An enjoyable prize puzzle from Monk – with an interesting twist, or two…
Apologies but a manic week and two blogs to complete tonight mean this will have to be quick.
I started this at a pace – about half went in quite quickly e.g. WARRINGTON, RENT, VENETO – and then slowed down…and it took a couple of returns to this to finish it. I liked ‘DIVA-GATE’, and NICAD had a wonderful surface reading.
There was a mini-linkage/theme of words for RUMINANTs’ stomachs – OMASUM (BIBLE) and READ (ABOMASUM) – and a nina which I didn’t spot until I’d almost finished – ‘THE EDGE OF THE WORLD’ going round the outside of the grid:
This helped get the last couple in – I think TURF was last in. I couldn’t work out why the top line was ‘HIRTA’ – but a quick e-search revealed this to be a reference to a 1937 Michael Powell film, ‘The Edge of the World‘, set on the St Kilda archipelago island of Hirta – although it was actually filmed on the Shetland island of Foula.
So, education on cows’ stomachs and 1930s films, as well as an enjoyable weekend prize challenge. Thanks to Monk.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 6A | DENOUNCE | Condemn opera penned by numskull (8) | Condemn / DUNCE (numskull) around (penning) ENO (English National Opera) |
| 8A | INVENT | Fashionable opening design (6) | design / IN (fashionable) + VENT (opening) |
| 10A | LOSS | Defeat explanation that’s no good (4) | defeat / (G)LOSS – explanation without G (no ‘good’) |
| 11A | OUTLANDISH | Bizarre old aunt thrashed his bum (10) | bizarre / double anag – OLD AUNT (i.e. thrashed) plus HIS (i.e. bum) |
| 12A | REAWAKEN | Break a new, weaker, spring again (8) | spring (up)again / anag (i.e. break) of A + N (new) + WEAKER |
| 14A | ICE AGE | Hiding drug in prison after one gets a potentially long stretch (3,3) | long stretch (of time) / I (one) + CAGE (prison) around 9hiding) E (drug, ecstasy) |
| 16A | LIVERY COMPANY | Unhappy business guild invested in capital (6,7) | guild invested in capital (i.e. London) / LIVERY (unhappy, liverish, irritable) + COMPANY (business) |
| 18A | OMASUM | Old master requires whole bible for a 17 (6) | bible (stomach) for a 17D (ruminant) / O (old) + MA (Master) + SUM (whole) |
| 19A | DIVAGATE | Digress from scandal concerning famous prima donna? (8) | digress / &lit-ish – after Watergate – in the modern way of adding ‘,,,gate’ to indicate a scandal (Contra-gate, Iraq-gate, etc.) – then one involving a prima donna (diva) could be DIVA-GATE |
| 22A | WARRINGTON | In a fight, beginning to take on a rugby team (10) | rugby (league) team / WARRING (in a fight) + T (first letter of take) + ON |
| 25A | READ | Study what follows 18 in a 17 (4) | double def’n / as well as the more usual ‘to study’ etc., a separate definition of READ is the abomasum, or fourth stomach, of a ruminant (17D), coming after the omasum (18A), or third stomach. |
| 26A | EDISON | Hardly any particular aspect held back inventor (6) | inventor (Thomas) / EDISON = NO SIDE (hardly any particular aspect) – all held backwards |
| 27A | ROTATING | Joking about answer, taking turns (8) | taking turns / ROTTING (joking) about A (answer) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1D | HOUSEWIVES | Possibly mums of kids who use potty having to remove clothes endlessly (10) | possibly mums of kids / HOUSEW – anag (i.e. potty) of WHO USE – plus (D)IVES(T) – to remove clothes, without end letters. |
| 2D | IN HOCK | Put away wine by small measures (2,4) | put away / IN (inches, small measures) + HOCK (wine) |
| 3D | RENT | Let’s split (4) | double def’n / RENT can be to let (a property), and also a tear, or split. |
| 4D | TITANIUM | Turning it completed material for aircraft manufacture (8) | material for aircraft manufacture / TI (it, turning) is the symbol/abbreviation (i.e. needs completing) for titanium |
| 5D | AVID | Enthusiastic half of 19 turned up (4) | enthusiastic / DIVA (half of 19 – DIVAGATE), turned up |
| 7D | EVOKE | Call up girl with fine heart (5) | call up / EVE (girl) around OK (fine) |
| 9D | NOSEGAY | Unopened posy with, for example, an unusual bouquet (7) | bouquet / anag (i.e. unusual) of OSY (posy, missing opening letter) + EG (for example) + AN |
| 13D | NICAD | Battery chickens are originally put in another bird’s brood (5) | (type of) battery / NID (a pheasant’s, or another bird’s, brood) around CA (first letters of Chickens Are) |
| 15D | EXAGGERATE | Overdo rising electronic levy, ultimately embedded in rhythmic music (10) | overdo / E (electronic) + TAX (levy) + REGGAE (rhythmic music) – with the X of TAX shifted and embedded in REGGAE – all rising |
| 16D | LOMBARD | Old German noble without a degree (7) | Old German / LORD (noble) around (without) MBA (degree) |
| 17D | RUMINANT | Droll, almost vacuous, given time to be meditative (8) | meditative / RUM (droll, funny) + INAN(E) (almost vacuous) + T (time) |
| 20D | VENETO | Even Etonians admit “some Europeans will live here” (6) | some Europeans will live here (in Venice, or Veneto) / hidden word (i.e. admitted) in ‘eVEN ETOnians’ |
| 21D | TWAIN | Mark, say, plough in the Dales? (5) | Mark (author) / In Yorkshire (the Dales) a WAIN, might be referred to as T’WAIN. (NB. WAIN is usually more of a hay-wagon than a plough?) |
| 23D | RASH | Primarily reckless and soft-headed (4) | &lit/CD? / first letters (i.e. primarily) of ‘Reckless And Soft Headed’ |
| 24D | TURF | Patch up date, maybe after one’s done a bunk (4) | patch (of ground) / TURF could be FRU(I)T – e.g. date – losing I (one) and turned up |
I enjoyed this puzzle although I failed to solve 2d & 24d, and I also failed to spot the nina.
