Independent 10,974 by Rodriguez

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What a delight it was solving Rodriguez’ puzzle today.

It’s Tuesday so we were on the lookout for a theme.

When we had QUEEN and KING in the grid, we realised that it could be connected to chess and then we suddenly spotted PAWN in 22ac. It wasn’t until afterwards that we saw the hint in 18d. Not only did we have all the pieces hidden within the grid but we also had all their symbols as they would have appeared on a chessboard across the top and bottom rows – brilliant!

Well done Rodriguez.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. Basic Swiss cheese Mike cut for the French (9)
ELEMENTAL

EmMENTAL (Swiss cheese) without or ‘cutting’ M (mike) for LE (French for the)

10. Papers, I see, love part of the US (5)
IDAHO

ID (papers) AH (I see) O (love)

11. Game bird or chicken might do this (5)
QUAIL

Someone who is ‘chicken’ or ‘scared’ may QUAIL

12. What one may do to cloth softly on doctor (3-6)
PRE-SHRINK

P (quietly) RE (on) SHRINK (doctor)

13. Member of nonet in desert in outskirts of El Paso (5)
ERATO

RAT (desert) inside E and O (first and last letters or ‘outskirts’ of El Paso). Erato is one of the nine Muses.

15. Curse spread about trip abroad in religious writing (9)
SCRIPTURE

An anagram (‘spread’) of CURSE around an anagram (‘abroad’) of TRIP

17. Drink before sporting fixture in Ascot? (7)
NECKTIE

NECK (drink) TIE (sporting fixture)

19. Steal from credit card, and request gear for heist (3,4)
SKI MASK

SKIM (steal from credit card) ASK (request)

21. Little horseman’s time after work (9)
WEEKNIGHT

WEE (little) KNIGHT (horseman)

22. Offspring‘s hand put in tin (5)
SPAWN

PAW (hand) inside SN (tin)

24. Removing article from wrapping is rude (9)
INSULTING

INSULaTING (wrapping) without or ‘removing’ A (article)

27. Number in wintertime roughly cut bread (5)
CAROL

CA (roughly as in ‘about’) ROLl (bread) missing last letter or ‘cut’

28. A fish out of river at right angles to a vessel (5)
ABEAM

A BrEAM (fish) without R (river)

29. A man excited about Heather’s Budweiser, bourbon and Twinkies? (9)
AMERICANA

A + an anagram (‘excited’) of MAN about ERICA (heather)

DOWN
1. Ginger cat is a character Alice encounters (3,5)
RED QUEEN

RED (ginger) QUEEN (cat) – a character in ‘Through the Looking Glass’

2. TV channel in an uplifted state (6)
NEVADA

DAVE (TV channel)’ in AN all reversed or ‘uplifted’

3. Inventor disheartened to get sick (4)
BELL

BE iLL (to get sick) without the middle letter or ‘disheartened’

4. Question and hint: what may clean ears in 2 or 10? (1-3)
Q-TIP

Q (question) TIP (hint) – it may be used for cleaning ears in the USA (‘2 or 10’) but we would definitely NOT recommend it!

5. Artist‘s material for sculpting picked up (4)
KLEE

Sounds like (‘picked up’) CLAY (material for sculpting)

6. Sees chop is grilled with ribs (10)
BISHOPRICS

An anagram (‘grilled’) of CHOPS IS and RIBS

7. Terrible Russian brought up copper and coating of lamina for incense boat (8)
NAVICULA

IVAN (as in Ivan the Terrible) reversed or ‘brought up’ + CU (copper) LA (first and last letter or ‘coating’ of lamina). We needed to check this one.

8. Agreed I will cut eggs – a raw, green sort (6)
ROOKIE

OK (agreed) I inside or ‘cutting’ ROE (eggs)

14. Off making an ascent, not caught in dicey position (3,2,1,4)
OUT ON A LIMB

OUT ON A cLIMB (‘off making an ascent’) without C (caught)

15. Some enormous keg going in part of boat (5)
SKEGG

Hidden (‘some’) in enormouS KEG Going. Another one we had to check.

16. Another exam, one taken in break (5)
RESIT

I (one) inside REST (break)

18. Socialist’s troops eating small pieces variously seen in this grid (8)
CHESSMEN

CHE’S MEN (Socialist’s troops) around or ‘eating’ S (small). Thankfully we had noticed the chess pieces already hidden within the grid by the time we came to solve this clue.

20. Large struggles by family in ‘Succession’ drama (4,4)
KING LEAR

An anagram (‘struggles’) of LARGE after or ‘by’ KIN (family)

21. One dam protecting another in German city (6)
WEIMAR

WEIR (dam) round or ‘protecting’ MA (mother – another ‘dam’)

23. Flier has a minute to infiltrate Asian land (6)

AIRMAN

A + M (minute) inside or ‘infiltrating’ IRAN (Asian land)

25. Intelligence about soldiers in recent warzone (4)
IRAQ

IQ (intelligence) around or ‘about’ RA (soldiers)

26. European in need of right anorak (4)
GEEK

GrEEK (European) without or ‘in need’ of’ R (right). At one point we thought it was going to be  the ‘e’ in ‘need’ being replaced by R to give you NERD but it seemed rather contrived and obviously wrong in the end.

27. Conservative guy’s house across the pond (4)
CRIB

C (Conservative) RIB (guy)

22 comments on “Independent 10,974 by Rodriguez”

  1. Brilliant themed puzzle. A fairly quick solve with NAVICULA, SKEGG & KLEE being new to me. Did spend a little time trying to get “chill” to work for 27a then thought it may not be that meaning for “number” and the penny dropped.

