Independent 8,871 by Monk (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 21/03/15)

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It seems to bit a little while since I’ve come up against Monk. I always enjoy the challenged, but can rarely quite finish a puzzle off.

That was the case here, where 13 across and 16 down both beat me, though they seem reasonable enough once one knows the answer.

There’s a little bit of extra fun going on with four sets of two clues that make familiar pairs, which did help me make inroads into the puzzle. They were:

BITS and BOBS
OPEN and SHUT
ROCK and ROLL
ODDS and ENDS

Across
1 RURITANIAN Romantic and adventurous new man pursuing game girl (10)
RU + RITA + N + IAN.
6 BITS Hints twice about temperature (4)
T in BIS.
9 COLLATERAL Left recently, wearing pink, side by side (10)
(L + LATER) in CORAL.
10 BOBS Bows in hairstyles (4)
Two definitions.
12 KEY SIGNATURE Crucial genius regularly dreamt about item needed by staff (3,9)
KEY + (GENIUS + [d]R[e]A[m]T)*. Specifically a musical staff, or stave.
15 WORKBOOKS In which answers are given after arrest in factory (9)
BOOK in WORKS.
17 TRAWL Catch boring item on covers of The Mirror (5)
T[he Mirro]R + AWL.
18 ANNUL Scrap book having cut-out article (5)
ANNU[a]L.
19 PLATELETS Clots require these recently docked dogs, say, to be kept outside (9)
LATEL[y] in PETS.
20 STUPEFACTION Ram into Kent clique, causing astonishment (12)
(TUP in SE) + FACTION.
24 OPEN Free odious public enemy? Not initially (4)
O[dious] P[ublic] E[nemy] N[ot].
25 BACK GARDEN Endorse hatred regularly in low-down hidden plot? (4,6)
BACK + ([h]A[t]R[e]D in GEN).
26 SHUT Bar found in small cabin (4)
S + HUT.
27 RECORDISTS Directors finally doubled-up mobile sound crew (10)
(DIRECTORS + S)*.
Down
1 ROCK Toss stone (4)
Two definitions.
2 ROLL Make progress in part, say (4)
Homophone of “role”.
3 TRACER BULLET Visible round cellar – butter churns (6,6)
(CELLAR BUTTER)*.
4 NEEPS Ill-humour about missing large portion of veg at McDonald’s? (5)
SP[l]EEN<.
5 ANALGESIA Obsessive, say, about regular form of spinal pain relief (9)
ANAL + EG< + S[p]I[n]A[l].
7 INOCULATED Supposedly having immunity, trendy former duke outflanks old copper (10)
(O + Cu) in (IN + LATE + D).
8 SISTERLESS Somehow resist without being like an only child? (10)
RESIST* + LESS.
11 CASTLE HOWARD Heart of Cotswolds cathedral rebuilt in famous landmark (6,6)
([cot]SWO[lds] + CATHEDRAL)*.
13 SWEATSHOPS Food hall’s first to block trades in which exploitation occurs? (10)
(EATS + H[all]) in SWOPS.
14 ART NOUVEAU Decorative style of gold pinning torn off part of eye (3,7)
(TORN* + UVEA) in Au.
16 ORPHANAGE Shy away from oceanography, upsetting institution (9)
([c]EAN[o]GRAPH[y])*. We need to remove “coy”, a synonym of the anagram fodder. I didn’t spot that.
21 TOKYO Finally let go before end of fight about unknown capital (5)
[le]T + [g]O + (Y in KO).
22 ODDS Chances thus raised to keep theologian (4)
DD in SO<.
23 ENDS Kennedys regularly witnessed deaths (4)
[k]E[n]N[e]D[y]S.

 

* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations.

 

12 comments on “Independent 8,871 by Monk (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 21/03/15)”

  1. This was tough. I had to come back to it several times over the week but I got there in the end. I hadn’t spotted the pairs of clues, so thanks for pointing it out. This would have made me more confident about 1 down – the only clue I wasn’t eventually satisfied with – is toss really a synonym for rock?

    1D aside, for me, a really satisfying puzzle with plenty of challenge but eventual reward. Thanks Monk.

  2. I did this between concerts at last Saturday’s Pierre Boulez day at the Barbican in London, so no aids available. Obviously, his music inspired me as I finished it just before the start of the final concert. Easier than the previous week’s, which I failed to finish.

    Simon, there appears to be a typo in your preamble as there is no 13ac. Did you mean 13dn?

  3. Challenging indeed – I appear to have used two different colour of pen so must have had at least two goes at solving it.

    Thanks to Monk and Simon.

  4. Another good challenge from Monk. I started slowly but then made steady progress. I spotted the themed pairings in three of the corners and it help me get ROCK and ROLL back in the NW, and once I had them RURITANIAN, NEEPS and COLLATERAL were my last three in. I think “rock” and “toss” are synonymous when you think of something being thrown around like a ship in a storm. I thought the indirect compound anagram for ORPHANAGE was devious, and some would say unfair, but because I saw it I suppose I can’t complain.

  5. Enjoyed the puzzle – thank you, Monk! Managed to finish it despite getting stuck for a long time after doing about half of it. Spotting the pairs in the corners was the key to moving forward, which makes me doubly happy that I spotted the Nina early on – I don’t usually see it until someone else has pointed it out!

    In several of the longer words (9-10 letters), I got the answer from the crosses and the definition before the wordplay became even discernible. I don’t think I could have parsed the wordplay in 13d otherwise – clueing an anagram with a synonym of the actual letters to be removed is unfair, IMO.

    Thanks to Simon Harris for the blog.

  6. This puzzle made me realise it wasnt me on the Otterden prize in the Graun. I’ve never liked that setter- got the theme on the first across clue but his cluing is from another planet.I left it and then….
    Felt so reassured to be able to tackle a Monk. he really is first class- took a while and a couple of false starts but his cluing is immaculate and there is always some little signature tune to finish,

    Super puzzle.

  7. Full of brilliant clues/wordplay. Loved 13D, 16D, 5D, 19A one could go on.

    Thanks to Monk and Simon Harris.

  8. A good Saturday standard of difficulty with, for me, plenty of thinking required. I liked 1a, a word I’d never heard of used in the general sense of ‘romantic’ and NEEPS was also a new word to me. Missed the hidden word pairs but still very enjoyable.

    Just a v. minor correction to the blog. For 9a, COLLATERAL = L + LATE (not LATER) in CORAL. I guess you could quibble about LATE for ‘recently’ – ? OF LATE – especially as ‘recently’ is used more conventionally in the wordplay for 19.

    Thank you to Monk and Simon.

    Now back to the cricket…

  9. you’ve no idea how long I looked at “oceanography”, trying in vain to remove the correct three letters. Very frustrating; I don’t think I’ve ever finished one of Monk’s prizes – still, we all need ambition I guess.
    The clue for “neeps” is sheer brilliance.
    I was a bit surprised to see three clues using “regularly” and one “regular” to indicate alternate letters.
    Many thanks to Monk and Simon Harris

  10. The definition in 1 across is surely ‘Romantic and adventurous’: ‘adventurous’ doesn’t indicate an anagram, and the clue lists each part of the answer in the right order. Chambers defines Ruritania by extension as ‘any idealistically exciting or romantic place, situation, etc.’.

  11. You’re clearly right, Polly, though I don’t believe I ever suggested that clue involved an anagram.

  12. Nor you did, Simon, but if ‘adventurous’ isn’t accounted for by being included in the definition it must imply an anagram or a reordering of the clue’s elements – in my reading, at least!

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