This appears to be Angel’s third Indy puzzle, which I enjoyed solving and blogging. On which note, and slightly scarily, this is my 700th blog for Fifteensquared.
Unusually for the Sindy, there is a theme. I saw CAPTAIN SCARLET and CAPTAIN BLACK lurking, but I don’t think the Mysterons are responsible here. I think it’s to do with CAPTAIN MARVEL and the MARVEL comics, given away by the reference to Stan LEE in 11ac. I am absolutely no expert in this area, but as well as CAPTAIN MARVEL I have seen BLACK WIDOW, which rang a vague bell because a film has just been released of the same name. I’ll have a flirt with ANT MAN as well, but then hand over to solvers who know much more about Stan Lee’s work and will enjoy explaining the other themed answers which I have undoubtedly missed.
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 State proponents of aggressive action styles
MOHAWKS
A charade of MO, the abbreviation for Missouri, and HAWKS. The reference is to hairstyles.
5 Murderer kidnaps prone officer
CAPTAIN
An insertion of APT in CAIN. ‘He is prone/apt to repeat his mistakes.’ The Biblical reference is to Adam and Eve’s firstborn, who murdered his brother Abel. And is responsible for the question ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Genesis 4:9, since you ask).
9 Falsify papers for firm
RIGID
A charade of RIG and ID.
10 Organised Sue tours a bridal store
TROUSSEAU
(SUE TOURS A)* with ‘organised’ as the anagrind.
11 Stan maybe rejected slippery character
EEL
A reversal of LEE, referencing Stan Lee, the comic book writer who created many of the Marvel Superheroes.
12 Deserving world leader and king in hot mess
WORTH
A charade of W for the initial letter of ‘world’ and R for Rex or ‘king’ inserted into (HOT)* The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘mess’.
13 With urge to fascinate
WITCH
A charade of W and ITCH. To ‘witch’ and to ‘fascinate’ are given the same meanings in my Chambers. ‘Bewitch’ might be closer, but the clue is fair.
14 Nasty bug lying concealed
UGLY
Hidden in bUG LYing.
16 Cringe at sloppy serving
CATERING
(CRINGE AT)* with ‘sloppy’ as the anagrind.
19 Incentive from drug carriers trading ecstasy for uranium – it’s back to front
STIMULUS
Very precise cluing: Angel is asking you to replace the E (for ecstasy) in MULES with U (for uranium) to end up with MULUS. Then you need to put ITS ‘back’ to give STI, and put it at the front.
20 Dispatched team leader after three points
SENT
A charade of S, E and N for three ‘points’ of the compass, and T for the initial letter of ‘team’.
23 Carrying American, unfinished boat possibly rolls
SUSHI
An insertion of US in SHI[P].
25 Bishop on a weekend getaway
BREAK
A charade of B, RE for ‘on’, A and K for the last letter (‘end’) of ‘week’. If you don’t like ‘midnight’ or ‘Gateshead’ to clue G, then you won’t like this. I personally find it a perfectly fair device and I think that those that do object are clinging to an old convention just for the sake of being ‘traditionalists’.
27 Not a fan of short hill-dweller
ANT
ANT[I]
28 Type of craft pint, way behind bar
AEROPLANE
And the same traditionalists will have learned by now, I hope, that the Indy – unlike some other publications – does product placement. A charade of AERO, the chocolate ‘bar’, P and LANE.
29 Gun man
PIECE
A dd. The first is slang; the second is referring to chess.
30 President of Aruba corrupted in Milton Keynes
MUBARAK
This is a bit more of a stretch: I can’t find MK for Milton Keynes in any dictionaries, but it is listed online. And the footie team is called MK Dons. Whatever, it’s (ARUBA)* inserted into said MK. The anagrind is ‘corrupted’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’. The ‘President’ is Hosni MUBARAK, who held the position in Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
31 Cherry pit allowed
SCARLET
A charade of SCAR and LET. The two nouns are close synonyms when referring to skin, I think.
Down
1 Miracle realm built around Midhaven
MARVEL
Midnight, midhaven … An insertion of V for the middle letter that results from a lift and separate procedure in (REALM)* The anagrind is ‘built’.
2 Emphasise the extent of tall tale as told by Spooner?
HIGHLIGHT
A Spoonerism of LIE HEIGHT, which whimsically could be the ‘extent of a tall tale’.
3 Opportunity to ditch name for surviving woman
WIDOW
WI[N]DOW
4 Like The Onion, CIA trials collapsed
SATIRICAL
(CIA TRIALS)* with ‘collapsed’ as the anagrind. The Onion is an American satirical media company and newspaper publisher.
