As usual, we have a puzzle from Phi this Friday
I note the two entries in the bottom row can be read together as MIDDLE ENGLAND, defined by Chambers as the English middle classes outside London, regarded as politically and socially conservative. I wonder if a few of the other entries could be associated with some people’s view of the English middle classes?
ODOMETRY was a new word to me, but I do know about odometers so it wasn’t too difficult to make the leap to ODOMETRY. I was only vaguely aware of TREBIZOND, but Phi used BIZ as ‘vulgar business’ in the clue for BIZARRE last week and that helped with the wordplay today.
I note we had SIN defined as ‘err’ in the wordplay for SCINTILLA at 16 down and ERR defined as ‘sin’ in the wordplay for TERRIBLE at 18 down.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Unpleasant characters dismissing leader of harness racers (7) ROTTERS (thoroughly depraved or worthless people; unpleasant characters) TROTTERS (harness racers) excluding the first letter (dismissing leader) T ROTTERS |
| 5 |
Tricky maths with introduction of algebra leads to complaint (6) ASTHMA (chronic disorder of the organs of respiration; medical complaint) Anagram of (tricky) MATHS + A (first letter of [introduction of] ALGEBRA) ASTHM* A |
| 10 |
Shelter in special surroundings for a nap (5) SLEEP (nap) LEE (shelter) contained in (in .. surroundings) SP (special) S (LEE) P |
| 11 |
Working laser unlit, out of singular spite (3,6) ILL NATURE (spite) Anagram of (working) LASER UNLIT excluding (out of) S (singular) ILL NATURE* |
| 12 |
Expensive to go round V&A, having the place to yourself? (7) PRIVACY (one’s right to freedom from intrusion by the public; having the place to yourself) PRICY (expensive) containing (to go round) VA (V and [&] A) PRI (VA) CY |
| 13 |
Be about to say more linked to telco financial woe (3,4) BAD DEBT (DEBT that cannot be recovered and is therefore written off as a loss; financial woe) (BE containing [about] ADD [to say more]) + BT (current name of the old British Telecom; telco) B {AD D) E BT |
| 14 |
Old structure on top of mosque, say – attempt measure of distance (8) ODOMETRY (measurement of distance travelled by a wheeled vehicle) O (old) + DOME (hemispherical structure often found on the top of a mosque) + TRY (attempt) O DOME TRY |
| 15 |
Recording’s about to fail, admitting of no further discussion (6) CLOSED (not allowing further discussion, as in ‘this thread is now CLOSED‘) CD (Compact disc; recording) containing (about) LOSE (to fail) C (LOSE) D |
| 19 |
Fellow I had to hire is a restless type (6) FIDGET (a restless person) F (fellow) + I’D (I had) + GET (hire) F ID GET |
| 21 |
Energy lacking in distribution of icecreams in pots (8) CERAMICS (items made from potter’s clay, pots, for example) Anagram of (distribution of) ICECREAMS excluding (lacking in) E (energy) CERAMICS* |
| 23 |
Concern raised about verse getting split (5,2) CARVE UP (divide; split) (CARE [concern] + UP [raised]) containing (about) V (verse) CAR (V) E UP |
| 26 |
Subsequently keeping one contralto back for concert (7) RECITAL (public performance of music, e.g. a concert) (LATER [subsequently] containing [keeping] [I {Roman numeral for one} + C {contralto}]) all reversed (back) (RE (C I) TAL)< |
| 27 |
What may illuminate mild recall of unhappy sound? (9) LIGHTBULB (an item that can illuminate) LIGHT (mild) + BLUB (blubber [weeping without restraint]; unhappy sound) LIGHT BULB< |
| 28 |
I vote against including large item of decorative woodwork? (5) INLAY (ornamentation formed by laying in or inserting pieces of metal, ivory, etc) I + (NAY [a vote against] containing [including] L [large]) I N (L) AY |
| 29 |
Daughters in the distance (not far or near?) (6) MIDDLE (neither far nor near, but central to the item being viewed) (D [daughter] + D [daughter] giving daughters) contained in (in the) MILE [a distance]) MI (D D) LE |
| 30 |
Country no good as home to antelope? On the contrary (7) ENGLAND (a country) NG (no good) contained in (as home to) ELAND (South African antelope) E (NG) LAND |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Ornate four-poster, no end of usage, safe against certain decay (9) RUSTPROOF (protected against a form of decay) Anagram of (ornate) FOUR-POSTER excluding (no) E (last letter of [end of] USAGE ( RUSTPROOF* |
| 2 |
Vulgar business, tucking into stewed rodent in old part of Turkey (9) TREBIZOND (now known as Trabazon, TREBIZOND was a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province; old part of Turkey) BIZ (informal [vulgar] term for business) contained in (tucking into) an anagram of (stewed) RODENT TRE (BIZ) OND* |
| 3 |
Make up for old head contains iodine (7) EXPIATE (make complete atonement for; make up for) EX (old) + (PATE [head] containing [contains] I [chemical symbol for Iodine}) EX P (I) ATE |
| 4 |
Piece about simply ignoring the odds? It could make you a packet (8) SHIPYARD (a construction facility where a steam packet [vessel; ship] could be made) SHARD (broken piece of pottery) containing (about) IPY (letters 2, 4 and 6 [i.e letters remaining in SIMPLY when ignoring the odd placed letters]) SH (IPY) ARD |
| 6 |
Second channel covering Duke’s outrage (7) SCANDAL (outrage) S (second) + (CANAL [channel] containing [covering] D (Duke]) S CAN (D) AL |
| 7 |
Entertain our group in garden (5) HOUSE (accommodate; entertain) US (our group) contained in (in) HOE (to weed; to garden) HO (US) E |
| 8 |
Skilful elevation of soft pedal to some extent (5) ADEPT (skilful) ADEPT (reversed [elevation of; down entry] hidden word [to some extent] in SOFT PEDAL) ADEPT< |
| 9 |
