Independent 11,509 / Quince

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This is my second outing as a blogger with a puzzle by Quince, one of the Indy’s newer and less prolific setters.

I have enjoyed this puzzle every bit as much as the first one I came across by this setter last month. I found it to be towards the higher end of the Indy difficulty spectrum, since there was such a lot to unpick in so many of the clues. Furthermore, this was a puzzle in two halves for me, since I had completed the right-hand side of the grid before making any real inroads into the left-hand size, where I then needed to start almost from scratch.

I think that I am relatively happy with my parsing, but I would nonetheless appreciate some confirmation (or otherwise) of my readings of 1 and 2.

My favourite clues today are almost too numerous to mention, but I would single out the following for special mention: 9, for use of “Johnny Vegas” and for making me laugh out loud; 12, 14, 22, 25 and 27, for overall concision and smoothness of surface. Incidentally, I did not know the sausage at 26, but I worked it out from the (fairly challenging) wordplay.

One should also mention the nod to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the wording of the clue at 1; in the solution at 23; in the name of the compiler himself, of course; and perhaps elsewhere.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
09 HEATH Johnny Vegas finally kicked out old Tory

<s>HEATH (=(rubber) johnny, i.e. condom!); “Vegas finally” means last letter, i.e. “s”, is dropped; the reference is to Edward Heath, Conservative Prime Minister from 1970-4
     
10 TEAR DUCTS Streaming sites rent channels

TEAR (=rent, rip) + DUCTS (=channels, conduits); cryptically, “streaming sites” are where our tears form and are channelled
     
11 OLDIE Classic love story involves date

D (=date) in [O (=love, i.e. zero score in tennis) + LIE (=story, fib)]
     
12 APPLE TREE Pamphleteer about to shun H&M’s core producer?

*(PA<m>P<h>LETEER); “to shun H&M” means letters “h” and “m” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “about”
     
13 TINTING Comic character with good use of colour

Tintin (=comic character, devised by the Belgian Hergé in ‘1929) + G (=good)
     
14 TORRENT River inspires gold rush

OR (=gold, in heraldry) in TRENT (=river, in midlands)
     
16 CHATBOT Conversationalist wanting spirit taps at half-drained bottle

C H (=taps, in bathroom) + AT + BOT<tle> (“half-drained” means 3 of 6 letters are dropped); a chatbot is “wanting spirit” because it is not human, but rather a software application
     
19 PFENNIG Nurse gin on the counter after parking fine makes a bit of a mark

P (=parking) + F (=fine) + EN (=nurse, i.e. Enrolled Nurse) + NIG (GIN; “on the counter” indicates reversal); a pfennig was a division of the German mark
     
21 RAINBOW Artist wearing ribbon in array of colours

RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician) + IN (=wearing, as in She is in blue today) + BOW (=ribbon)
     
24 TIGHT-KNIT Spooner’s man boob is firm

Spoonerism of “man (=knight, on chessboard) + tit (=boob)”!
     
26 NDUJA Dieter’s also agreed to replace starter, getting spicy sausage

UND (=also, i.e. and in German, i.e. Dieter’s) + JA (=agreed, i.e. yes in German, i.e. Dieter’s); “to replace starter” here means that first letter (“u”) is replaced by second letter “n”; ‘nduja is a spreadable spicy pork sausage from Calabria
     
27 WANTED MAN Form union to protect worker, staff suspect

[ANT (=worker) in WED (=form union, marry)] + MAN (=(to) staff)
     
28 ELATE Please tell partner to scrub bits occasionally

<t>E<l>L <p>A<r>T<n>E<r>; “to scrub bits occasionally” means alternate letters are all dropped; to please is to elate, delight
     
Down    
     
01 THROAT Voice expressing “Bottom, thou art translated!”

*(THO<u> ART); “bottom” means to drop last letter of word from anagram, indicated by “translated”; Chambers lists “voice” as a meaning of “throat”
     
02 WARDEN Joint chief of staff in military bunker?

WAR- (=military) + DEN (=bunker); the reference is to Colonel John Warden III, now retired from the US Air Force
     
03 WHEELIE BIN Refuse to be put out by this bachelor interrupting morning sleep, after such fun!

WHEE! (=such fun!) + [B (=bachelor, as in BA, BSc) in LIE-IN (=morning sleep)]
     
04/18A STRAIGHT SHOOTER Gosh, The Traitors cast someone honest!