5 The clergy‘s destiny lies in the church
CLOTH
An insertion of LOT in CH. The insertion indicator is ‘lies in’.
6 Old man’s weapons – they are needed for access
PASSWORDS
A charade of PAS and SWORDS.
7 A section expert
ADEPT
A charade of A and DEPT.
8 Newton should love
NOUGHT
A charade of N for the SI unit of force and OUGHT. Two weeks of Wimbledon should have alerted you to the love/nought equivalence.
15 OK, rip up my comic fast!
YOM KIPPUR
(OK RIP UP MY)* Jews traditionally observe YOM KIPPUR with a day-long fast.
17 Does Covid make you this crass?
TASTELESS
A cd cum dd. One of the symptoms of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 is loss of taste.
18 Ideal open air frolic in Holland
NONPAREIL
An insertion of (OPEN AIR)* in NL. The anagrind is ‘frolic’.
21 Crowded and comparatively friendly
ASWARM
A charade of AS and WARM.
22 Verify a dry zone in Georgia
ATTEST
A charade of A, TT and EST for Eastern Standard Time, which is the time zone observed for part of the year by the US state of Georgia (among others).
24 Cancel loser
SCRUB
A dd, the first a verb, the second a noun. Chambers has:
scrub n a player in a second or inferior team (N Am)
25 British capital deficit creates this sort of market?
BLACK
A charade of B for the initial letter of ‘British’ and LACK.
26 Character in Greek apparel
KAPPA
Hidden in GreeK APPArel.
Many thanks to Angel for this Sunday’s puzzle.
There’s also SCARLET WITCH in there so along with Black Widow and Cpt Marvel so I think the theme is specifically female Marvel characters. Some lovely clues, particularly STIMULUS, YOM KIPPUR (another nice nod to the comic theme, there!) and the Spoonerism. Thanks Angel and Pierre.
Good puzzle. I liked it much more than a certain other recent Sunday puzzle that I didn’t like.
However, disagree strongly with Pierre’s comment re 25 across, which encourages compilers to go for lazy options, instead of trying to be creative so as to stay within correct grammatical lines.
Cryptic crossword grammar isn’t some special form of grammar y’know: it’s yer actual straightforward grammar grammar!
Good on you Pierre for sticking at it so long and the Angel Delight. Must have missed an Angel crossword only remember the Strictly dancing one
Congrats to Pierre on your 700th.
This had the feeling of a possible theme which I had no hope of identifying. Generally not too difficult but I couldn’t parse ATTEST (I was itching to put in ‘Athens’ until getting SCARLET) and there was a sting in the tail with the not so common word ASWARM, my last in.
Product placement is even making its way into The Times these days. I must say I’m not too fussed as long as the product in question isn’t too obscure.
Thanks to Angel for no. 3 and (congrats again) to Pierre for no. 700.
Each to his/her own, I guess. I am very much on Pierre’s side on 25a and completely disagree with the sentiments expressed by paul @2. I can see how some dislike this construction but I just can’t see it as being lazy but rather a mechanism that leads to more inventive surfaces that would be missed by setters with a more restrictive set of rules.
Has anyone ever come across P for “pint” (28a). Always been pt as far as I know. Agree with Charlie @1 re the theme.
This traditionalist is more than happy with “lift and separate”, but for crosswords published in UK newspapers I do think that indicators should be used for foreign words (and I include American in that) which are not used in UK English, e.g. SCRUB.
I thought Stan Lee seemed a strange choice for 11a, but as usual I had completely missed the theme.
Many thanks to Angel for the fun and to Pierre. Congratulations, Pierre, on your impressive milestone.
Rabbit Dave @6. I agree on this, however I don’t think SCRUB is necessarily American. One of the definitions in Chambers is “an insignificant person” with no indication that it is an Americanism. I would guess quite a few solvers will remember the song “I don’t want no scrub” by TLC. Certainly not an American sports reference.
It may not be in the dictionary, but MK is quite a popular abbreviation for Milton Keynes, notably in their football team MK Dons (which bizarrely used to be Wimbledon Football Club, aka “the Dons”) .
Some good head-scratching material here, and congratulations Pierre on the milestone.
