Independent 11,277 by Monk (Saturday Puzzle 3 December 2022)

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A tough workout from Monk today…

…with some suspicious looking unches round the perimeter…28 of them, so probably not going to be pangrammatic…but PARADOXically they were ANAGRAM-matic and TANGRAM-matic!

But I am getting ahead of myself – they didn’t actually hove into my consciousness until much later in the solve…

In the meantime, said tough workout ensued, with a smile or two, a raised eyebrow or two, and a skoolboy snicker at the Cyclopsean 28A.

There was some geographical GK needed – NANTES as a ‘port’; DOMINICA as a ‘republic’; AMRITSAR as a ‘Sikh centre’ – but none of these should have been too stretching(?). Also, some socio-geographic historical GK with the outrageously homophoned MA-SHALL-SEE!; a bit of scientific space exploration with the GIOTTO probe; and some financial geography with RENMINBI.

I learned two new words, with ‘tektite’ as a definition for AUSTRALITE, which I guessed from the wordplay and crossers, but had to look up to confirm.

My LOI was GRANDMA at 4D, unparsed at the time, but the only ‘relative’ that would fit. I only managed to parse that as I was writing up the blog…

Once I realised that the perimeter was separate words – ANAGRAM, TANGRAM, PARADOX and ADAPTOR – rather than a continuous phrase, this helped with the last few clues:

(I can see the first three as being cryptically/puzzlingly related, but I’m not sure how ADAPTOR fits the pattern, apart from being a word that fits?!)

I had the pleasure of meeting Monk, if only briefly, at the S&B do in York – nice to put a face to a name…

My thanks to him for the challenge, and I trust all is clear below (except that I had a little trouble parsing/justifying GILDERS and ROSEHIP – I’m sure I will be ably put to rights in the comments…)

 

Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
8A TUBE Underground bar making a comeback, ending in failure (4)

TUB (but, or bar, coming back) + E (end letter of failurE)
9A MARSHALSEA When reported, mother must call on old prison (10)

homophone, i.e. when reported – MARSHALSEA (old prison) could (at a stretch!) sound like MA (mother) SHALL (must) SEE (call on)

[Marshalsea being a former debtor’s prison in Southwark, London; abolished in 1842…]
10A ATHENIAN America again exposed monstrous European citizen (8)

A (America) + THEN (again) + (G)IAN(T) (giant, monstrous, exposed, or stripped of its outer letters)
11A MAIMED Wounded setter guarding train depot’s entrance (6)

M_E (the setter) around (guarding) AIM (train, take aim, as in with a gun) + D (first letter, or entrance, of Depot)
12A NANTES Bum quaffing new port (6)

NA_TES (the buttocks) around (quaffing) N (new)

[the port being in Western France, at the head of the Loire estuary]
13A MEA CULPA I’m guilty of a choice about hosting nude show (3,5)

M_ULPA (A + PLUM, choice/best option, about, or reversed), around (T)EAC(H) (teach, show, nude, or stripped of its outer letters – again!)
15A GILDERS Tradesmen partly reversed across red light (7)

reversed hidden word, i.e. partly and reversed, in ‘acrosS RED LIGht’

[‘gilder’ being a variation on ‘guilder’, as in a member of a guild of tradesmen? Doesn’t seem to be in my various versions of Chambers – which only has guilder/gilder as a coin – apart from gilder as ‘one who applies a gild’, as in a golden coating, which I guess could be a trade…]
17A ROSEHIP Appeared as a swelling in fruit (7)

ROSE (appeared) + HIP (swelling?)

[Not sure about ‘hip’ as swelling, more as a fleshy part of the leg – unless I am missing something here? I can find it as a ‘swollen receptacle’ on a rose plant, but then that is also the definition of rosehip?…]
20A RENMINBI Desperate northern miner swinging both ways for money overseas (8)

RENMIN (anag, i.e. desperate, of N – northern – and MINER) + BI (bisexual, swinging both ways)

[overseas in this instance – from a UK perspective – being China!]
22A REGRET Expelling all adults from area, a great sorrow emerges (6)

removing all As (adults) from (A)RE(A) (A) GRE(A)T leaves REGRET, or sorrow, emerging!
24A AT ONCE Heavyweight punches champion immediately (2,4)

A_CE (champion) around (punched by) TON (heavy weight!)
26A DOCTOR NO Bond villain’s rent included in retrograde old type of payment (6,2)

O (old) + COD (cash on delivery, type of payment), all retrograde = DOC_O, around (including) TORN (rent) = DOCTOR NO!
27A MANCHESTER City centre has developed next to motorway (10)

M (motorway) + ANCHESTER (anag, i.e. developed, of CENTRE HAS)
28A TIER Row concerning sex from behind? (4)

RE (concerning) + IT (euphemism for s-e-x), all reversed, or from behind (ooo-errr!) = TIER

[All rather Cyclopsean?!]
Down
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1D AUSTRALITE Regularly strip away lustre when breaking tektite (10)

anag, i.e. when breaking, of TIAA (regular letters of sTrIp AwAy) + LUSTRE
2D NEWEST The most modern in a couple of ways? (6)

NE (north east) + WEST – a couple of directions, or ways!
3D AMRITSAR Potentate supporting American state’s Sikh centre? (8)

AM (American) + RI (Rhode Island, US state) + TSAR (potentate)
4D GRANDMA Short fit relative (7)

GRAND MA(L) – fit, of epilepsy, short of one letter
5D RHUMBA Husband into odd side of barn dance (6)

