Congratulation to Monk on a great achievement!
I suppose producing 500 puzzles is an achievement in itself, but producing 500 fresh and inventive puzzles is another thing altogether. Fab!
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | DUENNA | Governess expected new article to be rejected (6) |
| DUE (expected) N (new) then AN (indefinite article) reversed (rejected) | ||
| 8 | BODLEIAN | Reading location wherein confused oldie enters bar (8) |
| anagram (confused) of OLDIE inside BAN (bar) – library at Oxford | ||
| 9 | RITENUTO | Slowing down, head appearing after ceremony’s over (8) |
| NUT (head) follows (appearing after) RITE (ceremony) has (‘s) O (over) | ||
| 10 | FORBAD | Denied access to bachelor in a car (6) |
| BA (bachelor of arts) inside FORD (a car) | ||
| 11 | SQUARED | Before break of day, fairly settled (7) |
| Day (first letter, break of) follows (before…is…) SQUARE (fairly) | ||
| 13 | CO-HEIR | Unusually heroic chap in line to benefit (2-4) |
| anagram (unusually) of HEROIC | ||
| 14 | BEAUX GESTES | Following live broadcast of sex, a guest acts in a gracious way? (5,6) |
| BE (live) then anagram (broadcast) of SEX A GUEST – acts (as a noun), graceful ones | ||
| 20 | OPTANT | I choose pint to be consumed by old worker (6) |
| PT (pint) inside O (old) ANT (a worker ant) | ||
| 22 | ART DECO | A certain style perhaps drawing Oscar after a month (3,4) |
| ART (perhaps drawing) then O (Oscar, phonetic alphabet) following DEC (December, a month) | ||
| 24 | WILIER | More crafty with current bedfellow? (6) |
| W (with) I (current, electrical symbol) and LIER (bedfellow, a fellow who lies in bed) | ||
| 25 | INCREASE | Entering cover, soldiers step up (8) |
| 26 | STUBBORN | Rigid objections overturned, then almost carried (8) |
| BUTS (objections) reversed (overturned) then BORNe (carried, almost) | ||
| 27 | ATTEND | Listen to what may follow news feed’s conclusion (6) |
| AT TEN (what may follow news, the TV program News At Ten) then feeD (conclusion of) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FURIOSO | If so, our shot scored wildly (7) |
| anagram (shot) of IF SO OUR – a music score | ||
| 2 | INSECURE | Cases in intern scheme make better firm? Au contraire (8) |
| outer letters (cases) of InterN SchemE then CURE (make better) – the opposite of firm | ||
| 3 | VAGUER | More faint from very fit runs (6) |
| V (very) AGUE (a fit) then R (runs) | ||
| 4 | EDIFICES | European condition contributing to cuts in buildings (8) |
| E (European) then IF (a condition) inside (contributing to) DICES (cuts) | ||
| 5 | HEARTH | Hot planet that’s associated with fire (6) |
| H (hot) and EARTH (planet) | ||
| 6 | UAKARIS | Ark, one with a supply in American animals (7) |
| anagram (supply, provide the letters for?) of ARK I (one) with A inside US (American) | ||
| 8 | BROOD | Clutch bible, most frequently with cross (5) |
| B (the most frequent letter in bible) then ROOD (a cross) | ||
| 12 | EUX | Several European countries vote for them in Brussels? (3) |
| EU (European Union, several European countries) and X (a vote) – “them” in French, as spoken in Brussels | ||
| 15 | ULTERIOR | Extremely unusual rogue having a change of character in the future (8) |
| UnusuaL (extremes of) then TERrOR (rogue) with I replacing R (one letter changed) | ||
| 16 | EAR | To nearest and dearest it’s common sense (3) |
| found in both (common to) nEARest and dEARest | ||
| 17 | ELEVENTH | Organised activity hosted by wealthy regulars for a birthday (8) |
| EVENT (organised activity) inside (hosted by) wEaLtHy (regulars, a regular selection) | ||
| 18 | SPRINTS | Runs out of Shakespeare’s first editions (7) |
| Shakespeare (first letter of) then PRINTS (editions) | ||
| 19 | CONSENT | Agreement on track when Conservative is fully promoted (7) |
| ON SCENT (track) with C (conservative) moved to the top (is fully promoted) | ||
| 21 | AKIMBO | A lass and a short lad with hands on hips? (6) |
| A KIM (lass, girl’s name) with a BOy (lad, short) | ||
| 22 | ALIEN | ET upset first man on moon to some extent (5) |
| the first letters (to some extent) of NEIL Armstrong (first man on the moon) reversed (upset) | ||
| 23 | TIC-TAC | Communication system that’s on course? (3-3) |
| cryptic definition – a bookies signalling system on a race course | ||
Being a Monk fan (the muso as well!)I loved this.i spotted the nina early on which sped up finishing but the neatness and creativity of the whole thing was so impressive.I hoped the number (500) referred to the setter.Has he been setting for eleven years?
