- *=anagram
- [] = removed e.g. char[m]=char
- ()=abbreviation e.g. A(mpere)=a
- Hom. = homophone
This was a bit of a fiasco for me. I couldn’t get into the style of clues and gave up with about half the puzzle completed. I’ve lost count of the number that I don’t follow at all.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Place for veggies on U-571, (part of it, anyway?) (7) | ||
| Subplot | I think the idea is that a place to grow vegetables on a submarine would be a sub plot and a subplot would be part of U-571 (which is a historically inaccurate US film). I can’t say I’m in love with the clue, which seems contrived. | ||
| 5. | Second sign of bachelor’s problem in bed? (7) | ||
| Snoring | S(econd) + no ring. | ||
| 9. | A step backwards, food’s plastic (9) | ||
| Adaptable | A pad< + table. | ||
| 10. | Worry how Trinidad and Tobago start broadcast (5) | ||
| Tease | Hom of Tees (first letters of Trinidad and Tobago). | ||
| 11. | Career break (4) | ||
| Dash | DD | ||
| 12. | Check spot on balls, pet (10) | ||
| Bottleneck | I think this is bottle(=balls) + pet(=neck) with “check spot” as the rather cryptic def, but I think the on is misleading and hard to justify. | ||
| 14. | Abuse essentially reduced, close to peace (9) | ||
| Persecute | Per se + cut + [peac]e. | ||
| 16. | Church may have it in for gangster (5) | ||
| Organ | Unless organ is a word for a gangster, I don’t follow this. | ||
| 18. | Swimmer reserves right to replace swimsuit’s bottom (5) | ||
| Bream | B Team with T (last letter of swimsuit) replaced by R. | ||
| 19. | This records when courts interfere with Queen’s abdication (4,5) | ||
| Date Stamp | I think courts might be dates but don’t see the Queen’s abdication bit. | ||
| 21. | Woman driver in sea, cue huff that’s funny (10) | ||
| Chauffeuse | (Sea cue huff)* | ||
| 24. | Hairy recluse, still current (4) | ||
| Yeti | Yet + I. | ||
| 26. | Body temperature, approximately (5) | ||
| Torso | T(emperature) or so. | ||
| 27. | Baby’s one to torment ginger keeper? (5,4) | ||
| Spice Rack | Baby’s one gives Spice (from Baby Spice aka Emma Bunton) + rack. | ||
| 28. | Warmer parts of our home, in case of harshness (7) | ||
| Hearths | Earth (as in the planet) + h[arshnes]s | ||
| 29. | Tango’s number one turn (7) | ||
| Twiddle | T + widdle (=number one i.e. an act of urination). | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Trio following R Plant’s top talent, riffing (5-2) | ||
| Stand up | Not got the foggiest | ||
| 2. | Support one dropping into restaurant (9) | ||
| Brasserie | Brassiere with the I moving down | ||
| 3. | Healthier skimmed cream (4) | ||
| Lite | [E]lite, although the lite appellation is mainly a marketing gimmick, so I’m not entirely convinced it’s justified to call it healthier. | ||
| 4. | You shouldn’t have frightening call, it’s not on (5) | ||
| Taboo | The only thing I can think here is “You shouldn’t have” is ta and frightening call is boo, but if that’s it, I think it’s deeply unconvincing. | ||
| 5. | Same tweet, different snack? (9) | ||
| Sweetmeat | (Same tweet)* | ||
| 6. | Going somewhere after vacation for free (2,3,5) | ||
| On the loose | Can’t quite see this one either. | ||
| 7. | The royal we class as mad (5) | ||
| Irate | I (what the titular head of state uses as a personal pronoun) + rate | ||
| 8. | Building in London selling her kinky skirts (7) | ||
| Gherkin | Hidden in sellinG HER KINky. | ||
| 13. | Hard ground cuts scout’s skin (10) | ||
| Permafrost | Only got this from the definition and I have no idea what it’s got to do with scout’s skin. | ||
| 15. | Sends user comic strips (9) | ||
| Undresses | (Sends user)* | ||
| 17/23. | Do part of mile on empty stomach during donation night at work (9,5) | ||
| Graveyard Shift | Rave(=do) + yard + s[tomac]h in gift | ||
| 18. | Unwanted fish beside potential wife? (7) | ||
| Bycatch | By + catch (as in “she’s a catch”). | ||
| 20. | Smart rider’s heading into jam (7) | ||
| Prickle | R[ider] in pickle | ||
| 22. | Vessel using a common kind of unleaded? (5) | ||
| Aorta | No idea. | ||
| 25. | Penultimate game overshadowed by cruise missile (4) | ||
| Semi | Hidden in cruiSE MIssile. Penultimate game would be the semi-final, although since there are usually two of them, it might not actually be the penultimate. | ||
16a is a hidden word fOR GANgster
19a TAMP [ER] interfere from which the Queen [ER]is removed
Sorry about the sporadic help, I am trying to look like I am working!
