Independent 8295 / Anax

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This was the kind of puzzle I really enjoy.  

 

 

 

Many of the clues involved the intricate wordplay comprising a number of components that I find most satisfying to solve.  There was also a good sprinkling of less complex clues that allowed the solver to get into the puzzle.

There was a strong theme running through the puzzle and at least one of the clues.  There may have been elements of the theme in other clues, but if there were, they passed me by.

The top two acrosses formed LIGHTNING SEEDS, the name of an alternative rock band from Liverpool.  Their greatest hit was THREE LIONS (28 across /23 down) composed for them by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner for use as an anthem to support the English Football Team at the European Championships in 1996.  It has been re-issued in slightly different forms for later European and World Championships.

There were other song titles from the LIGHTNING SEEDS back catalogue in the grid, as follows:

PERFECT (9 across)

PURE (17 across)

THE LIFE OF RILEY (3 down /19 down

SUGAR-COATED ICEBERG (8 down /10 across)

MARVELLOUS (13 down) and

CHANGE (20 down)

 

I took a while to get into this puzzle, as Anax has a knack of hiding the definition in his clues, or defining entries in a subtly different way from the straight dictionary offerings.

 

There were many cliues that I liked in this puzzle.  The best examples for me were the clues for ICEBERG (10 across) with all it’s animal allusions, WASHED AWAY (14 across) with it’s simple breakdown of the entry into 4 consecutive parts, NON-VIOLENT (18 across) for the definition,  DOWN PAYMENT (11 down) for the anagram part and SCROUNGER for it’s use of viz as the definition of the SC part knowing that Mr Mellie appears in Viz magazine.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

1

 

Striker scoring – nets first of goals by half-time (9)

 

LINING (marking with a line; scoring) containing (nets) (G [first letter of {first of} GOALS] + HT [a common abbreviation for half time in sports reporting, but surprisingly, I can’t find it in Chambers, Collins or the Shorter Oxford])

LI (G HT) NING

LIGHTNING (striker)

 

6

 

Genesis dates, about 500 (5)

 

SEES (meets regularly; dates) contains (about) D (Roman numeral for 500)

SEE (D) S

SEEDS (origins; genesis)

 

9

 

Responsible pupil’s about to return textbook (7)

 

PREFECT (responsible pupil) with RE (about) reversed (to return)

P (ER<) FECT

PERFECT (exactly conforming to definition or theory; textbook)

 

10

 

Calf’s parent is cow, not pig, say. Be right in that (7)

 

IC (IS COW excluding [not] SOW [pig]) + ([BE + R {right}] contained in [in that] EG [say])

IC (E (BE R) G)

ICEBERG (a CALF is a mass of ice that has broken off a larger ICEBERG, hence an ICEBERG is the parent of a CALF)

 

11

 

Traffic island, e.g. roundabout?

 

Anagram of (roundabout) ISLAND EG

 

DEALINGS (business transactions; traffic)

 

12

 

They say I’ll beat the booze (6)

 

LIQUOR (sounds like [they’ll say] LICKER [one who beats])

 

LIQUOR (strong alcoholic drink; booze)

 

14

 

Did he work as an attorney? Practice removed (6,4)

 

WAS HE DA? (did he work as a District Attorney?) + WAY (established routine; practice)

 

WASHED AWAY (removed)

 

16

 

Tyre lady fixed wheel’s shape (4)

 

DID (fixed) + O (the shape of a wheel)

 

DIDO (Queen of Tyre, founder of Carthage according to ancient Greek and Roman texts)

 

17

 

Flawless before being cut with uranium (4)

 

PRE (before) containing (cut with) U (chemical symbol for uranium)

P (U) RE

PURE (flawless)

 

18

 

Nine-volt transformer keeps working? The bloody opposite! (3-7)

 

Anagram of (transformer) NINE VOLT containing (keeps) ON (working)

N (ON) VIOLENT*

NON-VIOLENT (without [opposite] blood; the bloody opposite)

 

21

 

Dear reader, this must not feature Independent for kids (6)

 

YOU (dear reader) + THIS excluding (not feature) I (independent)

 

YOUTHS (young people; kids)

 

22

 

Idle rubbish about sides in local game being badly controlled (3-5)

 

Anagram of (rubbish) IDLE containing (about) ([L {left} + L {left}; sides, both the same, not left and right]  + RU [rugby union; game])

