An enjoyable puzzle from one of the few remaining Indy regulars from before the paper’s decline. There seemed to be a bit of theme in the clues with lots of words which rhyme with Punk e.g. hunk, spunk, trunk. Not sure if there is anything beyond that.
| Across | ||
| 1 | REQUIRE | Demand on paper (7) |
| Re + quire (paper unit) | ||
| 5 | GARBAGE | In storage building, box’s opening for junk (7) |
| Garage around b[ox] | ||
| 10 | HOOD | Punk, one going over your head? (4) |
| DD | ||
| 11 | BEER GARDEN | Turning greener, bad local area (4,6) |
| (Greener bad)* – local used in the sense of local pub, of course. | ||
| 12 | WIRRAL | Border not closing around Irish river in peninsula (6) |
| Wal[l] around Ir R(iver) | ||
| 13 | BEEFCAKE | Hunk beginning to collapse in imitation of worker? (8) |
| C[ollapse] in bee fake. | ||
| 14 | ENTOMB | Bury two males, the first’s head at the back (6) |
| Ben + Tom, with first letter moved to the end. | ||
| 16 | DETECTOR | With premier dismissed, bully protected one finds (8) |
| ([P]rotected)* | ||
| 18 | CLAPTRAP | Pitfall to go on strike – that’s bunk (8) |
| Trap appended to clap | ||
| 20 | REFUSE | Deny it’s junk (6) |
| DD | ||
| 22/2 | TIRED AND EMOTIONAL | Proposal to block trade nailed when terribly drunk (5,3,9) |
| Motion in (trade nailed)* | ||
| 25 | THEORY | Man possessed by right idea (6) |
| He in Tory | ||
| 26 | SAND HOPPER | Ultimately turned on, perhaps, excited crustacean (4,6) |
| [Turne]d + (on perhaps)* | ||
| 27 | FAIL | Flunk when feeble, right to pull out (4) |
| F[r]ail | ||
| 28 | BEARDED | Organ read, in conclusion, overshadowed by bunk like Tolstoy or Bernard Shaw? (7) |
| Ear + [rea]d in bed | ||
| 29 | COURAGE | Written in pen, The Independent’s spunk (7) |
| Our in cage | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | See 22 Across | |
| 3 | UNDERGO | Capital lost in finance, therefore suffer (7) |
| [F]und + ergo | ||
| 4 | REBEL | Punk band’s first to spoil dance (5) |
| [B]and in reel | ||
| 6 | AUGMENTOR | One expanding as one teaching now? (9) |
| Aug[ust] mentor | ||
| 7 | BORACIC | Rocking old cradle for starters, a crib broke (7) |
| (O[ld] c[radle] + a crib)*. The def is cockney rhyming slang – boracic lint = skint. | ||
| 8 | GREEK | European leader in rain wearing anorak, perhaps? (5) |
| R[ain] in geek | ||
| 9 | BEEB | Up-and-down Auntie? (4) |
| Palindrome | ||
| 15 | BARCAROLE | Song in simple boatman’s tune (9) |
| Carol in bare | ||
| 16 | DIP | Dunk in wadi, pinkies (3) |
| Hidden in waDI Pinkies. | ||
| 17 | OBSERVING | Watching over sign that’s crooked, balance initially maintained (9) |
| (Over sign)* around b[alance] | ||
| 19 | PLEADER | First violinist found under piano, one praying (7) |
| Leader under P(iano) | ||
| 21 | FEEL FOR | Empathise with spirit and love in the up-ending of football official (4,3) |
| (Elf + o in ref)< | ||
| 23 | IRATE | Newspaper cost going through the roof (5) |
| I + rate | ||
| 24 | DOPE | Charlie the skunk? (4) |
| DD. Charlie is obviously a word for a drug but is used there as in “he’s a right Charlie”. | ||
| 25 | TORSO | Trunk like this under bunk, upside down (5) |
| Rot< + so | ||
*anagram
Nice puzzle and blog-ta.
Not exactly a gentle introduction to the week but I found this a good challenge. Many clues such as the partial anagram at 22/2 took a bit of nutting out. Guessed BORACIC which I’d never heard of before for ‘broke’ – I thought ‘Rocking’ was the def and was trying to fit in an Italian word for a musical term ending in ‘O’. I liked BEEFCAKE (has been a clue here or Elsewhere in the last few months), AUGMENTOR, BEARDED and BARCAROLE, my favourite for the day.
Thanks to Punk and NealH
Thanks Punk and NealH
I found this quite tough but at the end, as with the best puzzles, didn’t really know why.
One minor correction Neal: 28 is EAR + [rea]D in BED.
A bit of a theme in the answers, too, with GARBAGE, CLAPTRAP and REFUSE on the one hand and HOOD and REBEL on the other. Re 24dn, ‘skunk’ is also slang for various types of strong-smelling cannabis, or so wikipedia tells me.
Some thought required today, but all eminently gettable. CoD was PLEADER for its surface and the mental image it conjured up.
Thanks, Punk and NealH
Thanks as ever for the excellent blog, NealH. A little surprised though by your comment re one of the few remaining regulars as I think the great bulk of them have continued to appear in the new on-line era. Also I’d say the paper may not see this as a decline but a change in format in a different media age. Great that the puzzles could continue.
I was probably thinking a bit further back to when the paper had compilers like Virgilius, Nimrod and Quixote. The decline comment refers purely to the paper edition – no implication that website isn’t successful.
@NealH
Nimrod set the last Saturday puzzle.
Quixote posted a while back that he had decided not to send any more puzzles to The Indy because of the level of the fee.
Virgilius has only relatively recently returned to the Graun after a longish sabbatical; one hopes he appears again in The Indy.
That’s not quite right, baerchen.
Don, it seems, was never happy with the fee, but his main gripe relates to the Indy’s reluctance to pay compilers for crosswords reprinted in the i. Virgilius left the Indy as he needed to eliminate one puzzle due to work pressure (as I remember it), and the cheapest hit won out.
Not that we’re necessarily all about money. We can’t afford to be.
Regarding Neal H’s remarks, make your mind up: has the crossword suffered or not?
Yes Don and Brian left, but well before the digital realignment. And as far as I can detect there is no dearth of talent among the remaining compilers (present company excepted).
Some very ill-thought-out comments in the thread today, I fear.
@PaulB
Thanks for the info and the correction; yes I remember now Don’s comment about the syndication of puzzles to the i (wonder how that works now, given that the two papers no longer have a common owner?)
@baerchen
Syndication of puzzles to the i continues. The new owners pay the Independent for some journalism, puzzles, etc.
@Jon
Thanks for that update
Boracic is Cockney rhyming slang. Boracic lint =skint.
Shouldn’t 6d be NOVMENTOR?
As with others, I have been led here by the “i” so can confirm that syndication is indeed continuing. I trust the setters are being properly remunerated for the continued enjoyment they are providing to the likes of us?
I came here to check in case anyone else had been stuck on this puzzle for hours having initially put CROAT in for 8d and then been unable to complete any other clue in the NE corner before realising that it should be GREEK.
Alas it appears I was alone in my foolishness…
Belated thanks to both Punk and NealH.