A tricky puzzle from Monk, but a satisfying one to get to the bottom of. Thank you Monk.
The grid contains a pangram, but Monk usually has more going on than this. I am too mentally beaten-up to look any more closely at the grid at the moment. If you can spot anything then please do leave a comment.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FASCES |
Group of rods beginning to seize inside clocks (6)
|
| first letter (beginning to) of Seize inside FACES (clocks) – as held by a Roman magistrate | ||
| 5 | SYNOPSIS |
One’s £25 held back by extremely specious summary (8)
|
| I’S (one) PONY (£25, slang) reversed (back) inside (…is held by…) SpeciouS (extremes of) | ||
| 9 | ORCA |
Killer caught in police trap lasts only seconds (4)
|
| C (caught) inside second letters (only seconds) of pOlice tRap lAsts – a Killer Whale | ||
| 10 | FRIENDSHIP |
Attachment ceases in a day with it (10)
|
| ENDS (ceases) inside FRI (Friday, a day) then HIP (with it) | ||
| 11 | RICKSHAW |
Cart a lot of hay and a little wood (8)
|
| RICK (a lot of hay) and SHAW (a small wood) | ||
| 12 | OPIATE |
Work knocked back after single sedative (6)
|
| OP (opus, work) then ATE (knocked back) following I (single) | ||
| 13 | AQUATICS |
Maybe rushes quasi-act for reform (8)
|
| anagram (for reform) of QUASI-ACT – water plants, rushes perhaps | ||
| 15 | MEOW |
Reply to spiteful remarks in separate halves of game show (4)
|
| gaME shOW (halves of, separate indicates not contiguous?) | ||
| 17 | UZIS |
Arms swizz put back intermittently (4)
|
| every other letter (intermittently) of SwIzZ pUt reversed (back) – machine guns | ||
| 19 | BESTREWN |
Outwit uninitiated gang leader in news spread? (8)
|
| BEST (outwit) cREW (gang) missing first letter (uninitiated) then first letter (leader) of News | ||
| 20 | POWWOW |
One no longer free to fight before my meeting (6)
|
| POW (one no longer free to fight) then WOW (my, exclamation) | ||
| 21 | EX GRATIA |
Extra takings evenly distributed as a favour (2,6)
|
| anagram (distributed) of EXTRA with tAkInGs (every other, evenly) | ||
| 22 | IN MEMORIAM |
Folly on collapsed mine marks final tribute (2,8)
|
| MORIA (folly) following (on) anagram (collapsed) of MINE then M (marks) | ||
| 23 | EVIL |
Pass over wrongdoing (4)
|
| LIVE (to spend or pass) reversed (over) | ||
| 24 | TENERIFE |
String of sure-fire networks put around island (8)
|
| found inside (a string of letters from) surE-FIRE NETworks reversed (put around) | ||
| 25 | NEPALI |
National Alpine resort? (6)
|
| anagram (re-sort) of ALPINE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AIR RIFLE |
Weapon to expose disarray (3,5)
|
| AIR (to expose) and RIFLE (disarray) – definition as a verb | ||
| 3 | CRACKJAW |
Unintroduced statute quashed by expert judge? Hard to say specifically (8)
|
| LAW (statute) missing first letter (unintroduced) following (quashed by, underneath in a down answer) CRACK (expert) J (judge) | ||
| 4 | SAFE HOUSE |
Peter and domestic offer refuge (4,5)
|
| SAFE (peter, slang) and HOUSE (domestic, as adjective) | ||
| 5 | SWIM WITH THE TIDE |
Conform with dimwit, having these filled in (4,4,3,4)
|
| anagram (filled in, having been punched?) of WITH DIMWIT and THESE | ||
| 6 | OEDIPUS |
Form of complex reference is getting backed up for inclusion (7)
|
| OED (Oxford English Dictionary, a reference work) then IS containing (getting…for inclusion) UP reversed (backed) | ||
| 7 | SCHMALTZ |
Sentimentality shown by married women leaving dance after school (8)
|
| M (married) then wALTZ (dance) missing (leaving) W (women) all following SCH (school) | ||
| 8 | SUPREMES |
Well-known trio in revolt concerning bungle that’s finally come to the fore (8)
|
| RE (concerning) MESS UP (bungle) with SUP (the final part) moved to the front – Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross | ||
| 14 | CLERGYMAN |
Minister Churchill, at his limits, bombed Germany (9)
|
| ChurchilL (outer leters, at his limits) then anagram (bombed) of GERMANY | ||
| 15 | MIDPOINT |
Centre of dark round item (8)
|
| DIM (dark) reversed (round) then POINT (item) | ||
| 16 | OLD WOMAN |
Wife runs away from moorland, upsetting mum insensitively (3,5)
|
| anagram (unsetting) of W (wife) and MOOrLAND missing R (runs) | ||
| 17 | UNMADE-UP |
Peacekeepers chuffed, avoiding slap? (6-2)
|
| UN (United Nations, peacekeepers) and MADE-UP (chuffed, happy) – slap is cosmetics | ||
| 18 | INDICIAL |
Unlimited line I see in face showing marks (8)
|
| lINe (no outer letters, unlimited) then I C (see, name of letter) inside DIAL (face) | ||
| 19 | BLOOMER |
Flower from 50, 60 to 70 year old now going around? (7)
|
| L (50, Roman numeral) inside (with…going around) BOOMER (baby boomer, someone now 60-70 years old) |
A tough workout. Too many unknowns for me to list but all clued so that I could guess them and then check in my Chambers. The only clue I disliked was 17d where I didn’t like either the word or the clue. I never particularly like a reversal indicator, “over” in 23a, being placed between the two parts. Monk may argue that it should properly refer to the preceding word but many (most?) setters regularly use Yoda speak, as it were. Not objecting here, just commenting.
