Independent 8436/Alchemi

I didn’t really enjoy this one as much as I have previous puzzles by Alchemi.  I found it a bit clunky, with some dubious cluing and less than elegant surfaces.  That could just be me, though.  Tell me what you think.  Maybe I’ve missed a theme that has forced the setter into some unusual constructions?

 

 

Abbreviations

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

definitions are underlined

Across

Controversially teach warmth of colour, including, essentially, the work of 19 down
THE CAT IN THE HAT
Bit of a convoluted clue to get us going, which I got with a few crossers from the enumeration.  It’s a charade of (TEACH)* followed by an insertion of H for ‘the, essentially’ in TINT HEAT.  The anagrind is ‘controversially’, the insertion indicator is ‘including’, and the surface is pretty meaningless.  Once you’ve got this, then 19dn is a write-in.  The book is perhaps the best known work of Theodor Seuss Geisel, who made important contributions to the promotion of literacy in the USA.

10  Sound crowd to keep in reserve
HOARD
A homophone of HORDE.

11  Vandal missing a line crashes coach taking Andy Murray to Wimbledon
IVAN LENDL
Alchemi is inviting you to remove the A from V[A]NDAL and then make an anagram: (VNDAL LINE)*  Lendl became Murray’s coach a while ago and is credited with helping the Scot to become one of the outstanding players on the men’s circuit.

12  Church artist with power and guts
VISCERA
You need to remember that VIS is the Latin word for ‘strength, power’, then the more common CE and RA for ‘church’ and ‘artist’.  However, the clue could equally lead to CERAVIS (which isn’t a word, I know).

13  Rock a German showed Saddam?
HUSSEIN
HUSS, I discovered, is another word for the rock salmon, and of course EIN is one of the German words for ‘a’.  My SOED does give ‘rock’ as a shortened version of ‘rock salmon’, so the clue is fair; but I probably wouldn’t go into my fishmonger’s and ask for ‘two rocks, please’.

14  Very unfavourable climate for over-the-hill sexual practice
STORM
An insertion of TOR for ‘hill’ in S (and) M for sadomasochism.  STORM is weather, not climate, as readers in the south of England will be discovering around now.  The title track for this clue is Hit Me Baby One More Time.

16  Captive nurse made money without paying tax
ENGROSSED
A charade of EN for ‘enrolled nurse’ and GROSSED.

19  Most elegant sides rest fitfully
DRESSIEST
(SIDES REST)*

20  Key to get in
ENTER
A dd.  The ‘key’ in question is – if you are accessing the blog via your PC or laptop – the big fat one on the right-hand side.

22  Make a case against journalist over cricket club’s win
SUCCEED
An insertion of CC for ‘cricket club’ in SUE, followed by ED.

25  Horse in river finishes last, getting minor injuries
NIGGLES
Another insertion, of GG for ‘horse’ in NILE, followed by S for the last letter of finisheS.

27  United, well-ordered and intelligent, though pursued unspeakably
UNEATABLE
A charade of U, NEAT and ABLE.  The reference is to Oscar Wilde’s line in A Woman of No Importance, describing fox-hunting:
‘The English country gentleman galloping after a fox – the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.’

28  Westminster district Liberals drink heavily
SWILL
You would need to know – or guess – that the postcode SW1 covers the Westminster area of London.  Add two Ls to that and you’ve got your answer.

29  Clergyman taking drug is back before film of French actress
SIMONE SIGNORET
Her name was vaguely familiar – I’m not a film buff – but it took all the crossing letters before I could have a stab at it.  I parsed it (finally) as an insertion of E for ‘drug’ in MONSIGNOR for ‘clergyman’ preceded (‘before’) by SI for ‘is back’ and followed by ET for ‘film’.  What the ‘of’ in the surface is doing I’m not sure.

Down

Memorial to the sound of Dr Arnold’s voice?
HEADSTONE
Thomas Arnold was one-time head of Rugby School.  The sound of his voice would therefore be HEAD’S TONE.

