We should have looked more closely at the number of the puzzle before we started – the last three digits would have warned us of how ‘beastly’ this crossword was to solve (and parse)!
The interlinking of two theme words which are used as parts of the wordplay or definitions in various clues was very crafty, but while we expect a challenge from Anax, this seemed more like a weekend prize puzzle than a Thursday toughie! There were a few words we’d not come across before, although with one notable exception (10d), they were solvable from the wordplay.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Sports car crosses green light, a right little racer | |
| GO KART | GT (sports car) around or ‘crossing’ OK (green light ) + A + R (right) | |
| 4 | Starts to use poems he copied in a stack of poetry? | |
| UPHEAPED | U P (initial letters or ‘starts’ to Use Poems) + HE + APED (copied). Not a word we are familiar with but gettable from the wordplay! | |
| 9 | 11 is line A in poem | |
| ORANGEADE | RANGE (line) + A inside ODE (poem) | |
| 11 | The bottle needs ‘bones’ sign | |
| DRINK | DR (‘bones’) + INK (sign). Not the easiest of theme words to decipher from the wordplay | |
| 12 | 11 marks 11’s fellowship | |
| TEAM SPIRIT | TEA (drink – as in 11ac) + M (marks) + SPIRIT (drink – as in 11 ac). At first we thought that the first ’11’ must be ‘TEAM’, but then ‘marks’ would be redundant – given the multiple numbers in other clues, this clue could have been ’11 11 fellowship’ and would still work! However, not all teams have 11 players! | |
| 13 | Earth removed from handle that’s not broken | |
| WILD | WI |
|
| 15 | 11 or 12 13 13 20 | |
| SUPERPATRIOTISM | SUP (drink – 11ac) + an anagram of OR + TEAM SPIRIT (12ac) the anagrind is WILD (13ac). This was another one of those clues that needed a word search and then a bit of head-scratching to sort out the parsing. | |
| 17 | No public spaces created – arrest is unlikely! | |
| RESTRICTED AREAS | An anagram of CREATED ARREST IS (anagrind is ‘unlikely’) | |
| 19 | Worry is flooding back | |
| STEW | A reversal of WETS (flooding) | |
| 20 | Try to install a government with a very fierce loyalty | |
| FLAG WAVING | FLING (try) around or ‘installing’ A + G (government) + W (with) + A V (very). Thanks ulaca | |
| 23 | River gorge, but not 26 river | |
| RHINE | R (river) + |
|
| 24 | Get out of the way – it’s a speed freak | |
| STEP ASIDE | An anagram of IT’S A SPEED (anagrind is ‘freak’) | |
| 25 | 22’s closed very majestically | |
| MAESTOSO | MAE’S (as in Mae WEST – 22d) TO (shut) + SO (very). A new word for us but we managed to sort it out from the wordplay. | |
| 26 | Got date for hearing | |
| CAUGHT | A play on the fact that it sounds like COURT (date) with ‘hearing’ perhaps doing double duty as in ‘sounds like’ as well as in the place where a hearing takes place! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Good group – it is providing organ for vocalist? | |
| GLOTTIS | G (good) LOT (group) + TIS (it is) | |
| 2 | Bear put down, unfortunately cut short | |
| KOALA | KO (put down as in Knock Out) + ALA |
|
| 3 | Rolls Royce’s gathering is great for spin doctors | |
| REGISTRARS | RR’S (Rolls Royce’s) around or ‘gathering’ an anagram of IS GREAT (anagrind is ‘spin’). Joyce’s favourite clue! | |
| 5 | Top teams regularly wear blue on label in capital city | |
| PREMIER LEAGUE | wEaR bLuE (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) after EMI (label) in PRAGUE (capital city) | |
| 6 | Occupying closed-down plant | |
| EDDO | Hidden or ‘occupied’ in the clue closED DOwn | |
| 7 | It’s 4 in e.g. 13 13? | |
| PRIMITIVE | IT + IV (four) inside PRIME (13 is an example of a PRIME number) | |
| 8 | Democratic country’s approach over Prospero’s library? | |
| DUKEDOM | We guessed the answer from the wordplay – D (Democratic) + UK (country) + MODE (approach) reversed or ‘over’. A bit of searching revealed a quotation from the Tempest with Prospero stating that his library was his Dukedom! We will say no more! | |
| 10 | They think there’s more to come than is actually the case | |
| ANIMALCULISTS | A cryptic definition. This was one of those clues where if you had no idea of the answer the only hope was a word search using the crossing letters. You can guess which way we sorted out the answer. The search revealed that ANIMALCULISM is the theory that the spermatozoön (in this case COME) and not the ovum contains the whole of the embryo. We imagine there may be a few comments on this clue that have nothing to do with the theory! | |
| 14 | Get a taxi down to a northern area beach | |
| COPACABANA | COP (get) + A CAB (taxi) + A + N (northern) + A (area) | |
| 16 | One going home with English bird | |
| PASSERINE | PASSER (one going) + IN (home) + E (English). We weren’t totally happy with PASSER being someone who is going – surely the A needs to change to an I? | |
| 17 | Stand up or play guitar | |
| ROSTRUM | OR (reversed or ‘up’ + STRUM (play guitar) | |
| 18 | Smell of gannet’s egg, usually somewhat revolting. Thanks Anax and apologies to Pauline for not underlining ‘of. | |
| SUGGEST | Hidden and reversed or ‘somewhat revolting’ in the clue – ganneT’S EGG USually | |
| 21 | Chinese text that not hard as a decoration | |
| ICING | I C |
|
| 22 | 19’s 13 13 location | |
| WEST | An anagram of STEW (19 ac) with WILD (13 ac) as the anagrind. The definition refers to the WILD WEST | |
Ouch.
