Independent 10,684 by Tyrus

by

Happy new year – well it’s a new one anyway and hopefully we will make it happy. And a treat from Tyrus today. My luck is certainly in – rota wise.

Not sure if I am just refreshed for the new year, but this proved to be a nice gentle introduction to my blogging year. And nice that Tyrus left the remains of a Christmas cracker type joke? around the perimeter…

B and Q YOB ASKED DID I WANT DECKING?

Or was it a political jibe, as there are a number of people in power in this country who need decking and some simple maths lessons!

As to the clues, exactly what I would expect, if not an even better bunch than usual. 27dn is sublime and in my opinion obliquely sums up the difficulty of the puzzle, like the prince – ‘No sweat’. And 21ac was one for the solver with more years behind them than ahead, but described the quality of the soap admirably.

So many other clues of note to be honest, with ultra smooth surfaces and interesting cryptic devices (e.g. 8ac, 19ac, 31ac, 1dn, 13dn, 16dn, 24dn – many really simple, but so elegant)

Thanks Tyrus – amusing and fun as always. Also nice to see the picturesque town of Yarm getting a mention. Please save any visits till after September, though – you can also take in Barnard Castle as it’s only 25 miles or so away (great opticians there for those who need them). The castle is very much a fixer upper.

Key: * anagram; DD Double definition; Rev. reversed; Underline Definition

Across
8 Partly swapped permanently bleating female, we hear – well done! (4,3,3)
For Good (permanently) swapped parts + Homonym of ewe (bleating female) = GOOD FOR YOU

9 Mount, in turn, but a little awkwardly (4)
Rev. bar a (but a little)  = ARAB

10 Let out to catch bug (6)
Net (catch) + (let)* = NETTLE

11 Flipping idiots! Man U player’s unexplained marks on body (8)
Rev. gits (idiots) + Mata (Man U Player) = STIGMATA

12 One’s book a little bit of poetry (4)
I am B(book) one’s book = IAMB

14 They hate spending money abroad – this grates (5-5)
(this grates)* = TIGHT ARSES

17 Old horny creature rolling round floor (4)
Rev. o (old) + Yak (horny creature) = KAYO

19 Michael gutted to stop doing jobs round the house? Clearly not (5)
ml (Michael gutted) in DIY (jobs around the house) = DIMLY

20 Start to dredge North Yorkshire river – you may have to work at it (4)
d (start to dredge) + Esk (North Yorkshire river) = DESK

21 Dross! Oscar unlikely for creaking old British drama (10)
(dross oscar)* = CROSSROADS

23 Soldiers going round at speed (4)
re (soldier) around at = RATE

25 Accompanied earl ordered guards around (8)
e (earl) + sorted (ordered) around c (around) = ESCORTED

28 Doris’s daughter dressed in red cuddling sweetheart (6)
(in red)* around e (sweet heart) = NEREID

30 Confuse extremists in Delaware (4)
De (Delaware) around AZ (extremists) = DAZE

31 Fair happening shortly – he’s outside with dodgems at first (4-6)
event (happening) – t + h and e (he) + d (dodgems at first) = EVEN HANDED

Down
1 Cycling home, finally stopping where they sell wine (6)
abode (home) + g (finally stopping) = BODEGA

2 A time to seal off copper mine entrance (4)
a + t (time) around DI (copper) = ADIT

3 No change in Washington – rarely guilty (6)
no + cent (change in Washington) = NOCENT

4 Colours ultimately faded of course (4)
d (ultimately faded) + yes (of course) = DYES

5 Ian still occasionally appearing in dock, curiously (8)
quay(dock) around IaN sTiLl (occasionally) = QUAINTLY

6 Runs into old PM around Teesside town (4)
Rev. May (Old PM) around r (runs) = YARM

7 Stoke are playing – the epitome of Englishness? (3,5)
(Stoke are)* = OAK TREES

13 Violently assaults in Chelsea store? (5)
Triple Definition BOOTS (violently assaults, Chelsea (boots), Boots the chemist)

15 School getting parent’s letter (5)
gam (school) + ma (parent) = GAMMA

16 Attacker not a motorcyclist? (5)
raider (attacker) -a = RIDER

18 Tots are busy with a balloon, perhaps (8)
(tots are a)* = AEROSTAT

19 Party rubbish? He gets a woman (8)
Do (party) + rot (rubbish) + he + a = DOROTHEA

22 Mess in dish – language! (6)
(in dish)* = SINDHI

24 What can I earn in Bangkok? Say, that’s capital (6)
Homonym of Thai pay (what can I earn in Bangkok) = TAIPEI

26 Have to defend English poet (4)
own (have) around e (English) = OWEN

27 Attracted Prince – one extradited? (4)
Andrew (prince) – an (one) = DREW

29 Tough outside but somewhat easier indoors (4)
Hidden easieR INDoors = RIND

18 comments on “Independent 10,684 by Tyrus”

  1. Unlike Twencelas, I didn’t find this at all gentle, and have to say I never do find Tyrus gentle. I struggled in the top half, where seven remained unsolved. But the bottom half was kinder! Thanks Tyrus and Twencelas.

