This was a masterclass of brilliant clues …
… so many it’s silly to list them.
Oh all right: 8 28 19 22 16 1 4 and 5
and that’s not including the ones where I had queries on the definition or wordplay: 26 12 13 23 16 and 21
which made my brain ache – in a good way. I spent about as long doing that as solving the puzzle
I think I have them parsed now.
I haven’t enjoyed a puzzle so much for ages
There is a message in this grid. The top and bottom unches spell out: FAREWELL GORGEOUS
“Oh dear”, thought I. Monk has lost someone dear
And I don’t think he’s referring to Gorgeous George Galloway, who’s sadly still with us.
Then I saw BRIE down the central unches: FAREWELL GORGEOUS BRIE
Of course! Monk has decided to take the plunge and join the ranks of all right thinking people and strike a personal blow against climate change by becoming vegan. And of course, like all right-tasting people is sad at having to eschew the thing that’s most difficult: Cheese.
Brie must be his favourite.
Please don’t disabuse me of this idea.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9 | OLDIE | Uncovered regular 1950s song? (5) [s]OLDIE[r] (regular soldier, uncovered) |
| 10 | ABOMINATE | Detest British rule after a duke absconds (9) B[ritish] [d]OMINATE after A. D[uke] removed |
| 11 | TREMOLO | Room let out on a shaky basis? (7) (ROOM LET)* AInd: out |
| 12 | LE HAVRE | Regularly used shore leave to dance in port (2,5) ([s]H[o]R[e] LEAVE)* AInd: to dance. Shore is the only part that needs to be “regularly used” in the wordplay. This was one I BIFD in from the def. and didn’t suss the wordplay till much later |
| 13 | EPICENTRE | Impressive course cut short – one might be shaken by it (9) EPIC (impressive) ENTRE[é] (course, cut short). One of the last solved, written in from the crossing letters before spotting where to split the answer to create parts to satisfy the wordplay elements |
| 14 | ROACH | It’s sometimes used when smoking fish (5) Double Def The fish, and the rudimentary tube of cardboard, usually created from an edge of the packet of Rizlas, used to avoid burning your lips when finishing a joint. (misspent youth? Moi?) |
| 15 | IGNITED | Fired, say, about hosting fool that’s stopped papers (7) NIT (fool) inside EG< (say, about) all inside ID (papers) |
| 17 | SUMATRA | Island, in part, a must-see from the east (7) Hidden Rev. inside pART A MUSt-see. I see I scribbled “ESTSUMA?” in the margin |
| 20 | EXACT | Precise law of old? (5) EX-ACT |
| 23 | FIREPLACE | Chopped wood put back in hearth (9) FI[r] (wood, chopped) REPLACE (put back). I was convinced the wordplay here involved a reverse somehow: I wrote ECALPERIF in the margin to no avail. |
| 25 | EPIGRAM | Saying English butter must contain stuff (7) PIG (stuff) inside E[nglish] RAM (butter) |
| 26 | THICKEN | Clot takes time, a frantically confused person? (7) I found this most tricky. I was misled about which part of the clue was wordplay or definition, and fixated on TWIT (clot) + something – like HR (time) to somehow make TWITHER which is apparently a nonsensical series of tweets. Not really a confused person and the wordplay doesn’t work. After realising it was better using Clot (as a verb) as the definition, I was left with: T[ime] + HICKEN. To get HICKEN from “a frantically confused person” we must jump to [c]HICKEN = headless chicken. So, as you may guess, this was the last wordplay deduced |
| 27 | NO-BRAINER | Toff by unopened coach offering piece of cake (2-7) NOB (toff) [t]RAINER (coach, unopened) |
| 28 | TWOCS | The cause of 2 abandoned cars? (5) I think this is an &Lit clue. Wordplay: TWO (2) C[ar]S TWOC is Taking WithOut Consent. Last answer put in grid |
| Down | ||
| 1 | FOR THE TIME BEING | Temporarily confused “thing” before “item” (3,3,4,5) (THING BEFORE ITEM)* AInd: confused. First one in after a long time fiddling with the letters. I figures it was worth persevering with unravelling the anagram to deliver a clutch of juicy first letters |
