Independent 10,810 by Rodriguez (Sat 05-Jun 2021)

by

Good Lord what a fantastic puzzle.

It looks like Rodriguez is settling into a Saturday slot each month, and I’m the lucky blogger to get this one.

I hope that’s enough initial praise to push the next paragraph off the home page.  I cannot stop myself immediately pointing out what he has done here.

Not only is this a pangram, but the letters of the alphabet are in order in the appropriate numbered cell for the first letter of that answer:
From A at 1, to Z at 26.
I have never seen this done before.
Given that feat, it is surprising there aren’t very many obscure words: I would count Chekists, Manteltree and Quatorze as obscure.  Words like Xyst and Nilgai have been seen in previous crosswords.  Unusual spellings such as Unactive and Indorsed might be considered obscure, and the latter certainly fooled me till the end.

I got off to a flyer solving 8 Hearth and 2 Brie in a trice, then nothing till 11 Khrushchev -though I spent far too long at J trying to convince myself an “Oke” was a “Do” as in party (party at the OK Corral maybe?).  I then couldn’t get anything crossing those few answers and got interrupted by real life stuff.
When I re-started I tackled it from the backend and quickly got the bottom right corner of Z, Xs and V, but again not much more.
By the time I’d attempted all clues (the “first pass”) I only had 10 answered.  One of them was Palme D’Or which is where the second pass grew from till bottom left was done and I was left with a few niggling stragglers mostly in the top right.  It would have helped massively to have spotted the nature of the pangram – those last few like Generate, Edison and Rudders would have fallen so much more easily

Huge thanks to Rodriguez for this one.

Across
8 HEARTH Warm area of hard ground (6)
H[ard] EARTH (ground)  First One In – off to a flying start (which lasted barely 3 clues)
9 INDORSED Ruling party on the left, around south, is supported uncommonly (8)
IN (ruling) DO (party) RED (on the left) around S[outh]  Last One In – an unusual spelling for “Endorsed”, thus “uncommonly”
10 JAPE After joint, do giggle (4)
J[oint] APE (do, imitate)
11 KHRUSHCHEV Extremely knavish career by communist playing the communist reformer (10)
K[navis]H RUSH (career) CHE (communist) V (playing, versus)  Khrushchev sprung to mind as soon as I read the clue after seeing the KH wordplay.  Memorably played by Steve Buscemi in “Death of Stalin“
12 LET ME SEE I need to think the French paper’s dropped one pair of Europeans (3,2,3)
LE (the French) T[i]MES (paper’s dropped one) EE (pair of Europeans)
14 NILGAI Treated ailing ruminant in Asia (6)
(AILING)* AInd: Treated
15 OPINES Puts forward large packaging deal (6)
PINE (deal) inside OS (oversize, large)
17 QUEBEC Province that’s eight steps behind India? (6)
The clue refers to the NATO phonetic alphabet
19 SLYEST Most scheming to get agreement accepted by special officer (6)
YES (agreement) inside S[pecial] LT (officer, lieutenant)
21 UNACTIVE Doctor cut a vein? It’s not working (8)
(CUT A VEIN)*  AInd: Doctor
23 WESTWARD HO Which person arrests attendant moving ecstasy in novel? (8,2)
STEWARD (attendant) changed to ESTWARD (moving E[cstasy]) inside WHO (which person)
I not recommend the novel
24 XYST Axes by stone portico in Greece (4)
XY (axes) ST[one]
25 YODELLER Vocalist, one shouting after swallowing too many drugs (8)
OD (Overdose, after swallowing too many drugs) inside YELLER (one shouting)
26 ZEALOT Content to leave Zimbabwe with many a fanatic (6)
Z[imbabw]E A LOT (many)
Down
1 AERATE Inflate a price to tour England’s capital (6)
A RAT (a price) around (to tour) E[ngland]
2 BRIE Mostly silk product from France (4)
BRIE[f] (silk, mostly)
3 CHEKISTS Soviet police man breaking sticks off (8)
HE (man) inside (STICKS)* AInd: off.   In the early Soviet times the secret police were the Cheka.
An individual policeman can be known as a Chekist, so Chekists is a bunch of them.
I thought this the most obscure answer in the puzzle.
4 DIARIES 501 stars producing records (7)
DI (501) ARIES (stars)
5 EDISON Innovator in camp up and about (6)
SIDE< (camp, up) then ON (about)
6 FRECKLIEST Invalid felt sicker, having come out in most spots (10)
(FELT SICKER)*  AInd: Invalid.
7 GENERATE Father has something inherited with value (8)
GENE (something inherited) RATE (value)
13 MANTELTREE Element sculpted with art in lintel (10)
(ELEMENT ART)* AInd: sculpted.
A manteltree a lintel over a fireplace, not the foliage seen here
16 PALME D’OR Pro wrestling with medal for a prize (5,3)
(PRO MEDAL)*  AInd: wrestling.
17 QUATORZE Diddly-squat, or zero, is round number in piquet (8)
Hidden in sQUAT, OR ZEro
I only vaguely heard of Piquet, the card game but spotted this as soon as I got the leading Q
18 RUDDERS Fish hearts, but not hat, could be articles on boats (7)
It took me ages to discern the wordplay here –
RUDD (fish), then take letters of HAT from HEARTS to leave ERS.
20 TRAILS Dogs are, we hear, wearing formal evening attire (6)
R (homophone “are”, HInd: we hear) inside (wearing) TAILS (formal evening attire)
22 VISION Child, under six, framing current image (6)
SON (child) around I (current) under VI (six)
24 X-RAY Unknown fish bones may appear in this (1-3)
X (unknown) RAY (fish) &Lit.

