It’s the Monthly Club Special again and another great challenge of exotic and interesting words and entertaining wordplay. Lots of great clues, including no less than three &lits. It’s hard to pick a favourite, but I have ticks against 3D, with its clever historical reference, 8D, 15D and my LOI, 18A. Thank-you clever setter!
Definitions underlined in bold italics , ( Abc )* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Some baht ’ats on Ilkley recalled setup for plant rotation (9) |
| KLINOSTAT – Reverse hidden [some… recalled] in bahT ‘ATS ON ILKley. referring to the song known as the Yorkshire Anthem, On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘At. Try this version for a bit of a larf. | |
| 6 | Assume a valley’s shape shows deposits from Alpine glaciations (5) |
| DONAU – DON (assume) A U (valley’s shape). And I suppose, similarly, V would be “ravine’s shape”. | |
| 9 | Golf ball no longer used in public tee area (5) |
| GUTTA – G (golf in the NATO phonetic alphabet) {o}UT (in public), with the O (ball) removed [no longer used], T (tee) A (area). The first of three &lits and the clue I found hardest to parse. Very clever. | |
| 10 | With crust of silk, filling of coulis initially baked in a fish pie (9) |
| KOULIBIAC –KC (King’s Counsel; silk) outside, [with crust of], all but the last letters, [filling], of cOULIs, [initially] Baked In A. | |
| 11 | Am I getting frantic with medium emergencies? (9,6) |
| SCREAMING MEEMIE – A second &lit. ( am I m emergencies )* [getting frantic], with M for medium. | |
| 13 | Times in animal life, every time seeming simple (4-4) |
| FAUX-NAIF – X (times) in FAUNA (animal life), IF (every time; whenever). A bit of a handbrake turn in the thesaurus to get IF, I think. | |
| 14 | Pickle left by escaping Soviet spy, having advanced Greek character slightly (6) |
| KIMCHI – KIM PHILBY (Soviet spy) losing the L BY [left by escaping], -> PHI, changing to the next Greek letter [having advanced Greek character slightly] -> CHI. Devious wordplay! | |
| 16 | Abandoned plantation ’s cover for a monstrous head? (6) |
| ORCHAT – ORC HAT (cover for monstrous head). | |
| 18 | Black medic possibly twisting arm in traumatised state (8) |
| SHAMROCK – [twisting] ARM -> AMR, in SHOCK (traumatised state). | |
| 21 | Changing hormone can help with front of brain or its hind part (15) |
| RHOMBENCEPHALON – ( hormone can help b )* [changing] with [front of] B{rain} giving the B. The resulting word means the hind part of the brain. | |
| 23 | Hard to feed heavy demand I didn’t hear about — it’s up to Joshua (9) |
| HEXATEUCH – The first 6 books of the Old Testament. H (hard) CUE (feed) TAX (heavy demand) EH? (I didn’t hear) reversed, [about], -> HEXATEUCH. | |
| 25 | Punishing task of writing is the author’s bag (5) |
| IMPOT – I’M (the author’s) POT (bag). | |
| 26 | Hardie’s bland answers had less fringe material (5) |
| WERSH – Hidden in, [less fringe material], ansWERS Had. A Scottish word. Hardie is probably a reference to Keir Hardie, the Scottish Trade Unionist and a founder of the Labour Party. | |
| 27 | Bitter cold stress applied to subtropical tree (9) |
| ALECTRYON – ALE (bitter) C (cold) TRY (stress) ON (applied to). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Objectively we must trail a thousand silver birds of New Caledonia (5) |
| KAGUS – K (a thousand) AG (chemical symbol for silver) US (we objectively, as an object rather than subject of a sentence). | |
| 2 | Agent to detain United Nations IT director (11) |
| INTERNUNCIO – INTERN (detain) UN (United Nations) CIO (Chief Information Officer; IT director). | |
| 3 | Where to bath — for Marat it may be fatal (7) |
| OUABAIN – A toxic compound. OU (where) A BAIN (to bath) in French (for Marat). The French political theorist, physician and scientist Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition. Nice one. | |
| 4 | Creole hotpot’s core containing halved okra enjoys popularity (3,5) |
| TOK PISIN – hoTPot [‘s core] containing OKra [halved] IS IN (enjoys popularity). | |
| 5 | Tough guy primarily after violence? (6) |
| THUGGO – Our third &lit. ( Tough G {uy})* [after violence]. | |
| 6 | Maldivian shady bar flanking Hotel Hawaii (7) |
| DHIVEHI – H (hotel) in DIVE (shady bar) HI (standard abbreviation for Hawaii). | |
| 7 | Indian barber clipped collar (3) |
| NAI – NAI{l} (collar; arrest) [clipped]. | |
| 8 | Poorly edited cuts to deselect with a mouse (5,4) |
| UNCLE DICK – Cockney rhyming slang for “sick”. ED (edited) in UNCLICK (deselect with a mouse). | |
| 12 | Poorly edited with PC if supporting Mac’s earliest form of data storage (11) |
| MICROFLOPPY – ( poorly PC if )* [edited] under, [supporting], M{ac} [‘s earliest]. | |
| 13 | Variety of pipe down inside absurdly low roof (9) |
| FLOORSHOW – SH (pipe down) in [absurdly] ( low roof )*. | |
| 15 | With loss of power, Twitter repeatedly affected (4-4) |
| CHEE-CHEE – CHEE{p} (Twitter), without the P (power), twice, [repeatedly]. | |
| 17 | One has a very light trunk in the morning collection (7) |
| AMBATCH –AM (morning) BATCH (collection). | |
| 19 | Noah’s son turning on God yet ultimately believing in a Messiah (7) |
| MAHDIST – HAM (Noah’s son) [turning] -> MAH, DIS (Roman god of the underworld) yeT [ultimately]. | |
| 20 | Without shortening, cut a ribbon attached to a mitre (6) |
| INFULA – IN FUL{l} (without shortening), losing its last letter, [cut], A. | |
| 22 | Radioactive gas no longer standing out, apparently (5) |
| NITON – Old name for Radon. NOT IN (out) going upwards [standing] -> NITON. | |
| 24 | Steer around right circuit (3) |
| XOR – OX (steer) [arround] -> XO, R (right). | |
Everything parsed the same way, for me. 26a may be a reference to Keir Hardie.
My experience so far of these Monthly Specials is that I can get a dozen or more answers more or less on first read through, and then have to painstakingly put the rest together. By contrast, I found this virtually impenetrable on first read through, but once I’d managed to work out a few clues, the solving pace accelerated.
Thanks. Will update the blog re Keir Hardie.