Monk provides a challenge for FT solvers this morning.
I have to admit that I really struggled with this puzzle, which took me well over an hour to solve and parse, and even then I’m not convinced by some of my parsings because if they are right, then this does not seem to be up to Monk’s usual standard. So, I will apologise now if it just me being sluggish this post-Xmas morning.
However, if I’m right, then I have some issues:
8ac – I can’t see WEEP and PIPE as synonymous; WEEP to me indicates a slow, unintentional ooze, whereas PIPE is more forecful, as in piping cream or icing.
1dn – “Nellie Dean” is not an English song
22ac – works better as a down clue
21dn – I can’t think of an example where VARNISH and SEAL are synonymous
5dn – Is the NT a “version” of the Bible?
Generally, some of the synonyms, such as for CLARINET and DOWNPIPE, were a little too loose for my liking, but that may just be personal taste.
Other than that, the puzzle was challenging, but had some fine clues with my favourite being 9ac, 12ac and 3dn.
Thanks, Monk, and apologies again if I am just having a slow day.
| Across | ||
| 8 | WEEP | Very small opening in peace pipe (4) |
| WEE (“very small) + [opening in] P(ipe)
I may have this one wrong, as I don’t think WEEP and PIPE are synonymous. |
||
| 9 | RISING DAMP | Problem in building slope – digs in loose filling (6,4) |
| *(digs in) filling RAMP (“slope”) | ||
| 10 | CLARINET | Caught short by latrine, bum that works off wind (8) |
| C (caught) by *(latrine) | ||
| 11 | ARMAGH | Master that’s terrible outside county (6) |
| ARGH (“that’s terrible!”) outside M.A. (Master (of Arts) | ||
| 12 | SEE YOU | Cheers copper audibly (3,3) |
| Homophone of [audibly] Cu (chemical symbol for “copper”) | ||
| 13 | ANT-EATER | Mammal for whom colonials provide fare (3-5) |
| Cryptic definition, with “colonials’ referring to ant colonies. | ||
| 15 | BEACHED | Having landed, pain when laid up? (7) |
| ACHE (“pain”) in BED (“when laid up” = in bed) | ||
| 17 | ADVERSE | Loath to embrace daughter that’s contrary (7) |
| AVERSE (“loath”) to embrace D (daughter) | ||
| 20 | INTERVAL | Very reliant on shifting break (8) |
| *(v reliant) where the V is short for “very” | ||
| 22 | WIELDY | Manageable, to a great degree, after democrat drops two places (6) |
| WIDELY (“to a great degree”) with the D (democrat) dropping two places (i.e. the thrid letter movinf to be the fifth letter)
I think this clue would work better as a down clue, as “dropping” indicates downward rather than sideward movement. |
||
| 24 | COLUMN | Body of troops, one in Trafalgar? (6) |
| Double definition, the second referring to Nelson’s Column. | ||
| 26 | DEPORTEE | Exile, not initially free, opted for resettlement (8) |
| *(ree opted), where REE is [not initially] (f)REE | ||
| 27 | COMIC STRIP | Cartoon of clown’s jaunt (5,5) |
| COMIC’S (“clown’s”) + TRIP (“jaunt”) | ||
| 28 | BRIE | Short female dropping some cheese (4) |
| BRIE(f) (“short”, with F (female) dropping) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NELLIE DEAN | Have an inclination to accept German song after extremely nice English one (6,4) |
| LEAN (“have an inclination”) to accept LIED (“german song”) after [extremely] N(ic)E
“Nellie Dean” was a sentimental ballad written in 1905, which became popular in the UK as a pub song, but it was ortiginally American, not English. |
||
| 2 | SPARKY | Lively place in Skye visited regularly (6) |
| PARK (“place”, as in “park a car”) in S(k)Y(e) [visited regularly] | ||
| 3 | IRON DUKE | Manoeuvre round, blocking General Wellington (4,4) |
| *(round) blocking IKE (“General” Eisenhower) | ||
| 4 | ASH-TRAY | Leaves in this, perhaps, soon after first light (3-4) |
| After lighting a cigarette, burnt tobacco leaves would end up in an ash tray.
