Independent 11,026 by Filbert

by

I found this quite tough in places and stalled for a while on the north east corner.

None of the clues were actually that difficult but a couple of the words were unfamiliar to me. For example, I had the right idea with 13 but just couldn't convince myself there would be a sailor ending with argo. There were a couple that looked like CDs or DDs where I don't feel entirely convinced by that as an explanation. My favourite clues were 10 and 28 – 28 for the surface and 10 for a neat device.

ACROSS
1 PICKED
Black and white clothing starts to chafe kids in the team (6)

Pied around c[hafe] k[ids]
4 HATCHING
Fine lines that chin gets after shaving unevenly (8)

[T]hat ching[ets]. Hatching appears to be a variant of hachure, which refers to the contour lines drawn on maps.
9 APARTHEID
Independently, Scottish poll indicates foreign laws widely hated (9)

Apart(=independently) + heid(=head in Scottish dialect)
11 NESTS
Sent abroad, son settles in the sticks? (5)

Sent* + s{on}
12 TOGO
Land, intending immediate departure? (4)

DD, referring to the African country
13 SUPERCARGO
Sailor selling freight caught on board A1 Greek ship (10)

C{aught} in super argo. This is not a term I'd heard before. I'd have assumed a supercargo was a large cargo ship but it's actually the officer who is in charge of managing a ship's cargo.
14 CHOOSING
Front or back half of train, Carol’s deciding (8)

Choo (either half of a choo-choo) + sing(=carol in a Xmas sense)
16 DISMAY
Policemen are within their rights to stun (6)

DIs(=Detective Inspectors) + may(=are within their rights)
18 CUSTOM
Practice docked damn cat (6)

Cus[s] + tom(=cat)
19 PITTANCE
Stone church used to store brown chicken feed (8)

(Pit(=stone) + CE) around tan(=brown)
21 SKETCHBOOK
Paper bound to note its owner’s views (10)

CD
23 FAIR
Just a little short of quality (4)

F[l{ittle}]air
25 OPERA
Nothing an American makes works (5)

O(=nothing) + per(=a) + A{merican}. Opera, as well as being a singular musical event, is also the plural of opus.
26 UNSTUDIED
Boss I introduced to nude swimming without thinking it through (9)

(Stud I) in nude*
27 FLYWHEEL
Energetic spinner clever with tail end (8)

Fly(=clever) + w{ith} + heel(=tail end)
28 PRO TEM
Meanwhile, Johnson keeps trotting out the same phrases over and over (3,3)

PM (=BoJo, at least at the moment) around rote(=trotting out the same phrases over and over)
DOWN
1 PLASTIC
Ubiquitous packaging company bottles wine (7)

PLC around asti
2 CHANGE OF SCENERY
Holiday flat swapped for the house? (6,2,7)

Not sure about this. Might be a CD but that seems a bit weak.
3/22 ET TU BRUTE
Query after knives stuck in butter churned on truck (2,2,5)

Butter* + ute(=Australian slang for truck). This was the query issued by Julius Caesar after seeing that Brutus was one of the conspirators who stabbed him.
5 ADDLE
Turn blade on steam-boat having lost pressure (5)

[P]addle
6 CONSCRIPT
Make a soldier inspect lines (9)

Con(=look at, inspect) + script(=lines for an actor)
7 INSTRUMENTALIST
Musician that’s smart until ten is getting changed (15)

(Smart until ten is)*
8 GASCONY
D’Artagnan’s home with a couple of rabbits (7)

Two words for rabbit – gas (as in rabbit on) + cony.
10 EQUINE
Maybe an ass covered in spangles gets cheeks pinched (6)

[S]equine[d]
15 SLOWCOACH
One takes longer running cool wash with extra cold (9)

(Slow coach + c{old})*
17 VINOUS
The sixth sense is related to wine (6)

VI(=six) + nous(=sense)
18 CAST OFF
Leave bank having emptied ‘savings account’ and duck into greasy spoon (4,3)

S[avings accoun]t in caff (derogatory alternative spelling for cafe) – leave bank in the sense of leaving a river bank.
20 EARLDOM
Lord made poorly, died leaving his estate (7)

(Lor[d{ied}] made)*
22
See 3

24 PURR
Good vibrations pet sounds (4)

DD

21 comments on “Independent 11,026 by Filbert”

  1. Apparently, flat can refer to scenery lowered into place on a stage, so 2d becomes a DD with “holiday” as the first. “Hatching” to mean fine lines used in shading in a drawing is fairly standard (final definition in Chambers app). Missed the parsing of FAIR and admit to needing help to get both CHOOSING (guessed the SING bit) and SKETCHBOOK with VINOUS my loi. Really tough workout but very enjoyable.

  2. Hovis@1 – had I not checked before posting, we would have crossed. Yes, in 2D ‘the house’ is the audience in a theatre (as in, ‘there’s a good house in tonight’), for whose benefit SCENERY, or, as you point out, the ‘flats’, are CHANGEd.

    24D Was the Beach Boys allusion too obvious to mention? ‘Good Vibrations’ was originally intended for their 1966 album, Pet Sounds.

  3. Same parsing for CHANGE OF SCENERY as Hovis and SC above, though I’m not sure if it’s a double def or ‘Holiday’ is the def and the rest wordplay. Probably the former, with the second def cryptic.

    The most challenging one of the day which I found very enjoyable. I couldn’t have told you what SUPERCARGO was either and didn’t know HEID as a word. I missed F[L]AIR too. I especially enjoyed the ‘Energetic spinner’ def for FLYWHEEL and the ‘Front or back half of train’ wordplay in CHOOSING.

