With autumn well and truly here, Monk is the setter today.
Always a pleasure to encounter Monk – possibly at his more devious today, though maybe I’m just not as quick as I used to be. 13ac took me some time to parse, whilst the work is in common usage it rarely appears in a crossword.
The across clues displayed an interesting pattern when their order is reversed:
- FRENCH KNICKERS
- ANIMAL CRACKERS
- ACHILLES TENDON
- INFERIOR PLANET
I assume intentional
Many thanks Monk – always a challenge and a fun solve.
Key: * anagram; rev. reversed; DD Double definition; Underline definition
Across
6 Way to stop another week disappearing — can’t be bothered with this (6)
way – w (week) around path (another ‘way’) = APATHY
7 Stems from him getting zero when playing spades (8)
(him + zero + s)* RHIZOMES
9 One hiding in rocks removing a pair of pants (8)
knackers(rocks) – a around i (one) = KNICKERS
10 Fine to soak topless people (6)
F (fine) + drench(soak) – d = FRENCH
11 Nutty, fruity biscuits not all there (8)
Triple definition = CRACKERS
12 Brute, obsessive and obstinate about vacuous idealism (6)
anal (obsessive and obstinate) around im (vacuous idealism) = ANIMAL
13 Extremely fast leak spanning break, I think (11)
Piss (leak) around rest (break) + IMO (I think – as in my opinion) = PRESTISSIMO
18 Clear about having cooked short connective tissue (6)
Rev. net (clear) + done(cooked) – e = TENDON
20 Valets alternately clothing cool, classical hero (8)
vAlEtS around chill (cool) = ACHILLES
22 Perhaps earth map taken by alien (6)
plan(map) + et (alien) = PLANET
23 Conclude backing of, say, Louis XIV’s subordinate (8)
infer(conclude) + Rev. Roi (say, Louis XIV) = INFERIOR
24 Set of lines, one of five penned by Pasternak regularly? Au contraire (8)
quin (one of five) around pAsTeRnAk = QUATRAIN
25 Shun old artist, wife having run off (6)
Escher (old artist) – r (run) + w (wife) = ESCHEW
Down
1 Remove wet medic with prickly exterior (4-3)
spiny(prickly) around dr (medic) = SPIN-DRY
2 Adapted transport framework, Caledonian, headed northwards (5,3)
Rev. rack (framework) + scots’ (Caledonian) – s (headed) = STOCK CAR
3 Solvent abuse finally suppressed by cross unknown man (6)
x (cross) + y (unknown) + Len (man) + e (abuse formally) = XYLENE
4 British ultimately ruin safari, upsetting Africans (8)
b (British) + (n safari)* = BIAFRANS
5 Old soldier, a camp commander? (7)
DD REDCOAT (as in holiday camp)
7 Revival of second addict on return call (13)
Rev. S (second) + user (addict) then citation (call) = RESUSCITATION
8 Sumo wrestler thrown over in strike zone (5)
Rev. hidden strIKE ZOne = OZEKI
14 Literally strap a problem for links (4,4)
s and trap = strap = SAND TRAP
15 Factory drivers by English Channel (8)
Mill (factories) + RAC (drivers) + e (English) = MILLRACE
16 Green and keen, Jack making a new start (7)
zealous (keen) changing z for j = JEALOUS
17 Once more elect good revolutionary to communicate (3,4)
Rev. Revote (once more elect) + g (good) = GET OVER
19 Junk food served by university in a prohibition? (5)
Don’t (prohibition) around u (university) = DONUT
21 Judged weight of caution restraining a newspaper (6)
heed (caution) around FT (newspaper) = HEFTED
Well done in cracking this one, twencelas. Too difficult for me.
A few minor points: the final S in 7a is not part of the anagram (so pleased when I got this which opened up the NE quadrant) and, in 3d, “formally” should be “finally”.
Couldn’t parse 9a. The fact that “rocks” and “knackers” can both refer to a man’s testicles never occurred to me. I also missed the IMO bit of 13a.
I guess I’m being stupid but I still not sure I get 11a. I read it as saying “nutty”, “fruity” and “not all there” are 3 ways of saying the same thing and “biscuits” is a second meaning.
On the minus side, the spelling DONUT is not the proper UK spelling (and is not allowed in Countdown as a US spelling) and I think the inclusion of the indefinite article in 21d is unnecessary and misleading.
By the way, in addition to the pairings you mention in your introduction, it is also a pangram.
Thanks to Monk and twencelas.
As expected from Monk, this wasn’t exactly a PRESTISSIMO solve, but worth sticking with. I ended up failing on REDCOAT which in retrospect wasn’t the hardest clue. New words were OZEKI and the sense of HEFT for ‘to judge weight’ rather than ‘to lift’. I wasn’t sure what ‘fruity’ was doing in 11a – I think of CRACKERS as rather plain dry biscuits, but I see they can contain dried fruit pieces. Otherwise, ? a quadruple def.
I saw the ‘reversed term’ across clues but didn’t know if they were meant to lead to anything else. Favourite was ESCHEW – about as hard to make sense of as one of those M. C. Escher drawings. Good to have the pangram too.
Thanks to Monk and to twencelas
A splendid pangram and a nice brain stretcher from Monk. I did notice the backwards links in the Across clues – there have been several crosswords in another newspaper where the Across solutions join together to make interesting results
Thanks to Monk for the fun and twencelas for the blog
Yes, this made me work hard! Worth it, though. There were a couple of unfamiliar words for which I had to trust the wordplay, but it was REDCOAT which was my last in, and I very nearly gave up and reached for the wordfinder. Saw it in the nick of time.
I saw CRACKERS as a quadruple definition (although more correctly, as Hovis points out, three copies of essentially the same definition plus another). The extra A in the clue for HEFTED did give me pause, but Chambers has donut as esp US so I think the setter is off the hook there. I have a colleague who like to bring them in for the team, and we bought him a mug proclaiming “I DONUT CARE” which he loves, so that one made me smile.
After all that work I forgot to hunt for hidden treasures, so thanks to blogger and commenters for those.
It’s a shame that it’s always easier to remember difficulties encountered and minor niggles than the highlights. Overwhelmingly I had a great – and long – time with this.
Many thanks Monk and twencelas.
I failed miserably with this one (I blame lack of sleep) but did spot the reversed pairings. Pity there are no such couplings as ‘rhizomes apathy’ and ‘eschew quatrain’. Thanks anyway Monk and Twencelas.
Just a small correction to the blog; I think you intended to write abuse “finally” but (perhaps predictive text?) entered “formally”
Great puzzle even though it was a DNF for me.
Thanks for parsing.Sussed PRESTISSIMO straight away andfound it difficult to justify but the crossers backed it up.Same with ESCHEW. Spotted the likelihood of a pangram early on but not sure it helped. And thanks for pointing out the relations of the across clues.
Vive Monk.And thanks twencelas.