A challenging workout from Monk, with a couple of nice touches…
It took a few runs through the clues to get any proper footholds in this…and even then it was all a bit gradual. Just a high quality level of general clueing, and even the ‘easier’ (to me) clues like 12A INTERNSHIPS (‘just’ a gettable anagram, but a great surface reading) deserved a brief pause and a tip of the hat.
I didn’t help myself by lazily putting LET RIP at 21D – focussing more on the definition of ‘attack’ than the parsing.
LOI was LIEGES at 22A – took a while to work out the ‘maybe’ as EG and ‘inventions’ as LIES.
3D is very clever – preaching to the converted a bit, maybe, with a pedantic grammatical &lit-ish/definition by example/charade (I always struggle to categorise these types of clue!). The clueing of 8A SELENIUM by its symbol SE (disheartened surprise!) was nice as well.
Favourite clue is probably between 5D – ‘Brown dog’s curious’ for ‘SNOOPY’, and the oh-so-clever 19D, asking us where we would put INGRID – IN the GRID of course!
I could see ‘WHOOSH’ across the top of the grid, and ‘BARGLE’/’MORBLE’ down the sides, but if there is a Nina it is far too clever for me…
** update – there IS a Nina, and it WAS too clever for me – see Gaufrid’s comment at #2 below…
Thanks are due to Monk – hope it was equally enjoyed elsewhere, and that my explanations below have done this justice…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 7A | BICARB | Fluke to get hold of nice unlimited source of fizz? (6) | source of fizz / B_ARB (fluke, e.g. on a fish, or an anchor) around (getting hold of) IC (nICe, unlimited by outer letters) |
|
| 8A | SELENIUM | Element of disheartened surprise (8) | element (no 34) / SE (symbol for Selenium) could be SurprisE, with ‘heart’, or middle letters, removed) |
|
| 9A | AGGRIEVE | Raging about having snubbed new first lady in distress (8) | distress / AGGRI (anag, i.e. about, of RAGI( |
|
| 10A | GROTTO | Stable sort nearly races to enter small cave (6) | small cave / GRO_O( |
|
| 11A | REED STOP | Thatcher would use it to check part of organ (4,4) | part of organ (instrument, not a bodily organ) / REED (something a thatcher would use) + STOP (check) |
|
| 12A | RHYMER | Linesman agreeing, as he should, with timer (6) | linesman (poet, one who writes lines) / RHYMER ‘agrees with’, or rhymes with, TIMER |
|
| 13A | INTERNSHIPS | Might pristine NHS offer these? (11) | ‘these’ (something the NHS offers) / anag, i.e. might, of PRISTINE NHS |
|
| 18A | GEMINI | Glimpse extremely small sign (6) | sign (of the zodiac) / GE (extreme letters of GlimpsE) + MINI (small) |
|
| 20A | SYLLABUB | Dessert course finally changed (8) | dessert / SYLLABU( |
|
| 22A | LIEGES | Subjects maybe essential to inventions (6) | (feudal) ‘subjects / LI_ES (inventions) around EG (say, for example, maybe) |
|
| 23A | OPTIONAL | Elective work by one of note when touring (8) | elective / OP (opus, work) + TO_NAL (of note) around I (one) |
|
| 24A | ELSINORE | Port in northern island facing west or east (8) | port / ELSI+N (N, northern + ISLE – island: all facing west, or reversed) + OR + E (east) |
|
| 25A | LEFTIE | Red port wine evenly partaken (6) | red (politically) / LEFT (port, side of a ship) + IE (even letters of ‘wInE’) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | WINGMEN | Associates wound knights? (7) | associates / WING (wound) + MEN (chess pieces, knights) |
|
| 2D | HARRIDAN | Vixen kept secret article that’s arrived in the interim (8) | vixen / H_ID (kept secret) around ARR (arrived) + AN (article) |
|
| 3D | OBJECT | Purpose she gave him makes him this (6) | purpose / grammatical – ‘in the phrase ‘she gave him’, ‘him’ is the object |
|
| 4D | OLIGARCH | Regularly visited low-lying, shrewd member of ruling minority (8) | member of ruling minority / OLIG (regular letters of ‘lOw LyInG’ + ARCH (shrewd) |
|
| 5D | SNOOPY | Brown dog’s curious (6) | double defn. / SNOOPY is Charlie Brown’s dog in the ‘Peanuts’ comic; SNOOPY can mean curious |
|
| 6D | HUSTLER | Operator’s husband left shuffling along in overcoat (7) | operator / H (husband) + U( |