*(GOSH THE TRAITORS); “cast (=thrown)” is anagram indicator
     
05 CARPET Mini dachshund, perhaps one laid on the floor

CAR (=mini) + PET (=dachshund, perhaps)
     
06 EDGE Some enraged geese bite

Hidden (“some”) in “enragED GEese”; an edge is a bite, a keenness/pungency of taste
     
07 SCARIEST Nap briefly interrupted by vehicle: extremely alarming!

CAR (=vehicle) in SIEST<a> (=nap; “briefly” means last letter is dropped)
     
08 ASSENTER One sticking thumb up starts to experience regret, after ‘Like” posted

AS (=like) + SENT (=posted, mailed) + E<xperience> R<egret> (“starts to” means first letters only); if you give something the thumbs up, then you agree to it, you assent
     
15 REORIENTED Adjusted reindeer to flying

*(REINDEER TO); “flying” is anagram indicator
     
16 CAPE TOWN Heave, overcome by pecan nuts and port

TOW (=heave, haul) in *(PECAN); “nuts (=crazy)” is anagram indicator
     
17 AVENGING Nude raver leaves to avoid changing for evening out

<r>AVE<r> (“nude” means outer layers, i.e. first and last letters are dropped) + <cha>NGING (“leaves (=cha, tea) to avoid” means letters “cha” are dropped); to get even is to avenge, seek revenge, hence “evening out”
     
18 SCRUTINY Review cider making politician money

SCRUMPY (=cider); “making politician (=MP, i.e. Member of Parliament) money (=tin)” means letters “mp” are replaced by “tin”
     
20 GENOME Someone in the garden taking ecstasy is set in a cell

E (=ecstasy, i.e. drug) in GNOME (=someone in the garden); a genome is an individual’s complete set of chromosomes, as found in a cell
     
22 BHUTAN Sunbathe naked when out in country

*(<s>UNBATH<e>); “naked” means that outer layers, i.e. first and last letters, are dropped in anagram, indicated by “out”
     
23 WEAVER One tends to warp “So say all of us!”

WE (=all of us) + AVER (=so say); a weaver would warp, i.e. arrange threads lengthways into a warp
     
25 TWEE Sentimental hit at last gets number one

<hi>T (“at last” means last letter only) + WEE ((a) number one, as opposed to a number two!)
     
     

 

26 comments on “Independent 11,509 / Quince”

  1. Thanks, Quince and RR

    THROAT (my reading)
    ‘Expressing bottom’ (removing bottom) THOU=THO.

    NDUJA
    I read ‘replace starter’ as relocate the starting letter.

  3. WARDEN
    Probably, if ‘military bunker’ is read as one unit, that may sound better.
    military bunker=WAR DEN.

  4. I very much enjoyed this as I have previous Quince offerings with HEATH, WHEELIE BIN, THROAT, CARPET, AVENGING, GENOME and WEAVER being my favourites.

    I know there is regular debate about GK and how much a solver should be expected to know: I do wonder how many of us will be aware of John Warden III? Given the alternative definitions available, I wonder why Quince would choose this one?

    Thanks Quince and RR

  6. Golly, this was tough.

    There were some odd surfaces and a few definitions which seemed a bit strange to me:”Core producer” (even with the ?) in 12a; “Joint chief of staff” (very obscure) in 2d; and “someone in the garden” (why not “something”?) in 20d. However overall I enjoyed the struggle.

    AVENGING was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Quince and to RR.

