A lovely midweek puzzle from Monk – tricky in places but very satisfying to unravel…
When I agreed to stand in for the regular blogger, who is away, the inducement was that as we had Io in this slot last week, this week’s Wednesday puzzle was unlikely to be too tough… well, that’s fine in theory but Monk can also be rather taxing at times so seeing his byline when I opened the puzzle made me slightly nervous. I needn’t have worried – this was nowhere near Monk at his hardest! But it was still challenging enough in places to provide a good Wednesday morning workout.
Overall, a very enjoyable puzzle with economical, precise clueing and some nicely quirky definitions.
It was only after I finished solving that I remembered Monk likes to include a Nina in his puzzles so I had another look at the grid and quickly spotted what I’d missed before – the words CHILTERN HUNDREDS running down the flanks. This collective name for three ancient administrative divisions in the county of BUCKINGHAMSHIRE mostly lives on in memory due to “taking the Chiltern Hundreds” – the arcane mechanism by which a sitting member of parliament resigns their position.
Great stuff – thanks, Monk!
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CORPSE |
Stiff run part way through dense thicket (6)
|
| R (run) part way through COPSE (dense thicket) | ||
| 5 | BLAH-BLAH |
Tell tales about husband — note claptrap (4-4)
|
| BLAB (tell tales) about H (husband) + LAH (note) | ||
| 9 | HISTORIC |
This quirky Shakespearean jester barely famous in the past (8)
|
| Anagram (quirky) of THIS + [y]ORIC[k] (Shakespearean jester) with outer letters removed (barely) | ||
| 10 | LANDAU |
Secure gold carriage (6)
|
| LAND (secure) + AU (gold) | ||
| 11 | INVEIGHING |
Railing in abandoned house giving out (10)
|
| IN + anagram (out) of H[ous]E with middle letters removed (abandoned) + GIVING | ||
| 13 | AXON |
Neural extension centres in ataxic sartorius and supinator (4)
|
| Middle letters of (centres in) atAXic sartOrius supiNator | ||
| 14 | LEVY |
Bulgarian money linked to variable tax (4)
|
| LEV (Bulgarian money) + Y (variable) | ||
| 15 | LOGGERHEAD |
Stupid person, selfish type cycling in first place (10)
|
Edit to correct parsing: HOGGER (selfish type) “cycling” the first letters in LEAD (first place) |
||
| 17 | TRIUMPHANT |
Victorious motorbike company magnate making regular appearances (10)
|
| TRIUMPH (motorbike company) + alternate letters (making regular appearances) of mAgNaTe | ||
| 19 | CZAR |
Seat, maybe for carrying unknown ruler (4)
|
| CAR (Seat, maybe) carrying Z (unknown) | ||
| 20 | EROS |
Circus attraction in London aching to go west (4)
|
| SORE (aching) reversed (to go west)
Pedantic pub quiz bores (guilty) will want to point out that the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain statue at Piccadilly Circus in London actually represents Anteros, the Greek god of requited love |
||
| 22 | ASSISTANCE |
Support fool with primarily ignorant attitude (10)
|
| ASS (fool) + first letter (primarily) of Ignorant + STANCE (attitude) | ||
| 23 | ROMAJI |
Holding stuff back, king of France discloses Japanese letters (6)
|
| ROI (king of France) holding JAM (stuff) reversed (back) | ||
| 24 | INTREPID |
Undaunted, Independent printed rubbish (8)
|
| I (Independent) + anagram (rubbish) of PRINTED | ||
| 26 | NEGLIGEE |
Item that reveals National Curriculum avoids carelessness (8)
|
| NC (national curriculum) deleted from (avoids) NEGLIGENCE (carelessness) | ||
| 27 | POSITS |
Assumes props will welcome international (6)
|
| POSTS (props) containing (will welcome) I (international) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ORIENTEER |
On the other hand, setter goes in fencing English sportsman (9)
|
| OR (on the other hand) + I (setter) + ENTER (goes in) containing (fencing) E (English)
Edit to add: “setter goes in” needs to be read together to make the clue’s grammar work – see comments below |
||
| 3 | POTTERY |
Craft in the style of Harry? (7)
|
| Whimsical cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | EAR |
Attention — see ya later, at the end (3)
|
| Last letters (in the end) of seE yA lateR | ||
| 5 | BUCKINGHAMSHIRE |
Resisting poor performers, take on county (15)
|
| BUCKING (resisting) + HAMS (poor performers) + HIRE (take on) | ||
| 6 | ALLEGRETTOS |
Quick movements exhausted abnormal limb on climbing small mammal (11)
|
| A[bnorma]L with middle letters removed (exhausted) + LEG (limb) + S (small) + OTTER (mammal) reversed (climbing) | ||
| 7 | BENEATH |
Eg Munro with top bagged from moorland below (7)
|
| BEN (eg Munro) + [h]EATH (moorland) with first letter removed (top bagged)
Ben is a Scottish word for mountain and a Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3,000ft |
||
| 8 | ALAMO |
Sadly incomplete doctor’s mission (5)
|
| ALA[s] (sadly, incomplete) + MO (doctor) | ||
| 12 | GOLD-PLATING |
Good former French footballer, almost dying, finally adding expensive cover (4-7)
|
| G (good) + OLD (former) + PLATIN[i] (French footballer, almost) + last letter (finally) of dyinG | ||
| 16 | ANARCHIST |
Terrible stain surrounding principal Bolshevik? (9)
|
| Anagram (terrible) of STAIN surrounding ARCH (principal) | ||
| 18 | UNSNARL |
Annul vacuous rules, breaking free (7)
|
Edit to correct parsing: Anagram (breaking) of ANNUL + R[ule]S with middle letters removed (vacuous) |
||
| 19 | CHAPESS |
Facetiously, girl from El Salvador wearing leather riding gear (7)
|
| ES (El Salvador) “wearing” CHAPS (leather riding gear) | ||
| 21 | RHONE |
River horse caught (5)
|
| Sounds like (caught) ROAN (horse) | ||
| 25 | TIP |
Dump hint (3)
|
| Two definitions |
As Widdersbel says, it’s always satisfying to complete a Monk puzzle; this one elicited lots of ticks. INVEIGHING, for instance, had a neat surface. And the little extra down the sides was great.
