Independent 8,632 by Donk (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 14/06/14)

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I do enjoy a Donk puzzle, though have only once before blogged one.

This was quite the challenge. The first pub-based attempt yielded a worryingly modest two answers, while subsequent sessions at home slowly began to fill the grid. In the end all the inventive misdirection was too clever for me, and I was beaten, with the lower right corner proving impenetrable.

There’s some good stuff in there, of course, though I didn’t spot any thematic-type material, which I think is unusual for Donk. It’s entirely feasible that it’s right there in front of me, of course.

Across
1 UNLATCH Liquid lunch at free bar (7)
(LUNCH AT)*.
5 SEALANT Two animals, one’s closer (7)
SEAL + ANT.
9 PLUMB Fruit picked up precisely (5)
Homophone of “plum”.
10 TWENTY TWO Cracking new totty with legs of Saints? (6-3)
(NEW TOTTY + W)*. I assume this to be a reference to Southampton’s football club, nicknamed “the Saints” for some reason, who would have this many legs, at least among the starting lineup.
11 SISTERHOOD Nuns setting traps close to lawless W Scarlet’s leader (10)
([lawles]S in SITE) + Robin HOOD.
12 SCAN Run over small gents? (4)
S + CAN.
14 OPEN MARRIAGE Relaxed union‘s work space, redevelopment of grim area (4,8)
OP + EN + (GRIM AREA)*.
18 TESTOSTERONE Research topped schedule – whole reason for rivalry? (12)
TEST + [r]OSTER + ONE.
21 ROAD Way velcro adheres to box (4)
[velc]RO AD[heres].
22 CRAZY HORSE Native fighter that describes her so! (5,5)
Reverse anagram: HORSE* can become HER SO.
25 UNDERWEAR Ill, twice missing the briefs? (9)
UNDER [the] WEA[the]R.
26 SKINT Busk in tube stations out of capital (5)
[bu]SK IN T[ube].
27 SORCERY Offering apology about church’s dark arts (7)
CE in SORRY.
28 SCEPTRE PC exchange in presence of staff (7)
From SPECTRE, with the P and C exchanged.
Down
1 UPPISH Arrogant? Not Sitting Bull! (6)
UP + PISH.
2 LOUISE Girl from Paris, sure occupies London uni (6)
OUI in LSE.
3 TABLESPOON Moves Post Office’s working server (10)
TABLES + PO + ON.
4 HUTCH Show copper cage for hopper (5)
Double definition: Starsky and …/a cage for a rabbit, which hops.
5 STEGOSAUR Old beast goes right at us, surprisingly (9)
(GOES + R + AT US)*.
6 ALTO Singer‘s ablution, regularly cleansed (4)
A[b]L[u]T[i]O[n].
7 AUTOCRAT Dictator‘s car, once again breaks before end of MOT (8)
AUTO + CAR* + [mo]T.
8 THORNIER Harder time, wanting it more (8)
T + HORNIER.
13 FRANCHISEE Bloke’s country houses, base for businessman (10)
(HIS in FRANCE) + E.
15 NOTORIETY Labour’s dream contracts – today’s banking scandal (9)
(NO TORIE[s]) + T[oda]Y.
16 START-UPS What “Britain’s Best Butter” category might do for new firms (5-3)
STAR TUPS. A tup is another word for a ram, hence something which butts.
17 ISLANDER Puts down Sri Lankan? (8)
IS LANDER.
19 ARTIST Old English are top drawer (6)
ART + 1ST.
20 SETTEE Get ready to drive Seat? (6)
SET TEE. Thanks to commenters for setting me straight here.
23 ZEROS Wound up by variable zips (5)
(SORE + Z)<.
24 ERNE Wise one flying, a bird (4)
ERN[i]E Wise.

 

* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition

 

15 comments on “Independent 8,632 by Donk (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 14/06/14)”

  1. Thanks Simon
    For 20dn I had SETTEE (rather than SETTLE) with the ‘get ready to drive’ being SET TEE.

  2. Can’t remember anything about this puzzle now, except that I completed it.

    I had SETTEE for 20dn, too, for the same reason as Gaufrid. And I have today’s copy of the paper in front of me and I see they give that as the correct answer.

