I was glad when I found it was Monk today as he is one of my favourite setters. But this feeling changed as I discovered how tricky this one was.
I had read all the way down to 24 Across before I found something I could solve – and what a great device this was. Somehow I spotted what was meant by “progressive fashion” and it wasn’t flared jeans and a tee shirt. The Downs were only slightly more forthcoming: 1D, 15/2D and 3D gave me enough to realise what was going on in 1A and at that point I breathed a sigh of relief, relishing the sight of the clutch of lovely first letters …
… but it wasn’t enough for me to solve 4D, 5D and 6D yet. So the first pass only had 7 definite answers in – and a couple of tentative. I wrote in and rubbed out 7D VIPERS when the crossing letters it gave didn’t seem to help and I couldn’t see the wordplay – which turned out to be quite novel.
So I had to get serious with some of the others and concentrated on clues that presented likely anagrams. There weren’t many. Anyway 23A and finally 4D fell and all the rest were delivered mostly from crossing letters.
Hmm. I’ve made that sound as if I didn’t enjoy the challenge – but I did.
Several clues wordplay defeated me and only became clear while I was doing the blog, but I still cannot fathom 8A OPAL (which it has to be from the crossing letters and definition) and I’m not sure I have fully understood 10A SLOW-MO
Theme? Oh no – don’t tell me there is a theme I can’t see again too.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PHILADELPHIA | City theatre toured by Duke of Edinburgh award’s chief (12) ADELPHI (theatre) inside PHIL (the Greek, aka Duke of Edinburgh) and A[ward] |
| 8 | OPAL | Stone in case, whitish on the interior (4) It has to be from the crossing letters and definition. I cannot offer any wordplay …? |
| 9 | ASYMMETRIC | Unlike X and Y, Z is so irregular (10) I think it is an allusion to fact that X and Y have at least 1 degree of mirror symmetry but Z doesn’t (It has 180 deg rotational symmetry though so hardly lacking symmetry) |
| 10 | SLOW-MO | Expect to watch it at a reduced rate (4-2) CD, or is it a suggestion that SLOW MO is reduced from SLOW MOTION |
| 11 | ALDERNEY | Tree, a thing around an island (8) ALDER (tree) YEN< (a thing – a desire – as in I have a thing for you ) |
| 12 | PROCREATE | Tom found father (9) Father, in its verbal sense, provides the definition. PRO (Tom, slang for a prostitute), CREATE (found) |
| 14 | TEAS | Unwrapped chilled refreshments (4) LOI Nearly gave up with this one. I had a suspicion it was TEAS from the crossers and Def. But I was failing to find anything meaning chilled spelled like ?TEAS? or even ??E?S?, but finally realised it might not be one word and found “at ease” which can be “unwrapped” [a]T EAS[e] to leave TEAS |
| 15 | MONA | Semi-reclusive female (4) MONA[stic] Very terse lovely clue – probably my favourite |
| 16 | RING FENCE | Suggestion – dodge barrier (4-5) RING (dodge – as in a ringer) FENCE (barrier) But I don’t see how the definition Suggestion relates to the answer |
| 20 | STALLION | Hedge, one close to one bearing nuts? (8) STALL (hedge – as in avoiding answering a question or making a decision) I (one) ON (close to). The definition reminded me of a scene in the Wallace and Gromit “Were-Rabbit” film: “May contain nuts” |
| 21 | BOBCAT | Animal in ancient times aboard ark (6) B.C. (ancient times) inside BOAT (ark) |
| 23 | GENIUS LOCI | Guardian clues go in, cracked by lunch hour (6,4) (CLUES GO IN)* AInd: cracked, then I (1 pm) The guardian spirit of a place Wiki |
| 24 | MADE | Produced Michael Jackson video games, sampled in a progressive fashion (4) Michael JAckson viDeo gamEs Answer built from 1st letter from 1st word, 2nd from 2nd word etc. i.e. a progressive fashion. Believe it or no this was the first answer I cracked. |
| 25 | RICE KRISPIES | Failing to start trickier manoeuvres by MI6, puffed up little things (4,8) ([t]RICKIER )* AInd: manoeuvres, SPIES (MI6) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | POPULAR | Liked tree cut centrally, in the middle (7) [c]U[t] inside POPLAR (tree) I saw a similar U in POPLAR construction recently – where was it … |
| 3 | A LA MODE | In siege and massacre, desperate in the extreme (1,2,4) ALAMO (siege and massacre) D[esperat]E. In case you can’t see the underline the definition is just “In” |
| 4 | ERYMANTHIAN BOAR | Polled Henry Abraham into New Labour (11,4) ([h]ENRY ABRAHAM INTO)* AInd: new. The answer that gave me new hope of progress at around the halfway mark which needed much fiddling with the anagram fodder before the BOAR appeared and the nature of “labour” was understood – 4th Labour of Hercules |
| 5 | POMADE | Thick oil used specifically in locks (6) CD – Pun on different meanings of locks, otherwise almost a single def. |
| 6 | INTERVENE | Vindictive outsiders penetrating web, mostly separate (9) V[indictiv]E inside INTERNE[t] (web, mostly). |
| 7 | VIPERS | Current deviants, very forward venomous types (6) I (current) PERVS (deviants) shift V to the front. |
| 13 | CANELLINI | Stop old film director taking lid off beans (9) CAN (stop) [f]ELLINI (film director Federico F) A leguminous bean but normally spelled CANNELLINI … |
| 15/2 | MOTHER-IN-LAW | While matron’s working, she’s expected to be harsh (6-2-3) (WHILE MATRON)* AInd: working. Monk been listening to too many Les Dawson jokes? |
| 17 | GOBLINS | Try pancakes I cut – they’re grotesque (7) GO (try) BLINIS – I (pancakes, I cut) |
| 18 | CZARDAS | Emperor not happy about dance (7) CZAR (Emeror) SAD< (not happy, about) A Hungarian folkdance Wiki |
| 19 | TISSUE | Network time given to kids (6) T[ime] ISSUE (kids) |
| 22 | BAMBI | Picked up a dear bachelor, camp at heart, swinging either way (5) BA (bachelor) [ca]M[p] BI (swinging either way) “dear” is a homophone (Ind: picked up) of deer. Unusual to have the definition hidden under a homophone like this. So I only pencilled this in till the crossers confirmed it. |
I got two answers so I’m impressed anyone managed to solve this.
