Independent 10,721 by Bluth

by

Much to enjoy in this offering, which seemed to have more clues to solve than usual.

22 and 19D were my favourites. I probably made the former more difficult to solve than I should by failing to notice that it was two words rather than one.

ACROSS
1 HOPSCOTCH
Hard work to score children’s game (9)

H{ard} + op(=work, in the sense of opus) + scotch(=score)
6 PROOF
Academic has nothing in evidence (5)

O in Prof{essor}
9 THERM
The powers that be have run hot bath (5)

Them around r{un}. I think therm is the singular form of thermae, the name the Romans gave to the hot baths.
10 ALLIGATOR
A wild gorilla eats head of tiny reptile (9)

A gorilla* around t[iny]
11 HOUSE GUEST
Visitor‘s essentially fun transition into entertainer (5,5)

([F]u[n] + segue(=transition)) in host
12 EPEE
Point and slash sword (4)

E{ast}(=point) + pee(=slash, slang)
14 RESIDUE
After regularly taking orders I expected what’s left (7)

Even letters of orders + I + due(=expected)
15 EARACHE
Teacher avoiding extremes, describing artist’s pain (7)

[T]eache[r] around RA
17 HIRSUTE
Hairy? Usher it out (7)

(Usher it)*
19 LINSEED
Cycle seen covered in top type of oil (7)

Seen with letters cycled round in lid
20 APED
Copied athletic sports director (4)

A{thletic} + PE + d{irector}
22 CROPCIRCLE
Cut round grainy design? (4,6)

Crop(=cut) + circle(=round)
25 SCHMALTZY
Sentimental master taking wife’s place in dance held in school yard (9)

Sch{ool} + waltz with M{aster} instead of W{ife} + y{ard}(abbrev from the imperial measurement)
26 GUNGE
Slime, for example, covering wildebeest’s back (5)

(E.g. around gnu)<
27 DERRY
Tumble dryer? It’s in Northern Ireland (5)

Dryer*
28 CACOPHONY
Accountant met firm before counterfeit racket (9)

CA(=Chartered Accountant) + co{mpany} + phony. Def is in the sense of noise i.e. making a racket.
DOWN
1 HITCH
Yank tap, perhaps both taps (5)

Hit(=tap) + CH (hot and cold taps). Hitch can mean a sudden jerk or pull.
2 PRECURSOR
Posh car takes meandering course under parking sign (9)

(RR(=Rolls Royce) around course*) below p{arking}
3 COMPENDIUM
Criminally dump ‘income’ for collection (10)

(Dump income)*
4 TRADUCE
Deal framing upstanding copper is malign (7)

Trade around Cu(=symbol for copper)
5 HOLY SEE
It’s Francis’s responsibility – after half an hour, start to look with fresh eyes (4,3)

Ho[ur] + l[ook] + eyes*, referring to Pope Francis.
6 POGO
Tot of gin in crap punk dance (4)

G[in] in poo. Apparently pogo along with moshing are two main styles of punk dancing – sadly that bit subculture passed me by.
7 ON TAP
Some don’t appear ready to be drawn (2,3)

Hidden in "some dont appear
8 FORCE FEED
Charge after church put cross outside to impose belief on others (5-4)

(Fee after CE) with ford(=cross,as in fording a river) around it
13 CRANKING UP
Endless crap punk dancing around spilled gin – it’s getting going (8,2)

(Cra[p] punk)* around gin*
14 REHEARSED
Pat‘s bothered after broadcasting here (9)

Here* + arsed(=bothered, as in I can't be arsed). Def refers to knowing something pat.
16 CRESCENDO
Philosophy capturing detailed scene’s climax (9)

Credo around scen[e] (de-tailed)
18 ERRATIC
Capricious informer divides Morecambe (7)

Rat in Eric (referring to Eric Morecambe)
19 LIP SYNC
Heard aboard loose ships making slogan for mime (3-4)

Hom of the middle part of the phrase "loose lips sink ships".
21 ETHER
Film the woman’s gas (5)

ET + her
23 EMERY
Central Yemen railway is smoother (5)

[Y]eme[n] + ry
24 RACY
Lively motor returned by end of January (4)

Car< + [Januar]y

28 comments on “Independent 10,721 by Bluth”

  3. Thanks for the early blog, and thanks to Both for a good start to the week! All straight forward, nice definitions, but we hadn’t heard the phrase ‘loose lips sink ships’…got the answer from context.

  4. Fun to the end … 11ac was arrived at NOT via the correct route… also mildly surprising defs for 1dn n 14dn.. oh n 2dn had me looking for something that meant Posh for quite a while… so top L was the last to go..
    Thanks Bluth n NealH

  5. Great crossword to start the week. 2D was my favourite because it misled me for so long and 22A was my last clue solved. A nice penny drop moment. It was also nice that I didn’t have to resort to any solving aids.

    Thanks to Bluth and NealH.

  6. Bluth has clearly been spending way too much time with Paul! Plenty of cheek in this morning’s offering but all fair and plenty of smiles. I was surprised to see the similarities in clueing between 6/13d but it works well.

    I didn’t know THERM as a bath and had forgotten the wartime phrase key to LIP SYNC but neither prevented solution. The definition for HOLY SEE is delightful; likewise CROP CIRCLE. I also had ticks for SCHMALTZY and, always a fan of a gnu, GUNGE. I needed NealH’s help to parse HOUSE GUEST. EMERY less useful to those of us solving online; the paper version would be better.

    Thanks Bluth and NealH

  8. A gentle start to the week so thanks to Bluth for that and Neal for the blog. I didn’t know scotch could mean score, nor hitch could mean yank. I particularly liked ‘crop circle’ and ‘cacophony’. By the way, it seems to me that bloggers don’t generally comment on other bloggers’ blogs: is this a rule or a gentlepersons’ agreement?

