Independent 11,586 / Tees

by

Tees is filling the mid-week slot this week. It is a good long while since it last fell to me to blog a puzzle by this setter.

For me, this was a puzzle of two halves: the right-hand side of the grid fell into place fairly easily, but then I ground almost to a halt with most of the left-hand side of it. I think that I got there in the end, but not without a good deal of head-scratching along the way. My last one in was 20, from the wordplay, but much to my annoyance, I only understood the definition when I searched under “butcher” in Chambers.

My favourites clues today were the semi- & lit. at 1; 10, for making me smirk; 13, for hiding its definition from me for so long; 17D, for its riddle-like quality; and 26, for the mental image the clue conjures up.

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

Across    
     
09 RURITANIA Fairy shown with Capek’s play for first time in mythical place

RUR (Capek’s play, i.e. 1920 sci-play Rossum’s Universal Robots) replaces first “t (=time)” in TITANIA (=fairy, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
     
10 ENEMA People in A&E taking turn, getting behind procedure

MEN (=people) in A + E; “taking turn” indicates reversal; cryptically, an enema is a “behind” procedure in that it involves our behinds!!
     
11 EN GARDE Ready with foil, almost finished wrapping cloth round

GAR (RAG=cloth; “round” indicates reversal) in ENDE<d> (=finished; “almost” means last letter is dropped); the “foil” of the definition refers to the sport of fencing
     
12 HANOVER Drinker’s comeuppance having to abandon grand city

HAN<g>OVER (=drinker’s comeuppance); “having to abandon grand (=G, i.e. £1000)” means letter “g” is dropped
     
13 STAG One does associate with hunters at last catching came

<hunter>S (“at last” means last letter only) + TAG (=catching game, in children’s playground); the “does” of the definition are female deer!
     
14 STALINISTS Hardliners on way: mountain climbers leaving quietly

ST (=way, i.e. street) + AL<p>INISTS (=mountain climbers; “leaving quietly (=p, for piano, in music)” means letter “p” is dropped)
     
15 OUTDOORS Unsuitable party men not in the House?

OUT (=unsuitable, excluded from consideration) + DO (=party) + OR (=men, i.e. Other Ranks)
     
17 GESTAPO Brutal police make move, seizing criminal tapes

*(TAPES) in GO (=move, as verb); “criminal” is anagram indicator
     
19 INGLORIOUS Our lingo is outrageously disgraceful

*(OUR LINGO IS); “outrageously” is anagram indicator
     
22 PASS Pressure applied you idiot: “I don’t know the answer”

P (=pressure, in physics) + ASS (=idiot)
     
23 TANKARD Local vessel managed single-handedly?

Cryptic definition, in which “(a) local” refers to a pub and the vessel is a drinking vessel
     
24 TAFFETA Starter of Taleggio: a fine cheese in thin cloth

T<aleggio> (“starter of” means first letter only) + A + F (=fine) + FETA (=cheese)
     
26 OMEGA Symbol of resistance from duck alongside Titanic

O (=duck, i.e. zero score in cricket) + MEGA (=titanic, huge); the Greek letter omega is the symbol for resistance in electronics
     
27 GREENWICH Riotous cheering around West London region

W (=West) in *(CHEERING); “riotous” is anagram indicator
     
Down    
     
01 FREE ASSOCIATION Method analyst used cunningly as I recall on sofa?

*(AS I RECALL ON SOFA); “cunningly” is anagram indicator; semi- & lit.
     
02 BRAGGART Boaster’s baronet trapping badger with fish

[RAG (=badger, pester) + GAR (=fish)] in BT (=baronet)
     
03 STAR Hot body that finally squeezes into short dress

<tha>T (“finally” means last letter only) in SAR<i> (=dress; “short” means last letter is dropped); a star is an incandescent (=hot) celestial body
     
04 ANCESTOR Neanderthal perhaps appearing in romance stories

Hidden (“appearing”) in “romANCE STORies”
     
05/07 RACHEL REEVES Several cheer falsely for Shadow Chancellor

*(SEVERAL CHEER); “falsely” is anagram indicator; Labour MP Rachel Reeves is the current Shadow Chancellor
     
06 PENNINES Stalls around a square in the hills

NINE (=a square, i.e. 3 x 3) in PENS (=stalls, compounds)
     
