Another pleasing puzzle from Tees to fill the IoS slot. As always, I learnt something from solving one of his puzzles. In my case this morning the subject areas were stones, fruits and flowers.
There is a mini-theme using the BOND part of 12/6, giving us BASILDON BOND, a PEPTIDE BOND, a PREMIUM BOND and JAMES BOND.
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 Graduate on about fish and 6 in stationery
BASILDON
An insertion of SILD in BA and ON. The insertion indicator is ‘about’, and a SILD is an immature herring, don’t you know. The answer refers to BASILDON BOND, a high-quality notepaper on which, in days gone by, one would write thank you letters to maiden aunts, with a fountain pen, natch. Tees is such an old-fashioned cove.
8 Peace perhaps increased following meal
TEA ROSE
A simple charade of TEA and ROSE, of which ‘Peace’ is an outstanding example. It was given this name in the aftermath of the Second World War.
9 Withdraw to the west to secure mushroom baking base?
RICE PAPER
An insertion of CEP in REPAIR reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘to secure’ and the reversal indicator is ‘to the west’ (because English is a left-to-right language).
10 Check books in German 23 old Ford model chases
AUDIT
A charade of AUDI (a German motor) and T for the ‘any colour you like as long as it’s black’ Ford car. To make the cryptic grammar work, you have to read ‘chases’ as ‘comes after’. That’s what I did, any road up.
11 Moment pastor reconfigured defunct browser?
TRICERATOPS
Brilliant clue. A charade of TRICE (‘I’ll be there in a trice’) and (PASTOR)* The anagrind is ‘reconfigured’. TRICERATOPS was of course a herbivore, hence ‘browser’.
13 See seconds binding in some cuts
LOINS
An insertion of IN in LO and S. The insertion indicator is ‘binding’.
15 Jaguar car on bend an original model
ARCHETYPE
A charade of ARCH and E TYPE.
17 Pupils initially those getting to lecturers?
PREACHERS
A charade of P for the first letter of ‘pupils’ and REACHERS.
18 Snake appearing in film — through water it sped
E-BOAT
An insertion of BOA in ET. The insertion indicator is ‘appearing in’.
20 Law for one with charm taking in grand legal expert
APPEAL JUDGE
An insertion of G for ‘grand’ in APPEAL JUDE, with the latter particle referring to Jude Law, the actor. The insertion indicator is ‘taking in’.
23 Space to reverse round front of traction engine
MOTOR
An insertion of T for the initial letter of ‘traction’ in ROOM reversed. The insertion indicator is ’round’ and the reversal indicator is, uncontroversially, ‘to reverse’.
25 With no hesitation sea captains will see Poles on ships
MAINMASTS
MAIN MAST[ER]S
26 Universal anger shown about doctor giving offence
UMBRAGE
An insertion of MB for ‘doctor’ in U and RAGE. The insertion indicator is ‘shown about’.
27 Stones put finally into container that’s correct
CAT’S-EYES
A charade of T for the last letter of ‘put’ inserted into CASE, and YES. The insertion indicator is ‘into’. A CAT’S-EYE is a polished gemstone with a narrow band of light going across it, which resembles the vertical pupils of real cats’ eyes. This is the reason that cats always look sinister.
Down
1 Wayward lot — and bars — once seen here?
BORSTAL
(LOT BARS)* with ‘wayward’ as the anagrind. A cad. The ‘once’ is there in the surface because BORSTALS were abolished under the Criminal Justice Act 1982 and replaced with youth custody centres.
2 Gave up bag provided, holding rupees and diamonds? Diamonds
SACRIFICED
A long charade: of R for ‘rupees’ inserted into SAC and IF, ICE for ‘diamonds’ and D for ‘diamonds’. The insertion indicator is ‘holding’.
3 Pass by circuit on Silverstone’s borders
LAPSE
A charade of LAP and SE for the outside letters of ‘Silverstone’.
4 Establishment no-one has a pop at?
ORPHANAGE
My other favourite clue today. A cd.
5 Middle Easterner, furious, escalating a disturbance
DAMASCENE
A charade of MAD reversed, A and SCENE. Since it’s a down clue, the reversal indicator is ‘escalating’. Referring to a native of Damascus, but probably better known in the phrase ‘a Damascene conversion’, relating to the change of heart of Paul, when he converted on the road to Damascus from being a persecutor of Christians to becoming one of them.
7 Chemical 6 needs energy supplied with current
PEPTIDE
A charade of PEP and TIDES. A PEPTIDE BOND is a chemical bond linking two amino acids in a peptide chain.
8 Tactic initially used by City Group
TRIO
A charade of T and RIO.
12/6 Dictum meum pactum: goodness and wisdom Byron revised over days
MY WORD IS MY BOND
A charade of MY for ‘goodness!’ (WISDOM BYRON)* and D. The anagrind is ‘revised’. Dictum meum pactum [est] means MY WORD IS MY BOND in Latin and is the motto of the London Stock Exchange.
14 Conservative in group heretical and bigoted
SECTARIAN
A charade of C inserted into SET and ARIAN. The second particle is ‘heretical’ in the sense that ARIANS believe that the son of God is not co-eternal with God the father. They should perhaps get out more.
16 Republic in which Castro deceiving CIA nuts
COSTA RICA
Two anagrams: of (CASTRO)* and (CIA)* The two anagrinds are ‘deceiving’ and ‘nuts’.
17 6 saver gets, as yet childless woman tours Italy?
PREMIUM
Referring to PREMIUM BONDS, beloved of risk averse ‘savers’. An insertion of I in PRE MUM. The insertion indicator is ‘tours’.
