A tricky but brilliant puzzle by Monk.
Lovely to see Monk back so soon with another very enjoyable puzzle. We also have another reference to a Mitchell and Webb comedy sketch (we had That’s Numberwang last time we saw Monk) – you can watch the fun Chip & Pin / Fish & Cushion video here. Thanks very much Monk!
HAD (bore) + DOCKS (wharves)
(TOY (sport) in OK (fine))< (<revolutionary)
GNAT< (fly, <back) having absorbed W (western)
AIR (make public) + HEADS (where jack is likely to go)
B (black) + R (run) + R (again) + R (and again)
STEPS (flight) holding BY (times) + PET< (paddy, <upset)
CHIP (shot) + AND (even if) + PIN (secure)
WIL[l]Y (plonker, out of L (line))
[b]AR[s] [b]ES[t] (essentially)
(WITS I NEVER)* (*bothered)
(PEG SO SO)* (*angry) about BUM (bad)
EGO (I) will be found on L (large)
TRUS[s] (former PM, mostly) limited by MIST (dimness)
PH ONE (strong acid may score this)
[s]HAM LA[wyer]< (holds, <over)
(ANGRILY)* (*playing) biting [mar]E (tail)
[d]AFTER (increasingly weak-minded, missing D (daughter))
(SHIP + A (advanced) + DRAG)* (*waves)
CS (example of Lewis) + G[un] (initially seen) + AS
“CHEZ PUP” (at the home of conceited youth, “in audition”)
K (king) riding ARAB (horse) + IN (wearing) + ER (Queen’s monogram)
O (old) + NER[d]S (geeks, ousting D (Germany, i.e. Deutschland))
ODD + FELLOW (even + lady, in opposition)
HAR[d] (tough, curt) + MONICA (female)
(B[at]H (empty) + URINALS)* (*dealt with)
(L + R (both hands, left + right) in HIP (trendy)), WOOL (fleece) gloves
[a]N[t] (wingless) bumped by MOTH (winged insect) in TINY (very small)
I.e. in TINY: N becomes MOTH
SUM (chief points) across H[u]T (vacated)
APES< (primates, <raised) around I (India, Nato alphabet)
GLEN (depression) + N (new)
John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in 1962
This was the wrong puzzle for me. I had never heard of Mitchell and Webb let alone their sketches. I suppose AIRHEADS are a pop group who perform at Reading. I did not even know about Willy and plonker so did not finish.
Thanks to Monk for a devilish puzzle and to Oriel for his usual well- informed blog.
Thanks for the blog, very good set of intricate clues, TIMOTHY was my favourite.
SM@1 AIRHEADS and berks are just terms for foolish people.
Quite a few fake capitals here which I am not fond of, also Paddy=pet , surely we have gone beyond stereotypes of Irish people.
I was close but no cigar. I had CARABINER instead of KARABINER which made KYOTO impossible-its the order you solve in sometimes that helps or hinders.Stupidly had DISTRUST instead of MISTRUST although that didnt ruin it.
Thought there could be a connection between CUSHION and ODDFELLOW
But i wasnt aware of the theme mentioned
Always enjoy a Monk even if I slip up a bit(at least i didnt let two saveable goals in!)
Bring back Ramsdale.
Thanks for blog and thanks Monk
Thanks Monk and Oriel
10ac (AIRHEADS): Further to Roz@3 and 4, this is a false capital in Berks, the definition being the slang term for a fool or airhead. The slang is abbreviated rhyming slang Berkeley or Berkshire hunt, and I had better not say what “hunt” rhymes with.
26ac: buzz vt to make a telephone call to (inf) from Chambers 2016. Collins 2023 has a similar definition, also marked informal.
2dn: after is defined as “concerning” in Chambers and Collins, the latter of which gives the helpful example “to enquire after someone’s health“.
7dn: oner for expert is given directly in Chambers , and in my view fits to “an outstanding person or thing” as given in Collins .
