Independent on Sunday 1,761/Brunel

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I blogged Brunel’s first Independent puzzle nearly three years ago, and was impressed with it. He has been a regular but infrequent setter for the paper since then, but I was equally impressed with this one, mainly because of its fine surface readings.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Celeb stories – not one surprises
STARTLES
A charade of STAR and T[A]LES.

6 Browser chat
RABBIT
A dd. Well, your average RABBIT is a herbivore, n’est-ce pas?

9 Group hanky-panky gets offensive
SEXTET
A charade of SEX and TET. The second element is referring to the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam war.

10 Supply pistols – a 21 might raise them
TOPSAILS
(PISTOLS A)* The anagrind is ‘supply’, which you have to read adverbially as ‘in a supple way’. A JACK at 21ac might well raise them.

11 Halt, having shot pursuing bear
STANDSTILL
A charade of STAND and STILL. The ‘shot’ is of the photographic variety.

12 Snog Kay, young lady Mike dumped
KISS
A charade of the letter K and [M]ISS. M for ‘Mike’ comes from the phonetic alphabet.

13 Throw a wobbly, causing open conflict
HOT WAR
(THROW A)* with ‘wobbly’ as the anagrind. I thought this a strange phrase when I realised that nothing else would fit; but of course it’s just the opposite of a term that is in common use, COLD WAR.

15 Government file concerned with reaching good understanding
GRASPING
A charade of G, RASP, IN and G.

18 Fabric set down, picked up and put on again
REPLAYED
A charade of REP and aural wordplay (‘picked up’) for LAID.

20 Counts sheep jumping over the stile, at first
TOTS UP
An insertion of OTS for the initial letters of ‘over’, ‘the’ and ‘stile’ in TUP. The insertion indicator is ‘jumping’.

21 Standard rating
JACK
A dd.

23 During late autumn, one on the Right’s bringing new ideas
INNOVATORY
A charade of IN, NOV, A and TORY.

25 Woman in crashed limo finds another mode of transport
MONORAIL
An insertion of NORA in (LIMO)* The anagrind is ‘crashed’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’. The woman usually encountered around these parts with her common prefix, CHUFFING.

26 Up in Yorkshire area, once?
RIDING
A dd. The first element refers to being on a horse; the second is an ancient division of Yorkshire. There were three – East Riding, West Riding and North Riding – because the name derives from the Old Norse Þriðing, meaning ‘thirding’.

27 Extra ton (cement blocks) – straightaway!
AT ONCE
Hidden in ExtrA TON CEment.

28 Bold and spirited Natasha finally leaving for Brunel – is husband like a big girl’s blouse?
SISSYISH
Great surface, slightly convoluted parsing. The setter (‘I’) is inviting you to remove the A for the last letter of ‘Natasha’ from SASSY for ‘bold and spirited’ and replace it with I; then to follow all that with IS and H.

Down

2 Travelled over there to cover middle of the US game
TWENTY-ONE
We need to replace the middle letter, H, in ‘the’ with WENT and YON. The card game also known as Blackjack.

3 Hit, cut, flog and cane
RATAN
That sounds a cruel and unusual punishment. A charade of RA[P] and TAN.

4 Religious pronouncement made by St Paul, ye righteous, in the beginning
LET US PRAY
(ST PAUL YE R)* and a cad. The anagrind is ‘made by’.

5 Getting hard? It’s what I’m doing
SETTING
A dd.

6 Police escort learner initially follows on drive back
REPEL
A charade of RE and PEL for the initial letters of the first three words of the clue.

7 Boycott toys making comeback in dangerous locality
BLACK SPOT
A charade of BLACK and TOPS reversed.

8 Does nothing much, and did less when contracted
IDLES
[D]ID LES[S]

14 Kind of wine regularly sampled at source, it’s noted
WELL KNOWN
A charade of WELL for a ‘source’ of water and KiNd Of WiNe.

16 Type of protective software zapped Sun trivia
ANTIVIRUS
(SUN TRIVIA)* with ‘zapped’ as the anagrind.

17 Stone urn I pounded into tiny bits
NEUTRINOS
(STONE URN I)* with ‘pounded’ as the anagrind.

19 Put on spectacles after idiot dropped small IT accessories
DONGLES
DON GL[ASS]ES

22 Float high in the sky
ALOFT
(FLOAT)* with ‘high’ as the anagrind.

23 Having insignificant substance in bread – that’s sandwiches
INANE
An insertion of NAN in IE for id est. The insertion indicator is ‘sandwiches’.

