Independent 10,632 by Poins

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A very absorbing and enjoyable puzzle form Poins with some intricate wordplay in places and nice mixture of clues.

ACROSS
1 BASIS The fundamental ingredient of cobbler essentially unaltered (5)
 

[Cob]b[ler] + as is
4 HELLENISM His men ordered to accept a measure of devotion to Greek culture (9)
 

(His men)* around ell, an old measure of length.
9 SALIENT Most important when backing story books (7)
 

As< + lie(=story) + NT(=New Testament books)
10 ALTHORN Musical instrument from Thailand received by Al Gore (7)
 

T{hailand} in Al Horn(=gore with a horn)
11 SCHOOLTEACHER Perhaps Jean Brodie‘s disciples get the race fixed (13)
 

School(=disciples, as in school of something) + (the race)*
14 ABET Encourage wrongdoing in Lincoln Weather Centre (4)
 

Abe + [wea]t[her]
15 ARAUCARIA A song about king caught hiding gold in tree (9)
 

(A aria) around (R{ex} c{aught} around Au(=gold))
18 JUST ABOUT Fair carried on – more or less (4,5)
 

Just(=fair) + on(=about). I think the carried is just a linking word.
19 EPEE Go after earl with a sword (4)
 

Pee after e{arl}
21 NONSENSE VERSE A production of Lear? (8,5)
 

CD referring not to King Lear but to Edward Lear, writer of nonsense poems.
24 REALISE Lies are difficult to understand (7)
 

(Lies are)*
26 TREASON The principal inducement for betrayal (7)
 

T[he] + reason
27 MATCHLESS Foolishly class them as unequalled (9)
 

(Class them)*
28 LADEN Some moaned aloud over being charged (5)
 

Hidden, rev in moaned aloud
DOWN
1 BASH Go forward right away (4)
 

B[r]ash(in the sense of someone being very forward).
2 SALESPERSON Unreliable spear carrying fellow finally stops working in rep (11)
 

Spear* around Les + [stop]s + on(=working)
3 SEETHE Outskirts of Harare under rising river’s surge (6)
 

Tees< + H[arar]e
4 HOT POTATO Awkward matter of stolen drugs Castro oddly ignored (3,6)
 

Hot(=stolen) + pot(=drugs i.e. marijuana) + even letters of Castro
5 LEAST The smallest amount of arsenic stored by permit (5)
 

As(=chemical symbol for Arsenic) in let(=to permit)
6 ENTRANCE Access to transport (8)
 

DD
7 IDO Poins to work at artificial language (3)
 

I(=the compiler) +do(=work at). Ido is a form of Esperanto.
8 MIND READER Psychic youngster speaking without fear (4,6)
 

Hom of minor around dread
12 HARD PRESSED Struggling writer not unknown to importune newspaper boss (4-7)
 

I think this is Hard[y](i.e. Thomas Hardy) + press(=importune) + ed(=newspaper boss), although the importune seems slightly redundant as a "press ed" might also work for newspaper boss.
13 PANJANDRUM Harshly criticise judge along with strange self-important official (10)
 

Pan(=criticise) + J{udge} + and(=along with) + rum(=strange)
16 ACTIVATES Starts with book covering tax in Italy and Spain (9)
 

Acts(=Biblical book) around (VAT in I{taly} and E{spana})
17 GAME FISH Willing to search for provider of live sport (4,4)
 

Game(=willing) + fish(=search for)
20 ORDEAL Distressing experience in Delaware during exam (6)
 

De(=state abbrev for Delaware) in oral
22 SWEDE What’s owed reportedly brought up by eastern European (5)
 

Dews (=hom of due twice) + E{astern}
23 ANON Clergyman getting rid of cocaine immediately (4)
 

[C]anon
25 ACT Operate by decree (3)
 

DD (e.g. act of parliament = decree)

15 comments on “Independent 10,632 by Poins”

  1. Very enjoyable and nicely clued. I hadn’t heard of  10a or 17d but they were clear from the clueing.

    13d and 21a are sort of linked. Could there be a theme?

    Thanks to Poins and NealH.

  2. Yes, all very enjoyable. I didn’t know Ido and was held up for a moment or three trying to shoehorn either her Prime or the crème de la crème into the Jean Brodie clue. Loved panjandrum – the clue and the word. Thanks to both Points and NealH.

