Many thanks to Monk for a super challenge.
As expected, a witty and fun start to the day. There’s a lovely symmetry to the grid (Monk usually hides something extra for us to find).
DIVER (duck) squeezes IN
Cryptic definition
A play on the dual meaning of ‘banger’, which could be a sausage or an old car
L (liberal) + (MUM’S UP)* (*for cooking)
‘Green’ usually refers to US money – their banknotes are all green
BUM (old tramp) in pursuit of PLUM (choice)
The Latin name for lead, from which is chemical symbol, Pb is derived
VIOLA[tions] (offences, half of)
ON (working) + TROT (left-winger) on THE (article)
‘Trot’ being an abbreviation for Trotskyist
(TUM ACHIER)* (*upset)
N (November); A LOG (a record) sucks
ROSE (sprung up) facing S (south)
GRANNIES* (*fighting) about [gi]N (last of)
T[rouble] (heading for) in VIRU[s] (bad program, mostly) with SO-SO< (indifferent, <backing)
GIT (unpleasant person) pinching L[arg]E (extremely)
“LACKER” (individual who wants, “outspoken”)
SORT* (*odd) entering RUM (odd)
D[rie]D (gutted); ANGLE (fish) lines
DAD (old man, cycling) in GLEN (narrow valley)
E (base, mathematical) in ([Hammon]D (bottom of) + LIVER (organ))
V (very) + A (active) + MOOSE (large deer)
(SMUG NASTY)* (*broadcast)
Nystagmus is an eye condition, i.e. complaint affecting a ‘viewer’
“RIMBAUD” (old French poet, “picked up”)
DIPS (idiots) + STICK(s) (rod, more than once – i.e. add plural S)
IN[j]URE (hurt, after J (Jack)’s lost)
(GEAR MOB)* (*distributed)
NAG (worry) about META (social media giant)
[tormen]T (end to) + REAS[s]URED (relieved, when one S (son) escapes)
ANAL (obsessive) + E.G.< (say, <over) + S[p]I[n]A[l] (bits of)
RED (bloody); VILE (shameful) cuts
S (second) + (RACE (run) inside A[fghanista]N (borders))
ILL (drained) + “BREAD” (local money, “for auditors”)
EDIT: [sw]I[ne] (essentially) + L[oca]L (drained) + “BREAD” (money, “for auditors”)
[h]ATE[r] (exposed) arrested by G-MAN (FBI agent)
[p]U[t]S [o]U[t] A (regularly) + L (large)
SPR[o]G (military recruit); getting I (one) for O (nothing)
Enjoyable and challenging.
I don’t really follow the parsing of ill bred and had idiots as the definition for dipsticks.
Liked the paired clues and Rambo
Hopefully I’ll be the first pedant to point out that the plural of virtuoso is virtuosi. 🙂
ILL-BRED
I think
Def: Uncivil
swine essentially=I
drained local=LL
money=BREAD—->BRED as in the blog.
DIPSTICKS
DIPS +TICKS(rods)??
The def in DIPSTICKS as James@1 says could be ‘idiots’.
Rod found in estate could be DIPSTICK…more than once..S
Thanks KVa @2. Your parsing for ILL-BRED is better so I will amend the blog.
Yep, idiots as def for me too. Didn’t notice the perimagrams — clever! Thx Monk and Oriel.
A struggle for me.
10(ac): does “old” actually have any relevance?
A bum is a bum.
2(d), I suppose that “active” = A in some limp acronym, but it’s weak.
Sprog, unknown to me, as defined.
NYSTAGMUS. Well, it’s one of “those”, isn’t it?
ON THE TROT…”busy”? Not for me.
It means, one after the other. As in, I disliked three clues, on the trot.
So, not so much, witty, or fun, in my book, but I will be in the minority. LUMP SUM was OK.
Thanks, Oriel
Thanks Monk and Oriel
10ac Chambers 2016 p 1193 has plumbum n (obs) lead. Monk could have given an indicator for Latin, but that would have been more of a giveaway than “old” for obsolete.
