Independent 10,455 / Monk

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Monk has supplied this week’s Thursday puzzle. It is indeed a long time since it has fallen to me to blog one of his teasers.

I never ever seem to race through a crossword set by Monk. It is always something that I have to chip away at over a much longer period of time than would be the case for most other Indy puzzles.

Today was no exception, and I wondered for a while if I might need to cheat to finish and then write up my blog. In the end, however, I did manage to solve the whole puzzle unaided, although I needed Chambers to confirm some of the elements of wordplay, such as “bear” at 3 and “force” at 5. The wordplay in places is very intricate and took some teasing out, for example at 3, 4 and 6. I have to say that, because I had to work so hard, finishing the puzzle afforded me a great deal of satisfaction.

My favourite clues today were 17 and 24, both for smoothness of surface.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
08 ALTER EGO Before demise, finally try to make different close friend

ALTER (=to make different, change) + <demis>E (“finally” means last letter only) + GO (=try, attempt)
     
09 PROLIX Long, old hands grasping Oscar in pictures

[O (=Oscar, in radio telecommunications) in R L (=hands, i.e. right and left)] in PIX (=pictures, i.e. photos informally); prolix is an obsolete (“old”) word for long, wordy
     
10 FREE Frank // lavish // with compliments

Triple definition; something given “with someone’s compliments” is given free (of change)
     
11 TWENTIETHS In this decade, cut the rankings?

TH<e> (“cut” means last letter dropped) in TWENTIES (=this decade, i.e. 2020s); someone could be ranked twentieth in a competition
     
12 PIQUES Nettles in question found in cooked food

QU (=question) in PIES (=cooked food)
     
13 ERMINED Queen having material returned thus?

ER (=Queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) + MINED (DENIM=material; “returned” indicates reversal); semi- & lit.
     
14 TYRANNOSAURUS Extinct life form on Uranus – stray hybrid

*(ON URANUS STRAY); “hybrid” is anagram indicator
     
18 SHINGLE Drunk perhaps alone, one on the tiles?

Cryptically, “shingle” might be how a drunk, slurring his speech, pronounces “single (=alone)”
     
20 BURROW Refuge in ridge around old city

UR (=old city) in BROW (=ridge, of hill)
     
22 PENNYROYAL Flower from two boys after a girl

PENNY (=girl) + ROY (=boy) + AL (=boy); pennyroyal is a species of flowering mint
     
23 PELT Hide // in shower

Double definition: a hide is a “pelt”, animal skin AND to “pelt” someone with stones, missiles is to shower them with them
     
24 GENTOO Ducks on cove find seabird

GENT (=cove, fellow, in old UK slang) + O O (=ducks, i.e. 2 x zero score); a gentoo is a species of penguin with a white stripe across its head
     
25 OUT OF USE Unemployed public love to unite

OUT (=public, overt) + O (=love, i.e. a zero score) + FUSE (=to unite)
     
Down    
     
01 ALTRUIST Do-gooder mostly right to infiltrate select group?

TRU<e> (right; “mostly” means last letter dropped) in A-LIST (=select group)
     
02 TELEGU Tongue served up in huge lettuce

Vertically reversed (“served up”) and hidden (“in”) in “hUGE LETtuce”; Telegu is a Dravidian language (“tongue”) of SE India
     
03 JETTISON Abandon black bear climbing over middle of fence

JET (=black) + TIS (SIT=bear, weigh; “climbing over” indicates vertical reversal) + O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + <fe>N<ce> (“middle of” means middle letter only)
     
04 LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG Saw heartless, vile male ousting daughter in tune, stopping charity track

{[V<il>E (“heartless” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + M (=male)] in MELO<d>Y (=tune; “ousting daughter (=D)” means letter “d” is dropped)} in [LOVE (=charity) + DOG (=track, follow)]; the entry is an expression, hence “saw”
     
05 SPUTUM Force beset by problem showing phlegm

PUT (=force, constrain) in SUM (=problem)
     
06 GOVERNOR Spurs uncovered backing blocked by excessive regulator

OVER- (=excessive, as prefix) in GNOR (<p>RONG<s> (=spurs, e.g. on antlers; “uncovered” means first and last letters are dropped; “backing” indicates reversal)
     