  9. Another great puzzle from Bluth – my favourites were SCHMALTZY, CACOPHONY, HOLY SEE and DERRY (a little gem).

    Many thanks to Bluth and NealH.

  12. Tatrasman @8 I think bloggers do comment on other bloggers’ blogs – like Eileen, I do it all the time too

    There is a convention that nationally published setters shouldn’t comment, favourably or unfavourably, or indeed blog, other nationally published setters puzzles, but even that convention isn’t followed by all, especially the ‘newer’ setters

  13. Several bloggers (and indeed ex-bloggers) do post but some do use a different name when blogging, I chose not to. Nice and most easy stuff from Bluth who does seem to be getting the hang of this setting malarkey rather nicely. Thanks to NH for explaining fully the lip sync which I’d missed.

  14. Perfect Monday puzzle. Always enjoy a Bluth.
    Favourites were 6dn and 1ac My knees never really recovered from either of these activities.
    Thanks Bluth and NealH

  15. I see I was not the only one to notice the effect on Bluth of hanging out so much with John Halpern! There wre some lovely constructions here, though. I loved LIP SYNC.

    Thanks, Bluth and NealH.

  16. Bluth has fast become one of the names I’m just pleased to see of a morning (or is that a gun in my pocket?) Favourites were gunge, emery and Derry, but it was all very enjoyable. Had never heard of the lip sync thing, so thanks to NealH for explaining. Unlike you, I was there among the pogoers but a stranger to the mosh pit, which I think came later. Thanks also to Bluth.

  17. Thanks for the kind words. For what it’s worth, this one was written in April 2020. Maybe I’m getting worse and not better, after all.

    I don’t know why ‘discharge = crap’ seemed controversial to some when I used it in January but ‘crap = poo’ doesn’t seem so, now. But maybe it’s just that the people who think so haven’t turned up yet!

    Thanks to Neal for the blog.

    Crypticsue @12 – I was unaware of the convention that setters don’t comment on others – favourably or unfavourably. I’ve often commented on others puzzles (favourably, always). If that’s breaking some code I wasn’t aware of I hope nobody has seen it as anything other than it being a topic I enjoy. I’m a solver, too, naturally.

  18. I have only stated solving recently and this is is the first one I have done unaided so thanks Bluth for giving me hope on a Monday morning, I hope the artist in 15a was Van Gogh.

  19. CS @ 12 and Bluth @ 17 I am glad that you both do! I very much welcome comments from bloggers and setters alike whether on their own or others’ puzzles.
    They are informed views and extremely useful

  20. @dear crypticsue 12 (part two)
    Unfortunately, I am as you know an habitual criminal in the “published setters commenting on other people’s puzzles” dept. I suppose I really ought to pack it in, but I was posting on various threads for nearly 15 years before getting published and it’s a tough habit to kick, or at least it is for me (and I have successfully quit smoking and gambling on the nags)

  22. I wasn’t aware of a convention of setters not commenting on others’ puzzles, whether newbies or no. Indeed some of the grandees of the setting world have been very free with their (unappreciative) comments on fellow setters in the past. Generally, though, setters have posted appreciative comments, especially to encourage promising newcomers. And setters are solvers too, so why should they be gagged?

    On the subject of encouragement, I’m aware that Bluth is hosting an already-oversubscribed Zoom session tonight to try to spread the crossword gospel and help new solvers. Although some were a bit sniffy about his debut, he’s made himself one of the first names on the team sheet here and elsewhere (maybe I should steer clear of football analogies, the way things are going). More than that, he’s raised the profile of crosswords in general and fifteensquared and is to be commended for that.

  24. Took me three sittings but almost full completion without help – I still look back on Saturdays to remind myself I have a long way to go but there were enough way-ins to this puzzle to keep me going.

    HOLYSEE and LIPSYNC for me, tried to get POGO into both punk clues even though I knew this would never be a thing!

    Thanks to Bluth and NeilH (without whom I would never have parsed HOUSEGUEST!)

  25. Fabulous as ever and a superb Monday puzzle. Really loved DERRY, EMERY, CROP CIRCLE and LIP SYNC among others too numerous to mention.

  26. Exactly right for a Monday puzzle. Thanks to Bluth, to NealH, and to Eimi. If we don’t have famous people promoting cryptic puzzles, we risk our future. There’s so much linguistic innovation in texting etc nowadays, yet cryptics still use old-fashioned slang like “U” for posh, which I’m sure nobody in the general public has said out loud for two generations. Perhaps things like that should be dropped at some point?

  27. thanks bluth, only just got around to this – enjoyed it a lot. Didn’t want to miss a bluth. After 6d and 12a, i found the unexpected 14d made me lol. loved things like tumble dryer, to look with fresh eyes, and enjoyed the crap punk dancing feature. Plenty more to enjoy surface-wise, like 19a, well done.

    brilliant stuff, keep it coming

    & thanks NealH

  28. Alliacol @26 – weirdly, the use of posh for U – and how out of date it is – was something I talked about on the aforementioned zoom. (I was mentioning how people might see 2D starting with ‘posh’ and leap to the wrong conclusion).

    I do still use it in clues but I agree that like many indicators in common usage it’s not exactly in common usage any more. (In explaining why it was a thing, I found myself referring to Margot Ledbetter and that alone illustrates the point, I think).

    I think ‘you’ is pretty much a synonym for ‘U’ these days not just for its use in text messages etc, there are while-u-wait signs on shops etc etc. But I think many people who’d accept ‘posh=u’ without question would still wrinkle their noses at ‘you=u’ without some homophone indicator or what have you.

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