Independent on Sunday 1405/Alchemi

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I found this tough going for an IoS puzzle, in fact tough going, full stop. It’s all fair (although there’s one I can’t parse).

 

 

 

When I was writing up the blog, I realised that one of the reasons I found some of the solutions hard to see was that there are a lot of proper nouns scattered about: we’ve got Tasman, London, Roland, Thompson, Enya, (Operation) Yewtree, Augusta and Ernie. I don’t know about other folk, but I find these tricky because there are so many possible answers. Crossing letters, dear boy, I know, but it took me a good while to get enough. But a solid crossword from our setter today.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Up to maritime explorer not to start back, for instance
AS MANY AS
[T]ASMAN plus SAY reversed. Abel TASMAN was the Dutch explorer who ‘discovered’ Tasmania (although he named it Van Diemen’s land). The Tasman Sea is also named after him.

6 Writer Jack left supported by academic
LONDON
The American writer is a charade of L, ON and DON.

9 Parent swallowing tablet late
DEAD
An insertion of E for an Ecstasy ‘tablet’ in DAD.

10 Characters changing used to be random vowels
WEREWOLVES
I liked this one. It’s a charade of WERE for ‘used to be’ and (VOWELS)*. WEREWOLVES are of course folkloric creatures created by a human morphing into a wolf.  The word WEREWOLF comes from the Old English WEREWULF: WER was Old English for ‘man’ (although ‘mann‘ also existed, and the latter passed into modern English).  So literally it’s MAN-WOLF.

11 Ancient city is home to Asian boat racket
UPROAR
An insertion of PROA for the ‘Asian boat’ (I never knew that) in UR.

12 Old priest reflected star director had exaggerated appeal
OVERSOLD
A multi-part charade: O plus REV reversed plus SOL for ‘star’ (ours at least) and D.

13 Fast way to understand king and queen being included in psalm
MISERERE
Another one: MI for M1 or ‘fast way’ and an insertion of R and ER in SEE. A setting of Psalm 51.

15 Indicator of Falangists retreating
SIGNAL
Hidden reversed in faLANGISts.

17 Legendary hero from country near central Europe
ROLAND
The central letters of ‘Europe’ and LAND. Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne, I learned today. Unless Alchemi is referring to ROLAND RAT, who in his own little way is also a hero.

19 Having lost leader, get sealed somehow inside high school
HEADLESS
An insertion of (SEALED)* in HS.

21 Uncomfortably hot politicians working for Daley?
THOMPSON
Daley THOMPSON, the retired decathlete, is (HOT)* followed by MPS and ON. I was after Tom Daley, the young diver, at first.

23 German athlete loses head becoming Arsenal player
GUNNER
A charade of G and [R]UNNER.

25 Article on Turkey reckons without rising exchanges
TRANSPOSES
Bit convoluted for my liking. A charade of TR, AN and S[UP]POSES

26 Arms oddly go up nose
GUNS
The odd letters of Go Up NoSe.

27 African knights escort Irish singer
KENYAN
It’s ENYA, the Irish singer, in KN.

28 Alarmed scrum leader was first after hooker
STARTLED
A charade of S, TART and LED.

Down

2 Rest the French in a month
SLEEP
An insertion of LE for one of the French words for ‘the’ in SEP.

3 Road named “Exploding Galaxy“
ANDROMEDA
(ROAD NAMED)*

4 We try confusing both sides in elite police operation
YEWTREE
Slightly unusual choice of solution, but you can’t say it hasn’t been in the headlines recently. A charade of (WE TRY)* and EE for the outside letters of ‘elite’.

5 Mrs Chase moves in to adjust power amplifiers
SERVOMECHANISMS
(MRS CHASE MOVES IN)*

6 Advocates surrounding women with hens
LAWYERS
An insertion of W in LAYERS.

7 Voids reverse polarity of attractive forces
NULLS
I can’t really see this. I’m guessing that N and S are the ‘attractive forces’ of a magnet, but the rest … Help is always at hand on Fifteensquared.

8 Is too heavy crossing a lot
OVERLOADS
A charade of OVER and LOADS.

14 Golf club socks emblazoned with LNER’s last steam-powered locomotive
IRON HORSE
A charade of IRON and R inserted into HOSE.

16 Government halting a surprisingly spectacular show
GALA NIGHT
(G HALTING A)*

18 Sand put around shovel
DUSTPAN
(SAND PUT)* I’m not really convinced that a DUSTPAN is a ‘shovel’.

20 Georgian city‘s impressive area
AUGUSTA
A charade of AUGUST and A for the city in Georgia, USA.

22 Individual gracious without cash
MONEY
An insertion of ONE in MY! as a synonym for GRACIOUS!

24 Chap I don’t know gets one in Berlin up
ERNIE
A charade of ER (I don’t know) and EIN for the number ‘one’ in German reversed.

Many thanks to Alchemi for this morning’s puzzle.

