Independent 10435 / Hob

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Hob gives us the Tuesday challenge today and all that involves.

 

 

 

Being Tuesday there is a theme to the puzzle.  Indeed there are two strings to the bow of today’s theme.  The gateway clue at 14 across leads to the entry MARCH and we have some entries and clues that focus on the musical type of MARCH and others that focus on the MARCH family in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

There is an entry for the MARCH king, John Philip SOUSA, but not all the MARCH tunes in the grid are written by SOUSA.  SOUSA wrote WASHINGTON POST and SEMPER FIDELIS, but Lt F J Rickets aka Kenneth Alford penned COLONEL BOGEY and the DAM BUSTERS was composed by Eric Coates

Each of the MARCH sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy feature in the clues and / or the wordplay for a number of clues

I enjoyed this puzzle, and for the first time in a while I think I have managed to parse everything.  The only query I have is whether the SY of SYNOD at 20 down is just 2 of the 9 letters (a small part) of ASYMMETRY, or whether there is something more clever  going on that I haven’t spotted.

Using the symbol : for COLON, as at 3 / 6 across is becoming a fairly common device these days.

I liked the clue for SPEARS with its culinary links throughout.  I’m not sure whether the phrase "dem irksome" in the clue for SEMPER FIDELIS has some special meaning or not.  Perhaps a commenter knows more than me.

Across
No Clue Wordplay Entry
3 / 6 A 14: The Spanish Ego by Brahms and Liszt (7,5)

COLON (:) + EL (Spanish for ‘the’) + an anagram of (Brahms and Liszt [drunk] EGO BY

COLON EL BOGEY*

 COLONEL BOGEY (title of a MARCH [14 across])
9 The suspect on bail at first in 14? (4)

B (initial letter of [at first] BAIL) + an anagram of (suspect) THE

B ETH*

 BETH (one of the MARCH [14 across] sisters in Little Women)
10 A doctor seen in dry cleaners in 14 (3,7)

(A + MB [Bachelor of Medicine; doctor]) contained in (seen in) DUSTERS (dry cleaners)

D (A M B) USTERS

 DAM BUSTERS (a MARCH [14 across])
11

Significant if Little Women rejected a number of scores (6)

WEIGHTY (important; significant) excluding (rejected) W (abbreviation [little] for women)

EIGHTY

 EIGHTY (four times twenty [score]; a number of scores)
13 Some flee Cheshire?  They suck! (7)

LEECHES (hidden word [some] in FLEE CHESHIRE)

LEECHES

LEECHES (bloodsucking annelid worms)
14 A river between Central Germany and Switzerland’s border (5)

M (middle letter of [central] GERMANY) + A + R (river) + CH (International Vehicle Registration for Switzerland)

M A R CH

 MARCH (boundary; border)
16 Prolific 14 scorer (like this American one) (5)

SO (like this) + USA (United States of America)

SO USA

 SOUSA (reference John Philip SOUSA [1854 – 1932], American composer known as the March King)
18 Drunken tramp in US showing small wet, round bottom (7)

S (small) WET reversed (round) + BUM (buttocks, bottom)

S TEW< BUM

STEWBUM (American term defining a drunkard or a drunken tramp – defined in Collins dictionary)
20 Contents of salads replaced by fruit or asparagus? (6)

SALADS with the central letters (contents) ALAD replaced by (replaced by) PEAR (fruit)

S PEAR S

SPEARS (shoots, slender stalks, or blades, as of grass, asparagus, or broccoli)
21 / 22 14 appearing in capital letters (10,4)

WASHINGTON (capital city of the United States) + POST (mail; letters)

WASHINGTON POST

 WASHINGTON POST (title of a MARCH [14 down])
23 / 24 Roving spider finishes off "dem irksome flies in 14 (that’s always true) (6,7)

Anagram of (roving) SPIDER FLIES and ME (the final letters of [finishes off] each of DEM and IRKSOME).

SEMPER FIDELIS*

SEMPER FIDELIS (title of a MARCH [14 across])

SEMPER FIDELIS (always faithful; always true)
Down
1 Black Prince retrospective?  Dull pretentious nonsense (4)

B (black, when describing pencil lead) + HAL (reference Prince HAL, a young Henry V) reversed (retrospective)

B LAH<

 BLAH (dull; pretentious nonsense)
2 Jack meets loveless Jo on surer ground?  They’ve made a solemn retraction (8)

AB (able seaman; sailor; jack) + JO excluding (less) O (zero; love score in tennis) + an anagram of (ground) SURER

AB J URERS*

 ABJURERS (people who renounce solemnly)
3 Fancy short musical with European element (7)

Anagram of (fancy) MUSICAL excluding the final letter (short) L and (with) E (European)

CAESIUM*

 CAESIUM (element in the periodic table with atomic number 55)
4 Contributor to 20D – dysfunctional wooden character (5)

NODDY (hidden word in [contributor to] SYNOD DYSFUNCTIONAL.  SYNOD is the entry at 20 down)

NODDY

 NODDY (fictional wooden character created by Enid Blyton [1897 – 1968], English author of books for children)
5 In unconvincing manner, lost against the Spanish in 14? (6)

L (lost – in sports scoring) + (EL [Spanish for ‘the’] contained in (in) AMY [one of the MARCH [14 across] sisters in Little Women)

