Another fine Monday puzzle from Quixote in the usual style, although he does seem to have been rummaging about in his unusual words drawer this morning. There’s one I’m not entirely sure about.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Five years of intense desire ended by drink
LUSTRUM
A word I only know from crosswords. A charade of LUST and RUM.
5 Clothing this evening’s not being worn
TIGHTS
Not sure about this one. I want to say that ‘this evening’s’ is TONIGHTS and to remove the ON from that; if we take NO as being equivalent to NOT and ‘worn’ as the removal indicator, it might work. I’m sure some kind soul will explain it.
8 Laborious patch in puzzle engenders feeling of being badly stuck in corner?
CLAUSTROPHOBIA
A really clever spot by Quixote. I’ve been stuck in corners in puzzles often. (LABORIOUS PATCH)* with ‘in puzzle’ as the anagrind.
9 Old instrument has gone into fire – be careful!
REBEC
Another word I learned through puzzles. It’s hidden in fiRE BE Careful.
10 Noises around water supply for people’s homes
DWELLINGS
An insertion of WELL in DINGS for ‘noises’.
12 Time to listen to female singer’s radio programme
THE ARCHERS
Dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum … A charade of T for ‘time’, HEAR and CHER’S for ‘female singer’s’. For overseas solvers, THE ARCHERS is a long-running radio series about ‘everyday country folk’. For UK aficionados: how much more grumpy can Tony Archer become, and how much more Little Miss Goodie Two Shoes can Shula get? But Ruth Archer’s a canny lass …
14 Left-winger is wrong on reflection
TORT TROT
Bit of French would have helped here. It’s a reversal of TROT for ‘left-winger’ and TORT is a mainly legal term for a ‘wrong’. But avoir tort in French means ‘to be wrong’. Edit: my mistake, the answer is TROT and the definition is ‘left-winger’. Thanks to gwep.
16 Sorry extra words written after batsman’s pair
OOPS!
If a batsman in cricket gets ‘a pair’ it means he (or increasingly these days, she) gets two ducks in one match (in other words, scores two noughts). So it’s OO for two ‘nothings’ followed by PS for post scriptum or ‘extra words’.
18 Emotionally aroused? This could suggest no!
SWITCHED ON
A reverse word order thingy. If ON is switched, then you get NO. SWITCHED ON is ’emotionally aroused’, I suppose, though I’d take it more often to mean being on top of matters and organised.
21 Her mascot is funny ornament worn under bodice
STOMACHER
New one on me, but it’s (HER MASCOT)* with ‘funny’ as the anagrind.
23 A medic goes round hospital unplanned
AD HOC
An insertion of H in A DOC.
24 Silly leader errs, has to grasp second and last chance to get things right
DRESS REHEARSAL
(LEADER ERRS HAS)* with S for ‘second’ inserted. I’ve been involved in a few dress rehearsals where it was a complete disaster, but when things came right on the night.
25 Fine star across the sea in France
AMERCE
Did you have to 8dn this? Yes, me too. An insertion of MER in ACE.
26 Personal attack? One may be charged
BATTERY
A dd. As in assault and battery.
Down
1 Tears in material covering food
LACERATIONS
RATIONS underneath LACE.
2 Pity about bishop beginning to laugh – not the way to walk up the aisle!
SHAMBLE
An insertion of B and L for the first letter of ‘laugh’ in SHAME.
3 Support French priest offering remedy for stress?
REST-CURE
Bit of français required ce matin. A charade of REST for the snooker ‘support’ and CURÉ for the French word for ‘priest’.
4 Looking angry after busy road gets covered in muck
MIRED
If you’re MIRED in something, then the indication is that you’re stuck in mud; so it’s RED after M1 for ‘busy road’.
5 It’s tricky to respect label on some classified documents
TOP SECRET
(TO RESPECT)*
6 Attempt to have a look – on computer, using this?
GOOGLE
A charade of GO for ‘attempt’ and OGLE for ‘have a look’. Everyone’s best friend on the Internet.
7 Hard time getting upset inside makes one less chubby
THINNER
Unless someone has a better idea, I think this is a reversal of HT for ‘hard time’ and INNER.
11 A saint troubled about friend taking after the devil
SATANICALLY
A charade of (SAINT)* C for circa or ‘about’ and ALLY for ‘friend’. The anagrind is ‘troubled’.
