Financial Times 17,478 by MONK

by

Quite the challenge this morning from Monk.

I got stuck on parsing a few, although I believe I got there in the end. We have the name of a wonderful place in London around the perimeter – the significance of which I’m not sure! As ever, Monk is a delight to solve. Much admiration for the cleverness of the clues.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7. Goddess starts to tempt Hercules et al (4)
THEA

T[empt] H[ercules] E[t] A[l] (starts to)

9. Picked up dreadful back in passing? Sort of (9)
DIARRHOEA

“DIRE REAR” (dreadful back, “picked up”)

10. Colour plan abandoned by daughter around noon (6)
ENSIGN

[d]ESIGN (plan, abandoned by D (daughter)) around N (noon)

11. Nailed and screwed hinge tab (2,3,3)
IN THE BAG

(HINGE TAB)* (*screwed)

12. Back in Primark, also known as inspiring price chopper? (8)
KARATEKA

([Primar]K (back in) + AKA (also known as)) inspiring RATE (price)

13. Time includes pitch about slips in Vogue, say? (6)
ERRATA

ERA (time) includes TAR< (pitch, <about)
Referring to the magazine ‘Vogue’, as ERRATA are printing errors

15. Exchanged suspicion concerning fieldwork (7)
REDOUBT

DOUBT (suspicion) + RE (concerning) exchanged

17. English, before term of Gordon Brown, produce code in EU (1-6)
E-NUMBER

E (English) before [Gordo]N (term of) + UMBER (brown)

20. Canadian novelist pair that alternately avoids crowds (6)
ATWOOD

TWO (pair) that A[v]O[i]D[s] (alternately) crowds

22. So far, carbon destroyed rose (8)
ASCENDED

AS (so far) + C (carbon) + ENDED (destroyed)

24. He sank reds in match finals in Sunday BBC snooker broadcast (8)
MCCARTHY

(MATCH + [Sunda]Y [BB]C [snooke]R (finals in))* (*broadcast)
Referring to ex-US Senator, Joseph McCarthy

26. Chatterbox quietly stops wise guys — end of debate (6)
MAGPIE

P (quietly) stops MAGI (wise guys) + [debat]E (end of)

27. Wild Canada geese shunning extremely cold part of The Med (6,3)
AEGEAN SEA

([c]ANA[d]A GEESE)* (*wild, shunning C[ol]D (extrmely))

28. Right person finally pursues press (4)
LIEN

[perso]N (finally) pursues LIE (press)

DOWN
1. Conservative party provides cover for English novelist before a night attack (8)
CAMISADO

C (conservative) + DO (party) provides cover for (AMIS (English novelist) + A)

2. Merry, so need port (6)
ODENSE

(SO NEED)* (*merry)

3. Tax I dismiss in New York City (7)
VATICAN

VAT (tax) + I + CAN (dismiss in New York, i.e. an American term for dismiss)

4. African flag hoisted on outskirts of Abidjan (8)
ERITREAN

TIRE< (flag, <hoisted) + RE (on) + A[bidja]N (outskirts of)

5. Definitely not what characterises heroes? (2,4)
NO FEAR

Cryptic definition

6. Tense first 40% leaving Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh (4)
TAKA

T (tense) + [Dh]AKA (first 40% leaving)
Capital in the sense of currency/money

8. Let Afghan itinerant turn to one side (4,1,4)
HANG A LEFT

(LET AFGHAN)* (*itinerant)

14. Husband in TV might, in audition, do as he likes? He does (9)
THELEMITE

(H (husband) in TELE (TV)) + “MIGHT” (“in audition”)

16. County with agency backing plant (8)
BEDSTRAW

BEDS (county) + (W (with) + ART (agency))< (<backing)

18. Sport that demands putting success above all else? (8)
MINIGOLF

Cryptic definition
My interpretation is that the setter is referring to the many obstacles typical of a minigolf course that must be played ‘above’/over

19. Look note up in copyright over rhythmic ballad (7)
CALYPSO

(SPY (look) + LA (note))< (<up) in C (copyright) + O (over)

21. Defunct mobile network having zero scope (6)
ORANGE

O (zero) + RANGE (scope)

23. Instrument in spacelab my cosmonaut held up (6)
CYMBAL

[space]LAB MY C[osmonaut]< (in, <held up)

25. Estate, say, cut by unknown ruler (4)
CZAR

CAR (estate, say) cut by Z (unknown)

44 comments on “Financial Times 17,478 by MONK”

  1. Tricky but brilliant puzzle from Monk so it was very rewarding to finish. Not often I can say that.
    Those I didn’t know (THELEMITE, KARATEKA, TAKA) I could parse and some I couldn’t fully parse (CALYPSO) I could guess thanks to crossing letters and the wonderful Eliza Doolittle nina. I didn’t know if there was any particular significance either but it impressed me nevertheless.
    Some lovely surfaces (IN THE BAG, MCCARTHY, ERITREAN), and a nice nod to Martin Amis. As for the sport (18D), I wasn’t sure how to take it other than be amused by the thought that there could be so much riding on such a game. Other commenters will, no doubt, have ideas.
    Thanks, Monk, for the joy and Oriel for the much-needed elucidation.