L AM (EL) Y

 LAMELY (in a weak and implausible manner)
7 Lodge by the sea with Hugo perhaps, after leaving hospital (9)

Anagram of (perhaps) THE SEA and HUGO excluding (after leaving) H (hospital)

GATEHOUSE*

 GATEHOUSE (a lodge can be defined as gate-keeper’s cottage)
8 Bowls out over half of county side (5)

YORKS (5 of the 9 [over half] letters of YORKSHIRE [county])

YORKS

 YORKS (bowls a YORKer and takes wicket [bowls out])
12 Flog heroin?  Only a little wee joint (9)

HORSE (heroin) + W (one letter of three [only a little of?] WEE) + HIP (joint)

HORSE W HIP

 HORSEWHIP (flog)
15 Dance with Greek goddess outside a bar (8)

HERA (goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth) containing (outside) (A + BAN [bar])

H (A BAN) ERA

 HABANERA (Cuban dance)
17 Artist seen in behind first of several wall hangings (7)

(RA [Royal Academician; artist] contained in [seen in] ARSE [buttocks; behind]) + S (initial letter of [first of] SEVERAL)

AR (RA) SE S

 ARRASES (hanging screens of tapestries for walls)
18 Has arranged a 14 without the final note?  That’s a pity (5)

Anagram of (arranged) HAS + MEG (another MARCH [14 across] sister from Little Women) excluding (without) the final letter G, which is also the fifth note of the diatonic scale)

SHA* ME

 SHAME (pity)
19 Second time providing dominant theme … (5)

MO (moment; second) + T (time) + IF (provided)

MO T IF

MOTIF (dominant or recurrent theme or subject in a musical, literary or other artistic work)
20 … with asymmetry in small part?  Show agreement in court (5)

SY (two letters [small part of] ASYMMETRY) + NOD (show agreement)

SY NOD

SYNOD (Presbyterian church court intermediate between presbytery and the General Assembly)
22 Run and hide (4)

PELT (run fast)

PELT

 PELT (raw animal hide with the fur still on)  double definition

11 comments on “Independent 10435 / Hob”

  1. Amazed I finished this. Parsed 20d as in blog but was also not 100% convinced. My geography is hopeless but I wondered whether 14a was an &lit referring to the river March? Couldn’t find STEWBUM (my electronic Collins doesn’t have it, nor my Chambers app). A bit unfair perhaps but an obvious guess. Thanks S&B.

  2. Thanks for the blog, Duncan. [The clue for 18dn is ‘Has arranged a 14 without the final note?  That’s a pity (5)]

    Maybe it’s because, like everyone else, I’m feeling in need of cheer just now but I really can’t remember enjoying a puzzle more than this one for a long time. It kept me enthralled from beginning to end and I was disappointed to find I’d finished it – beautifully constructed with two absorbing themes [one of my top favourite books as a child] and lovely clues throughout [too many to list].

    Many thanks, Hob – I loved it.

  4. I first smelt a rat with SOUSA-who was he? oh yeah sousaphone-and wrote marches

    So that was the theme-I’d written in COLONEL BOGEY  almost parse when a fellow solver emailed-brilliant clue I looked again and saw :

    Lovely uplifting puzzle Thanks Hob, Duncanshiell and Simon.

  6. Brilliant! Half right up my street (marches, not Little Women).  Very strange grid.  In the unches I spotted ‘Derek’ and ‘Oscope’ and thought there might be something going on there, but probably coincidence.  Thanks Hob and Duncan.

  7. Completely missed the “Little Women” part of the theme so had a few unparsed but enjoyed what I did get.  Like Tatrasman @6, I was struck by the odd-looking grid and thought there may be a periperal nina related to the theme(s), but apart from ‘bass’ I couldn’t see anything. I don’t know what the linking ellipsis was doing in 20d and wasn’t convinced by the SY in SYNOD either, but parsed it as explained in the blog.

    Thanks to Duncan and Hob

  8. Never read Little Women, so didn’t know their name was MARCH, and although I knew of Sousa I couldn’t have named any of his works. Therefore this was a struggle for me. Got BETH from the wordplay only, and didn’t know where the ME came from.
    The SY seemed strange, would have been slightly better if the clue had SYMMETRY instead of ASYMMETRY.
    16a parses as SO + US + A (for ONE).
    Thanks, Duncan and Hob, kept me occupied for a while.

  9. A very pleasant solve – we spotted the theme at once from the gateway clue (14) and its immediate follow-up at 16 and soon twigged that there were two types of MARCH referred to.  But we failed on 11 where all we could think of was ‘mighty’ as a possible synonym for ‘significant’.

    Favourites: well, we liked the : trick in 3/6, but as one of us was a chemist we’ll go for CAESIUM.

    Thanks, Hob and Duncan.

  10. Thanks to Duncan for the blog and to others for their comments.

    The clues at 19/20dn were meant to be a reference to the fact that this puzzle and the last Hob (the Dalai Lama one) both used slightly asymmetrical grids in order to accommodate a theme. It is a bit unusual to have such asymmetry, so I’m glad that it doesn’t seem to have got in the way of solvers enjoying the puzzles, but I will try not to make too much of a habit of it.

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