|
| 8D | STEPPING-STONE | Pest seen halfheartedly opting out means to get better (8-5) | means to get better / anag, i.e. out, of PEST + SE( |
|
| 14D | ERICSSON | Necrosis badly affected explorer (8) | explorer (Leif Ericsson, Icelandic explorer of 11th century) / anag, i.e. badly affected, of NECROSIS |
|
| 15D | PLAY-OFFS | They may decide promotions from dismissals under pressure (4-4) | they may decide promotions (e.g. in football leagues) / P (pressure) + LAY OFFS (dismissals) |
|
| 16D | AERIALS | Receivers set up marine retreat? (7) | receivers / a marine retreat may be a LAIR in the SEA (S-LAIR-EA) – and set ‘up’ this makes AERIALS |
|
| 17D | EURASIA | Germany and Japan are in it, USA and I are out (7) | it’, (something Germany & Japan are in) / anag, i.e. out, of USA + I + ARE |
|
| 19D | INGRID | Where you’ll now put this girl (6) | girl (‘s name) / when you have solved this clue, you will put the answer IN (the) GRID! |
|
| 21D | LET FLY | Pilot follows up first half of deadly attack (3,3) | attack / LET( |
|
Another great Monk crossword. Can’t help with the nina, but note that ‘argle’ appears in row 9, which usually precedes bargle.
Thanks mc_rapper67
To avoid any possible confusion, perhaps I should link to the Nina: row 9-col 1 col 15 row 1.
I thought this was much tougher than his midweek puzzle but that should be so on a Saturday.
At least I sorted some mumbo jumbo in this one while the Seagulls flew over my head.
I googled MORBLE which sort of lead to ARGLE BARGLE MORBLE WHOOSH which helped me get last two which were LIEGES and AERIALS.
Doubtless there’ll be something going on in the bottom row but my brain has had enough for now .
Thanks Monk, great to see you twice in a week and thanks mc-rapper 67
Thanks to Gaufrid at #2 for the explanation on the Nina – the LSD era was slightly before my time!…
And to Hovis & copmus for your feedback – yes, a Saturday puzzle should probably be a bit harder…shame it isn’t a prize one any more…(;+<)
Very tough going with nothing on the first run through and everything pretty slow thereafter. Missed WINGMEN and SNOOPY (nice clue) and guessed several more including SELENIUM and AERIALS, both v. clever once the parsing was explained. The (unknown to me) Nina was original to say the least.
Thanks to Monk and to mc-rapper67 for such a sterling job in making sense of such a difficult puzzle.
Many thanks to all for the positive feedback and, in particular, to mc_rapper67 for an excellent blog with beautifully crafted solution notes. Are you a maths/physics/IT bod, as your blog notation is verging on the algorithmic — which is rechts up my Strasse 😉
Almost completed it after I got a start from overhearing a discussion at the Nottingham S&B, which gave me 13ac, but then I had to cheat for 8dn. After that it all gradually fell into place apart from 1dn, where after wondering about MINGLES or an anagram thereof (‘gilsmen’, anybody? no, I thought not) I went for RINGMEN (bookmakers and their associates) though I couldn’t really convince myself that ‘ring’ could mean ‘wound’ in any sense of the latter.
Some really inventive clues, though – and facepalm moments when I cracked them – such as BICARB, RHYMER, LIEGES and INGRID.
Thanks, Monk and mc-rapper67.
Monk – thanks for your kind words – yes I am a Maths (and Economics) grad (many years ago) and currently an IT Business Analyst (i.e. failed programmer!) – so my notation style has evolved out of various influences!
WordPlodder and allan_c – sounds like your solving experiences were similar to mine…
All-round feedback seems to be: ‘tough but fair’…
We have only just found time to look at the puzzle. It might have helped if we’d listened in on the conversations at the S&B on Saturday. We needed a lot of electronic help tonight, missed the nina and were very stuck on our last clue – WINGMEN.
Still, we’re not complaining as everything was very fair – it’s a shame our brain wasn’t up to the challenge tonight.
Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper67.