Independent 8,648 by Monk

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

This is getting silly. Monk is a mathematician and so is no doubt well aware of the probabilities, but his last four Independent crosswords have all been blogged by me. How likely was that? He’s probably getting rather tired of this, but I’m not, for his crosswords are always good. Tough, though, especially this one, where I had to admit defeat on one clue.

 

 

 

The letters around the outside suggest a Nina of some sort, but I can find nothing except the word ‘orgy’ on the right, which is perhaps a coincidence. But I did find ‘Placebo’ in the second row of unches, then further down ‘Brian Molko’. I imagined that Monk had a friend called Brian Molko who was involved in medical research, but a little Googling quickly revealed my disgraceful ignorance. Evidently they are a group and BM is their lead vocalist and guitarist. No doubt their songs are placed around the answers, but I leave that to you since I can’t find any album names or singles there.

 

Definitions underlined (except for one of them (5dn, which is fortunately obvious) which I forgot when doing the blog and can’t now recover).

Across

7 Do this to opposition to get on (6)
VACATE
If you vacate ‘opposition’ you get ‘on’, so this is a CD I think: my judgement of whether or not it is a CD is usually based on whether there are one or two ways to get to the answer, and here there is only one — this defeated me and I had to click on ‘Reveal’

9 Time to avoid one hot planet, almost around orbital apex? (8)
APHELION
(1 ho{t} plane{t})* — the second time a letter is missing it just happens to be a t — the contraction comes from ‘almost’ and ‘around’ is the anagram indicator

10 Food and fuel endlessly added onto rent (5,3)
SPLIT PEA
pea{t} added on to split [= rent]

11 Slowly answer foreign soldier in trouble (6)
ADAGIO
ad(a GI)o

12 Projection about duke that’s close to the bone (6)
TENDON
ten(d)on

13 One could be up for this treat given time (8)
DRESSAGE
dress [= treat] age — ‘up’ in the sense of being on a horse

15 Shivering, ropy little sibling getting heartburn (7)
PYROSIS
(ropy)* sis

17 French leave genuine French city, cutting east then north (7)
TRUANCY
tru{e} {N}ancy

20 A better place to go on playing polo? Sure (8)
SUPERLOO
(polo sure)* — I’m not sure about the ‘on’, which makes for a better definition if it’s not part of it, since a superloo is the whole ‘room’ rather than just the machine you sit on, surely — I think ‘on playing’ is the anagram indicator

22 Calling on eastern European to cut grass (6)
SEEING
s(EE)ing

23 Danger sign in advice to turn oneself in? (6)
BEACON
‘be a con’, con = convict

25 Inspector cut back one of Thatcher’s targets? (8)
EXAMINER
(axe)rev. miner — ref Mrs Thatcher and the Miners’ Strike

26 I don’t know — Manchester banning books before revision (6,2)
SEARCH ME
(Ma(n)ches(t)er)* — NT = books

27 Work around man who has cleared out tenement where the poor live (6)
GHETTO
g(he t{enemen}t)o

Down

1 Radar perhaps picked up circuit in start of descent over capital (10)
PALINDROME
(lap)rev. in d{escent} Rome — a palindrome such as ‘radar’ reads the same forwards as backwards

2 You and I run away from Border Terrier — or what he might be carrying? (6)
WEAPON
we ap{r}on — ref the SAM

3 Rum served by saloon, perhaps in poor island (7)
BACARDI
ba(car)d i

4 Bird reported little row (8)
WHEATEAR
“wee tier”

5 Having enough power to overthrow an island (4)
ELBA
(able)rev.

6 Stock form of communication? (6)
MOOING
CD — stock referring to cattle — as with all CDs, I had to check this afterwards to be sure as perhaps it was something else

8 Cumbrian market town needing fruit in reserve (7)
APPLEBY
apple by — not a Cumbrian market town of which I was aware, but easy enough wordplay and my Pears Cyclopaedia confirmed this

14 Drunk best sake in mixed drinks (10)
SNAKEBITES
(best sake in)* — a snakebite is a drink made from cider and lager mixed

16 Comic piece found in free introduction to adult hotline (8)
IOLANTHE
(a{dult} hotline)* — ‘free’ is the anagram indicator

18 Struggle to study before exam (7)
CONTEST
con [= study] test [= exam]

19 Femme fatale about to stop a text message that is upsetting (7)
LORELEI
LO(re)L (ie)rev.

21 Possibly odd Tyneside sports location shortly to be erected (6)
UNEVEN
(NE venu{e})rev. — you might say that if it’s uneven it must be odd, but that’s only if you are restricted to the integers

22 Rough and coarse bird, outwardly gaudy (6)
SHAGGY
shag g{aud}y — although before I got 22ac I wasn’t 100% sure that there wasn’t a bird called a crag

24 Tease Jack, perhaps (4)
CARD
2 defs — ‘what a tease (card) you are’ and the playing-card

*anagram

16 comments on “Independent 8,648 by Monk”

  2. Count me as another who didn’t get VACATE before resorting to aids. Call me old-fashioned, but I like my clues to have a definition, especially with such unhelpful checking letters.

