Anglio has been contributing Indy puzzles (Prize, weekday and IoS) for nearly three years now, and is a regular but infrequent setter. This is the first time we have bumped into each other on Fifteensquared, and I very much enjoyed making his acquaintance. A lovely puzzle with some neat touches. Take a minute to look again at the surface readings: they’re pretty much all top notch.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Republic has areas in which crime is a problem
AMERICA
An insertion of (CRIME)* in two As.
5 A fellow made a run for it after wife went on too much
WAFFLED
A charade of W, A, F and FLED.
9 Port Vale’s opener goes in very scrappily
RYE
Far too much footie in the Indy. Anglio’s inviting you to take the V (the first letter or ‘opener’ of ‘Vale’) out of ‘very’ and make an anagram. So it’s ([V]ERY)* which gives you the delightful little town in East Sussex which is one of the Cinque Ports.
10 Popular myth surrounds quiet Scottish island
FASHIONABLE
An insertion of SH! and IONA in FABLE.
11 Damaged picture frames about to be reduced
CUT-PRICE
An insertion (‘frames’) of C for circa or ‘about’ in (PICTURE)* The anagrind is ‘damaged’.
12 Mistakes are to be reversed, soldiers trapped at the front admitted
ERRATA
An insertion (‘admitted’) of RA for Royal Artillery or ‘soldiers’ and T for the first letter of ‘trapped’ in ARE reversed.
15 Drive to Oslo regularly
TOOL
A charade of TO and the odd letters of OsLo. A new one on me, but my Collins has:
tool n (when intrans often foll by along) to drive (a vehicle) … esp in a leisurely or casual style
16 Half of party goes with rhetoric – room for improvement?
LABORATORY
A charade of LAB[OUR] and ORATORY. I suppose in a very general sense, a LABORATORY could be a room in which scientific improvements are made.
18 Need to be composed after female just panicked
FRIGHTENED
A charade of F, RIGHT and (ENED)* ‘Panicked’ in its transitive sense.
19 Run over wild animal
WOLF
A reversal of FLOW. Great, succinct, clue.
22 Capital of Sweden consumed by liberal opinion – outwardly
LISBON
A charade of S inserted into LIB and ON for the outside letters of ‘opinion’.
23 Home by five when in old reserved occupation
INVASION
A charade of IN, V, AS and O inserted into IN.
25 Clutching drink, step into hospital department to see one who deals with piles
ESTATE AGENT
Interesting picture painted by the surface (one would hope the drink was unclutched before any examination took place). Two insertions: of TEA in STAGE, then the whole thing in ENT for the setters’ fave ‘hospital department’.
27 A bridge player possesses clubs and diamonds
ICE
An insertion of C for ‘clubs’ in I for ‘one’ or ‘a’ and E for one of the four possible ‘bridge players’.
28 Heavyweight reportedly gets purse
TIGHTEN
A homophone of TITAN. Think lips.
29 Grand Hotel, given time, embraces good idea
THOUGHT
This one took me a good while to see, but it’s an insertion (’embraces’) of G in THOU for thousand or ‘grand’ and H for the phonetic alphabet ‘hotel’ followed by T.
Down
1 A blend of mostly tropical fruit
APRICOT
(TROPICA[L])*
2 Choose wrought iron case, oddly, for delicate circuitry
ELECTRONICS
A charade of ELECT, (IRON)* and CE for the odd letters of CaSe.
3 Sing refrain for musical gathering
INFORM
Hidden in refraIN FOR Musical.
4 Joined United in league
ASSOCIATED
A td – triple definition. Another cleverly fabricated surface.
5 Drop of whiskey and punch
WHIT
More phonetic alphabet: this time W for ‘whiskey’ (sic) followed by HIT.
6 Following diversion, ultimately become very gloomy
FUNEREAL
A charade of FUN, E for the last letter of ‘become’ and REAL. In informal English, REAL and ‘very’ can both be used as intensifiers: ‘it’s real hard/it’s very hard’.
