Independent Saturday Prize No 6855 (Monk)
Posted by bridgesong on October 10th, 2008
This was my first attempt at completing an Independent prize crossword (I’m substituting for Neil, who’s on holiday). With one or two exceptions I didn’t find it too difficult, finishing all but one or two clues in the course of a day (22 across came to me in the small hours of the morning, when the penny finally dropped). I thought that on the whole it was a fair puzzle with one or two excellent clues, but I did feel that 11 and 19 across were more suited to a general knowledge crossword than to a cryptic one. If there was a Nina, or hidden theme, then I’m afraid that I failed to detect it.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PACIFIC | *IF + ICE CA(p) | |
| 5 | IN BRIEF | BRIE in 1 NF | |
| 9 | NONPAREIL | *PAREN(t) in LION (rev.) | One definition of “nonpareil” is “matchless” |
| 10 | HEART | HEART(s) | The reference is to the card suit |
| 11 | THE ICEMAN COMETH | A play by Eugene O’Neill, with a leading character called Hope: if you haven’t heard of it, you will have found this a tough clue to solve | |
| 12 | END USER | *ENDURES | The dreaded indirect anagram; first you have to deduce that “tolerates” means “endures” and then find an anagram. Definitely non-Ximenean! |
| 13 | SCORPIO | SCORPIO(n) | |
| 16 | STRAFED | FE in STRAD | |
| 18 | CABARET | BARE in CAT | |
| 19 | BOATSWAIN’S CHAIR | Another test of general knowledge; either you know this or you don’t, but there’s nothing in the clue to help you work it out | |
| 21 | TARSI | TARS + 1 | |
| 22 | HARMONICA | The best clue in the puzzle, once you realise that “trap” = “mouth” (which took me a long time!) | |
| 23 | YESHIVA | *HAS IVY (leagu)E | |
| 24 | ORKNEYS | *R(iver) ON SKYE | |
| Down | |||
| 1 | PINE TREES | *PINTER + SEE (rev.) | |
| 2 | CONTENDER | CON + TENDER | |
| 3 | FRANCIS OF ASSISI | FRANC + IS (three times) round SOFAS | A clever piece of wordplay, with a misleading reference to the compiler |
| 4 | CREAMER | CREAM (the best) + ER | A pedant (like me) might moan that a monogram really means a figure involving several initials woven into one, which in the case of the present Queen would involve the number II as well as the initials ER, but I don’t suppose anyone was misled. Many compilers would simply refer to the Queen and leave it at that |
| 5 | ISLANDS | IS + LANDS | A clever clue; Christmas and Easter (islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans) are the definition here |
| 6 | BY HOOK OR BY CROOK | Not sure if I fully understand the wordplay here. A hook is an attacking stroke in cricket, and Captain Cook with an r (short for runs) is a CRook, but I can’t make “clearing over short extra” mean “OR BY”. Any suggestions? | |
| 7 | INANE | In a “ne” | I.e. “asinine” ends with the letters n, e |
| 8 | FETCH | F + ETCH | |
| 14 | PURGATIVE | I found this very hard, mainly because I was looking for an occupation, rather than a medicine. However, “purgative” is a noun as well as an adjective, so grammatically the clue seems sound. More the sort of thing you might find in a Cyclops clue in Private Eye, though? | |
| 15 | OUTBREAKS | *BRUTE in OAKS | |
| 17 | DRACHMA | D + RACHMA(n) | The reference is to the notorious extortionate landlord of slum properties in London, Peter Rachman. Some would say that “dodgy” is putting it mildly |
| 18 | CON BRIO | The reference to “bars” is nicely misleading: it’s a musical term | |
| 19 | BOTHY | TH(e) in BOY | |
| 20 | ARRAS | Hidden and reversed in “disarray” | |
October 10th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I think the short extra is BY(e) - cricket. Thought clue for PACIFIC was a classic - “If most of ice-cap melts, it would be raised”
October 10th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Biographical trivia: Monk is a very good 22 Across player.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Nmsindy - thanks for your comment; I agree that by(e) makes sense. I also see that I wrongly annotated 1 across, it should of course read *IF + IC(e) CAP