Independent No.11,397 by Monk

by

Monk in the Saturday slot gives me a chance to blog on their work rather than just solve.

 

I’ve come to find their grids should well satisfy both the beginner and hard-bitten solver. If I have one criticism it might be that their clueing has some inconsistencies in qiality, with a couple like they’re stretching a little too far for the answer.

AMBIDEXTER (10 a.) and TOM, DICK AND HARRY (11 a.) are examples of the sublime offerings today and are very artfully constructed clues indeed. There was a point when I thought 11a might be a reference to this chap: Must. Watch. Less. Rugby.

I’m less keen on SANDERS (17 d.) This feels almost like a quick crossword clue. SHIRKED (3 d.) also felt a little clumsy to me. Of course, I could just be missing something very obvious, which I’m certain you Indy solvers will correct me on in short order!

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks again to Monk for the puzzle.

 

ACROSS

1: Cause of misinterpreting us on political moves involving Israel (7,8)

Anag. political moves and I [Israel]

OPTICAL ILLUSION

 

9: Tramp making a comeback in snooker tournament (4)

TREK

Hidden word: snooker tournament. “Comeback” gives the clue to look for the word back to front

 

10: US stock exchange accepting offer by hard, unrestricted double-dealer (10)

AMBIDEXTER

US [AM] stock exchange [EX] accepting offer [BID] by hard, unrestricted [‘STERN’ with first and last letters removed = TER]

 

11: Everybody recalled test set by dad, Nick ‘Bonkers‘ Badger (3,4,3,5)

TOM, DICK AND HARRY

Test [MOT] set [rearranged to TOM] by dad, Nick ‘Bonkers‘ [anag. DAD NICK] Badger [HARRY]

 

12: Show axes stars (7)

GALAXY

Show [GALA] axes [X and Y]

 

14: Call in vital prisoners – ultimately, warders may hold them (3, 5)

KEY RINGS

Call [RING] in vital [KEY] prisoners – ultimately [S]

 

16: Abandon plane ride over ocean, disheartened (9)

JETTISON

Plane [JET] ride over [sit turned over= TIS] ocean, disheartened [take away middle of ocean = ON]

 

18: Turning through ninety degrees, northern bloke chopping silver tree (6)

ZAMANG

Turning through ninety degrees, northern [N tnrned by 90° = Z] bloke [A MAN] chopping [placed inside] silver [AG]

More info on the Zamang tree. 

 

19: Occasionally renowned, the Navy at sea (5,3,3,4)

EVERY NOW AND THEN

Anag. [“at sea”] of renowned, the Navy

 

22: Constantly unsurpassed heterosexual bores (3,3,4)

ALL THE TIME

Unsurpassed [ALL TIME] heterosexual [HET] bores [goes into]

 

23: Inside information ignoring pressure over squabble (4)

TIFF

Inside information [TIP OFF] ignoring pressure over [take out ‘P’ and ‘O’]

 

24: Stop sheep directly (9,6)

LEICESTER SQUARE

The Leicester is a breed of sheep, and square = directly; Leicester Square being one of the major stops on the London Underground.

Those of you particularly interested can surf agog through the ovine magnificence of the Leicester Blue breeder’s association website.

 

DOWN

2: Worthy European ousting first American in church residence (9)

PERSONAGE

European [E] ousting [swap with] first American [A] in church residence [PARSONAGE]

 

3: Son and husband this angry could be avoided (5)

IRKED

“SHIRKED” with S and H removed [‘avoided’]

 

4: Chaos Theory at last introduced by extremely authoritrian principal (7)

ANARCHY

Theory at last [Y] introduced by [in front of] extremely authoritarian [AN] principal [ARCH]

 

5: Already written among clearly defined terms, as was early TV (2,5,3,5)

IN BLACK AND WHITE

The usual convention for cryptic clues such as this would be to have a question mark at the end…? Try as I might, I can’t see another way to reach this answer.

 

6: March 25th remained minimally interlinked with June 6th? (4,3)

LADY DAY

Remained [LAY] merged by just one letter with D-DAY [6th June 1944]

 

7: From six, Samuel changed stress on it (9)

SEXUALISM

Anag. of SIX SAMUEL. “It” here an oblique reference to sex.

 

8: Expert born in Oregon (3,2)

ONE-ER

Born [NEE] in Oregon [OR]

 

13: Region offering the greatest latitude? Positively not (9)

ANTARCTIC

The Antarctic is the most southerly point on the globe, and thus at the lowest latitude. The south pole lies at -90° latitude.

 

15: Sought refund having mostly gone wrong (6,3)

GUNNED FOR

Anag. of REFUND and GON [‘mostly GONE’]

 

17: They make smooth timber (7)

SANDERS

 

18: Unknown crooners perhaps topped great things in the US (7)

ZINGERS

Crooners [SINGERS] topped with “Unknown” [Z]

 

20: University splits farewell prize (5)

VALUE

University [U] splits farewell [VALE]

 

21: Just a touch too much for animal (5)

TATOU

Hidden word: Just a touch

 

 

24 comments on “Independent No.11,397 by Monk”

  1. SANDERS
    the timber of the red sandalwood, from which a red dye is obtained.
    A DD.
    ZAMANG
    A minor correction:
    MAN-bloke (Not A MAN)

    Thanks, Monk and Leedsclimber!
    Liked ZAMANG, TIFF and ANTARCTIC.

