Easter weekend and a puzzle from Monk.
At this time of semi-religious celebrations, I did have my own “Road to Damsucus” revelation. Whilst I spend most of my solving time looking at the so-called advanced cryptic barred puzzles (Inquisitor, Listener and EV predominantly), one of my draws to these being the something “hidden” element to complete the solve, I began to wonder what it was that I truly enjoyed about a crossword.
And therein lay the revelation.
I came up with my personal list below:
- Clues that are meaningful sentences and not pure contrivances to serve the wordplay to the clue
- Mis-directions, so regular cryptic indications take on a new meaning
- A novel twist in one or two clues
- As much humour as is possible
- Something revealed in the final grid
- Enable the use of a pen not a pencil!
Now I’ve no idea if my views are shared and diversity is after-all the spice of life, but some the recent advanced cryptic puzzles seem to have lost their way. They do not and should not become a load of nonsensical sentences to serve the setter’s purpose. I know they are all submitted and edited and approved for publication, but just because the final twist is novel should not permit sub-standard clues getting through. If you need a benchmark – try this puzzle for size.
Needless to say – I really enjoyed this solve. I may have been doing Monk’s crosswords off and on for 25 years, but I am not tired of them yet. And conversely, advanced cryptics may be going through a bad patch but it would be nice for some stricter clueing rules to be applied and bring back some of the fun they have lost in their desire to be, dare I say it, “too clever for their own good”.
OK Blue touch paper lit.
As to this crossword – lots of fun clues. The hard bit would be selecting a favourite 16ac ticks a lot of my boxes; As do 2dn, 22dn and 17dn. But on a different day I could select many others.
So what had Monk hidden in this puzzle. Reading the perimeter:
BBC ONE
HISLOP
MERTON
HIGNFY (Have I got news for you)
A theme as well as good clues! And a good TV programme as well!
Many thanks Monk – and for all the other puzzles of yours over the years.
Key:
Rev. reverse; * anagram; DD Double definition; underline – definition
Across
7 Bob maybe in musical party (6)
Hair (musical) + Do (party) = HAIRDO
8 Servant about to break large old pot (8)
C(about) in fat (large) + o (old) + tum (pot) = FACTOTUM
9 Picture of floor in frame of iron (4)
K.O (floor) in in (frame of IroN) = IKON
10 Might a bluestocking don it? (6,4)
OXFORD SHOE – a bluestocking being an intellectual woman
11 Bronze bust initially appearing in newspaper articles (8)
Sun (newspaper) + a + the (articles) around b (bust initially) = SUNBATHE
13 More stingy about popping into local (6)
Near (local) around re (about) = NEARER
14 Pompous press briefly infiltrating regulars in Triads (6)
Urge (press) – e (briefly) in TrIaDs = TURGID
16 Fly from one place into another after a bit of cycling (6)
Set (place) in Set (another place) cycled = TSETSE
19 Dismissal by female following sex (6)
Lay (sex) + of (by) + f (female) = LAYOFF
21 Mark in English attained by slowcoach in French (8)
Scar (mark) in e (English) + got (attained) = ESCARGOT
23 Swearing in judge after old boy’s given no time to start — on the contrary (10)
Ob (old boy) + j (judge) + duration (time) – d (no start) = OBJURATION
24 All the best food is picked up (4)
Homonym of Chow (food) = Ciao
25 We predict books will be ditched by those with mental health issues (8)
Psychotics (those with mental health issues) – OT (books) = PSYCHICS
26 On reflection, designate old man as missing link? (6)
Rev. Name (designate) + Pa (old man) = APEMAN
DOWN
1 Side bursts open when edges split, revealing bust (8)
Bank (side) + erupts (bursts open) – es (edges split) = BANKRUPT
2 What may make one go and run into bar (4)
R (run) in ban (bar) = BRAN
3 Dodge work in search when leader goes (3-3)
Scout (search) – s (leader goes) around op (work) = COP-OUT
4 Group of stars breaking very large instruments (8)
Carina (group of stars) in os (very large) = OCARINAS
5 A dead loss in spring, having new £1 note in circulation (3-7)
start (spring) in n (new) + oner (£1 note) = NON-STARTER
