Quite a challenge from Serpent today, which took us a while to get into.
There is a well-constructed literary theme based on two 5ds and their major works, which, as we found out with a bit of electronic assistance, are interconnected.
As is to be expected with Serpent, the clues are well-crafted, although we have some slight concerns with 1d. All-in-all a good work-out for the old grey matter, made more satisfying by Bert’s appearance at 9ac!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Fund opportunity to see West Indies being dismissed by England (5) | |
| ENDOW | ||
| 4 | Extend scope of attack to include US property (6,3) | |
| BRANCH OUT | BOUT (attack, as in a bout of flu) round or ‘including’ RANCH (US property) | |
| 9 | Relative performance indicator for American students gains currency in Africa (7) | |
| GRANDPA | GPA (‘Grade Point Average’ – ‘performance indicator for American students’ – a new one for us) round or ‘gaining’ RAND (South African currency unit) | |
| 10 | Swingers’ bar! (7) | |
| TRAPEZE | Cryptic definition | |
| 11 | Character displayed by those cycling (5) | |
| ETHOS | THOSE with the last letter moved to the front or ‘cycling’ | |
| 12 | Weeklong courses about distance learning (9) | |
| KNOWLEDGE | An anagram of WEEKLONG (anagrind is ‘courses’) round D (distance) | |
| 13 | 5 rearranged 18 using extremes of speech, rather than central characters (4,4) | |
| JEAN RHYS | An anagram of JAN |
|
| 14 | Workplace reveals something, withholding papers under review (6) | |
| STUDIO | OUTS (reveals something) round or ‘withholding’ ID (papers) all reversed or ‘under review’ | |
| 16 | Smart accessory makes little difference to car tax (6) | |
| CRAVAT | CAR with the last letter moved forward – ‘a little difference’ + VAT (tax) | |
| 18 | 6 work one month with miserable beast, getting nothing out of him (4,4) | |
| JANE EYRE | JAN (January – ‘one month’) EEY |
|
| 21 | Computer start-up in role reversal, pursuing high-street retailer (9) | |
| BOOTSTRAP | PART (role) reversed after or ‘pursuing’ BOOTS (high-street retailer) | |
| 22 | Really up for it or really gutted? (5) | |
| RANDY | If you ‘gut’ or take the middle letters out of ‘really’ you get R AND Y | |
| 24 | Every so often Monday is OK to make return journey (7) | |
| ODYSSEY | Alternate letters (‘every so often’) of MOnDaY iS + YES (OK) reversed or ‘making return’ | |
| 25 | Source of heat in contact with plastic fibre cladding (7) | |
| BONFIRE | ON (in contact with) in or ‘clad by’ an anagram of FIBRE – anagrind is ‘plastic’ | |
| 26 | Turn after smashing up desk to run away (9) | |
| SKEDADDLE | ADDLE (‘turn’ – as in ‘go off’) after an anagram of DESK – anagrind is ‘smashing up’ | |
| 27 | Gradually move closer to land with border (5) | |
| EDGED | EDGE (gradually move) D (last letter or ‘closer’ to ‘land’) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | High-flier – probably not putting much in – getting this result (5) | |
| EAGLE | We think this must be a golf reference, but if so the wordplay is not as clear as it might be – an EAGLE is a score of 2-under-par, which for most holes would probably mean that the golfer would not have done ‘much putting’ in order to achieve ‘this result’ | |
| 2 | Tragedy perhaps engulfing Switzerland’s former capital (7) | |
| DRACHMA | DRAMA (tragedy perhaps) round or ‘engulfing’ CH (Switzerland) | |
| 3 | Unexpectedly, wage rises do double as 13 work with 18 for inspiration (4,8,3) | |
| WIDE SARGASSO SEA | An anagram of WAGE RISES DO AS and AS (‘double’) – anagrind is ‘unexpectedly’. Apparently 18ac was the inspiration of this book by 13ac | |
