Dalibor is a fairly recent setter for the Indy and he is clearly worth his place there: this crossword, like its predecessors, contains some very good clues with nice misleading surfaces. And, apart from the next comment and a few very minor quibbles, they are all so far as I can see sound and good.
There are four clues which grate on me because they have <50% checking. I don’t know why this is such a bugbear — I always comment on it — since when you’re solving a clue early on you may have only one of the many letters there to help you, so why 2 out of 5 is such a problem I’m not sure: presumably it’s because Ximenes gave it as a “rule” in his famous book. At any rate no Times crossword (for many people the gold standard, whatever their views on Murdoch) ever has <50% checking.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
I can’t see any Nina. Dalibor hasn’t been around for long enough for me to know whether or not he does them.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RUBENS | Artist texted: “Are you the one whose catch removed Andile P?” (6) |
| RU [texted ‘are you’] Ben S referring to Ben Stokes’s stunning catch recently which removed Andile Phehlukwayo in the England-South Africa match at the World Cup | ||
| 4 | SKIPJACK | Fish container placed in front of sailor (8) |
| skip [container] jack [sailor] | ||
| 10 | CORDIAL | Warm drink (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 11 | AXOLOTL | Mexican native frequently left broken by Beast from the East (7) |
| a lot L containing (ox)rev. — this | ||
| 12 | NOEL | Christmas has what it says (4) |
| There is “no L” in ‘Christmas’ | ||
| 13 | SURINAMESE | South American‘s username is hacked (10) |
| (username is)* — I simply couldn’t get this word although it’s quite straightforward — my Quinapulus program that seems to find the obscurest words couldn’t find it, although it’s widespread so far as I can see | ||
| 15 | LOQUAT | Exotic tree as found in piece of land across the pond (6) |
| qua in lot — I didn’t realise that a lot was an American term, since it seems to be used a lot in the UK, but it’s marked as such in Collins and Dalibor is dotting every i | ||
| 16 | MALAISE | One blocking fake e-mails causes discomfort (7) |
| a in *(e-mails) | ||
| 20 | WEEK OFF | Reportedly, slight problem with Sturgeon’s speech – time for a break (4,3) |
| If Nicola Sturgeon has a problem with her speech she has a “wee cough” | ||
| 21 | ADAMIC | First man I see naked (6) |
| Adam I C — this seems a bit weak because the very word ‘Adamic’ is derived from Adam — if the clue had been ‘architect I see naked’ that would have been fine, not that it’s a particularly good clue | ||
| 24 | CHERRY-PICK | Select the best red port if choosing kebab for starters (6-4) |
| cherry [red], then first letters | ||
| 26 | AFAR | Stretch of Niagara Falls over quite some distance (4) |
| Hidden reversed in NiagaRA FAlls | ||
| 28 | FAILURE | A Bit of Fry & Laurie, hit and miss (7) |
| (F{ry} Laurie)* | ||
| 29 | ARRANGE | Discarding wingers, Harry Kane’s ultimately preferring mid-field position (7) |
| {H}arr{y} {K}an{e} {preferrin}g {fi}e{ld} | ||
| 30 | RUYSDAEL | Dutch painter surely excited to receive Diploma of Art (8) |
| DA in (surely)* — this artist or possibly this one or possibly even others | ||
| 31 | VALLEY | Very narrow lane making one depressed (6) |
| v alley | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RECENTLY | As of late, bank must protect foreign money (8) |
| re(cent)ly | ||
| 2 | BURLESQUE | Blues rock originally developed in France, that is a farce! (9) |
| (Blues r{ock})* que [in France, that] | ||
| 3 | NOIR | Film genre‘s most important rule (4) |
| no.1 r | ||
| 5 | KHALIFAT | English bank curtailed within borders of Kuwait – that’s what IS wants (8) |
| Hailfa{x} in K{uwai}t | ||
| 6 | PROPAGANDA | Publicity for one who doesn’t believe Germany’s close to Austria (10) |
| pro pagan D [Germany] A | ||
