Independent 8699 / Rorschach

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There was much to enjoy in this puzzle despite its political and sports references not being of my persuasion.

I struggled with the first part of 5/12 until I resorted to Google and I’m not sure if I fully understand the second part of 11ac unless it is referring to going out with someone who is socially your superior.

I cannot see how 26ac works, other than the wordplay, and suspect that there might be a typo.

Across
5/12 The Leaky Cauldron? It’s found in Hertfordshire (7,3)
POTTERS BAR – Double def., the first one cryptic – I didn’t understand the first part of this clue at all until I googled ‘leaky cauldron’ which brought up the information that it is the name of a popular wizarding pub and inn in London in the Harry Potter series of books/films

10 It’s not typical to have this kind of nose (6)
SNOTTY – hidden in (to have) ‘it’S NOT TYpical’ – my elder daughter, whose occupation is childminder, would certainly say that this clue is not an &lit! 😉

11 Getting newer version or punching above your weight? (8)
UPDATING – double def. with the second one cryptic (though I’m not sure I fully understand it)

13 Audience’s encouragement to Westwood who’s in a handy sporting position? (6)
GOALIE – a homophone (audience’s) of ‘go Lee’ (encouragement to Westwood)

14 Working to get qualification in the same class (2,1,5)
ON A LEVEL – ON (working) A-LEVEL (qualification)

15 Knocked back continental beer in a smooth movement (4)
SLIP – PILS (continental beer) reversed (knocked back)

16 Young Blair, individual leaving Oxford University, formed this? (3,6)
NEW LABOUR – NEW (young) plus an anagram (formed) of BLA[i]R (Blair, individual leaving) OU (Oxford University) &lit

19/1 Footballer‘s social nadir – or not possibly? (9,7)
CRISTIANO RONALDO – an anagram (possibly) of SOCIAL NADIR OR NOT

21 Admitting Greece into 9 viewed, in retrospect, as impulse (4)
URGE – GR (Greece) in (admitting … into) EU (9 {European Union}) reversed (viewed, in retrospect)

24 Sweating, knackered, but just the result Cavendish wanted (5,3)
STAGE WIN – an anagram (knackered) of SWEATING – a reference to cyclist Mark Cavendish

26 After a month, hesitation that becomes deviated possibly (6)
SEPTUM – SEPT (month) UM (hesitation) – a septum is a dividing partition so I don’t see how it can be described as ‘that becomes deviated’. Could ‘deviated’ be a misprint for ‘divided’ perhaps? Edit: No, it’s my error – see comment #1.

27 Mein Kampf penned in this? (3)
INK – hidden in ‘meIN Kampf’

28 Heated clash in Europe about ordering of eau de toilette? (8)
WATERLOO –  a command (ordering) to WATER (eau) LOO (toilette)

29 Go to restaurant for tea, perhaps? (3,3)
EAT OUT – an anagram (OUT) of EAT is ‘tea’

30 Face cover-up as crack troops capture Jong-un, leader of Korea (3,4)
SKI MASK – SAS (crack troops) around (capture) KIM (Jong-un) K[orea] (leader of Korea)

31 In America, Fanny’s seen wearing this? (1-6)
G-STRING – cryptic def. (though if you check the Chambers definition of ‘fanny’ the ‘In America’ isn’t strictly necessary for the clue to work)

Down
2 Personal target? Not for 19/1 (3,4)
OWN GOAL – OWN (personal) GOAL (target) with the whole clue providing the definition

3 Non-U relative runs away with lover – they’re found in Africa (9)
ANTELOPES – A[u]NT (Non-U relative) ELOPES (runs away with lover)

4 Resting place variously occupied by dead (3,3)
DAY BED – an anagram (variously occupied) of BY DEAD – how many people spent time, as I did, trying to put D into a word meaning ‘variously’?