| 4 | Result of fighting to live without servant (5,3) | |
| BLACK EYE | BE (live) round or ‘without’ LACKEY (servant) | |
| 5 | Thoreau, regardless of fame, ultimately, may be construed as such (6) | |
| AUTHOR | An anagram of THOR |
|
| 6 | Famous 5 in novel start to tease bachelor rotten (9,6) | |
| CHARLOTTE BRONTE | An anagram of T (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘tease’) and BACHELOR ROTTEN – anagrind is ‘novel’ | |
| 7 | In “Rigoletto”, Verdi definitely went over the top (7) | |
| OVERDID | Hidden in ‘RigolettO VERDI Definitely’ | |
| 8 | Monarch in the vanguard for that reason (9) | |
| THEREFORE | ER (monarch) in THE FORE (vanguard) | |
| 13 | Judge does something about kinky book’s coverage of soldiers’ legs (9) | |
| JACKBOOTS | J (judge) ACTS (does something) round an anagram of BOOK – anagrind is ‘kinky’ | |
| 15 | Story receiving record investment for right material (8) | |
| PALPABLE | PA |
|
| 17 | Church attendant upset some taking part in impropriety locally (7) | |
| ACOLYTE | Hidden or ‘taking part’ and reversed or ‘upset’ in ‘impropriETY LOCAlly’ | |
| 19 | Violent drawing of American head of state being decapitated (7) | |
| YANKING | YANK (American) |
|
| 20 | Said band made a harsh sound (6) | |
| BRAYED | A homophone (‘said’) of BRAID (band) | |
| 23 | Provide youth leader with discipline after losing head (5) | |
| YIELD | Y (first letter or ‘leader’ of ‘youth’) + |
|
I don’t have any problem with 1d. Although I didn’t know 3d and 13a, I managed to work them both out so an enjoyable solve. Strange that I mentioned Charlotte Bronte in my post for the last iOS.
Thanks Serpent, B & J
Nicely linked, particularly in the symmetrical arrangement. I liked KNOWLEDGE and BONFIRE best.
If you ignore the – in 1d it reads ok: ‘not putting much in getting this result’
I didn’t know GPA so guessed GRANDMA for my LOI before changing it.
Quite a challenge indeed. Just about finished, with PALPABLE the last one in – I couldn’t see the definition. 1d also a mystery to me, but you’re asking the wrong person. A nicely constructed puzzle just about at the top end of my solving ability for a daily cryptic.
Thanks, all three.
Kathryn’s Dad @3-I had the same problem with PALPABLE but perfectly fair.
And the blog has helped me on 1d which is a very neat surface indeed.
Great puzzle and a good week for them.
Thanks B&J and Serpent.
Literary knowledge a bit lacking so had to rely on the generous wordplay for 13a and 3d. Eventually guessed the wrong grandparent gender for 9a after going through every African country and city I could think of. Liked EAGLE and the ‘coverage of soldiers’ legs’. I agree with others – not an obvious def. for PALPABLE which was also my last in.
Thanks to B&J and to Serpent for an enjoyable pre-prandial Thursday evening solve.
Another brilliant puzzle from Serpent. Fortunately was able to dredge up 13A and 3D from first year Eng Lit at Uni many years ago.
Vastly entertaining.
Thanks to Serpent and to Bertandjoyce for an impeccable blog.
Quite a struggle today and wordfinder help needed in both NW and SE corners (and facepalm moments when we saw the answers). We’d heard of 3dn but had to google for its author to unscramble the anagram fodder in 13. Incidentally we parsed 13 as replacing the central characters of ‘speech’ with the outer ones, but your parsing works just as well. Plenty to like though, but no time now to write more.
Thanks, Serpent and B&J
another great puzzle from Serpent.
Rather annoyingly, I had always thought the book (one I’ve never read) was called the WILD SARGASSO SEA and I got myself somewhat storm toss’d trying to find the L.
