Financial Times 17,766 by MONK

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Thanks to Monk for this morning’s challenge.

I must say I found this fairly tough going.

 

We have four mirrored pairs of words – one in each corner. A nice touch!

I always admire a good anagram, and Monk has included a few here.

Despite me being a bit slow to solve and parse this morning, I did enjoy the puzzle overall and so many thanks to Monk!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Obscure deans regularly plugging the cloth? (5)
DENIM

DIM (obscure); [d]E[a]N[s] (regularly) plugging

4. Edge round large cutting diverts surplus channels (9)
SPILLWAYS

(LIP< (edge, <round) + L (large)) cutting SWAYS (diverts)

9. Ground mostly taken aback by bottom team (7)
ARSENAL

LAN[d]< (ground, mostly, <taken aback) by ARSE (bottom)

10. We connect material separated by some distance (7)
LINKMEN

LINEN (material) separated by KM (some distance)

11. Narratives ceased, not edited (9)
ANECDOTES

(CEASED NOT)* (*edited)

12. Dwarf antelopes initially seen twice around Oxford, say (5)
SUNIS

S[een] (initially) twice around UNI (Oxford, say)

13. Tragedy in court as nudist collapses (5,10)
TITUS ANDRONICUS

(IN COURT AS NUDIST)* (*collapses)

16. Rosiest memories about property of related compositions? (15)
STEREOISOMERISM

(ROSIEST MEMORIES)* (*about)

19. Appears to meet with both sides in misunderstandings (5)
SEEMS

SEE (to meet) with M[isunderstanding]S (both sides in)

20. Never contented, fashionable composer grabs a bit of a kip (9)
INSATIATE

IN (fashionable) + SATIE (composer) grabs A + T (bit of a kip)

I assume the setter means T (ton) for 1000 pounds (a kip)

22. Ex dons drop, retiring in former ECB (7)

EMERITI

TIRE< (drop, <retiring) in EMI (former ECB)

The European Monetary Institute was a predecessor of the European Central Bank

23. Fuel company’s carrying through exemptions (7)
ESSOINS

ESSO’S (fuel company’s) carrying IN (through)

24. Caught killers with whom Bob might go on the run? (9)
SLEIGHERS

“SLAYERS” (killers, “caught”)

25. Resistance suppressed by state’s strength (5)
ASSET

ASSE[r]T (state, R (resistance) suppressed)

DOWN
1. Maiden sat altering sequins (9)
DIAMANTES

(MAIDEN SAT)* (*altering)

2. It’s easy these days to interlink minimally with site (2,5)
NO SWEAT

NOW (these days) to interlink minimally with SEAT (site)

3. Picked up object and laid explosives (5)
MINED

“MIND” (object, “picked up”)

4. Share four vast bottles to heavily drink, for one (5,10)
SPLIT INFINITIVE

SPLIT (share) + IV (four); INFINITE (vast) bottles

5. Difficult head pressing Truss angrily about debt shows renown (15)
ILLUSTRIOUSNESS

ILL (difficult) + NESS (head) pressing (TRUSS* (*angrily) about IOU (debt))

6. New song in church after third part of Auld Lang Syne? (4,5)
LONG SINCE

(SONG* (*new) + IN + CE (church)) after [au]L[d] (third part of)

7. Register millions held by Lord Sugar on account (7)
ALMANAC

M (millions) held by ALAN (Lord Sugar) on AC (account)

8. Cavity resin usually binds (5)
SINUS

[re]SIN US[ually] (binds)

14. Snuff tin, at first sight Edwardian, with broken hinges (9)
SNEESHING

SN (tin, chemical symbol) + E[dwardian] (at first sight) with HINGES* (*broken)

15. Turn over plant at end of season (9)
SUMMERSET

SET (plant) at end of SUMMER (season)

17. West Country city briefly hosts extremely engaging scriptural interpreter (7)
EXEGETE

EXETE[r] (West country city, briefly) hosts E[ngagin]G (extremely)

18. Type of socialist that’s not well adjusted (7)
ITALICS

[so]CIALIST* (that’s not SO (well), *adjusted)

19. Ducks last of questions on Early English in manuscript (5)
SMEES

[question]S (last of) on (EE (early English) in MS (manuscript))

21. Old way to save prisoner spared by noble Italian (5)
TESSA

[con]TESSA (noble Italian, CON (prisoner) spared)

A TESSA is a Tax Exempt Special Savings Account

25 comments on “Financial Times 17,766 by MONK”

  1. I made heavy going of this and needed the check button and lots of crossers to complete with several NHO solutions.

    Titus Andronicus alone was worth the entry fee though. What a brilliant spot.

