Rather a difficult Monk today I thought, but as usual very enjoyable. There are one or two loose ends which, thanks to the wisdom of those reading this blog, should be tied up before the end of the day.
And of course there’s the Nina, which I half saw and then forgot, to be reminded by Herb @1, who saw rather more than I did. The bottom row is a clear statement, so I looked at the top and couldn’t understand what was happening. All explained below. Very good. I can’t see why Herb thinks he hasn’t got it, for it clearly refers to the Russian novel.
Definitions underlined.
Across
9 Cheap passage from Scots port in the midst of thunderous wind (3,6)
DAY RETURN
{thun}d(Ayr)e{rous} turn
10 Slang is viewed, partly upon reflection, as an insult (1-4)
V-SIGN
Returned hidden in SlaNG IS Viewed
11 Bird in wet-look having agreed to go out (5)
OWLET
(wet-look – OK)*
12 Risky middle course one is taught, reportedly, during negotiation (9)
TIGHTROPE
I’m a bit lost here: OK ‘taught, reportedly’ is ‘taut’, and either this is tight or it refers to the tightrope, but what ‘during negotiation’ is all about I just can’t see
13 One ship crew turned out drunk in eastern port (7)
IPSWICH
1 (ship c{re}w)* — turned out is a (rather unusual I think) indication that the middle letters are missing
15 Remove tutu for altering (4,3)
TURF OUT
(tutu for)*
16 Film consisted of ghoul regularly worried about foreign character (3,5,2,5)
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
(consisted of {g}h{o}u{l})* round mu
19 Subject, shunning society, getting caught in isolated group (7)
ENCLAVE
en{s}lave round c
21 French ways rejected by mostly cold and slimy performer (7)
DANSEUR
dan{k} (rues)rev. — a danseur is a male ballet-dancer, so my original thought that this referred to a snake-dancer is wrong and I can’t now see what ‘slimy’ is doing — ah I now see that the definition is just ‘performer’, and the ‘and slimy’ simply amplifies the definition of ‘dank’
23 Connections in company headquarters cleared over withdrawn report (9)
COHESIONS
co h{eadquarter}s round (noise)rev.
25 Exclamation of rebuke one laid on South African (5)
TUTSI
tut S 1
26 Government taking months to stop a boom? (5)
ADMIN
a d(m)in
27 Forward has to shave — nothing about missing a match (9)
NONPAREIL
n(on pare)il
Down
1 Very little deprecation Noah broadcast (1,4,2,3,5)
A DROP IN THE OCEAN
(deprecation Noah)*
2 Regrettably pursuing extremely nasty beasts (6)
NYALAS
n{ast}y alas
3 Zero charge for this sapling, reportedly? Over my dead body (8)
NEUTRINO
“new tree — no”
4 Female advisor‘s visit frequently unintroduced (4)
AUNT
(h)aunt or ‘aunt — I think probably the first of these, where to haunt is to visit frequently, not the second, where haunt = visit and the reference is to people’s habit of failing to sound the h — I suppose the advisor is because of things like agony aunts
5 Dark, violent criminal supporting chief of Klan, a high rank (10)
KNIGHTHOOD
K{lan} night hood
6 Tank appearing in intermittently macabre film (6)
AVATAR
vat in {m}a{c}a{b}r{e} — this film
7 Russian involved in dismissal by American firm (8)
RIGOROUS
r(Igor)o US — the dismissal is the cricket term run out
8 Entranced elite working to secure old understanding (7,8)
ENTENTE CORDIALE
(Entranced elite)* round o
14 Elbow maybe half-trashing narcotic dive (5,5)
HINGE JOINT
{tras}hing e joint
17 Thorny religious image of community swinging both ways with maiden in short bonnet (4,4)
ECCE HOMO
EC then (EC)rev. ho(m)o{d} — crown of thorns
18 Trifles — best to come up in a little while (8)
MINUTIAE
(A1)rev. in minute
20 After a birthday, initially forwarded present? No (6)
ABSENT
a b{irthday} sent — initially goes with birthday, not with forwarded
22 Prettiest heroine, some might have it? (6)
ESTHER
Hidden in PrettiEST HERoine — &lit. perhaps, if Esther was indeed the prettiest heroine, something I can’t establish
24 Six into nine hundred — initially use a calculator for it? (4)
SINH
S{ix} i{nto} n{ine} h{undred} — sinh is a mathematical function, so a calculator may well be used for it
*anagram
I guess the Nina (top and bottom ANNA KARE NOT THERE) somehow refers to the fact that the “NINA” of Anna KareNINA is NOT THERE? Rather confusing… I feel I haven’t quite got this right. There’s nearly always something with Phi…
…and indeed with Monk. (I definitely didn’t get that right.)
usually look for some kind of nina in a Monk and was most of the way there until Herb pointed out the sheer deviousness of it. Thanks for that.A cracker.
Got slightly frustrated with this when I got about 3 answers in a row that I didn’t entirely follow (tightrope, Ipswich and day return). But once I’d got past that block it wasn’t too bad. I spotted the NINA, although didn’t follow it fully, and it helped with Ecce Homo, which I’d never heard of (thought it might be something to do with Eccy Thump, the Lancastrian martial art).
This very good. Tight clues with good ideas.
A proper brain stretching crossword, and I am delighted to report that I saw the NINA (or should that be the ‘missing’ nina!)
Thanks to Tramp and John
Quite testing and very entertaining. Also saw the bottom line but couldn’t make sense of the top line, now it’s been pointed out, think it quite brilliant.
12A I think a walker negotiates a tightrope when walking (over a chasm etc).
Thanks to Monk for a great puzzle and to John for the blog.
I too found this tough but enjoyable. I couldn’t fully parse the wordplay in four cases – IPSWICH, DAY RETURN, COHESIONS, and TIGHTROPE. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one having trouble on at least the last one! 🙂
Many thanks to Monk and John.
Quite chuffed to have finished this one, because I often struggle with this setter.
Excellent puzzle, with some clever, devious, clueing. I thought DANSEUR and NEUTRINO were particularly good.
Well done, John, with the blog. And I’m going to Morph Tramp and Phi back into Monk and say thank you to him too.
Indeed KsD did wonder just how many compilers would be taking monk’s kudos.