Independent 10,927 by Tees

Slightly tricky from Tees today, but enjoyable as always.

There are a few obscure references here, or at least I thought so – but straightforward enough if you know them, I suppose. The main feature is three linked double-entry clues: the screen name and real name of a well-known film star, along with the name of one of her most memorable characters.

Apart from the theme, I enjoyed the strangely topical 19a (though not so much the far-too-topical 26d), and the pair of cricket-themed surfaces in 29a and 1d. My top prize goes to the delightfully self-referential 12a. Thanks Tees for the challenge.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
9		See 13

10	CHEAP	Cheek smuggling in ecstasy at low price (5)
		CHAP (a variant of chop = cheek or jaw), containing E (slang for the drug ecstasy).
11	GOBBO	Clown Launcelot covering two bachelors in slime (5)
		BB (two B = abbreviation for bachelor), covered by GOO (slime). The clown Launcelot Gobbo is a character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (as is his father Old Gobbo).
12	ENIGMATIC	Imagine this clue starts out as cryptic (9)
		Anagram (out) of IMAGINE with the starting letters of T[his] C[lue].
13, 9	FRANCES ETHEL GUMM	Much else shattered with fragment for 23 Across at birth? (7,5,4)
		Anagram (shattered) of MUCH ELSE with FRAGMENT. As it says: the original name of the actress better known as 25d 23a.
14	ORCHARD	Ogre unyielding in pastoral setting (7)
		ORC (ogre = mythological monster, featuring in Tolkien’s novels among others) + HARD (unyielding).
17	ACT	Tread boards in leading parts at Criterion Theatre (3)
		First letters (leading parts) of A[t] C[riterion] T[heatre]. (Presumably the one next to Piccadilly Circus, though there are other venues with the same name elsewhere.) “Tread the boards” = to be on stage in a theatre.
19	UMPTEEN	MP needs support entering global alliance: plenty given! (7)
		MP + TEE (support for a golf ball), entering UN (United Nations = global alliance). Umpteen = an unspecified large number = plenty. The “given” helps with the sense of the surface, but doesn’t do anything for the definition. Interestingly, for the surface, we’ve just had an MP (Matt Hancock) announcing he would take on an unpaid role with the UN, but then they withdrew their support; it seems they remembered a rule that a serving MP can’t do that. Awkward.
21	LOO	Learner driver needing two wheels for convenience? (3)
		L (badge indicating a vehicle being driven by a learner) + two O (circle = wheel). As in “public conveniences” = toilet facilities.
22, 28 Down	DOROTHY GALE	Oz character cooked hot fish outside before storm (7,4)
		Anagram (cooked) of HOT, with DORY (name for various species of fish) outside it, before GALE (strong winds = storm). Character played by 25d 23a in The Wizard of Oz.
23		See 25 Down

