Independent 11,376 by Tees

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Tees fills the mid-week slot this week.

We normally expect this setter to  include some unusual or obscure words, but there were none today. However, the spelling of 1d is not included in Chambers or Collins. We (and Chambers) would use ‘whatd’youcallit’ or ‘thingamyjig’. We would not use this to describe a ‘gadget’ but Chambers Thesaurus lists it as a synonym under ‘COLLOQ.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. German meat cured on food that needs sending back (9)
HAMBURGER

HAM (cured meat) + a reversal (‘sent back’) of RE (on) GRUB (food)

10. Current period, and lengthy one for gnome? (5)
ADAGE

AD (anno domini – ‘current period’) AGE (lengthy period)

11. Agree with Home Office: shout to identify quarry (5-2)
TALLY-HO

TALLY (agree with) HO (Home Office)

12. People baptise sons in hilly region (7)
MENDIPS

MEN (people) DIP (baptise) S (sons)

13. Note placed in cabin for Chancellor (4)
HUNT

N (note) in HUT (cabin)

14. Spoil cotton clothing while making liqueur (10)
MARASCHINO

MAR (spoil) CHINO (cotton) round or ‘clothing’ AS (while)

15. Rodent from Welsh river runs, coming aboard coaster? (7)
MUSKRAT

USK (Welsh river) R (runs) in or ‘coming aboard’ MAT (‘coaster?’)

17. Prove superior as cleric filling bucket (7)
PREVAIL

REV (cleric) in or ‘filling’ PAIL (bucket)

19. Gene carrier‘s doctor thus seen in shiny coat (10)
CHROMOSOME

MO (medical officer – ‘doctor’) SO (thus) in or ‘coated by’ CHROME (shiny)

22. Fed gruel initially by staff (1-3)
G-MAN

G (first or ‘initial’ letter of gruel) MAN (staff)

23. Permit 51 churches to keep name (7)
LICENCE

LI (fifty-one in Roman numerals) CE CE (churches) round or ‘keeping’ N (name)

24. Mediocre writer returned Japanese currency in carriage (7)
HACKNEY

HACK (mediocre writer) + a reversal (‘returned’) of YEN (Japanese currency)

26. Dramatist recalled in Verlaine’s biography (5)
IBSEN

Reversed (‘recalled’) and hidden in VerlaiNE’S BIography

27. New course held by Rolls-Royce after parking sign (9)
PRECURSOR

An anagram (‘new’) of COURSE in or ‘held by’ RR (Rolls Royce) after P (parking)

DOWN
1. Gadget design, a raincoat with everything used in Intelligence (15)
WHATCHAMACALLIT

HATCH (design) A MAC (raincoat) ALL (everything) in WIT (intelligence)

2. One male, large in underwear, finding chest expanders? (8)
IMPLANTS

I (one) M (male) + L (large) in PANTS (underwear)

3. Marker at sea young chap picked up (4)
BUOY

A homophone (‘picked up’) of BOY (young chap)

4. Books with huge topless woman, making you blind? (8)
IGNORANT

NT (New Testament – ‘books’) after (‘with’) bIG (huge) without the first letter or ‘topless’ NORA (woman)

5. Constant frost beginning to abate where Russians in occupation (6)
CRIMEA

C (constant) RIME (frost) A (first letter or ‘beginning’ of abate)

6. Hanger-on right to stop balance being disturbed (8)
BARNACLE

R (right) in or ‘stopping’ an anagram (‘being disturbed’) of BALANCE

7. Antlered animal the thing with one furry foot raised (6)
WAPITI

A reversal (‘raised’) of IT (‘the thing’) I (one) PAW (‘furry foot’)

8. Dope on bed — is it Murray arrested by fat detectives here? (3,8,4)
NEW SCOTLAND YARD

NEWS (dope, as in information) COT (bed) + ANDY (Murray) in or ‘arrested by’ LARD (fat)

16. Goat perhaps having drink at home with social worker (8)
RUMINANT

RUM (drink) IN (at home) ANT (‘social worker’)

17. Page with Lima in the map redrawn for publication (8)
PAMPHLET

P (page) + L (Lima in the phonetic alphabet) in an anagram (‘redrawn’) of THE MAP

18. Caution Glaswegian man taken in by an attractive person (8)
ADMONISH

MON (Scottish version of ‘man’, as may be heard in Glasgow) ‘taken in by’ A DISH (attractive person)

20. Rest of the 650? (6)
RECESS

A (rather dubious in our opinion) cryptic definition, referring to the 650 MPs in the UK parliament, who may (but definitely should not if they are serious about representing their constituents) ‘rest’ during a Parliamentary RECESS

21. Exercise follows walk in smooth flat land (6)
STEPPE

PE (exercise) following STEP (walk)

25. Military leader winning in successful manoeuvre (4)
COUP

CO (commanding officer – ‘military leader’) UP (winning)

17 comments on “Independent 11,376 by Tees”

  1. A pretty quick solve for me today but had no clue how to parse RECESS. Wonder how many of our foreign friends knew our pronunciation of BUOY.

