FINANCIAL TIMES, No.12761 set by MONK

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Quite a tricky one and I was stumped by the bones question at 19d.  Will await explanations from those more successful.

ACROSS

1.   ESCALATE-(esc-a late (et al <)
5.   AFFAIR (af-f-air)
10. WIDOWER- (Wi(n)dow -er
11. OSMOTIC )- a kind of pressure (even letters from noisome -osm plus otic)
12. NATES – * seat n (an old name for buttocks)
13. ABSTRACTS (abs-tracts )
14. SOLOMON’S SEAL (solo- m-on-ss-eal) – was in the shape of a star
18  IDENTITY CARD ( * did certainty)
21. TROUT FARM ( rainbow trout)
23. KNOLL (kn-OLL) boss as in convexity.
24. ROSTRUM ) rum around *sort
25. ORPHEUS (sue-h-pro <)
26. DOWNER ( d-owner)
27 ASSYRIAN (as-syrian)

DOWN

1.  EDWINA (first letters of extremely & awful, *wind between (The formidable lady herself)
2.  CADETS (ca-de-ts)
3.  LOWESTOFT(lowest-oft)
4.  TERRACOTTA ARMY (straight forward definition)
6.  FEMUR (f- me>-ur)
7.  ALTO CLEF-  (*loca left)
8.   ROCK SALT- (rock – s(ulphur)-alt :even letters of tablets.)
9.   HOUSE OF COMMONS – not sure about the daily element.
15. STRIKE PAY-definition
16. FILTERED (fil-t-ere-d -)
17. TENON SAW (*now nates)
19.This one defeated me – anyone help? -O-E-I
20  ALISON-(Ali -son)
22  THREE (Th-re-e – leash is old name for  triality)

8 comments on “FINANCIAL TIMES, No.12761 set by MONK”

  1. Sorry -don’t know how that happened. -I seem to have been going for double indemnity. I will get used to the Notepad system eventually.

  2. If you log on and visit the site, under your posting you have “Edit”. You can then deleted unwanted portions and then “save” button which is on right side of the text writing/editing area.

  3. I thought this was one of the most difficult puzzles the FT has published so far this year – took me well over an hour and was not certain of some of my answers until reading your blog.
    19 down is humeri – upper arm bones – from hum (smell) and e(xtremely) r(otten) i(f). I think that makes 23 across knurl – kn for “extremely keen” and url as an internet address. My dictionary has it that a knurl is a small projecting knob or ridge, so it does fit with one meaning of boss

  4. Invaluable help from Rishikesh – I am hoping it will soon be second nature to me. Thanks also to Magpie (hope you are a Geordie, even if an emigrant to the South like me.) Getting (knurl) stead of (knoll) made all the difference. URL makes more sense than using OLL (the online dictionary site which I was guessing)

  5. Re HOUSE OF COMMONS

    I am just attempting to annotate this.

    Is it HOUS(OF COMMON{-place}S

    Bill may be found here – def
    owing to – OF
    daily – (adj) commonplace
    cut -COMMON after deleting place
    in – c/c ind
    accommodation – HOUSES

  6. Seems logical – can’t see any other connection. Definition and houses came easily, but I kept trying to fit in a char! Thanks.

  7. Sorry Octofem, though I’ve been to the north east on many occasions and worked with many of its fine people during my years in the Civil Service, I’m born, bred and still resident in Leicestershire!

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