6 Not even the Shadow Chancellor is nuts (8)
ODDBALLS – ODD (not even) [Ed] BALLS (Shadow Chancellor)

7 Count for one and let it out (5)
TITLE – an anagram (out) of LET IT

8 1’s first three dribbles initially impress adult in 9 – it’s poetry! (7)
RONDEAU – RON[aldo] (1’s first three) D[ribbles] (dribbles initially) A (adult) in (impress … in) EU (9 {Eurpoean Union})

9 International arrangement in marriage of Victoria and Albert? (8,5)
EUROPEAN UNION – double def. the second being cryptic

17 Indication of departure as result of Mandelson’s defecting? (4,5)
BLUE PETER – def. and cryptic indicator

18 Thoroughly punctures slicks? They’re shafted! (3,5)
OIL WELLS – WELL (thoroughly) in (punctures) OILS (slicks)

20 Half-cut Bogart’s motley crew? (3,4)
RAT PACK – an anagram (motley) of [bog]ART (half-cut Bogart) PACK (crew) &lit

22 Artist‘s judging unfinished university installation (7)
GAUGUIN – GAUGIN[g] (judging unfinished) around (installation) U (university)

23 Claimants receive couple of royalties in bum case (6)
ASKERS – ASS (bum) around (in … case) K ER (couple of royalties)

25 Paris Match perhaps about to include its article exposing Sheen (5)
GLEAM – MAG (Paris Match perhaps) reversed (about) around (to include) LE (its article)

29 comments on “Independent 8699 / Rorschach”

  1. Thanks Gaufrid and Rorschach – great puzzle and blog.

    I parsed UPDATING as per your suggestion.

    A deviated SEPTUM is a nasal deformity that may result, for example, from a Glasgow kiss.

    Re G-STRING: I think that the American fanny is the only one of the Chambers alternatives seen (revealed) when such a garment is worn.

    Thanks for explaining POTTERS BAR.

  2. The boy is back, and he done good. Far too many footie references, I agree, Gaufrid. For those that didn’t quite understand 13ac, I will just point out that Lee Westwood is a golfer. That’s the fascinating stuff with the little white ball, rather than the big white ball that the goalie catches.

    Much to enjoy, indeed. I especially liked NEW LABOUR, POTTERS BAR (which I only knew because my kids were/are heavily into HP) and GAUGUIN, because it reminded me of his beautiful Tahitian paintings.

    I got SEPTUM easily enough, but like you, I can’t quite see how it works.

    Thank you to S&B for an excellent start to the Indy week.

  3. Thanks Muffyword @1
    I hadn’t come across the term ‘deviated septum’ before, hence my quandary. Your interpretation of 31ac is undoubtedly correct.

  4. Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid, especially for POTTERS BAR – I didn’t think to google the Leaky Cauldron but I ought to have remembered it. A lovely clue, anyway.

    As K’s D implies, we don’t see enough of Rorschach but his puzzles are certainly well worth waiting for. This was great stuff throughout.

    The wording of the clue for 26ac led me to google ‘deviated septum’ and there it was! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_septum_deviation

    I don’t quite understand the parsing of 28ac [command?]. I took it as eau de toilette = loo water and so the order is reversed [about?].

    Many thanks to Rorschach for a great puzzle. I hope it won’t be too long before the next one.

  5. I really enjoyed this puzzle, although I had the same unknowns as Gaufrid and I only resolved them post-solve. The G-STRING/GAUGUIN crossers were my last ones in.

  6. I have a deviated septum! I enjoyed this one but was held up briefly downstairs by putting ‘match’ instead of ‘Union’ at first till I got to 27ac.

    Agree about the footsie but golf’s fine with me!

    I liked ‘updating’ and ‘Waterloo’ particularly.

    Thx both.

  8. 31ac – the old ones are the best… As I recall, Cyclops in Private Eye has twice used ‘Fanny can hardly be seen in this’ as the clue to this

  10. Hi Eileen @4
    “I don’t quite understand the parsing of 28ac [command?]. I took it as eau de toilette = loo water and so the order is reversed [about?].”

    It’s the way I saw the clue (the ‘ordering’ bit) whilst solving but your suggestion makes more sense.

  12. @KD Well, certainly not footie and I’m not too hot on footsie either, but looking forward to meeting everybody there 🙂

  13. A very good puzzle which didn’t take me as long as usual, thanks to some inspired guessing and the clear wordplay. RATPACK was LOI and this and SKIMASK were my favourites but there were lots of lovely clues with GLEAM and STAGE WIN also being elegantly done.

