A very enjoyable puzzle from Monk in which he reveals his easy side.
The side in question being the left side which I had mostly complete in just a few minutes. Normal service was resumed on the right which was a satisfying struggle to finish.
Unusually for me I both remebered to look for and spotted the nina whilst solving the puzzle. The edges of the grid are all islands in Orkney. Having had some recent holidays there I recognised the names and they were a useful aid to solving the puzzle.
Thanks Monk.
| Across | ||
| 7 | FODDER |
Food is fine, given more rum (6)
F (fine) with ODDER (more rum)
|
| 8 | RUPTURES |
Sport training sure jiggled busts (8)
RU (Rugby Union, a sport) PT (training) with SURE* anagram=jiggled
|
| 9 | LADIFIES |
Entitles one to stop false ID being processed (8)
I (one) inside (to stop, like a cork) (FALSE ID)* anagram=being processed – makes into a lady, bestows a title
|
| 10 | CUESTA |
A sequence of rescues targeted steep ridge (6)
found inside (a sequence of) resCUES TArgeted – an escarpment
|
| 11 | OCCIDENT |
Old detectives finding US money around the west (8)
O (old) then CID (detectives) inside (finding … around) CENT (US money)
|
| 12 | AUSTIN |
Capital of a country from which broken artist has departed (6)
AUSTrIaN (of a country) missing RA (Royal Academician, artist), broken indicates that the R and A are not consecutive – the capital of Texas
|
| 13 | ASSORTMENTS |
Mixes rank soldiers, in a way, while touring (11)
SORT (rank) MEN (soldiers) inside ST (street, a way) all inside (with … touring) AS (while)
|
| 18 | TOUSLE |
Posh stole redesigned as ruffle (6)
anagram (redesigned) of U (posh) and STOLE
|
| 20 | ENLISTED |
Got help through having heard, getting somewhat moved (8)
LISTENED (heard) with EN (somewhat, part of the word) moved to another position
|
| 22 | THRESH |
Flail two thirds of verge (6)
THRESHold (verge, two thirds of)
|
| 23 | ATARAXIA |
Farewell amid brief pivotal tranquillity (8)
TA-RA (farewell) inside (amid) AXIAl (pivotal, brief=unfinished)
|
| 24 | ARGONAUT |
Gas and precious metal, given time, yield an old form of salt (8)
ARGON (a gas) and AU (gold, a precoius metal) given T (time) – a salt is a sailor
|
| 25 | EVILLY |
See around most of base that’s in a bad way (6)
ELY (see, a diocese in Cambridgeshire) containing (around) VILe (base, mostly)
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | ROMANCE |
Love fictional genre (7)
double defintion
|
| 2 | ODDITIES |
We are weird, extremely dense idiots that need to be managed (8)
anagram (need to be managed) of DensE (extreme letters of) and IDIOTS
|
| 3 | URSINE |
As Paddington Station’s entrance is covered in wee (6)
S (entance, first letter, of station) inside (covered in) URINE (wee) – like a bear
|
| 4 | SPACE AGE |
Reportedly sterilise – wise these days (5,3)
sounds like (reportedly) “spay sage” (sterilise wise)
|
| 5 | AUREUS |
Valuer regularly raised charge for Roman coin (6)
vAlUeR (regular letters of) with SUE (charge) reversed (raised)
|
| 6 | YELTSIN |
Former statesman, drunk in style? (7)
(IN STYLE)* anagram=drunk – Yeltsin was notorius for appearing drunk in public, which may or may not have been true, I couldn’t say.
|
| 8 | RISE TO THE BAIT |
To a tee, British nuts react when provoked (4,2,3,4)
(TO A TEE BRITISH)* anagram=nuts
|
| 14 | OVERHEAR |
Earwig in England, in your ear? (8)
sounds like (in your ear) “over here” (in England) – one could quibble about why here is “England” rather than Scotland, Wales or NI, the FT is British newspaper not just an English one?
|
| 15 | TASMANIA |
State of euphoria, perhaps after exam is put back (8)
MANIA (euphoria, perhaps) after SAT (National Curriculum assessment, exam) reversed (put back)
|
| 16 | POT-HERB |
British under pressure to find alternate culinary plant (3-4)
B (British) following (under) P (pressure) with (to find) OTHER (alternate)
|
| 17 | TEPIDLY |
Half-heartedly piled bananas into empty tummy (7)
PLIED* anagram=bananas inside TummY (empty, no middle letters)
|
| 19 | SEE YOU |
Copper shouted farewell (3,3)
CU (copper) sounds like (shouted) “see you”
|
| 21 | LOAFER |
Tramp’s shoe (6)
double definition
|
*anagram
definitions are underlined
definitions are underlined
That was his easy side! A lot tougher than Tramp and Dac but excellent (stumbled on a couple)
A non-starter for me. Not on Monk’s wavelength at all. Pity!
I struggled mightily on the RH side – I do enjoy a fight with Monk. My particular favourite has to be 2d. Thanks to Monk and PeeDee too.
I assumed (somewhat to my surprise) that SAT in 15 was the (US) Scholastic Aptitude Test. Is there a British SAT?
Coby – SATs in Britain are officially titled National Curriculum assessments and are primarily intended (somewhat controversially) to asses the effectiveness of schools and teachers and teaching methods rather than individual students (though it is the students who take the actual tests).
The term SATs is unofficial and may be one of several acronymns.
Weren’t they called Standard Attainment Tests in the old days (pre 2000ish)?
almw3 – that’s what I thought but Wikipedia has this:
This terminology is rooted in the original intention to introduce Standard Assessment Tasks when the assessments were first introduced. The term is variously believed to stand for Statutory Assessment Tests, Standard Attainment Tests, Standardised Achievement Tests and Standard Assessment Tests.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Another backlog jobbie – and glad that I got around to it! Great stuff … don’t know about any easier side, though!
I suspected that something was going on around the sides but couldn’t crack what it was – thought it was going down a pig-Latin direction at one stage.
There was also a number that I couldn’t parse or didn’t parse correctly – 12a ( I just took the R and A from ‘a country’ to get county and had AUSTIN being both a county and capital in Texas!), 20a and 14d.
Had several new terms – LADIFIES, CUESTA and ATARAXIA.
Last ones in were TASMANIA (embarrassingly), LOAFER and the unparsed ENLISTED.