 

24 comments on “Independent 10,810 by Rodriguez (Sat 05-Jun 2021)”

  1. An amazing feat of crossword setting where even I noticed what was going on!

    My last one in was 16d which made me think of Rabbit Dave, who if he solves crosswords set by Rodriguez, won’t be happy at the lack of indication of a ‘foreign’ prize and the missing apostrophe in the second word’s enumeration, but then that’s crossword grids for you.

    Thanks to Rodriguez for a superb crossword and to beermagnet for the blog

  2. Astonishing feat of gridfilling, for which Rodriguez should be roundly applauded. It has been done before, in a Listener puzzle about 20 years ago, using a similar grid but with a higher proportion of obscure words and names such as ARMIGERO, MUCK-MIDDEN and SCHUTZ, so I’d argue that Rodriguez’s achievement is the greater. Bravo!

  3. For some unknown reason I started with the downs, and after I had completed the first seven, even I couldn’t fail to see what was going on. It’s certainly a very impressive feat, but from my point of view, although I really admired the construction, I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed it overall as the inevitable constraints imposed led to some rather contrived clues and answers.

    CS knows me well! Many folk won’t agree with me, but I can’t see how it is justifiable to enumerate D’OR as (3) which is unnecessarily misleading for a foreign word. It would be better in my opinion just to put (two words) as the enumeration. I don’t mind this specific foreign answer itself, as the term is very well-known in English.

    Many congratulations and much respect to Rodriguez, and thanks to beermagnet for the review.

  4. Minor typo in 1D. Should be A RATE (a price). Thank you for pointing out the cleverness of the panoramic which eluded me.

  6. Is there any limit to this man’s talent?
    Best puzzle of the week.
    Someone please buy him a pint!
    Thanks JB and lucky blogger

  7. Amazing indeed – and with so few obscurities.

    I certainly didn’t get off to a flying start with 8ac: I spent too long looking for an anagram of OF HARD!

    As well as the astonishing feat, there were some really good clues, as ever. my favourites today were KHRUSHCHEV, LET ME SEE, ZEALOT, DIARIES, all for the construction, which I enjoyed working out, and TRAILS, for the amusing surface.

    Many thanks for an excellent achievement, Rodriguez and for a great blog, beermagnet – I enjoyed reading your account of your journey.

  8. I found this really hard – probably more use of the reveal button than brainpower in getting the answers, but now I’ve seen what Rodriguez has achieved I’m awed!