America dreads harbouring revolutionary cell
CADRE
Hidden in AmeriCA DREads.

Asian Spooner’s joints less sunburned?
TAIWANESE
Well, I think this is meant to be a Spoonerism of WHITER KNEES.  If it is, I’ll rest my case that Spoonerisms are my least favourite type of clue.  Just me.

Welsh rugby club has a cow on the goalpost
NEATH
In 27ac, we had NEAT in its best-known sense.  Here it’s in its ‘cattle’ sense, so it’s a charade of NEAT and H for rugby ‘goalpost’.  Why? Because rugby goalposts are in the shape of an H.  Which is why I might have fancied ‘goalposts’ in the clue rather than ‘goalpost’.

I’m surprised at sign of election result
HOLY SMOKE
A dd.  A perhaps rather old-fashioned exclamation is what comes out of the Vatican chimney when a new Pope has been elected.  When it’s white, of course.

Chicken goes to church from here
HENCE
A charade of HEN and CE.

Clawed but not, say, elongated unduly
TALONED
The setter is asking you to remove EG for ‘say’ from ELON[G]AT[E]D and then (‘unduly’) make an anagram.

Leader of secretive well-off group gets rid of beard
SHAVES
A charade of S for the first letter of Secretive and HAVES.  The HAVES and the HAVE-NOTS, a divide getting wider under the current coalition.

15  Scrum turned over regularly at social supported by heavyweight cook
MRS BEETON
It’s not a great story-telling surface, is it?  The odd letters of ‘scrum’ reversed give you MRS; BEE is a word for ‘a social gathering’ and TON is a heavy weight.  Cook she certainly was, but Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management was much more a guide to running a middle-class Victorian household.  First, catch your hare … except that the phrase had been in existence for at least 100 years before she wrote the book.  She died young, at 28.

17  Publisher has some work after reversing glitch with internal communications system
GUTENBERG
The ERG is a unit of work, so roughly ‘some work’.  Put that at the end of GUTENB, which is an insertion of NET for ‘communications system’ in BUG for ‘glitch’ reversed, and you’ve got the German inventor of the printing press.

18  Place a giveaway sign in dependent community
SATELLITE
An insertion of A TELL in SITE.  I was struggling to understand TELL as ‘giveaway sign’, in other words a noun.  But my SOED has: ‘tell: a talk, a conversation, a gossip’.  But it marks it as ‘Scottish, or dialect’, so perhaps not ideal for a weekday cryptic.

19  Writer takes action against street rising to the south
DR SEUSS
A reversal of SUES RD followed by S for ‘south’.  SUE for the second time in the same crossword.

21  Optimistically announced East End cuppa
ROSILY
I don’t want to start a homophone-or-not debate that will drag on for the rest of the day, but no way does ROSIE LEE (Cockney rhyming slang for ‘tea’) sound the same as ROSILY.  And even if it did, the clue is ambiguous as to whether the answer is one or the other (and yes, I know it can only be one because it’s a six-letter word).

23  Eccentric man in London suburb
CHEAM
An insertion of HE in CAM.  ‘Cam: a slider or roller attached to a rotating shaft to give a particular type of reciprocating motion’ (Collins).  Hence ‘eccentric’.  I think.

24  Misplaced bet among policeman’s liabilities
DEBTS
An insertion of (BET)* in DS for Detective Superintendent.

26  Enthusiasm for tailing theatre cat
GUSTO
Gus: The Theatre Cat is the TS Eliot poem.  This is followed by TO, which somewhere will be a synonym for ‘for’.  Although right this minute I can’t remember how.

Not my favourite ever Alchemi, but thanks to the setter anyway.

22 comments on “Independent 8436/Alchemi”

  1. Thanks Pierre and Alchemi,

    I really liked this, with UNEATABLE making me laugh.