  2. Always love the challenge of a Tyrus puzzle. Wouldn’t say I found it particularly easy though.

    Originally, until I saw the nina, I had BEETLE as an &lit for 10a, though I had to take ‘catch’ to mean ‘is caught up by’ which is a stretch. Sense finally won. Had to check the Doris part of 28a. Who’d have thought?

    Nice to see ADIT back after a long absense. NOCENT was a fairly easy guess (though I did waste time trying to parse HONEST). Never heard of YARM so googled that. Didn’t know SINDHI either. I did remember AEROSTAT from a previous crossword which was pleasing.

    Thanks to Tyrus and twencelas.

  3. Bought charity crackers for Christmas in which the jokes were not crackers. A friend had 12 crackers all with the same joke. Maybe that was the joke. Haven’t heard this one before though, quite good, and pleasingly indecipherable right to the end.

    I liked the Chelsea store and the misers.
    NETTLE is a bit odd and not really explained in the blog. How does TLE come to be after NET? Is ‘to’ supposed to be attaching it somehow?
    Also, ‘a bit of awkwardness’ for A
    Thanks Tyrus, Twencelas

  4. hmm..top L corner was mostly a series of single vowels until I revealed the B of 13d.. still not meteoric after that tbh.. ah well
    thanks Tyrus n twencelas

  5. I’m with James @3 re NETTLE. The parsing surely leads to TLENET. Help please.

    Not as easy as it was for our blogger and I needed help to parse BOOTS and GOOD FOR YOU. I wouldn’t have got KAYO if it hadn’t appeared somewhere else very recently. I did like DIMLY, STIGMATA, CROSSROADS (I assume the creaky refers to the famous sets), EVEN HANDED, QUAINTLY and our blogger’s favourite, DREW.

    SINDHI reminded me of the story of Charles James Napier, the British commander who subjugated the province of Sindh in India. I Googled it to check before posting and learned something new. I quote directly from the Wikipedia entry: ‘Napier was supposed to have despatched to his superiors the short, notable message, “Peccavi”, the Latin for “I have sinned” (which was a pun on I have Sindh). This pun appeared under the title ‘Foreign Affairs’ in Punch magazine on 18 May 1844. The true author of the pun was, however, Englishwoman Catherine Winkworth, who submitted it to Punch, which then printed it as a factual report’. There is a delightful irony in that Napier is supposed to have sent the pun in order that, had it been intercepted by his enemies, being written in Latin it would mean nothing to them and yet Napier proposed that British officers would be more effective as leaders in the colony if they learned the language of the native population.

    Thanks Tyrus and twencelas

  6. I wondered about the order in 10a but, according to my Chambers, one of the meanings of “to” is “beside” so I thought it ok. Perhaps, Tyrus will confirm.

  7. Excellent puzzle, but I had a little trouble with 20a as I entered DURE on first pass, and therefore had some difficulty with 7d.
    Thanks Twenceslas and Tyrus.

  8. An enjoyable solve – thanks to Tyrus and to twencelas for blogging. We had to check SINDHI, the ESK and NEREID (as Hovis @2 says, who’d have thought?) The joke helped us with KAYO in particular.

    One minor parsing point. I originally parsed 31ac as in the blog, with “he” = “h and e”. However, my co-solver pointed out that the full wording of the clue is used better if “he’s outside with” is parsed as “he” around “and” (= with).

  10. Having never been in a B&Q I am supposing that DECKING has two meanings so more Private Eye than Two Ronnies.
    I was also a bit nonplussed by NOCENT(re def)
    But after being served a quiptic in the Graun I was happy to see JT in the chair.

  11. I got off to a reasonable start with this, but soon struggled – a number of words I didn’t know (adit, nocent, nereid, aerostat and sindhi (and gam in the cluing) but at least their in my vocab for the future.

  12. Really enjoyed this, although the nina was no help at all, especially as I had never heard of YARM and thought that Q would be followed by U. I still did not understand the message until I came here — they don’t have B&Q where I live. Favourite clue was the soap opera, which I do remember switching off from time to time.

  14. Just as I thought I was getting the hang of cryptic crosswords..I found this so hard today , needed a lot more help than usual, although I have now learned Gam is a school of whales and Doris is a goddess. 24d was wonderful I thought

    Thanks Tyrus for stretching my brain and Twenceslas for the explanations

  16. We saw there was a nina but being unaware of the joke we read it as “you asked for …” so we couldn’t get 9ac – the best ‘mount’ we came up with after a lot of googling was ‘Akau’ referring to the Akau mountains in Kazakhstan but of course we couldn’t parse it.
    Apart from that it was all good stuff. We got STIGMATA and KAYO quite easily having encountered them in other crosswords fairly recently.
    Thanks, Tyrus and Twencelas.

  18. Just got round to this after struggling with Quixote.
    Struggled a bit with this too. Had 6 solutions still to get when I spotted the nina, which helped me finish it.

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