    Thanks, setter and blogger alike.

  14. Unlike most of you intellectuals I loved the Harry Potter books, so was delighted to see 5/12. At last a gimme!
    I’d heard of deviated septum sand even G-strings, but got held up on 18D trying to work out some kind of non-existent anagram involving ‘slicks’.
    Still don’t understand 11A.
    Thanks to setter for a fun puzzle and blogger for explaining 16A. Whatever happened to him?

  15. Dear all, Thanks for the kind words. I’m pleased you were entertained. Great blog from Gaufrid pretty much spot on as always. I thought more would have heard of SEPTUM in light of Comrade Miliband’s recent operation to make him sound more William Wallace than Wallace and Gromit… Eileen is correct – if eau de toilette is LOO WATER then about ordering would give you WATERLOO. As for the three football references I am completely unapologetic! I’ve sat through enough operatic themed puzzles that I feel it’s my just dessert to throw in one of the world’s best known players and two well-known references 😉

  16. If I can solve a crossword relatively quickly without almost any help from outside, then this can mean two things: (a) the solver in me is ever improving and this was reallly an achievement, or (b) this wasn’t a very different puzzle.
    The truth lies perhaps somewhere in between.

    In my perception, this was the ‘easiest’ Rorschach so far but I am not complaining as the clueing was good as ever.

    I felt this crossword was slightly different from previous Rorschachs as he used quite a few cryptic definition-like devices – I counted about four or five.

    No complaints about the football or other sports references.
    Why is that worse than mentioning a handful of authors, Shakespearean characters, games (I just say something, to illustrate) or whatever?

    Well done Rorschach.
    Welcome back to Crosswordland.

  17. Oh and on 11ac – UP-DATING could be a way of describing ‘punching above your weight’

    Sorry to have left that out.

  18. I’ve sat through enough operatic themed puzzles that I feel it’s my just dessert to throw in one of the world’s best known players and two well-known references

    Thing is, one can absorb references to opera simply because they are absorbable, mostly because they intersect with many other fields (I speak as an opera loather), foopball on the other hand is a joke – justifiably ignored by the vast majority, fancy trying one about fishing?

  19. Don’t tempt me 😉 Joint theme of fishing and football? – I’m sure I could find some overlap… Mark Fish played for Bolton for a while… *gets thinking*

  20. Although, to stick my oar in – opera is ignored by more people than football if we’re taking your utilitarian argument on face value…

  21. Great blog and superb puzzle. Too many favourites to mention but 19/1, 30 and 16 were particularly good. As for football references, I think most people have heard of Ronaldo and goalie.

  24. It’s good to have you back … now get on with compiling the next one before we’re in trouble with Gaufrid.

  25. Just watched BBC2 (between 8 and 9).
    Two quiz shows in a row.
    Both very different, both also presented in a very different way.

    It made me think about the difference in cultural interests of crossword solvers and/or their attitude towards these.

    Rorschach’s puzzles are just more Only Connect than University Challenge, aren’t they?

  26. Is there some dictionary that tells us that ass is a perfectly normal English word meaning bum? As I said last Thursday in Scorpion’s otherwise excellent puzzle, the word is arse. Yet Scorpion didn’t think it was necessary to mention that this is, as Chambers says, North American. And Rorschach in his also otherwise excellent puzzle didn’t see fit to tell us either. He obviously is careful in these matters, because he told us that fanny was ‘In America’, even though in Chambers it only says ‘chiefly US’, so as Gaufrid points out the words ‘In America’ weren’t strictly necessary. But they were strictly necessary in 23dn. Weren’t they?

  27. Hope we don’t have to wait so long for the next Rorschach!

    We’re late to the party – again – so we have little. To add. Can’t say that opera is any more absorbable than football. We’re not fans of either although Joyce has been promised a visit to a football match by someone who has commented earlier! She’s also willing to give opera a second chance!!

    All good fun…

    Thanks to Rorschach and Gaufrid.

  28. Bertandjoyce coming in suspiciously after the transfer window closed. Hmm… Maybe they do like football after all… 😉

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