This was a tricky puzzle, as we expect for a Saturday Prize offering, with some crafty misdirections and good surface readings, as we expect from Monk. 23d was definitely our clue of the day.
The grid didn’t help as it is effectively four puzzles, one in each corner, connected by only one entry to its neighbours. The North-West corner evaded solution until the end, but once the clues had been solved, we wondered why we had had any problems.
We’re not sure if there are any connections other than 24d with the nina in the top and bottom rows – one of Paul Whitehouse’s characters from The Fast Show. We don’t know the programme well enough to establish whether any other entries relate to him, but perhaps others will elucidate?
| Across | ||
| 7 | Plan to escape on retiring after school (8) | |
| SCHEDULE | ELUDE (escape) reversed or ‘on retiring’ after SCH (school) | |
| 9 | Frozen cape toured by lorry (6) | |
| ARCTIC | C (cape) inside or ‘toured by’ ARTIC (lorry) | |
| 10 | At an end after large amount of money crashes? (4-2) | |
| PILE-UP | UP (at an end) after PILE (large amount of money) | |
| 11 | Welsh town girl overwhelmed by backing of everybody without exception? (8) | |
| LLANELLI | NELL (girl) in or ‘overwhelmed by’ I and ALL (One and all – everybody without exception) reversed or ‘backing’ | |
| 12 | Unrealistic novel by jerk (8) | |
| ROMANTIC | ROMAN (novel) TIC (jerk) | |
| 13 | Tax department so far gathering intelligence about foreigners (6) | |
| IRAQIS | IR (Tax department – Inland Revenue) AS (so far) around or ‘gathering’ IQ (intelligence) reversed or ‘about’ | |
| 14 | Keeping pace with a depraved guy who’s run to hide (7) | |
| ABREAST | A BEAST (depraved guy) around or ‘hiding’ R (run) | |
| 17 | Shadow leaves tigers partially obscured (7) | |
| VESTIGE | Hidden or ‘partially obscured’ in the clue leaVES TIGErs | |
| 20 | Tanker was emptied in the name of war (6) | |
| BOWSER | W |
|
| 22 | Brains required where soldiers go in? (8) | |
| EGGHEADS | A cryptic definition referring to toast cut up into pieces or ‘soldiers’ for dipping into boiled eggs | |
| 25 | He tried to sink many reds in match finals in BBC one-day snooker broadcast (8) | |
| MCCARTHY | An anagram of MATCH and C Y R (final letters of BBC one-day snooker) anagrind is ‘broadcast’ | |
| 26 | Plan work with head of admin to stop corporation in recession (3,3) | |
| MAP OUT | OP (work) A (first letter or ‘head’ of admin) inside TUM (corporation) all reversed or ‘in recession’ | |
| 27 | 6 pupils regularly filling in petition (6) | |
| SUPPLE | P |
|
| 28 | Rifles thrust over cashiers (8) | |
| RANSACKS | RAN (thrust) SACKS (cashiers) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Turncoat Frenchman keeping old oath (8) | |
| RENEGADE | RENE (Frenchman) around or ‘keeping’ EGAD (old oath) | |
| 2 | Signal transmitted in the wrong order (6) | |
| OUTPUT | PUT OUT (transmitted) but swapped around or ‘in the wrong order’ | |
| 3 | Union in part of London is unfriendly towards the north (7) | |
| WEDLOCK | KEW (part of London) around COLD (unfriendly) all reversed or ‘towards the north’ as it is a down clue | |
| 4 | Save wayward ladies, indeed, following admission (3,5) | |
| LAY ASIDE | An anagram of LADIES around or ‘admitting’ AY (indeed) | |
| 5 | Complaint primarily about Greek meal sent back with cold filling (6) | |
| ECZEMA | A (first letter of About or ‘primarily’) MEZE (Greek meal) around or ‘being filled by’ C (cold) all reversed or ‘sent back’ | |
| 6 | Compliant lie dying following attack? (8) | |
| YIELDING | An anagram of LIE DYING – anagrind is ‘following attack’ | |
| 8 | Letters from Athens dictated somewhere in Africa (5) | |
| CAIRO | Sounds like (‘dictated’) CHI RHO (two Greek letters) | |
| 15 | Order and combine networked browsers? (4,4) | |
| BOOK CLUB | BOOK (order) CLUB (combine) | |
| 16 | Around hotel, salesmen knocked back drink (8) | |
| SPRITZER | REPS (salesmen) reversed or ‘knocked back’ around RITZ (hotel) | |
| 18 | Tragic husband wearing naughty panties (8) | |
| THESPIAN | H (husband) inside or ‘wearing’ an anagram of PANTIES (anagrid is ‘naughty’) | |
| 19 | 50% of Disney finally linked with business in a state (3,4) | |
| NEW YORK | NEY (50% of disNEY) with last letter linking into WORK (business) | |
| 21 | Food is turning, affected internally (6) | |
| SCAMPI | IS reversed or ‘turning’ with CAMP (affected) inside or’internally’ | |
| 23 | Heavenly pair of legs exposed when lifting short skirt (6) | |
| GEMINI | ||
| 24 | Tight knot finally loosened up (5) | |
| DRUNK | KNUR (knot) D (last or ‘final’ letter of looseneD) reversed or ‘up’ | |
This one defeated me. I still had three answers to get in the top right, even after I looked up how to spell LLANELLI.
Some excellent and witty stuff, particularly liked BOWSER, SCAMPI, SPRITZER. Last one in MCCARTHY.
An exceptional number of reversals (or so it seemed). 28A – is there a sentence in which the single word “thrust” can be substituted for “ran” or conversely?
Overall great fun.
Thanks to Monk and Bertandjoyce
Well, this took some solving, with the NW corner particularly troublesome. Eventually saw BIRKIN in the bottom unches and thought there must be a nina but R–LEY meant nothing to me, never having seen The Fast Show. Wordfinder to the rescue: ROWLEY was one of only three possibilities and enabled me to complete the puzzle, though I couldn’t parse WEDLOCK till I saw the blog.
By coincidence (?) the recycled puzzle in yesterday’s i was by Monk and had a clue similar to 22ac: “Shell disposal specialist that clears a path for soldiers (3,5)”
Thanks, Monk and B&J
Took me ages and eventually missed out on ABREAST. Lots of good clues, BOWSER and EGGHEADS being my favourites. I agree with gwep @2 re the use of ‘run’ and ‘lance’.
A good tussle and definitely worthy of the Saturday spot.
Thank you to setter and bloggers.
Wordplodder and gwep – We were puzzled as well so checked in Chambers dictionary which has ‘to thrust’ as a synonym for ‘to run’.