The blog for 2d has the wrong bit underlined.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
A couple of minor typos in the blog: 5ac needs to be IS (One’s) PONY reversed inside SS, and in 6dn, the IS is not reversed.
Actually my correction to the parsing of 6dn is itself wrong. It should be OED + IS containing UP reversed.
I can see Forman and Ali in the grid but not the rest of the Nina that I am sure must be there. A great workout as usual by Monk. Thanks also to PeeDee.
Thanks to Pelham and Hovis for spotting the mistakes. Fixed Now.
Steven @4 – a boxing theme would explain why I was left feeling mentally beaten up after writing the blog.
The pangram was screaming at me from the off.
After Eccles and Picaroon this was like all the buses coming at once.
Wow, what a chore. Some mild issues:
15A I have also spelled with five letters – the missing one being an I.
1A – not a word I know.
18A – not a word I know.
20A – I have only ever seen as two words.
15A – I cannot reconcile “point” as a synomym for “item”.
I feel for you, PeeDee, as I too feel rather goggle-eyed after a few rounds with this very challenging grid.
In the end, it was just INDICIAL which eluded me despite having all but parsed it correctly.
It was tough-going but at least I saw the pangram for my efforts.
I learned ‘peter’ as slang for SAFE, just one of several answers not fully parsed or scored on definition alone.
I shouldn’t like to give the impression that this was a chore, however, as there was so much to admire. I liked CLERGYMAN (surface), MEOW, OEDIPUS and SLAP. I agree with Hovis @1 that SLAP is a horrible word (reason enough to eschew war paint) but it brought back some funny memories and raised a smile.
Thanks PeeDee for a valiant if bruising encounter and Monk for a devilishly tricky puzzle.
I did wonder about ‘knocked back’ for ATE (12) – didn’t see what else it could be but I thought it was more usual to see drinks rather than food knocked back.
Hovis @1,
Sorry, you referred to UNMADE-UP while I recoiled at SLAP!
Monk was definitely in a tough mood when he set this pangram, but as usual I enjoyed the battle – I even spotted Ali and Forman
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee
Took a beating on this one. Many of the same unknowns as others, to which I would add SHAW for ‘little wood’ and MORIA for ‘folly’ and ended up by missing CRACKJAW, despite thinking of the pangram.
Peter @8, I wondered about POINT for ‘item’ too but think it works as in “an item for discussion” = “a point for discussion”. Took me a long time to get the answer in the first place though.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee
Defeated by this one and agree with many comments and lists of unknown words except FASCES which was my FOI and definitely in common(ish) use . Good to have one’s complacency bruised by a very tough puzzle.
Peter @9 re 15dn and further to WordPlodder @13: About a third of the way down a very long list of definitions of point in Chambers (2014) is “a heading, clause, or item”. I always work on the principle that if a definition appears in a respectable dictionary, then the setter is entitled to use it.
8D I parsed as UP (in revolt) RE (concerning) MESS (bungle) – S moved to the front (that’s finally coming to the fore). The blog does not appear to use “in revolt”. Thanks to Monk and PeeDee for very enjoyable puzzle and blog.
I admit I’m terrible at spotting Ninas, but I’m having a real problem with this one. I see “FORM”, but not “FORMAN”. Perhaps more to the point, however, is that the boxer who fought Ali was George Foreman, not Forman.
Thanks for the blog, very thorough, my points and favourites covered by comments above.
I did actually think UNMADE-UP was a very neat clue and always nice to see BESTREWN , such a lovely word.
ORCA are actually dolphins, it is just that the dolphins have better PR than the whales.
Roz @6 – I didn’t know Orcas are dolphins, thanks for that snippet of information. I have capitalised Killer Whale in the blog so it is clear that it is only a name.
Dolphins get a very good press of course and Orca are vicious , brutal killers so we must call them something else.
I was only joking really, your Killer Whale is the accepted name generally.
I saw the Nina as being a dedication of the puzzle FOR ALI (helped by the unusual grid pattern), with FRIENDSHIP and IN MEMORIAM perhaps being significant.
I like the look of that Andrew. If Ali was a cat (an “Ali” cat, so to speak), then MEOW (and, maybe, oediPUS) are part of it.
Thank you PeeDee for the excellent blog and to all for posts. As per usual, setters can’t really comment on whether or not solvers know words in advance, which is why (good!) clues are written with the aim of telegraphing a unique construction. And, as for liking words, one man’s meat etc.
It appears that all but one of the queries are addressed in the evolving correspondence, though I would comment on Hovis@1 re the observation “Monk may argue that it should properly refer to the preceding word but many (most?) setters regularly use Yoda speak, as it were”. IMHO, almost no setter would use, and fewer (if any) editors would accept, “over” as preceding its operand because this demands the transitive-verbal form of “over”, which doesn’t mean to turn over, merely to pass over (something, in some manner). Most, I think, would only expect “over” to follow an operand in the adverbial sense of “into a reversed position”.
Finally, Andrew@21 spotted the Nina but alas, Hovis@22, it was not a cat …
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Was able to complete this in a single sitting (a pretty long one) in the wee small hours of Thursday morning. Whilst it was quite hard, it was imminently gettable because of the clear clueing. The new words for me were MORIA, MADE-UP (for ‘happy’), FASCES, INDICIAL and CRACKJAW. Noticed the pangram but missed the nina.
Finished in the NW corner with AIR RIFLE, ORCA and that unknown FASCES.