My favourite clues were 3d, 17d, 16d, 26a, 8a.
New words for me were OMASUM, DIVAGATE, and the WARRINGTON Wolves rugby team.
Thanks for the blog, mc_rapper67. I needed your help to parse 21d (I only got as far as WAIN = wagon), 1d, 25a, 13d & 4d.
Thanks mc-r. Some excellent stuff and some distinct oddnesses.
Never heard of rotting for joking and I’m not finding it in any dictionary I’ve looked at. Didn’t know IN HOCK could mean in prison, but it’s the first definition in Collins.
I can solve one thing though, The Plough, the starry thing is/was known as Charles’ Wain (wagon). Sort of works.
The perimeter is interesting, the most westerly Scottish settlement until abandonment and possibly the most westerly bit of Scotland.
Brilliant blog, but re &lit I think there should be some kind of course that people have to go on before they’re allowed to use the phrase. You have ‘&lit/CD?’ for RASH, which IS &lit (since the whole clue, which ONLY contains SI, is a pretty fair definition for the required word), while DIVAGATE, described as ‘&littish’, is not (apart from being a free gift to a compiler of Monk’s abilities, it’s a simple charade).
Brilliant puzzle too, of course, from M. Onque. Cheers both.
Sidey@2: rot=joke in my old copy of Chambers. A bit obscure though, as were a few of the other elements in this puzzle, such as ‘nid’ in 13dn and bible=stomach in 18ac. I know it was a prize puzzle and shouldn’t have been easy, but this one felt too much like hard work and wasn’t a lot of fun, for me at least.
I found this very tough indeed until I saw the possibility of a Nina emerging in the perimeter and then I finished it quite quickly. I guess the unfamiliar words were needed because of that but I found the wordplay led me to them. Very interested to learn about the island – all of that was new to me.
Thanks, all, for the feedback and comments.
Sidey at #2 – that explains t’plough. I was thinking more of Constable’s haywain!
Paul B at #3 – I’m never quite sure about ‘&lit’s and ‘CD’s – and ‘charade’ is new to me. I was in a bit of a rush, so perhaps I was a bit ‘&lazy-ish’ there (;+>)
Maybe we need a definitive guide in the ‘Tips for solvers’ section?
Re ‘charade’ I’ll confess I’d never heard of that terminology till reading about it in a crossword book. I think it derives from a party game, not much played now perhaps. It just means one part of the answer preceding another part.
Too late I know, but Paul B is off the mark for once. DIVAGATE is most certainly not a simple charade. 8A, INVENT would make a better example.
FYI, The Edge of the World is on Film4 on Tuesday. Surely not a coincidence?
HKColin, Paul B may, as you say, be off the mark in calling DIVAGATE a charade (well, it technically is but yes it’s more a kind of pun). However, he is right in his view on DIVAGATE not being an &lit (at all). The definition is simply ‘digress’ and the rest of the clue, though amusing, has nothing to do with the solution as such.
Brilliant puzzle as ever by perhaps (read: no doubt) one of the best setters around.
I completely missed the Nina round the perimeter but it didn’t prevent me from completing the crossword (apart from the very last clue, that is).
Well, it splits DIVA/ GATE. That’s a charade, whichever way it’s defined in SI.
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 for excellent blog and to all for +ve and very kind feedback. As for 19ac, it seems that D. St. P. Barnard (Chapter 12, Anatomy of the Crossword, 1963) calls such clues “parabolic”, as in the adjectival derivative of the noun parable. Barnard asserts that the “parabolic clue has strong claims to be regarded as the consummation of the enigmatic art”, and gives the example Striking claim for a working model (8) for IMPOSING. It would seem that the structures of this example and 19ac are isomorphic, both being of the form [definition] [normal (i.e. unprocessed by the usual wordplay operations) phrase, sometimes fanciful/stretched, which can be interpreted as wordplay].
As for the Nina, I saw the (1939) film late one night on Channel 4 in the early 90s; for me, it instantaneously kindled a lifelong love affair with Scotland’s Highlands and Islands. The follow-up (1978) film was fascinating, as is Powell’s book about the making of both. In the blog, mc_rapper67‘s Wikipedia link is minimal but very informative.
Well, go on then. It’s parabolic. Some of mine are pairabollocks, but that’s my own silly fault.
Slipping back into the spandex of my more usual cryptic clothing, I now agree with HKColin and Sil that it’s d&cd (because Divagate, as an event with a singer’s controversial involvement, won’t split).
And so we all agree! The note D + CD was in my original submission 🙂