  3. Yes, Muffy. It’s a play on ‘putting success’. And I think the it’s a whole clue definition as this game is only about putting.

  5. MINGOLF
    The game is designed to improve ‘putting’ skills and only those skills. (Muffyword@2 has mentioned it already).

    Thanks, Monk and Oriel!

  7. KVa,
    It dawned on me only when pondering Oriel’s question. A cleverer clue than I already thought.

  8. When you see Monk’s name as the setter you know you’re in for an arm wrestle and this was certainly how I found things today. Five new words for me – CAMISADO, TAKA, KARATEKA (for which I incorrectly guessed “kafareka”), BEDSTRAW and THELEMITE – and I couldn’t parse ATWOOD (missed ‘crowds’ as a containment indicator) and MINIGOLF (v. clever). Once again, a thanks for the Nina which helped with several others; I looked for Pygmalion references in the grid or clues but couldn’t find any.

    Plenty to like, of which my favourite was the misdirection of the surface and the def for MCCARTHY.

    Thanks to Monk and Oriel

  10. i always look for something in a grid like this especially when its Monk.
    Spotting that helped me finish this
    Very classy as usual
    Thanks MK and Oriel

  12. The parsing involved lots of looking up of dictionaries – spoiling, or delaying the fun – too many jorums.
    THELEMITE derives from Greek thelo – I want.
    I want my pdm, and I want it now – instant gratification.
    ASCENDED – How is “AS” = “so far”?

  15. Thanks for the blog , a few new words to learn , some very clever wordplay . Azed used CAMISADe very recently, slightly different spelling, same meaning.
    KVa@14 ART is human skill and agency as opposed to nature.
    LIE=press in the sense of a heavy object on a surface.

  16. I too liked the cryptic definition for MINIGOLF , the wordplay for ATWOOD was very neat but the definition gave it away unless you know a lot of Canadian novelists .

  17. Knew MAGPIE as a thief or a hoarder – chatterbox was a new one on me,
    In Chambers and OED as a noun but Wiktionary only has it as a verb in this sense – I wonder why.
    ‘Etymology – From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer..’
    The birds do make chattering contact calls. Clever corvids.
    Thanks M&O

  20. Wiktionary concurs…
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/E_number
    …but then spoils it all by giving only two citations that both include the hyphen:
    Noun – E number (plural E numbers) – Any of a range of European abbreviations for food additives used on labels. The E number E100 represents turmeric.
    (Britain, Ireland, informal) Any such additive, often regarded as undesirable.
    2003, Deirdre Brennan; Maighread Medbh; Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Divas!:
    “I finger Padre Pio paperweights and Our Lady of Knock sticks of rock that are packed with more e–numbers than could be safe at one sitting.”
    2007, Anne Enright, The Gathering:
    “…how long it took corpses to go off these days, because everyone was so full of E–numbers and preservatives.”

  21. Quite a workout for the cryptic grey matter so I was pleased that there was such a helpful Nina and that the unknown words were all fairly clued

    Thanks to Monk and Oriel

  22. Thanks Monk for the challenge. With a nudge or two I was able to complete most of this excellent crossword but I did reveal CAMISADO and I guessed a few without full parsing. The peripheral nina helped. My top picks were ENSIGN, AEGEAN SEA, VATICAN, ERITREAN, and CALYPSO. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

  23. Nice challenge, thanks, Monk. Completely missed the Nina, which would have been helpful in solving the last few. Thanks for the blog, Oriel.

    Roz @16 – I’d forgotten Margaret Atwood was Canadian. If you asked me to name a Canadian novelist, the first one that would come to mind is the brilliant Robertson Davies.

  25. I started the puzzle, but it was apparent it was going to take more time than I had available, so I abandoned ship.

    I am not sure what led FrankieG @13 to raise the etymology of karate, but I do speak Japanese and I can confirm that in Japanese the individual letters mean “empty” and “hand”. I do not know how the Chinese write it – but suspect it might be the same.

  27. Widdersbel@24 I would agree until recent years but Margaret Atwood has become very well known due to the TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” .

