Independent 7,530 by Klingsor

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A tough one today, I found, made even tougher by the relatively low number of checked squares. In fact, the grid looks like there might be a Nina, but I don’t see one. Either way, I’ve failed to explain a few here.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
7 CARAVAN – A in (CAR + VAN).
8 CABARET – C + (BAR in TEA<).
10 PEYOTE – EYOT in P[eopl]E.
11 GRAVELLY – G + RAVE + [a]LLY.
12 STYE – S[omething] T[roubling] Y[our] E[ye] &lit.
13 PATRONYMIC – I can’t explain this one.
14 ORCHESTRATE – (SCORE THE [p]ART) &lit.
19 JOBSHARING – SH in (JO + BARING).
22 ALOO – [v][ind]ALOO.
23 CAMELLIA – not sure about this. It’s a flowering plant, but I’ve not yet found the Fitzgerald connection.
24 GHETTO – H in GET TO.
25 VIBRANT – (I + BRAN) in TV<.
26 BLATANT – B + something? No idea.
Down
1 MAGENTA – (T[eam] + MANAGE[r])*.
2 SABOTEUR – SABOT + RUE<.
3 MADE UP – hom. of “maid” + UP.
4 PARAMOUR – P[olice] + (A in ARMOUR).
5 BAKERY – KER[b] in BAY.
6 DECLAIM – dd.
9 EGOTISTICAL – (SOCIALITE + G + T)*.
15 HEADLAND – HE + (L in A DAND[y]).
16 TRAVESTY – (T[o] SAVE)* in TRY.
17 MORAVIA – something + VIA, I guess.
18 FORTUNE – UN in FORTE.
20 SHEARS – S + HEARS.
21 GAGGLE – GAG + G[o]L[d]E[n].

17 comments on “Independent 7,530 by Klingsor”

  1. 13A PATRONYMIC
    Romantic piano works to include second item from Pyotr Ilyich perhaps (10)
    (ROMANTIC P [p]Y[otr])* AInd: works Def: Ilyich perhaps

    23A CAMELLIA
    Shrub’s flower one written about by Fitzgerald (8)
    CAMEL (flower – river) I (one) inside LA (written about by Fitzgerald – didn’t he write about Los Angeles a lot?)

    Don’t know about 26A BLATANT or 17D MORAVIA.

  2. Thanks for the blog, simon. a tough one, as you say, but very enjoyable, as always from Klingsor.

    13ac [my favourite clue, from so many] is anagram of ROMANTIC P[iano] minus pYotr. The definition is Ilyich.

    23ac: CAM [flower] + I in ELLA [Fitzgerald.

    26ac: B + reversal of T[ime] NATAL [of birth]

  3. Thank you, Simon. I found this tough but enjoyable. I couldn’t finish, missing out on MORAVIA and PEYOTE.

    CAMELLIA I took to be CAM (flower) and I in ELLA Fitzgerald. BLATANT is B (born) and T NATAL (around time, of birth).

    Good and soundly constructed puzzle. I’d rather miss out on a couple and enjoy the rest than finish one with less solid clues. Another good week in the Indy.

  8. Yes, K’s D but apologies [especially to Simon] for the capitals missed in my haste – and Gaufrid’s just beaten me on MORAVIA!

  9. Thanks, G. Now I understand why I didn’t get it (nor would have, even if I’d kept trying till it got dark).

  11. Thanks Simon for the blog and Klingsor for a tough one.

    Finally completed it after a long slog. Quite a few tricky references, but all were clear after you got the answers.

    Favourites were 2D SABOTEUR, a great surface reading, and aha! when you understood why the Champs Elysees; 4D PARAMOUR, a sufficiently ambiguous definition on first reading; and 17D MORAVIA.

  12. I too found this very tough and very enjoyable, favourites GHETTO, SABOTEUR, HEADLAND. Thanks, Klingsor, for the puzzle and Simon for the blog.

  14. Yes, a toughie today, glad I changed my routine to tackle it early. Lots of help required from Google (where a lot of time wasted on F Scott Fitzgerald), word finder and Chambers. One or two musical references as one expects from Klingsor. Thought 17d had to be either MORAVIA or BOHEMIA but couldn’t see for ages how either of them fitted the clue. Last to go in were PEYOTE and MAGENTA. Peyote was new to me; for anyone else wondering about it, Chambers gives it as “a Mexican intoxicant made from cactus tops – also called mescal”. I think mescal may have cropped up in crosswords before now.

  15. The other day I criticised a Punk crossword because of its appalling grid, and the post (from an eminent setter) that followed mine said the same thing. This one is almost as bad: 10 out of 26 clues have less than 50% checking. One can accept this if there is a Nina, and there may well be one, but I can’t see it. Anyone?

    If there is no Nina and The Independent is simply becoming un-Ximenean in this respect, what a pity. Because the rest of the crossword was really good. Repeatedly there were clues of a very high standard.

  16. Hi Wil

    To be fair there are a lot of stock grids out there (especially Tele/Graun) with a generous smattering of overunched lights. That doesn’t mean they’re popular, of course, but the point should be that the setter tries to write clues for these which aren’t overly difficult – or at least he should try to place cross-checkers which offer very few answers. -E-A-E- is bad; -Q-I-F- is good.

  17. Hi Anax I’m sure you know more about this than I do, but so far as I can see I think the papers should abandon their stock grids if they’re so bad, rather than expecting setters to accommodate their clues to these faulty grids. You don’t get any bad grids in The Times, and the FT seems to have abandoned the worst of the old ones, so it is possible for the Telegraph/Grauniad/Indy to adjust.

    And do setters take stock grids, or do they just set the crossword on a grid constructed by themselves (I’ve read that nowadays not having to set in hot metal (?) and having more freedom, setters can produce their own grids and nobody minds)? I can’t believe that dreadful grid of Punk’s the other day was a standard one.

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