Independent 9696 / Klingsor

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As expected, a fairly tough challenge from Klingsor today.

 

Having said that, when we came to write up the blog, we wondered why we had any problems – all the clues are perfectly fair and there are no unusual words in the grid. We were held up by the  general nature of the synonyms in 5ac (‘plant’ for ‘aster’) and 11ac (‘dog’ for ‘beagle’) but, with the crossing letters and the clear definitions, on reflection, they should not have been too much of a problem – perhaps we’re just having a bad day!

Across
1   Card game requiring players to hold an ace (7)
CANASTA CAST (players) round or ‘holding’ AN + A (ace)
5   Plant first of nemesias towards the back (6)
ASTERN ASTER (plant) N (first letter of ‘nemesias’)
8   Granny involves lad in backing Toc H perhaps (9)
CONSONANT NAN (granny) round or ‘involving’ SON (lad) in TOC reversed or ‘backing’
9   Do chapter on tragic heroine (5)
MIMIC C (chapter) after or ‘on’ MIMI (tragic heroine in ‘La Boheme’)
11   Dog, not black, for harpy? (5)
EAGLE bEAGLE (dog) without the ‘b’ (black)
12   Pot caused Dicky to become this? (6,3)
SPACED OUT An anagram of POT CAUSED – anagrind is ‘dicky’
13   No-nonsense northern relation lost in York perhaps (8)
SENSIBLE N (northern) SIB (sibling – ‘relation’) L (lost) in SEE (diocese – ‘York perhaps’)
15   God, say Hindus, originally possessing an elephant’s head (6)
GANESH Cryptic definition An &lit – First or ‘original’ letters of God Say Hindus round or ‘possessing’ AN E (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘elephant’) – Ganesh is a Hindu god with an elephant’s head. Thanks to Andrew @ 1 for pointing out our Bert’s error!
17   Make a show of influence (6)
AFFECT Double definition
19   Very forced smile concealing Charlie’s gaffe (8)
SOLECISM SO (very) + an anagram of SMILE (anagrind is ‘forced’) round or ‘concealing’ C (Charlie in the phonetic alphabet)
22   Captain invading valley, I reflected, is doomed (3-6)
ILL-OMENED NEMO (Captain – in the Jules Verne novels) in or ‘invading’ DELL (valley) I, all reversed or ‘reflected’
23   Rash man’s keeping WWII bomb around (5)
HIVES HE’S (man’s) round or ‘keeping’ V1 (WWII ‘flying’ bomb) reversed or ‘around’
24   Cut Hank on vacation some slack (5)
LOOSE LOOp (hank) without the last letter or ‘cut’ + SomE without the middle letters or ‘on vacation’
25   All-in wrestling with bare stage performer (9)
BALLERINA An anagram of ALL-IN and BARE – anagrind is ‘wrestling’
26   Crossword solver, as it were, gets a seat (6)
SETTEE A crossword solver is a person for whom a Setter compiles a puzzle and could therefore possibly be described as a SETTEE
27   Dread getting into offspring’s tangle? (7)
SEAWEED AWE (dread) ‘getting into’ SEED (offspring)
Down
1   Dog‘s nap is disturbed, having crowing bird around (6,7)
COCKER SPANIEL An anagram of NAP IS (anagrind is ‘disturbed’) in COCKEREL (crowing bird)
2   News about Bosnia regularly ignored – go figure (7)
NONAGON N and N (‘news’) round alternate or ‘regular’ letters of BOsNiA GO
3   Spanish gentleman’s second to last to sleep soundly? (5)
SNORE SENOR (Spanish gentleman) with the ‘e’ (second letter) moved to the end or ‘last’
4   A woman swallows a lot of salt water (5,3)
ADAMS ALE A DAME (woman) round or ‘swallowing’ SALt without the last letter or ‘a lot of’
5   A guy skirting river gets lost (6)
ASTRAY A STAY (guy) round or ‘skirting’ R (river)
6   Clement and Paddy scoffed (9)
TEMPERATE TEMPER (paddy) ATE (scoffed)
7   Right, Leo McKern’s heading up cast as barrister (7)
RUMPOLE R (right) + an anagram of LEO M (first letter or ‘heading’ of ‘McKern) UP – anagrind is ‘cast’
10   Copper on case of theft was informed arrests have to make the grade (3,3,7)
CUT THE MUSTARD CU (copper) ThefT (first and last letters or ‘case’) HEARD (was informed) round or ‘arresting’ MUST (have to)
14   Lying is popular with criminal (9)
INCUMBENT IN (popular) CUM (with) BENT (criminal)
16   Boats travel by land so awkwardly (8)
GONDOLAS GO (travel) + an anagram of LAND SO – anagrind is ‘awkwardly’
18   Orchestra stops to smoke? That’s excessive! (7)
FULSOME LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) in or ‘stopping’ FUME (smoke)
20   Bill‘s singing well (7)
INVOICE If one is ‘singing well’ one could be said to be IN VOICE
21   Authorise drug arrest by the French (6)
ENABLE E (drug) NAB (arrest) LE (‘the’ in French)
23   One may laugh, showing some healthy enamel (5)
HYENA Hidden in or ‘some’ healtHY ENAmel