  28. Martyn@26 – From my link@13:
    ‘Karate was originally written as “Chinese hand” (??, literally “Tang dynasty hand”) in kanji. It was changed to a homophone meaning empty hand (??) in 1935 … Sino-Japanese relations have never been very good and especially at the time of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, referring to the Chinese origins of karate was considered politically incorrect.’
    I doubt the kanji characters will survive posting.

  29. Thanks FrankieG@26. I confess I did not read the link until now, and it is interesting. The usual pronunciation of that chinese / tang character is tou, so it seems odd to call it a homophone. But when it comes to pronouncing Japanese names, sometimes it seems anything goes.

    Apologies to the others for this rather esoteric discussion.

  30. As ever a challenge from Monk and we love it……but as ever quibbles.

    20A has a nice surface but should read “…..pair that crowds avoids alternately”?

    Agree with KVa. “Press = Lie” and “Agency = Art” are on the edge

    But there will always be quibbles!

  31. Many thanks to Oriel for a super blog, and to all who’ve taken the time to comment. Couple of quibbles to answer.

    FrankieG@12: most (I suspect all) setters use Wiki to confirm info re proper-noun answers. Collins and Chambers both have (1,6) whereas ODE and SOED have (1-6), as do many citations. Toss of a coin!

    Piratewitch@31: wordplay of the suggested form “…..pair that crowds avoids alternately” at 20A yields AOD in TWO, whereas TWO in AOD was required; ‘crowds’ is a containment, not insertion, indicator. Also, Chambers has both lie, v.intr. = press and art = [human skill and] agency, so both clues are well away from the edge as it’s standard practice to use partial definitions to maximise misleading aspects of surface readings.

    Interesting debate re karate 😉

  32. astonished to have finished this one without looking anything up! kicking myself for not seeing the nina until the end. agree with Diane and WordPlodder that MCCARTHY and MINIGOLF were standouts

  33. Hi, Monk@32 – I wasn’t objecting to “E-Number”(1-6), just pointing out that the Wikis had plumped for “E Number”(1,6), but then apparently been unable to find any citations without the hyphen.
    My concise OED (2006) has ‘E abbrev. … 3 denoting products, in particular food additives, which comply with EU regulations. See also E-number.’
    And to do that, you have to leaf forward through 28 pages, to find it between enucleate and enumerable, as if the hyphen were not there.
    Not only a fudge, but also very annoying.
    In ASCENDED – How is “AS” = “so far”?

  35. A stiff challenge but finished with the aid of the nina and checking in Chambers to confirm a number of guesses.
    Thanks, Monk and Oriel.

  36. Piratewitch@31: having mulled it over(night), I think we’re both right 😀 … Though this page at a very well-respected online resource has ‘crowds‘ as only a containment indicator, two definitions of crowd (vt) in Chambers are to fill by pressing or driving together and to compress, which respectively imply both insertion and containment. I’ll contact the Clue Clinic later to check their view.

  37. Monk@35 – Yes, My Chambers has a long list of words without citations for ‘as adv.’ including ‘so far’.
    I can’t think of a situation where ‘so far’ could mean the same as ‘as’. Can you?
    My OED just says ‘ adv. used in comparisons to refer to the extent or degree of something. Used to emphasize an amount’

  38. It is early in the list of definitions in Chambers but hard to think of usage.
    Perhaps – as of last week …

  40. Monk@37

    Really hope you didn’t have a sleepless night over this ?and thanks so much for coming back. Our comment was probably clumsy and didn’t mean to infer your construction didn’t work. Thank you for all your crosswords which we really appreciate.

  41. FrankieG@37: how about when preceding a past participle, e.g. “the evidence as presented” and “the evidence so far presented”. Sure, they’re subtly different; but that can be said of 1000s of thesaurus entries (which is why, for the most part, setters stick to dictionary definitions rather than thesaurus synonyms).

    Piratewitch@41: no problems. It’s through constructive discussions on detailed feedback that everyone benefits.

  42. Are they subtly different or just different? I’d take the ‘the evidence as presented’ to mean ‘the evidence in the manner that it has been presented’, and ‘the evidence so far presented’ to mean ‘the evidence presented up to this point’.
    I have a different attitude towards dictionary definitions depending on whether I’m solving dailies or barred puzzles. A barred puzzle is a dictionary exercise; you work out the unlikely answer and find confirmation in the dictionary. Finding the match is pleasing in itself. It doesn’t matter if sometimes you don’t understand the definition. In a daily, dictionaries are not (should not be) needed much. Learning new words is fine, but where the setter’s just using the dictionary as a justification for something that apparently no one, even he/she understands, it can be annoying.

  43. Thanks again Monk for setting stellar crosswords. It took me a few years to reach the level where I can solve most of your well-crafted clues and I’m happy for that. Regarding the protracted “as=so far” discussion — if that’s the biggest nit solvers can pick you’re doing just fine.

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