Independent 10,940 by Bluth

by

Another BLuth to BLog. Three out of our last five blogs have all been set by him.

No complaints here, although we did find it somewhat tricky to get into. We really liked 20ac.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Eager artist joins band (6)
RARING
RA (artist) RING (band)
4. Spooner’s going crazy about I, Claudius, perhaps (8)
POISONER
An anagram (‘going crazy’) of SPOONER round I. Nothing to do with Spoonerisms as we first thought. The Claudius who is referred to is a character in Hamlet who had poisoned a cup of wine to ensure that Hamlet died, even if he won the duel.
10. Cease nestling – according to the Reverend, it takes two of these to eat (9)
CHOPSTICK
STOP (cease) CHICK (nestling) – this time it is a Spoonerism – ‘the Reverend’ is William Archibald Spooner a long-serving Oxford don famous for his mixing up of syllables in a spoken phrase.
11. Touches inside of trachea, but softly (5)
ABUTS
Hidden (‘inside’)in tracheA BUT Softly
12. Oddly Star Trek: Discovery’s leading character is fed up (5)
SATED
Alternate letters (‘oddly’) of StAr TrEk + D (first letter or ‘leading’ character of Discovery)
13. Intelligent and smooth – you don’t want to be taken in by this (9)
QUICKSAND
QUICK (intelligent) SAND (smooth)
14. One who was said to resent living in the shadow of their famous, dim-witted beast – poor Melania (1,1,5)
A A MILNE
An anagram (‘poor’) of MELANIA – the famous dim-witted beast is Winnie the Pooh – not the former US president
16. Fringes of undergown tucked into jerk’s outfit (5)
TUNIC
UN (first and last letters or ‘fringes’ of undergown) inside or ‘tucked into’ TIC (jerk)
18. Leader of Oman consumed by jealousy for deputy (5)
ENVOY
O (first letter or ‘leader’ of Oman) inside or ‘eaten by’ ENVY (jealousy)
20. Tummy – with starters turning – it’s not a good sign (3,4)
BAD OMEN
ABDOMEN with first two letters reversed or ‘turning’. I don’t know why but this surprised us – we’ve never noticed the link between these two before.
22. Suffer after knockout in the manner of iconic Australian? (5,4)
KOALA BEAR
BEAR (suffer) after KO (knockout) ALA (in the manner of)
23. French article in before cut off (5)
PRUNE
UN (French for ‘a’ – article) in PRE (before)
24. Perhaps emperor’s taking university opening (5)
MOUTH
MOTH (Emperor is a type of moth) around or ‘taking’ U (university)
25. Sanitise staggering do-or-die stance that lacks heart (9)
DEODORISE
An anagram (‘staggering’) of DO-OR-DIE and SE (stance without the middle letters or ‘lacking heart’)
26. Nymphs return – so do I, on LA beach or on regular vacation (8)
OCEANIDS
A reversal (‘return’) of alternate letters (‘regular vacation’) in So Do I oN lA bEaCh Or
27. Brilliant dismount (6)
ALIGHT
Double definition
DOWN
1. Transport kirsch on a wide vehicle (8)
RICKSHAW
An anagram (‘transport’) of KIRSCH on A W (wide)
2. With not a single second wasted, post mortem reassures around 20, normally? (4,11)
ROOM TEMPERATURE
An anagram (‘wasted’) of POsT MORTEM REAssUREs with all four ‘s’s (seconds) missing (‘not a single second’)
3. Without current, Edison’s redesign moved slowly (5)
NOSED
An anagram (‘redesign’) of EDiSON without I (current)
5. Fungal disease found in old, American bedspread, reportedly (3,4)
OAK WILT
O (old) A (American) KWILT – sounds like (‘reportedly’) QUILT (bedspread)
6. Doctor needs housing shortage to be eased (9)
SLACKENED
An anagram (‘doctor’) of NEEDS around or ‘housing’ LACK (shortage)
7. Working PC, emulating our minds essentially (6,9)
NEURAL COMPUTING
A clue as definition – An anagram (‘working’) of PC EMULATING OUR and N (middle or ‘essential’ letter of minds)
8. Board‘s about-face (6)
RESIDE
RE (about) SIDE (face)
9. Style of pot covered by cannabis questionnaire (6)
BISQUE
Hidden in (‘covered by’) cannaBIS QUEstionnaire
15. Old devil eats that and, after removing the wrappers, it’s huge (9)
LEVIATHAN
oLd dEVIl eATs tHAt aNd with the first and last letters of each word omitted or ‘removing the wrappers’
17. Dine out on small change – it’s filthy (8)
INDECENT
An anagram (‘out’) of DINE + CENT (small change)
19. One dividing the archaic Left deserted before Miliband returned (7)
YIELDED
I (one) in or ‘dividing’ YE (old or archaic form of the) + L (left) D (deserted) ED as in Ed Miliband
20. Grief getting book for son – maybe get something from the library (6)
BORROW
sORROW (grief) with B (book) replacing S (son)
21. Particular stance from a Korean leader over personal hygiene issue (6)
AKIMBO
A KIM (Korean leader) BO (personal hygiene issue). ‘Over’ refers to the fact that A KIM is on top as it is a down clue.
23. Advertising bird hunt (5)
PROWL
PR (advertising) OWL (bird)