Hi Neal,
Re BOTTLENECK – neck is “on” bottle.
16 ac: ORGAN is hidden.
19 ac: DATES + TAMP(er)
1dn: s, t and u (trio of letters after r) + P(lant)
I agree with your parsing of TABOO.
6dn: ON THE LOO + S(omewher)E – I thought this was nice!
13 dn PERM + AFRO + S(cou)T
22 dn – I’m not sure, but it could be A + (s)ORTA
Thanks Donk and Neal.
Thanks for all the parsings, I needed help on almost every clue.
Well, I hope that’s an experimental style from Donk. I don’t think I should say more.
I think it’s worth taking another look at this one once you’ve finished. I found it hard but the clueing is superb. It all works! I see from the Crossword Solver timer that it was more or less Nimrod-length for me.
PS. This is probably implied by muffyword but anyway I think in 1d the definition is “Talent, riffing” – in the business any performer is the “talent”, so it’s a stand-up, rather than stand-up as an activity. Also, as it’s mentioned in the blog, the semi (25d) is the penultimate game – from the point of view of the players (the last one is the final or the play-off).
Hi Neal – 1d, the three following R are S, T and U.
Thanks for the blog, and to Donk!
Oops, sorry, I missed Muffyword earlier.
Didn’t know riffing as part of a stand-up comedy act.
Agree that 22d is (s)orta, with ‘common’ and the misleading ‘unleaded’ providing the nuts and bolts.
I found this tough, but well worth the effort. Tight clueing throughout.
I got almost nowhere. However, tamper as ‘interfere’ was in the Concise X-word and that helped.
Tough and unusual, finished it but couldn’t parse a couple, though those have now been cleared up.
In the past few weeks or so the Indy cryptics have struck me as being easier than is usual over an extended period – ie no real toughies and I’m all for a bit of off-the-wall cluing. Enjoyed it.
Thanks to Donk and NealH.
Certainly not the usual kind of Monday puzzle. TABOO and BOTTLENECK went in from definition alone and I’m still not convinced by the cluing for the latter despite Muffyword’s explanation. I made one mistake where I entered a careless unparsed ON THE HOUSE at 6dn and didn’t think to go back and check it.
I rarely tackle the Indy puzzles, and I can see I chose a bad day to give Donk a go! I found it extremely tough – but, on reflection, it’s clearly one of those maddening ones where I have to admit that the fault is all mine. No real flaws that I can see. Does flawless always = fair?…
First off, thanks to Neal for blogging and being so honest about his inability to finish. I’m sure some folk imagine that bloggers are some kind of supersolvers, but I’m certain that’s not the case. They just put their hands up to try to offer explanations, and when you land a puzzle like this, you’re sometimes going to struggle.
My experience was the same as yours, Neal. Half finished with several put in on a wing and a prayer, and then I just lost the enthusiasm to finish it. I do work for a living, and I can’t spend all day trying to sort out a puzzle, I’m afraid.
This is going to sound like sour grapes, but I really don’t like SUBPLOT (on the bus, how am I supposed to know U-571?). AORTA most likely works the way muffyword suggests, but ‘unleaded’ is just wrong. And LITE for ‘healthier’ I don’t like either.
All in all, not my favourite Donk puzzle, but thank you to him anyway. And as for it being on ‘easy’ Monday, I think that convention went out of the window several months ago.
Have to agree with KsD here, this was a stinker worthy of Nimrod or the much missed Bannsider.
Nearly fair but suspect even the best solvers struggled today.
Well done Neal, but a donk too far for a Monday commute.
There’s a couple of clues that ‘m not too keen on but the rest of the puzzle is clued superbly. ‘Snoring’ and ‘On the Loose’ to name but two.
Like others we struggled but it was worth it. There were a couple of definitions which at first we weren’t too happy about but have now come to terms with. We now think 1ac is linked to a film about a German u-boat so ‘sub-plot’ is entirely appropriate.
We had ‘on the house’ at one point but couldn’t work out the relevance of ‘on the hou’ – can’t believe now that we missed the correct answer given that we had the S and the E. We got 1d from the parsing although we hadn’t come across ‘riffing’ before in relation to ‘stand-up’.