  7. I had a tough time in the top right-hand not being familiar with Johnny for rubber or Heath and WARDEN. I can’t believe we’d be expected to know him. I see it as a sort of DD with JCS a ‘war den’ as well as a bunker. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders. I needed the blog’s help to parse AVENGING. However, there were some very nice clues – STRAIGHT SHOOTER, TEAR DUCTS, PFENNIG, and I liked WHEELIE BIN. Thanks both.

  8. I wish I had posted @6 one minute later as FrankieG @5 offers an explanation for 2d. However Chambers describes “the joint” = prison as American so, pedantically, it needs both the THE and an American indicator!

  10. WARDEN
    I agree with FrankieG@5
    The very phrase ‘Joint Chief of Staff’ indicates that there is an Americanism involved. Am I right in assuming so?
    I gather that prisons in the UK don’t have wardens but governors. True?
    In any case, FrankieG’s explanation seems plausible.

  11. 04d/18a – STRAIGHT SHOOTER – The Indy doesn’t do italics, but if this were in The FT it would be The Traitors:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Traitors_(British_TV_series)
    ‘The BBC stated that The Traitors was the biggest new series for young audiences across all BBC content in 2022, with a 1.3 million average audience across the series and a peak of 1.5 million for the final.’ – I wasn’t in that audience. Nice surface.

  12. I think FrankieG has it right though ‘warden’ as head of a prison is certainly noted as an Americanism in Chambers. And, yes, we have Governors in the UK. Just to confuse things, we also have warders as prison staff. I had not appreciated that Joint Chief of Staff is a specifically US thing so had not taken it as US indicator. I like a good cryptic definition but this one was beyond me.

  14. English sailors expressing a feeling of resentment (4)

    This clue employs the same trick that 1d does (THROAT)

  17. Tough for me too. Defeated by the never heard of NDUJA at the end for which I couldn’t see the ‘replace starter’ = ‘re-place starter’ for UND. The parsing of the two components of the def required to make sense of WARDEN also escaped me; well done FrankieG @5 for working this out.

    They both took me a while solve, but I liked the wordplay for HEATH and the def for WEAVER.

    Thanks to Quince (for number ten by my count) and to RR

  18. Wow – that was hard work and I did eventually use my phone-a-friend to get 2d, luckily he came up with the same solution as FrankieG which made perfect sense. I also struggled with the parsing of 1d – very crafty!
    Ones I particularly liked were TEAR DUCTS, TINTING & TIGHT KNIT.

    Thanks to Quince and to RR for the review.

  19. KVa@16 – It’s a hint for anyone wanting to solve your clue @14 – There are seven of them – and they’re deadly.

  22. Thanks RatkojaRiku and Quince.

    Terrific puzzle, difficult but was worth the effort.

    Parsed WARDEN as prison chief, a fav.
    Others that make my list are:
    HEATH
    PFENNIG
    TIGHT KNIT
    WANTED MAN
    AVENGING
    WEAVER
    CHATBOT

  23. A very enjoyable puzzle, thanks to Quince and RatkojaRiku. Quince of course was the original voice uttering the wonderful line!

  24. As Chambers has joint meaning place, I took WARDEN as the chief person looking after it. My student hall of residence had a warden, and was referred to as a joint by some of the more hippie residents. Great puzzle, I thought.

  25. Thanks Quince for a well-crafted, challenging crossword. My top picks were TINTING, PFENNIG, WANTED MAN, SCARIEST, AVENGING, and GENOME. I needed a nudge to solve SCRUTINY (scrumpy was foreign to me) and WHEELIE BIN; I couldn’t parse HEATH, not knowing “johnny”. I too saw WARDEN as the chief of a “joint” or prison. Thanks RatkojaRiku for the blog.

  26. Had printed this out ages ago and just got round to trying it, took me three shortish evenings in bed but warden defeated me. I couldn’t parse nduja (even if I was sure it had to be right), weaver or assenter.

    Found it easy at first and then slowed down, finally got tight knit and SE corner tonight, spoonerisms I always find tricky.

    Thanks RR & Q 🙂

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