Independent 8,730 by Punk

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A typically neat and pleasant offering from Punk today. It is themed around 11dn, which is to some extent my time, but I still needed Google to explain many of the answers. What people did in the days before search engines I hate to think: presumably they just gave up. Some criticise this type of crossword, where much of it consists of reading things from the internet, but the quality of the clueing made it acceptable for me.

Definitions underlined.

Across

7 Nothing revolutionary in missile launch site (4)
OCHE
0 Che — nice misleading definition: the missiles are darts as in the game
8 Main part of a meal chef is cooking, for us to eat (4,6)
FISH COURSE
(chef is)* around ours [= for us] — main = sea
10 One of eight kings, neither the first nor the sixth, strong one of seven? (5)
DWARF
Edward but not the first letter and not the sixth, leaving dwar, then f [= strong], ref Snow White and …
12 In agreement? Certainly not I! (9)
CONSONANT
2 defs — I is a vowel, not a consonant
13 Cat food full of new meat (5)
MINCE
mi(n)ce
14 *right one of four (5)
STAR R
What weirdnesses have we here, I wondered, but it’s simply asterisk = star — then when we had [Ringo] Starr I thought well at least Punk has themed this crossword round The Beatles, something I can just about cope with, but this and 23ac seem to be a red herring, unless there’s some pop connection of which I’m unaware, which is very likely
17 Singer dressed in tartan I surveyed from behind (7)
SINATRA
Reverse hidden in tARTAN I Surveyed
18 Lady setter welcoming sheep, avoiding the back entrance (7)
BEWITCH
b(ew{e})itch — entrance as in delight — very nice clue with a cleverly-concealed definition: you just have to bear the definition by example: a female setter is only an example of a bitch. so some would like there to be a maybe or some such to qualify it
20 Strange island (3)
RUM
2 defs — this island
22 Eight in play, and the others written about in books (5)
OCTET
OT around (etc)rev.
23 Youngster on front of White Album by the Beatles (5)
WHELP
W{hite} Help!
25 Animal – mallard perhaps describing one with ‘duck’! (9)
ARMADILLO
((mallard)* around 1) 0
27 Grass backing licence to kill Philistine (5)
YAHOO
(hay)rev. 00 — as in 007 — but I was a little uncomfortable with this and 00 doesn’t I think really stand on its own: more as in ‘double 0 agent’
28 Finest threads removed by nude sat on back of bus (6,4)
SUNDAY BEST
{bu}s (by nude sat)*
29 Musical lyricist bowled by a Chinaman? (4)
RICE
I suppose this refers to Sir Tim Rice and ‘bowled’ to the fact that Chinese eating rice will put it in a bowl — or is it some sort of reference to his love of cricket? Not quite sure about this.

Down

1 Two parties ending in mayhem, something to come in between us? (6)
CONDOM
Con do {mayhe}m — typically Punk rudery: ‘something to come in’
2 One from 11, article guzzled by African beast, then tail of lion (8)
RHIANNON
rhi(an)no {lio}n — I eventually got 11dn and had to use Google to find that it was a song by them, not one of the group
3 Facial feature – doubled for your health? (4)
CHIN
If you double this you get ‘chin chin’ [= ‘your health’]
4 As they say, 11’s wife in artist, lady ditching lad, one from 11 (2,4,3,3)
GO YOUR OWN WAY
I eventually discovered that 11dn did a song by this name, and then there was a lot of backwards parsing to try to make it all work, but I still need help I’m afraid: so far as I can see it’s (our own w) in Goya, then {lad}y, but how does Fleetwood Mac = our own? Cognoscenti will surely know.
5 One from 11, those experienced in bed with 250,000 sheets, perhaps? (6)
DREAMS
Two bits of wordplay: those experienced in bed = dreams, 250,000 sheets = 500 reams = D reams
6 Eruption breaking earth, something from a volcano (4,4)
HEAT RASH
(earth)* ash
9 Constant crime around South Africa, unspecified figure (9)
INCESSANT
inces(SA n)t
11 Computer following racing driver in group (9,3)
FLEETWOOD MAC
Mac following fleet wood — fleet = racing, wood = driver as in golf — I didn’t think there was a racing driver called Fleetwood until I thought I’d better check and found this, about someone I’d never heard of
15 One from 11, 3 under on any 1 of 18 (9)
ALBATROSS
In golf an albatross is three under par on a single hole (colloquially three under), and any 1 of 18 is any one of the eighteen holes on a golf course — so the numbers don’t refer to the clue answers, as I thought but couldn’t understand
17,16 North Atlantic area – fuel like this found in southern areas, perhaps? (8,3)
SARGASSO SEA
(gas so) in s (areas)*
19 One from 11, skinny, drinking Eastern tea (3,5)
THE CHAIN
th(e cha)in
21 Second sign Taurus’s first? Ultimately, ram comes first! (6)
MOMENT
{ra}m omen T{aurus}
24 Winger‘s fan at Parkhead? (6)
PLOVER
P{arkhead} lover
26  Grease musical’s final part everyone can see live (4)
LUBE
{musica}l U be
*anagram