And the point of this puzzle was……….?
cumbrian @ 1
The answer is huge fun, n’est-ce pas? Pleasantly chewable, and satisfying to finish without anything needing to be researched.
Nice one B&J, and a real belter, so ta muchly to The Dean.
Stumped by the unfalmiliar animalculists, and disapprove of that sort of clue outside Private Eye, but otherwise a cracker of a puzzle. Thanks, Anax, Bert and Joyce.
Sorry, meant “unflamiliar” of course. Fingers are swollen in this heat.
Cor a veritable Thursday stinker, must admit innocent little me didn’t understand 10d properly.
Anax at his best and worst. 🙂 Thanks B&J for a little enlightenment…
Count me as another who needed aids to get ANIMALCULISTS. I got DRINK reasonably quickly but it seemed to take an age to get WILD, and until I did a whole chunk of the puzzle was impenetrable.
I forgot to add that I’m not sure I’d seen UPHEAPED before, but at least it was gettable from the wordplay, unlike 10dn.
One of those crosswords where two solvers obviously do better than one alone. Gave this one more than my ‘three goes and you’re in the recycling’ but still couldn’t finish it.
Thanks to B&J for the much needed explanations.
Thanks to bloggers (I don’t envy your task today) and setter,
I found this very tough. Missed out on 10d which I’d never come across before. Sorry to be pedantic, but however cute and cuddly they may be, koalas are not true bears.
Need some time to recover after that one and hope tomorrow is a bit more gentle!
Terrific effort bertandjoyce, I think you need a W at 20…
Every time I think I’m a bit batty, I think of Deano and feel a whole kit better. -:)
Lot even
Thanks, both.
I don’t mind having a go at hard puzzles (and yes, I know that the Thursday Indy is ‘the hard one’) but this was just impenetrable. For me, too much interlinking of clues, themed clues crossing with themed clues, yada yada yada.
I gave up with the last few to go, having spent more time than I’d want to on a daily cryptic. The ‘come’ definition in ANIMALCULISTS is funny (we’re all over the age of 21), but if you can’t solve it, then you can’t get the joke and laugh.
Wordplodder is right: KOALAS are not bears and should not be clued as such. And yes, I know that Chambers will say something along the lines of ‘also known as KOALA BEARS’. After trying to solve this puzzle, I don’t give a flying rat’s arse about what Chambers says. They are not bears.
Thank you to Anax for setting today’s puzzle.
Thanks ulaca @10. Blog now correct until someone spots another typo!
Good evening friends (and new enemies). Huge thanks to B&J for persevering and to all for your comments.
10D: I’ll try not to bore you, but here goes! The multiply-linked clues idea is far from new but it had been a while since I last did one. It can be an ambitious undertaking when you want to keep a generous, open grid, and in this case the result was 10D being forced into place quite early. I’d heard of it but couldn’t remember what it meant. By the time it came to writing the clue I’d done an anagram count and decided I didn’t want any more, but it offered very few other breakdowns – worse, on looking it up I was horrified to find I just couldn’t condense it into a snappy def; it was always going to be wordy. Adding wordplay to that would have turned the clue into a novelette.
When that happens you have to consider using a CD instead and, yes, I knew it would be contentious. On the plus side (I foolishly believed there might be one) I hoped other clues would provide enough checkers for ‘Well, it must be that’ to kick in, at which point the solver has the choice to look it up and spot the naughtiness… or not.
OK, back to my rather odd addiction to lightningmaps.org where I’m watching real-time lightning strikes across Europe. I do odd things.
