We found this a relatively straightforward work-out for a Thursday puzzle.
The clueing was all very fair, with good surface readings, but we did need some assistance to check some unusual definitions and words we have never come across before, e.g in 12A, 2D, 4D and 23D. The answers were, however, all clear from the wordplay.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Navy clubs, two different ones, ousting English group | |
| FLEETWOOD MAC | FLEET (navy) + WOOD (golf club) + MAC(e) (another club) without or ‘ousting’ E (English) = group – one of our all-time favourites – we used to follow them round the country in the late 60s when they were a blues band, before they hit the really big time! | |
| 9 | World-class footballer, one in charge of expected champion | |
| MESSIANIC | MESSI (Lionel, world-class Argentine footballer) + AN (one) + IC (in charge) = expected champion. Despite our total lack of interest in football, even we had heard of this player! | |
| 10 | Service break | |
| R AND R | A slang term for ‘Rest AND Relaxation’ (or recuperation, or recreation) originally used by the US military services for a break from normal duties. | |
| 11 | Out-and-out maniac losing head | |
| UTTER | (n)UTTER (maniac losing the first letter or ‘head’) = out-and-out | |
| 12 | Trap oar blade that’s rubbish | |
| MOUTHWASH | MOUTH (trap) + WASH (oar blade) = rubbish. We’d not heard of ‘wash’ as an oar blade, nor ‘mouthwash’ as rubbish before – we learn something every day!! | |
| 13 | Town’s sympathetic woman in fashion | |
| TAUNTON | AUNT (sympathetic person, as in ‘agony aunt’) in TON (fashion – we’ve only ever come across this in crosswords!) = town | |
| 15 | Unnamed swearing loony listens in furtively | |
| EARWIGS | Anagram of SWEARI(n)G without ‘n’ (‘unnamed’) – anagrind is ‘loony’ + listens in furtively | |
| 17 | Czech Republic party with branch outside eastern empire | |
| CZARDOM | CZ (Czech Republic) + DO (party) with ARM (branch) outside = eastern empire | |
| 19 | Brief period in which bad weather stops coach | |
| TRAINER | TER(m) (period with last letter omitted, or ‘brief’) around or ‘stopping’ RAIN (bad weather) = coach | |
| 20 | Being sixteen, happy and extremely carefree | |
| EXISTENCE | Anagram of SIXTEEN (anagrind is ‘happy’) + C(arefre)E (first and last letters, or ‘extremes’) = being | |
| 22 | Cheer a doctor before surgical procedure | |
| WHOOP | WHO (Doctor – as in the TV series) + OP (surgical procedure) = cheer | |
| 24 | Means of fixing the fastest-ever human | |
| U-BOLT | Double definition – a U-BOLT is a U-shaped bolt used for fixing tubes etc, and U(sain) BOLT is the fastest ever human (if measured over 100 or 200m!) | |
| 25 | Cross between nearly all denominations | |
| INTERSECT | An INTER SECT meeting would be between various denominations = cross | |
| 26 | Food guide discovered in abridged format | |
| SHEPHERDS PIE | SHEPHERD (guide) + SPIE(d) (discovered with last letter omitted, or ‘in abridged format’) = food | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Reportedly strip a composer | |
| LISZT | A homonym (‘reportedly’) of LIST, which according to Chambers can be a ‘strip’ of selvage = composer | |
| 3 | Record company bars head of department that’s gone away | |
| EMIGRATED | EMI (record company) + GRATE (bars) + D (head, or first letter of Department) = gone away | |
| 4 | Flier need to reach FBI operative | |
| WINGMAN | WIN (reach) + G-MAN (FBI operative) = flier (not a term we’d come across before!) | |
| 5 | Extremes of climate varied with cloud cover | |
| OCCLUDE | Anagram of C(limat)E (‘extremes’) & CLOUD (anagrind is ‘varied’) = cover | |
| 6 | Change narcotic that’s repeatedly cut | |
| MORPH | MORPH(ine) (‘narcotic, repeatedly cut’ by removal of the last three letters) = change | |
| 7 | Separately go in to check disease | |
| CONTAGION | G and O separately inserted into CONTAIN (check) = disease | |