16 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1405/Alchemi”

  1. Thanks Pierre.
    I actually found this one easier than recent Alchemi puzzles (which I rather struggled).
    Not that I could finish it, missed three solutions in the NE (including NULLS which still puzzles me).

    I saw Alchemi today and we had a little chat about this crossword.
    I thought there was nothing going on but there is!
    The only thing I would like to say here [not too much spoiling the ‘fun’] is that there is a musical theme.
    Known to me but surely very obscure to others.

  2. Thanks Pierre. A bit hard for an IoS, I agree. It didn’t take me much longer than usual to solve, but the obscure nature (for me) of several solutions, or questionable definitions (DUSTPAN for shovel) did detract from the enjoyment somewhat.

    However, I did like WEREWOLVES, GUNS and the rugby-related misdirection of STARTLED.

    The first Daley I thought of for 21 was Arthur. Didn’t know the decathlete, but I do now.

    I couldn’t parse NULLS either, but finding no enlightenment here, I’ve mulled over it some more … could it be (p)ULLS with N for negative in place of P (positive)?

  3. Re the alleged musical theme, it’s far beyond my ken. I can make a few connections between pairs of clues but that’s it. e.g. WEREWOLVES of LONDON, (hot) AUGUST NIGHT and HEADLESS chickens (from hens/layers in 6d), though the latter probably only rings a bell with Kiwi solvers.

    No doubt it’ll be someone or something I’ve never heard of. It would explain the preponderance of proper nouns though.

  4. Pretty hard for me, and missed 1a and 17a which I guessed wrongly. Couldn’t parse NULLS – your explanation could be right, swatty @2. I did a bit of looking around and now see what the theme is, though had no idea beforehand. Many years ago we had 3 radio presenters who named their breakfast show after 3 of the themed words here – again something I didn’t realise at the time – and I know the one remaining of those presenters is a big fan.

    Thank you to Alchemi and Pierre.

  5. Clue for 6down changed in the Indian version to “cancels characters with lines through them”.
    That’s a lot more solvable; LL (lines) in (through) nu’s (Greek characters/letters)

  6. Thanks Alchemi and Pierre

    Thanks for the nudge, Sil @ 1.

    If I may spill the beans, LAWYERS GUNS AND MONEY, ROLAND THE HEADLESS THOMPSON GUNNER, I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD and WEREWOLVES OF LONDON are all songs by the magnificent and much missed Warren Zevon. I can’t spot any more, but think it’s a tremendous achievement to have fitted them all in.

  7. Simon S @ 6. Well done, especially because I’d forgotten that I’ll SLEEP when I’m DEAD was in there too.

    As to toughitude given that it’s a Sunday, I’ll point out that the setter doesn’t choose the day of a puzzle’s appearance (unless the puzzle is an anniversary/event puzzle).

    As to 6d (passim) Dilip @ 5 seems to have got the version which was supposed to appear. swatty @ 2 was right about the parsing of the original, to which our illustrious editor objected.

  8. Enjoyed the solve, which I didn’t find too tough until the last third at which point I, er, did. Was beaten by a couple (13a and 17a, stupidly sticking in Poland for the latter) but liked the puzz and loved the switcheroo of def vs sub/surround indicator in 19a other misdirections. Many thanks to Pierre for the blog and to Alchemi for a nice crossie that has made me go all AAAAAAAaahhhhhhhhhh-wooooooooooOOOOOOOO!

  10. Polarity reversal in NULLS is n for p in pULLS. n and p are negative and positive polarity as used to describe semiconductors. The detritus of a physics degree more than 40 years ago.

  12. A famous quote of today’s featured singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, a protege of Jackson Browne and a dear friend of David Letterman, was: ‘I got be Jim Morrison a lot longer than he did’.
    Yes, he lived a life like Jim’s but stayed nearly three decades longer on this planet.
    While many will remember him for the songs that were covered by Linda Ronstadt (e.g. Poor Poor Pitiful Me & Mohammed’s Radio [do you hear me, Donald – I fear not as narcissists do not listen to other people]) I especially treasure some of his collaborations with (the crossword friendly) REM and Neil Young in the later part of his life, a life that ended in September 2003.

  13. And ‘Carmelita (hold me tighter)’ and ‘Hasten Down The Wind’ – gosh, he was unsung hero, wasnt’ he?
    Until today!

  14. In the end, not too difficult. I only needed electronic help for 13ac. I too read 7dn as n(egative) for p(ositive) as, for instance, in the np junction of a semi-conductor (remembering my electronics course from 30+ years ago).

    I’m annoyed it took me ages to get 10ac as I’d just finished watching an episode of Bitten, a TV show that is about werewolves.1

  15. Well…… what else can we add? We missed the theme needless to say and also failed to parse 7d despite thinking that it had to link back to PULLS.

    We could not believe that anyone could write a song with Roland the headless Thompson gunner as the title so looked him up on wiki. He was born 70 years and 4 days ago. Amazingly we knew more of the people connected to him – Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fletwood, John McVie, The Eagles. Carl Wilson, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt than the man himself!

    Thanks all, especially S&B.

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