Independent on Sunday 1,723 by Laccaria

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Poor Laccaria, three Indys, three blogged by me.

Previously we had themes and long anagrams, not this time, can’t see any Ninas, themes or anything other than a well paced Sunday crossword with a couple to make a blogger think. Did suspect a Pangram but there’s no X or Z. Thanks Laccaria. Over to you commenters.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Pipe is turned back; new plumbing at last stopping flood (6)
ENGULF

N(ew) & end of (plumbin)G inside – stopping a reversed FLUE – pipe

4. Crazy man kidnaps Heath, Statesman (8)
AMERICAN

ERICA – ling/heather/heath inside a crazy MAN*

10. Expressive performance of Queen with cello, leaving out middle part unfortunately (9)
ELOQUENCE

[QUEEN & CE(l)LO – missing the middle]* unfortunately

11. Turn round with order for Rover? (5)
WHEEL

W(ith) & HEEL – an order for a dog. Well not mine, she’s never shown the slightest interest in this one. Or frankly any.

12. Approval withheld for shelter (4)
NOOK

There’s NO OK – approval

13. They may enjoy club where ladies entertain: one piece after another (7,3)
WORKING MEN

R(ook) one chess piece then KING – another inside WOMEN – ladies. Not obvious, spent too long on KING & MAN after WOR and trying to make the WOR bit, err work

15. Sean was regularly interrupting work for digital growth (7)
TOENAIL

Alternate letters of sEaN wAs inside TOIL for work

16. Island also claiming catch (6)
TOBAGO

BAG – catch inside TOO – also

19. Did undergo some enhancement, dropping team of beginners (4,2)
USED TO

The beginners of U(ndergo) S(ome) E(nhancement) D(ropping) T(eam) O(f). Done like a kipper by this one for ages before spotting it was an acrostic

21. Result of dehydration in the main? (3,4)
SEA SALT

Cryptic def, it’s what you get when sea water evaporates

23. For example, bolt screen to uncovered tiles (10)
PROJECTILE

PROJECT – screen a film say & uncovered (t)ILE(s)

25. A woman stripped twice for hairdo (4)
PERM

PER for a & (wo)M(an) stripped of the two letters from either side

27. Imagine mother taking religious lessons! (5)
DREAM

R.E. inside DAM – mother

28. Once coating of oil left out, are rollmops bad for teeth? (9)
PREMOLARS

Take the coat of O(i)L from a bad [ARE R(ol)LMOPS]*

29. David Essex song introduction involving drums, oddly (8)
STARDUST

Odd letters of D(r)U(m)S inside START – introduction

30. Principal musical numbers; they’re delivered sotto voce? (6)
ASIDES

The best side of a single is usually the A-Side

DOWN
1. One’s left out of European threesome: keeping English for all time (8)
ETERNITY

E(uropean) & I – one – removed from TR(i)NITY with E(nglish) inserted.

2. Encouraging reports of old comedians going round St Paul’s? (4,5)
GOOD OMENS

DOME – the round bit of St Paul’s inside the GOONS – old comedians. At this point I wondered if there was a theme on the Pratchett/Gaiman book of the same name, but it’s subtle if it is.

3. Ignores out-of-bounds yob (4)
LOUT

No bounds to (f)LOUT(s) – ignores

5. Shy rodent suffering internal reflex: it’s often seen standing on hind legs (7)
MEERKAT

MEEK RAT – shy rodent with the internal KR reversed

6. Unexpectedly go to war in British vessel (6,4)
ROWING BOAT

[GO TO WAR IN B(ritish)]* unexpectedly

7. Pick 100-500 sheets of paper (5)
CREAM

C – 100 in Roman numerals & REAM – 500 sheets of paper. The pick – cream of the crop say

8. Legwear only tossed between partners (6)
NYLONS

ONLY* tossed inside NS – the classic partners in Bridge say

9. Launch list of international delegates? (6)
UNROLL

It could be the U(nited) N(ations) ROLL call

14. Doris, maybe 27, accompanied by journalist, wasn’t paying attention (10)
DAYDREAMED

(doris) DAY & 27 – DREAM & ED(itor)

17. Drag a very dilapidated area for bodies (9)
GRAVEYARD

A dilapidated [DRAG A VERY]*

18. Love to be immersed in stormy sea-mist sprays (8)
ATOMISES

O – love inside a stormy [SEA MIST]*

20. America supports rising drug firm? It employs suckers! (7)
OCTOPUS

POT – drug & CO. – firm both reversed & U.S.

