A tricky puzzle from Monk, but no surprise there! There are two that I can’t explain, any help appreciated.
Puzzles from Monk usually have some sort of pattern or message hidden in the grid. The inclusion of some obscure words for no obvious reason seems to suggest that there is something going on. I can’t see anything myself but I have included a copy of the completed grid for you to have a look for yourselves.
I can’t explain 15 and 17 down, any help appreciated.
Thanks Monk
Gaufrid points out that POSITION and REVERSED are embedded in the grid. Does this indicate anything further?
We also have Finbar Saunders’ favourite expression FNARR FNARR down the middle (though not reversed).
| Across | ||
| 1 | SPLIFF | Joint chiefs of staff put life into freedom fighters (6) |
| first letters (chiefs) of Staff Put Life Into Freedon Fighters – definition is ‘joint’ | ||
| 4 | FARADAY | Died in place of wife in distant unit (7) |
| FARAwAY (distant) with D (died) replacing W (wife) – a unit of capacitance | ||
| 9 | NEOPRENE | One deviant heard to clean down rubber (8) |
| ONE* anagram=deviant and PRENE sounds like “preen” (to clean down, feathers) – artificial rubber | ||
| 10 | SURELY | Certainly grumpy with European invasion? (6) |
| SURLY (grumpy) with E (European) inside (invading) | ||
| 11 | URSULA | Woman runs into usual suspect (6) |
| R (runs) in USUAL* anagram=suspect | ||
| 12 | ON TRUST | Without question, not shaken by injurious influence (2,5) |
| NOT* anagram=shaken by RUST (injurous influence) | ||
| 13 | MISHEAR | Fail to pick up single female in a month (7) |
| I (single) SHE (a female) in MAR (March, a month) | ||
| 14 | MADRAS | Plays mother, up-front for something hot? (6) |
| DRAMAS (plays) with MA (mother) moving to the front – a spicy curry | ||
| 16 | INTACT | Entire part of play on one set of books (6) |
| ACT (part of play) following (on) I (one) NT (set of books, of the Bible) | ||
| 18 | MANURER | Fellow artist ignoring duke, a muck spreader (7) |
| MAN (fellow) dURER (artist) ignoring D (duke) | ||
| 20 | RIBWORT | Make fun of essentially unworthy weed (7) |
| 22 | SKIVVY | One may do a runner very, very heartlessly (6) |
| SKI (a runner) V (very) VerY (heartless, no middle) – definition is ‘one may do’ | ||
| 23 | AMOEBA | Falsely imprisoned con went above warden, in seconds changing cell (6) |
| solution found in the second letters of (in seconds) fAlsely iMprisoned cOn wEnt aBove wArden – definition is ‘changing cell’. Amobea is a genus of microorganisms that do not have a definite shape, its name derived from the Greek amoibe meaning ‘to change’ | ||
| 24 | CRUISERS | More than one boxer scurries about (8) |
| SCURRIES* about=anagram – cruiser weight is a weight class in boxing | ||
| 25 | WENT FOR | Gave up, swapped sides, attacked (4,3) |
| FORWENT (gave up) swapping sides (words reversed) – definition is ‘attacked’ | ||
| 26 | REVERS | One turns back in streams when current is beginning to eddy (6) |
| RiVERS (streams) with I (current) is replaced by E (beginning of eddy) – part of a garment turned back to show the lining | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STEERSMAN | One at the helm, a potential cowboy? (9) |
| definition and cryptic definition – steers are cows | ||
| 2 | LAPFULS | Scoops about quite short material covering thighs? (7) |
| LAPS (scoops) containing (about) FULl (quite, completely) short=not finished – definition is ‘material covering thighs?’, what you have in your lap | ||
| 3 | FREE AGENT | Following split, severe cut is introduced, one that’s unconstrained (4,5) |
| F (following) RENT (split) contains (introduced to) F RE EAGE NT | ||
| 5 | ASSET | Fool teacher’s head about introduction of eleven plus (5) |
| ASS (fool) T (first letter, head, of teacher) containing (about) E (first letter of eleven) definition is ‘plus’ | ||
| 6 | AGROUND | Stranded party lacks power, also having to go about (7) |
| GROUp (party) missing P=power in (haing to go about) AND (also) | ||
| 7 | ALLOT | British dropped out of vote for deal (5) |
| bALLOT (vote) missing B (British) | ||
| 8 | MELODRAMATICS | Far too much ham (13) |
| cryptic definition – a ham is a bad actor | ||
| 14 | MINT SAUCE | Oddly camp aunties knitted something for young Jacob? (4,5) |
| anagram (knitted) of CaMp (odd letters) and AUNTIES – something for lamb, a Jacob is a breed of sheep | ||
| 15 | AARDVARKS | Animals run in a drive, loaded into old vessels (9) |
| Definition is ‘animals’. I can’t fully explain the rest. My best guess is R (run) in A DV (drive) all inside ARKS (old vessels). This does not account for one A. | ||
| 17 | AMBIENT | Hollande’s well on time to succeed in the morning air (7) |
| 19 | REISSUE | Put out old material concerning kids (7) |
| RE (concerning) ISSUE (kids) | ||
| 20 | RAMEE | Room with sheath of electrical cable insulating core of glass fibre (5) |
| RM (room) with Electrical cablE (sheath, outer letters of) containing (insulating) glAss (core of glass) – a fibre from the nettle plant | ||
| 21 | OTAGO | Where kiwis are found using label held by rings (5) |
| TAG (label) in (held by) OO (two rings) – a region of New Zealand | ||
*anagram
Thanks Peedee
I also initially had ‘ragwort’ at 20ac which made 17dn problematic. It is actually RIBWORT with the parsing as you have it.
This makes 17dn AMBIENT – AM (the morning) BIEN (Hollande’s well) T (time)
Like you, I couldn’t find the necessary additional A in 15dn.
As for Monk’s customary ‘extra’, if you read down column 3 and up column 13 you find POSITION REVERSED. Whether this is an indication of something further in the grid I have yet to determine.
Thanks Gaufrid. RAGWORT threw me as it seemed such a solid answer.
I did think along the lines of BIEN (well) T (time) and AM (morning), but as I had not heard of ‘ambient’ as a noun I didn’t get anywhere with that.
I suppose ‘reversed’ is just where ‘position’ ends up under the rotational symmetry of the grid.
There is FNARR and RRANF as a symmetric pair too.
Correction, it is just FNARR FNARR down the grid, no reversal necessary.
There is also MATED across the grid near the middle, though this may just be there by chance.
An email from a friend earlier this morning announced that this was ‘A stonking day’s solving’. Having now solved all seven of today’s cryptics, I can definitely confirm that he wasn’t wrong, this great Monk puzzle being one of my top three ‘stonkers’ Arachne and Micawber (DT Toughie) being the other two.
Lots of ‘favourites’ in this one and I saw the Nina too. Thanks to Monk and PeeDee.
Profuse apologies: that should have been “Animals are run …” at 15dn (as in “are=metric measure, abbr. {a}), but it wasn’t picked up. Thanks for good blog and nice comments. As for the Nina, it was Monk number 69 for the FT 😉 … fnarr-fnarr …
Solved this great puzzle – not the hardest of Monks , in my opinion – and, yoopee!, had everything right.
But, I say but, once more I didn’t see the ninas (plural!).
And I can tell you I did look for them.
It’s so clever to fill a grid containing these extras.
Many thanks PeeDee.
MADRAS was a solution that had to be it, and had to be explained too I fear.
I can indeed kick myself for not seeing the obvious now! 🙂