  4. It took a while to get on the setter’s wavelength today but eventually everything fell bar IDO which was a dnk and I guessed the wrong consonant in the middle.  I agree with the appreciation of PANJANDRUM and, yes, wouldn’t a theme around that have worked well, but I can’t see any more that might be associated.

    Other favourites included ACTIVATES which I enjoyed putting together element by element, MIND READER for the surface, MATCHLESS for everything and EPEE which made me laugh (though I may have seen it before).  SWEDE also earned a tick – NealH, I’m not sure it needs to be due twice as per the blog; surely ‘dues’ are simply what is owed and/or deserved.

    I do have a few quiblets: ENTRANCE has become a bit of a chestnut; I thought NONSENSE VERSE a bit too simple, relying purely on the potential for Shakespearean misdirection; I’m not sure ANON is immediately – soon, in due course, before long all come to mind as synonyms and none have the same sense of urgency.  I would liked to have quibbled about horn being a verb but there it is in the dictionary.  I wonder how often it is used in that way, if ever.

    Thanks Poins and NealH

  5. Very enjoyable. Anon is a strange word as, although it means soon, it can also be construed as ‘in due course’, which I believe was its original meaning.  And then there’s ‘anonymous’!  Thanks Poins and Neal.

  6. Entirely satisfied with everything apart from 18, for which I am hopeful of a convincing explanation beyond that one of only six words in the clue is not serving a purpose…..thanks to all so far, and in anticipation

  7. TFO @6

    No superfluous word in 18. From Collins under ‘about’:

    3. Carried on: I haven’t any money about me

  8. ‘Absorbing and enjoyable’ indeed – a lovely puzzle.

    Some really excellent clues, with clever story-telling surfaces – SALESPERSON pick of the bunch, just ahead of ARAUCARIA, EPEE, MATCHLESS, HOT POTATO and the lovely PANJANDRUM.

    Many thanks to Poins for the fun and NealH for a great blog.

     

  9. My grandparents gave us Randolph Caldecott’s book of The Great Panjandrum (and other illustrated verses) when my brothers and I were very small. I remember it very well.

    So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf, to make an apple pie; and at the same time a great she-bear coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. ‘What! no soap?’ So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the Great Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top; and they all fell to playing the game of catch as catch can, till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots.

    Thanks to Poins for what turned out to be quite a tricky solve for me, partly down to not spotting rep as the def in 2d, and B(R)ASH was very shy about peeking out from my memory. Nice to see a guest appearance from ARAUCARIA, too.

  10. hatter @9: for a moment I thought that could have been an excerpt from a recent speech by the orange one in the White House but then reflected that it was far too coherent, well argued and based on obvious fact.

    I agree, rep was hidden in plain sight for a while.  And name checks for both Araucaria and fellow Indy setter Tees.  Wouldn’t Panjandrum be a great name for a setter!

  11. I have complained before about a word like “fellow” being used to indicate “any of the thousands of male given names,” (Les in this instance) and indeed in this case it made it so I didn’t parse SALESPERSON.  I did get the right answer though, so I can’t complain too loudly. In American cryptics (yes, there are still a few publications here that publish them!), that wouldn’t be kosher—if you want to clue a given name here, you use a noted person who has that name.  Here, Paul would have worked (Les Paul is the only famous person named Les I can think of), but you’d have to massage the clue a bit to make the surface make sense.  Unreliable spear-carrying guitarist Paul finally stops working in rep (11)—that’d do, I suppose.

    [Les Paul is a staple of American non-cryptic crosswords, because LES is a frequently-needed three-letter word.  Of course, I also know him because he has a guitar named after him.]

    Last one in was ALTHORN—I was expecting an obscure Thai instrument until the penny dropped.

  12. mrpenney @11: I sympathise with your position.  It’s one of those things that can help explain parsing in retrospect – in my case they were the three letters left over – but the instruction is unlikely to help you assemble elements of the clue.  Your version of the clue would have folk considering McCartney and Simon at least so it’s no giveaway.  Sorry, but not convinced the surface is as good though!

  13. mrpenney @11 & self @12:  what about “Guitarist Paul, with battered spare, about to start season working in rep (11)” ?

  15. I picked out SALESPERSON as my top favourite surface. I should have commented that ‘sword-carrying’ should have been hyphenated. For me, ‘fellow / bloke / chap’ et al always suggest a familiar form of a male name, so I had no problem inserting LES into the rest of the wordplay to conjure up a picture of an inadequate bit-player (sword-carrier) losing his job in repertory. I thought it was brilliant.

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