Independent 9722 by Monk (Saturday Puzzle 9 December 2017)

15 comments on “Independent 9722 by Monk (Saturday Puzzle 9 December 2017)”

1. Rattled through this quite quickly but got stuck in the SE. Had SHADOWS and ICTUS but only got the others after using a word fit to get second part of 3d – just couldn’t think of it. Didn’t care for the homonym at 11a but that’s often the case. Have only heard ‘party’ pronounced that way as a verb, or maybe it’s ‘repartee’ that I have never heard pronounced that way. Loved 12a and 13a. Not sure about ‘only briefly’ to mean removal of final letters – more like mostly than briefly.

   For 10a, I wasn’t sure about the inclusion of ‘may appear before diner’ and decided that it was probably a reference to ‘Apple Pie Diner’.

   Overall, another great Monk puzzle.

2. Good Saturday offering. Stuck about half way through and almost threw in the towel, but started to go in again after getting the very sneaky PISTOL and ended with AORTA after drawing a blank on a run through of boats and containers. ‘Just’ an anagram, but I liked OMNIVORE.

   Thanks for explaining the Nina. Sounded as though I should have heard of it, but I couldn’t place it.

   Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Monk

3. Thanks for explanations. There must be something else for 14d because emed is not endless remedy as it’s also lost the first letter. But I can’t see it. Hope someone else can. Found this hard to get started on but then it all fell into place (except the nina which means nothing to me).

4. Eric@3 I didn’t have any problem with rEMEDy – a word has two ends like a piece of string. The fact that the beginning of a word can be considered also as an end is just a peculiarity of the language.

5. Clever and fun and I not only saw the Nina but remembered it was a Flanders & Swann song too

   Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper – seasons greetings to you too

6. Always lovely to see Monk. This took me a long time, made longer by the obsession that the Nina was anti-clockwise and featured (Little) Bo Peep!
   Thanks to S&B

7. I found this quite challenging and had to reveal the second letter of 20d before I could construct the unknown ICTUS, and also had to reveal a couple of letters in the SW to unblock the log jam. Devious cluing and good fun. Thanks Monk and mc_rapper

8. Thanks Monk, mc_rapper
   Sneaky snuff – I particularly liked ICTUS, AORTA and OMNIVORE.
   I always find the 50% device pretty random, even when you more commonly dump the second half of the word. Here, moneylender > RER seems a bit of a stretch.

9. Thanks Monk and mc_r

   I found this very tough, with the top half complete and the bottom virtually blank at one stage, but got there in the end.

   James @ 8: moneylender > RER per se is a bit of a stretch. But it’s clear that we need to find a synonym, as moneylender itself has an odd number of letters, and (nearly) half of those wouldn’t leave much for the ‘after’ portion of the clue. Usurer is a standard synsinym for moneylender, even if it took me a while to think of it, so it’s moneylender > usurer > usu or rer: let the crosser make the decision.

10. Many thanks Monk, very enjoyable. I liked PISTOL, though the spilt took a while. A few parsings that took a while as well, e.g. ON THE JOB, but got there in the end. PLUMBAGOS was a new word for me. I struggled with WEAR DOWN, had all the logic but still seemed a little strange.

    Thanks also mc rapper

11. @Simon S
    I think it’s similar to taking the first or last letters of a word. (Looking for an example in this puzzle, there seem to be none (except for ‘leaders in Miyake’) which is unusual and impressive) Say, ‘free at last’ to clue E. You wouldn’t clue E by saying ‘complimentary finally’, requiring the solver to go from complimentary > free > E. Taking 50% of a synonym is a double jump, but pretty conventional and so probably unobjectionable. Why I don’t like it sometimes, and particularly here, is when the letters you end up with have no connection with where you started. RER could be the end, middle or beginning of countless words, which is why I think it’s a bit random. USU is much more obviously half of usurer.

12. Very tricky, with reference to Chambers needed to confirm several of our guesses. Even so the NE and SW quarters were somewhat blank but the grid suggested a nina and once we spotted that we finished at a gallop.

    Favourites were PLUMBAGO and AORTA.

    Thanks, Monk and mc_rapper67

    PS: The Flanders & Swann number (which I heard and saw live) can be found here, though without its spoken introduction.

13. I managed to finish this but only because, by an extraordinary coincidence, the song Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers was quoted on this site two days ago in the discussion of Picaroon’s Guardian crossword.

14. Thanks all for the various comments and feedback – mostly positive, except for the debate around the indirectly partial (USU)RER…apologies for the late response, but I have been at a boozy rugby club lunch most of the day!…

    Thanks also to allan_c at #12 for the correct link to the song – I seem to have copied and pasted the wrong URL there…

    baerchen at #6 – you could have continued anti-clockwise…BO PEEP’S REWARD…!?

15. Superb and challenging puzzle, one of those where one is aghast at the scant answers after the first pass, then gradually wears it down. Line baerchen@6 I thought I’d nailed the Nina when I spotted Bo Peep, especially when the two previous anti-clockwise letters were L and E, the last two letters of little.

    A tour de force. Many thanks to Monk and to mc_rapper67 for the blog.

Comments are closed.