6 Regret about most of one group of countries or another (6)
Rev. Rue (regret) + OPEC (group of countries) – c (most of) = EUROPE
8 Dithered, apparently unconcerned about netting fines (6)
Rev. deaf (unconcerned) around ff (fines) = FAFFED
12 Filmmaker remade Crucible without core of actors (10)
(crucible + to)* = BERTOLUCCI
15 Mostly frigid and unusually unbecoming (5,3)
(frigi + and)* = INFRA DIG
17 Bomber without escort over camp (5,3)
Rev. alone (without escort) + gay (camp) = ENOLA GAY
18 Opens empty bottle and drinks? (6)
Be (empty bottle) + gins (drinks) = BEGINS
20 Waylay old president after a minute (6)
A + m (minute) + bush (old president) = AMBUSH
22 Stage production of Tintin? (3-3)
Can(Tin)Can(Tin) = CAN-CAN
24 Cook using ceramic hob, eschewing fire at first (4)
Ceramic Hob Eschewing Fire (at first) = CHEF
Hard but fair and enjoyable for all the criteria in your list. Didn’t know Carina @ 4d but the instrument was obvious, and unusually for me I spotted the theme early enough for it to help. Right, Listener today so pencil – check, rubber – check, protractor – check, Chambers with all the Scottish words highlighted – if only….. Thanks to Monk and Twencelas.
Great show, great puzzle great nina, great blog.
Im a happy chappy.
Proper crossword from a great setter. Couldn’t pick a favourite. Thanks to Monk for a class puzzle as always & to twencelas, particularly interesting intro today!
Was hoping for a challenge today, having done the FT yesterday and not fancying today’s Guardian. Seeing it was a Monk gave me the expectation of a struggle and I was not disappointed.
Was pleased to get ENOLA GAY straightaway, with just the initial E and was also pleased to remember OCARINAS and INFRA DIG although I had to check that CARINA was a star cluster.
Had to use an anagram solver to get BERTOLUCCI, not somebody I know. Neither my Collins or Chambers gives LAYOFF as one word (though the latter accepts lay-off) but the answer was clear and was my LOI.
Didn’t know OBJURATION but guessed it from the clue. Don’t remember seeing IKON, as opposed to ICON, before. So a good learning experience.
Thanks to Monk and twencelas.
as Baerchen says, a proper crossword from a great setter – helped by the fact that I remembered Monk = Message which helped me sort out my last few stragglers
Interesting introduction twencelas. I actually avoid barred puzzles and am not a fan of jigsaw crosswords either – I like to solve the clues rather than work out where to put them.
Great stuff. Spent ages trying to understand why CO could be floor until the Nina gave me BANKRUPT. Needed twencelas for the parsing of OBJURATION (the on the contrary bit), and COP OUT, where I misparsed the def as ‘dodge work’
Hard to pick a favourite, all good.
My personal list is much the same as twencelas, with the top one standing out a mile.
Thanks monk and twencelas
With you Crypticsue although now I come to think of it I used to enjoy Araucaria’s plain jigsaws as an occasional change from the ordinary kind. However, spending the first half hour trying to work out what, for example, Masquerade’s special instructions mean isn’t my idea of a pleasurable solve.
Not too hard, we got there in the end, helped by spotting the nina for our last few in. Like Dutch, we needed the blog to parse OBJURATION. For 14ac we wondered if there’s such a word as ‘tiroid’ (taking ‘press’ to mean ‘iron’) but if there is it’s not in Chambers and fortunately we remembered other meanings of ‘press’. Plenty to like so no real favourite.
A minor gripe, though, in that we would enumerate both 19ac and 26ac as (3-3). Chambers agrees with us for the former but not the latter.
Thanks, Monk and Twencelas.
Since solving this on the way to the pub yesterday I’ve mostly been kept busy offline. So I’m very late to comment and can’t now remember much detail other than that I really enjoyed it and was glad to have remembered to look for a nina because that was a great help as well as fun to spot.
Thanks Monk and Twencelas. As far as barred puzzles are concerned, I like to think I might be up to tackling them one day. I did a tiny percentage of a recent Inquisitor with a friend (also in the pub; there’s a theme developing there …) and from that I’ve deduced that that time is not just yet!