Independent 10,816 by Tees

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hello all.  Always a pleasure to have a Tees puzzle, although I had to have a couple of cheeky searches to finish.  I may not be feeling myself as I think my favourite today is the cryptic definition (18d).  Spooky!  Thanks Tees!

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. Link words are generally omitted for clarity.

 

Across

9a    See 17

10a   See 17

11a   See 17

12a   Be sure Ireland will shelter no undesirable (4,5)
BETE NOIRE
BET (be sure) and EIRE (Ireland) around (will shelter) NO

13a   Starchy item returned to bar staff employed in Spring (7)
MAYPOLE
YAM (starchy item) reversed (returned) + POLE (bar)

14a   Message from turbulent Split received in central Greece (7)
EPISTLE
An anagram of (turbulent) SPLIT inside (received in) the middle letters of (central) grEEce

17a   & 9/10/11. Ensure tight fit when hoof becomes loose in scheduled monument (3,9,5,5)
THE UFFINGTON WHITE HORSE
ENSURE TIGHT FIT WHEN HOOF is anagrammed (becomes loose) to give this scheduled monument

19a   Irish cardinal hoarding silver for a time (4,3)
IRON AGE
IR (Irish) + ONE (cardinal) around (hoarding) AG (silver)

21a   Grass over pretty Cambridge Backs (3)
RYE
The last letters (backs) of oveR prettY CambridgE

22a   American investigator on mobile for one doing wet work? (7)
FROGMAN
G–MAN (American investigator) next to (on) an anagram of (mobile) FOR

23a   Metal ring Desert Fox left out in sports car (7)
GROMMET
ROMME[l] (Desert Fox) without L (left out) in GT (sports car)

25a   John’s hit: endless shock to follow reprimand (6,3)
ROCKET MAN
MANe (shock) without the last letter (endless) is after (to follow) ROCKET (reprimand)

27a   Posh school that fails to open causing quarrel? (5)
ARROW
hARROW (posh school) without the first letter (that fails to open)

29a   Sounding hoarse, work for me can really be a drag (5)
HUSKY
A double definition

30a   No waistcoat is worn by large Independent writers (9)
NOVELISTS
NO VEST (waistcoat) ‘S around (worn by) L (large) and I (Independent)

 

Down

1d    British quiet losing leader in wild Australian parts (4)
BUSH
B (British) + hUSH (quiet) removing the first letter (losing leader)

2d    Alpha Force cook embracing a public brawl (6)
AFFRAY
A (alpha) + F (force) + FRY (cook) around (embracing) A

3d    This was Tennyson’s main memoir rewritten (2,8)
IN MEMORIAM
MAIN MEMOIR anagrammed (rewritten) gives us this poem by Tennyson

4d    Valuable marten invests time in place of 11 (6)
STABLE
SABLE (valuable marten) contains (invests … in) T (time).  11 is 11a: HORSE

5d    Curse stories associated with The Graduate (8)
ANATHEMA
ANA (stories) + THE + MA (graduate)

6d    War writer‘s love novel rejected (4)
OWEN
O (love) + NEW (novel) reversed (rejected)

7d    Nun holding in evil (8)
SINISTER
SISTER (nun) holding IN

8d    Herculean wife in seven-gated city dropping case (4)
HEBE
The wife of Hercules is found in tHEBEs (seven-gated city) without the outer letters (dropping case).  With a sieve-brain for classics and checkers _E_E, I had to research this one

13d   Design test on famous poem (5)
MOTIF
MOT (test) on IF (famous poem)

15d   Relentless old men with capacity to support home (10)
INEXORABLE
EX (old), OR (men) and ABLE (with capacity) after (to support, in a down entry) IN (home)

16d   Shrouded in atmosphere, Cthulhu’s standing (5)
ERECT
Hidden inside (shrouded in) atmosphERE CThulhu’s

18d   One sent to relieve another of possessions? (8)
EXORCIST
A cryptic definition

20d   One breaks leg: people between times offering balm (8)
OINTMENT
I (one) goes inside (breaks) ON (leg) + MEN (people) between T T (times)

23d   Spirit ultimately haunting wide Russian river (6)
GENEVA
Last letters of (ultimately) hauntinG widE + NEVA (Russian river).  I didn’t know geneva as a spirit and couldn’t think of the river either so this was another search for me

24d   Miserable deer seen outside Ram’s Head (6)
MOROSE
MOOSE (deer) around (outside) R (Ram’s head)

25d   Sandwiched between two rivers, what was that valley? (4)
RUHR
Sandwiched between R and R (two rivers), we have UH (what was that).  I did wonder if there was a Rehr valley!