Congratulations Monk and thanks Pee Dee.
Lovely crossword with a very helpful Nina. Thank you and congratulations to Monk and thanks to PeeDee for the blog
Eileen taught me last week that ‘supply’ = ‘supplely’, I.e. an adverbial anagram-indicator which helped with rare animal at 8.
Thanks & congrats: a fittingly fine puzzle for an impressive landmark.
Thanks, Pee Dee. We found this really tough; really grateful for your clear explanations.
Congratulations to Monk on an impressive milestone. A helpful Nina too!
Congrats, Mike!
Good to see that No 500 was just as nice as Nos 186 and 317.
The nina was in the end very helpful and made me aware of being on the wrong track in 23d.
Initially, I entered SAT-NAV (having only the second A as a crossing letter).
And so I played with ARS NOVA in 22ac, only to find out that ART DECO was the obvious answer.
Last one in UAKARIS but surely no-one will blame me for that.
Many thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Did I say Mike? Um, Mark! (sorry)
Congratulations Monk. I found this on the tough end of the spectrum but that’s where I usually find Monk crosswords. I’m always satisfied, however, with clues like VAGUER, ART DECO, STUBBORN, and ALIEN. New words to me like OPTANT abd BODLEIAN were gettable from the wordplay but I missed “supply” as an adverb (again) and could not solve 6d. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Duenna
Furioso
Ritenuto
Crossword ripped up and thrown in binno.
A bit tricky in places but the grid suggested a nina which we spotted about half way through; it helped with several answers and confirmed a few guesses. UAKARIS was a new word to us but there aren’t too many words beginning UA so the animals were soon tracked down in Chambers.
We had reservations about a couple of clues but they don’t really matter in such a great crossword, and when celebrating such a milestone!
Favourites were BODLEIAN, BEAUX GESTES and (once we’d seen the parsing here) CONSENT.
Thanks, Monk and PeeDee – as well as congratulations to Monk.
Oh this was Very Difficulto
Congratulations Monk for the enjoyment over the years. This was certainly a work out. And thanks PeeDee for the complete explanations, which I needed in a couple of places.
Magnificent crossword although I failed to complete it. A master class. Thank you Monk and Pee Dee .
Usually finish the FT crossie: just about every day. Got one answer, stared at the clues for hours, gave up. The most difficult one I can remember in years. Not a criticism, because you need a variety of difficulty in a paper’s crosswords. But this was very hard.
Thanks Monk (congratulations on the milestone) and PeeDee
A tough, but very enjoyable, offering here and whilst initially thinking that the grid might offer a nina, didn’t pick up on it again until desperation with 2d, 6d and 11a still not done. Some interesting variants of words with FORBAD (FORBADE) and OPTANT (OPTER). Don’t know if I’ve seen the referred reverse hidden answer technique, as in 22d too often. Some mixed uses of extracting particular letters from words in his charades throughout the puzzle as well – 11a, 27a, 2d, 8d (particularly liked), 15d, 17d and 18d.
BEAUX GESTES was probably my favourite with its amusing surface and the effort involved in sorting out the word and then the wordplay.
Finished up the top with the new to me South American monkeys, INSECURE, a fixed up FURIOSO (from a lazily unchecked FURIOUS) and SQUARED the last one in.
Thanks to PeeDee and Monk (and congratulations)
Always enjoyable. Often inventive,
I can’t remember seeing the device at 8d before
Young bubbles most often and most frequently canoodle in Rhodes when he’s away
I saw “to” as part of the def in 10a
11a Can “fairly” fairly indicate “square”?
25a “incase” is a variant of “encase”
5d I think “that’s” is part of the def
Many thanks to PeeDee for the excellent blog, and to bloggers for the many good wishes. As other (ahem, full-time) setters have topped 1000s, a paltry 500 is about green-belt territory in the brutal world of full-contact word games; though it did offer a nice grid-seed!
I didn’t set out to make this a tricky puzzle, so the fact that it turned out that way is a surprise. As for the more esoteric entries, I personally have no problem with learning new words in this way from others’ puzzles.
There was a sub-Nina too. Reading one grid entry above as 11 SQUARED signified that this was the 11 x 11 = 121st FT puzzle among my 500 published ones.
Dansar @ 16
“We’re settled” / “We’re squared” works for me
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee
Dansar @16 – well spotted about encase/incase.
For square/fairly Chambers gives
Square adverb 5. Fairly, honestly
I imagined a crook admitting “You got me square there Gov’nor” meaning he was arrested fairly.
Gave up and delighted I did so. Too hard for this solver and frustrating as a result. Congratulations to those that completed the challenge. You are either very clever or have spent an enormous amount of time practising. Me? I’ve got better things to do.
Should have given up much earlier – was never going to get the five I failed on. For me, too many foreign words with varying degrees of adoption into English. “Eux” surely isn’t adopted in English in any usage. Then beaten too by ritenuto and beaux gestes.