Another great puzzle from Monk to stretch the grey matter (to the point where it begins to hurt). Thank you Monk.
Around the edge of the grid we have the main characters from the BBC childrens TV series The Clangers.
| Across | ||
| 8 | NATION |
Folk swimming for Calais? No thanks (6)
NAtaTION (swimming, French, for Calais) missing TA (thanks) |
| 9 | HOUND DOG |
Harry’s track, an old song (5,3)
HOUND (harry) has DOG (track) |
| 10 | INKSPOT |
Lidless dip tips over, causing stain (7)
sINK (dip, lidless) then TOPS (tips) reversed (over) |
| 11 | RAIDER |
Thief’s assistant stopping luxury car (6)
AIDE (assistant) inside (stopping, like a cork) RR (Rolls Royce, luxury car) |
| 12 | IODINE |
I sit naked having nothing to eat (6)
sIt (naked, no outside letters) with O (nothing) DINE (to eat) – definition is chemical symbol |
| 14 | PASEDENA |
Time to abandon Seat Panda lost in US city (8)
anagram (lost) of SEAt PANDA missing T (time) |
| 15 | TISSUES |
Prefect ultimately sends out those that sponge off snitches? (7)
prefecT (ultimate letter of) ISSUES (sends out) – snitches are noses |
| 16 | OTTOMAN |
Nothing’s too much around king, say, of an old empire (7)
O (nothing) has OTT (too much) reversed (around) MAN (chess piece, king say) |
| 20 | RECLUSES |
Many a Monk clue half-reverses when jumbled (8)
anagram (when jumbled) of CLUE and reveRSES (half of) |
| 23 | ANDEAN |
Concerning a specific chain of thought one lost when girl’s around (6)
iDEA (thought) missing I (one) with ANN around – chain of mountains |
| 24 | OIL-RIG |
Lass I love rejected a very large plant (3-3)
GIRL (lass) I O (love, tenis score) all rejected |
| 25 | MYALGIA |
Blimey, country shunning our queen is a pain (7)
MY (blimey) with ALGerIA (country) missing ER (Elizabeth Regina, our queen) |
| 27 | JOB SHARE |
They suffer taking speed, as part- timers might do? (3,5)
JOBS (they suffer, Job from Old Testament) with HARE (speed) |
| 28 | IN A WAY |
At home and not at home to some extent (2,1,3)
IN (at home) and AWAY (not at home) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | YAKITORI |
Foreign dish I served after noisy talk over doughnuts? (8)
I following (served after) YAK (noisy talk) then (over) TORI (plural of torus, doughnut) – a Japanese dish cooked on skewers. I never expected this to be a real word when I looked it up, but what do I know? |
| 2 | MILK |
Extract one trapped in overturned airline (4)
I (one) trapped in KLM (airline) reversed (overturned) |
| 3 | ONE-PIECE |
Pee on ice dancing cozzie (3-5)
(PEE ON ICE)* anagram=dancing |
| 4 | THE TOPS |
Best place to turn over when following article (3,4)
SPOT (place) reversed (to turn over) following THE (definite article) |
| 5 | HUBRIS |
Bush fire, unrestrained, destroyed pride (6)
anagram (destroyed) of BUSH and fIRe (unrestrained, no outside letters) |
| 6 | EDWIN DROOD |
Book opening backed after journalist takes hint (5,5)
DOOR (opening) reversed (backed) after ED (editor, journalist) takes WIND (hint, get wind of) – book by Charles Dickens |
| 7 | ROPE IN |
Lure beginning to reveal one in public (4,2)
Reveal (beginning letter of) then I (one) in OPEN (public) |
| 13 | INSULARISM |
Unfortunately miss urinal in isolation? (10)
(MISS URINAL)* anagram=unfortunately |
| 17 | TIA MARIA |
Formal bling worn by mum holding a single drink (3,5)
TIARA (formal bling) containing (worn by) MA (mum) all containing (holding) I (one, a single) |
| 18 | AGA-SAGAS |
Narrative repeated about bourgeois novels (3-5)
AGAS (narratives) and AGAS (…repeated) reversed (aound) |
| 19 | ISHMAEL |
Outcast husband blocking devious e-mails (7)
H (husband) in E-MAILS* anagram=dubious – biblical character cast out into the wilderness of Beer-sheba with his mother |
| 21 | EPIZOA |
Perhaps fleas oddly adore biting nothing back (6)
AdOrE (odd letters of) containing (biting) ZIP (nothing) all reversed (back) – animals that live on the bodies of other animals |
| 22 | SIGNAL |
Notable gesture that’s extremely awful (6)
SIGN (gesture) has AwfuL (extremes of) |
| 26 | GRAM |
Chickpea is good with butter (4)
G (good) with RAM (butter, an animal that buts) |
definitions are underlined
21 was my downfall as I was thinking nil for nothing. But the nina actually helped me on other clues.