26d   Rampant Rand perhaps initially excited singer (4)
ENYA
The reversal of (rampant, in a down entry) AYN (Rand perhaps) and the first letter of (initially) Excited

28d   Launder women’s money after copyright waived (4)
WASH
W (women’s) + cASH (money) without C (after copyright waived)

 

31 comments on “Independent 10,816 by Tees”

  1. Enjoyed today’s challenge despite my poetry knowledge being it’s usual awful self I think I just about recalled Owen and got the Tennyson one from the crossers , didn’t get the “If” reference until I got here!

    EXORCIST also my favourite , very clever. Also FROGMAN and ROCKETMAN

    thanks Kitty for explaining the “scheduled” bit of scheduled monument (I did have to look up the name after I got U.F….. WHITE HORSE)

    Thanks a lot to Tees and Kitty

  2. Sorry but ARROW was a bit off target to my mind and BETE NOIR was far too stretchy as a definition
    But I liked the WHITE HORSE and most of the others

  3. copmus @2 I think ARROW works better if the definition is ‘causing quarrel’ as in requiring a quarrel. But I do agree that my first thought was this was a bit of a stretch

  5. Nonetheless, it (a quarrel) really is an arrow (having a four-edged head, hence derivation from Latin quadrus) that’s fired from a crossbow. It got a ? as suggested by the ed as it is dbe.

  7. This was nicely challenging and good fun. I hadn’t heard of Ayn Rand and so couldn’t parse the obvious answer to 26d. I also didn’t know the stories in 5d nor the Russian river but was able to find both them using Google.

    The “waistcoat” in 30a is not a waistcoat in the UK.

    EXORCIST was my favourite (great picture too, Kitty!)

    Many thanks to Tees and to Kitty.

  8. Tees @6, sorry for pre-empting you. I wonder if some have confused quarrel with quiver.

    Saw the Rand reference and immediately thought of Rush. Let’s see, the first and last two letters of the clues before and after – I’m definitely on to something here… (I need another hobby.)

  9. Came unstuck in a few places – like RD, I didn’t know the 5d stories or Ayn Rand and my research persuaded me that Hercules was married to Megara.
    Looks as though EXORCIST is going to be a favourite for many of us, it was certainly mine, with a nod for MAYPOLE.

    Thanks to Tees and to our favourite feline for the review and parsing assistance.

  10. I had to rely on divine inspiration to get HEBE, my last in, though could then work back to figure out the ‘seven-gated city’. Everything else went in steadily enough but I needed most of the crossers for the 17/9/10/11 anagram and I was glad that I avoided the temptation to put in ‘gineva’ (didn’t fit the wordplay) for the ‘Spirit’ at 23d.

    I was close to crying foul for an indirect anagram for ‘Rand perhaps’ at 26d, but then saw that ‘Rampant’ was a reversal, rather than an anagram, indicator.

    Thanks to Tees and Kitty

  12. Definitely a puzzle of two halves for me – temporally, that is. A steady but slow start with the long one clearly key but such a bunch of anagram fodder nothing leapt out. However, once I had the W for WHITE and then solved 4d (STABLE) with its reference to 11ac (HORSE) which, I knew, ended in an E, then we were up and running – in a way. Several white horses to choose from so I did need a bit of help from Mr Google. Everything else solved in the following couple of minutes. Some remained unparsed until I came here, having not heard of either Ayn Rand or the Ana stories (which still mean nothing to me: there’s a YouTube channel with that name – is that it??? Anansie stories, yes, but Ana?) However, I was chuffed to get HEBE and GENEVA. I’m another tick for EXORCIST and share with Tombsy a liking for both FROGMAN and ROCKETMAN – if not a confusion between quivers and quarrels 😀

    Thanks Tees and Kitty

  13. PostMark @12. ANA for “stories” does crop up now and then. According to Chambers, it can mean a literary collection of anecdotes.

