I started off quite easily in the top-left, which made me double check that it was actually by Monk. Things soon got back to normal and there followed a satisfying struggle to finish. My apologies for the late posting, the morning has been an endless sequence of interruptions. There is certainly a Nina in here somewhere, I will start hunting for it now and update the post when I find it. Thank you Monk, excellent as always.
Hidden in the grid we have a division sum in Roman numerals: V into L makes X
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEN-AT-ARMS |
Mr Smetana composed lines once made up by them (3-2-4)
anagram (composed) of MR SMETANA – ranks of soldiers |
| 6 | TOPIC |
Runs away from very hot matter (5)
TrOPIC (very hot?) missing R (runs) – I’m not sure about this |
| 9 | RETIRED |
Withdrawn or terrified, but not if composed (7)
anagram (composed) of TERRifIED missing IF |
| 10 | ROBOTIC |
Unemotional City bore endlessly reflected about nothing (7)
CITy BORe (endless) reversed (reflected) containing (about) O (nothing) |
| 11 | HAIFA |
Yorkshire town briefly having left out Mediterranean port (5)
HALIFAx (Yorkshire town, shortened) missing L (left) |
| 12 | PANTS SUIT |
Uniform provided by useless clubs for one (5,4)
PANTS (useless) SUIT (clubs perhaps) |
| 13 | SHELL-LIKE |
Lug case in the same manner (5- 4)
SHELL (case) LIKE (in the same manner) – an ear |
| 15 | BALTI |
Dish from Estonia not getting cold (5)
BALTIc (from Estonia perhaps) missing C (cold) |
| 16 | IBSEN |
Writer’s bad gut feeling seen regularly (5)
IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, bad gut) then sEeN (regular selection from) |
| 18 | PEIGNOIRS |
Rising hope dashed when husband goes out in woman’s clothes? (9)
anagram (dashed) of RISING and hOPE missing H (husband) |
| 20 | EDELWEISS |
Bloomer as you and I are wrong, perhaps, in parts of Leeds (9)
WE IS (incorrect from of “you and I are”) in LEEDS* anagram=parts of |
| 23 | OMEGA |
Letter overseas, say, posted in unnamed Arab country (5)
EG (say) in OMAn (Arab country) missing N (name) |
| 24 | ARIZONA |
Criminal heading off for a Nazi state (7)
anagram (criminal) of fOR (mising head) and A NAZI |
| 25 | TOASTIE |
Fast food recipes taken from cook in row (7)
rOAST (cook) in TIEr (row) missing Rs (recipies) |
| 26 | DWELL |
Remain hollow when fed by wife (5)
W (wife) in DELL (hollow) |
| 27 | EXPRESSES |
Forces out former crowds (9)
EX (former) PRESSES (crowds) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MARTHAS VINEYARD |
Island hitman getting adversary shot (7,8)
anagram (shot) of HITMAN and ADVERSARY |
| 2 | NITRIDE |
Compound near to getting tested in report (7)
sounds like (in report) “nigh tried” (near to getting tested) |
| 3 | TARPAULIN |
Cover missionary in salt to begin with (9)
PAUL (missionary) in TAR (sailor, salt) and IN (to begin with) |
| 4 | REDIP |
Piece of epidermis to raise and lower again (5)
found reversed (to raise) inside (piece of) ePIDERmis |
| 5 | SERENGETI |
Plain note fed into calm, mounting appeal (9)
G (note, of the scale) inside (fed into) SERENE (calm) then IT (appeal) reversed (mounting) |
| 6 | TABUS |
Bans fags outside university (5)
TABS (fags) containing U (university) |
| 7 | PIT BULL |
Reverend’s girl commonly having to pick up a muscular fighter? (3,4)
a Spoonerism (the Reverend Spooner) of BIT (girl, commonly=slang) PULL (pick up) |
| 8 | COCKTAIL SHAKERS |
Use them to vibrate between the sheets (8,7)
just a guess – can anyone help out? cryptic definition – Between The Sheets is the name of a cocktail. Thanks to Conrad Cork |
| 14 | IN PRIVATE |
Secretly involved with soldier (2,7)
IN (involved with) PRIVATE (soldier) |
| 15 | BON VOYAGE |