  3. I found the LHS particularly difficult but got there in the end. Only quibble is that “lowing” (my first guess) is an equally valid answer to 6d. Thanks to blogger and setter.

  4. Ian@3 – your MOOING/lowing point is a pretty big quibble, IMHO, and I’m sure the alternative would be accepted under competitive conditions.

  6. On the Goldilocks scale this definitely rates as Daddy Bear. Vacate still makes no sense to me.
    Thanks to brave blogger and to Monk.

  7. I stalled on 7ac also, and I don’t get “vacate”.

    I was sure it would end in “age”, reflecting the ‘get on’ part, and to that end I made semi-logical cases for ‘damage’, ‘savage’, ‘ravage’ and ‘manage’ as things you could conceivably do to opposition. I didn’t particularly like any of them but I like all of them better than ‘vacate’.

  8. Very tough – this one was almost the subject of my ‘three separate attempts and you’re in the recycling’ rule but I am glad I persevered. D’oh moment of the day has to be when I realised what the solution to 6d had to be.

    Thanks to Monk for making me work hard and to John for the blog.

  9. Sue@8 – how did you realise which of the three possible answers for 6dn it was going to be, and why did you settle for the correct one instead of one of the others?

  10. Thanks John, vacate is probably beyond fair without more wordplay. We expect Monk to be hard but this really took things too far for a daily commute puzzle.

  11. Several defeated me today, including VACATE and MOOING.

    However, 19dn made me smile. I was doing this in an hotel room overlooking the Rhine. Not seen her yet,though.

  12. I needed more than one session for this puzzle but when my PinC joined this afternoon things fell unexpectedly quickly in place.

    She was the one who saw MOOING (actually, she couldn’t believe it at first given that it’s a Monk [but I woke her up 🙂 ]).
    And if you see it (fitting with the acrosses) then you don’t think about it anymore. So, no problem for us but I can see why some posters above aren’t happy with it.

    We went for DAMAGE at 7ac for the reason Geebs gave us.
    With hindsight, I think the ‘construction’ is rather clever but a shame that there’s no hint of a definition.

    In 26ac (the very nice SEARCH ME) I wasn’t sure whether I would have used ‘after’ instead of ‘before’ revision. The clue indicates: first deletion, then anagram. Some setters can’t be bothered, others are strict and say that the anagram has to come first before NT disappears. Eventually, I am happy enough with it today as the letters N & T are deleted in the right order.

    Conclusion? Perhaps the hardest Monk for a while.
    However, reading back the clues, nothing’s too difficult or obscure.
    But it’s all about how it feels when you try to solve the puzzle.

    Leaves me with why Monk chose Placebo.
    I remember an occasion last year in Manchester where “we” (Monk, Anax, Gozo & Me) talked about music. I didn’t get the impression that Monk was really into pop music. But then, some time ago he wrote a puzzle which, for some reason, featured Brian Eno.

    Having said all this, one more splendid and satisfying puzzle!
    Many thanks to the setter and John.

  13. Many thanks to John, for whom the difficulty of Monks are being gradually cranked up in the advance knowledge that he will always blog them 😉 Thanks to all others for, on the whole, positive comments despite the DNFs, for which I now atone.

    I can but apologize for VACATE, as I agree that, on reflection, it is, it’s … can I say it? … dare I say it? … it’s … Araucarian. I hope that my Ximenean soul mates have it in their hearts to forgive me.

    Apologies too for taking a monastic eye momentarily off the ball with MOOING, the 2nd O of which was fixed, in my mind, by the PLACEBO Nina.

    On which note, Sil I have marked many an exam script and decorated many a room with what might be described as an eclectic musical assortment for accompaniment, and the idea came simply when setting this puzzle shortly after listening to their early albums one evening.

    Thanks again to all.

  14. About fifteen years ago some scientist found out that marking exam papers etc was less of a chore when listening to Mozart sonatas. I actually started doing that in those days and I must say it did work out well.

    On the other hand, when decorating rooms I fear that Placebo might work much better – or, in my case, a placebo (as I hate decorating). 🙂

Comments are closed.