25	JACK FROST	Father over street going on to raise nipper (4,5)
		FR (abbreviation for father, as a title for a clergyman) + O (over, in cricket scoring) + ST (abbreviation for street), all after (going on = added to) JACK (as a verb = raise using a lever mechanism, as in jacking up a car for repairs). For the somewhat cryptic definition, think of The Christmas Song: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose.”
27	BEING	Creature initially employed in Crosby? (5)
		Initial letter of E[mployed] in BING (singer and actor Bing Crosby). For the surface, Crosby is a town in Merseyside.
29	DRAKE	Opener in difficulty to collect duck (5)
		Opening letter of D[ifficulty], then RAKE (collect, as in to rake up leaves, or perhaps to rake in the profits). The surface suggests a poor start to an innings in cricket, with one of the openers (first two players to bat) getting out without scoring (a duck).
30	TOADSTOOL	Snakes haul back potentially poisonous fungus (9)
		TOADS (toad = snake = slang for an unpleasant or untrustworthy person), then LOOT (haul = winnings) reversed (back). Toadstool = an inedible mushroom, potentially a poisonous one, though there isn’t a clear distinction; not all toadstools are poisonous, and some nasty ones may still be called mushrooms.
DOWN
1	BERG	Scorer getting runs after live game’s start (4)
		R (runs, in cricket scoring) after BE (live, as a verb), then the starting letter of G[ame]. The surface suggests a somewhat better cricket performance than in 29a, but the “scorer” here is actually a composer of musical scores: the Austrian composer Alban Berg.
2	PHOBIA	Letter from Greek grips old boy with a fear (6)
		PHI (a letter from the Greek alphabet) containing OB (old boy = former pupil of a school), then A.
3	BLOOD COUNT	Health check is family matter (5,5)
		BLOOD (family, as in “royal blood”) + COUNT (matter, as a verb, as in “doesn’t count” = isn’t important). A set of tests to check levels of various components in a blood sample.
4	DURESS	Coercion has Don going round the bend (6)
		DRESS (don, as a verb = put on clothing) around U (as in U-bend = a component in plumbing).
5	OMNIVORE	Possibly badger new man in East End residence? (8)
		N (new) + IVOR (a man’s name) in ‘OME (home, spoken in an East End accent which tends to drop initial H sounds). Definition by example: a badger eats a mixed diet of plants, small animals, birds’ eggs and various bugs.
6	SCAM	Monkey scratching bottom sees rook (4)
		SCAM[p] (monkey = slang for a naughty child), with the end letter (bottom, in a down clue) removed (scratched). Rook, as a verb = scam = to swindle.
7	MEATBALL	Yours truly at social event supplies food item (8)
		ME (yours truly) + AT + BALL (a dancing party = social event).
8	EPIC	Eastern prince in odd places — that’s a long story (4)
		E (Eastern) + odd-numbered letters of P[r]I[n]C[e].
13	FRAUD	Married woman initially detecting crime (5)
		FRAU (German title for a married woman, equivalent to Mrs, though some sort of foreign-language indicator would have been helpful) + initial letter of D[etecting].
15	CONTRABASS	Cat on brass perhaps making bull fiddle (10)
		Anagram (perhaps making) of CAT ON BRASS. Bull fiddle (US slang) = contrabass = a double bass (the lowest-pitched instrument in the violin family). No, I hadn’t heard of the US term either.
16	DROID	Doctor Who finally given papers for automaton (5)
		DR (abbreviation for doctor) + final letter of [wh]O + ID (short for identity documents = papers). Droid = android = a human-shaped robot.
18	TURNCOAT	Move round bed to corner a rat (8)
		TURN (move round) + COT (bed), containing (to corner) A. Turncoat = rat = someone who defects from their group to join the opposition.
20	PLYMOUTH	Continuously feed speaker port (8)
		PLY (continuously feed, as in to ply someone with drink) + MOUTH (speaker). Port city in Devon.
23	GATEAU	Cake served with a drink in Burgundy’s centre (6)
		A TEA (a drink) in the middle letters (centre) of [bur]GU[ndy]. “Served” makes for a good surface but doesn’t really contribute to the definition.
24	ASIMOV	Stasi moved to hold American author (6)
		Hidden answer (. . . to hold) in [st]ASI MOV[ed]. Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov (born in Russia, but moved to the US and became a citizen there as a child).
25, 23 Across	JUDY GARLAND	Jefferson’s First Lady with drug an inebriate performer (4,7)
		First letter of J[efferson], then an anagram (inebriate) of LADY with DRUG AN. Actress, originally known as 13a 9a, who played the part of 22a 28d. The surface is sadly apposite; she was known to have issues with drink and drugs.
26	FLEW	According to report virus was airborne (4)
		Homophone (according to report) of FLU (a virus).
28		See 22 Across

18 comments on “Independent 10,927 by Tees”

Re: JUDY GARLAND – sadly apposite, indeed: she died of a drug overdose. I didn’t know her given name but ETHEL was jumping out at me and I didn’t feel too guilty, once I had the stage name, in turning to the Web to look it up. And I had to do the same with GALE, I’m afraid (tut, tut – I’ve I’d waited until I got the crossers I could have guessed correctly. Slap on wrist).

As always, well clued and pretty challenging. ASIMOV was very well hidden: anyone else look for an anagram of stasi and A? OMNIVORE possibly my favourite for the outrageous ‘ome.