12ac: Chambers p 1673 has on the trot (inf) in succession; without a break; busy, bustling about
21ac: Chambers p 1746 has virtuoso n (pl virtuosos or virtuosi). For what it is worth, I prefer the English plural.
2dn: Chambers p 1 has a abbrev active (among many other things).
5dn: I agree with KVa@3
It is probably time for my occasional reminder that setters have access to published dictionaries but not to the preferences of individual solvers.
Very clever as usual (and nothing to do with a drink) from Monk. All those anagrams around the perimeter and a NINO down the middle to cap it off.
Didn’t know SARACEN as a ‘nomad’ or the ‘military recruit’ sense for SPROG.
Thanks to Monk and Oriel
Thanks Monk for a superb crossword. I thought this was on the gentle end for a Monk puzzle; all of the clues fell without a struggle and without any parsing mysteries for me. Great stuff overall — DIVINER, RAMBO, ON THE TROT, ENSNARING, GLADDEN, and ILL-BRED as well as the ‘edgy’ bonus were among the highlights. Thanks Oriel for the blog.
Never come across “sprog” as a new recruit before. RAF slang apparently
I found this a bit more difficult than recent puzzles, combining the very approachable with the convoluted and obscure. I best liked VIOLA, VAMOOSE, ROSES, and ENSNARING
Thanks Monk and Oriel
Glorious. I could have saved myself some lead (or plumbum) and ticked the whole crossword
Cheers O&M
23dn: Chambers 2016 p 1509 has sprog n a recruit (milit sl); a child, infant (inf)
Small correction to comment 7 re 12ac: the first semicolon should be a comma.
While I am back in, I should like to comment favourably on the friendly grid, with all answers more than 50% cross-checked, including first and last letters.
Also re 21ac, the word virtuoso exists in Spanish as well as Italian, and the Spanish plural is of course virtuosos.
Thank you Oriel for yet another super analysis and to all for taking the time to comment. I must once again thank PB (here at the monastery, forever known as Pelham the Redoubtable) for his ceaseless guardianship of fairness and accuracy, and especially for his reminder @#7 😉.
To PB#13: it was actually a past comment by you @225 that persuaded me to set far more frequently on ‘odd-odd’ grids, which do seem more helpful to solvers. Re the central column: might we consider a NINA from a male setter as a NINO?
Plumbum @13 never apologise
PB @13 that is next level pedantry on virtuosos. Props.
I’m a relatively new reader of the blogs and returnee to Cryptics. This one definitely stretched my brain today but was fun.
Favourite clue 24a.
One question I had is what does NINO/NINA stand for?
Charlotte W @17: A Nina refers to any hidden message or ‘extra’ found in a completed grid. The term comes from sketches by Al Hirschfeld of the NY Times a number of years ago. He always hid his daughter Nina’s name (often multiple times) in his drawings.
Enjoyed this a lot, and would second Tony Santucci#9 as regards the relative straightfowardness, and very happy to find it more approachable than some… the very clever perimeter words, which only became apparent after Oriel pointed it out, does explain GATEMAN, which wasn’t my first choice for traffic controller… bravo!
Ps. Charlotte W #17, I believe “Nina” refers to the habit of an historical setter including the name of his daughter, Nina, in his puzzles, in a hidden sense. Hence its use as a descriptor of hidden messages, of any description, in modern puzzles. I never seem to see them..
An enjoyable puzzle – many thanks Monk, and Oriel for the blog.
E.N.Boll&@6: I know it often seems like any old thing ends up as an abbreviation, but “a” for “active” is standard in grammatical terminology. I think this one has to be given as fair game as we frequently see “t” for “tense” from the same context. On the other hand I, too, thought “on the trot” was misdefined but there is Chambers to support the setter so I guess I learned something.
Regarding plurals of foreign words, I also prefer the anglicised version. I still maintain that the reason exams in the UK changed from having a “syllabus” to a “specification” was because no-one could agree on the plural of the former.