  2. I found this very much at the easier end of Rodriguez’s spectrum but very enjoyable with a theme to dear to my heart. There were several decidedly dodgy surface readings but I guess these may have been a constraint of the theme.

    Many thanks to Rodriguez for the fun and B&J for the review.

  3. Oh what a twit am I! I spotted the two rows of letters at top and bottom but didn’t make the connection with CHESSMEN and there they all are; hidden in plain sight. Very neatly done and, as RD says, the clever theme does excuse the odd strange surface. nho NAVICULA but it wasn’t difficult to get. However, CRIB in that sense was unknown. A very pleasant start to the day.

    Thanks Rodriguez and B&J

  4. Always a treat to have a crossword by Rodriguez and with a theme that even I could spot!

    Thanks to him and B&J

  6. Here I was thinking that Rodriguez had been too easy on us by giving the game away with 18d and then I completely failed to spot the top and bottom rows – that’ll teach me.

    I worked out NAVICULA from the navicular bone in the foot, though wordplay was also helpful. The boat reference didn’t help with SKEGG which I’d never heard of. CRIB is also a term for a holiday house in the S. Island of NZ – the N. Island equivalent is a “bach”.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and B&J

  7. Not sure about CRIB being limited to ‘across the pond’. I think it pops up in Dickens a few times as well as in the Holmes stories

  8. Great puzzle and blog-I should have spotted the pieces at top and bottom
    Never heard of CRIB as house across any pond or stormswept ocean but there it was in ye olde Chambers crossword dictionary
    Thanks

  10. As an ex-county chess player, I found this an absolute joy to solve, although it took me a while to spot the significance of the top and bottom ranks. One can only admire the dedication and time that it must have taken Rodriguez to compile it.
    [Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen on retaining his world title so decisively]

  11. Navicula and Skegg also new to me but both gettable in an absolute gem of a puzzle.
    An astonishing achievement to get all the pieces to appear as well as the board layout at 1 and 15 across but the clue that really really tickled my fancy today was the German City for the ingenious double meaning of dam.
    Rodriguez/ Picaroon/ Buccaneer is now firmly established as my absolute No 1 favourite setter.
    Thanks all.

  12. I had to look up the same words as our bloggers did and then found the chess pieces but sadly missed the coup de grace in the top and bottom rows. Well done indeed to Rodriguez on that score.
    It’s doubtless something of a chestnut but the WEEKNIGHT made me smile.

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

  13. Didn’t spot the theme (I never do) and I got held up for ages by having entered ‘coat’ at 26d – I was so sure it was right. Enjoyed the puzzle nonetheless and saw how clever it is when I came here.
    Thanks to both setter and blogger.

  15. We’re not sure about it being a delight to solve as we struggled with several, mainly short, answers – although if we’d spotted what was going on in the top and bottom rows we might have got them sooner, e.g. GEEK for 26dn when we thought before we got 24ac it might have been C[r]OAT. But we did spot the chessmen – and even noticed that the BISHOP and the ROOK started from their correct positions. AMERICANA also took us a while to get as we’d no idea what Twinkies were.
    Favourites, as so often, were non-themed: PRE-SHRINK and WEIMAR.
    Thanks, Rodriguez and B&J

  16. I had QUEEN and KNIGHT in the grid before I solved 18d, and it helped with all the other themesters.
    I got the parsing of CRIB, but had to check on the def part, and I got the def part of KLEE but couldn’t get the parsing, not knowing how it was pronounced.
    Failed to spot the ninas in the top and bottom rows, which I now have to admit are absolutely brilliant.
    Thanks to JB and to B & J.

  17. Couple of new words for us, including abeam, bishoprics (for Alex) and skegg. We thought that 26d could have been c(r)oat too. We spotted the chess pieces in time to help us with 22a but apart from noticing a lot of ‘q’ we didn’t see the symbols in the top and bottom rows. To be fair, Alex doesn’t play chess 😉

    Thanks to Rodriguez and B&J!

  18. I thought the top and bottom rows were a lovely touch – wish i’d spotted them! Glad I’m not the only one who entered C(r)OAT instead of G(r)EEK. Seems a valid answer.

    Many thanks setter and bloggers

  19. Nothing to add.
    I was another one who had COAT at 26dn – my first one in (therefore in an empty grid) – before much later 24ac proved me wrong.
    No problem with the well-indicated ‘chessmen’ but, like others, I left it there.
    Totally missed the top and bottom rows.
    I should have known better with a guy like this.
    As dutch says a lovely touch but as not-really-a-chess-person I don’t think I would have seen it anyway.
    As ever many thanks to S&B (one plural, one singular).

  20. Thank you Bertandjoyce, I found this tough and completely missed the chess piece indicators on the top and bottom rows, icing on the cake indeed!
    I got to BELL via the rather less clear BE[come unwe]LL and was going to complain that trimmed letters were probably too many to be “the heart” but you have nixed that and luckily all roads led to Rome. I think CRIB has enjoyed a resurgence in some circles thanks to lifestyle shows on MTV and elsewhere where rappers and so on show off their swanky pads.
    A bit late probably but can anyone point me to use of “rat” as a verb for “desert”? I know that rats famously desert sinking ships but can only think of ratting on/out to mean grassing up.
    Thanks Rodriguez for a fine challenge.

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