The days of the Monday Indy being the ‘easy’ entry to the week seem to have long gone. I liked this puzzle, and there were enough straightforward answers to get you going; but I found it really tough to finish, and struggled to parse quite a few. I think I have nailed it all down, but would appreciate a bit of help to make sure that I have explained everything properly.
There is a bit of a mini-theme, I think. KNEES appear in the top and bottom unches, ELBOWS down the left-hand side, and DOUBLE-JOINTED down the right-hand side. There may be other stuff I have missed.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 With no knowledge at outset Ben needed to revise how to make proposal
ON BENDED KNEE
(NO K BEN NEEDED)* with ‘to revise’ as the anagrind.
10 Coppers mostly and 49 shillings found in drawers
PENCILS
A charade of PENC[E], IL and S. Many people would consider IL for ’49’ in Roman numerals to be wrong. But we get IC for ’99’, and that’s wrong too. They follow the pattern of IV for ‘4’ (one less than V, or 5), but strictly you can’t do it with 50 or 100. Unless you’re a crossword setter.
11 Little one on foot caught by Pamplona bull attack
TORPEDO
An insertion of PED in TORO for the Spanish word for ‘bull’. PED for ‘little one on foot’ I can’t really see. Short for ‘pedestrian’?
12 Might it be applied to a Reith broadcast?
ON THE AIR
Well, I think this is ON, and (A REITH)* but then I can’t really see where ON is coming from and ‘broadcast’ is doing double duty as the anagrind and the definition. Or maybe ON is ‘the lotion is on/the lotion is applied’.
13 Rub shoulders with a celebrity chef?
HOBNOB
An extremely whimsical way of saying that a ‘celebrity chef’ would be a HOB NOB.
15 Phoneys including sacrament in psycho rambling
HYPOCRITES
An insertion of RITE in (PSYCHO)*
16 Produced a blow say that’s near the knuckle
BLUE
A homophone of BLEW, but it’s not a great clue, imho, because we have ‘blow’ in the surface.
18 Go out to see show, but missing middle part
EXIT
EX[HIB]IT, but I don’t like this at all. How many letters in the middle of the word you’re asking me to think of would you like me to miss out?
20 Fruity aromas covering a prominent feature in liqueur
MARASCHINO
An insertion of CHIN in (AROMAS)*, which was easy enough when I remembered how to spell the solution.
23 One family sitting in a lot of enormous swimwear
BIKINI
An insertion of I KIN in BI[G].
24 Herb tapenade originally a Spanish region’s recipe
TARRAGON
A charade of T for the first letter of ‘tapenade’ followed by an insertion of R for ‘recipe’ in ARAGON. You have to read the apostrophe s as ‘region has’. Nice with a bit of fish.
26 The first person at the palace left and arrive later for reception
WELCOME
A charade of WE, L and COME. Referring to the fact that Brenda uses the first person plural subject pronoun when referring to herself. ‘We are not amused.’
27 Caught in student-free quiet area for study?
SCIENCE
Crosophile is inviting you to take the L out of SI[L]ENCE and insert C in what’s left.
28 The business meeting with sheets Ken distributed around
THE BEES’ KNEES
An insertion of BEE in (SHEETS KEN)* BEE is a mainly American use for meeting, I fancy: a spelling or sewing bee, for example. And something that is ‘the business’ is THE BEES’ KNEES. Personally I prefer THE DOG’S BOLLOCKS, or even THE MUTT’S NUTS. ‘That spicy chicken recipe you gave me is the dog’s bollocks.’
Down
2 Functioning between ends of magnet, something rotating continously
NON-STOP
A charade of ON inserted into N and S for the two ‘ends of magnet’ and TOP. Which if you spin it, rotates.
3 A touch of evil and depravity surrounding hideout in grounds
EVIDENCE
A charade of E for the first letter of ‘evil’ and DEN in VICE.
4 It’s not like I would upset teacher over rail crash
DISSIMILAR
There are two reversal indicators here: ‘upset’ and ‘over’. So it’s DI for a reversal of I’D, SSIM for a reversal of ‘teacher’ and (RAIL)*
5 What you must do, lacking verve after losing heart
DUTY
Well, on the basis of 21 across, this could be DU[BIE]TY. But I’m pretty certain it’s not.
6 New weapon is restricted
NARROW
A charade of N and ARROW.
7 2 is superficial but not cross
ETERNAL
2 is NON-STOP and E[X]TERNAL is how you get to the answer.
8 Completely engrossed, excited toddler’s foot near ankle gives way
UP TO THE ELBOWS
A charade of UP, TOT, HEEL and BOWS. I think.
9 Suspect holding ends of live fuse maybe up for quite a stretch?
DOUBLE-JOINTED
Another one where I need some help. I want to put LE for the outside letters of ‘live’ and JOIN for ‘fuse’ in DOUBTED, but I can’t see how that works.
14 Had rendezvous with adult north of town of St Paul – a pied-à-terre?
METATARSUS
A charade of MET, A and TARSUS. St Paul was a native of Tarsus and his original name was Saul of Tarsus. You have five of them in each foot, so METATARSI would be more accurate; but pied-à-terre literally means ‘foot on the ground’, so that’s where the setter is coming from. ‘North’ works because it’s a down clue. Still too many football-related clues in the Indy.
