4)
LARK

R (runs) into LAK[e] (body of water, scrubbing tail)

26. Anarchic urban novel’s failing, say (6,4)
VERBAL NOUN

(URBAN NOVEL)* (*anarchic)

DOWN
1. Jeer at loud bumpkin (5)
FLOUT

F (loud, musical) + LOUT (bumpkin)

2. They want extremely nice ducks to leave India (7)
NEEDERS

N[ic]E (extremely) + E[i]DERS (ducks, to leave I (India, NATO alphabet))

3. Never upset lonely non-U Tory (3,2,4,5)
NOT ON YOUR NELLY

(LONELY NON-U TORY)* (*upset)

4. Unfit sort who could tie up mischievous kid? (8)
IMPROPER

Cryptic definition

IMP ROPER (sort who could tie up mischievous kid?)

5. Fantasy Island’s American set located in Los Angeles (6)
LAPUTA

(A (American) + PUT (set)) located in LA (Los Angeles)

From Gulliver’s Travels written by Jonathan Swift

7. Mass start among nudists essentially entering jog (7)
INTROIT

IN (among) + [nud]I[sts] (essentially) entering TROT (run)

8. Suitable edge absent from trial surrounding senior copper (9)
EXPEDIENT

EXPE[rim]ENT (trial, RIM (edge) absent) surrounding DI (senior copper, Detective Inspector)

9. British, outwardly watchful, note retreat around Kensington monument (6,8)
ALBERT MEMORIAL

B (British); ALERT (watchful) outwardly + MEMO (note) + LAIR< (retreat, <around)

13. Chief prosecutor’s case consisting of commercial irregularities primarily linked to China (9)
PRINCIPAL

P[rosecuto]R (case) + INC (consisting of commercial, incorporated) + I[rregularities] (primarily) linked to PAL (China)

15. Folklore hero heading off terrible stench in underground vault (3,5)
TOM THUMB

(T[errible] (heading off) + HUM (stench)) in TOMB (underground vault)

17. Shrub I initially prune in one month, right (7)
JUNIPER

(I + P[rune] (initially)) in JUNE (one month) + R (right)

19. River one associated with eg Tomsk? (7)
ORINOCO

Double definition

The ORINOCO is a large South American river, and also the name of a character in the British children’s series, The Wombles, another of which is Tomsk

20. Reluctant state Senate evacuated (6)
AVERSE

AVER (state) + S[enat]E (evacuated)

22. Sizeable group returned joint projection (5)
TENON

NONET< (sizeable group, <returned)

19 comments on “Financial Times 18,157 by MONK”

  1. The blog popped up within a minute of my finishing the puzzle and I could not agree more with our blogger’s preamble. A sparkling puzzle from Monk today. I was chuffed to think of the Wombles, the moment I saw Tomsk but it took a moment to realise it was referring to another character – whom I then managed to recall. I was also pleased to solve FINANCIALS before being able to write in TIMES. Yes, some splendid anagrams along with some nicely constructed containers. A cop out from me today wrt favourites – one of those ‘too many to mention’ days.

    Only held up at the very end by thinking COVERT rather than FOREST for a while and earlier by trying to work ‘sort’ = ILK into what turned out to be (the very witty) IMP ROPER.

    Thanks both

  2. [Note to all: I have added comment to Site Feedback but I am still getting loads of error messages when posting/refreshing. I must remember to copy my comment before pressing Post because one of these times, I am not going to be able to retrieve the content after a failure to connect and will have to type it all over again]

  3. As you say Oriel, a most enjoyable puzzle with some satisfying anagrams.
    I got ORINOCO from the crossers but had forgotten the Wombles. I failed to parse ALBERT MEMORIAL. A very impressive blog.
    Thanks to Monk and Oriel.

  4. Good puzzle and blog. Some vg long anagrams. Also liked Laputa, Orinoco.

    For 13 d I made it

    Prosecutor’s case PR
    Consisting of IN
    Commercial irregularities primarily CI
    China PAL

    And yes I was struggling to open the page today

  5. Yes this was fun, I came up short on just 4 although I’m not sure I understand VERBAL NOUN being a failing (I get the anagram part though).

  7. Liked FINANCIALS, UNICORN, VERBAL NOUN, IMPROPER, LAPUTA and EXPEDIENT.

    PRINCIPAL
    I parsed it as the blogger first, but I wasn’t sure ‘consisting of commercial’=INC
    Then tried to see if ‘consisting of’ could be IN. Wasn’t convinced.
    I am missing something.

    Thanks Monk and Oriel.

  8. The UK clues in the SE corner defeated me, i.e. Poplar and the Wombles. Hadn’t heard of LAPUTA. And I’d forgotten that in the motherland a hum is a stench.

  9. Here, somewhat-less-than-U Tories are not at all lonely — there are thousands of them and they recently very loudly said “3 down” to their own hard-Right climate-denying anti-woke rump. Hence the landslide to Labor and the ‘Teals’. Hooray! Thanks to Monk for the cue!

  10. on principal I cant see how consisting of commercial = inc

    I thought “as in” uses in to mean “consisting of” but i’m not really convinced either.

    I wonder if inc = short for including helps, but probably not.

  11. On 13D: I had initially tried to connect ‘IN’ to ‘consisting of’ but couldn’t see it, so went for what you see in the published blog. However on second thoughts, it could work in the sense of: ‘a play in 3 acts’, for example. This would leave us with:
    P[rosecuto]R (case) + IN (consisting of) + C[ommercial] I[rregularities] (primarily) linked to PAL (China)

  12. Chambers prepositional def 7 (out of 17) for IN is ‘consisting of’ so I’m pretty sure the INC parse is INCorrect

  14. There were indeed some interesting devices to keep the interest (and difficulty) up. I thought there were three clues with nice surfaces: TIME,IMPROPER and FOREMOST and not too many NHOs

    GDU@8 – I thought Monk was on your do-not-attempt list, yet you seem to regularly solve his puzzles?

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  15. Great fun today. Is Tom Thumb a folklore hero? I have only a dim recollection of a book of nursery rhymes in which he appeared to be a rather unheroic boy wearing the clothes of a Victorian street-urchin.
    I know we’ve had this discussion before, but I’m still not happy with “to leave India” meaning “when India leaves”. But ho-hum, I completed it today which is an achievement, and without having ever seen the Wombles or heard of a palmtop.
    Thanks to Monk and Oriel.

  16. Of course, I was baffled by ORINOCO, as all Womblies references elude this American. (I think of, in about this order, the actual river, the Aphra Behn novella (which spells it differently), and the Enya song Orinoco Flow). I also had to resort to Wikipedia for the Kensington monument–I’ve spent a grand total of four days in London, and that attraction is farther down the tourist’s punch list than that.

    [I squeezed in Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the British Museum, Greenwich Observatory (and the museums around it), the British Library (for the Magna Carta), Churchill’s war room, probably some things I’ve forgotten, and a fair amount of walking, eating, and drinking. Would have loved to have time for the V&A, the Tate, etc., etc, plus a lot more walking, eating, and drinking. You have one of the world’s very few inexhaustible cities on your hands. My city (Chicago) is also great for tourists, but not at that kind of level. We can keep you busy for five days…but not fifteen. Most people spend three here.]

  19. Very nice; only needed to look up a few words I didn’t know, and didn’t parse ALBERT MEMORIAL or ORINOCO. Liked the smart clueing (“mass start”, “No 6”). I’m starting to like FT more and more (especially compared with today’s Paul in the Guardian, which I couldn’t do, even getting the big anagram, and didn’t like). Thanks Monk and Oriel

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.