As usual a good crossword from Monk today. His mistake (I assume, using the authority of Google) in 18ac is perhaps a slight blemish but otherwise there is the usual range of nice clues, some of them setting me back for longer than I would like. But we can’t all be speed solvers, can we.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
I’m a little vague about the theme, but in the unches down the left we have ‘dude’ and in those down the right ‘Lebowski’. And also slightly right of centre is ‘the big’. There is a Jeff Bridges character in a film called ‘The Big Lebowski‘, who went by the name ‘The Dude’. But I can find no more, and I bet there is more.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DYNAMIC | Forceful officers seizing loads from the east (7) |
| (CI(many)D)rev. | ||
| 5 | ENSNARL | Learns about hosting knight put into 12? (7) |
| Since 12 is DIFFICULTY, the definition is as here. It’s (learns)* round N. I saw that this was a possibility and it helped me to get 12. | ||
| 10 | UP TO | Busy at university, getting advice to read more (2,2) |
| u PTO | ||
| 11 | BARLEY WINE | Just shifting left, complain when dropping hot drink (6,4) |
| barely with the l moved a bit to the left, then w{h}ine | ||
| 12 | DIFFICULTY | Spot daughter, one joining fad with dodgy exterior (10) |
| d iff(1 cult)y | ||
| 13 | FLAB | Nail finally puncturing immense spare tyre? (4) |
| f({nai}l)ab | ||
| 14 | ESTABLISH | Found first non-British scrap that’s not old (9) |
| {B}est ab{o}lish | ||
| 16 | WACKO | Madman, ultimately berserk in scene of massacre (5) |
| Wac({berser}k)o — ref the Waco massacre | ||
| 18 | RATTY | Graham’s character showing signs of wear and tear (5) |
| 2 defs, one of them to the character created by Kenneth Grahame in Wind in the Willows — my excuse for not getting this, not knowing who Graham was, is that it’s Grahame not Graham. Not that I was sure of that until looking it up, but if Monk had said ‘Grahame’s character’ then perhaps … As it was I put in TATTY and hoped that there was some character in fiction called Graham Tatty. | ||
| 20 | TREE-SHREW | Tiny creature in palm maybe runs in old display (4-5) |
| tree [= palm, maybe] sh(r)ew — ‘old display’ is the archaic version of ‘show’ | ||
| 22 | IAGO | Villain, one that’s gone (4) |
| 1 ago | ||
| 23 | INEBRIATES | Fashionable English man nearly ready to get round in boozers (10) |
| in E Bria{n} (set)rev. | ||
| 25 | NAPOLEONIC | Well-read pig in charge of wars? (10) |
| Napoleon i/c — ref Napoleon in Animal Farm, a book that has been well-read | ||
| 26 | TEAK | Drink keg, primarily wooden (4) |
| tea k{eg} | ||
| 27 | OCTETTE | To some extent, Blunkett etc on about group (7) |
| Hidden reversed in BlunkETT ETC On | ||
| 28 | GNOCCHI | Announced strike crucial for Italian provisions (7) |
| “knock key” | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | YUPPIES | Ambitious types, more than half arrogant, certainly on the exterior (7) |
| y(uppi{ty})es | ||
| 3 | ALOOF | Reserved area, bog north of Fens? (5) |
| a loo [= bog] F{ens} | ||
| 4 | IMBECILE | Foolish Cecilia stripped off without honour (8) |
| MBE in ({C}ecili{a})* | ||
| 6 | NEEDY | Poor trainee, dyslexic to some extent (5) |
| Hidden in traiNEE, DYslexic | ||
| 7 | NEWSFLASH | Early indication of what’s breaking distraught Welsh fans (9) |
| (Welsh fans)* | ||
| 8 | RANSACK | Managed with cashier’s loot (7) |
| ran sack [= cashier, the verb] | ||
| 9 | DRILL-SERGEANT | One responsible for exercising a bit with cloth worker (5-8) |
| drill [= a bit] serge ant | ||
| 15 | ASTRODOME | Athlete initially stepped out to receive award in sports stadium (9) |
| A{thlete} strod(OM)e | ||
| 17 | JERRYCAN | Container in boat unopened, about to be stored in one month (8) |
| J({f}erry c)an | ||
| 19 | ARAMAIC | Language in extremely old church converted into American (7) |
| archaic [= extremely old] with its ch changed to Am | ||
| 21 | EYE-WASH | English trees rot (3-4) |
| E yew ash | ||
| 23 | INEPT | Clumsy pioneer regularly taking part (5) |
| {p}i{o}n{e}e{r} pt | ||
| 24 | AZTEC | Old person has a college reported in the East End (5) |
| “‘as tech” | ||
*anagram
Nice one. I found the pronunciation of GNOCCHI a bit of a stretch – I’ve always pronounced them with a “Y” sound in there after the initial “N” sound, but maybe others don’t?
Good fun, though I took a couple of sessions to get this one out and some answers such as UP TO were still only half-parsed. The Nina (including RINO I think in the left unches) sort of helped even if I’d never heard of the person or film either and after looking him up I can see a few more references in one column of unches as you point out – EL, THE and BIG, but yes there probably are more. Some quite complicated clues such as DIFFICULTY (v. apt) and ASTRODOME. My favourites were AZTEC and ARAMAIC.
Thank you to Monk and John.
I laughed when I saw Duderino and Lebowski made me correct my answer of FLAT to FLAB although there is probably some hockey player named Letowski.Must watch it again if only for the simple critique of the eagles!
Hard but fair, I thought.
UP TO detained me the longest: ‘at university’ was obviously ‘up’, wasn’t it? Hah. And I had the ‘arrogant’ in 2d as UPPIsh, not that it matters. Parsing of ENSNARL was also a challenge.
Favourite by far was EYEWASH, for surface and conciseness of clueing. (How do we spell ‘cluing’, btw? Both look wrong and Chambers gives neither except for maritime matters.)
Thanks to John and Monk. Good ‘un.
Missed the theme/nina completely and baffled by 18ac which just didn’t make sense due to the mis-spelling. Otherwise not too difficult although several answers were of the “it must be … but I can’t parse it” variety.
Thanks, Monk and John
I did spot the Nina although I will admit to having to look it up. I too tutted at the misspelling of Grahame in 18a. My favourite clue has to be 25a.
Thanks to Monk for a nice medium level (for you!) challenge and to John for the explanations.
Some pretty tough and clever stuff. Quickly shoved in ENSNARE for 5A so wouldn’t have got the Nina even if I had known anything about the film. Last in were AZTEC and GNOCCHI. Agree with @1Jason, this clue insoluble to a native Italian, pronounced nyockee, which hardly seems impossible for a person for whom English is his or her first language; though in practice Jason and I may well be the only ones who take the trouble.
As I’d just read a long piece by Alan Bennett about Toad of Toad Hall, annoyed I didn’t register the Graham(e) error. Anyway, overall a fine crossword.
Thanks to Monk and John.
Count us as another one (or two) who wondered whether there was a fictional character called TATTY – we are not completely happy with RATTY being a synonym for ‘showing wear and tear’.
We spotted DUDE and LEBOWSKI but we needed a check to confirm the fact that the character called himself EL DUDERINO in the film.
Having said that, the puzzle ticked all the boxes in terms of a good challenge and fun.
Thanks Monk and John.
Grahame was still lacking an e when this crossword resurfaced in yesterday’s “i”.