Thanks to Monk for this morning’s puzzle.
I found this to be a very pleasant and smooth solve. I haven’t spotted a theme or Nina, but let us know in the comments if you have. Many thanks to Monk!
ACROSS
1. Fungus beginning to affect bulb that’s left out (6)
AGARIC
A[ffect] (beginning to) + GAR[l]IC (bulb, L (left) out)
5. Careless scuttle after ladies’ underwear (8)
SLIPSHOD
HOD (scuttle) after SLIPS (ladies’ underwear)
9. Slippery sort — American prisoner nothing holds (8)
ANACONDA
A (American) + (CON (prisoner); NADA (nothing) holds))
10. Poles drinking unusually pale port (6)
NAPLES
N,S (poles, i.e. North and South) drinking PALE* (*unusually)
11. Native Scandinavians entering petition (8)
SUDANESE
DANES (Scandinavians) entering SUE (petition)
12. Zulu endlessly declines stringed instrument (6)
ZITHER
Z (Zulu, NATO alphabet) + [w]ITHER[s] (declines, endlessly)
13. New garden incorporates top-notch irrigation? (8)
DRAINAGE
GARDEN* (*new) incorporates A1 (top-notch)
15. Finally find baby wipes absorbing last of unmentionable stains (4)
DYES
[Fin]D [bab]Y [wipe]S (finally) absorbing [unmentionabl]E (last of)
17. Rush without finishing quarrel (4)
SPAT
SPAT[e] (rush, without finishing)
19. A number of bits and extra hard drills, incidentally (2,3,3)
BY THE BYE
BYTE (a number of bits) and BYE (extra, in cricket); H (hard) drills
20. The other one swims around fine island (6)
NOOKIE
ONE* (*swims) around (OK (fine) + I (island))
21. King once sadly aware about tense major conflict (5,3)
GREAT WAR
GR (King once, George Rex) + AWARE* (*sadly) about T (tense)
22. Definitely a silly rogue (3,3)
I’LL SAY
23. Chap who conveys celebrity bearing? (8)
ALISTAIR
A-LIST (celebrity) + AIR (bearing)
24. Track back, scent being picked up? I’ve no idea (3,5)
GOD KNOWS
DOG< (track, <back) + “NOSE” (scent, “being picked up”)
25. Interminable moan surrounding extremely obscure gardening job (6)
HOEING
[w]HING[e] (moan, interminable) surrounding O[bscur]E (extremely)
DOWN
2. Following a couple of drinks, setter’s game (3,5)
GIN RUMMY
Following GIN + RUM (a couple of drinks); MY (setter’s)
3. Sporting legend briefly identified by VAR? (8)
RICHARDS
I think the setter is referring to Sir Viv Alexander Richards, cricket legend
‘Briefly identified by’, meaning these are initials
4. Canteen cooking tips from ruby anniversary (9)
CENTENARY
CANTEEN* (*cooking) + R[ub]Y (tips from)
5. Lurking danger of Ken, in haste, freaking out on pot (5,2,3,5)
SNAKE IN THE GRASS
(KEN IN HASTE)* (*freaking out) on GRASS (pot)
6. Sweet stuff to follow half a portion of seafood (7)
PRALINE
LINE (stuff) to follow PRA[wns] (seafood, half a portion of)
7. Haul out and jump across old exercise equipment? (4,4)
HULAHOOP
HAUL* (*out) and HOP (jump) across O (old)
8. Deliberately damage Conservative pinned by journalist over bar (8)
DESTRUCT
C (Conservative) pinned by (ED< (journalist, <over) + STRUT (bar))
14. Nonsense ultimately plaguing reversal of decline in Celtic language (9)
GIBBERISH
[Plaguin]G (ultimately) + (EBB< (decline, <reversal of) in IRISH (Celtic language))
15. Relative bitten by docked wild dog — it’s frightening (8)
DAUNTING
AUNT (relative) bitten by DING[o] (wild dog, docked)
16. Distinguished henna every so often on fake blonde (8)
ENNOBLED
[h]E[n]N[a] (every so often) on BLONDE* (*fake)
17. Monk almost checks private group (8)
SEPTETTE
SETTE[r] (Monk, almost) checks PT (private)
18. Ancient tongue from Kakinada translated (8)
AKKADIAN
19. Monarchy having sex in mind? (7)
BRITAIN
IT (sex) in BRAIN (mind?)