  2. I had the anagram fodder for 1a as ‘us on political + IL’ for Israel. Moves is the anagram. Liked LEICESTER SQUARE but it took a long time to solve. I thought it was a relatively easy crossword but with some very difficult clues in the SE corner that needed a word finder and a lot of head-scratching. Still don’t get 11a although badger for harry was obvious. Thanks for the blog (I needed help with LADY DAY) and thanks to Monk.

  3. T,D & H
    A minor thing:
    TOM -recalled MOT (not set, I think. ‘set by’ can be read together in place of ‘by’)

  5. Well I filled in the grid without ever feeling remotely on the setter’s wave length thus my enjoyment of the puzzle was somewhat diminished. I did however like TIFF and ZINGERS.
    Many thanks to Monk and to Leedsclimber for the blog.

  7. Sofamore @2. Agree need IL for Israel. Not really part of the anagram fodder but contained inside.

    I didn’t split AMEX into two bits – it’s a recognised term. I had 5d as a double definition.

  8. A couple of obscure answers, but it’s Saturday so I didn’t mind carrying over to a second coffee.

    The parsing of 10a is even more direct, as AMEX is simply the abbreviation for the American Stock Exchange – no need to break in two.

    As Monk is male (as is his pseudonym), there was no need to resort to confusing plural pronouns.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  9. As Simon S points out, it’s a pangram which – for once – I spotted and it helped with LOI LEICESTER SQUARE as there was only one place for the Q to fit. I half-share Stephen L’s experience – I did enjoy this but, like him, never felt I had connected with the setter so I needed to come here to pick apart the odd bit of parsing. It didn’t help that several solutions were nho – ONE-ER, SEXUALISM, ZAMANG (did anybody know that?) and AMBIDEXTER.

    I think I parsed SHIRKED slightly differently – though it all comes out in the wash. I took it as ‘if you add S and H to ‘this angry’ = IRKED you could get avoided = SHIRKED’. I’m not sure I could make ‘avoided’ work as a deletion indicator sitting the other side of the def to the letters in question.

    Thanks Monk and leedsclimber

  10. Thrown by ZAMANG, which was new to me, but otherwise I found this reasonably straightforward.

    Thank you to Monk and Leedsclimber

  11. Postmark @9, I read IRKED the same way as you, but took ages to be convinced by a central definition.

    And I parsed OPTICAL ILLUSION as an anagram of political, on, us and Israel must be IL.

  12. I thought IN BLACK AND WHITE was a triple definition. I parsed IRKED as PostMark. It’s clever to get the definition in the middle of the clue for a change, but still maybe a little awkward?

  13. No probs for me with the occasional use of a central definition. I do, however, like the practice of using ‘this’ in such circumstances. Either standalone or, as Monk has done, ‘this X’. A straightforward synonym as the def, centrally placed, would be much harder and verging on the unfair, I feel.

  14. Fwiw, not sure if the intention of 13d has been brought out: the Antarctic is the region of greatest latitude, but since it is negative, it is the greatest non-positive latitude.
    Only knew Lady Day from recent (Bluth?) puzzle; it’s an interesting day, equinox-ish, immaculate conception, formerly new year’s day, explanation for why tax year runs to April 5 (11 day shift when Gregorian calendar introduced).
    Thanks S&B

  16. Agree with Petert about IN BLACK AND WHITE, though I’d say 2 defs (already written, like old tv) with wordplay (among for IN, clearly defined terms (extremes) for B&W)
    I liked IRKED, very clear

  17. Quite tricky but the perfect displacement activity, much more enjoyable than what I was supposed to be doing

    Many thanks to Monk and leedsclimber

  18. Found this tough but pleased I was able to grind it all out in the end. I parsed IRKED the same way as PostMark and that was one of my favourites – no problem with the definition being central when it’s clearly indicated as it was here. Thanks for an interesting challenge, Monk, and for the blog, Leedsclimber.

  19. Not really getting why one-er is expert. Is it just something I’ve not heard of or is there something cryptic I’m missing?

  20. Ericw – it’s old slang. I’m more familiar with “oner” but it’s the same thing.

    “Miss Sally’s such a one-er for that.”
    – C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop

  24. Latitude should be South – not minus ! I read this as the largest latitude that was ‘not positive’ ( re arctic N is positive magnetically ) ?
    Apart from that – struggled with this one. I knew sheep was a leicester – but getting to the answer from ‘stop’ was a step to far for me this weekend ! ( and square didn’t help ! )
    Gave up and filled the gaps here to see what the old brain was missing !
    Still trying to finish Phi’s – but getting better …I think ?

    Liked ‘every now and then’ ( I sail ! )

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