Three checked letters in a seven-letter answer is bad enough; two in a five-letter answer is even worse. Unless, some say, Radian has been constrained by a Nina and has been forced to use answers of this type. If he has (and of course I can’t see it) then perhaps this is justified. And anyway it’s only my view (but also that of some eminent others, I might add).
Pity, because much of this crossword is good, and there are some excellent clues. I particularly enjoyed 1dn.
Definitions underlined.
Across
1 Far out in river, moving to and fro (3-3)
TWO-WAY
I think this is wow in Tay — perhaps wow = far out as in “Far out, man”, if indeed that is or has been ever said
4 Yell here: “Guy replaced firm in New Caledonia!” (8)
SHETLAND
New Caledonia is Scotland and ‘co’ is replaced by ‘he’ — Yell is an island in the Shetlands
10 Pick big guns for play (7)
ELECTRA
elect RA — the plays by Sophocles and Euripides (I’d never realised that there were two)
11 Mike hosts current police representative (7)
MIMETIC
m(I Met)ic
12 Role reversal in opening on stage (4)
TRAP
(part)rev. — trap door
13 In Paris and Rome I represented showman (10)
IMPRESARIO
(Paris Rome I)*
15 Someone fleeing régime in turmoil (6)
EMIGRÉ
(régime)*
16 Consultation here may lead to it (7)
SURGERY
2 defs — after a consultation in a doctor’s surgery you may have operative surgery
20 Key player is in National Theatre after a turn (7)
AGONIST
a go N(is)T — an agonist
21 Old man disheartened call girl (6)
DAPHNE
Da ph{o}ne
24 Short tune accompanies stuff like sensational plays (10)
MELODRAMAS
melod{y} ram as
26 Shy when in court (4)
CAST
c(as)t
28 Composer’s across in Italy clipping borders (7)
ROSSINI
Hidden in acROSS IN Italy
29 Quick check in men’s room? Try to find back first (4-3)
LOOK-SEE
loo seek with the k of seek at the beginning of the word
30 Is it psychologist’s tactic to disapprove of grouse? (4,4)
MIND GAME
mind [=disapprove] game [= grouse]
31 Princess lives with aged leader of Erin (6)
ISOLDE
is old E{rin} — this princess
Down
1 He’s still close to the top in playhouses (8)
THEATRES
Took me a while to see this — for a while I had rejected THEATRES — it’s ‘he at rest’ with the t of rest (close) moved to the top — ‘he’s’ is to be seen as ‘he has [next to it]’
2 Not off, choosing to save time (9)
OPERATING
op(era)ting
3 Book performances (4)
ACTS
2 defs (book of the Bible)
5 Funny bone when tapped? (8)
HUMOROUS
“humerus” — presumably ‘when tapped?’ is the homophone indicator — tapping in the ‘spying on’ sense
6 Torn ligament is giving me the pips (4,6)
TIME SIGNAL
(ligament is)*
7 Performer‘s a credit to parts (5)
ACTOR
a c(to)r — parts is a verb
8 Cook cut heart out, filling opening (6)
DOCTOR
do(c{u}t)or
9 Exaggerated blow avoids wicket (5)
HAMMY
{w}hammy
14 Hollow conflict under way over Germany gives offence (10)
WRONGDOING
w{a}r ong(D)oing with ‘over’ the inclusion indicator, something I can never quite understand
17 Tries interrupting genuine run-through (9)
REHEARSAL
re(hears)al
18 Diversion wastes time in foreign campsites (8)
ESCAPISM
(campsi{t}es)* — not absolutely comfortable with diversion = escapism: they sort of overlap, but I can’t think of a sentence where the two words are interchangeable
19 Chap’s enthralled by fancy tea-set – his cup of tea? (8)
AESTHETE
he in (tea-set)*
22 A sign doctor’s occupying local theatre (2-4)
AM-DRAM
a (MD) Ram — Aries is the Ram
23 Present firm hasn’t succeeded at first (5)
TABLE
{s}table — present as in ‘present/table a motion’
25 It attacks cell walls, slowly sinking in the middle (5)
LYSIN
Hidden in slowLY SINking — lysin
27 From where to watch The Real Thing nonetheless? (4)
GODS
go{o}ds — The Real Thing could be a UK band or a play by Tom Stoppard
*anagram
Thanks, John.