R_UM (odd) around H (husband) + BA (half, or the left side, of BArn)

[rhumba being a variation of the more familiar rumba…]
6D ALTITUDE Eminence of pound dropping one place in range (8)

(L)ATITUDE (range) with L (pound, as in £sd) dropping a place = ALTITUDE
7D MERE Pool nothing more (4)

double defn. – MERE as a noun can be a pool; and MERE an an adjective can mean nothing more
14D PRICE INDEX Pin bulk of credit crunches on former financial guide (5,5)

PRICE IND (anag, i.e. crunches, of PIN + CREDI(T), or the bulk of ‘credit’) + EX (former)
16D DOMINICA Rob unlicensed taxi mainly in republic (8)

DO (swindle, rob) + MINICA(B) (mainly, or most of, minicab, or unlicensed taxi)
18D ON RECORD Officially noted by coroner: unexpectedly died (2,6)

ON RECOR (anag, i.e. unexpectedly, of CORONER) + D (died)
19D BIODATA Trouble about entering boring item on advanced CV (7)

B_IT (boring item, as in a drill bit!) around ODA (ado, or trouble, about), plus A (advanced)
21D NEEDER One wanting masseur examined by auditors? (6)

homophone, i.e. examined by auditors – a NEEDER (one who wants something) can sound like a KNEADER (masseur)!
23D GIOTTO Probe excessively, intermittently moving up (6)

OTT (over the top, excessively) + OIG (intermittent letters og mOvInG), all ‘up’ to give GIOTTO

[I knew this vaguely as a spacecraft name, but had to look it up to check – it was sent up to intercept Halley’s Comet in 1986]
25D TRAP Concern over pitfall (4)

PART, or concern/interest, as in ‘for my part…’), turned over to give TRAP (pitfall)

18 comments on “Independent 11,277 by Monk (Saturday Puzzle 3 December 2022)”

  6. I usually approach Monk puzzles with trepidation but I managed most of this. Failed on GIOTTO. I think the KVa/Hovis parse of ROSE HIP must be right.

  8. We were saved by seeing the words on the outside, even if we don’t understand their significance. Some nice clues and some we didn’t like (9a and 6d).

  9. Phew! As if the Harpo in yesterday’s G from the same setter wasn’t tough enough. Very hard work and only solved with the help of the Nina, though I didn’t really know what it meant. I couldn’t parse ROSEHIP or GRANDMA, for which a little knowledge was no help; these days a GRAND MAL seizure is more properly known as a “generalised tonic-clinic” seizure, but a ROSEHIP is a ROSEHIP I suppose.

    Of the unknowns, I’d never heard of AUSTRALITE, hadn’t come across RHUMBA with an H and had no idea NANTES was a ‘port’. Happy to have remembered RENMINBI.

    Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper67

  10. Very tough indeed but I did enjoy the battle – got on better once I’d spotted the Nina

    Thanks to Monk and mc_rapper67

  11. Not quite as tough as we were expecting from Monk. We got off to a good start with TUBE and knowing of MARSHALSEA, then had a bit of luck with 1dn – we thought we’d check exactly what tektite was and there in Chambers we learnt the alternative name of AUSTRALITE. The rest was a bit of a struggle and a lot of guesswork – we got MEA CULPA from the enumeration and definition and had no idea whatever as to how to parse it; there were several other entries which we couldn’t fully parse. Fortunately we spotted the nina in time for it to help with a few answers.
    We thought at first that 23dn was wrongly enumerated and should have been (2,4) to give ‘go into’ (= probe) until the Bond villain gave us the crossing letters for GIOTTO – which was then our favourite.
    Thanks, Monk and mc_rapper67.

  12. Thanks both, although have to say this scored low on my enjoyometer with many unparsed and a few solved only with some assistance…..I still don’t understand the Nina but it helped. I could query many, but the ‘unlicensed’ element of mini cab in DOMINICA confuses and concerns me, given the attendant safety considerations

  13. I don’t know what to make of the nina either, other than in the pairs adaptor/paradox and anagram/tangram, one word is an anagram of the other with just one letter changed.

    Apparently there is also something called a tangram paradox (link below if I’ve got it right), a famous example of which is called the “two monks paradox”, which is probably not a coincidence. I can’t find anything obvious for anagram/adaptor.

  14. Word Plotter: How do you know Harpo is Monk? I found yesterday’s crossword by Harpo to be a challenge but mostly solvable for me. This one was a slog and I eventually gave up. Could Harpo be a gentler alter-ego like Paul/Mudd or Imogen/Vulcan?

  15. Got about the bottom third of this eventually this evening but I wasn’t enjoying it and had other stuff to do so I stopped there.

  17. Thanks. I read both of those blogs when I commented on the Harpo crosswords. There seems to be a preponderance of evidence that Harpo is Monk but I’m not 100% sure yet.

  18. Thanks for all the comments so far – much appreciated as usual – and especially for the much better parsing of ROSEHIP from various commenters…

    A general feeling that this was found tough by most – even to the point of giving up to do more important things for Dormouse…we’ve all been there at some time!

    On the subject of alter egos, I think he only introduced himself as ‘Monk’, but maybe I didn’t ask the right question. Also, ‘Chalicea’ is regarded as a fairly gentle setter of thematic/barred puzzles – EV, IQ, Listener – but she has a ‘Mr Hyde-side’ in ‘Curmudgeon’, when she wants to be a bit harder on her solvers…

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