Travel well above New York and go flying (3,6)
anagram (flying) of ABOVE NY and GO |
| 17 | SVERIGE |
Local name for country slope under “special one, to be included” (7)
VERGE (slope) following (under) S (special) including I (one) – local (Swedish) name for Sweden |
| 19 | IDEATES |
Imagines I would worry over gutless enemies (7)
I’D (I would) EAT (worry) over EnemieS (gutless, no middle) |
| 21 | WHORL |
Part of print by Warhol missing a lower right? (5)
WaRHOL missing A with teh R (right) moved lower down the word – a fingerprint |
| 22 | SHTUP |
Knock this back, stripping off one’s top (5)
THiS reversed (back) missing I (one) and UP (top) – slang to have sex |
definitions are underlined
Someone mentioned the other day my ‘three separate goes and you’re in the recycling bin’ rule. Goodness knows how many goes I took to finally get to the end of this one, but Monk is my current ‘challenge’ and so I persevered until I’d finished.
Thanks to Monk – I did enjoy the fight – and thank you to PeeDee too – not one I’d have wanted to blog
Thanks PeeDee. Re 8 down: between the sheets is a cocktail.
Thanks to Monk for, apart from the (to me) fearsome 17, an easier solve than I sometimes get.
If there is a nina then I can’t see it, but I know someone I can ask. 🙂
As always a satisfying puzzle by one of my favourite setters.
I only missed out on SHTUP but then, what do I know about having sex? 🙂
And I didn’t understand PIT BULL (7d) but I don’t think I can blame myself (given the intricate wordplay).
I was a bit surprised to see ‘composed’ twice as an anagram indicator and so close to each other (1ac, 9ac).
It’s not ‘wrong’ but atypical for Monk.
8d: there is a cocktail called Between The Sheets.
So, there you are.
But is it fair to decapitalise it for the clue?
However nice this clue indeed is.
In the middle row and column I noticed: “V into L makes X”.
Think Roman numbers but I have no idea what the deeper meaning might be.
Many thanks, PeeDee, for the blog.
And to Monk for the fun.
“V into L makes X” is just some simple arithmetic using Lain numbers.
% into 50 makes 10
or 5 rather than %
I would have liked at least a letter check for this toughie (even by Monk’s standards)I did get shtuck but completely forgot the cocktail- electric blankets didnt fit and I should have known that electric shavers was way off. Which of course ruined the NE for me missing topic (shouldve got that) and robotic. Pit bull seemed to fit but I couldnt parse.
Made Quixote and Nutmeg seem like a breeze. At least I finished Vlad yesterday (not quickly)
Thanks for blog and puzzle.
I do enjoy a challenge, thank you Monk! Thought 7d was a specially good clue when I’d finally worked out who the Reverend was!
Thank you very much PeeDee; so glad not to have had your job today.
The weekly FT toughie.
Took over 3 sittings but looking back all fairly clued with my only quibbles being:
Not sure a tropic is ‘very’ hit in 6ac – but I suppose that’s subjective; and
Shouldn’t there have been a ‘for instance’ in 16ac? Estonia isn’t the only Baltic country.
7dn took A while to get before the Denny propped (see what I did there?)
Thanks PeeDee for the blog and Monk for the entertainment.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Reached deep into the backlog and found this one … glad I did … tough but enjoyable !! It took a number of sessions in between jobs on a Sunday.
Missed the nina and didn’t see the Spoonerism with PIT BULL. Hadn’t seen either SHTUP or ‘knock’ to mean having sex before – must be very British based … didn’t think that there were too many words for it that I didn’t know !
Finished down in the SE corner with BON VOYAGE, TOASTIE and that SHTUP word last of all.