I think OPAL is something like portfoliO PALish but I’m not convinced.
RING FENCE seems to be the barrier rather than a suggestion (although ring?) but dodge=fence seems valid.
BAMBI is Bachelor cAMp BI.
Adelphi may be familiar to some, not me though as us up north aren’t much for London theatres.
CANELLINI only appears in Collins and Chambers, despite that spelling appearing in many US cook-books it’s not in Merriam-Webster.
Far to impenetrable for me although there are some interesting devices revealed by the blog.
I recall finding this exceedingly difficult and it wasn’t until I used an electronic search for 4dn that the puzzle opened up. Not a phrase I’m familiar with. And there were several I couldn’t parse, especially the ones already mentioned. I couldn’t even work out the answer to 15ac.
I’ve always wondered, when I’m attempting a prize crossword, whether I should just give in and use all the e-aids I can find. “erymanthian”, for example, pops up instantly in a wordfinder when some of the crossing letters are entered. “czardas”, too. I don’t use any aids, usually. I didn’t here, either, and failed with the Labour. Shouldn’t the clue have said “new labour” or “new Labour”, not “New Labour”? I guessed it would be “ring fence”, but didn’t write it in, failing to see any connection to the definition. I guessed “pomade”, but didn’t write that in, because that would have been the answer to the clue in a concise crossword – it was barely cryptic at all.
I completed about three quarters of this and gave up. I liked it, but the obscurity of the answers or clues on which I failed gives me some heart. Or perhaps heartburn.
I managed to finish this in a reasonable time without recourse to aids, but I confess I biffed SLOW-MO and I only parsed MONA after I had entered it. I saw OPAL as (S)O PAL(E) but I could be wrong. It took me a while to tease out the ERYMANTHIAN BOAR/GENIUS LOCI crossers, and as has already been said it was a challenging puzzle.
Our explanation of 16, for what it’s worth, is that ring is (weakly) linked to suggestion in the sense of “ring a bell”. Our overall opinion, intended as constructive feedback, is that it was all too clever by half. We finished it, but apart from the odd clue such as 3 down and 12 across, didn’t enjoy it. Several of the clues were just too contrived, and others, such as 9 across, were weak and possibly wrong, as beermagnet points out. We carried on with it only because we were determined not to be beaten by it.
Thanks beermagnet
I am another who parsed 8ac as [s]O PAL[e].
16ac is fine:
That has a suggestion/RING of truth about it.
Trust him to dodge/FENCE the question.
One of the definitions in Chambers for RING-FENCE is “a complete barrier”.
I think dodge barrier is ring fence just because if you go round (ring) a fence you dodge it. But I also can’t see where “suggestion” comes in: ring fencing something is a common term in discussing budgets etc but with the meaning of protect or hide.
A tough work-out from Monk, but enjoyable, I thought.
I agree with the others about (s)O PAL(e) – Chambers does give “in case” as a meaning of “so”.
I took 10 to just be a CD, but on checking found that while both Chambers and OED give “slo-mo” as an abbreviation, neither gives SLOW-MO. It had to be right, though, as the W was checked.
Many thanks to beermagnet for an excellent blog and to all for comments. To Gaufrid@6, thanks for correct parsings, in particular, 16ac. To Tom_I@8, thanks for pointing out that SO=IN CASE is indeed in Chambers; in return, note that SLOW-MO is in Collins which, although online, seems to be overlooked from time to time by the cruciverbati. And thanks to the avant-garde spirit of “Our Ed.” for allowing the indirect homophonic definition at 22dn. Finally, to beermagnet, there was indeed an arcane Nina that links 15ac to all of 15dn/2, 7, 25 and 17/14/24. 🙂
Brilliant!
It’s Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as their characters Derek and Clive, in a take-off of the TV series “Mr & Mrs”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNbSNWGs70M
Nope. Way too hard for lil ol me! Did about half, and gave up. Is 15ac a Monk(ish) clue? I wonder if he always has one such in his puzzles as a signature? I enjoyed bobcat. But still don’t understand some, eg ring fence (suggestion?). And vipers and goblins – too poisonously grotesque for me!