Another super puzzle from the ultra-reliable Monk. He never seems to produce a dud, ever. Thanks Monk.
There is something going on in the grid but I am not sure what. NOAKES is there across the middle, presumably John Noakes, former Blue Peter presenter. I found a few tangential references to John Noakes life in there too:
ALFIE (his stepfather’s name)
SHELF (where he was born, the Yorkshire town not in a cupboard)
FORTY YEARS (Blue Peter anniversary program he presented with Valerie Singleton)
On the other hand we also have DEREK and CLIVE, the hilarious but utterly foul-mouthed duo played by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. I can’t see any connection there.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEWING MACHINE | Device offering speed of sound on military aircraft between Kent and Tyneside? (6,7) |
| MACH I (speed of sound) following (on) WING (military aircraft) inside (between) SE (South East, Kent) and NE (North East, Tyneside) | ||
| 10 | FORTY | Before end of rally, keep score – and again? (5) |
| rallY (end letter of) following (with…before) FORT (keep) – a score is 20, so score and again is forty, a tennis score | ||
| 11 | COME AGAIN | Egomaniac sent out what? (4,5) |
| anagram (sent out) of EGOMANIAC | ||
| 12 | EROGENOUS | Sensitive old US vice-president backed English common sense (9) |
| E (English) GORE (old US vice-president) reversed (backed) then NOUS (common sense) | ||
| 13 | YEARS | Certainly welcoming retired artist for a long time (5) |
| YES (certainly) contains (welcoming) RA (Royal Academician, artist) reversed (retired) | ||
| 14 | DREDGES | Searches for doctor by borders (7) |
| DR (doctor) with EDGES (borders) | ||
| 16 | INROADS | Lunatic half-responds with air raids (7) |
| anagram (lunatic) of respONDS (half of) with AIR | ||
| 18 | INFIELD | Holding office, handle questions where slips normally appear (7) |
| IN (holding office) then FIELD (handle questions) – slips are fielders in cricket | ||
| 20 | ENCLAVE | Clean up extremely volatile isolated territory (7) |
| anagram (up) of CLEAN then VolatilE (extremes of) | ||
| 23 | DEREK | Bloke who’s more than half- knackered following retirement (5) |
| found inside (more than half of) knaKERED reversed (following retirement) | ||
| 25 | BEARS FOOT | Supports base in plant (5,4) |
| BEARS (supports) BASE (foot) | ||
| 27 | BOOKSHELF | What requires volume limit to ease stress? (9) |
| I’m not sure about this, maybe a cryptic definition – too many volumes would stress the shelf? | ||
| 28 | CLIVE | General once caught in operation (5) |
| C (caught) LIVE (in operation) – Clive of India, former general | ||
| 29 | SALAD DRESSING | Girl briefly returns, calling for seasoning (5,8) |
| LASs (girl, briefly=shortened) then ADDRESSING (calling) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EAR-HOLE | Lug noble European around house (3-4) |
| EARL (noble) E (European) contains (around) HO (house) | ||
| 3 | IVY LEAGUE | College group about three miles south of climber (3,6) |
| LEAGUE (about three miles) underneath (south of, on a map) IVY (climber) | ||
| 4 | GECKO | Turning maybe, about to flatten lizard (5) |
| reversal (turning) of EG (maybe) then C (circa, about) KO (to flatten) | ||
| 5 | ARMISTICE | This stops fire using spray I found in unwrapped package (9) |
| MIST (spray) I inside (found in) pARCEl (package) missing outer lettters (unwrapped) | ||
| 6 | HEAVY | Serious actor playing villainous roles (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 7 | NIAGARA | Almost gets up on docked horse, so falls (7) |
| GAINs (gets, almost) reversed (up) on ARAb (horse, docked one letter) | ||
| 8 | OFFEND | Hurt leg to begin with? Wrong on both counts (6) |
| in cricket leg is the ON side, and “to begin” is START – so if ON START is wrong on both counts we have OFF END | ||
| 9 | GNOSIS | Air about one’s spiritual knowledge (6) |
| SONG (air) reversed (about) then I’S (one’s) | ||
| 15 | SODA BREAD | Food presented by expert in painful promotion (4,5) |