13 One of the US authors who rant terribly getting explosive outwardly
HAWTHORNE
I think Quixote is referring to Nathaniel HAWTHORNE (thank you, 8dn), and it’s (WHO RANT)* inside HE for ‘high explosive’. But why ‘one of the US authors’ I’m not sure, unless it’s just to make ‘rant’ and not ‘rants’ possible in the wordplay.
15 Bird that’s nice beginning to head for lake
PHEASANT
Makes a change from H in PEASANT: it’s a substitution of H for L in PLEASANT. And a chance for the obligatory Pierre bird link, although the PHEASANT is a pretty boring – and frankly rather stupid – creature, which also featured in my blog of yesterday’s Everyman. Nice in a pot with a few autumnal vegetables, though.
17 Favouring metric unit for system of instructions
PROGRAM
A charade of PRO and GRAM.
19 Sound made by river, sound made by rupture
DEHISCE
‘Of a seed vessel, burst open’ (SOED). It seems to be a homophone of DEE for ‘river’ and HISS for ‘sound made by rupture’, but then rupture would be doing double duty, so I’m not quite sure here.
20 Ruler over empire, King is embracing a Queen
KAISER
An insertion of A in K IS and ER for Elizabeth Regina or Brenda.
22 Some dire habits? Type of therapy needed
REHAB
Hidden in diRE HABits.
Many thanks to the Don for today’s puzzle.
5a If you’re wearing something you have it ON.
5a On = being worn
19d Homophone of “Dee” (river) + “hiss” (sound) = Dehisce (rupture)
Thanks both. That makes sense.
The website has got #8419 by Scorpion… Tomorrow’s puzzle today!
Another excellent puzzle from the Don. I agree with Pierre that the anagram fodder for CLAUSTROPHOBIA was an excellent spot.
I also agree with the comments made by Gazza@1 and Herb@2. I was toying with “Caesar” at 20dn before I parsed the clue properly for the correct KAISER, and then I saw AMERCE. The BATTERY/PHEASANT crossers were my last in, although they weren’t the most difficult clues.
Re 13D, Julian Hawthorne (Nathaniel’s son) was also an author.
Another excellent Monday puzzle from the Don.
I toyed with “Caesar” at 20dn before I looked at the wordplay properly and saw the correct KAISER. The “r” checker from it then helped me dig AMERCE from a deep recess of my mind.
How bizarre. I posted my comment @5 shortly after Herb@2 had posted his, but it disappeared into the ether for a couple of hours.
Yes, a dress rehearsal could equally be called the last chance to get things wrong.
Thanks for your cricket-related knowledge. Even with Google I couldn’t work out why a batsman’s pair was OO.
Hi Andy B @8
Your original comment was incorrectly intercepted by Akismet, the spam filter, and I un-spammed it about an hour ago.
Thanks for the lucid explanations, Pierre.
Good fun from the Don, although I was defeated by DEHISCE. (I thought he might let up on the obscurities on an Indy Monday, but no such luck apparently).
Couldn’t parse TIGHTS either. Now that I see how it works, I have to say it’s a very nice way of getting rid of the ‘on’. One for the notebook, I think.
PS Does anyone know how to download past Indy cryptics from Crossword Solver, i.e. what url you need to plug in?
14A is the wrong way round – the answer is TROT, a reversal of TORT, and the definition is left-winger.
Whoops! Thanks, gwep. I did of course enter TROT, but transcribed it wrongly when I was writing up. I’ll amend the blog. I wondered why the definition was in the middle …
I found this more of a struggle than usual, taking ages to get dehisce and amerce, neither of which were familiar. For amerce, I kept trying to think of an astronomical body which would fit but could only think of sun or sol.
Whereas dehisce seems to have been forced by the grid, amerce seems to be a deliberate choice as emerge would have fitted just as well.
Newmarketsausage at no 11: if you click on ‘General Discussion’ at the top of this page and go to comment no 214, you’ll get the link.
Thanks very much, Pierre. That seems to work.
A pity the Indy doesn’t have an archive. A pity it doesn’t make it easy to get a decent print version either, if for some reason Crossword Solver refuses to provide you with one.
Paul @4: Today’s crossword is on Crossword Solver. If you need to download it go to http://www.crosswordsolver.info/ ; For today’s puzzle open the program, click on ‘file’ then on ‘download puzzle’ and ‘independent(cryptic)’. And Pierre’s comment @15 gives you the link for earlier puzzles.
Cor that was tricky for a quixote. Thanks pierre there were bits I didn’t get. Unusually rare words from the Q persona of the Don.