21 comments on “Independent 8,730 by Punk”

  1. Loved every bit of this. I didn’t know any of the songs except Albatross which I got before the group so I’m feeling very smug as I finished without any googling at all. All answers were well clued with imagination. Loved the Chinaman’s googly which took me ages to see, also 7ac. Well, all of them. Paul must be feeling very pleased with himself coming up with this. It matches the best of last week for me!

    Thank you.

  2. Re 4dn. ‘Our own wife’ may be because (as I recall) every member of Fleetwood Mac has at some point been married to every other member. I may be over-simplifying a little tho ..
    🙂

  6. Billyk@3 – think film category.

    I thought this was a superb puzzle, full of Punk’s trademark wit and some devious definitions to boot. THE CHAIN was my way into the theme, and I confess that I didn’t bother to parse FLEETWOOD MAC and GO YOUR OWN WAY. I thought the clue for RICE was excellent, as was the one for CONDOM which was my LOI.

  8. Nice puzzle. In 11dn. ‘our own’ is given by “As they [Fleetwood Mac] say, 11’s [Fleetwood Mac’s]”. A little tortured, but passable, I think.

  11. I don’t mind Googling to learn about interesting new subjects, but not pop music. Googled, deciphered, forgotten. Ho hum.

  12. A splendid puzzle, I thought. OCHE and DWARF were much admired but my CoD was for CONDOM.

    I didn’t really get the parsing for STARR or the OUR OWN bit of 4D, but I think Ringo has it spot on in the comments. Thanks to blogger too.

  15. Hi Mary @14
    We do not specifically cover the puzzles in the ‘i’ but as these are recycled ones that were originally published in the Indy about 5 years ago we will have blogged them previously.

    If you visit the following site you will find a brief blog of the current (and past) ‘i’ cryptic along with a link to the original blog on this site:

    http://idothei.wordpress.com/

  16. CONDOM was worth the admission ticket alone. Fine, witty puzzle (I did know the FLEETWOOD MAC stuff, which helped).

    Thanks to S&B.

  17. Struggled a bit until I saw The Chain as a possible answer and bingo, the rest of the linked stuff fell, still slightly bemused by the Beatles refs. Condom was a work of genius. Thanks Punk and John

  18. I’d heard of FLEETWOOD MAC of course, but didn’t know any of their numbers, but got them all without googling thanks to crossing letters and a couple of word searches. So it was one of those puzzles that you don’t need to know the theme in order to solve it.

    Thanks, Punk and John.

  20. SUBLOODYPERB……!
    (And a Paul on the other side – ’tis enough to brighten up even today’s intemperate grey wetness here in unsunny Sussex…)
    I’ve heard tell that P and P may be Thai Twins – or might such be one of those Rumours?!

  21. We have only just completed the puzzle due to having spent the evening at the local hospital with two elderly parents! We wouldn’t normally comment this late on a daily puzzle but this one deserves it.

    We followed Fleetwood Mac right from the start so loved the theme. The clueing was excellent and CONDOM brought a smile when solved.

    Thank you so much Punk for cheering us up after a very difficult night and day!!

    Thanks also to John.

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