A definite sense of déjà vu on many occasions today, so much so that at one point I wondered if this was an old, recycled puzzle intended for the ‘i’ rather than the Indy.
For me this seemed to be very much a beginners puzzle because I only had to read each clue once before the grid entry was made and I finished it very quickly, the time being determined by how fast I could write in the entries rather than solve the clues. In view of this, I doubt that there will be many, if any, visitors dropping in because they were unable to solve and/or parse a clue.
Across
1 Irishman left with the logical deduction from thinking? (4)
LIAM – L (left) I AM (the logical deduction from thinking)
3 After running round a calm pet may be seen on the table (5,3)
PLACE MAT – an anagram (after running round) of A CALM PET
10 Be in a spin when engaged in tricks and puzzles (7)
REBUSES – BE reversed (in a spin) in (when engaged in) RUSES (tricks)
11 Put in home, a good person having everything provided (7)
INSTALL – IN (home) ST (a good person) ALL (everything provided)
12 Of great significance, this could give one heart (5-10)
EARTH SHATTERING – an anagram (SHATTERING) of EARTH could give ‘heart’
13 Commercial competition — what you’d expect to span Food Week? (5,3)
PRICE WAR – PAR (what you’d expect) around (to span) RICE (food) W (week)
14 Two soldiers maybe, very big (5)
GIANT – GI ANT (two soldiers maybe)
17 Rope, see, for restraining donkey (5)
LASSO – LO (see) around (for restraining) ASS (donkey)
18 Cold fish now changing within and messing about (8)
CLOWNING – an anagram (changing) of NOW in (within) C (cold) LING (fish)
21 Abnormal dose for suffering actress (4,5,6)
DAME FLORA ROBSON – an anagram (suffering) of ABNORMAL DOSE FOR
23 Emergency operation? It is organised with flair (7)
AIRLIFT – an anagram (is organised) of IT FLAIR
24 Enthralled by a foreign saint, congregation develops (7)
UNFOLDS – FOLD (congregation) in (enthralled by) UN (a foreign) S (saint)
25 Blokes from part of Greater Manchester who flog things? (8)
SALESMEN – SALE’S MEN (blokes from part of Greater Manchester) with an extended def.
26 Pigment seen in fancy animation (4)
CYAN – hidden in (seen in) ‘fanCY ANimation’
Down
1 Stories in which you’ll find yellow parrots (6)
LORIES – LIES (stories) around (in which you’ll find) OR (yellow)
2 Bra’s grime could come from waxy substance (9)
AMBERGRIS – BRA’S GRIME is an anagram of (could come from) the answer
4 Spear used in battle is terrible (7)
LEISTER – hidden in (used in) ‘battLE IS TERrible’
5 Long-faced lot, as possibly seen in religious retreat (6,8)
CASTEL GANDOLFO – an anagram (possibly) of LONG-FACED LOT AS
6 This writer’s repeatedly upset about a US city (5)
MIAMI – I’M I’M (this writer’s repeatedly) reversed (upset) around (about) A
7 Money is demanded here — a potential barrier to progress (8)
TOLLGATE – a (not so) cryptic def.
8 In new development Welsh factories will be going in a straight line (2,3,4,5)
AS THE CROW FLIES – an anagram (in new development) of WELSH FACTORIES
9 Avoid getting key cut (6)
ESCHEW – ESC (key) HEW (cut)
15 Relation’s friend is an easy target (4,5)
AUNT SALLY – AUNT’S (relation’s) ALLY (friend) – this is the fourth time this answer has appeared in a blog on this site since mid-May!
16 Senior ladies adore LSD surprisingly (3,5)
OLD DEARS – an anagram (surprisingly) of ADORE LSD
18 Laugh, being let off after job comes to premature end (7)
CHORTLE – CHOR[e] (job comes to premature end) plus an anagram (off) of LET
19 Pop a question — its content appears to be obscure (6)
OPAQUE – hidden in (its content) ‘pOP A QUEstion’
20 Group of workers holding first of strikes, being in complete agreement (6)
UNISON – UNION (group of workers) around (holding) S[trikes] (first of strikes)
22 Lesson to be learnt from first half of my examination (5)
MORAL – M[y] (first half of my) ORAL (examination)
CASTEL GANDOLFO held me up for a while; even after realising it was an anagram I couldn’t unscramble it for ages. LEISTER was new to me but easily deduced.
