It’s eighteen months since Lark made his debut in the Independent, and he has been a regular if infrequent setter of mainly Sunday puzzles since then. But this is the first time our paths have crossed.
I enjoyed this one. Lots of charades and insertions, and a little convoluted in a couple of places, perhaps, but it’s all there if you go looking for it. Can’t see a theme, but previous ones have included a band no-one had heard of, so perhaps there’s one here that has escaped me.
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 A table constructed to hold fourth case
ABLATIVE
An insertion of IV in (A TABLE)* The insertion indicator is ‘to hold’ and the anagrind is ‘constructed’. I hesitated briefly over IV for ‘fourth’, but of course it’s kings and queens, as in George IV. ABLATIVE is a grammatical ‘case’: it doesn’t exist in modern English and if you’ve heard of it at all it’s most likely through Latin at school, where it was traditionally the sixth case, expressing ‘by’, ‘from’ or ‘with’. It does exist in some modern languages, including Turkish, Finnish and Hungarian. That’s enough grammar for this morning, I think.
5 Goodness close to Lenin’s heart for left-winger
CORBYN
A charade of COR, BY and N for the central letter of ‘Lenin’. Jeremy, the MP for Islington North. He won’t be the Labour candidate in this October’s election but is said to be standing as an Independent.
10 Time wasted securing building material, short by one tile
IMBRICATE
An insertion of BRIC[K] and A for ‘one’ in (TIME)* The insertion indicator is ‘securing’ and the anagrind is ‘wasted’.
11 Church on marshland boundary
FENCE
A charade of FEN and CE.
12 Make an effort to accommodate old right-winger
TORY
An insertion of O in TRY. The insertion indicator is ‘to accommodate’.
13 Loyalty for one entering partnership
ALLEGIANCE
An insertion of EG for exempli gratia or ‘for one’ in ALLIANCE. The insertion indicator is ‘entering’.
15 Beauty parlour with built-in love lounge
SALOON
An insertion of O in SALON. The insertion indicator is ‘with built-in’.
16 Pluralistic papers about poetry
DIVERSE
A charade of ID reversed and VERSE.
19 Foreign saint sounded English
STRANGE
A charade of ST, RANG and E.
21 Amateur caught by a secret service plant
ACACIA
A charade of A, C, A and CIA.
25 Platform with exotic hyacinths, last three plucked for floral decoration
DAISY CHAIN
A charade of DAIS and (HYACIN[THS])* The anagrind is ‘exotic’.
26 I headed back to arrive at food store
DELI
A reversal of I LED.
28 Portion of film about British maverick
REBEL
An insertion of B in REEL. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
29 Economist who creates barriers?
ADAM SMITH
Clever wordplay. In the same way that a WORDSMITH would create words, a DAMSMITH might whimsically create dams, or barriers. The Scottish philosopher and economist best known for The Wealth of Nations.
30 Drum musician in club with brief set
DJEMBE
I couldn’t see this. It’s a charade of DJ and EMBE[D]. If, like me, you didn’t know the word, then you’re pretty screwed looking for a synonym for ‘set’: it has multiple meanings and takes up all of 60,000 words in the full OED, according to one source. That’s the length of a novel.
31 Evening wear, about to be carried separately by relatives’ subordinates
ADJUNCTS
DJ for disc jockey, now DJ for dinner jacket. An insertion of that, and C for circa or ‘about’, separately, in AUNTS. The insertion indicator is ‘to be carried’
Down
1 Police in corrupt state giving conclusive trial
ACID TEST
An insertion of CID in (STATE)* The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘corrupt’.
2 Free braille translation
LIBERAL
(BRAILLE)*
3 End of story read out
TAIL
Aural wordplay (‘read out’) of TALE.
4 Potentially successful sailor breaking rank
VIABLE
An insertion of AB for ‘sailor’ in VILE. The insertion indicator is ‘breaking’.
6 Drinks emporium formerly infested with very loud insects
OFF-LICENCE
An insertion of FF for the musically ‘very loud’ and LICE in ONCE. The insertion indicator is ‘infested with’
7 Crazy to proscribe Scottish Labour leader
BANANAS
A charade of BAN and ANAS [Sarwar].
8 New European editor repeatedly called for
NEEDED
A charade of N, E, ED and another ED.
9 Bible book in which Gabriel featured prominently
GENESIS
A dd. The second element is referring not the the Angel Gabriel, but to Peter Gabriel, the lead singer of the rock band GENESIS.
14 Balti curry transported over for independent charitable organisation
ROTARY CLUB
Lark is inviting you to substitute and O for an I in (BALTI CURRY)* The anagrind is ‘transported’.
17 Boffin‘s formula for e?
EGGHEAD
E is at the head of ‘egg’, innit? The ‘boffin’ (I hate that word) would be a mathematician, since e is a mathematical constant.
18 Vegetables are cut up to be put on plates
RADISHES
A charade of AR[E] reversed and DISHES. ‘Up’ works as a reversal indicator because it’s a down clue.
20 The man wearing fancy belt and digital shield
THIMBLE
An insertion of HIM in (BELT)* The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’ and the anagrind is ‘fancy’.
