A new setter added to the Indy stable for our Monday morning pleasure. I thought this was a sound puzzle, with some very carefully crafted surfaces and a good range of devices. But much more important is what you thought.
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 Maybe Derby County’s beginning to go after Division One
CLASSIC
A charade of CLASS I and C for the first letter of ‘County’. Derby County are near the bottom of the Championship and are currently making a serious attempt to go after League One, but since some of my best friends are Rams fans, I’ll say no more. The reference is to horse racing, of course.
5 Person immobilising van occupied by learner
CLAMPER
An insertion of L in CAMPER.
9 Check trousers stained at front with sticky substance
RESIN
An insertion of S for the first letter of ‘stained’ in REIN, with ‘trousers’ as the insertion indicator.
10 Act on oral treatment for tooth cavity?
ROOT CANAL
(ACT ON ORAL)*
11 Smart outfit? Yes, but smeared with sand
SUNDAY BEST
(YES BUT SAND)*
12 Father Brown entertains sage, possibly
HERB
Hidden in FatHER Brown.
14 In sequence
BATTING ORDER
Took me a while to see this, which is what a good cd should do. Referring to cricket, of course: the BATTING ORDER (from 1 to 11) is the sequence in which batsmen go ‘in’. Until they’re ‘out’.
18 Combatants reeling dazedly, overwhelmed by blows
BELLIGERENTS
An insertion of (REELING)* in BELTS. The anagrind is ‘dazedly’ and the insertion indicator is ‘overwhelmed’.
21 Drive around? No time or opportunity
ROOM
Brunel is inviting you to reverse MO[T]OR. The reversal indicator is ‘around’ and the removal indicator is ‘no time’. No room to disagree with that parsing.
22 Does she demonstrate pet project in stateside gift-giving bash
BABY SHOWER
A rather whimsical cd cum dd: you could describe your ‘pet project’ as your ‘baby’, and if you demonstrated it, then you’d be a BABY SHOWER. An American tradition which sadly – along with gender reveal parties – seems to moving eastwards to these islands. That said, I shouldn’t be so grumpy, since the tradition – or something similar – exists in many cultures, including ancient ones.
25 In love, shown by distracted demeanour
ENAMOURED
(DEMEANOUR)*
26 It’s charged by leaders of imperial cavalry and foot
IONIC
A charade of ION and IC for the initial letters of ‘imperial’ and ‘cavalry’. The IONIC is the name of a tetrasyllabic metrical foot used in ancient Greek and Latin poetry, and occasionally found in English verse. So now you know.
27 More than one song book
NUMBERS
A dd.
28 Lure fish over to side away from wind
LEEWARD
A reversal (‘over’) of DRAW EEL.
Down
1 Anxieties leading to second stroke
CARESS
A charade of CARES and S.
2 First two characters on trail reported missing
ABSENT
A charade of A and B for the first two ‘characters’ of the alphabet and SENT, a homophone of SCENT. The homophone indicator is ‘reported’.
3 A Martian’s vaporised American exploratory craft
SANTA MARÍA
(A MARTIANS)* plus A gives you the largest of Columbus’ three ships from his 1492 expedition.
4 Fruit tree, an energy source briefly retaining oxygen
CAROB
An insertion of O in CARB.
5 Newspaper’s against plugging replica enamelwork
CLOISONNÉ
An insertion of I’S and ON for ‘against’ in CLONE. The newspaper is the i, originally an offshoot of the Independent, where this puzzle will end up in four years’ time as a reprint and will be covered again by the excellent idothei website, where it will be linked back to this blog. The bad news for Brunel is that s/he won’t get paid for the second appearance. Welcome to crosswordland.
6 Records omitting Brunel’s section of bridge, perhaps
ARCH
ARCH[IVE], with reliance on the Brunel has = I’VE equivalence. With a handle like Brunel, you’re going to get a bridge reference in sooner or later.
7 Idiots cut up about senior teacher
PINHEADS
An insertion of HEAD in SNIP reversed.
8 These improve vehicle safety, except in luxury car
ROLLBARS
An insertion of BAR in ROLLS.
13 Coach one boards after pursuit
POST CHAISE
An insertion of I in POST CHASE.
15 Strangely, Trump (no politician) has use for this intellectual tome
THESAURUS
(TRU[MP]) HAS USE)* Trump has a reading age of about eight on a good day, so isn’t capable of reading much of anything, even less something intellectual.
16 President to want Republican backing in East Coast city
ABERDEEN
A charade of ABE (Lincoln) and NEED R reversed.
17 Blast Noel and Pam’s unnecessary words
PLEONASM
(NOEL PAMS)* PLEONASM is a linguistic term which describes redundant words in a phrase. Since there are only ten sleeps till Ch*****as, here’s one you’ll know:
Lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay
Little and tiny mean the same thing, so this is an example of PLEONASM. Others might be each and every, or free gift (since it’s a gift, it’s by definition free).
19 Welsh girl had new guy round a lot
GWENDA
Hidden reversed in hAD NEW Guy. It is a typically Welsh name, but was only made up in the 1930s, apparently.
20 Set rate paid, inclusive of grain
PRICED
An insertion of RICE in PD.