    Thanks both.

  2. INSATIATE
    It could be this:
    kip
    the standard monetary unit of Laos, divided into 100 at
    at is a bit of a kip

  3. Almost word for word, what Blah said. No hope of identifying STEROISOMERISM or ESSOINS. Somehow managed to get SNEESHING, SUMMERSET and EXEGETE, all of which were nho. Did not spot the deletion in ITALICS which is pretty tough. No quarter being given to solvers whatsoever.

    I have come across the currency of Laos before and parsed kip/at in the same way as KVa (though I did need to look it up to confirm my vague recollection)

    Thanks Monk and Oriel

  4. This was hard. The four long solutions crossing in the center are remarkable. I did not register the mirror words, but now the obscure words make more sense. I needed a word finder to confirm ESSOINS and SNEESHING–completely new to me.

    I agree with KVa@2 on INSATIATE.

    I had LINEMEN for 10A, in the sense of telephone linemen (as in Wichita Lineman), which works the same way, with the em space for “some distance.” I don’t think that I have ever seen “linkman” used in the US, so I assume that is a UK-thing.

  5. Now that I think about it, I think the corner words are supposed to illustrate STEREOISOMERISM.

  6. As Monk is among the toughest setters here, any gift is welcome such as the corner constructions which helped with one obscurity, at least (12A)! As for 16A, it was fortunate that it was a clear anagram. However, although I was on the right lines with 15d, I didn’t know this version of ‘somersault’ while 14d was a partial guess combining snuffle, sneeze and hinges!
    There was certainly a sense of satisfaction in completing this – and I suspect there may be more going on – but I’m not ashamed to admit that I was more than usually thankful for Oriel’s blog!
    Cheers also to Monk.

  7. Gave in on the SE quadrant and, looking at the answers, am glad I did. Funnily I wondered if “summerset” could mean the end of summer but couldn’t fit it in with ‘turn over plant’ and never looked it up. As others, I vaguely recalled a kip being a number of ats but only on reading the blog since I never though of INSATIATE.

  8. The four long ones were helpful (with help from an anagram finder for the two across ones) but I really struggled with the bottom half which contained several words I hadn’t heard of – resorted to revealing a few letters and much use of word finder.

    And yet again I forgot that “caught” can indicate a homophone

    Loved SPLIT INFINITY, INDUSTRIOUSNESS

    Thanks Monk and Oriel (needed your help parsing a few)

  9. Thanks Monk and Oriel. Strangely, I saw the paired words in the corners as anagrams, but did not notice that they were exact reversals. Quite a few answers needed guessing, but I got them all right from the wordplay except 10ac, where I too had LINEMEN. I would say that is a valid alternative, although LINKMEN is better. In response to Cineraria@4, ODE 2010 marks linkman as British, but Chambers and Collins do not: Chambers has link man (in the relevant sense) as two words.

    20ac: I could accept that “kip = 100 at” might be too obscure for the other papers, but it must be all right for the Financial Times.

  10. Thanks for the blog, very interesting puzzle , I did not get so many cold-solving but the grid was very helpful, a bit like Azed. Every first letter is checked and more than half checked for each answer. I found the wordplay very fair for more obscure entries.
    LINEMEN does seem to be valid, EM is exametre a very large distance , so “some” distance in the large sense. I slightly prefer LINKMEN for the connect. I wonder what the paper will say tomorrow.

  11. Thanks Monk and Oriel

    Another LINEMEN here, which the app rejected on checking. Fair enough, LINKMEN is indeed better.

    What did irritate me when checking, though, was when it rejected the E in DIAMANTES, insisting that it should be É. I think that is out of order!

  12. Thank you for the blog. Like Hovis, I gave up on the SE, despite getting INSATIATE. I’d forgotten about TESSAs and was trying to fit OHM into 25A. I knew about LINKMEN (from Heyer) but used LINEMEN for exactly the same reason as Cineraria@4. There were a lot of NHOs for me altho I did spot the pairs at NE and SW, which saved me from feeling totally dumb. I didn’t realise Monk is considered difficult (I’m newish to the FT) so I’m glad I came here, that too made me feel a bit better. Thank you all.