  14. A really enjoyable challenge today, though with more and more head scratching as I went on. Getting 1D and the enumeration put me on to White Horse early, with just a little hiccup in the getting the exact place name, but in other places my general knowledge and vocab was stretched. At least I know ANA for future ref.

  15. Another vote for 18d as clue of the day. Enjoyed this a lot. Poetry references are always welcome and the long anagram was fun to unravel. In 20d how does on = leg, please? Thanks to Tees and Kitty, and slight envy to those who’d bit heard of Any Rand and her works.

  16. Jayjay @ 15

    ‘On’ aka ‘leg’ is a cricket term referring to the area of the pitch that is behind the centreline with reference to how the batsman stands. The area in front of the centreline is ‘off’.

  17. The UWH came to me when I had several crossers as I have walked past it many times along the Ridgeway National Trail. Apparently, ana = stories is connected with such inventions as Victoriana. At 26D, surely ‘rampant’ indicates ‘rearing up’, as in heraldry, rather than ‘reversal’, so very apt in a down clue. Very enjoyable, so thanks Tees and Kitty.

  19. We had to google for people with the surname Rand and then to confirm the singer’s name at 26dn. Apart from that it was more or less straightforward once we worked out the link between 17/9/10/11 and 4dn as we knew of the monument. We did have some doubt about a GROMMET being a metal ring as we thought of it as the rubber ring that protects electical leads passing through the metal case of an appliance – but Wikipedia tells us that’s an ‘insulating bushing’.
    A very pleasant solve; no real favourite as it was all good.
    Thanks, Tees and Kitty.

  20. Thank you SimonS @16 for the explanation. Cricket is a deep source of cryptic clues, which I mine one by one. I agree Boatlady @18, Geneva is Genever is Dutch gin, and rather lovely, if dangerous.

  21. @18,20 yes Geneva is genever is gin and having drunk lots in Amsterdam along with some coffee shop samples they ate very dangerous. Probably still bear the pavement rash scars in a few places 20 years later.

  23. 🙂 . Yes, the link I included to the gin gives those names (among others) as variants, although the J spelling favoured there is not given in Chambers, Collins or the ODE. (It is in the SOED.)

    Thanks to those who have commented and answered questions today, saving me from having to stir myself. (Though I should really be more stirrable than usual, being somewhat melted!) I should probably have been more explicit about such things as quarrels and ana; the latter is a piece of crosswordese familiar to me by now, but I’ve been doing these things for a few years.

  24. [As to ‘geneva’/’genever’, in the Netherlands the drink is usually called jenever.
    The name is linked to (or named after) jeneverbessen (jenever-berries, which is what the English call junipers).
    It is an alcoholic drink mostly associated with what your grandad would drink on a Sunday after church. Either at home or in a ‘bruin café’ (a smoky pub).
    It was never any popular with young people and probably still isn’t (and wasn’t with me and/or my friends either)]

    Another good addition to Tees’ impressive oeuvre.
    Can see why this one was chosen for publication on a Saturday.
    Thanks Kitty.
    [happy you didn’t mention Enya’s Orinoco Flow – been to too many funerals]

  25. It was my book club meeting this afternoon, so I didn’t really start this till late evening but it seemed to go in fairly smoothly.

    IN MEMOMORIAM was my FOI – it’s also the name of a piece of music by Havergal Brian. And we had to do an OWEN poem for O-level English back in the sixties. Not to mention the use of his poetry by Britten in his War Requiem.

    But I needed some crossers to work out where the WHITE HORSE was.

  29. Tombsy, what saga? 😉

    I quiver at the thought of starting a quarrel about rewriting history – but it’s ok, yesterday’s crossword quickly does become history.

  31. You’re talking to someone who recently said phased when she meant fazed (cringe), and can think of at least two similar examples without taxing the old leaky memory! I’m sure there will be more to come.

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