I always baulk at the wording in clues like NEGLIGEE; personally, ‘out of’ interest lieu of ‘avoiding seems clearer.
My favourites were the Piccadilly statue in 20A and GOLD-PLATING (ha ha, would that be a gold-plated watch, Michel?).
I didn’t know Ben Munro but that posed no issues snagging BENEATH.
Thanks to Monk for an enjoyable tussle and to Widdersbel for standing in.
Should say ‘out of’ in lieu of
Thanks Monk and Widdersbel
A very enjoyable puzzle.
I thought it unfortunate that the J in ROMAJI was unchecked – my first attempt was ROMARI – in my lexicon STUFF, RAM and JAM are all pretty much synonymous.
Struggled through about half of this before giving up, bored. Btw, an anarchist is not a Bolshevik.
Monk is in my “don’t attempt” list but for some reason I took the bull by the horns today. Three quarters finished it but didn’t enjoy much. No wonder I couldn’t work out ben/munro. It’s a while since I visited Piccadilly Circus. And French footballers is not one of my fortes. There were six others I couldn’t parse and three I’d never heard of. Monk stays in said list.
15a. HOGGER cycling in LEAD.
18d. Anagram of ANNUL + RuleS.
Thanks, Hovis – fixed those two now
James P @ 4
An anarchist may not be a Bolshevik, but a Bolshevik can be an anarchist. From Chambers:
“Bolshevik (or bolshevik) /bolˈshə-vik/
noun
1. A member of the Russian Majority (or Extreme) Socialist party, opp to Menshevik (historical)
2. A violent revolutionary Marxist communist
3. An anarchist, agitator, causer of trouble (used loosely as a term of disapproval)”
The OED has similar.
Being fairly new to the FT puzzles I have yet to learn the quirks of the different setters, so missed the lovely ninas. I did have issues with the Eros/Anteros error (I don’t care how many people get it wrong, it is wrong – it is not like misusing a word until it changes meaning) and with “romaji” which are explicitly not Japanese letters, that kinda being the point. I see Simon’s point @3 as well – if I had not know the word, the wordplay was not enough to get it.
Can someone explain how “enter” = “goes in”? Surely “enters” which does not fit the wordplay.
thanks Mudd and Widdersbel
Thanks Monk and Widdersbel
2dn: “setter goes in” needs to be taken together for I ENTER.
16dn: Further to Simon@8, note the question mark on the end of the clue indicating a definition by example.
Jack @ 9 – Pelham Barton has it – I’ve added a note to the blog to clarify
James P @4 – I suppose if we’re considering strict definitions of political ideologies then yes, Bolshevism and Anarchism are very different in key respects, but Simon S is correct to point out that Bolshevik has a weak generic sense – as does anarchist, which can mean any rebel against authority
I spotted the right hand side Nina with only a few checking letters so I wrote in the word on the left hand side which did help solve this enjoyable crossword
Thanks to Monk and Widdersbel
Jack @9 ROMAJI disclose Japanese letters.
thank you PB@10, Widdersbel @11
Hovis@13: That works, though “discloses” (as in the clue) works better as romaji is a singular noun usually. You’d say “Romaji is a way of representing Japanese syllabic characters” not “Romaji are…”. Thanks.
I too had an idea that Monk is on the “difficult” list but I managed most of it, unable to get the SW corner. ROMAJI was unknown to me, as also M. Platini. I got LOGGERHEAD fairly easily but had never come across it before except in the plural “at loggerheads” where it has a slightly different meaning. Thanks as usual to Monk and to Widdersbel for explanations.
Thanks Monk for an excellent crossword with my favourites being CORPSE, HISTORIC, CZAR, ASSISTANCE, ALAMO, UNSNARL, and RHONE. I had to peek a bit to get BENEATH & ROMAJI but that didn’t spoil the fun. I saw the Nina but it’s meaning & relationship to 5d was beyond my ken. Thanks Widdersbel for the blog.
This needed some thought and I too found the SW corner particular tricky. But I got there
Similar ticks to Tony@17, specifically CORPSE, RHONE and CZAR
I missed parsing HISTORIC. I shared the three unknowns with GDU@5 and I learned that Ben Munro is an actor, as the mountain does not rank on google. Like Babbler@16, this use of LOGGERHEAD was new to me.
Thanks Monk and Widdersbel.