Many thanks to S, B&J
A most enjoyable puzzle. I vaguely knew of the novel at 3d, but not its actual title, so the crossers were needed to work it out, although I didn’t actually need the anagrist to solve it. I didn’t know the author, but worked her out from the wordplay, having already got Jane Eyre. My LOI was GRANDPA, having, like others, origianlly tried GRANDMA. Thanks Serpent and B&J
I found this easier than some of Serpent’s puzzles, but probably because I cracked the theme very quickly, which meant there were toeholds on all of the trickier clues. GRANDPA was last in – the indicator was new to me too. A fine puzzle and a very enjoyable one to solve.
Thanks to Serpent, B&J
Enjoyed this palpable def had me for a while and the Jane Eyre bits had me doubting my crosswords ability until I realised it was my reading ability at fault. Thanks Serpent and the blogging pair. Don’t suppose I can have my blogging slot back? No thought not. 🙂
Struggled with this – Seems there are gaps in my education. Jean Rhys? I’ll have to go investigate. I liked BLACK EYE and KNOWLEDGE. Missed a lot of parsing, including RANDY.
Obviously a great puzzle, but i must have started it when I was already a bit too tired, so I didn’t do it justice.
Many thanks Serpent and thanks B&J
Fascinated to see the difficulty that 15 caused as it was an early entry for me. Maybe because my professional life requires me to consider concepts of materiality and immateriality, the tangible vs the intangible, and hence the palpable vs the impalpable on a regular basis. I don’t mean this as a criticism of those who are unconvinced by the definition, more a joyful reminder to me that we all see things differently based on personal experience. My LOI was GRANDPA fwiw.
A while ago I heard a Radio 3 documentary about Jean Rhys, which helped. She published a number of books before WW2 and then was silent for nearly thirty years before publishing WIDE SARGASSO SEA. Not read it – never even read JANE EYRE.
I went one better with 9ac and guessed GRANDDA. Why I didn’t guess the more common relatives, I don’t know. Apart from that I completed the rest but there were many I couldn’t parse so thanks for the explanations.
One may know that as a solver I like Serpent’s crosswords very much.
True, he may yet be lacking the ultimate playfulness of an Arachne or a Picaroon but his puzzles are consistently challenging (and enjoyable).
A couple of months ago I gave my solving partner printouts of some of Serpent crosswords (and some of Hoskins too!).
She, not familiar with The Independent, fell immediately in love with his style – something that she once more confirmed tonight.
We both like precision and cannot stand too much iffiness and that’s probably what it is.
Looking from a setter’s perspective, I see clue construction delivered with a lot of care.
Serpent makes clear,very precisely, what he wants from us and is one who can embed these instructions brilliantly in the surfaces of his clues.
I see the much admired Hoskins write his clues as if he’s never done a thing like that [probably not true], while my image of Serpent is a setter refining over and over the great ideas that came out of his mind to get it all right.
Perhaps I am wrong but, one thing is sure, I am hugely at his wavelength – as I was today.
I’ll have to admit that 3d had to be googled but I saw how the clue worked and that’s sometimes just as important (for me) as the answer itself.
It opened up the puzzle after my slow start.
PALPABLE (15d) was my last one in (ETHOS (11ac) my first).
Great stuff (again).
For which thanks to the setter.
Many thanks, too, to B&J!
Sorry, Harry, I meant to say that I can see you writing clues as if you’ve never done anything else other than that before.
In a positive sense – you know that, in my opinion, you’re a complete natural which was what I wanted to express.
[I also know that it’s not always as easy as that]
Many thanks to B&J for the excellent blog, and thanks also to everyone who took the time to solve and comment on the puzzle. I really value the appreciative comments. See you again on 19 December!
You are forgiven, Sil @15 & 16 – though I’d still say it is the five years of bloody hard work all day every day that makes me look like the natural you have me pegged as. 🙂