 

13 comments on “Independent 9696 / Klingsor”

  1. Thanks B&J. I always expect to find Klingsor’s puzzles hard, but, as you say, they usually turn out to be quite tractable in retrospect.

    In 7d it might be worth mentioning that Leo McKern played the part of Rumpole in the TV adaptation of John Mortimer’s stories.

    I would classify 15a as an &lit rather than a CD.

  3. Thanks Klingsor, B&J
    I didn’t find this one too hard. Lots to like, including BALLERINA, ADAMS ALE, SETTEE. I was a bit surprised at the inclusion of a separate definition for RUMPOLE.

  4. Medium difficulty for me with a few slow to yield at the end including 4d and 10d. Nothing too obscure though I hadn’t heard of a harpy EAGLE or come across INCUMBENT for ‘lying’ before. Liked the surface for BALLERINA and the ‘Crossword solver, as it were’ – where I happen to be at the moment.

    Good old RUMPOLE. Hasn’t been on the TV here for ages and I’d love to see him again. We’ve only got endless re-runs of shows like ‘Are You Being Served’ instead. There’s only so much of Mrs. Slocombe et al anyone can take.

    Thanks to Klingsor and B&J.

  6. We did this after the guardian crossword. They were about the same level of difficulty as far as we were concerned. We enjoyed the guardian one but this one just didn’t do it for us.
    Diff’rent strokes, as they say.

  7. Found this quite difficult. Failed to parse HIVES, having taken ‘man’s’ to be HIS leaving EV for the bomb. Also resorted to a word fit for SEAWEED, since I had incorrectly taken the end letter S & D to be the offspring. Some great clues. Took me a long time to get CONSONANT, assuming Toc H perhaps as the definition for quite awhile. On a side note, I remember first encountering this society in the Pink Floyd track Pow R. Toc H.
    Other great clues include SPACED OUT and ADAM’S ALE. Found INCUMBENT a hard solve. Didn’t know Harpy as a type of eagle.
    Thanks to S&B.

  8. I rather enjoyed this. Thanks Klingsor and Bertandjoyce 🙂

    James @3 — “Right, Leo McKern’s heading up cast” doesn’t define Rumpole (I don’t think it could be claimed to define anything) so the definition is needed in the clue.

    18d’s definition made me smile this morning as a(n ex-)cabinet minister’s resignation letter was on the BBC news site this morning offering fulsome apologies. Not the intended meaning, but charming nonetheless

  9. postmortes @8
    Yes. I didn’t mean to suggest the clue had a superfluous definition, rather that as &lits are such a feature of Klingsor puzzles I initially expected this to be one because of the Leo McKern reference.

  10. Thanks for the blog.

    Hard/medium hard/easy is a concept with cryptics that I am coming to realise depends on lots of things other than the setter’s intention (for example, whether I am hyper-grumpy or just normal grumpy, whether it’s half-past four and already dark, whether the previous offering from the compiler was stupidly difficult …) However, I breezed through this, so am feeling v pleased and thinking that I might finally be getting a bit better at this sort of ‘hard’ Thursday Indy stuff. Till next Thursday.

    Lots to like, but my favourites were GANESH because it’s a clever &lit and SETTEE because it’s whimsical, and I was feeling whimsical when I solved this one.

    D?kuji moc to the setter.

  11. I really liked this.

    Favourites were CANASTA, COCKER SPANIEL, NONAGON (so that made for a good start in NW), GANESH, SOLECISM, and especially GONDOLAS.

    I had to google rumplole, it rang a bell but I’ve never seen it. I just took for granted there had to be a VI bomb.

    Many thanks Klingsor and B&J

  12. I found 7dn a bit of a double bluff. As soon as I saw McKern’s name, I thought of Rumpole, so of course that couldn’t be the answer and I had to get several crossing letters before I realised it really was that. Although McKern was also Number 2 in at least one episode of The Prisoner.

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