Monthly Club Special 20,210: When Irish Clues Are Smiling

A sad DNF from me on this one – the entire top row being way too sporty for my blood, I failed to register the full import of “hitting canvas” in 1ac and though TAKENOMA was plausibly Japanese-sounding enough. Oh well!

I made some heavy weather of this in other parts too at times, assuming that SURIC would be the answer at 11ac for a long time, biffing in WEATHER-BEATEN for a time at 16ac (half a biff is better than none, right?) and managing to have SENSILLAE at 24ac even though that didn’t fit the definition, because ER = Emergency Room = A&E, right?

There was some debate last time over whether the Monthly Club Special is a bit eye-rollingly OTT as hard (but not barred) puzzles go, with plain daft vocab and unnecessary layers of complexity abounding. I like them either way, but once again I’m going to leap to the robust defence of this particular grid. The corners are quite tough but the four long middle entries are fairly straightforward, especially 10dn and 14ac, giving an easy route into the puzzle. Words like NYLGHAU and TYLOPODA may be unfamiliar but when they’re clued with simple devices like alternated letters and hidden reverses, which tend to be on the easier end of the clues in normal-strength 15x15s, you end up with really excellent clues. In the former case here, I actively thought “alternate letter clue? Nah, can’t be, those letters are too unpromising” and in the latter I went through CAMELIDS, TALIPEDS, and finally TYLOPODS, working myself up into something of a dudgeon because “the clue doesn’t work, Asda ends with the wrong letter” before finally kicking myself. 2-0 to the setter then, and that’s exactly how you do these types of clues well.

My Clue of the Month(ly) goes to 23ac, such a perfectly limpid surface concealing some wonderful cluing complexity. Honourable mention to 26ac in the same category, and I also really loved “place for kip” being used to clue LAOS. Thanks setter!

ACROSS

1 Aim of those who’d keep mums from hitting canvas area of Japanese home (8)
TOKONOMA –  if you don’t want mum to hit the canvas in a boxing ring, your aim is TO K.O. NO MA.
A tokonoma is an alcove in a Japanese reception room where items for artistic appreciation are displayed.

5 Perfectly remembered taking uniform for a stay at Gleneagles (6)
OFFPUT – OFF PAT [perfectly remembered], taking U for A.
The definition is almost certainly something to do with golf but I couldn’t tell you exactly what. Offput is Scottish dialect for put off, as in postpone or “stay”, so you might hear it in Gleneagles, Perthshire. Thanks jerrywh!

9 Label around ring disclosed possession of two diamonds? (9)
DOUBLETON – DUB [label] around O [ring] + LET ON [disclosed]
This is a bridge reference – if your hand has two, one or zero of a given suit it’s called a doubleton, singleton or void respectively.

11 Half of suet and fat cut from back of calf (5)
SURAL – SU{et} + LAR{d} reversed [fat “cut” “from back”]

12 Cork fellow maybe disdainfully and loudly removed from lighter casing sort of (7)
IRISHER – {f}IRER [lighter, with F (loudly) removed] “casing” ISH [sort of]

13 Sort of desk duty for auditor to finish off (4-3)
ROLL-TOP – homophone of ROLE [duty “for auditor”] + TOP [finish off]

14 Two hundred puzzles — or fifty within — going global (5-3-5)
ROUND-THE-WORLD – (TWO HUNDRED*) [“puzzles”], containing OR L [or | fifty]

16 Dwell in island over pond by wooded vale, no longer at mercy of elements (7-6)
TEMPEST-BEATEN – BE [dwell] in STATEN [island over pond] by TEMPE [wooded vale]

20 Place for kip outside cosy, but no small woolly coats (7)
LANUGOS – LAOS [place for kip, which is the Laotian currency] outside {s}NUG [cosy, “but no small”]
Helps to have been a parent for this one, as babies can come out a bit furry when they’re born, and that’s lanugo.

21 Love to exercise memory for recalling in one’s own way (4,3)
MORE SUO – reverse all of O USE ROM [love | to exercise | memory].
Just the Latin for “in one’s one way”.

23 Kerry’s busy with clothes, mostly, and hairdo (5)
GARDA – GAR{b} [clothes, “mostly”] + DA [hairdo, the “duck’s arse” of the 1950s]
A busy being a copper, and the gardai being the Irish police, and Kerry being a place in Ireland, the definition needs a little untangling.

