[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
One expects a challenge from Monk, but I think this was difficult by anyone’s standards.
Round the edge of the grid are THE THE (1980’s pop band) THE BARD (Shakespeare) THE OAKS (a country pub? horse race at Epsom) and THE END (the end). Possibly there is a theme here, but if there is it escapes me, and anyway I am so mentally exhausted from solving this that I coulnd’t follow it anyway. My clear favourite today is 3dn, no competition!.
Thank you Monk for a great morning’s work.
Hold the mouse pointer over any clue number to read the clue.
| Across | ||
| 7 | TOYOTA | TO and A TOY (corgi manufacture model cars) reversed (returned) |
| 8 | FOUCALT | OUt (almost=cut short) and C (caught) in FAULT (error) – Leon Foucalt former French physicist |
| 9 | HEIGHTEN | EIGHT (two fours) in HEN (female) – definition is raise |
| 10 | SERAPH | RAP (short sharp blow) inside (boxed by) HE’S reversed – a winged angel |
| 11 | EDIT | TIDE (trend) reversed |
| 12 | SALSA VERDE | (SERVE SALAD)* – defiition is &lit, a type of salad dressing (among other things) |
| 14 | BRASSIE | BRASSIERE (lingerie) with ER (queen) removed – a type of golf club |
| 16 | MAESTRO | A and S placed separately (broken) into METRO (urban railway) |
| 19 | ALL THE BEST | ALL (without exception) THE BEST (unsurpassed) |
| 21 | SHIA | SH (mum, quiet) AI (excellent) reversed (about) |
| 22 | RAGOUT | RAG (newspaper) OUT (published) |
| 24 | SHAMROCK | SHAM (hoax) ROCK (diamond) – the shamrock is associated with the Irish nation |
| 25 | D-NOTICES | (EDICTS ON)* anagram=broadcasts – former name for DA-Notices, requests from government to newspapers to refrain from publishing a story |
| 26 | DRIERS | DRIvERS (golf clubs) with no centre (heartless) – I guess a drier might drain something. This seems a bit of a vague definition to me. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TOREADOR | OREAD (nymph) in TOR (hill) – a bullfighter, dangerous to bulls |
| 2 | HOGGET | O (old) GG (horse) in THE* (anagram=excited) – a name for a young sheep |
| 3 | EARTH SHINE | EAR (listener) (HINTS HE)* anagram=is playing – the equivalent of moonlight, night time light from earth seen from the moon. What a cracking clue! |
| 4 | TUNS | TUNS with A (are, 100 sq metres) missing (not inside) |
| 5 | HARRIERS | RE (about) reversed in HARRIS (Isle of Harris). Although often given the name ‘Isle’ Harris is not an island but the southern part of the larger Lewis and Harris. |
| 6 | ELOPED | cryptic definition |
| 8 | FINALS | IN (concerned with) going inside (stopping, like a cork) FALSe (wrong, mostly) |
| 13 | AVANT-GARDE | (ADVANTAGE R)* R=runs (anagram=out) |
| 15 | SET FORTH | SET (fixed) and the River FORTH |
| 17 | RAILCARD | cryptic definition |
| 18 | CENSUS | CENSUreS (disapproves) with RE (about) removed (given the chop) – definition is ‘count’ |
| 20 | LEARNT | LENT (fast) with cAR (top missing) put (parked) inside – definition is ‘gathered’ |
| 21 | STRAIN | double definition |
| 23 | TACE | T (time) ACE (one) – definition is ‘quiet’, an instruction to stop talking |
*anagram
Can’t help with the embedded theme, but The Oaks is a flat race held at Epsom, and I think that that is more likely than a country pub.
Hope the Prof will drop by to assist if no-one else elaborates. Tough indeed. Don’t know how you managed PeeDee:just glad I didn’t have to blog it.
Very very tough indeed. If they were waiting for me to blog it….!!
Thanks to Monk for making me work harder than on any of today’s other cryptics and to the wonderful PeeDee for sorting it all out for us.
I think you have found the theme, Pee Dee, well-known two-word phrases that begin with THE, I’d think.
Very well done and thanks for the blog, PeeDee
Only yesterday (in Neo’s blog) rowland said “the FT is very good these days, I think”. I fully agree. Cinephile, Dante and Cincinnus are what they are, but some setters who publish in other broadsheets too downgrade a bit for the FT and – how paradoxically – become perhaps even more attractive here (Redshank, Loroso, Neo, Alberich, to name a few).
But Monk is Monk – can’t see much difference with his Indy outings.
Another cracking puzzle.
Nice to see Matt Johnson’s The The get a mention somewhere around the perimeter.
And a nice nod to Pink Floyd in 3d too!
Yesterday, Neo replied to my query on abbreviations: “D for daughter or daughters is standard, as is S for son or sons, and both are tolerated even by The Times, notoriously choosy as it is about single-letter indication (to protect solvers from the REALLY REALLY obscure stuff, I think: take = R not allowed, are = A not allowed &c)”.
And while I am still not convinced by D for Daughters (plural), see what happened today: A for ‘are’ – I like it!
Thanks PeeDee.
Even more thanks to Monk.