We always look forward to blogging Monk’s puzzles…….
…..and we weren’t disappointed by this one.
As highlighted below, the top and bottom rows each contain all the commonly used Roman Numerals – in the top row in ascending order of magnitude. Thankfully we noticed this possibility towards the end as it helped us untangle the last few clues including 3d.
We wondered whether somehow the numbers could possibly make up the number of the puzzle, but we can’t find any way of making it work.
15ac brought back memories of a Globe production a few years ago. We were lucky enough to see the dress rehearsal. We were there for the 2 throat cuttings and pie making but had to leave to catch our train before the final 4 killings and someone being buried alive.
As usual, all the clues were well constructed and we only had to check one entry (3d) which was new to us.
Across
8 Reach to embrace excellent American friend (7)
COMRADE
COME (reach) round or ’embracing’ RAD (American term for ‘excellent’)
9 Books in Morecambe, maybe adult smut? (7)
EROTICA
OT (Old Testament – ‘books’) in ERIC (Eric Morecambe, the comedian)
10 Tense, taking ecstasy too early – that’s odd (5)
WEIRD
WIRED (tense) with the ‘e’ (ecstasy) moved forward or ‘taken too early’
11 In opposition, even lady invites chap in fraternity (9)
ODDFELLOW
The opposite of an ‘even lady’ could be described as an ODD FELLOW
12 Crush rat running out of a church (7)
SQUELCH
SQUEaL (rat) without or ‘running out of’ ‘a’ + CH (church)
14 Decline to turn left into empty drive (7)
DWINDLE
WIND (turn) L (left) in DrivE without the middle letters or ’empty’
15 Can’t industrious criminal play? (5,10)
TITUS ANDRONICUS
An anagram of CAN’T INDUSTRIOUS – anagrind is ‘criminal’
18 Their employment levels typically exceed those of their clients (7)
ROOFERS
A clue-as-definition – ROOFERS typically work at a higher level (on the roof) than their employers
20 Doodah‘s wife claims to keep time (7)
WHATSIT
W (wife) HAS IT (claims) round or ‘keeping’ T (time)
23 Double meaning by a doctor, one responsible for cutting line (9)
AMBIGUITY
A MB (doctor) I (one) GUIlTY (responsible) without or ‘cutting’ the ‘l’ (line)
24 Suffer strain, curable only partly (5)
INCUR
Hidden (‘only partly’) in straIN CURable
26 Marine object that is intercepted by top executive guarding Florida (3,4)
ICE FLOE
IE (that is) round or ‘intercepted by’ (in the sense of ‘stopped by’) CEO (top executive) round or ‘guarding’ FL (Florida)
27 Bear with appetite (7)
STOMACH
Double definition
Down
1 Member in current international band of armed fighters (4)
IMPI
MP (member – of Parliament) in I (current) I (international)
2 London museum bearing down on large destructive thug (6)
VANDAL
V AND A (Victoria and Albert Museum) on (in a down clue) L (large)
3 Cross individual picked up short call for old historian (8)
XENOPHON
X (cross) + ONE (individual) reversed or ‘picked up’ + PHONe (call) without the last letter or ‘short’
4 After removal of cap, made case for this sort of petrol? (6)
LEADED
pLEADED (‘made case for’) withou the first letter or ‘cap’
5 Performer against restraining press (8)
COMEDIAN
CON (against) round or ‘restraining’ MEDIA (press)
6 Hollow place for storing complete dinosaur (10)
DIPLODOCUS
DIP (hollow) LOCUS (place) round or ‘storing’ DO (complete, as in ‘complete a puzzle’)
7 Mike weakens absurd workloads (3-5)
MAN-WEEKS
M (Mike in the phonetic alphabet) + an anagram of WEAKENS – anagrind is ‘absurd’
8 Mentioned more than just a neat seaside town (5)
COWES
A homophone (‘mentioned’) of COWS (‘more than just a neat’)
13 Calm, having folded head to toe after bad turn (10)
UNTROUBLED
DOUBLE (folded) with the D (first letter or ‘head’ moved to the back or ‘toe’) after an anagram of TURN – anagrind is ‘bad’
15 Acidic, ferocious sort starts to intimidate colleagues (8)
TARTARIC
TARTAR (‘ferocious sort’) + first letters or ‘starts’ of Intimidate Colleagues
16 Notorious influencer against returning non-British resident of Bangladesh (8)
SVENGALI
VS (versus – ‘against’) reversed or ‘returning’ bENGALI (resident of Bangladesh) without the ‘b’ (British)
17 My word — running around is antisocial behaviour (8)
ROWDYISM
An anagram of MY WORD (anagrind is ‘running’) round IS
19 Person finally squeezed into retro jeans, showing blubber (6)
SNIVEL
N (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘person’) ‘squeezed’ into LEVIS (jeans) reversed or ‘retro’
21 Author translated bible including an abridged Apostle (6)
ASIMOV
AV (Authorised Version – ‘translated bible’) round or ‘including’ SIMOn (Apostle) without the last letter or ‘abridged’
22 Perhaps Mary Magdalene returned, evil finally purged in Pentateuch (5)
TORAH
HARlOT (Mary Magdalene perhaps) without the ‘l’ (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘evil’) reversed or ‘returned’
25 Persuade scholar, off and on, to provide leader for Times (4)
COAX
Alternate letters (‘off and on’) of sChOlAr + X (times)
Brilliant!
This was very challenging but I really enjoyed it. I was flummoxed by the parsing for 11a (thanks B&J), I didn’t know the “excellent American” in 8a, and 1d was new to me. Needless to say I didn’t spot the Roman numerals across the top and bottom rows.
I rarely pick an anagram as my favourite but 15a takes the accolade today.
Many thanks to Monk and to B&J.
I find Monk puzzles difficult and I was so pleased with myself for finishing that I was too lazy to even look for a Nina. Not that it would have helped much as I doubt I would have spotted this one anyway. If there’s more to the Nina, or there does happen to be a theme, I’ve missed that too.
I didn’t know XENOPHON as an historian, although the name is familiar from one of our local politicians. Otherwise nothing too obscure, though I had to dig deep (pun intended) to get DIPLODOCUS. Just a very minor correction for the parsing of 9a which should include A for ‘adult’ – ? as part of the wordplay, rather than doing double duty for the def. as well.
I don’t know why, but three not very exciting words just happened to take my fancy: SQUELCH, DWINDLE and SNIVEL.
Thanks to Monk and to B&J
Quite a battle this time – with Tippex and muttering – so by the time I’d finished, like WordPlodder, I didn’t think to look for a Nina
Squelch is such a lovely word that I’ll pick that as my favourite
Thanks to Monk and B&J
Thanks Monk and BnJ
I agree with WP @ 3 re 9: I parsed it as OT (books) in ERIC (Morecambe, maybe) followed by A(dult), with the definition being simply SMUT.
Thanks to WP and Simon for correcting 9a. You are both right. We will not be able to amend this until this evening as we only have our phones at the moment.
Enjoyed this one although I did have to look up the excellent American, old historian and dinosaur.
Hadn’t previously heard of man-weeks, it was restricted to man-hours in my day!
Thanks to Monk and to B&J for the review. How clever of you to spot the Nina – never crossed my mind!
We didn’t find this too difficult, although we had to check ‘rad’ in Chambers and look up a list of historians for 3dn, and only spotted the nina after we’d finished. We thought it slightly unfortunate that the first four letters of 15dn form ‘tart’ which can be a synonym for ‘acidic’.
But very enjoyable. We liked ICE FLOE and DIPLODOCUS.
Thanks, Monk and B&J.