  9. If only I’d spotted the ‘theme’ earlier – would have made my sticking point, 10a, so much easier. I didn’t realise that ‘J’ is an accepted abbreviation for joint so relied on Mr Google to tell me that the clue has been used previously!
    An achievement for sure but I didn’t think it made for a particularly enjoyable solve.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and to beermagnet for the review.

  10. That was fun! Getting the last 3 alerted me to the possibility of a pangram. Then the penny dropped. Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  11. oooh I like this very much, what a clever idea. Thanks to Rodriguez for a tremendous puzzle and to beermagnet for the blog

  12. More of a palme doh for me.. blithely unaware of panagrams or other themes but was very happy with the stuff I did solve unaided.. the Russian clues helped me along n I enjoyed QUATORZE as an anagram of SQUAT n ZERO, before realising I had too many letters n spotting it as an inclusion.. so last one was JAPE.. which required a reveal.. doh..
    Thanks Rodriguez n beermagnet

  13. I’ve just come back to this for round 2 – real life stuff interrupted me too. Having idly wondered earlier if a pangram might be heading our way – with solutions like XYST, QUEBEC, QUATORZE and KRUSHCHEV (how beautiful that clue is in both construction and fabulous surface), looking at it afresh I suddenly saw ABCDEF across the top of the grid and the elusive GENERATE popped into place. Looking for the nina to continue, it didn’t do so in the obvious places and then I spotted the next two letters and the rest of the puzzle was almost a write in. I was just defeated by JAPE (and also, earlier, spent time attempting the same anagram as Eileen @7). Oddly enough, similar degrees of pleasure in both experiences: the first half, in nina ignorance, threw up some challenging riddles whilst the second, if quicker, had that exhilaration of everything falling into place. A bit like the chap who scales a mountain in order to ski back down.

    Thanks a million to Rodriguez and – whilst it sounds as if doing both puzzle and blog were reward enough – to beermagnet.

  15. I think Rodriguez deserves a prize for this one! A great idea beautifully executed. Thanks R & B.

  16. Superb stuff! We guessed there was something going on when we saw the top row of unches but it wasn’t till we’d finished that we realised the rest of Rodriguez’ achievement.
    KHRUSHCHEV was our FOI, like our blogger we saw the KH wordplay and also remembered KHRUSCHEV cropped up in an Indy reprint in the i this week (with different wordplay for KH).
    Hands up anyone who first put STOA at 24ac – it does parse as ST(one) + O(rdinate) + A(bscissa). We’d not heard of XYST and had to check in Chambers.
    Favourite was QUEBEC.
    Thanks, Rodriguez and beermagnet.

  17. Many thanks, beermagnet, for such a great blog, and to everyone taking the trouble to comment.

    Best wishes to one and all.

  18. As I’ve said before, some Saturday Indie puzzles I find easy, some difficult. This was one of the latter. Just couldn’t complete the top left corner. And entering INACTIVE for 21ac didn’t help with getting 18dn.

  19. Basically, this was perhaps ‘just’ a pangram – but a very special one, true.
    For me, the main plus about pangrams is that – when seeing that it is one – it may help the solver in finishing the puzzle.
    Well, I didn’t see it was one today and so I couldn’t find 10ac.
    Although I saw the top row, I struggled with this crossword.
    So far, for this solver: Picaroon > Rodriguez >> Buccaneer.
    That said, the previous Rodriguez came really close.
    The gridfill, the idea behind it, all just wonderful.
    But today I am sort of with jane @9.
    Many thanks to beermagnet & Rodriguez.

  20. Stunning – and all the more so for most clues being concise with plausible surfaces. Thanks to Rodriguez and beermagnet.

  21. Thank you x2 beermagnet, I was lured in by your first sentence (solvebait?) and enjoyed the tussle, completely oblivious to the marvellous feat of construction until i came to read your full blog (so your initial praise worked perfectly). I needed some google reassurance along the way but thought the obscurities were fairly clued, thanks Rodriguez.

Comments are closed.