I (L L RU) LED*

ILL-RULED (badly controlled; tracked this word down to Websters New International Dictionary although it’s obvious what it means)

 

25

 

For improving stock data I put in contrary suggestion (7)

(GEN [information ;data] + I) contained in (put in) (CUE [signal; suggestion] reversed [contrary])

EU (GEN I) C<

EUGENIC (relating to genetic improvement of a race by judicious mating and helping the better stock to prevail)

 

26

 

 Large insect that stings, not willing to conceal marks (3-4)

OW (expression indicating pain; that stings!) + (LOTH [not willing] containing [to conceal] M [marks – former currency])

OW (L (M) OTH)

OWL-MOTH (gigantic South American insect)

 

28/23

 

This song is the one put out with Baddiel & Skinner ultimately (5,5)

 

Anagram of (put out) IS THE ONE and LR [(ast letters of [ultimately] each of BADDIEL and SKINNER)

 

THREE LIONS (song written by David BADDIEL and Frank SKINNER, performed by the LIGHTNING SEEDS [1 across and 6 across] initially as an anthem supporting the English football team in the 1996 European Championships.  It has been updated and re-released a few more times for European and World Championships in 1998, 2010 and 2012)

 

29

 

They write a letter and say it’s to be rewritten (9)

 

ESS (the letter S) + an anagram of (to be rewritten) SAY IT’S

 

ESSAYISTS (writers; they write)

 
Down

1

 

Hack contributing to Hello perhaps (3)

 

LOP (hidden word in [contributing to]) HELLO PERHAPS)

 

LOP (cut away; hack)

 

2

 

Tug heading north on a lake (5)

 

DRAG reversed (heading north; down clue) + A

GARD< A

GARDA (reference Lake GARDA in Italy)

 

3/19

 

Luxury provided in hotel I freely ordered (3,4,2,5)

 

IF (provided) contained in (in) an anagram of (ordered) HOTEL I FREELY

THE L (IF) OF RILEY*

THE LIFE OF RILEY (an easy, carefree [and often irresponsible] life; luxury)

 

4

 

By lifting object men will get fitter (10)

 

IN (by) + (TARGET [object] reversed [lifting; down clue]) + OR (other ranks; men)

IN TEGRAT< OR

INTEGRATOR (a person who makes up parts s a whole; fitter)

 

5

 

Starts to gather rubbish in plastic bag (4)

 

GRIP (first letters of [starts to] each of GATHER, RUBBISH, IN and PLASTIC)

 

GRIP (travelling bag)

 

6

 

Want prices to go up, then object? (3,3)

 

FEES (prices) reversed (go up; down clue) + IT (object)

SEE F< IT

SEE FIT (think it appropriate; want)

 

7

 

 Big guns I have seen south of river/canal (9)

EXE (river in South West England) + CUT (passage; canal) + I’VE (I have)  This is a down clue so the letters IVE are south of EXE and CUT with North at the top of the puzzle.

 

EXECUTIVE (the senior managers; the big guns)

 

8

 

Alan’s business worried – director superficially pleasant (5-6)

 

SUGAR (reference Lord ALAN SUGAR, entrepreneur, host of The Apprentice) + CO (company) + ATE (worried) + D (director)

 

SUGAR COATED (something unpleasant disguised with a superficial attractiveness)

 

11

 

Empty and broke, banks hold deposit (4,7)

 

Anagram of (broke) EMPTY AND containing (banks) OWN (hold)

D (OWN) PAYMENT*

DOWN PAYMENT (deposit)

 

13

 

 Empty vase in clay – mostly poor def (10)

(VE [first and last letters of VASE excluding the middle letters {empty} AS] contained in [in] MARL [a type of clay]) + LOUSY (poor) excluding the final letter

MAR (VE) L LOUS

MARVELLOUS (DEF is slang for excellent or brilliant)

 

15

 

Viz‘s Mr Mellie describing one bum (9)

 

SC (namely; viz) + (ROGER [reference ROGER MELLIE ‘the man on the tellie’ a character featured in Viz magazine] containing [describing, in the sense of tracing out or delineating] UN [dialect for ‘one’])

SC RO (UN) GER

SCROUNGER (one who cadges or begs; sponger; a bum)

 

20

 

Children’s treasure not entirely coins (6)

 

CH (children) + (ANGEL [ANGEL and TREASURE can both serve as terms of endearment)] excluding the final letter (not entirely) L)

 