Thanks Tees and Quirister

According to Chambers, FRAU has become part of the English vocabulary (often derogatory) so I don’t think any foreign language indicator is needed in 13d.

A mixed bag for me from Tees today. Plenty of fun but I thought that “cheek” = “chop” = “chap” was a step too far in 10a,; I always feel a vague “man” is a bit of a cop out as in 5d; and, whatever Chambers says, “frau” is a German word in my book.

I particularly liked ENIGMATIC, DOROTHY GALE, DRAKE, ASIMOV (and yes PostMark @1, I did try to make an anagram of stasi and A), and FLEW.

Many thanks to Tees and to Quirister.

Rabbit Dave @3 Sure, FRAU is German but so is SCHADENFREUDE for example. We Brits often nick words from other languages.

Postmark@1: Till I cracked Toadstool, I was jumbling stasi+a in one part of my mind.

Hovis@4 Le weekend

A bit more challenging than usual from our Tees but not enough to cause a problem

Thanks to him and Quirister

I enjoyed this puzzle but held myself up for a ridiculous length of time (in fact, I nearly gave up) in the bottom left corner by carelessly swapping the entries for 25 and 26 down, thus making 25 and 29ac impossible.

I didn’t know Judy Garland’s birth name – strange that it’s not better known, like John Wayne’s and Cary Grant’s – so, like PostMark, I turned to outside help.

Apart from that, very enjoyable – thanks to Tees and Quirister.

I belong to the ‘stasi + a’ anagram faction. I’m happy with ‘frau’ as being an imported word into the English language, along with thousands of others. I couldn’t see ‘chap’ = ‘cheek’, nor ‘toad’ = ‘snake’. Great fun, so thanks Tees and Quirister.

Yes, I’d much prefer to remember JUDY GARLAND in “The Wizard of Oz” rather than for some unfortunate incidents in her later years eg in Melbourne in 1964. I had forgotten both the name of her character in the film and her birth name, but both were possible to solve from the wordplay.

Some other good ones, including the unknown ‘clown’ at 11a and the musical instrument at 15d which I’d also never heard of. Favourites though were the ‘Possibly badger’ def for OMNIVORE and the ‘Stasi+A’ misdirection for the hidden ‘author’.

Thanks to Tees and Quirister

I find it a bit infra dig to shuffle actual anagram fodder, so I tried all sorts before getting Judy or Dorothy, mostly Charleses, as that fitted nicely with the early crossers. Charles Ethan Hunt, anyone? It rang a bell. No, there’s a M and a G, how about Charles Egham Hunt, equestrian son of the Earl of Staines? etc.
Clown Launcelot, nice timing.
Thanks Tees, Quirister

As a friend of mine remarked, it’s hardly surprising that Miss Gumm decided to change her name!
I’m another who would have appreciated a foreign word indicator for 13d and something other than the mention of a random ‘man’ in 5d. DROID was new to me and I wasn’t familiar with ‘bull fiddle’ for CONTRABASS.
No particular favourite but several new bits of info to file away for future reference.

Thanks to Tees and to Quirister for the review.

Solving on my own for once, but I didn’t find this too difficult, particularly once I got the themed entries (I did have to look up the lady’s real name and the character). Once I’d unscrambled the anagram for CONTRABASS I vaguely remembered having heard of ‘bull fiddle’ and I didn’t get OMNIVORE till I’d got all the crossers – and a foreign word indicator would have been helpful at 13dn although I didn’t need it.
[Thinking of foreign words in English I’m reminded of someone bemoaning the percieved shortcomings of Welsh and asking, “What’s the Welsh for ‘entrepreneur’?” To which someone replied, “What’s the English for ‘entrepreneur’?”]
Thanks, Tees and Quirister

Tricky. And I fell for all the tricks mentioned in posts above. Oh well, it was good to get there in the end. Thanks to Tees and Quirister

I actually found this surprisingly easy. I more or less remember Garland’s real name. The only hitch was that I’ve read a book called …Was… by Geoff Ryman that is a fictional depiction of a character called Dorothy who, it is claimed, was the original for the Oz character, but in that book she is Dorothy Gael and I couldn’t remember if that was also the name in Baum’s original, so I had to get 30ac before I was sure.