Independent 10,791 by Bluth

by

We had the pleasure of blogging Bluth’s puzzle two weeks ago, and now he crops up in the Friday slot.

Another excellent puzzle with a considerable amount of head-scratching, some creative definitions and excellent surfaces.

As we are not big sports fans we were only vaguely aware of the footballer at 22ac and the cricket tournament in the clue for 17d.

As soon as we had a couple of crossers, 17d became obvious – one of the types of bread Joyce bakes regularly (to Bert’s delight).

We struggled a bit with 22ac due to the rather convoluted wordplay and the unfamiliar spelling of the surname – but we were impressed by Bluth’s inclusion of the 1965 James Brown song in the clue.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Actor on The Simpsons maybe? (8,7)
ANIMATED CARTOON

A reverse anagram of ACTOR ON, the anagrind being ANIMATED

9. Troubling quality – ask for husband (7)
TASKING

ThING (quality) with ASK replacing the ‘h’ (husband)

10. Independent politician two journalists obstructed (7)
IMPEDED

I (independent) MP (politician) ED ED (two editors – ‘journalists’)

11. Coppers taking dope and ecstasy show remorse (9)
PENITENCE

PENCE (coppers) round or ‘taking’ NIT (dope) and E (ecstasy)

12. Some cattle rustler finally wearing symbol of peace (5)
DROVE

R (last or ‘final’ letter of rustler) in or ‘wearing’ DOVE (symbol of peace)

13. Gun – one found on a slippery slope (5)
LUGER

Double definition, the second referring to one riding on a luge, a light toboggan featuring in winter sports

15. It’s designed with you in mind – for this reason, don’t start cryptic (9)
ERGONOMIC

ERGO (for this reason) + gNOMIC (cryptic) without the first letter, or ‘not starting’

18. Ideas man is stopping other Queen moving round (9)
THEORISER

IS in or ‘stopping’ an anagram (‘moving round’) of OTHER ER (queen)

20. Henry rejecting Boleyn’s hair dye (5)
HENNA

H (henry) + ANNE (Boleyn) reversed or ‘rejected’

21. Joely Richardson’s expressing emotions (5)
LYRIC

Hidden in (indicated by the ‘s) JoeLY RIChardson

22. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag after interruption by posh, London Philharmonic Orchestra player (4,5)
PAUL POGBA

P (papa in the phonetic alphabet) + A + an anagram (‘brand new’) of BAG round or ‘interrupted by’ U (posh) LPO (London Philharmonic Orchestra) – as non-football fans, we had only vaguely heard of this French footballer.

24. It supplies crude painting effectively (3,4)
OIL WELL

OIL (painting) WELL (effectively)

25. Reject striking actors (7)
OUTCAST

OUT (striking) CAST (actors)

26. Sailor smooths voyage on board ship bearing European flag (5,3,7)
STARS AND STRIPES

TAR (sailor) SANDS (smooths) TRIP (voyage) in (‘on board’) SS (ship) round or ‘bearing’ E (European)

DOWN
1. Gold to trial TV show – it involves action, but lacks self-awareness (9)
AUTOPILOT

AU (gold) TO PILOT (trial TV show)

2. Playwright sees nurse following bowel disorder (5)
IBSEN

EN (enrolled nurse) following IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)

3. A bomb that flew over a hill gets airman (7)
AVIATOR

A V1 (‘bomb that flew’ – the WW2 ‘doodlebug’) A TOR (hill)

4. Manipulates topless teenagers in broadcast without adult (9)
ENGINEERS

An anagram (‘broadcast’) of tEENaGERS IN without the first letter or ‘topless’ and ‘a’ (adult)

5. Blame kept out of sight in church (5)
CHIDE

HID (kept out of sight) in CE (church)

6. Enlisted revolutionary when I deported some characters (5,2)
ROPED IN

Hidden (‘some characters’) and reversed (‘revolutionary’) in wheN I DEPORted

7. Eccentric playing banjo, entertaining millions is jack of all trades (3-6)
ODD-JOBMAN

ODD (eccentric) + an anagram (‘playing’) of BANJO round or ‘entertaining’ M (millions)

8. Jog naked around the centre of Margate (5)
NUDGE

NUDE (naked) round G (middle letter or ‘centre’ of Margate)

14. Irregular glue ear? Dr will clean occasionally (9)
GUERRILLA

Alternate or ‘occasional’ letters of GlUe EaR dR wIlL cLeAn

16. Wordy newspaper reversed rule on use to wipe bottoms (9)
GARRULOUS

RAG (newspaper) reversed + RULe On USe each without the last letter or ‘wiping bottoms’

17. Hundred players in audition with leading agents to make some bread (9)
CIABATTAS

A homophone (‘in audition’) of BATTERS (‘Hundred players’ – cricketers in ‘The Hundred’ tournament) with CIA (agents) in front or ‘leading’

19. Dodges game (7)
RACKETS

Double definition

20. Essentially the high priest’s a cereal cafe regular? (7)
HIPSTER

H (middle or ‘essential’ letter in the) + an anagram (‘high’) of PRIEST

21. Steals seat back (5)
LOOTS

STOOL (seat) reversed or ‘back’

22. Copy long division – can it raise the power? (5)
PYLON

Hidden in (a ‘division’ of) coPY LONg

23. Get government file (5)
GRASP

G (government) RASP (file)

 

20 comments on “Independent 10,791 by Bluth”

  1. I very much agree with B&J’s second paragraph of their preamble.

    I had actually heard of the footballer – I think the surname is one that sticks in the mind.

