It’s been over six months since we last blogged a Monk puzzle – we were looking forward to this.
We found this puzzle slightly less challenging than we had expected, but none the less enjoyable for that.
There was a phrase we hadn’t come across before at 14ac and a few entries we had to check in Chambers as they were new words to us (13ac, 22ac, 28ac, 3d21d and 24d) – but all gettable from the wordplay.
Thanks to Monk for the mental exercise.
ON (working) IO (space satellite, as in one of the moons of Jupiter) round or ‘capturing’ TAR (salt, as in sailor)
A (American) + a homophone (‘broadcast’) of GRIPPER (one who holds)
E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of fine) + C (about) ‘going into’ JET (black)
EXPATrIATE (exile) with the ‘r’ (run) omitted or ‘away’
C A (first or ‘initial’ letters of chef and assistant) + an anagram of ON BOARD – anagrind is ‘cooked’
RY (railway – ‘lines’) in or ‘contributing to’ CUP (hollow). A new phrase for us
MIDDLE AGES (some time in the past) + an anagram of PADRE – anagrind is ‘blessed’. We weren’t sure about the anagrind at first but Chambers has blessed as confounded which made sense.
SIN (offence) round or ‘involving’ MO (‘small time’) – two definitions – A: Paul Simon, one of the best singer-songwriters in the world (in our opinion), and B: one of the 12 disciples of Jesus
An anagram of BLITHE SPIrit (only half) – anagrind is ‘reviewed’. We’d not come across this complaint before, but it was pretty obvious from the anagram fodder and the connection with phlebotomists
CONCERN (business) ErranD (first and last letters or ‘extremes’)
CAREeR (job) with one of the ‘e’s omitted or ‘sacked’
CHI (Greek letter or ‘EU character’) ANTI (not for)
An anagram of POO SAID – anagrind is ‘awful’
HONEYS (loves) going round COMB (rake – 6d)
RED (signal not to go) after ETHEL (a woman)
ANON (soon) reversed or ‘about’ round or ’embracing’ VicE (first and last letters or ‘outwardly’)
EAR (attention) P (quiet) HONE (polish)
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of tAiPeI fAiRlY
Hidden (‘a bit of’) and reversed (northern) in GreEK ARchitecture
oRATIOn (speech) without the first and last letters or ‘discovered’
A T (time) ‘filling’ in RECAP (summary)
An anagram of REPEATS IN D – anagrind is ‘composed’
bLANd (flavourless) without the first and last letters or ‘plucked’ TERN (bird)
APP (programme) END (‘part of game’, as in bowls) IX (nine in Roman numerals)
Double definition
MEN (workers) + a homophone (‘during roll call’) of HERE (present)
LADIEs (‘where some go’) without the last letter or ‘mainly’ round or ‘introducing’ D (daughter) – we weren’t that sure about the inclusion of ‘dashing’ but Chambers has lad as a dashing, high spirited or extrovert man
BUCK (resist) O (old) – a new term for us
ClOCK (face) without the ‘l’ (left)
Didn’t realise BUCKO was Irish. Obelix helped me with MENHIR. Fortunately, PHLEBITIS was on a recent Countdown repeat so I got that straight away. Note that columns 6 and 10 spell INERT GASES. So a relatively quick solve for me. Thanks to Monk and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks Hovis. Looks like the pairs of letters in the perimeter are all abbreviations of inert gases too – Argon, Neon, Helium, Krypton, Xenon and Radon.
Thanks Monk for the added fun.
I was going to check that later. Thanks for saving me the time.
An enjoyable solve – and I spotted the Nina and the perimeter gases too
Thanks to Monk and B&J
A few things I didn’t know – 13&14a plus 24d – and overall I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the setter’s recent appearance in his Sparks guise. Maybe I’d have been more appreciative if I’d spotted the Ninas!
Favourite was definitely where social workers leave their kids – great penny drop moment.
Thanks to Monk and to B&J for the review.
A lukewarm reception thus far, apparently.
But I thought this was tremendous.
The nina was integrated really brilliantly and it surely helped me finish the puzzle.
Perhaps not one of Monk’s hardest but absolutely a very satisfying solve (at least for me – others may disagree).
Especially, 15dn (PEDESTRIAN) was rather neat.
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce (and thanks for clearing up ‘blessed’ in 16ac) & Monk.
Didn’t spot the INERT GASES but when I’d read Hovis@1 I looked at my completed grid and spotted the chemical symbols.
Stuck on 6d for a while, I was thinking about BARE, but when I got round to 1d and couldn’t parse it, wondering where COMB came from, I then realised what 6d had to be. The parsing of 6d was then a tea-tray moment, as they say in the Guardian.
16a was my first entry, having seen it before within the last few days.
Super puzzle.
I certainly didnt find it at the easy end of Monk’s spectrum but as in Nimrod etc. its worth pursuing for the end game.
After a couple of uses of the check button the grid was gradually filling and I was trying to make sense of the top and bottom rows and then i looked elsewhere and the teatray struck me.
Brilliant gridfill ad strategy.
Chapeau Monk.
Too much for me. After half a day, still half a dozen left to get
Pretty tough, just about doable though failed to spot the Ninas/messages entirely.
President Nixon suffered badly from 22A.
Thanks to Monk and Bertandjoyce.