It’s been nearly two years since we last had the pleasant challenge of blogging a Monk puzzle
Monk often includes a theme or nina in his puzzles, but we can’t see one here. The inclusion of the unusual word at 21d (for which Monk kindly gave us a relatively simple clue) suggests that there may be something going on, but maybe not.
There were several rather crafty definitions here – some may say too crafty?
At one point during the solve we thought we might be heading for a pangram, but there is no J, Q or V
Overall this was an enjoyable Saturday stirring of the old grey matter.
Across
1 Perhaps Ford’s bodyguard is almost stupid about panic (7)
MUDFLAP
DUMb (stupid) without the last letter or ‘almost’ and reversed or ‘about’ + FLAP (panic)
5 Releases universal web addresses hacked by far-right group (7)
UNFURLS
U (universal) URLS (web addresses) round or ‘hacked by’ NF (National Front – ‘far-right group’)
9 Stories about topless nooky suppressed by team, duty dodgers? (3,6)
TAX EXILES
TALES (stories) round sEX (nooky) without the first letter or ‘topless’ in or ‘suppressed by’ XI (eleven – ‘team’)
10 Compere regularly organised by head of entertainment (5)
EMCEE
A clue-as-definition – an anagram of the alternate or ‘regular’ letters of CoMpErE and E (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘entertainment’) – anagrind is ‘organised’
11 Unexpectedly, say, forgets a series of novels (7,4)
FORSYTE SAGA
An anagram of SAY FORGETS A – anagrind is ‘unexpectedly’
12 Everyone mentioned a boring thing (3)
AWL
A homophone (‘mentioned’) of ALL (everyone)
13 Intense activity surrounding new kind of pancake (6)
BLINTZ
BLITZ (intense activity) round N (new) – a new word for us
15 Door to landing admitting bird (7)
ORTOLAN
Hidden in or ‘admitted to’ doOR TO LANding – we struggled over this one, never having heard of the bird – then realised how obvious it should have been
17 Gentleman put back fragrant oil dish (7)
RISOTTO
SIR (gentleman) reversed or ‘put back’ OTTO (fragrant oil)
19 Quaint, dinky, extremely outdoorsy? (6)
TWEEDY
TWEE (quaint) + DinkY (first and last letters or ‘extremes’)
22 Argue about fish (3)
GAR
RAG (argue) reversed or ‘about’ – a new synonym of ‘argue’ for us
23 One held in conflict in Crimea to broadcast reactionary aftermath? (6,5)
ATOMIC POWER
POW (prisoner of war – ‘one held in conflict’) in an anagram of CRIMEA TO – anagrind is ‘broadcast’
25 Northern drinkers start to fade by lunchtime in canteen (5)
NAAFI
N (northern) AA (alcoholics anonymous – ‘drinkers’) F (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘fade’) I (one – 1pm – ‘lunchtime’)
26 Reserve WC, say, where polar explorers may go? (9)
ICEFIELDS
ICE (reserve) FIELDS (WC Fields, the American actor / comedian)
27 How Florence could have been seen by night? (7)
LAMPLIT
A cryptic definition, referring to Florence Nightingale, ‘the Lady of the LAMP’
28 Shortly off to stay in an island state (7)
SARAWAK
AWAy (‘off’) without the last letter or ‘shortly’ ‘staying’ in SARK (island – one of the Channel Islands)
Down
1 Auto-test conditions for themes (6)
MOTIFS
MOT (test for cars or ‘autos’) IFS (conditions)
2 Pad finally getting bye, perhaps on left or on right (7)
DEXTRAL
D (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘pad’) EXTRA (‘bye, perhaps’ – in cricket) L (left)
3 Very big deposit passed round in a negligent way (5)
LAXLY
XL (extra large – ‘very big’) with LAY (deposit) outside or ‘passed round’
4 Scientific historian translated apologies to Zola (15)
PALAEOZOOLOGIST
An anagram of APOLOGIES TO ZOLA – anagrind is ‘translated’
5 In the main, this is not a desirable quality (15)
UNSEAWORTHINESS
A cryptic definition – ‘in the main’ referring to the SEA
6 At liberty to keep servant on and off till port appears (9)
FREMANTLE
FREE (at liberty) round or ‘keeping’ MAN (servant) T L (alternate letters – ‘on and off’ – of ’till’)
7 Forecast area of pitch before everybody (7)
ROCKALL
ROCK (pitch) ALL (everybody) – a sea area in the Shipping Forecasts
8 Enchanting component of education (8)
SPELLING
Double definition
14 Fellow‘s drunk a ninth ale (9)
NATHANIEL
An anagram of A NINTH ALE – anagind is ‘drunk’
16 Single drink taken into exam — that’s novel (8)
ORIGINAL
I (single) GIN (drink) in ORAL (exam)
18 Insulting lingo, mostly imprudent, retracted before opening in speech (7)
SARCASM
RASh (imprudent) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ and reversed or ‘retracted’ + a homophone (‘in speech’) of CHASM (opening)
20 Setter’s redundant digital feature (7)
DEWCLAW
A cryptic definition, the ‘setter’ being a dog
21 Pair is going north in Great Britain, more or less to climb with equipment (6)
PRUSIK
PR (pair) + IS reversed or ‘going north’ in UK (Great Britain, ‘more or less’ i.e. without Northern Ireland) – we’d never come across this word before
24 Previous boss of Monk? (5)
PRIOR
Double definition – the ‘monk’ being one in a monastic order, not our setter
Always look forward to a Monk crossword but this one didn’t appeal so much. Maybe there is something clever going on that I have failed to spot.
Got stuck in the bottom right having never heard of DEWCLAW, PRUSIK or SARAWAK. I did guess PRUSIK from the wordplay though. I also don’t like the use of AA for “drinkers” in 25a.
Despite these issues, a pleasant enough solve so thanks to Monk and Bertandjoyce.
Nice crossword (ie we solved it), though a few new words – dewclaw and blintz. Prusik is a common climbing word though I didn’t know that was the spelling. As someone who uses sarcasm, I never thought of it as insulting but perhaps the dictionary has no sense of humour. Thanks for the blog.
Such a cool and neat setter is Monk as is the musician that I bope he gets the name from.
Cool blog too. Nice? as we say in Jazz club.
A bit more gentle than Monk’s last appearance in the FT, but with enough to keep the solver honest including the BLINTZ and PRUSIK unknowns and the parsing of a few such as EMCEE. If there is ‘something going on’, I’ve missed it too.
I liked DEWCLAW – watching TV vet shows is educational as well as entertaining- and FORSYTE SAGA, which I remember well as a B&W TV series with Susan Hampshire, Nyree Dawn Porter et al 50+ years ago.
Thanks to Monk and B&J
We got held up in the SE corner, too. We didn’t know PRUSIK but it couldn’t be anything else after we got SARAWAK and was soon checked in Chambers. BLINTZ was new to us but guessed from knowing ‘blini’. But we found the two 15-letter down answers to be write-in. We thought the use of ‘drinkers’ for AA was a bit unfortunate, too, as that organisation is for those who have, given up drink or are trying to.
But thanks, Monk and B&J.