A lot of fun with a few words used unusually (for me) – WITCH and SCRUB being the most obvious. No problem with either ‘weekend’ for ‘k’ or the appearance of a brand. (Personally, I don’t see this as ‘product placement’ – a form of advertising in which branded goods and services are featured in a production that targets a large audience. I have never ever felt that a compiler or the publication in question was attempting to persuade me to, in this case, buy an Aero. As I have argued before, brands are as much a part of our lives as politicians, sports teams and television programmes, all of which feature in crosswords. And, if we’re going to object, then surely we should be consistent and object to ALL brands – including Ford, Mars, Apple, iPad, all of which appear regularly)
Re MK for Milton Keynes, it’s certainly used as an abbreviation by people who live/work there as well as in the name of the footie team. It is the postcode for the town – I’m not sure what crosswordland feels about postcodes standing for letters. London codes, for sure, appear (SW, EC etc).
Thanks Angel and Pierre (and can I join the others in congratulating you on a fine innings thus far – despite occasionally facing Hoskins’ hostile bowling!)
I suppose “scrubber” denotes a derogatory view of a person and is in common use in UK English, but I’ve not come across “scrub” for “loser” as such.. maybe more prevalent in America.. TLC were most definitely American Hovis@7.. I quite like the misdirection of “weekend” n “Midhaven”.. it makes sense.. not sure its a grammatical error? This was a very pleasant Sunday outing..
Thanks Angel n Pierre (700!!!)
Undrell @10. I should have made it clear that I knew TLC were American. I was just making the point that it wasn’t using scrub in the American sense mentioned in the blog and, additionally, it was a big hit over here.
I was misled at 11A into inserting LEE, which also works, but soon realised my error. This ‘lift and separate’ device seems to be catching on, though I think it has been used for some time on and off. I don’t think it’s a lazy option at all, just another weapon in the setters’ armoury, to be borne in mind. Thanks Angel and (congratulations) Pierre.
Found this a bit tough so wasn’t even looking for a theme which is a shame as the MCU films are firm family favourites
Got the N in Midhaven, failed to get the K in midweek (but it made sense anyway so got it) – I’m on the side of those that say this is fair game
Favourites include BLACK (not sure that the clue isn’t “deficit creates this sort of market”) I know deficit is part of the cryptic but is this a partial &lit (it probably has a better name)?
Finally can anyone tell me why dry=TT in ATTEST?
Thanks to Angel and very well done to Pierre (how many bird links in the 700?)
Tombsy + @13. TT is short for teetotal and crops up quite often and dry can mean off the booze.
Hovis @14 Aha! Many thanks
I enjoyed this very much, many thanks to Angel, nice surfaces, anyone might think you’re some sort of creative writer, and to Pierre – (Richie Benaud voice, marvellous effort, that, 700). The first two clues I solved were MARVEL and EEL – with its reference to Stan – so that was a record theme spot for me. I understand Paul B’s point of course re 25 but Eimi seems to have undergone a fairly recent change wrt this “device”.
My only complaint is that I am now saddled with an earworm of TLC’s No Scrubs but at least it’s replaced Football’s Coming Home so there’s that
Tombsy, the answer is I’m not sure how many OPBLs there have been. Probably not that many, since birds as answers don’t crop up that often. Except in this puzzle, from a few years ago now, by Hoskins.
I enjoyed this, as I love a lift & separate, even if I don”t always spot them quickly. Particularly liked how 26d can also work as a DD, since Kappa is a clothing brand. 🙂
I also enjoyed this, finding most of the clues challenging hard enough (by my standards!) without crossing the line into me staring for ages with no inspiration. The final few needed help, and AEROPLANE was my loi, missing what sort of craft it was.
My one query was whether The Onion was well enough known this side of the Atlantic. (I had heard of it, and knew it was satirical but thought it was niche knowledge.)
Having just read through the ‘Comment Guidelines’ and remarks pertaining to them, I think it’s best if I simply say ‘ditto to RD’s comments’!
The underlining is wrong for EEL, as it’s the slippery character that’s the definition, though Lee seemed to me the more natural solution. I had FORGE (for G.E.) for RIGID. Congratulations on blogging more crosswords than I have solved.
Missed the theme (but what’s new?). An enjoyable Sunday solve with no particular favourite.
Thanks to Angel and especially to Pierre for reaching this milestone. (Incidentally we were mildly surprised that 18dn didn’t prompt a comment about “I before E except when it isn’t”)
Weirdly, Allan, that thought didn’t occur to me. Petert – thank you, blog amended.
Happy 700th to The Frenchman! Having met him in the flesh, I can assure you all he doesn’t look a day over 698! Here’s to many more and keep up the good work. 🙂