Independent 11,145 by Monk

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi all.  I enjoyed untangling this rather tricky offering from Monk.  I liked 26a and thought 28a also nicely done, although I couldn’t remember exactly who the sporting nickname belonged to (I had the sport right).  When finding that out I also learned that the two users of the nickname in question have had a bit of a wrangle over it (see link below).

Nina fans should check out the unchecked rows.  Thanks to Jane for spotting him for me.  Edit: and the unchecked columns too – thanks to Roger at comment 7.  I’ve now added the completed grid to the end of the blog, with the nina highlighted.

And many thanks of course to Monk.

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

8a    Female pro in sci-fi classic struggle (6)
EFFORT
F (female) and FOR (pro) in ET (classic sci-fi)

9a    Last word associated with clever subject (8)
AMENABLE
AMEN (last word) + ABLE (clever)

10a   See you love following spies overseas (4)
CIAO
O (love) following CIA (spies overseas)

11a   Unanimated, sad relative (6,4)
MAIDEN AUNT
An anagram of (… sad) UNANIMATED

12a   Cut back, catching horse by a curved path (8)
PARABOLA
LOP (cut) reversed (back) containing (catching) ARAB (horse), all next to (by) A

13a   Where cast is perhaps not in touch (2,4)
IN PLAY
A cast may perhaps be IN (a) PLAY, if it is a theatrical cast.  The definition is a sporting one

15a   Effusive, your current name finally put forward (7)
LYRICAL
YR (your), I (current) and CALL (name), with the last letter moved to the beginning (finally put forward)

17a   Ragamuffin essentially suppressing tact (7)
FINESSE
RagamufFIN ESSEntially is holding (suppressing) the answer

20a   Heavyweight filling in expert without delay (2,4)
AT ONCE
TON (heavyweight) filling in ACE (expert)

22a   Old Nixon’s a criminal — at least Blair and Clinton are these (8)
OXONIANS
O (old) + NIXON’S A anagrammed (criminal)

24a   Dismantles stars in play? (5,5)
TAKES APART
TAKES A PART (stars in play?)

26a   Gains by Labour picked up in ballot boxes (4)
URNS
EARNS (gains by labour), homophone (picked up)

27a   Damn bad weather heading for Iraq from a Gulf state (8)
BAHRAINI
BAH (damn) + RAIN (bad weather) + the first letter of (heading for) Iraq

28a   Sexy Posh perhaps wearing Sporty’s or Scary’s clothing (6)
STEAMY
TEAM (posh, perhaps: nickname of Peterborough United FC) inside (wearing) TY, SportY’s or ScarY’s outer letters (clothing)

 

Down

1d    Impression, not good, full of mostly rubbish ability to produce desired results (8)
EFFICACY
EFFI[g]Y (impression) without G (not good) containing (full of) CACk (rubbish) without the last letter (mostly …)

2d    Company allowance should cover close to ceremony (10)
CORONATION
CO (company) and RATION (allowance) should go around (cover) ON (close to)

3d    Substitute in centre of goal, jumping up, scored in time (1,5)
A TEMPO
TEMP (substitute) goes in the inner letters (centre) of gOAl reversed (jumping up).  Scored here means in a musical score.  I really like this clever definition and its contrast with the surface reading

4d    Original form of tyre containing carbon (7)
RADICAL
RADIAL (form of tyre) containing C (carbon)

5d    Food shop cutting unusually fine pasta (8)
FEDELINI
DELI (food shop) inserted into (cutting) an anagram of (unusually) FINE.  A new pasta for me, but this way round seemed much more likely than NEDELIFI!

6d    Goddess having gravitas, on and off (4)
GAIA
Alternate letters of (… on and off) GrAvItAs

7d    A girl left cracking info on 50s hairstyle? (6)
GLENDA
L (left) going inside (cracking) GEN (info) followed by (on, in a down entry) DA (50s hairstyle, also known as the ducktail)

14d   Marshal urged fire power up-front, having thought ahead? (10)
PREFIGURED
Make an anagram of (marshal) URGED FIRE and add P (power) at the beginning (up-front)

16d   A prayer made in moonwalk, maybe over lunar seas (3,5)
AVE MARIA
EVA (astronautics abbreviation for extravehicular activity, moonwalk, maybe) reversed (over) + MARIA (lunar seas)

18d   My sons possibly absorbing extremely nerdy contents of thesauri? (8)
SYNONYMS
An anagram of (… possibly) MY SONS containing (absorbing) the outer letters of (extremely) NerdY

19d   Broke wind by military bigwig (7)
BORACIC
BORA (wind) + CIC (Commander-in-Chief, military bigwig).  I barely recalled not only the wind but also the slang term for broke (rhyming slang apparently for boracic lint), so this went in with fingers crossed (which makes it a bit harder to type!)