19dn: timothy short for timothy grass is in both of the dictionaries mentioned earlier.
I finished this, and even managed to stumble upon and watch the theme sketch for once. (Meh–is that one of those “comedy classics”? It was nothing that I would have seen in the US, although I am acquainted with David Mitchell from quiz shows.) I could not quite parse STEP BY STEP, not knowing the pet = paddy reference. My note-to-self at the top was “pretty hard.” Certainly a guess-then-parse solve for me.
Peter@8: I also do not use a dictionary when solving FT puzzles – I do for Azed, when it is expected and almost essential. Of the words mentioned in comment 6, I took TIMOTHY on trust when solving, but knew the rest. For paddy=pet, they are both terms for a fit of anger.
Thanks Roz and Pelham Barton. I never knew the derivation of berk. Doubt it will be in Chambers.
SM@11: The derivation of berk is given explicitly in Chambers, and also in Collins, ODE, SOED, and – I am sure – others. It is always amusing to hear someone with a posh voice use the word in obvious ignorance of its origins. It is even more fun when circumstances give me the chance to tell them.
Very enjoyable puzzle today. Thanks Monk and of course Oriel for the blog.
25A is COTD for me with the surface referencing what Cummings said about Boris at the Covid inquiry. A genuine LOL moment.
Pelham Barton@12, you are quite right . This term dates back to the 1930s and was not in my Shorter OED of 1944.
Peter @7 paddy is an old-fashioned term for a strop or tantrum aka a pet. I think it’s derived from the stereotypical view that Irish people were volatile etc. and hence considered offensive by many people
Great crossword though
I meant the term pet is considered offensive, not the Irish!!
At the rate I was solving this crossword it would have taken me all week to complete so I abandoned ship with more than a few blanks. I still want to register my delight with clues such as LEGO, PHONE, ODDFELLOW, NAILBRUSH, TIMOTHY, SEPIA, and GLENN. The theme was lost on me but I’m not complaining. Thanks to both.
[SM@14: Of course some words were considered literally unprintable more recently than 1944. Whenever I see a web page with a link to a “printable version”, the thought that comes first to my mind is that it is a version of the page with all the swearwords removed.]
I am always relieved when I can’t do a puzzle to find that it’s not me being stupid, but that the puzzle is way beyond my pay grade. I complete or almost complete the Guardian and FT puzzle every day; then there are days like this that are total non-starters.
Tony@17 – I am going to surprise you. I actually enjoyed this, and I only started due to your high recommendations of Monk. I sort of finished (meaning I needed a word searcher to get the unknowable SCHTUM).
My favourites were OODFELLOW, HARMONICA (I think mainly because I know a HARd MONICA, I still think expecting us to conjure up “MONICA” on the prompt of “female” is unfair), and NAILBRUSH. And there was a lot of variety in the cluing, which I also appreciated.
There were still several things that I did not like. So, Tony, do not count me a Monk fan yet. The very large number of unknown words is a major irritant, and so is some of the unnecessarily complicated parsing. Some of this was caused by a theme I had no hope of knowing, not living in UK, and some I am sure is because it is Monk. And there was one howling mistake that no-one has picked up yet. CHIP AND PIN is not a payment system – it is a method for authenticating a card and verifying a cardholder within a payment system.
Anyway, thanks to Monk for the entertainment. And thanks to Oriel for an excellent blog of a tricky puzzle.
Thanks Oriel and Monk.
Yes, it was hard, top half esp.
Liked it though.
Thanks to Pelham Barton@6 for throwing more light on the definitions; to Oriel for parsing a couple – ODDFELLOW & AIRHEADS.
Yes, saw the nina towards the end, and it helped with NE.
PHONE is top fav.
I thought this was brilliant, even though I didn’t finish because I spelt Karabiner incorrectly and therefore missed Kyoto.