| DAB (expert) in SORE (painful) AD (advertisement, promotion) | ||
| 17 | RUCKSACKS | Fight fires in items of camping gear (9) |
| RUCK (fight) SACKS (fires) | ||
| 18 | IN DEBT | Gone under twin bed when wife’s gone out (2,4) |
| anagram (out) of TwIN BED missing W (wife) | ||
| 19 | FORMOSA | Island ceremony needing very large area (7) |
| FORM (ceremony) with OS (out-size, very large) A (area | ||
| 21 | AEOLIAN | Greek cop regularly foresaw uprising (7) |
| NAIL (cop) fOrEsAw (every other letter, regularly) reversed (uprising) – an ancient Greek from Aeolia | ||
| 22 | ESTEEM | Puzzle setters finally encounter mounting respect (6) |
| last letters (finally) of puzzlE setterS then MEET (encounter) reversed (mounting | ||
| 24 | KASHA | Some babushkas hate their porridge (5) |
| found inside (some of) babusKAS HAte – Russian porridge | ||
| 26 | ALFIE | Man buried in local field (5) |
| found inside (buried in) locAL FIEld | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Always enjoy a Monk. Managed to finish and parsed BOOKSHELF the same way. Didn’t know BEAR’S FOOT but guessed it then checked via google. KASHA was also new to me but an obvious inclusion. OFFEND and FORTY were my last ones in, both tricky but gettable.
I have been doing a bit of Googling and COME AGAIN is a record by Derek and Clive. I saw ALFIE NOAKES described in one search result as “The Most Racist Joke in History”. I’m sure there is a lot more to come…
OFFEND and FORTY were my last in-and favourites.
Missed NOAKES-in spite of looking, missed the connection of DEREK and CLIVE etc. Loved the puzzle-always like Monk. Thanks for blog.
I too always enjoy a Monk, but as always didn’t spot the Nina etc. I’m just relieved I managed to spot my grandson lurking in 26d
Thanks to setter and blogger
I have this record. It is extremely offensive, if you take it at face value – I’m sure it’s intended to be ironic – and I like it a lot. I can’t help wondering about those two however.
This is a very good puzzle, with its ghost theme, so as not to annoy anyone, and precisely-clued. The only thing that caused me to wonder is the two hiddens back-to-back in the down clues.
Wow what a tour de force
I remember listening to D&C records as a teenager, though I’m sure that I never actually owned one.
Monk – if you happen to look in please could you tell me if this is a straightforward Derek and Clive theme or was there a subversive John Noakes/Blue Peter connection too? The possible Valerie Singleton/Derek’s wife connection makes made blush just to think of it. Almost anything you might say about them is going to break site rules.
Due to a sordid past I’m well aware of the ‘my wife Valerie’ connection, but I’m reasonably sure it has nothing to do with Alfie Noakes in a Blue Peter way. A coincidence then, one that Monk could quite legitimately have exploited, but it seems he has not.
A very enjoyable solve, with or without theme.
“Oh-ho! Alfie Noakes here. There was this bloke … “
The rest is well-known (in my case, verbatim) to those of us who, as students, purchased DEREK and CLIVE’s COME AGAIN when it came out in late 1977, i.e. FORTY YEARS ago. Ergo this homage to those fantastically foul-mouthed footlighters.
I played this album to my father and brothers (at an opportune moment when my mother was out): we all split our sides laughing whereafter my father impassively told me to remove such unmitigated filth from the house. I never watched another Joan Crawford movie again.
Thanks to PeeDee for a characteristically great blog and to others for generous and positive comments.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Entertaining puzzle that took longer than normal for an FT one – and drew an error with a lazy EAR-LOBE (left wondering about the OB part and forgot to get back to it). Can’t remember DEREK and CLIVE, so the theme was never going to be a factor for me.
Like a lot here OFFEND and FORTY were my last two in and my favourites. Also enjoyed constructing SEWING MACHINE from the word play and then seeing the definition.