Independent 10,153 by Punk

by

Punk is playing games with us this Monday morning . . .

. . . specifically, card games. All but one of the references to “game” in the clues are to card games, ranging from well-known to well-I’ve-never-heard-of-it. But there’s some clever misdirection in the surfaces with one other “game”, one “player”, and two specific card games, all of which are red herrings.

There are some very good clues here, particularly the concise double definitions and the groan-inducing pun of 29a. But my favourite has to be the delightful &lit at 22a, with a rather sneaky anagram indicator. Thanks Punk for the game; I’m pleased to say you didn’t quite manage to beat me.

Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

 

Across
1 SOLOMON Day on game for old king (7)
MON (Monday) added to SOLO (card game).
5 JABBER Talk poker? (6)
Double definition: the second is one who pokes / jabs, and nothing to do with the card game.
10 COME NOW There, animal catches straw in the wind (4,3)
COW containing (catching) OMEN (straw in the wind = a sign of things to come). Come now = there = expression of reassurance or encouragement.
11 ADORING Passionate affair inside a cartel, say (7)
DO (affair = party, as in “a posh do”) inside A RING (cartel).
12 NINJA Some businessman in jail, old mercenary (5)
Hidden answer (some) [businessma]N IN JA[il].
13 AMSTERDAM Capital I ignored in a film, then Roman mother rejected (9)
My last one in: the parsing is tricky so it took a while for the penny to drop. A MIST (a film = a thin layer) ignoring the I, then MADRE (mother in Italian, so in Rome) rejected (reversed).
14 STREAK Mark, right through meat (6)
R (right) inserted into STEAK.
16 PONTOON Lighter game (7)
Double definition: pontoon = lighter = a flat-bottomed barge, or a card game.
17 PIANIST Confined to hell, a wicked deed backfiring for player (7)
A + SIN reversed (backfiring), within PIT (hell).
19 LAMBDA Greek character fleeced youngster, parent not entirely (6)
LAMB (a young animal with a fleece) + DA[d] (not quite all of parent). The Greek letter L.
22 NOSTALGIA Recollection of a lasting love? (9)
Anagram (re-collection!) of A LASTING + O (love = zero in tennis scoring). A very neat &lit (clue-as-definition) for a fond memory.
24 GABLE Old actor runs away from old actress (5)
GRABLE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Grable, taking away R (runs in cricket), gives us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Gable.
26 CROSIER Contract bridge: that’s right, one’s hooked! (7)
CROS[s] (bridge, as a verb), contracted (shortened), + IE (that is) + R (right); again, nothing to do with the card game.   A bishop’s hooked staff.
27 INHALER Medical device that’s large used in treatment of hernia (7)
L (large) in an anagram (treatment) of HERNIA.
28 YELLER Magazine in York regularly censored, one making a lot of noise (6)
ELLE (a magazine) in Y[o]R[k] (regularly censored = alternate letters removed).
29 MITTENS Figures supplied by US researchers, those on hand? (7)
TENS (figures = numbers); and if they’re supplied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a US research establishment, I suppose that makes them MIT TENS. As worn on the hand.
Down
1 SECOND Silver tick (6)
Double definition: silver medal = second place, or tick = second = moment.
2 LEMON Yellow stinker (5)
Another double definition. Lemon = stinker = something disappointing, worthless or defective.
3 MONTAGE Picture assembled leaders in action groups participating in game (7)
Leading letters of A[ction] G[roups], inserted into MONTE (card game). A composite picture.
4 NEWMARKET Additional buying and selling for game (9)
NEW (additional) MARKET (buying and selling); another card game.
6 APOGEAN A page on motive reaching a climax (7)
Anagram (motive = moving) of A PAGE ON. An adjective from apogee = highest point.
7 BLINDFOLD Stop one looking to put fifty in secure enclosure (9)
L (50 in Roman numerals) in BIND (secure, as a verb) + FOLD (enclosure, as in sheepfold).
8 REGIMEN Plan to engage setter in lifting of nation (7)
The nation of NIGER, reversed (lifted in a down clue), containing ME (the setter of this puzzle).
9 PANS Game up for kitchen equipment (4)
SNAP (another card game) reversed (up in a down clue).
15 TOADSTOOL Animal dung that could be poisonous (9)
TOAD (animal) + STOOL (dung).
16 PELMANISM Bishop perhaps hooked by remarkably simple game (9)
MAN (chess piece, so perhaps a bishop) in an anagram (remarkably) of SIMPLE. The game of matching cards from memory.
17 PANICKY Very worried, having cut into foot (7)
NICK (a cut) in PAY (foot, as in foot the bill).
18 IMAGINE Number one in game, switched (7)
I (one) + an anagram (switched) of IN GAME; for once, not a card game in sight. Number = song, in this case by John Lennon.
20 MEGAHIT Huge success, 8am shifts? (7)
Anagram (shifts) of EIGHT AM.
21 HEARTS Team game (6)
Double definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C., for those who don’t follow Scottish football, or another card game.
23 GARB Game up for costume (4)
BRAG (you guessed it, yet another card game) reversed (up in a down clue).
25 BULGE Hitler’s offensive swelling (5)
Double definition: the first is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge.

 

7 comments on “Independent 10,153 by Punk”

  1. Excellent workout from Punk today. Thought I’d successfully finished it but, after reading the blog, realised I’d put in an unparsed TETRIS for 21d with the intention of giving it a second look later on but forgot. Doubt I would have solved it anyway. Only have a vague feeling I might have seen HEARTS as a card game.

    Thanks to Punk and Quirister.

  2. A very un-Mondayish workout – looking at it post-solve, I did enjoy the struggle

    Thanks to Punk and Quirister

  3. I thought Mondays were meant to be a doddle! Certainly not this one. Only a few were write-ins and the rest went in very slowly. Finished on the previously unheard of APOGEAN, though must have spent half an hour before I realised it was an anagram, with ‘motive’ as an original anagram indicator.  Learnt the names of a few new card games along the way, including the unlikely sounding PELMANISM, which (I’ll try) to file away for future reference.

    I was interested to learn that AMSTERDAM is still regarded as the capital of the Netherlands. I had always thought it was The Hague but apparently not. A bit like (but not exactly the same as) Sucre and La Paz in Bolivia. The Wikipedia article ‘Capital of the Netherlands’ explains all.

    Thanks to Punk and to Quirister

     

  5. Much more like Thursday than Monday.  We got the NW quadrant and a few others, then ground to a halt and eventually had to resort to cheating to get a few more which then enabled us, with a struggle, to finish.

    But thanks, Punk and Quirister.

  6. Glad I wasn’t the only one who found this tough.  In the end I’ve given up with about a dozen left to do.  Although curiously 13ac was one of my first in.  I remembered the Italian for mother, reversed it, and AMSTERDAM cried out to me.

  7. A thoroughly excellent crossword; almost gave up several times, but after leaving it, solutions filtered through to my brain and I rushed back to it.  The best sort of puzzle, difficult enough to make one almost despair but eventually soluble.  What could be more satisfying?

    Happy to see this on a Monday or any day.  Don’t see why regimentation about supposed harder and easier days is necessary or desirable.

    Many brilliant clues.  Stuck on AMSTERDAM, solving which helped me to finish, as I was obsessed with <mater rather than <madre.

    Thanks to Punk and Quirister (great blog).

Comments are closed.