As far as we can tell, this is only the fourth Indy puzzle by Rodriguez, and it’s the second we’ve blogged.
The previous puzzle was themed, so we have looked at this one for a theme as well, but can’t find anything obvious. Any thoughts out there?
Perhaps because we’ve been away for four weeks without Internet access and without any crosswords, it took us a while to get into the puzzle – there were some crafty definitions and innovative wordplay – but that’s what we expect from the Thursday Indy and it all fell into place once we’d got your brains into gear.
Many thanks to Gaufrid for standing in for us while we’ve been away – we’ve just about caught up on the blogs we missed!
| Across | ||
| 7 | It shows nude‘s feverish, but not wild about husband (3,5,2,5) | |
| THE BIRTH OF VENUS | An anagram of FEVERISH BUT NOT (anagrind is ‘wild’) round H (husband) | |
| 9 | Kitchenware stolen? Still capturing the culprit (7) | |
| MUGSHOT | MUGS (kitchenware) HOT (stolen) | |
| 10 | Support for climbers thus trapped in mountain, backtracking (7) | |
| PERGOLA | ERGO (thus) ‘trapped’ in ALP (mountain) reversed or ‘backtracking’ | |
| 11 | Unclad dancer one’s seen in flight (5) | |
| STAIR | A reference to Fred |
|
| 13 | Something worn around party, giving a twirl – hot stuff! (9) | |
| BALACLAVA | CA (circa – ‘around’) LAB (Labour – party) all reversed or ‘given a twirl’ + LAVA (hot stuff) | |
| 14 | Fire leader dismissed from employment no. 10 (7) | |
| ENTHUSE | ‘Employment no.10’ could be |
|
| 16 | Consider dropping round, prepared to withdraw (7) | |
| RESCIND | An anagram of C |
|
| 17 | Music practice is a bore (4,5) | |
| ROCK DRILL | ROCK (music) DRILL (practice) | |
| 19 | Greeting welcomes home daughter? It’s spoken abroad (5) | |
| HINDI | HI (greeting) round or ‘welcoming’ IN (home) D (daughter) | |
| 20 | She‘s no extreme leftist (7) | |
| MILDRED | MILD (not extreme) RED (leftist) | |
| 21 | Painter’s hugged by fine lady kept for pleasure (7) | |
| ODALISK | DALI’S (painter Salvador Dali) in or ‘hugged by’ OK (fine) | |
| 23 | Set of pieces of fruit and biscuit dessert picked up (10,5) | |
| NUTCRACKER SUITE | NUT (fruit) CRACKER (biscuit) + homonym (‘picked up’) of SWEET (dessert) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Childless French philosopher’s trouble at sea (4) | |
| BERG | BERG |
|
| 2 | Shrivel up like royal consort? (6) | |
| WITHER | A consort to the Queen would be WITH ER | |
| 3 | Black clothes tasteless stuff, it’s possible to say (8) | |
| STATABLE | SABLE (black) round or ‘clothing’ TAT (tasteless stuff) | |
| 4 | Records which record covers up the truth (6) | |
| GOSPEL | EPS (records) in or ‘covered by’ LOG (record) all reversed or ‘up’ (in a down clue) | |
| 5 | Clumsily plays ball, with old hands holding club for driving (8) | |
| OVERACTS | O (ball) VETS (veterans – ‘old hands’) round or ‘holding’ RAC (Royal Automobile Club – ‘club for driving’) | |
| 6 | Fond of people’s bit of plainsong (10) | |
| INTONATION | INTO (fond of) NATION (people) | |
| 7 | Printer may use this paper with novel, a French narrative (5,3,5) | |
| TIMES NEW ROMAN | TIMES (paper) NEW (novel) ROMAN (French novel or ‘narrative’) | |
| 8 | Tap dance with skill, performing frisky antics (4,3,6) | |
| SLAP AND TICKLE | An anagram of TAP DANCE and SKILL – anagrind is ‘performing’ | |
| 12 | Provide joint for Bacchic ritual in which cocaine is consumed (10) | |
| ARTICULATE | An anagram of RITUAL (anagrind is ‘Bacchic’) round C (cocaine) + ATE (consumed) | |
| 15 | Kind of service led by a military service (8) | |
| UNDERARM | UNDER (led by) A RM (Royal Marines – military service) | |
| 16 | Buccaneer clinging to zip lines is to surrender (4,4) | |
| ROLL OVER | ROVER (buccaneer) round or ‘clinging to’ O (zip – nothing) LL (lines) | |
| 18 | Cause favoured by fascist (6) | |
| INDUCE | IN (favoured) DUCE (fascist Benito Mussolini, aka ‘Il Duce’) | |
| 19 | Rough area cavalry defends (6) | |
| HOARSE | A (area) in or ‘defended by’ HORSE (cavalry) | |
| 22 | Europeans wanting hot bit of mince pie (4) | |
| IRIS | IRIS |
|
22d is one hell of a surface!
Just the sort of crossword I like. A challenge, but a very entertaining one, with as much to make me think as to smile. Hard to choose amongst the many good clues but I agree that 22 was excellent, as were MUGSHOT, GOSPEL and UNDERARM.
Thanks to Rodriguez and B&J
Didn’t like this at all. Only able to get about a third of it before resorting to a lot of cheating.
Quite a challenge, especially the NE corner and some of the SE; had to resort to a word finder, but then I was able to parse the answers.
Some great clues, particularly 10ac and 21 ac in their traps for the unwary (such as me) – “thus” wasn’t “so”, and “artist” wasn’t “RA”. 7ac took some working out, chiefly deciding exactly what the anagram fodder was.
Lots of candidates for CoD, but I think IRIS gets it by a whisker (or should that be an eyelash?).
Thanks, Rodriguez and B&J.