Independent 10,942 by Rodriguez

by

It took us a while to get into this one but when we had finished, we wondered why.

We had to check 1ac and it took us a long time to see the hidden IN TANDEM despite knowing that the answer had to be correct.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Camels ran off round antelope, small one adept at mating (6,7)
MAGNUS CARLSEN
An anagram (‘off’) of CAMELS RAN around GNU and S (small). We had to check but Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster – ‘one adept at mating’
8. Inter Milan gutted to be out (6)
ENTOMB
An anagram (‘out’) of MN (Milan without the middle letters or ‘gutted’) and TO BE. A good misdirection.
9. Tinder users, say, receiving husband’s complaint (8)
SHINGLES
SINGLES (users of Tinder (the dating app) for example) around or ‘receiving’ H (husband)
10. Cruciverbalists hiking somewhere in Yorkshire (4,6)
WEST RIDING
WE (cruciverbalists) STRIDING (hiking)
11. Weeping bachelor leaves with lots of alcohol (4)
OOZY
bOOZY (with lots of alcohol) with B (bachelor) missing or ‘leaving’
12. Cricketer‘s attempt to keep right and then left, say (5,3)
SHORT LEG
SHOT (attempt) around or ‘keeping’ R (right) + L (left) EG (say)
14. Bishop and American holding fork (6)
BRANCH
B (bishop) RANCH (American holding)
15. Inspiring figure’s stuck in plug, unlike Victoria (6)
AMUSED
MUSE (inspiring figure) inside or ‘stuck in’ AD (plug). The ‘unlike Victoria’ refers to the well-known “We are not amused” which Queen Victoria is believed to have said to an equerry.
17. Passing through checkpoint and emerging together (2,6)
IN TANDEM
Hidden (‘passing through’) checkpoINT AND EMerging
19. What are the odds of Estonian being an occasional smoker? (4)
ETNA
Odd letters in EsToNiAn
20. Leader hosts star figures – they may induce arousal (10)
PHEROMONES
PM (leader) around or ‘hosting’ HERO (star) + ONES (figures)
22. Make blue alcohol after daiquiri’s emptied (8)
DISPIRIT
SPIRIT (alcohol) after DI (daiquiri without the middle letters or ’emptied’)
23. Arab statesmen rejected wrong answer by doctor (6)
OMANIS
A reversal or ‘rejection’ of SIN (wrong) A (answer) MO (doctor)
24. Shy entering land, going off gallivanting (5-8)
GLOBE-TROTTING
LOB (shy) inside GET (land) ROTTING (going off)
DOWN
1. Good to cut hair in irritating condition (5)
MANGE
G (good) inside or ‘cutting’ MANE (hair)
2. Will one crow attack queen around lake? (7)
GLOATER
GO AT (attack) ER (queen) around L (lake)
3. Out of control Dubliner’s out of control day (9)
UNBRIDLED
An anagram (‘out of control’) of DUBLINER + D (day)
4. Hollywood player‘s fling with straight men drinking mixed gin (7,8)
CASTING DIRECTOR
CAST (fling) DIRECT (straight) OR (men) around (‘drinking’) an anagram (‘mixed’) of GIN
5. Regretting wearing hairpiece to go outside (5)
RUING
IN (wearing) with RUG (hairpiece) around the outside
6. A serving man’s lifted clothing and not foreign lady (7)
SIGNORA
A GI’S (serving man’s) reversed or ‘lifted’ around or ‘clothing’ NOR (and not)
7. Superman creator‘s amazing zest in ideal position (9)
NIETZSCHE
An anagram (‘amazing’) of ZEST inside NICHE (ideal position). We had to check this – we’d heard of the concept of Man and Superman but hadn’t linked it with Nietzsche.
13. Lame actors this man dismissed from operas (9)
HAMSTRING
HAMS (actors) The RING (operas) with ‘he’ (this man) omitted or ‘dismissed’
14. During period of illness, Maxim’s about to stop getting worse (6,3)
BOTTOM OUT
BOUT (period of illness) around a reversal (‘about’) of MOTTO (maxim)
16. Clear out housing unit that’s cleaner in Barnet (7)
SHAMPOO
SHOO (clear out) around or ‘housing’ AMP (unit). Barnet refers to the Cockney rhyming slang for hair named after Barnet Fair – a famous horse fair.
18. Extremist element, one without extreme characters (3-4)
NEO-NAZI
NEON (element) I (one) around or ‘without’ AZ (extreme characters)
20. Analyse high praise that excludes yours truly (5)
PARSE
An anagram (‘high’) of PRAiSE without or ‘excluding’ I (yours truly)
21. Looking at female quality in jacket for evening (5)
EYING
YIN (female quality) in EG (first and last letters only or ‘jacket’ for evening)

 

20 comments on “Independent 10,942 by Rodriguez”

  1. I struggled with the top half, had to make much use of a word list and needed e-help for MAGNUS CARLSEN, since I don’t know anything about chess. ETNA was clever. Like many other solvers, I suspect, I have a preference list on first look, which starts anagram, hidden word….. Very enjoyable, so thanks Rodriguez and B&J.