All very clever but after getting three quarters of it had to come here to be put out of my misery. Couldn’t get WILD so was doomed to fail.
Thanks for dropping by Anax. To be honest, I get a bit crabby with the x,x,x,y,y cross referencing clue type, but chacun a son… etc. Fierce and clever crossword. And don’t even think of apologising for 10d!
And thanks B&J
Extremely entertaining.
Nothing wrong with linked clues – it all adds to the fun.
10d (which I’d not heard of before) was brilliant.
I am not sure, Jim, whether 10d was brilliant but the puzzle as a whole was.
10d was actually one of two clues that needed Any Dictionary (just name any).
Most solvers found it tough-to-the-power-of-three.
And it was.
Having said all this, I am quite proud of myself.
I know, I used Crossword Solver to print it out long before it was published and it took me several sessions to write in Solution Nr 28 – but boy, I dunnit.
Very satisfying.
Thanks to The Dean (as he seems to be called nowadays 🙂 )
And thanks to B&J (as you are seemed to be called 🙂 )
Jim at no 17: I agree with you, there is nothing wrong with linked clues. But your comment prompted me to say that while the Indy is still my daily puzzle of choice, and it’s innovative, contemporary and all that, it just seems that recently there has hardly been a crossword without a Nina, ghost theme, overt theme, covert theme or whatever. If the editor is listening in, then I would just like to mention that vanilla is often the best flavour. We don’t need lightning flashes every day. Just saying.
Count me as another who gave up with many left to solve. (I couldn’t get 13 either.) And I got 10dn from a word search and didn’t even try to parse it, just the relief of a few less blank squares. Not my idea of fun.
Only came to this having seen the preamble here. Just having solved Friday’s Trampster on the G gave me 6d, which was a lifeline.
Great tussle – quite chuffed to have finished – although I guessed 10d and initially attributed the wrong meaning to it – the naughtiness only dawned later.
This koala thing went round on the Guardian recently. I’ve got lots of them on my place – and what a racket they make during the mating season – not now thankfully. It’s fine to refer to them as either koala or koala bear – previously native bear was used but that’s not heard any more.
Dropping the “bear” bit has become something of a shibboleth amongst native-everything-worshipping greenies – the sort of people who refer to their native plants by their botanical names – but it’s still fine amongst normal intelligent people.
It’s rather arbitrary. The native tree Callitris is generally called cypress-pine or (as a timber) native pine – but it’s not a pine at all. Going further afield sea lions are obviously not lions.
Having said that it’s still true to say that koalas (or even koala bears) are not bears – but that doesn’t prevent the one word keying (or defining – as we usually (and inaccurately) say) the other.
BTW the scientific name for them is Phascolarctos – from the Greek – a contraction of phaskolos (meaning “pouch”) and arktos (meaning “bear”).
Sorry about the nested brackets – that’s what too much maths does to you. 🙂
Further to JS@21
Hedge sparrows are not sparrows.
Lemon soles are not soles.
I could go on….
KD@19,
Agree there should be a variety of styles and difficulty level during the week. Personally I think the Indy generally achieves that anyway with or without themes and ninas. Thought in this case there were enough straightforward clues to get into the puzzle which was hard but not unfairly so. Still, one man’s meat…
Sil@18,
10d was my LOI and I had to look at the dictionary (like most solvers, no doubt) but the clue was so good it was like a punchline at the end of the puzzle.
Thanks B&J and Anax. I only got to this one very late, and it took me three sessions. I “sort of” finished it (by no means fully parsed), and was very chuffed to do so. So count me as a fan!
Like a dog with a bone, I am very reluctant to give in when a puzzle refuses to be solved. This one leaves me angry at having allowed it to take up so much of my time.
As commented by others before me, without having solved 13A there was little hope of making much progress. There were also far too many obscure words both in the clues and in the grid, together with unlikely definitions. I don’t think much of ‘smell’ as a definition for ‘suggest’ either (18D).
Thanks, Anax, for explaining why 10D was not better clued: disgruntled, but not an enemy!
Thanks, all you clever cross-word compilers, for the constant supply of challenging (and not-quite-so-challenging) puzzles.
And thanks to all you bloggers, who have increased the enjoyment of the puzzles by explaining the impossible ones. I used to be greatly frustrated when I had found what had to fit in the grid, but could not understand why I had found the required answer!
Thanks Pauline for your comments. Welcome to 225 – we’ve not seen cooments from you before but maybe we we missed them!
Hi Pauline
At 18d the def is ‘smell of’.
😉
Thanks Anax – a slip up on our behalf. Will change the blog later today!