| 7 | ADOZE | Almost 12 having a nap (5) |
| a doze{n} | ||
| 8 | KILLER | Ice Queen’s really impressive (6) |
| kill [ice — in 15ac Dalibor signposted the American origin, but this seems an equally good candidate] ER | ||
| 9 | ALBUM | Wrong to pursue criminal record (5) |
| Al [Capone, that crossword regular] bum | ||
| 14 | BACKGROUND | Rock band’s performance includes both good and acceptable kind of music (10) |
| (Rock band)* including both g and u | ||
| 17 | SEMIFINAL | Important to retain condition for pivotal match (9) |
| sem(if)inal | ||
| 18 | OF A PIECE | Uniform for each after overhauling Foreign Office (2,1,5) |
| (FO)rev. apiece | ||
| 19 | SCARCELY | Mark initially can see hardly at all (8) |
| scar [mark] c{an} Ely [see, the diocese of a bishop] | ||
| 22 | ACT FOR | Understudy‘s part of play on the radio (3,3) |
| “Act IV” | ||
| 23 | OCEAN | Indian, perhaps Apache, finally put in old prison (5) |
| o c({Apach}e)an — the Indian Ocean | ||
| 25 | EDIFY | Somewhat relieved if you improve mentally (5) |
| Hidden in relievED IF You | ||
| 27 | ORCA | Sony’s second record label, 8? (4) |
| {S}o{ny} RCA — 8 is ‘killer’, and an Orca is a killer so |
||
*anagram
I thought the ‘hacked’ element in ‘Surinamese’ made for a beautiful anagram, definitely my clue of the day.
In 27, the ‘orca’ is also popularly called the ‘killer whale’, so the q-mark just refs ‘possible whale’.
In 16 (MALAISE) the extra ‘one’ is an ‘A’, I think. (Picky, picky).
I agree about ‘adamic’, although it’s still a splendid word for ‘nude’.
Good puzzle well blogged. Thanks to both.
Too hard for me, I’m afraid. I did note, however, that it is a pangram.
Thanks to Dalibor and John.
I like Dalibor’s puzzles and I enjoyed this one. I managed to finish it but not without cheating…I had to use a word-search to plug the gaps in RUYSDAEL – no idea. I also had to Google “Andile” but once I had that I was on more familiar ground. Also, the missing X from the pangram helped me with AXOLOTL, my LOI
Thanks to S&B
Re “lot” in “loquat”: here’s an example from Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”: “They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot” – https://youtu.be/xWwUJH70ubM
Thanks Grant. Blog amended.
Thanks Dalibor and John.
Good crossword with a few unfamiliar words but fairly clued. I particularly liked WEEK OFF, FAILURE and PROPAGANDA.
A bit of a challenge but we got almost all of it, only needing a wordfinder for 5dn (being more familiar with the ‘caliphate’ spelling). AXOLOTL was our first one in – we guessed it from ‘Mexican native’ and then found we could parse it. We couldn’t parse RUBENS properly although we realised what was going on there. LOQUAT and RUYSDAEL had to be checked in Chambers and an encyclopedia respectively. Chambers gives ‘naked’ as one meaning of ADAMIC but otoh doesn’t have ADOZE.
THANKS, David or Dalibor and John.
We know it’s not “David or Dalibor”, just “Dalibor” – ruddy predictive text!
Many thanks to those who solved my puzzle and/or commented on it.
Plus, of course, a special ‘thank you’ to John.
I could leave it there but I would like to say something about the grid issue that John pointed at in his preamble. I am someone who is actually quite relaxed about having some entries that have <50% checking. But I also have to admit that I perhaps should have avoided or, at least, noticed it. However, I didn’t check the grid as I am usually totally focused on the cluing itself.
Indeed, you will not see such grids in The Times. But they have a standard set to choose from which will avoid the problem (if it is one) by default. The Independent gives setters the opportunity to use their own grids and so, in theory, unwanted things can happen. I even remember Tees once using a grid that was asymmetrical!
Talking about The Times, what they do accept is the use of double unches (for example, No 27,265 (Monday 4 Feb 2019) was full of these). To be honest, as a solver, I find that a lot more annoying.