I thought there may be more to this clue, with ASH trees having leaves, and RAY = light, but I can’t get any further than that, so assume it is a cryptic definition instead. |
||
| 5 | INTACT | Entire version of bible covered in one play (6) |
| N.T. (New Testament, so “version of bible”) covered in 1 (“one”) ACT (“play”)
I’m an atheist, so no authority, but isn’t the New Testament a PART of the Bible, rather than a version of it? |
||
| 6 | ADAM’S ALE | Drink offered by first guy getting bargains galore? (5,3) |
| ADAM (“first guy”) getting SALE (“bargains galore”) | ||
| 7 | SMUG | Spruce sticks sent over (4) |
| <=GUMS (“sticks” sent over) | ||
| 14 | EASY DOES IT | Leisurely, loose diet, so take your time (4,4,2) |
| EASY (“lesiurely”) + *(diet so) | ||
| 16 | CHERUBIM | Angel of a girl feeding young single male (8) |
| HER (“of a girl”) feeding CUB (“young”) + 1 (“single”) + M (male) | ||
| 18 | DOWNPIPE | Provincial county churchwarden that falls into gutter (8) |
| DOWN (“provincial county”) + PIPE (“churchwarden”)
A churchwarden is a type of long-stemmed smoking pipe. |
||
| 19 | OLD DART | Early jazz genre rejected in England, according to Aussies (3,4) |
| OLD (“early”) + <=TRAD (“jazz genre” rejected)
Old Dart, or The Old Dart, is Aussie slang for England, Britain, or sometimes Ireland. |
||
| 21 | VANISH | Run away from seal and disappear (6) |
| R (run) away from VA(r)NISH (“seal”)
Although “varnish” and “seal” can both mean “cover”, I can’t think of an example where they are synonymous? |
||
| 23 | ENROBE | Echo new decoration around queen’s dress (6) |
| E (echo) + N (new) + O.B.E. (Officer of the British Empire, so “decoration”) around R (queen) | ||
| 25 | OBOE | Instrument got broken, the odd bits splitting (4) |
| (g)O(t)B(r)O(k)E(n) [the odd bits (letters) splitting, i.e. leaving] | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick
Whilst I share some of your concerns, I would just point out that one of the definitions for ‘pipe’ in Chambers is WEEP (in the sense of cry). My main concern was the enumeration for 4dn because all my references (Chambers, Collins and the ODE) give it as a single, unhyphenated word so I was loath to enter ASHTRAY until it became clear that nothing else would fit.
I also didn’t know PIPE could mean WEEP but checked it in my Chambers. Was also unconvinced that SPRUCE and SMUG could be synonyms. Even after checking, I’m not entirely convinced.
I agree that WIELDY works better as a down clue but, as you imply, it still works as an across clue.
No objection to CLARINET clue and think varnish (on a table say) works OK as a seal.
Always thought Nellie Dean was an English song and, I guess, Monk did too.
Didn’t know OLD DART but easy to guess.
All said and done, I enjoyed this but didn’t feel it was one of Monk’s best. But he does set a very high standard. Thanks all.
Being rather Monkist, I tend to overlook any oddities.
My main problem was finding his signature which he normally leaves.Maybe not this time
A good day with him, Knut and Nutmeg-three crackers!
The trickiest of the four cryptics I’ve solved today. Nellie Dean was a song featured on one of many 78s that my grandparents owned so was listened to many times in my childhood. Pipe as a synonym for cry or weep also featured in the same grandparents’ instructions not to ‘pipe one’s eye’
Thanks to Monk and Loonapick
Thanks to Monk and loonapick. I fared well on the right half but struggled with the left. Finally getting CLARINET and CHERUBIM helped, but OLD DART, my LOI, took a long time.
Thanks Loonapick.
I failed to get Sparky & Old Dart, and share your reservations about many of the other clues.
I swore out loud when I worked out that 4dn must be ASHTRAY.