Whilst Joyce was writing up the comment, Bert eventually parsed 28ac.
There was a lot going on in the puzzle and some original clueing as expected from Donk. Two heads seemed to be better than one in our case but we were pleased to finish it. One incorrect, a couple which we couldn’t parse and quite a lot of head-scratching. We are so glad that we completed some of it earlier as we’re not sure whether we’d have been able to complete it during our ‘normal solving session’ late in the evening!
Thanks Donk and well done NealH for struggling through it. There were a lot of us who needed the blog today!
I think K’s D @12 has it right: there is no reason to suppose that we bloggers are some sort of supersolvers. In my case I’m far from being a supersolver. We just do our best to explain things and sometimes a rather difficult one comes along.
In my opinion Donk has been getting a bad press. There are lots of very difficult clues here and I only finished with some electronic help, and still struggled to make sense of it all. But although in one or two places (1ac, 22dn, perhaps) it seems he is not at his best there is plenty to enthuse about. I think PERMAFROST and BREAM are brilliant. As is DATE STAMP. And others too. The more I look at them …
Following Wil Ransome, I repeat that PERMAFROST deserves to be heralded as a brilliant clue.
Tough crowd for the young man – the general consensus seems to be ‘look back over the puzzle and you’ll see that it’s a well-crafted puzzle’.
Thanks to NealH and Donk for blog and puzzle, and everyone else for chipping in.
This took me all day and I was astonished by the quality of some of the clues, having been thoroughly bamboozled by them and, of course, utterly infuriated. I checked in here expecting to see this acclaimed as a top drawer puzzle and I must say I’m a bit disappointed not to see this being given its due. No shame in being defeated by this, but I’m not sure the fault lies entirely, or even mainly, with the setter.
PERSECUTE, BOTTLENECK, DATE STAMP, TWIDDLE (my LOI), TABOO (for the original definition), PERMAFROST and AORTA were, to my mind, a very impressive collection of eclectic cluing styles in their own right, let alone the rest of the piece, and I was jolly pleased to finish this outstanding puzzle.
Donk, if you’re reading, I thought this was a belter and whilst one or two minor gripes might be understandable from solvers I think you’ve been treated a little unfairly today here.
Hard but extremely good.
No-one will be listening to this thread any more, I guess. But I will just drop back in to say this: that while comments on 225 are no reflection at all on what the majority of muggles who tried this puzzle think about it, the fact that three other Indy setters have commented to give support to the compiler perhaps suggests that my original comment was not too far off the mark. It might be superbly clued, but if your average Joe solver can’t get more than halfway through it, then we can’t appreciate how superb it was.
That said, some seem to have liked it, so possibly one for those who like it hard. And Donk is a talented young setter whom we need to see more of. But maybe not quite as hard as this …
Late to do this one, but well worth the wait. Superb! It took me a very long time to finish – OK if you have the time and patience but perhaps not really fit for purpose if you have only a lunch break.
Thanks Donk and NealH.
Very late I know, but felt compelled to comment lest anyone (like setter or editor) can take some succour greatly deserved. And it would be churlish not to convey my thanks given the pleasure I derived. This was a SUPER puzzle. And how lovely to find a Monday crossword that’s not a write-in. If it weren’t for such nourishing fodder, I might always feel underfed…..
Thanks again Mr Donk!
Very tough, and I got ‘on the loose’ wrong, as did others. Aorta is ‘a’ + ‘sorta’ (common ‘kind of’) but un-leaded – lead character missing; I think. ‘Unleaded’ not misleading.
And another late reply – we (t’other half is pommers) only got round to doing this tonight over a glass of wine or 2 at our local!
We managed to complete all but 1 clue (14a doh) – after a lot of head scratching – and I’ll go with the two heads are better than one vote.
Another for the “on the house” error and we just couldn’t parse 3 or 4 more.
Mostly fairly clued but blumin’ hard !!!!
My only gripe was actually with PERMAFROST. A perm is not really a cut in hairdressing terms.
Thanks Donk – but a bit easier next time please.
And to Neal and everyone else for unravelling the ones we couldn’t work out.
I started this on the day and have literally just finished it! I thought it was excellent and thoroughly rewarded persistence, but certainly can sympathise with anyone who had to blog it on a weekday.
Right, I can finally recycle this paper then!
Was that tougher than usual? It took me no longer than average for the Independent/ i… Maybe when the clueing is so goddam brilliant I just concentrate better!
It was! Fun though