A minor typo in the bog for 24ac – should be ‘fold’ not ‘folf’.
Thanks, Quixote and Gaufrid.
Yes, not too difficult although I hadn’t heard of 4 or 5d. ‘S’ rather than ‘ST’ for ‘saint’ always catches me out so I took longer to get 24 than I should have. Although an easy clue, I had a 18d at 16d.
Feeling pretty pleased with myself I then tackled Nimrod’s Saturday puzzle which I hadn’t been able to do over the weekend. Yes, pride does come before a fall. I was completely defeated and after several hours waved the white flag, having solved only about half the clues. Looking at the solution, I could have spent another week and doubt I would have solved any more. I’m certainly hoping for something a bit gentler to restore my equilibrium tomorrow.
Thanks to S&B
Thanks allan_c @1, typo corrected.
Thank you for the feedback. Two points to make:
1 As Quixote, I have always attempted to make my Indy clues on the easy side and I now use helpful Everyman-type grids. Every paper needs to encourage new solvers as well as to cater for ‘wolves’, who want tricky clues and tricky themes. I therefore take the comments of the blogger as a compliment, though I am not sure they were intended as such. If you want harder puzzles from me, try Pasquale in The Guardian.
2 Puzzles in the i are recycled puzzles from The Indy five years ago. I do not recycle my old puzzles, but The Indy does and ( disgracefully) it pays no additional fee. This (along with the fact that the fee that never increases) explains why I appear now only once a month in The Indy in a slot that fills in Dac’s gaps.
Not bonkers about or for yellow. Theyre lorikeets where I live.
Thanks to Don for dropping in and giving his view. I can’t argue with a thing he said, and I thought this was a good Wednesday-style Indy puzzle. UNFOLDS was my LOI after OPAQUE.
As far as 1dn is concerned one of the definitions of OR in my Chambers is “the tincture gold or yellow” in heraldry, and it defines “lorikeet” as a small LORY, so the clue works perfectly well.
Thank you, Quixote. I am definitely not a wolf, and appreciate your consideration for the rest of us.
There’s no danger of me tackling Pasquale in the Grauniad, but as a loyal Indy reader I am disappointed at your mean treatment, and I hope the editor gets to read this.
I like puzzles I can do without recourse to Crossword/Anagram Solver, as it makes me believe I still have a few grey cells left. This was one such puzzle.
Many thanks to the Don, and the blogger.
For those who want trickier puzzles, try explaining Jeremy Corbyn.
Thank you everyone. Our crossword editor Mike is very supportive, but he is quite unable to shift The Indy — very disappointing for a paper that tries to encourage generous liberalism, I agree!
Thank you Quixote for the puzzle, being a very slow/dim solver I really enjoyed it, the only new word was LEISTER. I also enjoy the Pasquale puzzles in the Guardian, but there always need some help.
Thank you Gaufrid for the blog – this was fun because I can now use the new online format which does not need Java, so no longer need to print out the puzzle.
I am confused by the Indy’s site. How canm I access the crossword? I cannot see it on their new pages anywhere. Also it says you can only do the previous day’s puzzle, which is obvioulsy no good.
Java version has been inaccessible to me for months.
hoggy @11, go onto the new? site ‘Independent: Online Puzzles, Games & Quizzes’.
hedgehoggy @11
The URL and other info can be found here.
I’m not impressed by leister. Obscure words, I suspect, are more satisfying for the setters than the solvers, offering the possible equivalent of an ‘aren’t-I-clever’ exclamation mark.
hedgehoggy@11
We cannot access in internet explorer. Google chrome lets us see today’s crossword
hoggy @11, so does Mozilla Firefox.
@Quixote #4
I am surprised to learn that puzzles in the i are recycled puzzles from The Indy five years ago.
A business newspaper in India publishes 15x Daily Mail crosswords. They have a set of puzzles which they use repeatedly. So every three years the same puzzle will appear.
They could have got away some decades ago but not now with such a high technological development and blogs/message boards/social networking.