CHANGE (loose coins)

 

24

 

Play up, heading for hole in one (4)

 

H (first letter of [heading for] HOLE) contained in (in) ACE (one)

AC (H) E

ACHE (be in persistent dull pain; play up)

 

27

 

Enjoys every second of the day, usually (3)

 

HAS (second letters of [every second] THE, DAY and USUALLY)

 

HAS (enjoys)

 

 

14 comments on “Independent 8295 / Anax”

  1. Great stuff – thanks for the blog. Just one point – surely it was Ian Broudie who composed “Three Lions” for Baddiel & Skinner (they wrote the words, I guess?), not the other way round? I bet he sometimes wished he hadn’t…

  2. Didn’t really spot the theme, but after being pointed out it’s what one might expect from Anax given his other interests. Great puzzle though; I only needed wordfinder help on two clues.

    Re 10ac I got ICEBERG from crossing letters (needed the blog to parse it!) but was a bit dubious about the definition as I thought a calf was a mass of ice broken off a glacier when it reached the sea. However, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_calving tells me it can be broken off from all sorts of larger ice masses including icebergs.

    Thanks, Anax and Duncan

  3. Thanks for the blog.

    I was pleased to spot the theme but I didn’t realise it was so pervasive. I stumbledl upon the cow and calf idea – but I thought it was something to do with the Cow and Calf at Ilkley – same territory I suppose. The real struggle was with INTEGRATOR – I had all the parts but couldn’t for the life of me make them fit – which is nicely ironic. I really enjoyed chipping away at this and thank the setter.

  4. I found this tough. I solved the NW and SE first, and then the NE before finally cracking the SW with SCROUNGER my last in. I wondered why I wasn’t get the message saying the puzzle had been solved, because I was sure I had understood all of the clues. I had to use the Check button and found that I’d misspelt LIQUOR as LIQUER ….. I must have had liqueur on my mind when I entered it.

    As far as the theme is concerned, I very embarrassingly didn’t see it despite owning all the LIGHTNING SEEDS albums, even if they are in a box in the garage.

  5. After a slow start and a break cam back and saw Lightning Seeds across the top which really was quite a help dragging some of the answers up, certainly didn’t know all of them. You have to admire Anax’s ability to hide def(initions)

    @Thomas99 when he gets the royalty checks I bet he’s glad he did!

    Thanks Duncan for the detective work and blog and to Anax for another toughie.

  6. Yes, Flashling @5, I agree, another toughie. In fact very tough, but all good so far as I could see, and Anax was kind to people like me who know nothing about the Lightning Seeds, because the whole thing could be solved straight.

  7. Thanks, Duncan, I enjoyed it too. But definitely a tough one – pretty much at the outer limits of this solver’s ability. As you say, the reason Anax can be hard is the well-hidden definitions and the tricky wordplay. But to be fair there were half a dozen or so reasonably straighforward clues to get you going – not sure if the setter did that deliberately, but it’s what helped me start off this morning.

    The boy done good with THREE LIONS, but the Indy puzzles this week are just a footiefest. The editor needs to get a grip, I think … the cricket season’s already started, you know.

    Thanks to Anax for this one.

  8. A tricky one, even the long anagrams were not that straightforward. However, we enjoyed lunch, cup of tea and dinner while we tried to work it all out!

    Thanks Anax, we are glad we started earlier than usual!

    Thanks Duncan, we hadn’t checked DIDO but thought it must be the answer.

  9. Thanks duncan and Anax. This was hard but enjoyable. Needed help with parsing OWL-MOTH. MARVELLOUS was . . .

  10. Fantastic blog Duncan – thank you very much! And thanks to all for additional comments.
    Must confess I’m not much of a Lightning Seeds fan but I did like a lot of what was on Jollification. Went to see them (not long after the album was released) at the Apollo in Manchester and they were pretty ordinary. But they do have a knack for coming up with clue-friendly song titles!

  11. Nobody objected to the noun (transformer) used as anagram indicator in 18a. No Ximeneans in, then…?

  13. While it’s a subtle debate, I’m not sure if ‘transformer’ in 18A is a ‘full-blown’ nounal indicator. It could be read I think as ‘what transforms’ nine volt.

  14. For a non-Ximenean, Thomas99 (as Swagman) seems to know quite a lot about what might or might not annoy such people. And yet he doesn’t seem to understand the difference between the surface and the cryptic reading! How can this be?

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