Great stuff, as usual, from Radian. I’m no great Nina-spotter but did manage to find a theatrical theme – ELECTRA, TRAP/PART, IMPRESARIO, AGONIST, MELODRAMAS, CAST, MINDGAME, ACTS, ACTOR, HAMMY, AM-DRAM, GODS [and there may be more], overlapping with a medical one – OPERATING THEATRES / TABLE, DOCTOR, SURGERY, [an]AESTHETIC[?] 😉
Many thanks, Radian – I really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed this and don’t understand John’s complaints. I don’t finish the Indy all that often and did so today. Particularly gratifying to get words I had not heard of from the word play (mimetic and lysin). Thanks Radian!
John is right of course.
hedgehoggy @3, I think you mean, ‘I agree with John’.
I, on the other hand, agree with Jane. I was going to comment on John’s remark this morning, to the effect that I hadn’t noticed the lack of crossing letters and then found that there were only two each of the 3/7- and 2/5-checked-letter clues: SURGERY, which was almost ridiculously easy, HAMMY and TABLE, which were not much more demanding, leaving AGONIST, which, I grant, was perhaps less familiar, but which I did know and so thought the wordplay and surface were both excellent.
[I had hoped to see more comments by now from people who had enjoyed this puzzle. 😉 ]
Hahaha! Of course you are right.
But it is unfair in any grid to have such atrocities: it makes clues much harder to solve than we as solvers can normally expect. But I would agree with you that this was an entertaining solve, having done it since posting the above.
Cheers, ‘the erinaceous one’. (Hahaha!)
Thanks, hedgehoggy.
So now we know – you comment first and solve later. That explains a lot! 😉
I’m not at the level that would notice 2/5s and 3/7s, but maybe I’ll look in future; before I hit upon fifteensquared I’d never heard of a nina or many of the other wrinkles that have helped me get more enjoyment from crosswords. Whatever – I found this quite hard going and there were several words I didn’t know – mimetic, hammy, agonist, lysin – but I solved them all and gained great satisfaction from doing so. I failed to parse GODS but managed some equally sneaky clues so put that one down to some dud brain cells which I will attempt to destroy later. Thanks to Radian and to John for the blog, and you can definitely add me to the list of those who enjoyed this puzzle!
Being a theatre buff, I enjoyed this one. LOI was GODS which is ridiculous – I didn’t spot the GOODS. Stupid! Thanks for the help, John, and for the puzzle, Radian.
Just did this online – found it fairly entertaining and marginally less challenging than the Picaroon in the Guardian, but I must admit that I did use check a couple of times to speed things up. Last in was LYSIN which I needed all the crossers to remember. Not sure the unches held things up much though the definition of TABLE wasn’t immediately obvious. Liked SHETLAND, ISOLDE and DAPHNE.
Thanks to Radian and John
Hi beery hiker
On second thoughts, TABLE wasn’t quite so obvious – nice definition – but I came to it fresh from blogging yesterday’s Rufus. 😉
And I agree with your favourites [along with 4ac].
And hi cumbrian @7
“… before I hit upon fifteensquared I’d never heard of a nina or many of the other wrinkles that have helped me get more enjoyment from crosswords.”
Same here: it’s getting on for seven years ago now but, as I’ve often said, I bless the day – pure Serendipity!
It’s not a Nina folks, it’s a ghost theme based on 1D THEATRES.
Thanks, Cornick (and John and Radian). Perhaps 1A TWO-WAY is linked to THEATRES as the ghost theme? That would account for the medical clues alongside the play-related ones.
1dn just doesn’t parse properly, and is unworthy of Radian.