Internet groups that were solving the puzzles stopped doing so because now the moment you get a sense of déjà vu, you can search and get the previous outing. Setters repeating their own clues can be caught out!
The business newspaper that publishes these Mail crosswords must have got them from a flagship newspaper of the company that bought them originally. That paper now publishes a US synonymic puzzle that must have come dirt cheap. The puzzle is printed in a small text box with the clues in tiny, unreadable font. This puzzle is tucked away at an inconvenient position on the page among cartoons and a variety of other puzzles. All naam ke vaaste!
For these newspapers crosswords are not for solving. They are like a placemat on a dining table that doesn’t serve any meal.
Hedgehoggy et al
If, for some reason, you cannot access the new Indy puzzles site,
the old Java link still works and will give you today’s crossword:
http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/puzzles/crosswords/cryptic/
(but you cannot print it off [which is possible on the new site])
If Java refuses to load (as it did some months ago here at my place), then read this documents:
https://www.java.com/en/download/help/ie_tips.xml
https://java.com/en/download/help/enable_browser.xml
Although, if I remember well, I did something with the Java control panel:
http://java.com/en/download/help/proxy_setup.xml
Much easier though it is to use the new site (even if I find online solving not really attractive (font too big/bold, fancy colours, not all the clues visible at one glance).
As Gaufrid pointed out: http://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independents/
It is blank Sil.
LEISTER is in all three main dictionaries, which is my criterion for it not being obscure. Moreover, I have given a clue that guides the solver towards the answer. I agree that it may be little-known, but hope one or two would be pleased to find it. But nice try, Catflat!
I hadn’t heard of “leister” myself, but I don’t automatically assume that makes it obscure.
Moreover I found it without hesitation despite the complete unfamiliarity, so I have to conclude that this is an excellent and appropriate bit of clueing.
I don’t particularly mind easy puzzles, especially if I haven’t had time to look at them during the day and decide to try my hand in the evening. I must admit that, if this had been a Nimrod, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to try, as I’d be too tired and it would take too long. This was an enjoyable diversion rather than an epic battle and none the worse for that.
On the subject of recycling Indy crosswords for the i, I switched from the Indy to the i not long after the i started and have been doing the i crossword regularly, plus the Indy online if I get time. What I find intriguing is that I will quite often struggle – or even fail – to complete it, yet when I track down the 15sq blog (usually via a link on http://www.idothei.wordpress.com) I sometimes find that there is a comment from me! So in five years I have completely forgotten doing that crossword. Only very occasionally will a clue and/or its answer stir any recollection of encountering it before. Has anyone else experienced this?
A case in point being this Wednesday’s recycled Dac!
I agree with Gaufrid that this was simple with completion time being exactly the speed of writing.
However, after some recent dailies which I felt were overpraised here, it is a joy to witness the Don’s precision engineering. This is exactly the type of crossword I pass to acquaintances who are starting out and whom I wish to impress with the artistry of a great pastime.
Personally, I often “key cut” [beautiful clue BTW, Don Q] the Wednesday Indy and always eschew Monday’s G. But I know we’re all at different levels of solving ability and I think the mix is pretty good (apart from some recent non-challenging Thursdays to which I usually look forward and often save for weekend fun).
So, out of my foregoing volubility, I’m simply saying….
Fantastic crossword, Mr Q! (with continued respect to our very own Gaufrid)
PS My one negative comment – I agree that TOLLGATE was hardly a cryptic clue (IMHO) and perhaps not worthy of the Manley stamp.
Incidentally, does anyone know why the i doesn’t just use the same crossword as the main paper? It prints the same news and comment articles, so why not the same crossword? I’m sure there is a good reason, I just don’t know what it is. As it is I don’t buy newspapers at any more(*) – the price and the wasted paper both seem excessive – but I like the i format and I would buy it if it weren’t for the out-of-date crossword. Sadly I guess I am not a big enough market segment for the Indy to make decisions on that basis.
(*) Except when that nice Mr Waitrose gives me a free one.
I think it’s probably commercial i.e. a lot of people still buy the paper for the crossword and, if they put the same puzzle in the I, they would obviously stop forking out for the more expensive main newspaper.
An excellent crossword for all levels, except for the top whizzo’s,
More of the same please.