  4. I was unable to parse some of these but thanks to the blog I am enlightened. I was just blind or plain IGNORANT with 18d unable to move beyond ADONIS which I thought was the attractive person. Didn’t parse but. I must learn that. I liked Tees at this level for a change and enjoyed the solve. I guess my favourite would be WAPITI because they’re a common sight in my neck of the woods. Ta.

  5. I didn’t understand 20D so thanks B&J for the explanation, well spotted.
    At least the Houses are being rested. Otherwise all fairly straightforward and much enjoyed, so thanks also to Tees of course.

  6. Had exactly the same thoughts as Hovis. Additionally, only vaguely recalled Waipiti after deriving it and it needed looking up to confirm.

  7. Most approachable Tees for a while but that is absolutely no criticism. Just nice to have the puzzle flow smoothly from solution to solution with the parsing as clear as day – with the sole exception of 20d which would never have occurred to me in a month of Sundays. Strange how, some days, we are just in tune – Welsh river – wonder if it’s the USK, is it Murray – ANDY? – attractive person – DISH maybe etc. Most times the first synonym that came to mind was the right one. And yet other times that synonym is beyond elusive.

    Favourites included MENDIPS, PREVAIL, G-MAN, PRECURSOR, IMPLANTS, IGNORANT, BARNACLE and STEPPE.

    Thanks Tees and B&J

  8. I didn’t have any idea about RECESS either and only bunged it in from the ‘Rest’ bit and because I couldn’t think of anything else. The ‘Welsh river’ at 15a, first encountered in crossword land, came in handy as PM @7 says.

    I liked IMPLANTS and the surface for NEW SCOTLAND YARD, particularly bearing in mind Andy Murray’s nationality.

    Thanks to Tees and B&J

  9. Is it just me or are we seeing DISH and DISHY more often since John Crace in the Guardian dubbed our PM Dishy Rish!? My heart always sinks when I have to think of a woman’s name, but to have clued NORA as flipping woman might have confused me even more. Thanks, both.

  10. Took me quite a while to sort out the 650 – Roman numerals being of no assistance in this instance! Also needed to check on the name for the elk.
    Top three for me were MENDIPS, ADMONISH & COUP.

    Thanks to Tees for an enjoyable puzzle and to B&J for the review.

  11. I really enjoyed this crossword – Mr CS and I did discuss the possible ways one might spell 1d

    Many thanks to Tees and B&J

  12. Further to the comments on the different dictionaries – we use Chambers app on our iPad/phones and an old Collins (updated 1983) for anything we cannot find in Chambers. The only time we look at dictionaries on line is if we think it may only be found in an ‘urban dictionary’.

  13. I thought describing a [s]IGNORA as a huge topless woman was rather a slight to Italian matriarchs, and wondered if ‘the 650’ was a link to Crimea but apart from not scanning as well as 600 it’s not as accurate. Should really know how many MPs there are.

  14. We usually get onto Tees’ wavelength quite easily and today was no exception – so much so that it was all over a bit too quickly. LICENCE, PRECURSOR and PAMPHLET were among our favourites.
    Thanks, Tees and B&J.

  15. Hi Tees@3
    @https://www.onelook.com: ‘We found 26 dictionaries with English definitions that include the word WHATCHAMACALLIT’
    wiktionary: ‘(slang) A…term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember; a doodad, gizmo, thingamajig, thingy.
    Further reading whatchamacallit (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.’
    Victoria Wood: ‘Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah’
    One of these solutions appears elsewhere today.
    Thanks Tees & B&J

  17. Thanks Tees. This crossword seemed to have a theme of “words often found in crosswords” — IBSEN, RUMINANT, BRANACLE, WAPITI, ADAGE, PAMPHLET, STEPPE, IGNORANT, NEW SCOTLAND YARD, LICENCE, and COUP. I still enjoyed this but I missed the several oddities I’ve come to expect from this setter. Thanks B&J for the blog.

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