  2. Like B&J, it took me a while to get going but I really enjoyed solving this crossword. My favourie was 19a

    Thanks to Rodriguez and B&J

  3. Excellent, as always. Initially entered HAMSTRUNG for 13d and couldn’t see the ‘operas’ bit, but eventually saw my error. Often don’t care for hidden word clues as they tend to be write-ins, but 17a was a beaut. Thought ENTOMB was very clever.

  5. What a morning! An outstanding Guardian ‘Prize’ and then this joy from Rodriguez. My cup floweth over – but I must now get on with my day. I loved this from start to finish with only one raised ‘eybrow’ at EYING which I’d always spell with two ‘e’s. I did wonder about lame = HAMSTRING and, like Hovis, had the adjectival version for a while until DISPIRIT dispirited me. I suppose lame can be used as a verb but it surprised me.

    I was delighted to work out the grandmaster though I’d twigged which kind of mating was intended and, fortunately, my precocious teenage self read an amount of NIETZSCHE (though not enough to be 100% confident at spelling his name – and, when the third letter of 11ac appeared as a ‘Z’, I did doubt myself for a moment until OOZY came to mind).

    Highlights for me included the lovely misdirect noted by B&J for ENTOMB, the simply brilliant NEO NAZI (did anyone else wonder about Far Left for a while?), the cunningly hidden IN TANDEM, the oh-so-simple but oh-so-clever WEST RIDING, GLOATER and SHAMPOO for the definitions and, finally, along with Tatrasman @1, the device that delivered ETNA. I’m rather sorry it’s all over…

    Thanks Rodriguez and B&J

  7. RD @6: it’s interesting that there have been times when the world was aware of the leading grandmasters. Think of Fischer and Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov. It’s sad for the game but it’s been a very long time since chess players were household names.

  8. I’m another who had a slow start but then found it all fell into place without too much trouble.
    [Postmark – belated thanks for the link to the Spoonerful Conto puzzle the other day – very good.]
    Thanks B&J and Rodriguez

  9. I was wondering if there was the beginning of a theme with The Ring, NIETZSCHE and NEO-NAZI. Unfortunately our PM seemed to be asleep when hosting star figures at COP, rather than inducing much arousal. We are a fickle bunch. On Monday people were complaining about two crosswords by the same setter; today we are rejoicing.

  10. DuncT @8: I’m delighted you followed up and even more so that you enjoyed. I thought it was hugely creative and might have initially horrified and subsequently delighted some of those who moan about Spoonerisms.

  11. I don’t find this setter’s puzzles to be a walk in the park and I made a poor start on this one by having to consult Mr Google about chess grand masters (sorry, RD!) and not having a clue about who uses Tinder.
    Things improved when I clicked with the operas!
    WEST RIDING raised a smile and my favourite was, for possibly the first time ever, the cricket based SHORT LEG.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and to B&J for the review.

  12. I really enjoyed this, too, but I’m left with an irritating niggle about 13d. Like some others I initially thought HAMSTRUNG but couldn’t parse it, then I saw that it had to be HAMSTRING, but I can’t make the noun synonymous with the adjective ‘lame’. Can someone explain please.
    Thanks to Rodriguez and to B&J.

  13. Sourdough @12. As PostMark mentions @5, lame & hamstring can both equate as verbs (referring to ‘cutting the hamstring’). This was also new to me.

  15. Thank you Hovis@13. I saw PostMark@5 wrote ‘I suppose lame can be a verb…’, but he didn’t sound convinced (or convincing). I’ve now looked it up (as I should have done in the first place) and I see you are both right!

  17. All fairly straightforward. We were AMUSED by 15ac, and by 17ac which had echoes for us of ‘Daisy’ from yesterday’s FT. 1ac and 2dn were our last ones in. Once the U from 3dn told us the antelope was a gnu we got MAGNUS CARLSEN from crossing letters but had to google to see who he is; then we were able to get GLOATER as our LOI.
    Thanks, Rodriguez and B&J

  18. It’s been a busy day – two zoom meetings – so I didn’t really get going on this until a couple of hours ago and I found it fairly difficult, needing a couple of word searches to finish. I’d never heard of the chess player.

  19. Was busy yesterday, so didn’t get around to this until now. Very enjoyable. Another who was amused by AMUSED. Took an age to see GLOATER and SHORT LEG. HAMSTRING was LOI. Thanks Rodriguez and B&J.

  20. West Riding was very good, not at all keen on short leg though, that’s a fielding position not a cricketer. Never heard of 1ac, so failed on that, but the “adept at mating” was very clever. This setter puts me in mind of Paul in the Guardian; very, very hard and even after seeing the answers I sometimes think I’d not get that in a million years. Back to crossword school for me. :-/

Comments are closed.