Independent 8,287 / Jambazi

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Tuesday today, so you take pot luck in terms of the setter. Today offered me a rare opportunity to blog a puzzle by Jambazi.

I made quite swift progress through this crossword, thanks in no small measure to the long entries clued via straight or compound anagrams. 21 was the last one in, a long time after everything else, and clues like that have bamboozled me in the past too – I should keep an eye out for them in future.

My clues of the day are 1A for its sauciness, 28 for its smooth surface and 2 for the inclusion of both halves of the comedy duo, one as wordplay and the other as definition.

*(…) indicates an anagram

 

Across    
     
1   BRADAWL BRAD (=husband, of Angelina (Jolie), i.e. Brad (Pitt)) + <angelin>A (“ultimately” means last letter only) + W (=with) + L (=large)
     
9/5   ORTHOPAEDICS *(S<terling> + COOPER HIT AD); “opening to” means first letter only; “dashing” is anagram indicator
     
10   COPYRIGHT COPY (=fake) + RIGHT (=Tory, i.e. entry at 21)
     
11   MOTORCYCLE MO (=second, as in in a mo) + TOR (=hill) + CYCLE (=series); Triumph is a UK motorcycle manufacturer
     
12   CATS Double definition; the “show” referred to is the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical
     
14   PREORDAINED *(I.E. (=that is) + DON DRAPER); “working with” is anagram indicator
     
18   BIOCATALYST *(TAIL BY ASCOT); “whipping” is anagram indicator
     
21   TORY T<erribl>Y; “at either end” means first or last letter, i.e. “T or Y”
     
22   HOME TRUTHS [H (=hard) + O (=circuit, from its round shape)] + [RUTH (=famous – baseball – player, i.e. Babe Ruth) in METS (=baseball team, i.e. New York Mets)]
     
25   COMBATANT C (=cape, i.e. on map) + [M-BAT-AN (Batman’s subtle disguise, i.e. minor change to order of letters) in OT (=books, i.e. Old Testament)]
     
26   ICING ICI (=Nice here, i.e. French   word for here, as spoken in Nice) + NG (=no good)
     
27   ESSENCE ESS<o p>ENCE; “initial O<il> P<rice wiped out” means initial letters, i.e. “o” and “p” are dropped”
     
28   LADDERS L<anacashire> (“opening” means first letter only) + ADDERS (=they put on); a ladder is a run is a pair of tights
     
Down    
     
1   BLOOMS B (=British) + LOO (=toilet) + MS (=paper, i.e. manuscript)
     
2   ASTUTE AS (=like) + <broadcast>T <yo>U <ge>T <morecamb>E; “closing sequence of” means last letters only
     
3   APOCRYPHAL *(ROYAL + CAP + P (=prince) + H<arry>); “first part” means first letter only; “performing” is anagram indicator
     
4/19   LUCKY STRIKE <p>LUCKY (=daring; “head off” means first letter dropped) + STRIKE (=walk-out); Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette, hence “something to “drag” on”
     
5   POPULARLY P (=parking) + OPUL (LUPO; “up” indicates vertical reversal) + <e>ARLY (=ahead of time; “missing start” means first letter dropped)
     
6   EARN EA (=each) + RN (=service, i.e. Royal Navy)
     
7   INGRAINS [G (=German) + R<eal> A<le> (“initially means first letters only) + I (=independent)] in INNS (=pubs)
     
8   SET ASIDE T (=time) in SEASIDE (=Brighton?)
     
13   MASTERMIND *(IT’S + R<ecord> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + MAD MEN); “change” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the long-running BBC quiz “programme”
     
15   ELABORATE [LA (=city) + BORAT (=Kazakh, i.e. the fictional Kazakh journalist invented by UK comedian Sacha Baron Cohen)] in [E (=eastern) + <movi>E (“ultimately” means last letter only)]
     
16   OBSTACLE Reversed (“over”) and hidden (“included”) in “brothEL STAC (=entry at 12) BOards”; the definition is simply “let”,   impediment, obstruction
     
17   GOURAMIS GO (=pan out, i.e. result) + U (=unit) + RAM (“butter”, i.e. one that butts) + IS
     
20   USAGES [SAG (=drop) + E (=drug, i.e. Ecstasy)] in US (=America)
     
23   EXTOL EX (=old lover) + TOL (LOT=fortune, fate; “set up” indicates vertical reversal)
     
24   DAWN A in [D<ick> W<hitman> (“originally” means first letters only)] + N (=name)
     

22 comments on “Independent 8,287 / Jambazi”

  1. Thanks RR and Jambazi (nice meeting you by the way), funny I struggled to spot TORY for a while despite having the answer right in my face from 10ac.

    Didn’t get the hidden with cats rev wordplay sussed either in obstacle …

  2. I enjoyed this puzzle even though I failed to finish it. (I was unable to solve 9/5 as I was looking for 2 words rather than a single word.)

    New word for me was ‘biocatalyst’.

    My favourite clues were 6d, 8d, 4/19, 22a, 11a, 16d and 17d (last in, and it’s a fish I enjoy eating).

    Thanks for the blog, RatkojaRiku.

  3. Super stuff, as ever from this setter.

    I’m constantly amazed at how he can weave a theme into his puzzles, mostly via the clues rather than the answers, in such a way that it’s perfectly possible to complete the puzzle without being fully [or at all] aware of it.

    I knew of Don Draper / Mad Men only because I blogged a Crucible puzzle last year that included them but just a little googling reveals how cleverly Jambazi has used material from the show, eg in 9/5 – brilliant exploitation of the Sterling Cooper Ad Agency – and 24dn.. And then there’s the lovely misdirection of 13dn.

