A snowy Saturday in February brings a puzzle from Monk. It also marks my 250th blog.
Monk is one of the setters I am pleased to see composing the day’s puzzle – when it’s blogging duty, even better.
As to the clues – exactly what I expect, clued with precision and surfaces with humour. Too many to really select a favourite on clueing alone – so mention Dangerman (the late Patrick McGoohan, also of Prisoner fame played John Drake in the 1960s series) in a clue and you have a contender in my book (23ac is very elegant too) and mention the place I describe as God’s own country and you would also get my vote (7dn is the one I mean).
There were 3 words I did have to check in a dictionary 15ac, 19ac and 21dn.
Anything hidden in the grid?
1ac provides an oblique reference to something visible in the completed grid diagonally from the second e in 10ac to the y in 19ac, revealing ‘Economy’. 27ac also, though not from the point I was expecting (the end of 14ac) but from the first S in 17ac back along 17 across to the R and then diagonally parallel to ‘Economy’ to reveal ‘Service’. The third thing I spotted may be unintended but shows part of a saint from Monkwearmouth Benedict BISCOP (reversed in the leading diagonal). When Jarrow and Monkwearmouth were the global centres of learning and the venerable Bede documented his studies. Oh that the great kingdom of time was restored.
Many thanks Monk for a lovely puzzle – reminding me of a classic TV series, Burmese images and pre-Viking civilisation.
Key * anagram; DD Double definition; Rev. reversed; Underline definition
Across
1 He and I condoned my dodgy tax-free dealings? (6,7)
(he I condoned my)* = HIDDEN ECONOMY
10 People poetic at heart compose for organ, perhaps? (7)
Types (people) + et (poetic at heart) = TYPESET
10 Late exercises stopping at one (2,5)
At ace (at one) around pe (exercises) = AT PEACE
12 Not about to cut south, going west by old burial site (6,3)
(south)* around Rev. not + o (old) = SUTTON HOO
13 Work force turning back time (5)
Rev(Op + Met (Force as in police) ) = TEMPO
14 Violent guards in part look here (4)
Pt(part) around SS (violent guards) = PSST
15 Attention grabbers safe to assume extremely cushy numbers (9)
Sure (safe) in cy (extremely cushy) + nos (numbers) = CYNOSURES
17 Get trim on too much sport in an OTT way (9)
Dress (get trim) after over (too much) = OVERDRESS
19 Little boat‘s deviation from course line (4)
Yaw (deviation from course) + l (line) = YAWL
22 Ingredient of Christmas pickle, that’s clear (5)
Hidden ChristmAS PICkle = ASPIC
23 Danger Man‘s back, a light touch around half-nine? (9)
Rev. Sir (Man) + kiss (a light touch) around ni (half nine) = RISKINESS
25 Gas almost left in property (7)
Chatter (gas) – r + l (left) = CHATTEL
26 Mark again needs relative — second son (7)
Rel (Relative) + Abel (second son) = RELABEL
27 US agency initially sent in to hide Republican immorality (6,7)
Secrete (hide) around s (initially sent) + r (republican) + vice (immorality) = SECRET SERVICE
Down
2 Momentum member occupying fancy suite (7)
(suite)* around mp (member) = IMPETUS
3 Tyrant some Parisian beat up (6)
Des (some Parisian) + Rev. top (beat)
4 Nick cannot choose trousers (5)
Hidden canNOT CHoose = NOTCH
5 Nonces dispersed after tea dances (9)
Cha (tea) + (nonces)* = CHACONNES
6 Woman, one to write about old boy network? (8)
Rev.ms (woman) + I (one) + to + pen (write) = NEPOTISM
7 God, an incarnation of Vishnu, returning to embrace new country (7)
My (God) + Rev. Rama (incarnation of Vishnu) around n (new) = MYANMAR
8 Iraqi construction of phonetics translated with cunning (9,4)
(phonetics)* + arch (cunning) = CTESIPHON ARCH
9 Without pity, detective dominates inferior in bank (13)
Morse (detective) + less (inferior) in rely (bank) = REMORSELESSLY
15 Old racer clever tho’ eccentric (9)
(clever tho)* = CHEVROLET
16 Censor stopping course, reportedly upsetting teacher (8)
Cato (censor) in Rev. rude (Homonym – coarse) = EDUCATOR
18 India blocking exile, European, to make up for mistake (7)
Expat (exile) around I (India) + e (European) = EXPIATE
20 Bitter cabin crew finally cut out (7)
(cabi cre)* = ACERBIC
21 In a month, a lot of potential surrounding island (6)
kV (kilovolts) around isle(island) = KISLEV
24 Briefly conceal what makes for a slippery slope (5)
Screen(conceal) – n = SCREE
Congrats on your 250th blog, twencelas. What a great puzzle for it. Somehow, I got onto Monk’s wavelength today and finished fairly quickly. I suspect on another day, I may well have really struggled.
