Happy New Year to all at fifteensquared!
It’s been almost 6 months since we last blogged a Monk puzzle, so we were delighted to find one of his puzzles as our first blog of the new decade.
We were interested to note that the grid includes an usually large number of longer entries and only 22 clues, resulting in a relatively quick solve.
We were however stuck in South-west corner for a while, partly due to being a bit slow to recognise the definition on 1d, partly due to the unusual definition at 17d and partly not having come across the entry at 20ac. We needed a little electronic help to check the last two, but all-in-all it was an enjoyable solve.
Across
7 Sweet cats cuddling with rotund chap (5,2,8)
QUEEN OF PUDDINGS
QUEENS (female cats) round or ‘cuddling’ PUDDING (‘rotund chap’)
9 Whip almost slicing bottom, as is this? (6)
ACROSS
CROp (whip) without the last letter or ‘almost’ in or ‘slicing’ ASS (bottom) – this is an ACROSS clue
10 Alpinist injured in uncontrolled descent (8)
TAILSPIN
An anagram of ALPINIST – anagrind is ‘injured’
11 Come by tramp, having spotted horse (4,4)
BUMP INTO
BUM (tramp) PINTO (spotted horse)
12 Pop off right away from Bloomsbury thoroughfare (2,4)
GO WEST
GOWEr ST (‘Bloomsbury thoroughfare’) without the ‘r’ (right)
13 Somehow slit almost traps toe on elephant’s foot (8,5)
TORTOISE PLANT
An anagram of SLIT, TRAPs (without the last letter or ‘almost’) and TOE IN – anagrind is ‘somehow’
16 Stiff cleaver finally cutting thicket (6)
CORPSE
R (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘cleaver’) in or ‘cutting’ COPSE (thicket)
18 Gave notice to assistant about to get forced out (8)
APPRISED
PA (‘assistant’) reversed or ‘about’ + PRISED (forced out)
20 University medic, one joining large chemical company once showing signs of depression? (8)
UMBILICI
U (university) MB (medic) I (one) L (large) ICI (‘chemical company once’). This was one that needed a word search at the end although we were annoyed that we hadn’t worked out the full parsing.
21 Easily persuaded president to drop subject (6)
LIABLE
pLIABLE (easily persuaded) without the ‘p’ (president)
22 Gathering with a notable crowd once last bit of perimeter fence is fixed (5,10)
PRESS CONFERENCE
PRESS (crowd) + an anagram of ONCE, R (last letter or ‘bit’ of ‘perimeter’) and FENCE – anagrind is ‘fixed’
Down
1 Patrick on autumn broadcast? (11,4)
PUNCTUATION MARK
An anagram of PATRICK ON AUTUMN – anagrind is ‘broadcast’ – the question mark at the end is the definition
2 Jazz fan‘s order to dance? (8)
BEBOPPER
If you were told to BE a BOPPER, you might have been given an ‘order to dance’
3 Alarm signal — poison reported (6)
TOCSIN
A homophone (‘reported’) of TOXIN (poison)
4 Making sense of stuffing uniform top to bottom (6,2)
ADDING UP
PADDING (stuffing) U (uniform, in the phonetic alphabet) with the ‘p’ (first letter or ‘top’) moved to the end or ‘bottom’
5 Jerk understood puzzle (6)
JIGSAW
JIG (jerk) SAW (understood)
6 On a checklist? Tag criminal promptly (7,3,5)
AGAINST THE CLOCK
An anagram of ON A CHECKLIST and TAG – anagrind is ‘criminal’
8 International patrol sent to exploded garage (6,7)
PETROL STATION
An anagram of I (international) PATROL SENT TO – anagrind is ‘exploded’
14 Record breaking old relative in leotard, say (3-5)
ONE-PIECE
EP (record) in or ‘breaking’ O (old) NIECE (relative)
15 Excited by a delay about holding mass (8)
ANIMATED
A + DETAIN (delay) reversed or ‘about’ round or ‘holding’ M (mass)
17 On time, peers one knocks off perch, say (6)
PRIEST
T (time) after or ‘on’ PRIES (peers) – apparently a ‘priest’ is a cosh for killing fish such as perch. This was one of the clues that needed a word search.
