*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed
I haven’t done a lot of Monk puzzles but those I have done I found relatively straightforward. This was no exception and I completed it fairly quickly (about half an hour, which is quick for me). There was only one (13 across) which I could’t quite follow.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Legal aid: E gala in Lid. |
| 5 | Tarmac: T + CAMRA< (CAMRA being the Campaign for Real Ale). |
| 9 | Crows foot: (Cow sort of)* |
| 11 | Dylan: Hidden in body language. |
| 12 | Tapioca: i[nt]o + CA on tap. The purists might argue with the indirect clueing of “on tap” as “readily available”, but it’s very clever. |
| 13 | Armoire: Didn’t really follow this – “Cabinet minutes pinched by girl dropped into river”. Looks like m inside a girl’s name inside a river, but I can’t work out the components. |
| 14 | Butterfingers: B + utter + fingers (handles as a verb rather than a noun). One of the better disguised clues. |
| 16 | Introspective: (priv[a]te section)*. |
| 20 | Shallow: hall in sow. |
| 21 | Sustain: US in stain. Another well-disguised clue. |
| 23 | Ibiza: Ibi[s] + ZA. South Africa is usually SA, so I was tempted to put Ibisa as a possible alternative spelling. However, ZA is also allowed (stands for Zuid Afrika). |
| 24 | Small beer: double definition. |
| 25 | Kennel: Ken + Len<. Man’s best friend = dog. |
| 26 | I dare say: Ares in I day. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Locate: Double def. Although locate was the obvious answer, I had some doubts until I checked the dictionary definition to find it can mean to place someone. |
| 2 | Gloop: G + loop. |
| 3 | Lash out: La shout. Miles Kington would have been proud. |
| 4 | Isolated pawns: (L antipodes saw)* |
| 6 | Abdomen: (bemoan)* around d. |
| 7 | Millipede: cryptic (pins = legs). |
| 8 | Contessa: Cryptic. Took me a while to figure this one out (early = like an Earl). |
| 10 | Traffic island: Traffic + island. The “dodgy” looked a bit, well, dodgy since it isn’t really needed, but the dictionary does give “illegal or dishonest trading” as a definition. |
| 14 | Battalion: TA in bat + lion. |
| 15 | Lipstick: cryptic def (trap = mouth). |
| 17 | Oil cake: O I + c in lake. |
| 18 | Insular: (urinals)*. |
| 19 | Energy: (y green)* + &lit. |
| 22 | Avers: [R]avers. |
There’s a little Nina there, I think.
Excellent clueing, as usual, from another habitual observer of convention.
Don’t be so mysterious, Nmsindy.
What’s the Nina? I couldn’t find one.
Look in central row and column.
13A Well there’s a river Aire and Ro can be short for Roisin but I wouldn’t have thought that Ro was a common enough name to merit it as crossword fodder.
Ro is also a reasonably common shortening of Rosemary.
I did it again, I wrote in an answer to an early clue which was wrong but then had me stymied for a while. For 1d I had SETTLE (upon) = choose = find, vague connection!
In 10D ‘dodgy’ made me think the first element was an anagram of ‘trade on’ which held me back for a bit.