A rare appearance from Klingsor on a Monday, but a welcome one for me, because I don’t often get the chance to blog one of his puzzles. If you still believe in the ‘easy end Monday cryptic’ theory, then you might have thought this didn’t fit that paradigm: it was a pleasing and cleverly constructed offering, with a good range of subject matter; but it was a bit more chewy than normal, I would opine. I don’t think it’s published today for a particular reason, but I could well have missed something.
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 Note, Pop’s dancing with daughter on ice
POSTPONED
A charade of (NOTE POPS)* and D.
6 Location around River Wear
SPORT
An insertion (‘around’) of R in SPOT. ‘Sunderland’s manager, Bob Stokoe, sported/wore his famous trilby hat during his team’s stunning victory over Leeds in the 1973 FA Cup Final.’
9 Central to Cairo, a strip joint
ROAST
Hidden in CaiRO A STrip.
10 Dummy run follows company beginning to muster strength
COMFORTER
A charade of CO, M for the first letter of ‘muster’, FORTE and R. COMFORTER is an American English word for a baby’s ‘dummy’. The setter chose not to tell us that, but he didn’t have to.
11 One that flies from socialist vote
REDPOLL
Oooh, a bird which is the answer, the whole answer and nothing but the answer. So the obligatory Pierre bird link. The common redpoll is a member of the finch family. It’s a winter visitor to the UK, most often seen on the east coast. The male, as is evident in the picture, has a prominent red crown, whence the name (‘red head’). Oh, and it’s a charade of RED and POLL.
12 Labour retains original manifesto, initially creating disquiet
TURMOIL
An insertion (‘retains’) of UR and M for the first letter of ‘manifesto’ in TOIL. Not to be confused with UR for the ancient Mesopotamian city, UR for ‘original’ is of German origin (it’s pronounced the same as die Uhr, for ‘clock’, or for telling the time). In German, it’s reasonably common: die Urbevölkerung (Ur plus Bevölkerung) for ‘original people’ or ‘indigenous population’; die Urzeit (Ur plus Zeit) for ‘original time’ or ‘prehistoric times’. It’s not widely used in English: the best example I have found is Ur-civilisation for ‘the beginning of civilisation’. Perhaps someone has a better or more common example.
13 Extremely vulgar man cited some funny quotes
INVERTED COMMAS
(VR MAN CITED SOME)* with ‘funny’ as the anagrind and ‘extremely’ inviting you to use only the outside letters of ‘vulgar’.
17 Patronising husband staggered I ran Hotel Grand
HOLIER THAN THOU
A charade of H, (I RAN HOTEL)* and THOU for ‘thousand’ or ‘Grand’.
21 Student’s set back by small mistakes
SLIP-UPS
A reversal of PUPILS and S. PUPILS is a bit old-fashioned these days; ‘students’ is more common, I fancy.
23 Have I the skill to be friendly?
AMIABLE
Am I able to solve the Indy weekday crosswords? Usually.
25 Not very smart? That’s rather unfair
A BIT THICK
A dd. The second definition comes from ‘laying it on a bit thick’, which I suppose is where the ‘excess’ or ‘unfair’ allusion comes from.
26 Earl introduces artist to one inspiring poet?
ERATO
The setters’ favourite muse by a country mile. A charade of E, RA and TO.
27 Subsequent change, reversing Article 50
LATER
Klingsor is asking you to change the A and L (‘article’ and ‘fifty’) in ALTER to give the solution. The surface is referencing Article 50 of The Lisbon Treaty. Paragraph 1 says:
1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.
We were quite good at following International Law back then, weren’t we?
28 Born again Christian finally given rise after religious teaching
RENASCENT
A charade of RE, N for the last letter of ‘Christian’ and ASCENT.
Down
1 Likeness to rap artist regularly is awkward
PORTRAIT
(TO RAP [A]R[T]I[S]T)*
2 Grave of dictator’s endured
STAID
A homophone (‘dictator’s’) of STAYED.
3 Beaten up prior to producing medley
POTPOURRI
(UP PRIOR TO)*
4 Sodium battery covers energy for part of aircraft
NACELLE
A charade of NA for ‘sodium’, CELL and E. ‘Covers’ works because it’s a down clue. The housing which forms the outer casing of an engine, and vaguely familiar to this solver from assembling Airfix aircraft kits in the 1960s. The high from the polystyrene cement was awesome.
5 Popular recording grabbing one, volume is turned up
DEMOTIC
An insertion (‘grabbing’) of I and TOME in CD for ‘recording’, all reversed.
6 Parody mostly is on right track
SPOOR
I entered SKIRT here at first: SKI[T] plus RT, which kind of works. But in fact it’s SPOO[F] plus R.
7 Promise to include perhaps Milton Keynes’s last regressive therapist
OSTEOPATH
An insertion (‘to include’) of POET and S for the last letter of ‘Keynes’, reversed, in OATH. The 17th century poet best known for Paradise Lost.
8 Slavery unlikely to be found around Croatia
THRALL
You learn stuff from crossies. My learning today was that HR is the ISO country code for Croatia, derived from its local name, Hrvatska, and that you need to insert that into TALL for ‘unlikely’ to give you a word meaning ‘slavery’.