Youngster accepting tip of lapel as component of suit (4) CLUB (component of one of the suits in a deck of cards) CUB (youngster) containing (accepting) L (either of the end letters [tip of] LAPEL) C (L) UB |
| 16 |
Suggestion corps in error will have to work on farm area (9) SCINTILLA (trace; hint; suggestion) (C [Corps] contained in [in] SIN [error]) + TILL (cultivate; work the land; work on farm) + A (area) S (C) IN TILL A |
| 17 |
Passed round spread on view (9) DISPLAYED (on view) DIED (passed [away]) containing (round) SPLAY (spread out) DI (SPLAY) ED |
| 18 |
Dreadful sin in start of the Bible? Not the start (8) TERRIBLE (dreadful) ERR (sin) contained in (T [first letter of {start of} THE] + BIBLE excluding the first letter {not the start} B]) T (ERR) IBLE |
| 20 |
European agreement about heritage body without teeth? (7) EDENTAL (without teeth) E (European) + (DEAL [agreement] containing [about] NT [National Trust, a heritage organisation]) E DE (NT) AL |
| 22 |
Bending over, possibly demonstrating hiding head (7) ARCHING (forming a curve; bending over) MARCHING (one definition [possibly] is ‘demonstrating in favour or against a proposal’) excluding the first letter (hiding head) M ARCHING |
| 23 |
Scotsman not excited about University (5) CALUM (Scottish first name) CALM (not excited) containing (about) U (university) CAL (U) M |
| 24 |
Inflexible doctor needing documentation (5) RIGID (inflexible) RIG (tamper with; doctor) + ID (identity papers; documentation) RIG ID |
| 25 |
Choice trimmed feathers? (4) PLUM (choice) PLUMES or PLUMAGE (feathers) excluding the final two or three letters (trimmed) ES or AGE PLUM |
I had to go around the grid a couple of times to get this all to drop today but, as usual with Phi, it was well worth it. The PDM for LOI, SHIPYARD could have been heard a mile away! What a splendid definition. Good to see that old crossword chestnut TREBIZOND popping up yet again 😀 . Favourites included ILL NATURE, PRIVACY, MIDDLE, ENGLAND, SCINTILLA, DISPLAYED and TERRIBLE. Though I could have ticked several more.
Two things that interested me with my amateur setter hat on (I take the view that, if it’s fair for a published setter, it’s fair for me!): ‘Energy lacking’ in the clue for CERAMICS is used for the removal of one ‘E’ but not both from the fodder and the ‘trimmed’ in PLUM referring to up to three letters (I was one who took ‘plumage’ rather than ‘plumes’ as my starting point). Given ‘plumage’ is a seven letter word, that’s quite a proportion. I now have a reference point of suitably weighty authority to which/whom to refer if challenged for doing similar. Thanks Phi
And thanks also to the indefatigable duncan
Surely PLUM is just a truncated PLUME (“a bunch or tuft of feathers”).
TREBIZOND is familiar to me only because of Rose Macaulay’s last novel ‘The Towers of Trebizond’ with its deathless opening line: “‘Take my camel, dear’, said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.“
As Chambers says, PLUME is ‘A bunch or tuft of feathers’, so I don’t think you need delete quite so much. Energy is, of course, quantised here, so instances can be removed individually.
Duncan has spotted part of the hidden theme…
I think it’s Jonathan Coe. Rotters Club. What a carve up. Almost certainly more (this is Phi) but there’s a start. Excellent crossword, full of good things with Shipyard my nomination for clue of the day. Thanks to Phi and Duncan
Phi @4: thanks, as always for popping in. It looks as if it’s duncan I have to refer to as my authority, then, for ‘trimming’ a 6/7 letter word down to a 4!
Jayjay@5 Yes Middle England, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, Closed Circle, The HOUSE of SLEEP. Very impressive to include so many and yet it didn’t feel forced at all. PLUME came straight to mind because of its use in a totally different way elsewhere. Thanks to Phi and Duncan.
Thanks both. The ‘biz’ element of TREBIZOND (previously unknown) was the only instance of me needing help, and whilst vulgar does not work for me to denote a colloquialism, as mentioned in the blog it was used quite recently, which I recalled all too late
Rotters Cub
What a Carve up
Closed Circuit. ….
Thanks duncanshiell and Phi. Lovely stuff – a few that made me scratch my head but all seemed so obvious once the penny dropped. Wasn’t looking for a theme so completely failed to spot it, though I know the books.
PM @1 – with my amateur solver’s hat on, I would say the number of Es to be deleted from ICE CREAMS is implied by the number of letters in the solution. Some other solvers might be more pedantic about that kind of detail. As for PLUM(e/es/age), it’s up to you how far you want to test the patience of your audience… I think Phi is on safe ground with this one, as per Andrew @2.
I have just completed my first Independent Cryptic.
I received a score of 4 x 100 which means nothing to me.
Will someone please explain it .
OK! Just completed the Thursday puzzle and it became clear!
0 x 100 gave it away!
I thought the 4% on Friday was how well everyone had done.
The zero clearly was my performance! I will have to reduce my use of the check button to find the position of letters in anagrams!
e.g. First one in, an anagram of wolf/great so I filled the grid with 9 f’s to make sure it ended with “flow” (which it did not of course). So 100% was out of the window before I got started!
I was lucky to get 4% on Friday’s puzzle!
akarebornbeginner @ 11
If you click on the Player Support link to the left of the puzzle on the Independent Cryptic Crossword webpage , a popup window will open that has a further link to how the scoring works. The scoring has three components. The first one explains where your 4 comes from.