23 Sound made in Alps, intermittently, by loud bell
YODEL
The even letters of bY lOuD bElL.
24 Picked up gardening tools and sprinkler
HOSE
A homophone (‘picked up’) of HOES.
Well done to Brunel on his or her debut puzzle in the Indy, and to eimi for introducing another new setter to the team.
Very nicely done! Thanks to Brunel and Pierre for an entertaining puzzle and blog, respectively. One of us didn’t know the word PLEONASM, and the other hadn’t heard of a POST CHAISE, but everything was nicely clued. The cd for BATTING ORDER was particularly well done, I thought (always like a cricket reference!)
I enjoyed this a lot apart from 22a which came across as a strange clue for a strange phrase. The puzzle all fell into place nicely until I got held up for a while by my last three in: CLOISONNE, POST CHAISE and GWENDA. Although PLEONASM was also new to me, it was easy enough to solve from the anagram fodder and checkers.My top four were CLASSIC, SANTA MARIA, THESUARUS & ABERDEEN.Great debut, Brunel, thanks. Looking forward to the next one. Thanks too to Pierre.
Whoops, I meant to include BATTING ORDER in my ever lengthening top clues list.
Have only recently dipped into Indy crosswords and am generally enjoying the experience. I found this much more rewarding than today’s rather unsatisfying Grauniad offering. As Pierre says, a sound puzzle. Some neat clues: BATTING ORDER my cotd. Thanks both.
Enjoyable but on the tricky-ish side for a MondayWelcome and thanks to Brunel and thanks also to Pierre
Started writing in Psalms for 27 and then I woke up.Loved BATTING ORDERI liked it all. Great debut (but i am wondering if i have encountered you under another guise)Many thanks Brunel and Pierre
Always interesting to have a new setter and this puzzle bodes well for more good ones in the future. Favourite was BATTING ORDER, but I have to admit to also quite liking BABY SHOWER. A couple of new words / terms in PLEONASM and IONIC to add educational value to the entertainment.Thanks to Pierre and thanks and welcome to Brunel – apt that your namesake’s famous suspension bridge is my current randomly selected wallpaper
The very first clue set the tone for a classy puzzle, which I enjoyed a lot. Brunel is a very welcome addition to the Indy stable.I’ll add a few more I ticked to those mentioned above: HERB, CARESS, ABSENT, ARCH and HOES. Lovely surfaces throughout.I’m afraid I missed the subtlety of the much-praised BATTING ORDER: I took it as a a simple charade – IN (batting) as usual in crosswords + ORDER (sequence).Many thanks and congratulations to Brunel on a fine debut and many thanks to Pierre for a fine blog (and especially BATTING ORDER).
What happened to my paragraphing, I wonder?
Eileen @9. It looks like everyone’s paragraphing has disappeared. Perhaps the webmaster is cutting down on white space?
The formatting for the blog writing part of the website was playing up this morning as well, if that’s any consolation.
I’m tempted to just say “What Wiggers and Eileen Said”. Clever of you, copmus, if you’ve managed to spot a style and discern an alter ego. Lost on me so I shall take Brunel’s debut at face value and welcome your appearance and wish you continued inspiration if it’s going to deliver puzzles like this. In fact, the novelty of the setter led to my one failed parse in that I didn’t get the I’VE to subtract from Archive (and almost wondered if I should be thinking Burl Ives.)(I suspect my just-introduced paragraph break won’t show up) I thought the overall surfaces were of a very high standard, sometimes linked to the solution (YODEL, HOSE, CLAMPER), sometimes misdirecting (SAGE, SANTA MARIA, the beautiful CLASSIC). I am, of course, indebted to Simon S for recently enlightening me as to the correct definition of ROLLBAR so a confident enter there. Finally, I was delighted to recall the existence of CLOISONNE. COTD, as with others, is the lovely BATTING ORDER.Thanks Brunel and Pierre
Yes, a welcome addition to he stable. My favourite was the construction of the self-referential ARCH, which gave one more pause than it should have because of the unfamiliar setter name. Fine debut, Thanks to both, won’t bother paragraphing this.
Very enjoyable. A bit trickier than usual for a Monday but a nice steady solve.Thank you Brunel and Pierre.
Welcome to the Indy stable Brunel – a fine debut puzzle. We look forward to your next one. We both originate from Bristol where your namesake designed the suspension bridge, so approve of your name. One of us knew BABY SHOWER but neither of us knew 17d. We looked up NEOPLASM in the dictionary but decided that a morbid new growth of tissue was not what we were looking for.Thanks Pierre for the amusing blog – it’s a good thing that Trump isn’t able to read it – too many long words. We’ll have a go at paragraphing and see what happens.
Nice to see another graduate from Rookie Corner hitting the ‘big time’ and in splendid style.Something for everyone in here and I particularly liked ENAMOURED and LEEWARD.Well done, Brunel, and thanks to Pierre for the review – no birds for you today but I’m sure you enjoyed writing those few words about the outgoing POTUS!
Yes, this was a fine puzzle, ranging from some quite easy clues to some that were very tricky indeed, so quite hard overall. I found the SE quadrant the toughest. Favourite clues, CLASSIC, POST CHAISE, BATTING ORDER. Many thanks, Pierre, for the excellent blog.