It is always a pleasure to get a Monk puzzle to solve and blog, he never disappoints. Thank you Monk.
There is the number 99 in Roman numerals across the top of the puzzle. Monk must have written more than 99 puzzles, someone’s birthday perhaps?
| Across | ||
| 5 | CAR-WASH | Arabic wife stopping money for cleaner of estate? (3-4) |
| AR (Arabic) W (wife) inside (stopping, like a cork) CASH (money) – an estate car perhaps | ||
| 7 | KICK-ASS | Aggressive fool pursuing thrill (4-3) |
| ASS (fool) following KICK (thrill) | ||
| 9 | AS YOU WERE | When solvers start to waver before getting back to normal (2,3,4) |
| AS (when) YOU (the solvers) Waver (starting letter of) ERE (before) | ||
| 10 | CRAWL | Fawn that’s new in Sri Lanka (5) |
| RAW (new) in CL (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) | ||
| 11 | SHUTTLEWISE | Close society elite working to carry women to and fro (11) |
| SHUT (close) then anagram (working) of S (society) ELITE containing (to carry) W (women) | ||
| 12 | UKE | Instrument of torture finally taken on by monarchy (3) |
| torturE (final letter of) on the end of UK (United Kingdom, a monarchy) | ||
| 13 | THE SEVEN SAMURAI | Quits appearing in terribly amateurish film (3,5,7) |
| EVENS (quits) in anagram (terribly) of AMATEURISH | ||
| 16 | UGH | Awful element of British Guiana in revolt (3) |
| found inside (element of) britisH GUiana reversed (in revolt, uprising) | ||
| 18 | EMULSIFYING | Low-grade, gooey slimy fungi making colloid (11) |
| E (low grade, in an exam) than anagram (gooey) of SLIMY FUNGI | ||
| 20 | GRUMP | Beef – good cut of beef (5) |
| G (good) RUMP (cut of beef) | ||
| 21 | ICELANDER | Foreigner, one taking heavy blow outside church (9) |
| I (one) with LANDER (heavy blow) containing (outside) CH (church) | ||
| 22 | ENCLAVE | Subject having son ousted by cold, isolated group (7) |
| ENsLAVE (subject) with S (son) being replaced by C (cold) | ||
| 23 | SHEBEEN | Recognised that boy taking book inside – still here? (7) |
| SEEN (recognised) containing (with…inside) HE (that boy) with B (book) – an unlicensed Irish distillery | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | X-RAY TUBE | Buy extra naughty see- through accessory? (1-3,4) |
| anagram (naughty) of BUY EXTRA. Shuffling off into pedants corner briefly: I would say this had to be a component rather than an accessory, one would not see through much without it. | ||
| 2 | CHIEF EXECUTIVE | Cook biting one expensive big cheese (5,9) |
| CHEF (cook) containing (biting) I (one) EXECUTIVE (expensive) | ||
| 3 | ICE CREAM | Having run out of grains, pick dessert (3,5) |
| rICE (grains) missing R (run) then CREAM (pick) | ||
| 4 | XANADU | Times article on top 60% of 6 in idyllic place (6) |
| X (times) AN (indefinite article) on ADUlt (top 60% of) | ||
| 5 | CLASS STRUGGLE | Pupils encounter idea of marks in report? (5,8) |
| CLASS (pupils) STRUGGLE (encounter) – a cryptic definition: this was an idea of Karl Marx, sounds like (reportedly) marks | ||
| 6 | ADULT | Developed area in the last month, freehold finally being accepted (5) |
| A (area) ULT (in the last month) containing (…being accepted) freeholD (finally, last letter of) | ||
| 7 | KEEP IN SUSPENSE | Look back, concerned with American president dividing opinion to cause uncertainty (4,2,8) |
| PEEK (look) reversed (back) IN (concerned with) then US (American) P (president) inside (dividing) SENSE (opinion) | ||
| 8 | SOLDERING-IRON | Persevering to lower current when holding right tool (9-4) |
| SOLDIERING ON (persevering) with I (current, electrical symbol) lowered to a new position and containing (holding) R (right) | ||
| 14 | EXEMPLAR | Former knight with no time for model (8) |
| EX (former) tEMPLAR (knight) missing T (time) | ||
| 15 | REINDEER | Vixen perhaps using control that’s excessive you say? (8) |
| REIN (control) and DEER sounds like (you say) “dear” (excessive) – one of Santa’s reindeer as named in the poem A Visit from St Nicholas | ||
| 17 | HAUNCH | Leg and loin in hot pot without lid (6) |
| H (hot) and pAUNCH (pot belly) missing top letter (lid) | ||
| 19 | FLAKE | Scrap metal’s ending in forge (5) |
| metaL (ending of) in FAKE (forge) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Count me among the ‘not disappointed’ too. Great fun throughout, although interestingly with a couple of solutions that will get the ‘solvers conspiring together to use the same word’ theorists going again.