18 comments on “Independent 10,940 by Bluth”

  2. I found this on the friendly side for a Bluth with lots to enjoy throughout, including as Hovis says, 7d, but also 4a and my top favourite 14a

    Thanks to Bluth for the fun and B&J for the blog

  4. Another very quick solve, but more satisfying than a recent Grauniad of his (as Fed — my comment then was not that there was anything wrong with the crossword, just that it seemed more suitable to a Monday, which is more down to the editor)

    I struggle to explain why some crosswords (like this one) tumble easily but entertainingly when I find myself on the setter’s wavelength, while others just seem too straightforward to satisfy. I’m sure it is difficult or impossible for a setter to thread the needle, and every solver is different. Anyway, Bluth hit home with me today with this latest tour de force. 14 was a cracker, among others. Thanks all round.

  5. I thought this was light and good fun, and I’m pleased to say that only one of the surfaces (15d) jarred slightly. With 14d, once again, Bluth has managed to come up with a very long clue which reads perfectly in 14a. This gets my vote as favourite, although 4a ran it close.

    Many thanks to Bluth and to B&J.

  6. I thoroughly enjoyed this, although juggling the anagrist for NEURAL COMPUTING has left me in need of alcohol !

  7. Ian SW3: your first sentence sums up my thoughts exactly. When I saw it was Bluth, I hoped he’d be back to his old self and today’s surfaces were smoother with plenty of humour. I’d agree NEURAL COMPUTING and AA MILNE are the stand out clues but I also enjoyed AKIMBO, INDECENT and RICKSHAW.

    DuncT @2: if you enjoyed “messing around with the Reverend Spooner” can I thoroughly thoroughly recommend a Conto puzzle from the MyCrossword site that I chanced upon. Those who commented (about on the par with a typical Indy blog!) were wholly in favour.

    Thanks Bluth and B&J

  8. My first contribution!
    Perfectly pitched I thought. Not so easy to make the anticipation disappointing, but not so contrived that it lands in my “life’s too short” out tray.

    Isn’t it strange how the most straightforward clues can catch you out though? I got 20d straight away as once the ‘B’ was in place it couldn’t have been anything else….but for the life of me couldn’t work out why!

    I loved 14a and thought the use of the red herring that is Spooner was a clever move for 4a.

  10. Unlike our bloggers, I got into this very quickly but struggled at the end, especially in the NE corner. Like several others, I found this on the easy side for Bluth but none the worse for that, so thanks to him for the entertainment and B&J for the blog.

  11. If nothing else we would have enjoyed this for the ‘Spooner’ misdirection in 4ac and the oblique reference to Spooner in 10ac. But there was lots more to enjoy too. We were a bit slow, though, identifying the correct Claudius.
    Thanks, Bluth and B&J.

  13. After being impaled by Vlad first thing this morning, my heart sank when I saw Bluth’s name. However I was pleasantly surprised to find this relatively straightforward but entirely satisfying and entertaining. I didn’t enjoy his last few outings as much but this hit the spot.

    Thanks Bluth and B&J.

  14. Nowhere near done on this yet, but had to leap in to say that 7d is one of the nicest cle=ues I have seen in a long long time!

  15. Thanks Bertandjoyce, I had almost the opposite experience in that this proceeded remarkably smoothly until the last three or four which stubbornly resisted for as long as the rest put together and my LOI OCEANIDS was a lucky guess&google so thanks for that explanation in particular, that I think was the only one where I thought the surface was overly forced. I might complain that a Koala hasn’t been a bear for some time but that would be churlish in the light of many great clues already noted, plus a shout for QUICKSAND which I thought was beautifully misleadingly constructed, thanks Bluth.

  16. I liked ALIGHT very much.
    Melania & AA Milne, who knew? Worth another outing, I’d say, maybe swap them round and try it in the Guardian. Quite a Knuttish clue.
    Thanks, Bluth, B&J

  18. A A Milne = Melania is a genius spot. So clever. Favourites were poisoner (took forever for that penny to drop) and quicksand. All good. Thanks to Bluth and to Bertandjoyce and welcome to Anne Parish. And thanks also to PostMark for the link.

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