22 Complaint from 12 who ran with 2 inveighing against 5 leadership
COELIAC
The ‘Tory who ran’ is [Sebastian] COE; the solution to 2dn, ‘Liberal’, gives you L; and IAC comes from the initial letters of ‘inveighing’, ‘against’ and ‘Corbyn’, which is the solution to 5ac. All a bit convoluted, you might say. I might say that the clue doesn’t work, since you can’t equate COELIAC with ‘complaint’. Coeliac Disease is the illness. You can describe someone as a coeliac. But the complaint isn’t called coeliac. I have two children who are coeliacs, so am more than averagely qualified to make a judgement on usage here.
23 Beloved party embraced by American lefty
ADORED
An insertion of DO in A RED. The insertion indicator is ’embraced by’.
24 Magic practitioner has wife turned into large reptile
LIZARD
We need to change the W in WIZARD to L to give us the reptile.
27 Hairy fellow‘s reportedly the guy spotted in the East End
ESAU
Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) of ‘E SAW, which is how Cockneys pronounce HE SAW. The accent is no longer predominant in the East End of London these days, but it’s still a common crossword device, and why not. Here’s the relevant bit of the Old Testament. It’s from 9dn, if you didn’t know:
And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man
Genesis, 27:11, King James Version
Many thanks to Lark for starting off our Indy crossword week.
I find myself very much aligned with Pierre today. Could not see the NHO DJAMBE and had no hope of parsing it. And was thrown by COELIAC which I took as an adjective. IMBRICATE is NHO and I was aware of ABLATIVE more from crosswords than anything else. I completely agree the ADAM SMITH idea is delightful. I thought clueing ANAS with Sarwar was brave, given the short tenure of most political party leaders these days, but I see he has been in a leadership role for 3 years which counts as forever.
Other than the economist, other faves were SALOON for the surface, VIABLE for the neat use of ‘rank’, RADISHES for the smoothness, ROTARY CLUB for the humorous image and LIZARD which is hardly the most difficult clue but made me laugh. A very tiny point about ESAU: I am no biblical scholar whatsoever but I have always fondly recalled Jacob’s brother being described as ‘an’ rather than ‘a’ hairy man.
Thanks Lark and Pierre
Very much enjoyed this, apart from DJAMBE which I felt was an unfair/impossible clue. Didn’t know IMBRICATE or ANAS or ADAM SMITH but these were all gettable from the clues. Agree that COELIAC doesn’t seem to quite work but liked the clue.
In 10a, it is A for ‘one’.
COTD: ADAM SMITH
SALOON, ROTARY CLUB and LIZARD (great enjoyable surfaces as PM@1 says).
IMBRICATE (a minor observation)
one=A
Thanks Lark and Pierre
Surely some kind of an historical typo, PostMark? An hour, an honour, an heir … but an hairy? Always said the OT was full of dodgy stuff.
Thanks for the correction, Hovis – blog amended.
Thanks Lark and Pierre
I’m probably clutching at straws re a theme, but we have a right-winger on the left, a left-winger on the right, and a liberal not quite in the middle. That could make a 19 13.
I’d heard of DJEMBE but unfortunately misremembered it as DJEMBA, which I couldn’t parse: the dictionary put me right.
ADAM SMITH
Already said I loved this clue. Just read the clue again and it read like a contra surface.
Many call him the Father of Capitalism. He would have been against all trade barriers if
alive today!?
I like it even more!
Loi nho DJEMBE – had to resort to OneLook.com – It beat me, so I didn’t like it. DWEEBS would have fitted.
At oed.com the four citations include djimbe, jimbe, and jenbe; as well as krims and dununs (two more nhos).
Thanks L&P
FrankieG@7
DJEMBE
A drum beating us all! Irony!
KVa @8 😀
KVa @8: splendid!
FrankieG @7: I did spend a fruitless few minutes attempting to rationalise DWEEBS!
I vaguely knew DJEMBE although I had no idea of how to spell it from Seckou Keita’s playing – it leapt out at me from the word search I did – I know him more from his kora playing or as part of the Lost Spells ensemble.
The other clue I hit a word search for was COELIAC as I wouldn’t have got that from the definition of a condition – another parent of a coeliac here, so very familiar with the gluten free world.
Thank you to Lark and Pierre.
Lovely puzzle, great blog and pertinent comments. I went down a rabbit hole after KVa’s post about Adam Smith. Could one of the DJs be Fat Boy Slim? Can ABLATIVE be both relative and absolute? And as Simon S says, Corbyn is on the right and Tory is on the left.
DJEMBE eas easy for me — because I used to own one 🙂
Very enjoyable puzzle with lots to like. Thanks Lark and Pierre
Thanks Lark. This was a mixed bag for me — I could not solve IMBRICATE, BANANAS, DJEMBE, CORBYN, or COELIAC but really enjoyed ALLEGIANCE, DIVERSE, ACACIA, EGGHEAD, and LIZARD. Thanks Pierre for explaining things.
A DNF for me, but I did know ABLATIVE, not from Latin but from my interest in space missions in the sixties. Things like the Apollo and Gemini capsules had what were called ablative heatshields. As the capsule re-enters the atmosphere, the heatshield burns up, protecting the capsule. When I was at university a few years later, I mentioned this to a friend who did know Latin and he explained the grammatical meaning.