21. Amputee on board lives poorly on rum initially (6)
SILVER

Well Long John certainly was an amputee. LIVES* poorly & R(um)

22. Suit creased: a psychopath wrapping it up (6)
SPADES

reversed hidden in creaSED A PSychopath

24. Shown in Europe, Ravel’s works (5)
OPERA

Hidden in eurOPE RAvel

26. Makers of supplies missing nothing out (4)
GODS

O – nothing taken from GO(o)DS – supplies

 

22 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,723 by Laccaria”

  2. Another good one from Laccaria which had me stumped a few times. I liked the surfaces for WORKING MEN, GRAVEYARD and SILVER and the SEA SALT cryptic def. The ‘suffering internal reflex’ wordplay trick at 5d was also v. original.

    Thanks to flashling and Laccaria

  3. This provoked nostalgia in me, with its references to The GOON Show, Doris DAY, WORKING MEN’s clubs, NYLONS & PERMS. A time when there USED TO be singles with A-SIDES, such as David Essex’s STARDUST (Number 7 on the hit parade). I didn’t buy the record, but I went to see the film, which also featured Adam Faith and Keith Moon. It was 1974.
    I liked this puzzle a lot. Thanks for the memories Laccaria, and flashling for the blog.

  5. I think the theme is Neil Gaiman – GOOD OMENS, AMERICAN GODS, The GRAVEYARD book, STARDUST and various dreams, but I’d have to dig to check.

    Interesting challenge. Thank you to Laccaria and flashling.

  9. I parsed 11a as a DD. ‘Turn round with order’ as in Right Wheel! and ‘order for Rover’ – a part for a car.

  10. “SILVER DREAM Machine” is a song by David Essex released in March 1980 as a single from the film SILVER DREAM Racer in which Essex also starred.
    Another theme?

  15. One of the rare times I actually spotted a theme! Albeit it took until GOOD OMENS for the penny to drop, which was my third-from-last answer, but it did at least help me get GODS which was my second-to-last.

    Thanks for the blog, especially for the parsing on WORKING MEN which I had as WORKING MAN, with KING and MAN as “one piece after the other” and the rest unparsed.

  16. I think Laccaria always has a theme so I was looking out for one but still failed to spot it. Nice puzzle – particularly enjoyed SILVER, WHEEL, MEERKAT. Thanks, Laccaria, and flashling for the blog.

    Ian SW3 – same name, different song. The David Essex one was a hit in the 70s and was taken from a film of the same name. But not the film of the same name that is based on the Neil Gaiman book.

  18. Thanks all for the comments – yes and thanks indeed Shanne for being first to spot the theme. I admit STARDUST was tricky to clue since I didn’t want to refer to Gaiman directly – after all it was meant to be a Ghost theme – and Mike asked me to change my first attempt at a clue. So I googled and discovered there was a David Essex number of the same name. Problem solved!

    I knew the solvers would be better-informed than I am in this area!

    Wddersbel @16 – yes I’m rather keen on having a ghost theme or a nina some of the time, but I don’t promise there’ll be one every time. Some will probably be relieved that I didn’t put in one of my 37-letter anagrams!

    Many thanks also to flashling – sorry you’ve had me inflicted on you three times!

  19. Thanks Laccaria. I didn’t look for a theme and wouldn’t have seen it anyway but I found much to enjoy nonetheless. My top picks were NOOK, ASIDES, NYLINS, and SILVER.Thanks flashling for the blog.

  21. pog@20 – yes indeed it was! I already said I’m very ill-informed about this field of GK.

    At least I try not to rely on too much GK. Indeed no knowledge of the intentional ghost theme is necessary.

    Contrast with “Paul”s Grauniad Prize last Saturday. Hope it isn’t seen as a spoiler, but I’ll just say this: you need some very specific GK to get through it (I managed – eventually). No discredit to Paul, but I prefer to do things differently….

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