19 They believe time served initially limits crime
THEISTS
An insertion of HEIST in T and S for the first letter of ‘served’. The insertion indicator is ‘limits’.
21 Gothic writer covering maiden in fruit
POME
An insertion of M in [Edgar Allan] POE. POME is a botanical term for a type of fruit that includes apples, pears, medlars and quinces. It’s cognate with the modern French word for ‘apple’, une pomme.
22 Agent 6 in sticky situation occasionally tense
JAMES
The name’s Bond. JAMES BOND. A charade of JAM and ES for the even letters of tEnSe.
24 Bath line’s terminus in subterranean railway
TUBE
A charade of TUB and E for the final letter of ‘line’.
Many thanks to Tees for this morning’s puzzle.
One of the best Sunday Indy puzzles for a while. The gateway clue took a while to crack and I liked the way it was used as part of the def for the dependent clues. I wrote on BASILDON BOND long ago with the Parker loaded up with blue Quink, “Sunday best” writing paper as you say. Still going apparently, though I don’t know if they’ve yet managed to come up with an email equivalent.
SILD was new and the forgotten POME helped by being part of “pomegranate”. Tees was in a generous mood for 10a with the helpful ‘German’ and ‘Ford’. I agree that ORPHANAGE was an excellent cryptic def but my pick was ARCHETYPE – a pity that models these days aren’t as original as that classic ‘Jaguar car’.
Thanks to Tees and Pierre
Out of my depth here sadly.
A third I got, I third I got with much assistance (thesaurus and Wikipedia) and the rest were just impossible: Basildon, Damascene, Pome, Triceratops……wow.
Liked the E-type play and Catseyes.
Thank you Tees and Pierre
Morning, Daren J. If this is your first comment on Fifteensquared, welcome (I don’t remember seeing your name before).
When I was starting out on cryptics, I would often consider a half-finished puzzle a plus, so well done for getting so far with this one. As far as the Indy is concerned, the Sunday puzzle is generally a good one to keep going with; and the Monday version is usually easy-end. Tees is often found in both slots, so if you enjoyed this one you’ll have a chance to see more of his offerings there.
Orphanage, and triceratops our favourite clues today, we liked ‘defunct browsers!
Lovely straightforward cluing, thank you to Tees, and Pierre.
Thanks Tees and Pierre
Re your comment on 10, Pierre, I think if you see ‘chases’ as ‘goes after’ the meanings converge even more.
Managed to get there despite not picking up on the theme but it left 7&22d with question marks alongside them – silly girl!
Hadn’t previously come across the 1a fish and did need to check on the 21d fruit but OK elsewhere.
My top two were TRICERATOPS (defunct browser indeed!) and ARCHETYPE.
Thanks to Tees and to Pierre for the review. Shame there were no ‘bird’ opportunities today!
Daren J@2 .. Actually found this trickier than most IoS n Tees offerings.. i find Tees 1 of the more approachable Indy setters as Pierre@3 says.. not sure exactly why this felt impenetrable to begin with.. the BOND thing was a great help… but obviously had to be solved to be of any use at all.. I confess to just looking up the Latin in the end rather than solving the anagram.. after that much to enjoy.. as mentioned 11ac, I also really liked LOINS n RICEPAPER..
Thanks to Tees n Pierre
I’m with Undrell @7 – seemed harder than the usual Tees on Sunday, and also ticked LOINS.
Another enjoyable Tees puzzle, so no complaints from me.
Yes, perhaps slightly harder than he usually is.
I am a bit surprised that Tees, one of the most careful setters around, chose this grid.
It has two solutions with ‘double unches’ (7dn, 17dn) – a thing I dislike but, hey, even The Times has them occasionally.
However, here the two entries have also less than 50% checking – a sort of lethal combination in Crosswordland.
True, it didn’t distract from solving the clues but still.
We later posters clearly struggled a bit more than the earlier ones. I ran into soft sand some 80% of the way through and never solved ORPHANAGE which is very clever. I was stuck on finding synonyms for a temperance hotel! TRICERATOPS gets my COTD too. Brilliant definition. Though Wordplodder’s favourite, ARCHETYPE, was also right up there. I enjoyed the BOND collection and, Latin phrases not being a strength, was delighted when the motto came to mind. Big ticks also for the succinct LAPSE, the clever construction of APPEAL JUDGE, the witty PREACHERS and, another with a wonderfully misleading definition, MAIN MASTS. TEA ROSE, unfortunately, was totally lost on me and another left unsolved.
Pierre – jane @6 regretted that there were no bird opportunities today. May I have the pleasure of introducing you to the DAMASCENE Pigeon!
Thanks Tees and Pierre
Another enjoyable Sunday puzzle from Tees – and yes, I did spot the BOND
Thanks to Tees and Pierre
Brilliant definitions. TRICERATOPS, ORPHANAGE, MAIN MASTS, ARCHETYPE last in and very good too.
I’m with those who found this trickier than many a Tees on Sunday so take heart, Daren J, and keep at it! And do try the Monday Independent as recommended by Pierre if you haven’t already. Thanks to Tees and Pierre.
Some fun and some new words. LOI was peptide, hampered by thinking of a peptide as a chemical but not as a bond, and by the strictly scientific view that a tide is not a current (please don’t bother to tell me that Chambers says it is!).
A little trickier than some IoS offerings maybe, but we had very little trouble with it. We liked the various BOND references but our favourites were TRICERATOPS and ORPHANAGE. We also liked ARCHETYPE – was that a passing reference to the 50th anniversary of the appearance of the e-type?
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.