Independent on Sunday 1222/Poins

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Poins has become a bit of a regular in the IoS slot over the last couple of years, and I always look forward to solving and blogging his/her puzzles.  This was a value for money one, with plenty of lights packed into the grid; it was also well-constructed, with a number of clues I particularly liked.  What did you think?  And I need someone who’s inhaled to confirm my thinking about 1dn.

Abbreviations

cd  cryptic definition
dd  double definition
(xxxx)*  anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) missing

definitions are underlined

Across

1  Notice saying – ‘Move up and down alternately‘
SEESAW
A charade of SEE for ‘notice’ and SAW in its ‘saying’ sense.

4  Set off late
DEPARTED
A dd.

10  He’s not prepared to take marijuana there and then
ON THE SPOT
Nice surface reading.  A charade of (HES NOT)* and POT.

11  Hottentot emblem featuring a symbol of spiritual significance
TOTEM
Hidden in HottenTOT EMblem.

12  Fail in turning rabble against bishop
BOMB
A reversal of MOB, followed by B.

13  City‘s front line has exceptional goal sense
LOS ANGELES
Another surface I liked.  The American city of The Angels is (L GOAL SENSE)* with ‘exceptional’ as the anagrind.

15  Glorify Zion inordinately in story
LIONIZE
An insertion of (ZION)* in LIE.  I’d always spell this with -ISE, but dictionaries give both options for words like this.

16  Extremely tense before the king shows restraint
TETHER
A charade of the outside letters (‘extremely’) of TensE, THE and R for ‘Rex’ or ‘king’.

19  Thoroughly acquainted with poetry department’s head
VERSED
A charade of VERSE and D for the first letter of Department.

21  A poet from Sweden writes about going west
SPENSER
You can’t say this setter doesn’t do story-telling surfaces – another good one.  A charade of S for ‘Sweden’, PENS for ‘writes’ and a reversal of RE for ‘about’.  Spenser’s best-known work is The Faerie Queene, written – on one level at least – in praise of Queen Elizabeth I.

23  Expect a social worker to be involved without interest
ANTICIPATE
Well, I think this is a charade of ANT and [PART]ICIPATE, but I am happy to be proved wrong.

25  All the rage to embrace company image
ICON
An insertion of CO in IN.  Some people will insist that this word should only be used in its ‘venerated holy image’ sense, but I think that battle has long been lost.  Even David Beckham is an icon these days.

27  Wool producer, 50, hit by onset of arthritis
LLAMA
A charade of L for the Roman numeral for 50, LAM for ‘hit’ and A for the first letter of ‘arthritis’.

28  Shed light upon girl without name found in summer in Paris
ELUCIDATE
An insertion of LUCI[N]DA in ÉTÉ, the French word for ‘summer’.  Été seems to come up in clues quite often, and I sometimes raise an eyebrow about what your average solver is expected to know in terms of French words.  LE, LA, LES, DE … for sure.  But I’m not certain that été would be high up on the list of everyone’s schoolboy or schoolgirl French.  No-one’s ever commented on it, so perhaps I’m wrong.  To give you a clue, there’s the English word aestival, derived from the same Latin root and meaning ‘related to summer’, but that’s perhaps not in everyone’s passive vocabulary either.

29  Spread over the Italian reporter’s final column
PILASTER
Poins is asking you to insert IL for one of the Italian definite articles in PASTE, and then add R for the last letter of reporteR.

30  Letters from Bogarde are reportedly more expensive
DEARER
Nicely hidden in BogarDE ARE Reportedly.

Down

1  A mixture of drugs and drink
SNOWBALL
Well, my SOED tells me that SNOW is slang for ‘heroin or cocaine’, and a SNOWBALL is of course what grannies drink at Xmas, but the exact definition escapes me.  Is a SNOWBALL a mixture of drugs?  If so, it’s a dd.

2  Not prepared in time to meet first of rocks in river
EXTEMPORE
A synonym for ‘impromptu’ is an insertion of TEMPO and R for the first letter of ‘rocks’ in the river EXE.

3  Old artist almost flipped
AGED
A reversal (‘flipped’) of DEGA[S].  Edgar DEGAS (1834-1917), most famous for his depiction of danseuses.

5  Find out more at court
EXTRACT
A charade of EXTRA and CT.

6  Completely repaired leather around most of ancient garment
ALTOGETHER
An insertion of TOG[A] in (LEATHER)*  The anagrind is ‘repaired’ and the insertion indicator is ‘around’.

7  Including all books returned before volunteers left
TOTAL
A reversal of OT for the ‘books’ of the Old Testament followed by TA and L.

8  Oddly deaf to academics over Kierkegaard’s earliest material
DAMASK
A charade of DA for the odd letters of ‘deaf’, MAS for ‘academics’ and K gives you the material whose origin was in now war-torn Damascus.

9  Work on model’s face
OPPOSE
A charade of OP and POSE.

14  Excellent reception
FIRST CLASS
A dd.  The ‘reception’ bit is referring to YR, Year Reception, which four-year-olds in England enter, before progressing to Y1, Y2, and so on while being tested to death until the age of 16.

17  Undemanding church broadcast is a source of comfort
EASY CHAIR
A charade of EASY, CH and AIR.

18  Magnificence of garden changed the centre of Thurso
GRANDEUR
A charade of (GARDEN)* and UR, the middle letters of ThURso.

20  Empty entirely to remove outside pressure
DEPLETE
An insertion of P in DELETE.

21  Start to use torture on Taliban leader
SET OUT
A charade of (TO USE)* and T.

22  Washington to take a vote over strike
WALLOP
A charade of WA and a reversal of POLL.

24  Story heard about Rasmussen’s original route
TRAIL
An insertion of R for the first letter of Rasmussen in TAIL, which is a homophone (‘heard’) of TALE for ‘story’.

26  Bit of theatre missing from dull religious ceremony
RITE
[T]RITE.

A fine Sunday puzzle from Poins, and on the same day, Cookie and the boys trash Australia in the Ashes.  Life is good.