great puzzle as usual.
@compus – ENILOA, ELINOE, ALINOE, ANILOE, AZIPOE, EZIPOA,… I tried them all 🙁
@PeeDee- i was a but wearied from Picaroon by then-if i’d done a Googlie, I expect I’d have got it but its de rigeur to come unstuck with Monk-I’m getting to know him better.Great setter!
Yes, very good puzzle.
I am another who went for ‘nil’ in 21d but EPIZOA is so clear now.
The nina helped for the final bits, especially in the west – though I had no idea what that nina was all about.
Apart from 21d, I made one major mistake.
At 1d I entered YAKIMONO (also a Japanese dish) but I couldn’t find a justification for the ‘mono’ bit of the word.
As a result, the easy 15ac defeated me too.
All together, hugely enjoyable.
In 10ac I didn’t like ‘tips’ = ‘tops’ very much, also not because we had ‘tops’ in the intersecting 4d.
Although I got 6d without any problem, EDWIN DROOD is surely a character from a Dickens book and not the book title itself?
Many thanks, PeeDee & Monk.
What? No pangram?
I really really enjoyed this. Lots of * by clues I liked, I even spotted the Nina, helped probably by the fact that I am a Granny.
I too went for nil rather than zip – memo to self: if you can’t find a word called ELINOA, it means there isn’t a word called ELINOA!
Thanks to Monk for cheering me up – a lovely brain-stretcher with lots to make me smile. Thanks to PeeDee too.
The usual brilliance. I thought IODINE was particularly good.
Sil@ 4 The full title is “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” but shortening it is quite acceptable, in the same way that people refer to the “Pickwick Papers” not “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”.
A great puzzle tough but gettable -apart from those irritating fleas! Thanks Monk & PD.
jmac, I already thought so.
Fine by me.
Sorry this hit the CS three shots rule. Nice Nina but was perturbed by the tops/spot reversals so close together. After the Indy guardian this was just too much like hard work. Sorry PD and monk, didn’t really get on with this.
Completely flummoxed by Monk this time. I gave up with 30% of the grid remaining to come here and seek salvation. Well done Peedee for persevering!! And Monk – very classy !
Cheers
TL
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Liked this a lot when I did it on the day. Had no clue to the NINA – forgot to look for a start (which is pretty silly with a grid like this) and would not have had a clue what it was about even if I had of twigged; having never heard of “The Clangers”.
Finished with the clever trio of clues – IODINE, YAKITORI and TISSUES, which were probably pick of a very good crop.
Thought that it was SAGA repeated twice and put about to get AGA-SAGAS at 18d – and thought that it was quite good as well.
Had COME ON for a long time at 7d, but just could not parse it. Finally saw the correct ROPE IN.
New words were EPIZOA and SNITCH (for nose).
Thanks PeeDee and Monk.
Beaten again by this class act – failing to get Yakitori or Tissues and not certain enough to enter Nation at 8ac.
Monk clearly operates on a different plane to other setters and I struggle to get on his wavelength.
And completely missed the NINA (again).
So thanks again Monk. You’ve won another battle – but I’ll be back!