Solved this surprisingly quickly for a Monk puzzle though I needed Oriel’s help parsing a few including that ‘VAR’. I do remember Viv Richard’s and thought a cricketer was intended but I didn’t know his initials. I then got sidetracked looking for a theme and wondered instead if there was a sportsman named Alistair (23a) Richards.
I couldn’t find any theme or trick but feel there is yet something there.
Besides this, I enjoyed the puzzle and nominate GOD KNOWS and NOOKIE as my top picks.
Thanks to Monk and Oriel.
There are cricket references to ‘slips’ and ‘bye’ so I’m guessing the theme relates to the sport.
RICHARDS was about all that fitted, but I had no idea who it was. AGARIC was my lexicon expander, along with NOOKIE. Doing these and the Guardian’s puzzles for a few years has introduced me to so many words for sexual intercourse, and I am very grateful. 🙂
Thanks for the blog , very good puzzle with lots of neat and clever clues.
Unusual to see double unchecked letters, most of them a repeat letter ??
RICHARDS – I am reliably informed that it is – Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, so the clue does not really work . In scorecards he was IVA Richards.
Our senior lab technician is from Antigua.
Fly AGARIC is a magic mushroom , bright red with white spots like the ones that pixies sit on.
3d RICHARDS – Guessed Sir Viv’s middle name might be Ant(h)ony, but cqba checking.
21a GREAT WAR – The “King once” had his name in Latin on the coinage, e.g. “GEORGIVS VI REX”
Charles could have been Carolus, but he’s gone for “CHARLES III REX”, to be more approachable. (Why not Chas?)
[?typo 17d SE(PTE)TTE[r] – “private” = PTE]
Thanks M&O
[19a Oed.com has entries for BY THE BY, but not for BY THE BYE, although there are plenty of Quotations using the latter form
— from Byron, Jefferson, Dickens, et al.]
2d GINRUMMY
7d HULAHOOP
16d … …ENNOBLED
18d … …AKKADIAN
Nice one FrankieG. Doubt I would ever have spotted that.
14d … .. GIBBERISH
20a … … NOOKIE
22a … …. I’LL SAY
17d SEPTETTE
[Just elaborating on Roz Charm’s hint @4.] Monk is the Usain Bolt of setters?
3D does work.
the “briefly identified” bit gives you the “I”
so it is IVAR for the initials
Thanks to Monk for a satisfying and pretty straightforward puzzle. My only mini-quibble would be in 13: I don’t think “irrigation” can really be made to mean “drainage” – the former is the process of adding liquid, the latter the process of taking liquid away. But hey-ho, we have to allow some flexibility to the setters.
A pleasant solve. I found it a bit difficult in places, but reasonably approachable. There were some nice surfaces and my favourites were GIN RUMMY, NAPLES, SPAT and BRITAIN. Like others, I needed Oriel’s help to parse a couple of clues
The main source of difficulty for me was the vagueness of several definitions (such as chap for ALISTAIR). And it is impossible to turn Kakinda into AKKADIAN without knowing the word (I didn’t) or waiting for the crossers and searching the internet (I did). Along with GDU@3, “the other” is a new term. Do people really say that?
Thanks Monk and Oriel
Thanks Monk for a great set of clues with my top picks being DYES (nice surface), ALISTAIR, GOD KNOWS, GIN RUMMY, SNAKE IN THE GRASS, HULA HOOP, and DAUNTING. I revealed RICHARDS; I hadn’t heard of the cricket player and there was no cryptic wordplay to give me a hint. Thanks Oriel for the blog.
Disappointed to discover that REFS MISS was not a famous steeplechaser, but Sir Vivian came to mind soon enough. A very pleasant puzzle.
Nice spot, FrankieG@7, and nice nina, Monk. That explains the odd word choice for 18d AKKADIAN, when the more familiar ARCADIAN would otherwise have fit, and been easier to clue.
I figured that RICHARDS would be the sporting legend at 3d, but I didn’t know his middle initial so I couldn’t parse it. Monk’s use of VAR in the clue was brilliant as it misdirected us to a different sport.
Thanks, Monk for the excellent puzzle and Oriel for the helpful blog.
Good catch Mark@11. I had the same thought as Roz@4 on Richards. He was always I V A Richards, similar to Alan Phillip Eric Knott.
Not much to add.. apart from those double letters being in line across or down so not random, in fact spells MONK x2, altho the B gets in the way a bit… also apart from 6 solutions all the words have 2 letters repeated, some 3, eg ANACONDA, AKKADIAN.. a lot of As… don’t necessarily think it adds or takes away, but interesting…
Lots to enjoy
Thanks MONK n Oriel