  3. I had SETTEE for 20dn with the same parsing as Gaufrid, and because I got the congratulatory message after my LOI (ERNE) then it is definitely the correct answer. I also had the most trouble in the SE.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle because of the number of smiles along the way as certain answers revealed themselves. UNDERWEAR, HUTCH, START-UPS and THORNIER definitely fell into that category.

  4. Thanks, Simon.

    Ditto to all the above comments – my favourites were all those mentioned by Andy B.

    [I couldn’t see a theme, either.]

    Many thanks, Donk, for all the fun.

  5. I’m probably being thick – can anyone explain? This took a while to complete, and I wasn’t totally happy with “franchisee”. I had ‘his’ in ‘France’ but couldn’t see whence other ‘e’ came. I waited (now) 10 days for an explanation and, having checked the blog, am none the wiser. Could someone put me out of my mystery?!
    A nicely (and unusually) challenging puzzle I thought.

  7. Hi Simon –
    Wow! That’s efficient, and fast! Thank you so much.

    I vaguely recall wondering if that were the case. I have a maths degree from Oxford so there is no excuse. Maybe for that reason I thought it too tenuous. I know that sounds odd but I’d only ever seen e referred to in crosswords in its far more general role as a constant. Add the demise of logarithms coupled with your original parsing and I was convinced its being the base of the Napierian (natural) logs was not being referenced!
    Anywise – it all adds up now. Without your coming to the rescue, I’ve a feeling that, round about five minutes after turning off the bedside light tonight, that clue would have conspired to impede my repose! So I am truly grateful, Simon.
    It gives me a chance to mention that 25ac (“underwear”) was, for me, quite brilliant….

    Thanks again.

  8. Very late to the party but had to comment on how much we enjoyed the puzzle!

    Thanks to S&B.

  9. 2018 another waste of time & ink, why oh why does the “i” publish load of gobbledegook . When are we going to get regular normal cryptic crosswords that the majority of readers can enjoy, if the “i” has to pander to the egg head specialists, please print two cryptic crosswords one for the experts & one for the general readership. I would love someone at the “i” to read this and give a response to me,I can not be the only i reader who thinks this, or am I ?

  10. Sorry to counter again but I love it (i crossword) always and this one especially. It was difficult though!

  12. This was hard enough to parse even in possession of the answers! However I enjoyed the top half. Good job it’s not Donk everyday.

  13. Tortoise VM @9 – Sadly I don’t think the Independent group has the resources to publish two cryptics a day – both the Times and the Telegraph (who do) are richer papers, I believe. These puzzles are recycled from 4 years ago (obviously) so presumably there’s no realistic alternative.  Although maybe they’d listen to you if you wrote to them directly!

    I’m no ‘egg head specialist’, just a regular guy with a low paid job and very mediocre qualifications. However I loved this crossword and managed  to finish it all on my own (eventually).  Why?  because a) I’ve been doing the i cryptic virtually every day since the first 6 months of the paper’s existence (when it cost 20p) and b) because I love doing cryptic crosswords.

    My advice is to keep plugging away… Thursday’s are usually reserved for the toughest crossword of the week – Monday’s and Wednesday’s are usually quite a bit easier, as you maybe know already.

  14. Stick at it tortoise- and keep reading the blog. The i crossword isn’t something that can be easily finished but the blog and its supporters can help newer solvers Improve. Over the last four years the discussions from the likes of BertandJoyce, Pelham Barton and Kathryn’s Dad have made even ‘waste of pen and ink days’ a lot brighter.

  15. Stick at it tortoise- and keep reading the blog. The i crossword isn’t something that can be easily finished but the blog and its supporters can help newer solvers Improve. Over the last four years the discussions from the likes of BertandJoyce, Pelham Barton and Catherine’s dad have made even ‘waste of pen and ink days’ a lot brighter.

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