| 2 | ADHESION | Contact boss over publicity he’s put first (8) (NO I)< (Number one = boss) after AD (publicity)HE’S. I am not 100% convinced about the definition – I realise adhesion involves contact, and there are “contact adhesives” but it seems a large leap to me. |
| 3 | REDOLENT | Suggestive of handout covered by revenue (8) DOLE (handout) inside RENT (revenue) |
| 4 | EAT OUT | Breed fish, relinquishing all rights to visit restaurant? (3,3) [r]EA[r] T[r]OUT (breed fish, remove all R[ight]s). |
| 5 | WOOLLENS | Courts holding girl about possible output from needles? (8) NELL< (girl, about) inside WOOS (courts). Super definition. Had me thinking of medicines, or irritation before seeing WOO and thinking wool … knitting |
| 6 | EITHER | One in three, otherwise one of two (6) (I (one) THREE)* AInd: otherwise |
| 7 | LATVIA | Country apartment with no entrance to get through (6) [f]LAT (apartment, no entrance) VIA (through) |
| 8 | LEVEL-HEADEDNESS | Composure when modelling perfectly flat cap? (5-10) What an absolutely wonderful clue! At first I thought I’d classify it as a whole clue “CD”, but ended up underlining composure as the def, and leaving the rest as a hilarious subsidiary def. |
| 16 | DEFAMING | Slagging off old dictator in a series of notes (8) AMIN (old dictator, Idi Amin) inside DEFG ([series of] notes) |
| 18 | MEPHISTO | Dickens using US port to abandon maiden number two (8) The definition is from Dickens as is devil. ME[m]PHIS (US port) TO. Remove second M[aiden]. I could not think of Memphis as a port till I looked it up and found it has a large river port on the Mississippi |
| 19 | THANK-YOU | Rag found in middle of ratatouille – cheers (5-3) HANKY inside [rata]TOU[ille] (middle of r.) |
| 21 | AKIMBO | Are lass and lad almost striking a pose? (6) A[re] KIM (lass) BO[y] (lad, almost) A is the abbreviation for an Are the metric unit of area = 100 sq.m. Perhaps better known is the Hectare, which is literally 100 Are and = 10,000 sq.m. |
| 22 | TARTAR | Climbing rodents and shrew (6) RAT RAT all reversed. (rodents, climbing) |
| 24 | RETIRE | Withdraw extremely remote flag (6) R[emot]E TIRE (flag) |
Wow! Really pleased to finish this without cheats but failed to parse THICKEN. Even thought of T + (C)HICKEN but still didn’t see it. Sheesh!
TWOCS was my LOI. Thought it stood for Taken Without Owner’s Consent. Only seen this before in a cryptic. Saw FAREWELL GORGEOUS & BRIE (& TONNE) but couldn’t make sense of it.
Thanks to Monk and beermagnet.
Great to see Monk again. As with Serpent i am always on the watch for something(spotting a likely nina can provide a leg up)
I saw ‘FAREWELL GORGEOUS” and “BRIE-hope Mr Monk pops in to spill the beans as it were.
Thanks Monk and beermagnet.
The usual very nice workout from Monk. Thank you to him and beermagnet
I have a recollection that Brie is/was the name of a a much-loved Monk family pet, although I could be wrong.
The answers came easily enough but parsing them took rather longer and we failed to parse THICKEN – doh!. 14ac was obviously ROACH from crossing letters but we needed Chambers to confirm the ‘smoking’ reference. We spotted the top and bottom parts of the nina, which certainly helped us complete, but missed the BRIE.
All good stuff, difficult to nominate a CoD but we’ll go for MEPHISTO.
Thanks, Monk and beermagnet.
|\\I found this quite a slog. I tried to start it this afternoon but couldn’t get into it, only got a couple. Then I was out for the evening and really struggled to get any further. But I did finally complete it, and without aids, so I suppose that’s something.
Thank you beermagnet for such wonderfully kind and generous words, and to bloggers one and all. Sad to confirm that Crypticsue was correct: my beloved 14.5-year-old collie cross Brie finally “went to join the pack invisible” a few weeks ago after a slow descent, and that this puzzle, set through dewy eyes, was my tribute to the most wonderful four-legged friend one could ever wish for 🙁