    Thanks to Filbert and NealH

  4. Too clever by halves

    Isnt there a packaging company called ELC-which would have given Elastic-didnt like either with regard to Ubiquitous-or does that refer to the company
    TOGO was a bit like underarm bowling
    OPERA a very clumsy surface
    STUN is somewhat stronger than DISMAY which sounds like a euphemism
    Dont like SKETCHBOOK

    But I DO LIKE PRO TEM ET TU BRUTE-maybe the whole puzzle shouldve been in Latin
    Never heard of CON=inspect-obvious what the answer was

    I think Filbert has done a lot better than this and as I am not blogging I feel free to speak my mind

  5. Out of my league but an enjoyable challenge nevertheless and doubly so with the helpful blog. I liked 3/22. Its a vertical clue and when highlighted on the app has a lot of visual appeal (for me) with the letters for butter seemingly in motion ‘churning’ randomly above the ute.

  6. Sc @2: I enjoyed the Beach Boys allusion in 24d. I also liked the hidden HATCHING, the construction of GASCONY, FLYWHEEL and CONSCRIPT and the succinct CUSTOM.

    copmus @4: actually, yes, there is a packaging company called ELC but it is rather small – it makes boxes for pizzas. And there’s a packaging machinery company in the US too. But PLC is pretty well established and ‘ubiquitous packaging’ seems a reasonable description of PLASTIC. Would it were less so. I think I might share your raised eyebrows at TOGO and the OPERA surface. Chambers gives ‘shock’ as a synonym for both ‘stun’ and DISMAY – but doesn’t give them as synonyms of each other!

    Thanks Filbert and NealH

  7. Well, not Filbert’s finest, though he has been a lott better on other outings as copmus has said. Unfortunately I had a whole list of ‘hmms’ (4, 12, 25 across, 15, 17, 18 & 24 down), dnk 13 across and could not parse 23 across. At 16 across I didn’t really have a gripe with the definition used for MAY, but I did hear myself grumbling ‘don’t encourage them, it’s bad enough as it is’.

    2 down my favourite, which I see as a straight double def.

  8. PostMark@6-thanks for that-I havent been back to UK in 10 years or more
    GASCONY was good although I couldnt remember the place in spite of loving the book(fair clue though)
    And I concur on FLYWHEEL and CUSTOM

  9. Thanks Filbert and NealH

    Another here who thought there were some dubious elements.

    In 17 I think VI really is ‘the sixth’, not just ‘six’, as in regnal numbers.

  10. 1ac went straight in and a bit later the anagram at 7dn. Apart from that it was a struggle. We guessed we were looking for a Scots word for head (= poll) in 9ac but needed a wordfinder for the answer. And like others we thought this was not as well finished as some of Filbert’s previous offerings. For instance, as Simon S says, VI can be ‘the sixth’ in regnal numbers – but in that case it follows the name as in ‘Henry VI’. And in 5dn a steamboat is not necessarily a paddle steamer.
    Thanks, though, to setter and blogger.

  11. I took 23 to be a double definition: just + a little short of quality i.e good but not outstanding.

    This was hard and I struggled more with some of the clues in this puzzle than those in Filbert’s excellent Listener recently (assuming it’s the same setter)!

  12. I had to use a wordfinder for a number of these, but EQUINE, PRO TEM and ET TU BRUTE. The combination of the last two did make me think of former allies of Boris sticking the proverbial knife in.

  13. Well that was a struggle and a half. Glad I wasn’t blogging this expecting to post it any time soon. Thanks Neal and well Filbert that was tough. A tough stinker I’d really not have expected in the usually easier Monday slot.

  14. That was ridiculously hard, with lots of unknown words and odd definitions. Much the hardest Indy this year. To add to issues shouldn’t “ute” have some kind of foreign word indicator? I still don’t understand the parsing of sketchbook, can someone spell it out for us slowcoaches?

  15. Thanks all for comments and NealH for blogging, sorry that seems to have hit the wrong note.
    Ericw, the clue for sketchbook is just a description: bound refers to the paper being made into a book, the purpose of which is for its owner to record what he sees (note his views)

    What’s wrong with the surface of the clue for OPERA? That was my favourite

  16. Ericw I think the surface reading is, say, The Sun as a vehicle for Murdoch, whereas a sketchbook is composed of paper bound into a book so its owner (an artist) can record views (things seen).

  17. PER is used as in ‘£10 an hour’ is it not? So O/ PER/ A (with A=American being a well-known SLI), with ‘makes’ as the (well-justified) link word? The surface and the cryptic indication are impeccable, it seems to me.

    Shurely m’colleague has not botched that one.

  18. Thought it might just be me having trouble with this, having stayed up for part of the Super Bowl last night. Could barely make a start on this. As I’ve said before, after staring at clues for an hour or so and not getting any more, It’s time to give up.

  19. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the surface for OPERA. It actually made me laugh. I live in America and nothing I make works either.

  20. I’m surprised at the rather negative comments on this. (If not quite shocked, stunned and dismayed.) Maybe it would have been better received on a Friday or Saturday?
    Thanks to Filbert and NealH

  21. Well I went down the wrong line with 1 down as well. Thought it was endemic (popular word at the moment!) parsing it as demi (word for a half bottle of wine) and enc short for enclosure ie packaging . Led me down the garden path for a long while . Liked Et Tu Brute,Pro Tem and Opera That one year suffering Latin at school was worth it after all! Thanks to Filbert for a tough one for my level.

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