24 One feels nurses no longer like their patients going to alternative ER? (9)
SENSILLUM – SEN’S [nurses no longer] + ILL [like their (nurses’) patients] + UM [alternative ER]

25 I agree to hold links back, having no external source (6)
ASEITY – AY [I agree] to hold reversed TIES [links]
A Google search defines this as “the property by which a being exists in and of itself, from itself, or exists as so-and-such of and from itself”. Try keeping that straight after a few pints.

26 I caught delays travelling from Slough (8)
ECDYSIAL – (I C DELAYS*) [“travelling”]
Ecdysis is stripping off or sloughing, another definition part cleverly concealed by the excellent surface reading of its clue.

DOWN

1 Little Aussie swimmer, returning briefly the day Ramadan ends? (6)
TADDIE – I think the day Ramadan ends is EID DAT{e}, truncate and reverse.
No one will be surprised to hear that Aussies find even the word “tadpole” too formal for general use.

2 Pine needle turning gold is pricking (5)
KAURI – IRK [needle] reversed, then “pricked” by AU [gold]
The mighty Maori kauri tree is “of Araucariaceae” and everyone loves an Araucaria, of course.

3 Indian native’s only flag ahead: UK’s oddly missing (7)
NYLGHAU – {o}N{l}Y {f}L{a}G {a}H{e}A{d} U{k}, with all the odd letters removed.
Alternative spelling of the better-known nilgai, an Indian antelope.

4 Immunises with doses US college personnel, one initially taken in stages (13)
MITHRIDATISES – MIT HR I [US college | personnel | one] + T{aken} in DAISES [stages].
Mithridates VI, a king of Asia Minor, was a thorn in the side of the Roman empire and apparently well-known for having built up his immunity to poisons with sublethal doses.
Apparently this backfired when, having been defeated by Pompey, he tried to commit suicide by poison and no longer could! Hoist by his own ptomaine…

6 Revolutionary Disney adaptation of Kipling, perhaps portraying rule by dukes? (4-3)
FIST-LAW – reversed WALT’S IF [Disney adaptation of Kipling, perhaps].
The dukes are a slang word for fists so I assume fist-law is a pretty violent system of government.

7 Compound your being in sulk with hour at home (9)
PYRETHRIN – YR [your] being in PET [sulk] with HR IN [hour | at home]
Some kind of insecticide, but this was easy enough to work out from wordplay.

8 Group where some have the hump, upset Asda do polythene bags (8)
TYLOPODA – rather wonderfully hidden reversed in {a}SDA DO POLYT{hene}
A superset of the camelids, which was the word I originally tried to biff in here, fruitlessly needless to say.

10 Language group’s “Morning, teacher!” not English, somehow (5,8)
NORTH GERMANIC – (MORNING TEACH{e}R*) [“somehow”]

14 Fellow traveller, as it were, maybe does without a lot on trains (6,3)
ROMANY RYE – ROE [maybe does, the deer kind of does] “without” MANY [a lot] on RY [trains]
A Romany rye is apparently someone who associates or travels with Gypsies but isn’t of the blood.
The phrase was familiar because George Borrow’s Lavengro came up, somewhat controversially, in a Times puzzle recently and this is the name of the sequel to that work.

15 What’s raised from floor of meeting in street sadly never concluded (8)
STALAGMA – AGM [meeting] in ST ALA{s} [street | sadly, “never concluded”]
A rite of passage for all smart-alecky kids is being able to pronounce on the difference between stalagmites and stalactites.

17 Have wife of old German noble admitted to medical department (7)
ENGRAFT – GRAF [German noble] admitted to ENT [medical department].
To engraft is an obsolete word for to cuckold (a quaint-sounding word in itself, these day!) – to have someone’s wife.

18 Nutty fruity third of cake to make an authentic confectionery delight? (7)
TURKIFY – (FRUITY {ca}K{e}*) [“nutty”]
I would have thought this just meant to “make more Turkish” but there are more and less Turkish recipes for Turkish delight.

19 Description of radical supporting brother on left (6)
FORMYL – FOR [supporting] + MY! [brother!] on L [left]
Clearly something in chemistry, but the finer points are a little beyond me. If any scientifically-minded persons feel like chiming in…

22 Old army officer, one supporting tip for bus conductor (5)
SOLTI – O LT I [old | army officer | one] supporting {bu}S
Famous Hungarian-born conductor (not of buses), died in 1997.