7 Toss up ball endlessly
LOB
LOB[E]
8 I eat dry crackers, given this advice?
DIETARY
(I EAT DRY)* with ‘crackers’ as the anagrind and an extended definition.
13 Expressing regret, a game show admits wrongdoing
APOLOGISING
A charade of A, POLO and SIN inserted into GIG.
14 Golf balls new players hit, finally gaining control
GOVERNMENT
That phonetic alphabet is working hard this morning: a charade of G for ‘golf’, OVER for (six) ‘balls’, N, MEN for ‘players’ and T for the last letter of ‘hit’.
17 The star beginning to oscillate could become dimmer, possibly
RHEOSTAT
(THE STAR O)*
18 Leader of forgotten tribe dances around large tree
FILBERT
A charade of F for the first letter of ‘forgotten’ and L inserted into (TRIBE)* The anagrind is ‘dances’ and the insertion indicator is ‘around’.
20 Two supporters used to get the Blades going
FAN BELT
The first supporter is a FAN; the second is a BELT. The reference in the solution is to the ‘blades’ of the car radiator fan; the reference in the clue is to Sheffield United, who are known as The Blades. Far too much footie in the Indy. We need some more golf-based clues.
21 Revolutionary vehicle keeps empty spacecraft supplied with oxygen
CASTRO
An insertion of ST for the outside letters of S[PACECRAF]T in CAR, followed by O.
24 With its arrival, I dashed for cover
RAIN
An insertion of I in RAN for ‘dashed’. Caddish, if not a true cad.
26 Violent criminal shipping heroin in vessel
TUG
T[H]UG
Many thanks to Anglio for this morning’s puzzle. Only one more Indy crossword to go before the big 10,000.
Fantastic puzzle with such great surfaces. Favourites include: WAFFLED, ESTATE AGENT, DIETARY & RAIN. I couldn’t see ASSOCIATED for the life of me and ended up using a word fit.
I parsed 7d as gLOBe.
Not sure about the definition for “laboratory”.
I was also defeated in the bottom left until a thesaurus search gave me “tighten” which then allowed me to complete.
Thanks to Anglio and Pierre.
a very nice workout of the cryptic grey matter
Thanks to Anglio and Pierre
Superb puzzle and as Pierre mentioned, all the surfaces are worth savouring.
Is the identity of the setter known ? It’s just that the clueing throughout has the same witty style as that of another favourite setter who is referenced here.
Could they be one and the same in different guises or somehow related?
Somehow I entered CASTOR for 21dn (well, it revolves) and never thought of CASTRO even though I’m watching last night’s World Series game where the commentators were going on about Cuban baseball players. It was only when I finally got 29ac I realised my mistake.
Nice to have something a little more testing among all the very Mondayish puzzles elsewhere. Some neat stuff.
I’m not sure of the identity of the setter, gsolphotog – there are some who keep a low profile. If you mean Filbert, I think it would be unlikely that the Indy would publish the same setter under two different handles.
We found this a bit more challenging than sometimes on a Monday, but none the worse for that.
We couldn’t parse LOB but would agree with Hovis’s parsing.
And we too wondered about LABORATORY but thought that when someone launches a “new improved” product they presumably had “boffins” at work in the lab to “improve” it – maybe! Great clue, though, like the rest.
LOI was INFORM when we finally saw it was a hidden.
Thanks, Anglio and Pierre
hi Pierre yes I did have Filbert in mind. I thought perhaps as the Indy has a huge stable of setters (going by the handles) I wondered if some were doing double duty but I take your point.
Very nice. I liked room for improvement, and plenty more. I missed Wolf! Didn’t se the reversal, was trying R+O+??.
Thanks Anglio and Pierre
Thanks to Pierre for a tidy analysis.
Also, thanks for the comments folks – I like to know how a puzzle has been received. I do try hard to provide decent surfaces, so it’s nice to get some favourable feedback in that direction.
7d was intended as ‘globe’, less both ends, as Hovis parsed it.
And no, not another setter’s alias – real name Adam.