An entertaining puzzle as always from Monk, and a message?
There are a lot of goodbyes in here and an ominous RETIREMENT. Is Monk about to retire? If this is really so then his puzzles will be sorely missed by me. UPDATE: the comment from Gurney @6 suggests this may be a retirement from the daytime-job only. That’s a relief.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PENNY WHISTLES | Small change by Welsh, playing round first objects fixed in pitch? (5-8) |
| PENNY (small change) then anagram (playing) of WELSH containing IST (first) | ||
| 8 | TA-TA | Goodbye to all those armies on the front (2-2) |
| first letters (on the front) of To All Those Armies | ||
| 9 | UNIVERSITY | In it, survey foreign body of intelligence? (10) |
| anagram (foreign) of IN IT SURVEY | ||
| 10 | GOSHEN | Crikey – earth and neutral leads where light should be? (6) |
| GOSH (crikey) then first letters (leads) of Earth and Neutral – a land of light and plenty in The Bible | ||
| 11 | GOOD TURN | Worry about revolution seizing old benefit (4,4) |
| DOG (worry) reversed (about) and TURN (revolution) contain (seizing) O (old) | ||
| 12 | ONE | Somebody, at last, who can cope (3) |
| last letters of whO caN copE | ||
| 14 | FAREWELL | It’s over the hill, showing abnormal wear internally (8) |
| FELL (the hill) contains (showing…internally) anagram (abnormally) of WEAR | ||
| 17 | ANNEX | Female getting vote is appropriate (5) |
| ANNE (female, woman’s name) with X (vote) | ||
| 18 | SPACE | “… small step …” once heard from it? (5) |
| S (small) PACE (step) – “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” heard from space | ||
| 20 | SAYONARA | Parting shot when backing that docked horse (8) |
| AS (when) reversed (backing) YON (that) ARAb (horse, docked=shortened) – goodbye | ||
| 25 | ISM | Dismayed, suppressing belief (3) |
| found inside (suppressed by) dISMayed | ||
| 26 | TOGETHER | What suitor might want in company (8) |
| TO GET HER (what suitor might want) | ||
| 27 | INTERN | Successively picked up one learning the ropes (6) |
| sounds like (picked up) “in turn” (successively) | ||
| 29 | RETIREMENT | Note soldiers hiding in shade for privacy (10) |
| RE (note, musical) then REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) inside TINT (shade, colour) | ||
| 30 | CIAO | All the best food is caught (4) |
| sounds like (is caught, did you catch that?) “chow” (food) | ||
| 31 | SQUASH LADDERS | In which the level of one’s rackets are exposed (6,7) |
| cryptic definition, For those who are interested in such things: I would have expected rackets is exposed since level is a singular noun, the level is exposed not the rackets themselves. Incidentally, rackets as a game is a singular noon too. Thanks to Andrew for tidying this up for me. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PLAY OFF | Set against trifle? No longer on the menu (4,3) |
| PLAY (trifle) OFF (no longer on the menu) | ||
| 2 | NEATH | Below Old Bull and Bush at the end (5) |
| NEAT (bull, old=archaic) then busH (end letter of) | ||
| 3 | YOU KNOW | Shaky about holding our brief pointless conversation? (3,4) |
| WONKY (shaky) reversed (about) contains OUr (brief) | ||
| 4 | HAIR GEL | It’s designed to give you a stiff shock (4,3) |
| cryptic definition – a shock of hair | ||
| 5 | SEE YOU | Extremists in Cymru heard for so long (3,3) |
| sounds like (heard) “C U” the extremes of CymrU | ||
| 6 | LUSITANIA | Liner in Italian suit repaired after hems are dropped (9) |
| anagram (repaired) of iTALIAN SUIt missing outer letters (after hems are dropped) – British cruise liner sunk during WWI | ||
| 7 | SET FREE | Deliver frame with compliments (3,4) |
| SET (frame) and FREE (with compliments) | ||
| 13 | NEWS | Recent information from all sectors (4) |
| N E W S (north, south, east west – all sectors) | ||
| 15 | RICHELIEU | Cardinal cruel – he and I tortured one on the inside (9) |
| anagram (tortured) of CUREL HE and I containing (…on the inside) I (one) | ||