07 SIGHED US soldier about to enter drop breathed deeply

IG (GI=American soldier; “about” indicates reversal) in SHED (=drop, e.g. a load)
     
15 RE-IGNITE Eminent power couple briefly inflame again

REIGN (=eminent power, of monarch) + ITE<m> (=couple, pair; “briefly” means last letter dropped)
     
16 AMBULATE American upper class into new, clipped Lambeth Walk

A (=American) + [U (=upper class) in *(LAMBET<h>)]; “clipped” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “new”
     
17 SPOTLESS Immaculate paths finally free of grass

<path>S (“finally” means last letter only) + POT (=grass, i.e. cannabis) + -LESS (=free of)
     
18 SKEWED Coloured gardens in Kent, opening in December

[KEW (=gardens, in London) in SE (=Kent, i.e. south east)] + D<ecember> (“opening in” means first letter only); a skewed view is a coloured, biased view of something
     
19 GORGON Stupid bloke holding coat of ravishing formidable woman

R<avishin>G (“coat of” means first and last letters only) in GOON (=stupid bloke); gorgons are ugly, formidable women, originally in Greek mythology
     
21 RIP OFF Split over leaving do

RIP (=split, tear) + OFF (=leaving, as in I’m off now); to do is rip off, con, swindle
     

 

17 comments on “Independent 10,455 / Monk”

  2. Always love the challenge of a Monk puzzle. Managed to complete this one but needed to check PENNYROYAL & TELEGU. Had question marks against sit=bear in 3d and put=force in 5d.

    Thanks to Monk and RatkojaRiku.

  3. A bit of a challenge but we got there in the end, assuming (couldn’t be bothered to check) ‘sit’ for ‘bear’ and ‘put’ for ‘force’.  Our favourite was GENTOO but we also liked SNINGLE and TELEGU.

    Thanks, Monk and RatkojaRiku.

  4. There must be something in there.  I suspect it’s dog related; does Monk have a new dog?  Maybe it’s called Solo, or Tyrannosaurus.

    Thanks Monk, RR

     

  5. In 8ac the order seems wrong to me. The way the clue reads  makes  ‘go’ then ‘alter’ then ‘e’. How do you know to put ‘alter’ at the front?

  6. JP @ 5 You have to supply the brackets: ‘before (demise finally, try): to make different’.  But you only know when you have the answer.

  7. Started this after breakfast, and got about half way. Picked it up again tonight, and finished it off. Managed to parse everything, but it was a struggle. Not keen of TWENTIETHS for RANKINGS. TELEGU and PROLIX were both new words for me.

  8. Thanks to RatkojaRiku and Monk

    Always worth the effort but I’m not sure about 9a.

    I don’t think “prolix” is obsolete. I can’t even find anywhere that lists it as archaic. Perhaps “long old” needs to be read as pejorative compared to simply “long”.

  10. Interestingly, the first definition is “long and wordy” which is the meaning I know.  I presume defn. 4 means physically long.

    Also it gives the Shakespearian prolixious, which I must drop into conversation some time..

  11. Sil @9

    Chambers needs to have a word with itself – enter “prolix” in its online thesaurus and one of the synonyms given is “long”.

  12. Great as always from Monk-Could someone be described a Z short of a pangram? Only around here maybe-struggled to find a nina.

    But splendid anyway-dint need icing on his cakes.

  13. Sorry, late comment. Hard work as expected, but as others have said, v. satisfying to ultimately have everything in. Favourites were the parsing for LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG, GENTOO and PROLIX, though that it is an ‘old’ word is news to me too.

    Thanks to Monk and RR

  14. Many thanks to RR for blog and to all for comments. I hope you are all keeping well.

    I too did not know that prolix was archaic, until advised thus by the editor! James@4 … though it wasn’t a thematic entry, I was indeed hoping to get a new collie pup to keep my old JRT company, but the status quo put a stop to all that 🙁

    That said, there is indeed a Nina — very visible in the grid — that combines some pretty famous walking in the Yorkshire Dales with a few deliberately stretched puns 😉

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