21d   Odious type interminably dominating servant without exception (2,1,3)
TO A MAN
TOAd (odious type) without the last letter (interminably) on top of (dominating) MAN (servant)

23d   Blunt heads of overseas bank taking on employment (6)
OBTUSE
Initial letters (heads) of Overseas Bank Taking + USE (employment)

25d   Weird mineral reduced in mass (4)
EERY
E[m]ERY (mineral) without M (reduced in mass)

 

 

17 comments on “Independent 11,145 by Monk”

  1. Liked URNS, A TEMPO and AVE MARIA quite a bit.

    And loved Kitty’s ‘fingers crossed’ comment. 🙂

    IN PLAY: ‘Touch’ refers to the touch area/touch lines in Rugby (kick into touch). Doesn’t it?

  4. KVa – yes, indeed. Rugby’s my game and definitely in touch = out of play. In play therefore not in touch.

    Lovely puzzle, top to tail. Economical, accurate, imaginative, amusing. Great anagram for MAIDEN AUNT, I liked the afore-referenced IN PLAY, PREFIGURED was nicely constructed, along with FEDELINI and CORONATION. EFFORT and BAHRAINI both brought a smile but not as much as STEAMY which was COTD.

    Thanks Monk and Kitty

  5. KVa @1,2 – I thought so, but didn’t check. Thanks to PM@4 for the confirmation.

    Hovis @3 – clearly I did, thanks. Will amend just as soon as I can be DA’d. 🙂

  9. Heroic feat of construction. Monk has always been brilliant at this. Well spotted Roger – now back to your drumming.

  10. A great puzzle and blog. STEAMY and A TEMPO among many fine clues. I realise I have been spelling BORACIC wrong all my life. Thanks all. I feel the Nina should be pointing to us to something more, but I can’t see it.

  11. Learnt a few new things today – the football team’s nickname, the required definition of URNS and the variety of pasta which I made up as I went along!
    Favourite here was BAHRAINI which made me laugh, closely followed by IN PLAY.

    Thanks to Monk and to our favourite feline for another very informative review.

  12. I saw FARROKH but didnt see Freddie Mercury -looking in the wrong places-damn -spotting ninas in Monk and Serpent usually helps me finish.
    And I came undone in EERY-dunno why.
    Always love Monk puzzles, thanks for blog(I remembered BORACIC from Arthur Daley-super clue)

  13. We thought this was towards the easy end of Monk’s spectrum, solving it in one session. The SW corner proved a bit tricky – it took a while to remember BORACIC and we had to check in Chambers that EERY was correct (we usually spell ir ‘eerie’; Chambers gives both spellings). We missed the nina – looked at the perimeter butg didn’t think to check the other unches.
    Favourites were PARABOLA and AVE MARIA – even though we found the latter a write-in.
    Thanks, Monk and Kitty.

  14. Thanks kitty, monk and Roger for spotting the real name. Probably my fastest monk solve in truth but only saw well half the Nina post solve.

  15. Unusually easy for Monk even though I needed a word fit for LYRICAL and BORACIC. Many fine clues as usual including my top choices of PARABOLA, GLENDA, and EFFORT. The nina popped out without much searching. Thanks to Monk and to Kitty for the detailed blog.

  16. Totally forgot that this was today’s puzzle. Many thanks to Kitty — Sparky and Tia say hi, even tho Tia frenziedly chases cats! — for a super blog and to all commenters for the overwhelmingly positive feedback. Glad to be of service, and surprised to see that this was easy for some. Gauging difficulty levels is tricky courtesy of the “swimming pool” effect: all is well when the water level rises from ankles to chin, but when that little bit extra takes it over the mouth and nose, we infuriate solvers aplenty. So please do spare a thought for the setters, who tread such a fine line between bouquets and brickbats! Thanks again Kitty et al. 😀

  17. Good fun. I was amazed to spot the nina as I don’t usually, and to look for and find that the real name was also in there helped me finish the grid.

    Thanks, B and S.

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