| 8 | Drunken actor, he trips into this? | |
| ORCHESTRA PIT | Anagram of ACTOR HE TRIPS (anagrind is ‘drunken’) = somewhere a drunken actor on stage might fall into if he tripped | |
| 9 | It stops a walrus getting wet | |
| MOUSTACHE CUP | Cryptic definition – a walrus is a type of moustache, and a moustache cup is partly covered to prevent the contents getting the moustache wet. Bert once had a pretty bushy moustache (almost a walrus!), but never made use of one of these – it came in handy for getting seconds of the soup course! | |
| 14 | Acting together, peacekeepers quelling hostility about nothing | |
| UNANIMOUS | UN (peacekeepers, the United Nations) + ANIMUS (hostility) around O (nothing) = acting together | |
| 16 | One artist holding another back finally gets towards the back | |
| REARWARDS | DRAWER (artist) around, or ‘holding’ RA (another artist) reversed or ‘back’ + (get)S (last or ‘final’ letter) = towards the back | |
| 18 | Unfeminine minute woman gains his fancy | |
| MANNISH | M (minute) + ANN (woman) + anagram of HIS (anagrind is ‘fancy’) = unfeminine | |
| 19 | One may follow another dainty clipped bird | |
| TWEETER | TWEE (dainty) + TER(n) (bird, with the last letter omitted or ‘clipped’) = a tweeter may follow tweeters on Twitter. (‘Twits’ would be a more appropriate term in our opinion!) | |
| 21 | At last, Hewitt wears hat for championship | |
| TITLE | Hewit(T) (last letter) in TILE (hat) = championship | |
| 23 | Sports champion pulled up in strike zone | |
| OZEKI | Reversed or ‘pulled up’ in (str)IKE ZO(ne) = the highest titleholder rank in Sumo wrestling – needless to say, we had to check this one out!! | |
Where is everyone (anyone?) as you say not too bad for a Monk, was struggling for a while but there was a chain reaction of clues falling with help from each other.
Monk often has some sort of device to be seen but other than the edges all being 9,3 can’t see one.
Thanks B&J
Thanks for the comment flashling – we’re pleased that there is at least one other person out there!
Bit of tumbleweed blowing through here today, which is a pity, since this was a really enjoyable puzzle from Monk, who we don’t see terribly often these days. Certainly not as hard a some of his previous offerings, but plenty to enjoy. TWEETER and SHEPHERDS PIE were ones that did the business today.
Judging by his photo in the ‘setters’ link above, Monk has a fine moustache of his own, so perhaps he is the proud owner of a 9dn. Whatever, thank you to him for the puzzle.
Thanks B&J and Monk. I looked for a theme/Nina too but have seen nothing so far – noticed a few Zs all right. Pleasing puzzle, not particularly hard. BTW, I read INTERSECT as definition = cross between = inter and nearly all denominations = sects with last letter s off.
Thanks nmsindy – we think your parsing of 25ac is more likely.
Thanks for blog and comments. Very uninspired “theme”: this was annotated Monk-93-for-Indie, ergo (9,3) in all perimetric long answers. Parsing at 25ac is [ inter- = between ] + [ sect(s) = nearly all denominations ], i.e. a sneaky suppression of the hyphen. Never owned a 9dn in my life, and once gave a post-lunch lecture with an entire pea nesting in my (then-huge) tache: for almost an hour I wondered how differential equations could be so hilarious to otherwise-stoic students.
Thanks Monk – only wish you had photographic evidence to add to the comment! Joyce remembers (not too fondly) her assignment on the solution of partial differential equations – IF she remembers the title correctly!!
B&J@7: title is spot on. Whenever I see a blog by PeeDee, my autopilot suggest “partial derivative“. How could J not be fond of PDEs? They describe every aspect (mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, financial, technical, …) of the world around us!
I can’t remember mine being like that! Do they also describe loss of memory? – Bert says interest as well but I beg to differ!