14 Musician, 6, appearing with Solti in Brahms and Liszt
VIOLINIST
Nowt to do with 6dn or 6ac, but rather the Roman numeral. It’s (VI SOLTI IN)* The anagrind is ‘Brahms and Liszt’, cockney rhyming slang for ‘pissed’, which I’m more used to seeing in its uneuphemised form in Cyclops’ puzzles in Private Eye.
16 3 is 27’s cue to rob cast
CUBE ROOT
Klingsor’s intention here was clearly to lead the solver up the garden path. He succeeded in this house this morning, and a very long path it proved. 3 is indeed the CUBE ROOT of 27, because 3³ is 27. (CUE TO ROB)*
18 Upset Irish winter sportsman? That’s more dangerous
RISKIER
A charade of IR reversed and SKIER.
19 Listen and learn, gaining knowledge
HEARKEN
A charade of HEAR and KEN.
20 Prime minister loses case for state
ISRAEL
[D]ISRAEL[I]
22 Unmarried German 14, say
UTTER
Another musical clue. Here you do need to reference 14dn. Anne-Sophie MUTTER is a celebrated and very talented German violinist. She has been married, most recently to André Previn, but if she were unmarried cryptically it would result in [M]UTTER.
24 Noble‘s heading for birthday party
BRAVE
A charade of B for the first letter of ‘birthday’ and RAVE, the sort of ‘party’ that you shouldn’t be attending at the minute. Remember, only the current Government and Dominic Cummings are allowed to break the law.
Many thanks to our Wagnerian setter for this Monday’s puzzle. I discover on searching that the last time I blogged a Klingsor puzzle was nearly a decade ago. Not so long till the next one, I hope.
A very welcome appearance on a Monday from Klingsor – and on top form, too.
I particularly love Klingsor’s musical clues and 14ac VIOLINIST was a gem – and I liked the unmarried violinist, too.
Other ticks were for 1ac POSTPONED, 12ac TURMOIL, 13ac INVERTED COMMAS, 28ac RENASCENT, 7dn OSTEOPATH – all super surfaces, as usual – and, of course, 16dn, CUBE ROOT.
Huge thanks to Klingsor for the fun and Pierre for the blog (you deserve it, after so long) and especially the picture.
I enjoyed the clever musical references too. Although correctly guessing the answers, I couldn’t parse 27A or 2D and 5D, so thanks Pierre for the explanations and of course Klingsor for the puzzle.
Most enjoyable – thank you to Klingsor. Favourites were 13a HOLIER-THAN-THOU and 20d ISRAEL. And even though I dislike mathematical clues, I have to concur with Eileen regarding CUBE ROOT at 16d, which I delighted in solving! Lots to learn and like here, including (as per the blog) the abbreviation for Croatia which gave the fodder for 8d THRALL. Like you, Tatrasman@2, I couldn’t see 5d DOMOTIC, so the blog was appreciated for this as well as for the clarity of all the explanations, Pierre.
Didn’t know of the German violinist, but guessed the name from the wordplay. Same with the bird. Thanks to Klingsor for a Monday puzzle which wasn’t just read clue, write solution, and so on.
Today’s Guardian offering was completed so quickly I felt cheated so it was a great pleasure to come over to the Indy and have a proper wrestle.
I think it still fits the Monday level mould but with a good fight.
The only unparsed one for me was DEMOTIC because I got it in my head that DEMO was the recording bit so I came to the blog for an explanation of the unparsed TIC.
Too many good ones to single out a favourite but I will give s special mention to 14 and 16 for the very clever misdirection in using valid clue numbers to indicate something completely different.
Thanks all.
Excellent as always from Klingsor. The two where it seemed numbers referred to other clues but didn’t were lovely.
He could have clued OSTEOPATH as simply ‘Promise to include perhaps Milton’s regressive therapist’ I think, but then the surface wouldn’t have made much sense and perhaps he wanted the misdirection of Milton Keynes.
To quote Wil@6: “Excellent as always from Klingsor. The two where it seemed numbers referred to other clues but didn’t were lovely.” Maybe it appeared today to give Pierre the chance of an obligatory bird link.
We failed to parse OSTEOPATH (didn’t think to lift and separate Milton Keynes) and HOLIER THAN THOU) but apart from those it was mostly straightforward. Favourites were CUBE ROOT and INVERTED COMMAS.
Thanks, Klingsor and Pierre
Yes, allan_c, I agree.
Perhaps, eimi knew that the puzzle had an entry that would please Pierre.
Also, great that you mention the use of ‘Milton Keynes’ as lift-and-separate.
The first time I came across this thing was in an Alberich crossword.
He clued ARCHANGEL using ‘Peter Gabriel’ – half as fodder, half as definition.
Through the years the term ‘lift-and-separate’ has become something else, something more rigorous.
Recently, at another place, there was some discussion about what it really means.
Well, I know what it means to me and I wish to keep it like that.
Good puzzle.
Many thanks to Pierre & Klingsor.
@Sil I agree with you about lift-and-separate. Where was the discussion you mention? I’d be interested to read it. I’ve tried searching but can’t find it.
It was in my blog of Quiptic 1,086 on 7 September, cruciverbophile.
Thanks Pierre. Found it now. Interesting discussion!