17 Not quite 20p, that’s the little bit that’s charged – there’s a sting in the tail with it
SCORPION
A charade of SCOR[E] P and ION for the charged particle. I’ve said before that referencing other Indy setters is neither big nor clever.
A sodium ion walks into a bar.
The barman says: ‘You’re looking a bit down, what’s the matter?’
The sodium ion replies: ‘I’ve lost an electron.’
The barman says: ‘Are you sure?’
The sodium ion says: ‘I’m positive.’
19 Across back of book, broken nib’s load producing this?
INKBLOT
And now we’re referencing Rorschach, for goodness’ sake. An insertion of K for the last letter of ‘book’ in (NIB)* followed by LOT. Where has Rorschach been recently, btw? Not had a puzzle from him for ages.
21 Genuine bananas – one’s a bit green
INGÉNUE
(GENUINE)* Referring to a naive young woman; strangely you can’t have INGÉNU to refer to a naive young man.
22 Join up with blokeish insiders or you’re unlikely to get it?
IN-JOKE
(JOIN)* plus KE for the middle letters of bloKEish, with ‘up’ as the unlikely anagrind.
25 Yield of grain, say?
CEDE
A homophone of ‘seed’.
Many thanks to Crosophile for today’s puzzle. I don’t normally reveal personal stuff on my blog, but here’s a snippet: I am double-jointed, and so are two of my children. Good for party tricks, if nothing else.
10a: I know that many crossword solvers don’t accept IC for 99 or (as here) IL for 49.
11a: In US roads I have seen the sign PED XING for pedestrian crossing. In India this abbr. is not used.
9d: I see your point. How we get DOUBTED from ‘suspect’. Doubt, doubtful, doubtable – all yes. Suspect = the doubted or the doubted person, perhaps.
Trying to visualise image in 23: were each of the members of the family wearing swimwear or were they merely sitting among a heap of swimwear?
22d: I know that solvers don’t accept ‘up’ as anagrind.
Was going along nicely till I hit the SE corner then really struggled till I got 14d. After that it went ok.
Favourite was 13ac.
Thx
I think 5d is DU(s)TY, I’m quite happy with “it’s suspect” meaning “it’s doubted” because suspect like that can have a few subtle meanings with context.
Quite agree that BLUE seems weak but you do need some easy ones and got EXIT the same way.
Did spend some time trying to force TOE into TORO in 11ac.
Thanks Pierre and Crosophile.
Btw, in my on-line copy of 26ac it says ‘arrived later’ which I struggled to turn into ‘come’. Accepted it, dealt with it and moved on!
Re 12a: To your suggestion that ‘broadcast’ may be doing double duty, I would say: “Maybe not”.
This charade (component+anag) may be an all-in-one clue: we need to reread the whole clue for definition, the question mark signalling that clue-type.
Might it [the solution phrase] be applied to a Reith broadcast? Yes!
Can we substitute ‘come’ for ‘arrived’ in a sentence?
Maybe.
He’s arrived = He’s come.
Apologies, and thanks to almw3 for pointing out my error. It is indeed ‘arrived’ in 26ac. My copy typing is getting worse these days.
In which case Rishi’s suggestion at no 6 explains it perfectly.
@pierre and rishi. Yes of course you can equate ‘arrived’ with ‘come’ with the auxiliary verb added. We certainly don’t say ‘he has came’ , now do we. Just shows I need to think a bit harder and a bit further!
I saw 12ac as an &lit with “applied to” = “ON” and broadcast as the anagrind for A REITH.
Definitely a tricky Monday puzzle. It took me ages to see UP TO THE ELBOWS, EXIT, WELCOME, DOUBLE-JOINTED and SCIENCE at the end. The HOBNOB clue raised a smile.
@Andy B
That’s it! Your opinion confirms my suggestion in No. 5 above, though I did not use the term &lit.
Re blog comments on 28ac: can’t beat Hugh Dennis’s line – “These Korean meatballs really are the dog’s bollocks”
🙂
12A is &lit, but it sort of struggles to get there. For me, that is.
Rorschach is still (just about) around and should be appearing soon in a good newsagents near you!
Merci Pierre for pointing out the mini theme which we missed! DOH!
Rorschach – doubly pleased to hear the we have a puzzle to look forward to and that you managed to spell your name correctly this time!
Thanks Crosophile – we enjoyed the start to the week.
Thanks for the blog Pierre. I think all queries have been ell settled by other commentators here. Except, as I understand it, the metatarsus (14d) is the set of all five metatarsals comprising the flat of the foot, the part of the ‘pied’ that is ‘a terre.:-)
However inadvertently, I’m glad to have name-checked another setter and reminded Pierre of yet another!
Oh, and ‘near the knuckle’ was a deliberate namecheck of yet another bodily joint.
For once I spotted the mini-theme in time for it to help in completing the grid. A nicely satisfying puzzle with PENCILS, HOBNOB and SCORPION vying for my CoD nomination – even if the Romans actually used XLIX, not IL, for 49.
Thanks, Crosophile and Pierre – btw Pierre, I agree with you about tarragon with fish.