I didn’t know the Iraqi construction, so needed google for that. YAWL was another unknown. I knew CYNOSURES but had to check its meaning. CHACONNES was an easy guess.
Strangely, not long ago, I commented about SUTTON HOO appearing several times in cryptics and here it is again, making that a write-in for me.
Missed the hidden words related to 1a & 27a. Given that it is a Monk, I should have looked harder. Nice spot though.
Another fine Monk crossword, where once again I failed to spot the obvious
Thanks to him for the crossword and congratulations and thank you to twencelas
Yes, congratulations on your milestone, twencelas and well done for picking the diagonal Ninas which always elude me.
The ‘Iraqi construction’ at 1d and the ‘month’ at 21d defeated me (I incorrectly guessed “megavolts”, not “kilovolts” for ‘a lot of potential’) but I found this a very enjoyable challenge nonetheless. I couldn’t understand the ‘Old racer’ def for CHEVROLET so looked it up post-solve. I had no idea about the motor racing history of the Chevrolet brothers, the founders of the automobile company. Very interesting.
Looks (and sounds) simple, but PSST was my favourite among many good clues.
Thanks and congrats again to twencelas, and to Monk
I didn’t find this the hardest of Monks (but like Hovis I had to google for 8dn).
However, I totally missed the nina – a very nice one!
If 14ac (PSST) were to be PASS, then ‘service’ would appear in a straight line (starting from the last letter of 14ac).
Would have been even nicer, in my opinion.
Thanks twenceslas & Monk.
Congrats twenceslas on 250th
I love Monk’s puzzles and feel like a full grid without discovering the extras is almost a DNF
But the diagonal nina eluded me-I expect that more in a barred puzzle
Thanks Monk
I started well, getting 1A (my favourite of the day) and 9D quickly, but after a while started to struggle. At least I learned five new words and places in 15A, 19A, 5D, 8D and 21D.
Thanks, Monk and twencelas. All fell neatly in place with just the right resistance, except 8, which was a bit of a tricky anagram to work out if you are unfamiliar with the CTESIPHON ARCH. If, like me, you tuned in here to find out what it was, see here.
I agree that a trick and a satisfying symmetry were missed by not using a word like ‘pass’ at 14. Seems coming up with an alternative would be a piece of …
Too tough for me – learning experience!
Thanks Monk and Twencelas for expanding my brain
We found this quite easy as Monk’s puzzles go. We did know ‘ctesiphon arch’ as a general term for an arch in the form of an inverted catenary, but hadn’t realised until we googled it that the name derived from the original in Iraq (see for an illustration). We do have a quibble, though with 2dn, in that IMPETUS is not the same as momentum. A moving body has momentum, wheras an impetus is the force that puts the body in motion. One or two that we couldn’t or didn’t parse, such as EDUCATOR.
Thanks, Monk; thanks and congratulations , twencelas.
@9: Don’t know what went wrong there but if you click anywhere on the text in blue you should see an illustration of the original arch.
Congratz to twencelas on the milestone and all the work put in so far, and thanks to Monk for the usual fun.
Just seen this thread, 4 weeks after publication. Two points need to be addressed.
[1] Irritated here in the monastery that somehow PASS changed to PSST in a late-night revision, because original grid had SERVICE on the diagonal, as guessed by Sil@4 above.
[2] Re comment from allan_c@9, impetus (a.k.a. impulse) is not simply a force, but rather a force integrated over the duration of application. Hence both impetus/impulse and momentum have the same dimensions — mass * length / time — making them equivalent physical quantities; in the SI system the units are kg m / s.