    I saw a few a little differently:

    ROSILY seems as close to a perfect homophone of Rosie Lee as I can imagine.

    Tell (in SATELLITE) is in common usage in poker parlance, and was important in at least one Bond film.

    The surface for MRS BEATON works reasonably well for me, if you consider scrum as in “media scrum” rather than Rugby.

    I liked the spoonerism that is TAIWANESE, but that might just be me too!

  2. 18d – A ‘tell’ in poker:- A “tell” is any physical reaction, kind of behavior, or habit that gives (or tells) the other players information about your hand.

    This crossword didn’t click with me either….

  3. Thanks for the poker connection for TELL. Life lived with no vices is my excuse for that one.

    And thank you for the French connection, Conrad. Your memory of French cinema is much deeper than mine, hélas.

  4. A strange puzzle and I agree with Pierre’s quibbles. There were some answers I entered without bothering to parse them fully, such as GUTENBERG, DR SEUSS, VISCERA and IVAN LENDL.

    I thought the TAIWANESE/whiter knees spoonerism was a decent idea that didn’t really work because of the different way the words are stressed, and the same goes for the ROSILY/Rosie Lee homophone. If that’s as “close to a perfect homophone” as Muffyword suggests then call me Andy Van B from now on.

  5. Thanks for the blog, Pierre, even though it’s not too friendly a review.

    There wasn’t a theme as such, but two or three of the earliest clues I wrote were (in my view) quite funny, so I attempted a few more horrid puns and sillinesses. The clues you seem to have found most annoying are mostly the ones which caused me to giggle while I wrote them. If nothing else, I can conclude that your and my senses of humour differ quite a bit. And in the case of Spoonerisms, we appear to be about as far apart as we could be, since I adore them.

    It’s also the case that at least the online version is the original draft, rather than the polished version following the editor’s helpful interventions.

  6. The Spoonerism is like the mhomonym clue, very dangerous. This puzzle was frivolous I suipose, but much mroe fun than the Giardian today,.

  7. I’m not as grumpy as Pierre about this one which was rather more fun than the Rufus I blogged earlier today, I thought ROSILY was fine but we know homonyms are usually a bugbear in t’ blogs.

    14a was rather apt for today…

  8. Couldn’t finish the puzzle today. There were too many puns and sillinesses that this solver had to take a break and sit down. Please not such levels of side-splitting fun in future Alchemi or we’ll be forced to retire to 15^2 and read your reviews of your own puzzles…

  9. Well done Alchemi. Ignore these Monday morning soreheads. Many of the Cockernees I have known can easily make Rosie Lee sound like rosily, or more usually ROW ZEE LEE. Anyway in sun- kissed Derbyshire this afternoon ‘urricanes ‘ave ‘ardly ‘appened.
    Thanks for the blog anyway.

  10. I enjoyed this, with some humorous touches (UNEATABLE and HOLY SMOKE). Interestingly, I found 1ac a write-in from the enumeration having got 19dn. I guessed 29ac was SIMONE something-or-other and got it by googling “french actress simone”.
    I did have one or two 25ac – including about 25ac; I wouldn’t have described NIGGLES as minor injuries; my Collins defines a niggle as a minor irritation or complaint – hardly an injury.
    But thanks, Alchemi and Pierre.

  11. Hardcopy version has completely different clue for 8d: “Irish politician outside by himself gets clawed”.

    Editorial ‘polishing’??
    G.

  12. Well, I’m not technically a cockney, I’m from Sarf London, but I’d say “rosily” Rosie Lee the same. Used to live near a pub called the Rose of Lee, although I don’t think it was actually in Lee.

    4dn, I kept thinking it was something to do with “wan knees”, even though that’s not a spoonerism.

    I thought “First catch your hare” was Hannah Glasse, not Mrs Beaton.

  13. Thanks for the comments (the Indy blog is often a quiet place).

    We have seen once or twice before discrepancies between the dead tree and online versions. Personally I think either version of TALONED works, although the one I blogged is a little more convoluted.

