Given the news at the weekend about the Independent no longer appearing in print form, this will be my second to last blog of the puzzle in the paper. Just hoping that all our favourite setters will continue to contribute crosswords to the digital version. I found this Radian offering to be tough.
There seems to be a bit of a celebration theme – PARTY, FUNCTION, SOCIAL, FEAST, CELEBRATING. There may be other stuff going on: as regular readers will know, I’m pretty rubbish at spotting hidden themes and Ninas.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Presumably fast delivery man’s returned bonus?
SPIN-OFF
A bit of cricket to get us going. If a fast bowler had been given the nod by the captain to come back on for another spell, then SPIN would be OFF.
5 Nasty smell in Barking store starts again …
REBOOTS
An insertion of BO in (STORE)* with ‘Barking’ as the anagrind. REBOOT is the default solution for people in IT when your computer stops working properly.
10 … so I must ring head of Rentokil
ERGO
Another insertion, of R for the first letter of ‘Rentokil’ in EGO for ‘I’.
11 Money (not much of it) I’d invested in agreement
COINCIDENT
And another insertion: of ID in CENT following COIN.
12 Spies infiltrate very large 17
SOCIAL
17 is PARTY, so this is a further insertion, of CIA in SO for ‘very’ and L for ‘large’.
13 Old man raves about king in early medieval period
DARK AGES
I think that this is another insertion: of K in RAGES, following DA for ‘old man’. But I am happy to be corrected if someone has a better idea.
14 Taking on scheme in eastern China
EMPLOYING
Another insertion: of PLOY in E and MING.
16 Son opens pockets for Poles
POSTS
Another insertion: of S in POTS. Think snooker.
17 Maybe Labour is not entirely ignoring Left
PARTY
PART[L]Y. Not entirely; just mostly.
19 Observe speed of star?
CELEBRATE
If you CELEBRATE a religious festival, for example, you ‘observe’ it. And whimsically, if a CELEB or ‘star’ was going at speed, it might be a CELEB RATE.
23 17 force court to stop marriage
FUNCTION
More PARTY stuff. An insertion of CT in UNION following F for ‘force’.
24 One of 16 no longer held in reserve?
OFFICE
I think that this is OFFICE for ‘one post’, and that the cryptic definition is OFF ICE.
26 Stability for each worker within French city limits
PERMANENCY
A charade of PER for ‘each’, MAN for ‘worker’, EN for one of the French words for ‘in’ and CY for the outside letters of ‘city’. We are into lift and separate territory here: you have to split ‘within’ to become ‘with in’ to give you ‘in French’.
27 Amateur teams form league
AXIS
A charade of A and XIS for ‘elevens’ or ‘teams’. AXIS for ‘league’? If you must: I suppose George Dubya had his ‘axis of evil’.
Down
2 Stage exercises for drilling marines
PERFORM
Another insertion: of FOR in RM for ‘Royal Marines’ following PE for ‘exercises’.
3 Beef served up to newspaper girl
NAOMI
A reversal of MOAN followed by I, or i, for the Indy’s sister paper, which unlike the Indy itself, will continue to be available in a version made from dead trees. All the crosswords are currently recycled ones.
4 Medicine for one is not working around college
FACULTY
Another insertion: of C in FAULTY.
6 Conquistador promotes last pair to head bodyguard
ESCORT
Referencing Hernán Cortés, the Conquistador who roughed up the Aztecs. Take the last two letters of CORTÉS and put them at the front.
7 Foot’s 17, getting on with delivery process
OLD LABOUR
A charade of OLD and LABOUR for Michael Foot’s PARTY. I might have been tempted to put Jez instead of Michael. Jez we can. Or actually, we probably can’t.
8 Beat guy, 23
TANGENT
A charade of TAN and GENT, which gives you a FUNCTION (like SINE and COSINE). Opposite over Adjacent, since you ask.
9 Feature of cryptic game? An ingenue tackles it
HIDDEN MEANING
MEANING is HIDDEN in gaME AN INGenue. And HIDDEN MEANING is what cryptics are all about.
15 It’s clear to me ground delayed arrival
LATECOMER
(CLEAR TO ME)* with ‘ground’ as the anagrind.
18 A top conductor on trial, none shrewder
ACUTEST
I think, but only think, that this is a charade of A, CU and TEST. CU for copper, which is [a] ‘top conductor’ of electricity.
20 Jaguar tours county in special race
ECOTYPE
An insertion of CO in E-TYPE.
21 During tremors 2 manoeuvres
TACTICS
2 is PERFORM, so ACT. Radian is asking you to insert (once more) that in TICS for ‘tremors’.
22 Berliner’s article describing pub food
DINNER
Another insertion: of INN in DER for one of the German words for ‘the’, or the definite ‘article’.
25 Big 22 perhaps lent banks euros
FEAST
Another insertion, of E in FAST for the forty days of ‘Lent’, gives you a big DINNER.
Many thanks to Radian for this morning’s puzzle.
Thanks, Pierre, especially for 16ac, which I just couldn’t see: as always, it’s so obvious now.
I thought this was tough, too, although I did make things harder for myself by first entering EMPLANING at 14ac – it just about works – muttering at such an inelegant word [my apologies, Radian 😉 ], which held me up in that corner for a while.
It was a really enjoyable and satisfying solve: I particularly liked the ellipsis in 5 / 10 ac – both great clues – plus HIDDEN MEANING, CELEBRATE, ECOTYPE, PERMANENCY, etc, etc.
Many thanks to Radian for the workout.
Well. I also put EMPLANING at 14A and really had trouble thereafter. Now cannot imagine why I didn’t think of ploy, because as @1Eileen says, EMPLANING only just works, though I thought I was pretty clever to find it at the time.
Thanks to Radian & Pierre.
28 and 29 seem to have got lost from the blog. STIR-FRY (STIR, slang for prison, Elizabeth FRY, prison reformer) and DENTIST, (hidden in stuDENT IS Trying). I thought of DENTIST initially but didn’t put it in till much later when I realised the parsing.
As I noted in a comment on yesterday’s blog of the IoS, they’ve finally got the date right for the online version – today it’s “Monday February 15, 2016”. Would they have bothered if the crosswords weren’t going to continue? We can always hope.
Thanks, Radian and Pierre
Thanks Radian and Pierre
In 26 I don’t think ‘within’ is being split, as ‘in’ would then be doing double duty. I think it’s simply “within (French)” = EN – think ‘en croute’, for instance.
In 14 I started by trying to find something EM _ _ _ _ ATE, falling for the misdirection of *that* sort of China. 15 soon disabused me of that notion!
Hi Simon. I thought about ‘within’ for EN too. It can mean that, but there are many other ways of expressing ‘within’; and saumon en croûte just means ‘salmon in pastry’. Both ways work, but I don’t think my way has anything doing double-duty: it’s just PER plus MAN ‘with’ (followed by) EN and CY.
Thanks for filling in 28 and 29, Allan.
Late to the 17ac as usual.
It was a tough solve but enjoyable. Our LOI was 20d and required a search. When we saw the answer there was a combined DOH!
Let’s hope that they listen to everyone who has signed the petition and keep ALL the puzzles but especially the Inquisitor. We are sure the crytics will survive as they are already in a digital format.
Thanks Radian and Pierre.