Thanks both. Tough indeed with for me a few clues unsolved.
Pedant’s corner. Is CHERUBIM not the plural of CHERUB?
FOI 21d, LOI BEACHED. One error, SPORTY at 2d as it’s also a symonym for lively. Happy new year to you all from me here in Kenya.
Thanks Monk and loonapick
I think some of your quibbles can be addressed with reference to the building trade (as posted previously, I used to be a builders merchant).
A WEEP PIPE or VENT can be used to drain accumulating water/condensation from, say the cavity of a two-leaf wall.
In the days of timber front doors, we would ensure customers knew they had to SEAL / VARNISH (in the days before microporous products) it to prevent moisture seeping in and causing it to swell/distort.
In 18, the DOWNPIPE is what runs between the gutter on the roof and the gutter at ground level.
Along with 9A there’s almost a mini-theme of water disposal/protection here, water also being associated with reeds, cf OBOE and CLARINET, and also with ADAM’S ALE, with the rhythm being provided by SPARKY’s magic piano. And if you’re BEACHED, you are out of the water. I may be getting desperate here…
@7 Bracoman, I wondered the same thing and it was the only real issue I had with the puzzle, although I understand some of the reservations stated here earlier. I could not parse that clue anyway and needed Loonapick to help. But .. great to see a Monk in FT after a 3-month drought. When I saw one of his in the Indy this month I jumped on it. Now … what ever happened to Io in the FT?
Bracoman @4. I now remember thinking the same thing when I solved 16d but then forgot all about it. I did do some checking and could only find it as a plural. Over to you Monk.
Thanks to loonapick for blog and apologies to all for the accumulation of so many issues in one puzzle! Hopefully the following list covers all rebuttals/agreements.
## 8ac: (r) in Chambers, PIPE, intr. verb. = WEEP (defn 5)
## 1dn: (a) I knew Nellie Dean only as a pre-WW1 English pub song. Wikipedia confirms (?!) that it came here in 1907 having been written in the USA in 1905, so I’d say this is pretty marginal: it’s main popularity is clearly and widely known to be English.
## 4dn: (r/a) ASH-TRAY (3-4) is the enumeration inherent in the “Edited English” component of the UKACD used in Tea and Sympathy, though I agree that this is reflected in neither Collins nor Chambers.
## 7dn: (r) in Chambers, SMUG, adj. = neat, prim, SPRUCE (defn 2).
## 16dn: (a) Mea culpa! This could so easily have been rectified by prepending the clue with “More than one …”.
## 21dn: (r) as a lifelong DIY buff (since an apprenticeship in cabinet making in my early teens) I stand by the SEAL/VARNISH interchangeability highlighted by Simon S @9. Actually, the use of words that do not appear under each other’s definition lists yet are linked via a Thesaurus is not uncommon, and it generally induces debate both here and in another place. But that’s another story …
So I’d say that 16dn was the only rock-solid clanger but, in all fairness, it also eluded the subsequent editing and production process.
Finally, a rather personal Nina was contained in 12ac and the last 7 letters in across entries: SEE YOU, RIP BRIE: my tribute to the most gorgeous collie cross who departed in Oct 2018 after 14 gloriously fun-filled and active years with us. SPARKY, at 2dn, is my current JRT and has been thoroughly enjoying — — though we haven’t 🙂 — his new squeaky penguin since Xmas day.
Happy new year to all.
Thanks Monk for the detailed reply. Don’t know how I missed the SMUG = SPRUCE. Think I must have just looked up spruce and assumed I knew what smug could mean. I now note that this meaning for smug is listed as archaic in my Collins (but not so in Chambers).
Thanks Monk and loonapick
Found this quite difficult that required three increasingly longer sittings to get out. A couple of the more obscure definitions ‘pipe’ (a slang word for weep or cry) and SMUG (an archaic word for neat / spruce) I eventually found in my old Shorter Oxford Dictionary.
Enjoyed having a puzzle that needed each clue to be reluctantly prised out one at a time and a good sense of achievement when COLUMN finally went in as the last entry.