Independent 7,347/Math

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Always a pleasure to land a puzzle by Math, who is one of my favourite setters in the Indy stable. You can always expect some music references and other assorted pop culture, as well as very nice clueing. 25D is my favourite here.

I do feel as though there might be something going on with the finished grid. There are plenty of short answers at the top and bottom, and STAR WARS appears on the bottom row, but I can’t make out any more than that.

Across
1 FEAR – EA(ch) for D in FDR
4 ANGER – [-B]ANGER
7 HATE – H(enry) + ATE
9 SUFFERING – ‘UFFER in SING
10/11/16 THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – Got this more or less straight way, but I can’t quite figure out the anagram components. Any help welcome.
12/22 LIGHT SABRE – (IT’S REAL GBH)*
13 HERETO – (THREE)* + 0
15 ROOSTERS – O (love) in ROSTERS
17 ITEMISED – (M + TEESSID[-e])*
20 THEISM – THE (see 10A) + 1’S M(illion)
23 INTEGERS – (SINGER + TE[-nors])*
26 END – [-t]END
27 OUTSOURCE – OUT (not in) + SOURCE (the beginning)
28 STAR – STAR[BOARD], i.e. the right hand side on a ship
29 OCEAN – Cryptic def.
30 WARS – W(ith) + A(active) + R[-eligiou]S
Down
2 EASED – (SEA)* + ED
3 REFEREE – Cryptic def.
4 AVERSIONS – A VERSIONS
5 GRINDER – GRIN + RED rev.
6 RIGA – RIG A
7 HIT LIST – Cryptic def.
8 TEE SHIRTS – (THERE SITS)*
14 EXTRAVERT – EXTRA VERT
18 MIRADOR – ([-a]RM[-y] + RADIO)*
19 DINETTE – TEN rev. in (DIET)*
21 EYEBROW – Cryptic def. This should help explain
24 SHEAR – Hidden in caSH EARnings
25 SOLO – [-w]OL[-f] in SO – A quite brilliant &lit.

30 comments on “Independent 7,347/Math”

  4. Thanks Ali,
    I think the anagram in 10/11/16 is “OK he’s made hit for noted” (broadcast)*, with “obscure face on satellite” a further cryptic definition.
    Do you think the first six acrosses are a cry for help?
    (only alleviated slightly by the seventh).
    *as nms says…

  11. Perhaps someone can explain to me why exactly “did it” is ate and what is the point of all those dashes in 4 down ?

  12. Really enjoyed this one but I’m also puzzled by the dashes in 4 down. And where’s the definition of ‘star’ in 28 across?

  13. I suppose it’s a sort of indirect definition of star i.e. something that when you put it on top of board, you get a word for right (on a ship).

  14. Chambers gives extravert as a variant of extrovert. No intravert though.

    I was puzzled by the dashes in 4D too, but I guess it’s just to emphasise the typing of individual letters

  15. Thanks Ali. The theme was as usual a million miles over my head (I find Star Wars a bit prepubescent, but there you are). Enjoyed solving this one anyway, with a good variety of clues to keep you interested, and a curious mixture of easy-peasy and pretty tough.

    Could 17ac be faulty? ITEMISED is not an anagram of TEESSIDE without the E, plus M. Or maybe I’m missing something.

  16. Peculiarly worded and punctuated, but I think you’re looking for M1 to be your motorway after excision of ES (clued ‘e’s). Then it works.

  18. Hi NealH, Comment 11

    I think, because of the ellipsis, ‘did it’ refers back to ‘nibbled’ in 4ac.

  19. OK missed the wordplay on ocean and the link to May the Fourth even though my other half joked about it earlier today. Spent too long thinking about a recent wolf clue being lobo…

  20. Thanks, Eileen. I never really pay much attention to ellipses since they’re normally just there to make the surface reading work.

  21. Another minor and slightly pedantic criticism. The definition in 1 across seems to be “thing that scared him” and the answer is fear. Surely fear is the state of being scared rather than the cause. It’s a bit too tautological: it’s like saying “he was ill because he had an illness”.

  23. Isn’t 1 across referring to FDR’s quote that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”?

  25. When I finish a crossword and make lots of marks by the clues, that tends to mean that the clues are less than excellent. Not necessarily I suppose, it could be me, but I never make all these marks with Virgilius or Dac.

    I made seven marks here, and in two of them it was my incompetence. In some of the others, well OK, but I wouldn’t have set such a clue. In 13ac what on earth is the point of ‘once’? The surface makes little sense with or without it. In 6dn is it that ‘Rig A’ is one’s first choice of equipment for sailing? If so then shouldn’t there be a question mark? Hardly a standard phrase. And in 8dn how do Geordies come into it?

  26. I can’t really see the point of ‘once’ in 13a, either. In 8d, the reference is to the reputation (deserved or not) that Geordies have for going out in all weathers without warm clothing. There’s some joke about the easiest job in the world being ‘cloakroom attendant in a Geordie nightclub’.

    I found this puzzle very entertaining, though — not being a Star Wars fan — I too missed the anniversary reference.

  27. Your knowledge of North-Eastern fashion habits is impeccable, jetdoc! Newcastle FC fans also have an unpleasant habit of stripping to the waist in sub-zero conditions just to show how hard (or, imho, stupid) they are. Not usually a pretty sight.

  28. To be fair, it’s not an ‘anniversary reference’. ‘May the FOURTH be with you’ is an old gag reference.

  29. In 13 Across, the ‘once’ indicates that ‘hereto’ is flagged as an obsolete word for ‘hitherto’ in Collins. In the surface the idea was that three nil was a rare result which had reoccurred.

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