Is it my imagination or are we seeing more of Monk than recently? If so, that’s a thoroughly good thing, despite my misgivings about one or two clues, which are given in the blog and will no doubt be shown to be the result of my incompetence rather than that of Monk.
As you might expect I can see little, but when I saw ‘John Mac’ across the middle row of unches I thought that it was probably some private thing that Monk has done and so I looked no further.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Crash diets often seem stressful to begin with (4)
DOSS
d{iets} o{ften} s{eem} s{tressful}
4 You could pick one pair of fools in pub outside university (4,6)
BASS GUITAR
b(ass g(u)it)ar
9 Perhaps tin contains a fish bone (10)
METACARPAL
met(a carp)al — ‘perhaps tin’ is ‘metal’
10 Level of resistance/ that once led to charges being dropped (4)
OHMS
2 defs — the units that are used to measure electrical resistance, and OHMS or On Her/His Majesty’s Service — not sure about the charges being dropped: does it refer to the fact that this once caused the law enforcement people to hold back, or that it meant that you could send letters free of charge?
11 What might involve kippers in two ways (3,3,9)
BED AND BREAKFAST
If you spend a night in a bed & breakfast you will probably sleep, i.e. be a kipper, and then the next morning for breakfast may well eat kippers
12 Short old king succeeded to find company outside (8)
ALFRESCO
Alfre{d} s co
14 Artist, mostly screwed up (5)
ASTIR
I’m not sure how this works: it is evidently a straightforward anagram of Artis{t}, and the definition looks like ‘screwed up’, but ‘screwed up’ is also the anagram indicator; and the whole clue doesn’t serve as a definition of ‘astir’, so it isn’t an &lit. — so what’s happening here?
17 Possibly cheeky/ sandwich (5)
BUTTY
2 defs — one of them referring to the cheeks of one’s bottom — in this and the previous one there is what seems to me to be a dreadful sin that I would never have expected Monk to commit: he is one of the very top setters, but here there is 2/5 checking — perhaps the policy at the Independent is not to worry about such things — certainly 6/13 checking and that sort of thing is now quite common and passes without mention, but 2/5? Perhaps I’m just making a fuss about it because I couldn’t do it easily.
18 Seethe as Hesketh secures trophy (3,5)
THE ASHES
Hidden in SeeTHE AS HESketh — Monk has done well to get such a long hidden in here, and I know that setters compete to try to get a really long hidden, but I have never seen anything longer than a clue which won a VHC for ROUGH-AND-READY in an Azed competition (… look through and read yesterday’s) — oh yes I have, I’ve just looked in Brian Greer’s ‘How to Do the Times Crossword’ and there’s a longer one for PINS AND NEEDLES (… Chopin, Sand, needlessly)
20 Crew members arrange to stop desertions? (6,9)
FLIGHT ENGINEERS
flight(engineer)s
23 Lip salve and gloss not fully emptied (4)
SASS
sa{lve and glo}ss or sa{lve glo}ss, works either way
24 Moved interval to get a breath of fresh air from this (10)
VENTILATOR
(interval to)*
25 At ease—wind up shilly-shallying declaration (4,3,3)
WAIT AND SEE
(At ease wind)*, anagram indicator ‘up’
26 Face/ principal/ pressure front (4)
HEAD
3 defs, face (verb I think), principal, pressure front (although having said that so blithely I can’t now find any justification for this; even so I expect that there is somewhere)
Down
2 Stout or beers we served unevenly (5)
OBESE
o{r} b{e}e{r}s {w}e
3 Situation in which young fish is in front of old puffin (3,6)
SEA PARROT
sea(parr o)t
4 Flourish as a result of healthy meal? (8)
BRANDISH
a bran dish is possibly healthy
5 Cool winds finally encircling temperate land masses (15)
SUPERCONTINENTS
super(continent){wind}s — I think: super = cool (despite the rather different eras in which these words would be used) and continent = temperate
6 Look away from cattle, James? (6)
GALWAY
Gal{lo}way — ref James Galway, the flautist
7 For some, foul contents of pocket? (2-3)
IN-OFF
Not quite sure here: it seems to be ‘For some, foul’ = in-off, a foul in snooker but not billiards, hence ‘For some’, and an in-off goes into a pocket, but I can’t really explain ‘contents of pocket?’ — contents?
8 In Crimea, sit out cease-fire? (9)
ARMISTICE
(Crimea sit)*
13 Liberal, banal judge repeatedly shelled out working capital (9)
LJUBLJANA
(L banal j j {o}u{t})* — I knew it was something like this but was unsure of the spelling so was slow to parse it — the anagram indicator is not ‘shelled out’, as I originally thought, but ‘working’
15 For some, English school must accept detailed compliance with answer (9)
SASSENACH
s(assen{t} a)ch — detailed = de-tailed
16 Drug family once famous in Europe’s eastern parts (8)
MEDICINE
Medici {i}n {Europ}e — the Medici family was once famous, or is it that it was once a family and was/is famous?
19 Having no debts, even more than one such chap is needed (6)
STEVEN
When you are ‘even Stevens’ you have no debts, and the definition is not, as it is usually, at the very end or the very beginning
21 Game killed half-heartedly for meat (5)
GOSHT
go sh{o}t — not a food I was familiar with — I obviously haven’t been to enough Indian restaurants
22 Wine, perhaps port, served before Vienna Agreement (5)
RIOJA
Rio ja — the Vienna agreement is ‘yes’ in Vienna, i.e. ‘yes’ in German — I’m not absolutely sure what ‘perhaps’ is doing here since Rioja is unequivocally wine and Rio is unequivocally a port
*anagram
John, 10ac definitely refers to OHMS letters being sent postage-free in the old days. 14ac the anagrind is “screwed” and the definition is “up”, i.e. out of bed. I didn’t have a problem with the checking of 14ac and 17ac.
This was a tricky puzzle and it took me much longer to complete the bottom half than the top half. Having said that, I thought it was all fair. GOSHT was my LOI.
Thanks John. 26 is four definitions, head as in head of water, ie pressure.
I’ve put that round the wrong way, pressure = head (of water).
I believe gosht is lamb in Indian food menus. An interesting puzzle but gosht beat me. Being Scottish I had gigot (leg of lamb).
Gosht is red meat, animal unspecified. Usually beef, lamb or mutton but round here can be goat.
Brilliant puzzle with some truly outstanding clues. With regard to crossings and rules thereof, new Times editor Richard Rogan (@timescrosswords) tweeted this a couple of days ago:
“With referendums a topical issue at the moment, a clue from a 1955 puzzle:
Made by rascals who vote twice? (6,7)
Only 5 checked squares!”
The answer, apparently, is DOUBLE CROSSES.
I think that John‘s misgivings about clues are correctly addressed by Andy B and Sidey, thanks. At 17c, “I know that setters compete to try to get a really long hidden” is news indeed to this setter! 🙂 Sorry if 2/5 unching is “a dreadful sin that I would never have expected Monk to commit, but such grids are pretty common (indeed, very much so in the Telegraph Toughie series), and no worse than the one raised by Arachne. The puzzle is a tribute to a good friend, identified in the opening lines of the blog, who was a 4ac player with 16dn 26ac in a previous life. Many thanks to Mike Hutchinson for getting it edited and published so quickly.
I often come to these blogs (this from John particularly worthy – thanks John) late when I’ve saved Indy crosswords for weekend.
But I couldn’t let matters pass without some acknowledgment (this late contribution being my only way!) of the appearance of not one but two whole setters! To see that Arachne popped in has made me a little weak at the knees, seriously. I know, it’s mad!
And, Monk. Your tale was moving.
Thank you all.