Super stuff – the solutions solutions seem obvious, but only appear so after a lot of hard work. Thanks Monk
I can see BEHIND CLOSED DOORS and FORTY SECOND STREET around the outside of the grid. Does anyone know how they are connected?
| Across | ||
| 1 | BEHIND | Past husband, one wearing bow (6) |
| H (husband) I (one) inside (wearing) BEND (bow) | ||
| 4 | CLOSED | Blocked miserly duke (6) |
| CLOSE (miserly) then D (duke) | ||
| 8 | FORGIVE | Around four, fabricate excuse (7) |
| IV (four) inside (with…around) FORGE (fabricate) | ||
| 9 | PIEBALD | Obvious to follow prices given the odds for a horse (7) |
| BALD (obvious) follows PrIcEs (odd letters of) | ||
| 11 | OLD SCRATCH | Holds Cratchet partly responsible for Dickens (3,7) |
| found inside (partly) hOLDS CRATCHet – Dickens and Old Scratch are nicknames for The Devil | ||
| 12 | ERGO | Bad-tempered person reflected thus (4) |
| OGRE (bad tempered person) reversed (reflected) | ||
| 13 | MOTTO | Saying too much in very little time (5) |
| OTT (too much) inside MO (moment, very little time) | ||
| 14 | DOCTOR NO | Film rent collected in retrograde old hoax (6,2) |
| TORN (rent) inside (collected in) O (old) COD (hoax) reversed (retrograde) | ||
| 16 | RANCHERO | Managed to get female superstar over for US worker (8) |
| RAN (managed) with CHER (female superstar) then O (over) | ||
| 18 | LUCRE | New clue about origin of rags and riches (5) |
| anagram (new) of CLUE containing (about) Rags (first letter of, origin) | ||
| 20 | TINY | Remove centre of tip any minute (4) |
| TIp aNY with centre removed | ||
| 21 | VIEWFINDER | Sight of wife driven mad (10) |
| anagram (mad) of WIFE DRIVEN | ||
| 23 | YELTSIN | Old Russian manoeuvred in style (7) |
| anagram (manoeuvred) of IN STYLE – Boris Yeltsin | ||
| 24 | COLONES | Central American money: five pesos ultimately required (7) |
| COLON (:) tehn last letters (ultimately) of fivE pesoS | ||
| 25 | SECOND | Order to go round commander’s back (6) |
| SEND (order) contains (to go round) CO (commander) | ||
| 26 | STREET | Unopened letters scattered about the homeless? (6) |
| anagram (scattered) of LETTERS missing first letter (unopened) – adjective describing things connected with homelessness | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BROIL | American cook’s right to block British and Australian news (5) |
| R (right) inside (to block) B (British) and OIL (news, Australian) – broil in the US is called grill in the UK | ||
| 2 | HIGH-SET | Lofty clique in the upper strata? (4-3) |
| HIGH (lofty) then SET (clique) | ||
| 3 | NEVERMORE | Just about runs further – but not hereafter (9) |
| EVEN (just) reversed (about) then R (runs) MORE (further) | ||
| 5 | LEIGH | Actress once left octet short (5) |
| L (left) then EIGHt (octet, short) – former actress, Vivien Leigh perhaps | ||
| 6 | SUBZERO | Frosty, definitively negative (7) |
| SUB ZERO (below zero, definitely negative) | ||
| 7 | DILIGENCE | Care required by daft Ozzie blokes getting picked up (9) |
| sounds like (getting picked up, by the ear) “dilly gents”, dilly is daft, Australian dialect | ||
| 10 | STUD POKER | Boss, one stirring up game for the better? (4,5) |
| STUD (boss) then POKER (one stirring up) | ||
| 13 | MEATINESS | Depth of substance in pits with small pick inside (9) |
| MINES (pits) with S (small) contains (with…inside) PICK (eat) | ||
| 15 | COLD FRONT | Weather system in Florida 14 almost changed (4,5) |
| anagram (changed) of FL (Florida) DOCTOR No (14 across, almost) | ||
| 17 | CRYPTIC | Hidden underground cell, leaders in international crime (7) |
| CRYPT (underground cell) then International Crime (leading letters in) | ||
| 19 | CONNOTE | Suggest additional meaning of denial covered by short story (7) |
| NO (denial) inside CONTE (a short story) | ||
| 21 | V-SIGN | Obscene gesture that can be picked out when going through investigation? (1-4) |
| the letters appear in order (can be picked out when going through) i n V e S t I G a t i o N. I’m not sure I have the right explanation here. | ||
| 22 | EJECT | Chuck out defective item with missing lid (5) |
| rEJECT (defective item) missing top letter (lid) | ||
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.
Phew! Some toughies here. Didn’t know OIL for Australian news or DILLY for daft. Cheated on COLONES which I also didn’t know. Failed to parse CONNOTE (another cheat for another word I didn’t know) as I had forgotten CONTE was a short story. Was convinced for ages that 6d was going to end in NO but the penny eventually dropped.
Saw the nina. Don’t think there is any connection between them.
Thought the inclusion at 11a was clever. Parsed 21d as in blog. An unusual clue but it works for me.
My one complaint is 12a. It annoys me when you need to wait for a crossing letter before you know if the answer is OGRE or ERGO. Moving “thus” (or, at a stretch “reflective”) gets around the problem even though it doesn’t read as well.
Minor error in blog. It doesn’t mention the reversal in 14a indicated by “retrograde”.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee.
Whoops! I meant “reflected” not “reflective” and I meant to say “Moving to the front” not just “Moving”.
Excellent puzzle as ever from Monk. I made things difficult for myself; having spotted FORTY down the LHS, I confidently put YEARS down the RHS (I already had ???RS). I wondered if this is how long Monk has been setting, though I’m pretty sure he’s not that old!
A search tells me BEHIND CLOSED DOORS is a song by Charlie Rich. I can’t find a connection between this and the musical 42nd Street or the street itself, though. I await enlightenment…
“Does anyone know how they are connected?” By fitting the available space?
Thanks PeeDee for the usual forensic, excellent blog, and to all for +ve feedback.
Apologies to Hovis#1: you are absolutely right (by implication) that an (adjectival) reversal indicator should not separate wordplay and definition, ergo on this occasion I was an ogre.
John Delfin#4 has it right: this was simply a ‘seeding Nina’ that fitted the grid in a to-me-novel way (i.e. a mixture of unches and entries), as my creativite-Nina muse was clearly on holiday at the time!
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee. I needed help parsing MEATINESS, did not spot the connection between STREET and homeless, and was defeated by COLONES.
Monk’s ninas are so neat and they also provide a leg up over the finish line. I was hoping that one of the Leigh’s had something to do with at least one of the titles.But I couldnt have my cake and eat it.
Viva Monk.
What a beast. I finish most days in the FT (thanks to all bloggers here for my continuing education) but only managed half a dozen entries here. But a superb crossword and blog – recommended reading for anyone looking to improve.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Hmm … that was tough ! The puzzle sat for a couple of days with -O-O-E- at 24a – and because I had initially parsed (and didn’t like) CONNOTE as CON NOTE, didn’t have full confidence in the answer. Eventually fell on the plural version of the Costa Rican currency and all was ended !! Even more eventually, I saw the proper parsing of CON-NO-TE.
Lots to savour along the way with inventive clueing, especially with the irregular V-SIGN trick (I liked it). Haven’t heard ‘DILLY’ used for ages and the term for information or news is usually [GOOD] OIL, as in “give me the good oil on the chances of this horse”.
Failed to see the nina which may have helped with FORGIVE and BROIL – my penultimate pair (is that even a term?).