19 Again flick up whip (6)
PILFER
RE FLIP (‘again flick’) reversed or ‘up’
It was only when looking at your grid that I twigged that PETROL STATION is an anagram of TORTOISE PLANT. Didn’t see it while solving.
Thanks Phi – we didn’t spot that despite looking for something in the grid.
Thanks Monk, Bertandjoyce and Phi. Needed some aids with this one and failed to parse PRIEST – new meaning for me as well. I feel that I still don’t understand 7a. Blog doesn’t explain the “of”. I assume “of” can equate to “with” but can’t quite see this yet.
I struggled to get going with this and was resigned to failing but then saw Punctuation Mark and the juices started to flow! I don’t understand the ‘of’ in 7A either, but thanks to Monk and B&J and happy new decade to one and all.
We hadn’t noticed the missing OF in the parsing. Apologies – perhaps someone can help out. OF = WITH seems a bit strange.
Agreed that OF=WITH does not feel right, but ‘with’ is one of the definitions for ‘of’ in Chambers (no. 12 in the app) so I suppose it is legitimate. Overall I found this hard and this was one of the clues I hesitated over even after guessing the right answer.
I struggled mightly in the SE corner but now I really can’t see any reason for it
The BRB has many definitions of ‘of’ one of which is indeed ‘with’
Happy New Year to Monk and B&J – the former for the brain-mangling and the latter for the blog
Thanks B&J, Monk and Phi-I was looking for Monk’s signature and it took a fellow setter to spot it.
I did remember PRIEST but wasn’t familiar with the ‘Sweet’ at 7a (sorry, can’t help with OF =’with’) or with the very strange looking TORTOISE PLANT. Given that the answer was in the plural, I thought ‘depression’ in 20a should have been as well, although that would have spoiled the surface. Who knows, maybe Monk meant the genitive singular of ‘umbilicus’, not the plural.
I liked the crosswordy TOCSIN and 1d which helped with a similar clue elsewhere today. The crossing anagram (which I didn’t see) was v. clever.
Thanks to Monk and B&J
Having thought some more about “of” = “with”, the best I have come up with is “a man of honour”, or perhaps, “to die of hunger”. Seem close enough to me. What do others think?
@10Hovis “a man of honour” at a pinch, but no way the second suggestion.
Enjoyed this a lot. Long anagrams are very enjoyable at times, as here.
Thanks to Monk and Bartandjoyce.
Re 7a; I thought of “made of wood”/”made with wood”, but it’s not really an exact match.
Fowler’s “Modern English Usage” mentions using “of” with “bored”, as in “I’m bored of this”/”I’m bored with this”, but calls the former a “regrettable tendency” which has emerged in recent years.
We struggled with the elephant’s foot, guessing we needed an alternative name for it but it wasn’t until crossing letters suggested TORTOISE PLANT that we worked out what the anagram fodder was. Even then we had to check in Chambers, which doesn’t mention ‘tortoise plant’ in the definition of “elephant’s foot”, only vice-versa.
Missed the crossing anagrams (thanks, Phi), probably because we were too relieved to have got the across one.
In 20ac ‘signs’ is plural so UMBILICI (plural) is sort of OK. ‘Sort of’ because an umbilicus is surely an actual depression rather than a sign of one.
Nearly got caught out not spotting the definition of 1dn despite having encountered similar tricks in the past.
No real CoD but we liked TAILSPIN and BUMP INTO among others.
Thanks, Monk and B&J.
Tom @9. Yes, I prefer your examples. I would never say “bored of this” but English is an ever-evolving language. Certainly way more acceptable than the cringe-worthy use of “of” for “have” as in “I would of done this if I had time”.
Or even ‘I should of done this and I could of if I would of had time!’. I am often amazed at the people who think this is correct usage. This is just one (or three) of many annoying linguistic faux pas which will one day become an acceptable part of our evolving language, like ‘I was sat’ or ‘we were stood’ which are now in frequently heard on the BBC.
As for Monk, once I got Patrick Moor out of my head at 1d and smiled at the definition, it all flowed fairly easily. Guessed Gower St and didn’t notice the troublesome ‘with/of’ combo. So all good thank you!
almw3 @ 15
“I was sat” and “I was stood” aren’t neologisms. They’ve been common linguistically in NW England for at least 50 years.