- *=anagram
- [] = removed e.g. char[m]=char
- ()=abbreviation e.g. A(mpere)=a
- Hom. = homophone
I finished most of this quite quickly but then took a while winkling out the last few clues such as 14 and 22. There seems to be some sort of NINA down either side, although I’m not sure what it refers to. There is a dog called Sparky which is used as a mascot for the National Fire Prevention Service, so it may be that.
| Across | |||
| 7. | Judge cutting recess, beginning to examine a serious matter (2,4) | ||
| No Joke | J(udge) in nook + e[xamine] | ||
| 8. | Stops tribes capturing port (8) | ||
| Clarions | Clans around rio – clarions are a type of stop on organs. | ||
| 9. | Censor interrupting vulgar revolutionary teacher (8) | ||
| Educator | Cato in rude<. Censor was a role in ancient Rome held by Cato the Elder. | ||
| 10. | Punch is an alcoholic drink (6) | ||
| Wallop | DD – wallop seems to exist as a slang term for beer. | ||
| 11. | Pure slices, the prime parts, in little pork pie? (5,3) | ||
| White lie | White(=pure) + prime numbered letters of sLIcEs | ||
| 12. | Erased unorthodox feature in the Middle East (3,3) | ||
| Red sea | Erased* | ||
| 13. | Frenchmen taking companion by hand, welcoming English fighter (13) | ||
| Messerschmitt | Messrs (short for messieurs) around E[nglish) + mitt | ||
| 16. | Almost consider involving club for kick about (6) | ||
| Debate | Dee[m] around bat | ||
| 18. | Stop press item making page inside cover (8) | ||
| Endpaper | End(=stop) + paper(=press item) | ||
| 20. | Obsolete hand tool missing no screws (3,3) | ||
| Old Hat | (Ha[n]d t[o]ol)* with screws as the anagram indicator | ||
| 21. | Dove family returned following calm (8) | ||
| Peacenik | Peace + kin< (think doves and hawks) | ||
| 22. | Cease northern transfer (4,4) | ||
| Give over | DD, I think. I assume give over used to mean stop doing something is mainly a Northern expression. | ||
| 23. | Blue movie, short and not half earthy (6) | ||
| Filthy | Fil[m] + [ear]thy | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Who’d have organised liberal monarch hosting duke? (4,11) | ||
| Lord Chamberlain | &lit – (liberal monarch)* around D[uke] | ||
| 2. | Youth on bed tenses extremely cold shoulders (8) | ||
| Boycotts | Boy + cot + t[ense]s | ||
| 3. | Virgin gripped by wives’ tales (6) | ||
| Vestal | Hidden in wiVES TALes | ||
| 4. | Price needed to support mostly domesticated pig (8) | ||
| Tamworth | Tam[e] + worth | ||
| 5. | Groovy fellow outwardly irritated (6) | ||
| Rifled | Riled around f(ellow). Rifle can mean to cut spiral grooves, rifles being firearms which have grooves cut into the gun barrel to improve accuracy by inducing a spiralling motion. | ||
| 6. | Should this get you squiffy by nine? (3,4,3,5) | ||
| One over the eight | CD – an expression of nautical origin meaning drunk | ||
| 8. | Reprimands one who cries for something to clear up piles (6-7) | ||
| Carpet Sweeper | Carpets + weeper | ||
| 14. | Failing to start particular medical placement (8) | ||
| Elective | [S]elective – I assume this must be in the context of elective surgery | ||
| 15. | Greyish hue of Scottish girl pregnant with second son? (8) | ||
| Isabella | Isla around Abel (biblical second son) – I’d never heard of isabella as a grey colour. | ||
| 17. | Designer mum left bound by rejected agreement (6) | ||
| Ashley | Sh + l(eft) in yea< | ||
| 19. | Hinders development of campaign to stop deadly futile sacrifice at the front (6) | ||
| Dwarfs | War in first letters of deadly futile sacrifices | ||
Thanks Monk and NealH
I entered ISABELLA as the only sensible word that fitted, but didn’t understand it – I thought it was the “girl”, and the word order of the clue was odd.
I suspect Monk is announcing to the world that he has a new dog, Sparky.
Must have put him in a good mood, because this was a fairly gentle puzzle.
I simply assumed Monk had got a new dog.
The etymology for ISABELLA is worth a squizz.
Phi @3
Thanks for the tip – the underwear one looks unlikely!
Monk definitely has a new dog called Sparky. A picture of him appeared as Monk’s avatar when he commented on one of his DT Toughies on BD’s blog.
Very enjoyable start to the week, thank you Monk and NealH too.
I found this tougher than the other Monday puzzles I do, but I agree that it was towards the easier end of Monk’s spectrum. I saw the “NEW DOG SPARKY” nina but had no idea what it meant, so thanks for the enlightenment. The GIVE OVER/ELECTIVE/ASHLEY trio held me up for a while, and ISABELLA was my LOI after I finally deciphered the wordplay.
I’m not a medic, but have a vague memory that medical students have an ‘elective year’ as part of their degree, when they choose which speciality they would like for their placement.
Among other things, Chambers gives ELECTIVE (noun) as “an elective placement with a hospital, or to study abroad, etc (Med)“.
I managed most of this quickly, then really struggled at the end. I saw that 15D could be Isabella but could not relate that to the clue in any way. 5D, “rifled”, took me a long time, but I got there.
Missed the nina (so what’s new?). Got ISABELLA from a word finder, then remembered I’d come across it as ‘Isabel’ – probably in a crossword at some time; both Chambers and Collins give the two forms.
A possible minor quibble about 13ac. Is the abbreviation ‘Messrs’ used in French? I may be wrong, but I think in French it’s just ‘MM’. As far as the clue’s concerned it doesn’t really matter, just that I was misled into looking for a word with ‘mm’ in it.
Thanks to Monk and NealH
Thanks Monk and NealH.
There was a clue recently involving duelling pistols, these are not RIFLED on purpose.
Perhaps Sparky is ISABELLine in colour, seems to be used for animals’ coats and birds’ feathers.
[allan_c @10, not only is the abbreviation Messrs used in French, it is used in English too at times.]