| 16 | LAYS | Covers kill, head to toe (4) |
| SLAY (kill) first letter to the end (head to toe) | ||
| 19 | PROFESS | Strongly declare media should hold on (7) |
| PRESS (media) contains (should hold) OF (on) | ||
| 21 | AIR-BELL | Bubble found in form of Braille (3-4) |
| anagram (form) of BRAILLE | ||
| 22 | OMITTED | Left out dictionary opened by hand (7) |
| OED (Oxford English Dictionary) contains (opened by) MITT (hand) | ||
| 23 | ARREARS | Disheartened auditor backs debt (7) |
| AuditoR (dis-heartened, no middle) then REARS (backs) | ||
| 24 | CHEERS | Good health food succeeded (6) |
| CHEER (food) S (succeeded) | ||
| 28 | TACHE | Finally outwit smart walrus, maybe (5) |
| outwiT (final letter of) then ACHE (smart) – a walrus moustache maybe | ||
It should be “is” instead of “are” in 31a, but it’s because the subject of the verb is “level”, not “rackets”.
I hope it was not symbolic as Monk would be sorely missed, especially in these times.
Great puzzle.
Andrew @1 – that’s right. I knew it sounded wrong but I couldn’t spot the right reason.
I too hope there isn’t a message in this one – Crosswordland wouldn’t be the same without Monk in all his guises. The DT cryptic has two ‘farewell’ solutions as well.
Great crossword – thanks to Monk and PeeDee
Maybe Monk is retiring/ stepping down from his chair at Leeds and this means loads more puzzles
Entirely a guess but wondered if the symmetrical-placed answers at 9A, 29A, were (part of) the theme.
or maybe 14 4 and 28 are telling us Monk has decided to go for the Toby Young look
In 19d, could you help me to understand how ‘of’ means ‘on’?
Kevin – I wondered that too so I looked it up and it is in Chambers. The 17th definition for “of” in “on” but they don’t give any explanation in what circumstances it is used. “On” id not have a definition for “of” though, so it only works one way.
I think of = on = about (a subject). “More clarification on this” or “more clarification of this”. It’s a bit loose though.
To Kevin & PeeDee:
I think they’re interchangeable in the sense, ‘on the topic of’. Thus, “He spoke for 2 hours and 27 minutes on/of ‘Why accountancy is not boring’”.
Challenging puzzle, thanks to both & concur with all on the subject of this great setter’s possible retirement.
Thank you!
Thanks for the blog PeeDee…..
baerchen @5 I like the way you think and Gurney @6 may have unveiled the truth. I’ve done American cryptics for years but British ones only recently. I’m just getting to the point where I can actually solve many of Monk’s brilliant clues so count me in as someone who would like to see more of his work. Favorites in this crossword were ANNEX and CIAO. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Gurney @6 – thank you for that insightful observation. You have put my mind at ease!
Great puzzle – many thanks to Monk and to PeeDee for the blog! Tony @14 – I’m from the UK originally but now living permanently in the US. Please can you point me to some good American cryptics? 24d!
Steve @16 — The Cox/Rathvon team set good puzzles. Every 4 weeks they have one @ blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/ (The most recent on 3/21 was a beauty.) They also have a weekly @ natpostcryptic.blogspot.com — those are less of a challenge. Harper’s magazine has a monthly that’s usually tough; you have to subscribe to get it.
Tony @17: Thanks!
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Another entertaining puzzle from this setter who hopefully is only retiring from his day job and not this one. Had a couple of quick sessions followed by a more dedicated one early yesterday morning in which the rest of it was finished. Twigged to a theme of ‘goodbyes’ early on that helped with a couple of answers later on – SAYONARA and especially CIAO.
Lots of good clues – the ones for SPACE and TOGETHER probably my favourites.
Finished in the NE corner with UNIVERSITY and SET FREE being the last in … and looking back wondering why.