It was hard work, but very fair. Unlike two crosswords in particular which I have strongly criticised in the last few weeks. The clueing was always honest, if sometimes devilish. Many clues brought, an “aaaah” as the penny dropped. Big ticks included, Whirlpool, Phone, Lego, Interviews Timothy and Airheads.
One quibble. Surely the plural of Haddock is Haddock. No S required. Goes for nearly all Fish. I write as a fisherman. My friends would laugh at me if I said I caught 15 Haddocks today, just as they would, if I said I landed eight salmons.
Thank you for the marvellous blog.
Moly @ 22 While quite accepting your point about fish plurals it isn’t absolute.
eg There are several trouts – brown, rainbow and salmon to name but three.
1ac: SOED 2007 and ODE 2010 both say “Pl. same” for haddock. Collins 2023 explicitly states “pl -docks or -dock“. Chambers 2016 gives nothing explicit that I could see.
The above paragraph contains a number of factual statements about what various dictionaries actually say. My opinion has always been that fairness to setters means that anything given in any of those dictionaries can be considered valid.
Thanks, Simon @ 23.
I disagree with your comment about “trouts”. Brown trout, rainbow, trout and salmon are all members of the salmonid family. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonidae
I don’t think you’d ever refer to the most trouts or salmons.
You could, I suppose say that they were all types of salmon or types of trout. You would not say they were closely related types of salmons or the some sort of trouts.
I’m struggling to think of when you’d ever refer to multiple Fish with an S at the end.
Sharks are a menace to swimmers off the Australian coast
Shoals of salmon feed on small crustacea off the coast of Greenland.
Thanks PB @ 24. Interesting and appreciated.
I will definitely continue to refer to multiple Fish in the singular
Very many thanks to Oriel for a super blog, and lest we forget Pelham Barton who, as if by every setter’s dream, steadfastly and politely points out the factual confirmed sources that address so many of the queries. Thanks, too, to all bloggers who took the time to solve this and to comment.
One outstanding query re the “howling mistake” raised by Martyn@20. Chambers’ definition of CHIP AND PIN opens with “A system of payment using a credit or debit card …”, and standard practice has setters adhering to reputable sources, thereby sparing both editor and setter of any subsequent haddocks regarding justification 😉 .
Martyn @20: Stick with Monk. Although I seldom complete one of his crosswords, there aren’t many setters who can incorporate such intricate wordplay in such readable surfaces.
Moly @22: I’ll have a pizza with anchovies after I finish my snack of crackers with sardines!
Monk@27: Thank you for your kind words. I loved the way you ended your comment!
Thanks, Tony @28. I agree with anchovies and sardines and various other Fishes. But I think most of them do not have an S in the plural. At least, not where I come from.
If I went to a restaurant and ordered several anchovy and several haddock, I would say “can I please have two plates of anchovies and two plates of haddock”. I would not say “two plates of haddocks”
Nor would I say trouts, salmons, perches, basses or whitebaits., etc.
By contrast, I would order half a dozen eels
Fascinating
Biggest thanks of all to Monk@27 for a fantastic crossword and his Haddocks comment.
Thanks Monk @27 for the justification for CHIP AND PIN. I agree that you have a good source on which to base your clue. Dare I say it, it nturns out that Chambers is incorrect in this case.
Don’t think one needed the theme to solve? It wouldn’t have helped me with HADDOCKS, don’t associate “bore” with HAD… no real argument with the rest. Finally found out what ODDFELLOW means. Result!
Thanks Monk n Oriel
Undrell@33 re 1ac: A woman bore/had a child.
Thank you again, PB: you are hereby awarded the setters’ DSO — Definition-Settlement Officer 😉
Thanks again Monk@35. I think it works really well when the bloggers mainly just indicate which words of the clue correspond to the different parts of the answer, with just a bit of extra detail – otherwise the blogs would become uncomfortably long. I am then happy to fill in additional details as required. I think the current team of FT bloggers are as good as any set we have had in the time I have been using this site.
I meant to start the second sentence of comment 36 with something like “I think it works really well when, as at present, the bloggers …”