Thanks to Monk for the splendid, if slightly shorter-lived than usual, fun and to PeeDee for the explanations
I think the top lights might link with 3 and 19. Another fun puzzle from Monk. Thanks Peedee. I think your parse of 21 should be CE rather than CH.
Another completed Monk. Always an enjoyable solve. Didn’t spot The 99 ICE-CREAM FLAKE. There does seem to be a movie theme but I’ll leave it to any cinephiles out there to fill them in. Clearly there are CAR-WASH, KICK-ASS, SEVEN SAMURAI and, I’m sure, lots of others. Good stuff.
Doesnt XCIX relate to Samurai Jack? (Something I’ve never seen).Cant quite make out the bottom-something to do with royalty?
Great puzzle day with Monk and Arachne. Feel thoroughly spoilt.
Thanks PeeDee and Monk.
I agree with Copmus. Monk and Arachne on the same day – quite a treat.
I seemed to be finely tuned to the professor’s wavelength today, so it was a quicker than usual solve for a Monk puzzle, but no less enjoyable for that.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee.
A very fine puzzle IMO.
And an ICELANDER can buy 5 ICE-CREAM FLAKES (99) for £3. Might treat myself having finished this!
Great fun. Thank you both.
What an appallingly bad crossword! I can’t believe this was actually considered fit for publication.
Barely half the clues pass muster.
And, in turn, I can’t believe someone wrote this post without telling us what was wrong.
Just like after last week’s Imogen puzzle in The Guardian, I would like to repeat: Tell us what is it that’s poor?
If ‘barely half of the clues pass muster’, make clear which clues you talk about and what would have been better.
Phil W, your comment is another example of people shouting and shouting only.
Lack of GK let me down with 5d where I had the answer but couldn’t parse it.
Think I knew, but had forgotten, the abbreviated instrument and am only used to seeing ‘on’ or ‘re’ to represent ‘concerned with’.
Hard work for me but an enjoyable challenge – 5a was my favourite.
Thanks to Monk and to PeeDee for the explanations.
A fair old work out. Not sure about executive being synonymous with expensive can’t find a ref. Similarly with CL for Ceylon a case of ‘has to be’ but a search doesn’t readily bring up any indication of past usage. 5d again a case of what else can it be but somehow doesn’t ring true. Encounter for struggle? and the defintion part?
Alan Cannon @11
From Chambers under ‘executive’: “for the use of business executives … hence (loosely) expensive or sophisticated”.
CL is the IVR for Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon).
Encounter and struggle can both be defined as a fight or battle.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Really interesting puzzle that took a number of sittings earlier in the week to get finished. Lots of it went in pretty quickly but there were a few that did hold out for a while and a couple of others that took time to parse.
Took longer than it should have to remember Vixen as one of Santa’s reindeer, had to do some convincing to equate FLAK as a synonym of ‘metal’, SHEBEEN was very clever with the penny dropping late and UKE was also good and my last in. Took an age to hunt down why LENDER was a heavy blow and initially thought that KICK ASS was a cryptic definition for JACK ASS from that inane TV series and film.
Didn’t notice the XCIX nina at the top … and do now see HR ER along the bottom – is there some reference to the queen ?
This appeared while I was a volunteer dry-stone waller (dyker up there) on North Ronaldsay, where the internet connection is 0.4Mb/s! Many thanks to PeeDee for the characteristically accurate blog and to all for comments, even Troll@8 for the fleeting Fawlty-esque diversion. The Nina did indeed link XCIX, ice-cream and flake for my 99th puzzle for the FT, with whom it’s been a pleasure all the way!