    Alchemi, I hope my blogs are always friendly towards the setter, since I – and I’m sure others – appreciate the time and effort that goes into producing a cryptic. But I can only blog them as I find them, and this one didn’t float my boat. And if everyone did have the same sense of humour, it would be a pretty humourless world …

    And I’m still sticking to my view of the lack of homophone in ROSILY. An adverb, by the nature of its construction, cannot have the stress on the last syllable. If we’re talking about our friend LEE, then HAPPILY can’t be pronouced HAPPY LEE, SADLY can’t be pronounced SAD LEE, and so ROSILY can’t be pronounced ROSIE LEE, Cockney accent or not.

  14. @Pierre 15

    If you didn’t blog as you found, it would be pretty pointless you blogging. It’s as important to know when the customer isn’t entirely satisfied as when he’s delighted. We can dicker over whether “friendly” and “favourable” mean similar enough things; I certainly didn’t intend to impute malice – I was only acknowledging that it wasn’t exactly glowing.

    My disappointment at your disappointment is considerably assuaged by the kind comments from those who enjoyed it more.

    It’s a bit of a desperate defence, but “ros-i-ly” at the end of a line in a song could be homophonic. I know it isn’t really, but to me it was near enough. You didn’t like it. Sorry. But I don’t accept Andy B’s denial of WHITER KNEES/TAIWANESE as a Spoonerism. TAIWAN may be a spondee, tending to iambus, but I say TAIWANESE as a cretic, identically to WHITER KNEES.

    Sorry to have slightly darkened your morning: I can only hope my next offering will be better equipped with buoyancy devices from your point of view.

    @allan_c As a cricket nut, I’m used to hearing minor injuries described as NIGGLES.

  15. Sorry, Alchemi, but it didn’t really float my boat either and I think Pierre’s blog was spot on:
    There IS a superfluous ‘of’ in 29ac
    I actually like Spoonerisms, but Whiter knees vs Taiwasese is a bit precious.
    And actually to gross (16ac) is not really WITHOUT paying tax, but BEFORE paying tax – a quibble I know, but accuracy is important – especially as the Indie is having a real campaign about this.

    I also feel that a clue changes between the online version and the published version is a bit unfair – especially for those of us who BUY THE PAPER.

  16. Dormouse @14: You are right about Mrs Glasse, but the phrase is actually “Take your hare when it is cased”; ‘to case’ meaning ‘to skin’ and/or possibly ‘to clean out the entrails’. And, as I discovered here Hannah Glasse was actually the pseudonym of a Dr John Hill.
    I’m also reminded of the old joke from Round the Horne (or was it Beyond our Ken?): recipe for lemon mousse – first catch your moose!

  17. Thanks Alchemi and Pierre. I can sympathise with many of Pierre’s grumblings but personally I didn’t find them off-putting. Whiter knees was certainly a dubious Spoonerism, but the very badness of it lent it an appeal. I think one has to pronounce Taiwanese TIE-WER-NESE for it to really work, my pronunciation TIE-WAN-ESE doesn’t quite do it.

    Having seen the word ‘writer’ I guessed 1ac and 19dn from the word counts without even reading the rest of the two clues.

    The definition for UNEATABLE was just great.

  18. I think people are being a bit hard on Alchemi. OK one or two of the surfaces weren’t up to much, but much of the criticism seems to revolve around the Rosie Lee and Taiwan clues, both of which were in my opinion acceptable. Or even better than that. The Spoonerism was rather good, I thought.

    At some point in the past I think I was rather irritated by an Alchemi crossword and its apparent infelicities, but this one was fine. I have met worse efforts which for some reason have received acclaim.

  19. What a lot of comments yesterday!

    We were out last night seeing Bryan Ferry so finished the last clues this morning. We felt it was OK. There were some dreadful puns and some good, but rather off the wall humour which made us smile.

    Thanks Alchemi and Pierre.

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