24 Time (start of Yuletide) to drink rum with hot beverage
TODDY
An insertion of ODD in T and Y for the initial letter of ‘Yuletide’. Only 29 sleeps till Crimbo. Whoopy doo.

Many thanks to Brunel for this Sunday’s puzzle.

20 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,761/Brunel”

  1. TODDY was a seasonal treat and I liked NEUTRINOS. I was unfamiliar with that spelling of RATAN and HOT WAR seemed odd. Thanks, both.

  2. Being an ex IT man and scientist, ANTIVIRUS, DONGLES and NEUTRINOS were WELL KNOWN to me.

    There were some tremendous surfaces in this puzzle. SISSYISH was my fave.

    Looking forward to my hot TODDY tonight.

    Thanks Brunel and Pierre.

  3. Must admit I was foxed at 28A, forgetting that Brunel is the setter, so spent far too much time trying to work out how Isambard Kingdom fitted. Very much enjoyed anyway, so thanks Brunel and Pierre.

  4. Very enjoyable!
    I don’t know whether it’s me but I can’t make much sense of the surface read at 1a but other than that and the rather weak 25a big ticks throughout.
    I particularly enjoyed the wordplay construction of STANDSTILL, very smart indeed, TOTS UP, SISSYISH, SETTING and TODDY.
    Thanks Brunel and Pierre for a top puzzle and blog.

  5. Found this quite a tough challenge with 14d in particular holding out on me for a very long time.
    Top three for me were GRASPING, LET US PRAY & SETTING.

    Thanks to Brunel and to Pierre, sadly birdless today!

  6. Tatrasman@3 – Ditto on “forgetting that Brunel is the setter” – for a while I thought that the small “L” at the end might be a capital “i” – Or is that be too fiendish?
    I’m convinced that of late the setters have been deliberately confusing Aluminium (aL) with Artificial Intelligence (Ai)

  7. StephenL, I just took the reading of 1ac to be ‘not a single one of those stories about celebrities surprises anyone’.

  9. Apologies for the late post but I did want to quickly record my appreciation of Brunel’s puzzle. DONGLES, IDLES and STANDSTILL my favourites.

    Thanks Brunel and Pierre

  10. Even later, sorry, but just had to say I entered MOTORAIL at 25a, with ‘Tora’ as the woman. I thought at the time that Tora was rather obscure and MOTORAIL rather out of date. Showing my age!
    Very enjoyable crossword, thanks, and thanks, too, for the blog.

  11. Found that really hard, especially for a Sunday, but finally got there even if I couldn’t parse three or four.

    Liked dongles, inane, monorail and setting. Despite me being immersed in electronics and Linux/computing for work, had never heard of the rabbit browser, had to Google that to check it existed. Also didn’t know black can mean boycott before today.

    Thought some of the anagrinds were good/tricky/impossible to spot!

    Thanks Brunel et Pierre.

  12. DiBosco @11. Not sure if you were kidding but, as Pierre says in his blog and I agree, “browser” is used in the sense of something that browses, i.e. eats the rough shoots of plants (Chambers definition).

  13. Enjoyed greatly, thanks B and P

    Went astray at 21. STAR – S (standard) TAR =sailor = rating. And Stars are used for ratings eg 5 star hotel

    Smiled at SISSYISH

  15. Thanks Pierre & Brunel.
    Excellent puzzle!
    Needed parsing for a couple, thanks.

    SEXTET
    TOPSAILS
    TWENTY-ONE
    SISSYISH are favs.

    Brunel more often will be good !

  17. Thanks Brunel. I enjoyed this with my top picks being GRASPING, MONORAIL, SETTING (amusing surface), and IDLES. I missed SISSYISH but all else fell into place. Tet as “offensive” is a bit worn at this point; “holiday” could easily be substituted e.g. “group hanky-panky on holiday.” Thanks Pierre for the blog.

  18. Thanks both. On a long journey home, and needed the guidance here to satisfactorily parse a few. SISSYISH puzzled me like others, and it is more difficult now in the format I use as you have to request puzzle info to find the setter’s name, so if you haven’t heard of them, you are rendered a little ‘clueless’!

  19. To settle the debate as to why ‘browser’ = RABBIT, yes, it’s meant to refer to a rabbit being a browsing animal (I didn’t know there was a computer browser called Rabbit!)

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