08 WALRUS MOUSTACHE Muscle was wasted with author finding substantial growth

*(MUSCLE WAS + AUTHOR); “wasted” is anagram indicator
     
16 OPOPANAX Work doubled with an American chopper used for tree

OP (=work, i.e. opus) + OP (=work, i.e. opus) + AN + AX (=American chopper, i.e. US spelling of axe); opopanax is a tree that produces an essential oil used in perfumery
     
17 GAUNTLET What’s taken up as challenge, but punishing for runners?

Double cryptic definition, referring to the expressions to take up the gauntlet and to run the gauntlet
     
18 ACADEMIC Fellow about to be saved by a drunken medic

CA (=about, i.e. circa) in [A + *(MEDIC)]; “drunken” is anagram indicator
     
20 GANDER Butcher’s chestnut horse turned up

RED (=chestnut, in colour) + NAG (=horse); “turned up” indicates vertical reversal; in Cockney rhyming slang, to have a butcher’s is to have a gander, i.e. a look at
     
21 INDIGO Like ring topped with cool blue

IN (=cool, trendy) + DIG (=like, as verb) + O (=ring, circle)
     
25 FINN The Scandinavian // Huckleberry?

A Finn is a Scandinavian AND Huckleberry Finn is a character created by Tom Sawyer
     

16 comments on “Independent 11,586 / Tees”

  1. That’s odd, I found the port side easier, but then I’m left-handed! At 13A my first thought was ‘snap’ but couldn’t get it to fit, then the penny dropped. 10A was laugh out loud. At 27A it seemed strange to describe Greenwich as a region. Much enjoyed, so thanks Tees and RatkojaRiku.

  2. Many thanks for a great crossword and a great blog. Just one correction, RatkojaRiku – in 25 Tom Sawyer should be Mark Twain.

  6. Tees, please don’t worry about the lack of comments on this excellent crossword. It’s just because people are too busy complaining about the IO puzzle elsewhere 🙂

  7. Like Tatrasman LHS went in first. Getting 1d straight off helped of course. Also EN GARDE (fencing is my thing). Stuck on OMEGA foolishly trying to fit ohm somehow. Favourite was GANDER but that’s a tough one for non-native speakers.

  9. I could have written the 2nd paragraph of the blog myself. It mirrored my experience EXACTLY, except that I came here to check why GANDER was butcher’s and also rolled my eyes when the obviousness appeared.

    Didn’t know the play RUR and had never heard of OPOPANAX, but both went in from either worldplay or filling in obvious but unparsed parts.

    This was just the right level of difficulty for me to chew away on through the day.

    Thanks RR and Tees.

  10. Thanks both. I’m usually not a fan of rhyming slang but I quickly got GANDER. RURITANIA held out for ages, where it requires three pieces of GK one of which I knew, one I didn’t, and one I’d forgotten (or couldn’t bring to mind)

  11. Thx Ratko, thx all for comments, esp Hovis at 6. I’ll be over there having a gander myself in a while, after a busy day on the tabloids. With an FT-generated hangover (thanks for a good night out guys!).

  12. Thanks Tees, that was the right amount of challenge for me. My top picks were FREE ASSOCIATION, HANOVER, STAG (I had to do an alphabet trawl to solve that one), STAR, ACADEMIC, and FINN. Weird word of the day: OPOPANAX. Thanks RR for the blog.

  13. I remember Henderson’s take on that, as we’re speaking of Io, which had something to do with dad saying, what’s that you’re holding there, Lizzie?, and Ms Borden replying ‘O Pop, an ax’. Ah well. At least we were spared Greasy Nan.

  14. My first Independent crossword in a good many months; not sure exactly why the long absence (I do the Graun on a near-daily basis, as well as the New York Times for my plain-crossword fix). But I quite enjoyed it. Thanks to blogger and setter.

  15. I always enjoy a Tees and this was no exception! Particularly liked Hanover, omega and en garde.

    Had to look up Capek, was interested to lean he “introduced” the word robot. His brother, from what I can gather, came up with the word.

    Had never heard of opopanax, bit was easy enough to construct.

    Thanks Tees and RR

  16. Capek was well known to me. Apart from RUR, another of his plays became the basis of Janacek’s opera The Makropolos Affair, about a 300-year old opera singer.

    I visited his grave in the national cemetery in Prague a few years ago.

Comments are closed.