    There’s probably much more going on for devotees of the programme but I found plenty else to keep me happy: some examples – 21ac, 25ac, 28ac, 2dn, 3dn, 8dn, etc – and I’m still spluttering over 1ac – wonderful!

    Many thanks, Tramp – another cracker!

  5. Knowing nothing about Mad Men, I had a struggle to complete this puzzle, and I had to resort to assistance or 17d ‘gouramis. Nonetheless an enjoyable exercise.

  6. So sorry, RR: I usually say, ‘Thanks for the blog’ first but my enthusiasm ran away wih me! As PJ says, very nice – many thanks.

  7. Just for info, the Inquisitor from Saturday is reprinted in today’s paper with the shading bug removed.

  8. Thanks RR. Needed you to explain a few today.

    I enjoyed this one, and completely missed the Mad Men stuff – never watched it (although it has had good reviews, I think). I don’t know whether Jambazi did it deliberately, but there seemed to be a number of clues scattered about the place that gave you a way in; then for this solver it was a question of teasing out the rest.

    BLOOMS tickled me, and TORY and ASTUTE were clever clues (once I’d solved them, of course).

    Have we changed the ‘rules’? ORTHOPAEDICS is indeed a twelve letter word, but I always thought that to clue it over two lights meant that each element separately had to be a word in its own right? I can find ORTHO (just), but PAEDICS?

    Whatevs, good puzzle – thank you to the setter (but perhaps put GOURAMIS at the back of the obscure words drawer for a little while before re-use).

  9. Thanks for the blog RR and thanks for the comments. First off, I’m sorry about splitting ORTHOPAEDICS — I wrote this in the days when I didn’t know each constituent part had to be a real word. Secondly, I wrote this puzzle for my twin brother who loves Mad Men and is always trying to get me to watch it: I’ve never seen a single second of it — there aren’t enough hours in the day as it is! As I understand it, the programme is centred around Don Draper (who used to be called Dick Whitman, according to th’internet) who works for the Sterling-Cooper ad agency. Lucky Strike is featured a lot or so I’m told.

    I looked at this the other week and thought it was rubbish; mind you, I always think that.

    Thanks again

    Neil

  10. KsDad@8
    thanks, I’m not the only one then who was looking for a two-word solution. Actually, these are my least favourites – even when they are two words in their own right. Sorry, I may have described it wrongly, but you know what I mean.

  11. Thanks, RR

    Another fun puzzle from the vagrant. Jambazi (aka Tramp) is famous for his televisually themed puzzles and the references to Mad Men are cleverly incorporated here, together with an ingenious incorporation of Morecambe & Wise.

    Nicely varied clue methods. I gave a lot of ticks, but 1a and 1d were particularly enjoyable.

    ORTHOPAEDICS did have me stumped for a while because it violates the convention that each half of a split word has to be a word in its own right – but this is only a convention, after all, and at least the split is an etymologically natural one. Some of the four letter words were tricky also: TORY, EARN and DAWN were my last entries! But the clueing is impeccable.

  12. Hi Jambazi

    I did wonder if ORTHO PAEDICS might be deliberate: it’s to do with broken joints, isn’t it? 😉

  14. Thanks RR and Jambazi. Super stuff. I didn’t worry about ORTHOPAEDICS (maybe I should have done!). TORY took me too long (D’oh) but I thought OBSTACLE was particularly neat. Not sure if I’ve seen this exact construction before.

  15. re 9/5 ORTHOPAEDICS, don’t worry about me, I’m a newbie so I don’t know the styles of various setters and newspapers. I’ll just remember in future that Indy allows it this way.

  16. I didn’t know that Don Draper smokes Lucky Strikes but got the answer anyway. I suspected there was some kind of USA theme when the clue for 22a referenced both Babe Ruth and the NY Mets, but I didn’t follow up on it.

    I had to use aids to get GOURAMIS which was my last in. I was pretty sure that the answer ended in ‘ramis’ but couldn’t parse the first three letters when the checkers were _O_. I think that go=pan out is a bit obscure, and when the answer is a word that isn’t exactly common I think that’s a tad unfair.

  17. An enjoyable and challenging puzzle although we do have reservations about splitting ORTHOPAEDICS and somewhat agree with Andy B about GOURAMIS.

    We really liked 1ac and 28ac for their surface readings and thought the 4-letter words were cleverly clued.

    We didn’t watch Mad Men but had heard of Don Draper. That’s what we like about hidden themes – it doesn’t really detract from the solving but gives you a smile when you know what is going on!

  18. Entire theme blew me away, as the best setters do, it didn’t matter, solved it without knowing it as the great ghost themed puzzles do, and the “Mad Men” wasn’t required or helpful but a nice but actually useless theme to those that it did mean things. 10/10 Neil it wasn’t as bad as you think.

  20. I was completely oblivious to this (ghost) theme, as the blog no doubt makes clear. I wondered if some of the proper names used were connected, but since it made no difference to the solving experience, I did not feel moved to research it. I am glad, however, that it enhanced the solve for those in the know 😉

    I too wondered about the splitting of 9/5 – I know ortho- has its own entry in Chambers, but -paedics does not; however, the split is a natural one between the constituent parts of the word.

  22. Thanks Flashling and Jambazi!

    I, too, an not an aficionado of Mad Men but didn’t detract from the puzzle. Some pretty tricky constructions in here but it was a fun struggle and I got there in the end.

    Great puzzle! Thanks both!

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