  13. 1D The online edition requires DIAMANTÉS to be entered with an accent. Plain old E will not do. Seems hard as the fodder was E not É

  14. Stephen @13: yes, I had that experience too. Distinctly disgruntling. To be told the grid has a mistake, to see it’s the E of DIAMANTES, to scratch head and press Reveal and to be presented with the same E with an accent … I swear the grid actually looked smug when it did that!

  15. I started this during my commute. The NW corner went in quite quickly, but I was labouring so hard by the time I got to my stop that I completely missed it, and had to turn around and come back.

    I noticed DENIM and MINED at the beginning, but I did not think to look in the other corners and completely missed those mirror clues. I echo the praise for the magnificent TITUS ANDRONICUS anagram. I also love a good anagram and, as Oriel noted, there were several other good ones too. And I am in the LINKMEN camp. I solved that clue by parsing it similar to Oriel. I had and still have no idea what a linkman does.

    Lately we have had a run of puzzles that succeeded in avoiding obscure words. Monk broke that record with a vengeance, an aspect of the puzzle I did not like along with several serpentine charades.and difficult clues. This meant too many of my answers were guesses with parsing coming later (in some cases when I read the blog). All in all, I felt a sense of relief that it was over when I wrote in the last answer.

    Thanks Monk and thanks Oriel for a great blog of a difficult puzzle

  16. Normally I enjoy Monk but this was too far beyond my orbit to be satisfying. Thanks Oriel for explaining what I found inexplicable.

  17. Thanks Oriel and Monk.
    Excellent.
    Noticed SMEES, SEEMS and SUNIS, SINUS but did dot go further. My loss.
    Couple of new words.
    SPLIT INFINITIVE top fav.

  18. I’m another who tried LINEMEN, thinking em dashes, and with the earworm of Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman (1968) sung by Glen Campbell. I think it’s just as good.
    To me LINKMEN are midfield footballers, playing for clubs such as, to pick one purely at random, ARSENAL. 😉

  21. I don’t normally flaunt my ignorance and I like learning new words, but 9 jorums in one puzzle makes for an insatiate experience. Of the 9 I managed to solve 7 from wordplay and dictionary help but two escaped me – 16a STEREO… and 23a ESSOINS. They belong to a subset of jorum that I call NIAMYs – never in a million years.

    I had 7 crossers for 16d but 6 were vowels, which made the anagram impossible for an unknown word.

    I was another LINEMAN at 10a, and I am pleased to be in the ILLUSTRIOUS company of Cineraria @4, Pelham Barton @9, Roz@10, and FrankieG @18. That’s more than good enough for me.

    I had no trouble with 24a SLEIGHERS – my favourite clue for the surface and wordplay – but I don’t like the word (for reasons I can’t explain).

    Thanks Monk for the crossword, and Oriel and the SOED for the much-needed parsing help.

    And thanks FrankieG @20 for the F&S link. It made me get my old ATDOAH LP out for another listen.

  22. I’m for lineman. WHATSMORE, his job involves joining broken electric cables (i.e.”we connect”). A linkman (Google spell checker doesn’t even like the word) is a TV worker. Like others I failed in the SE corner, only getting the letters from 5d and 16a. I still don’t get “summerset” and NHO “sessions”.

  23. 15dn in response to John@22: This was one of the words that I put in from wordplay and checked letters alone and proved to be right. I always solve FT puzzles without aids but look things up afterwards. Collins 2023 gives summerset as a variant form of somersault. Chambers 2016 says “same as somersault“.

  24. Chalk up another for LINEMEN. I found this to be one of the least enjoyable puzzles I have seen in a long time. The corner pieces were really the only parts I enjoyed. I assume to make the corner pieces work Monk had to go with some obscure words, but I would have preferred a more accessible puzzle without the corner creativity.

  25. Well it is MONK, so I was more startled by the NW corner going in smoothly and at speed, than the inevitable stone wall encountered in the SE. I feel only a consummate polymath could encompass all the GK needed to confidently fill in the grid without recourse to an aid or 2, I happily used a dictionary to confirm ESSOINS, and the duck… I initially went LINEMEN but not unhappy with KM for EM.. mildly peeved by the rather snotty requirement of an acute accent on that E… I always read it as Titus and Ronicus the famous double act, so I had a chuckle at one point at least.. I’d like to think I’ll remember the Laos currency, but I remain doubtful..
    Tough n not quick but better than most MONK’S..
    Thanks MONK n Oriel

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