    Thanks to Bluth for the entertaining brain-stretching and to B&J for the blog

  2. Excellent misdirections.. was looking for an LPO player for a bit… maybe not the same penetration as M. Pogba? Also scratched around 9ac for a while, not putting THING n quality together.. so that was my last.. enjoyed looking at a row of S’s for 26ac until the penny dropped.. 1ac was a Doh! moment as well… after CARTOON wrote itself in… so many to enjoy but I’d have to choose NUDGE for mental image if nothing else…
    Thanks Bluth n Bertandjoyce

  3. I was thrown at 7D due to having always seen and written it as three hyphenated words ‘odd-job-man’. Surely, as a man who does odd jobs, it would more logically be ‘odd-job man’. The term cereal café is new to me, but it sounds an interesting concept. Is there a reason for Bluth bumping Phi from the Friday spot? Can’t see one. But thanks anyway to Bluth and B&J.

  4. We’d never heard of a cereal café, probably due to our rural isolation, nor the footballer, which we worked out from the wordplay, and then temporarily discarded as ridiculous…..couldn’t parse TASKING either, until Bert and Joyce showed the way. Thoroughly enjoyed the crossword, thanks Bluth and b&j

  5. Tatrasman @3. I also thought the hyphenation in 7d was “odd”, but it checked in Chambers. Phi did this week’s Tuesday theme crossword, hence the switch. Cereal cafe is new to me as well.

  6. Having been raised on the wrong side of the Atlantic, I thought I’d sussed that over here it is a ‘batsman’ who does more of less the same thing as a baseball ‘batter’ (albeit with a short-handled canoe paddle instead of a bat).

    Just the right level of head scratching and back patting today. It was a pleasant break from the usual Friday write-in.

    Thanks, Bluth, B & J.

  7. Thanks for the blog B&J. And thanks for the comments so far.

    Tatrasman et al – I don’t know where I’d have put the hyphen in odd-jobman without looking it up, but I guess the man goes on the end without one in the same way it does with milkman, spaceman, drayman etc etc… but the presence of the hyphen in odd-job then makes you think, “well, if there’s one there, why wouldn’t there be one here too”.

  9. Thanks, Bluth. As usual, the more I learn of cricket the less I understand. With regard to the article, I don’t think the Americanisation will be complete until the bowlers (or should we now call them derbies?) build up enough strength to hurl the ball all the way to the batman/batter.

  11. Lots of good fun here, but I mainly wanted to come here to say that I thought the clue for 22ac was brilliant!

    Thanks to Bluth and to Bertandjoyce.

  12. a very acceptable alternative Goujeers@10! well… bread wise at least.. I can feel a curry coming on..

  13. I think BertandJoyce summed it up perfectly. I had a fairly quick start, and getting 25A early from enumeration and just a few crossers helped, but as time went on there was a lot of head scratching.
    I eventually got 1A unparsed (I don’t think I’ve ever recognised, let alone solved, a reverse anagram clue!) but some of the other clues were “Of course!” moments when I finally cracked them. Lots of good cluing.

  14. The clue for 22 across was like the player; impressive, brilliant and occasionally baffling, as was the puzzle as a whole.

  15. A lot of clever stuff. Guerrilla had us guessing. LOI was tasking – still not sure how it means troubling but no doubt that’s my ignorance.

  16. Always enjoy a Bluth and saved this for after Sunday tea – maybe the roast beef weighed us down mentally as well as physically because we struggled to get a start on this one

    Lovely clues as ever although it took this blog to explain a few of them to us!

    LUGER got our “ooo clever” and many others impressed

    Thanks Bluth and Bertandjoyce

  17. But Tombsy, what about poor old Hoskins on a Sunday?! A lovely little wafer-thin mint of a puzzle that wouldn’t have pushed Mr Creosote over the edge let alone a roast beef stuffed couple of Tombsyites!

  18. Thanks Bertandjoyce, this took me a few sittings and even then didn’t understand some elements eg NOMIC and you have cleared them all up. In fact I failed entirely, falling into the same trap as Goujeers@10, and without the link provided by the man himself@8 I would be grumbling loudly but now think it’s another superb clue (of many, and such a wide range of clever devices used), so thanks Bluth.

  19. Hoskins @17 – haha you are next in the queue then 😉 and thanks to YouTube even the younger one of TeamTombs gets that reference !

Comments are closed.