Independent 11,689 by Serpent

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Thanks to Quirister for swapping with us yesterday – we get a Serpent to blog!

As expected, excellent surfaces throughout and some inventive clues in a solver-friendly grid.

Unfortunately we weren’t convinced by the clue for 5d, or the first definition in 19ac, but maybe that’s just us?

Serpent’s puzzles invariably include a theme or a nina, but we just cannot finding today – we must be having a bad day!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Hide onset of chronic pain (5)
CACHE

C (first letter or ‘onset’ of chronic) ACHE (pain)

4. Fetching new red coat for Idris Elba (9)
DESIRABLE

An anagram (‘new’) of RED, I S (first and last letters or ‘coat’ of Idris) and ELBA

9. Broadcast The Jazz Singer? (7)
SCATTER

Double definition – we had to check that ‘scat’ can mean ‘sing’, although we suspect that jazz enthusiasts might not consider jazz singers to ‘sing using nonsense syllables and other wordless effects’, as defined in Chambers

10. Sporting event blasted target area (7)
REGATTA

An anagram (‘blasted’) of TARGET + A (area)

11. School checks faculty have good reasons for rifle permit? (6,7)
SEARCH WARRANT

SCH (school) round or ‘checking’ EAR (faculty – as in ‘an ear for music’) WARRANT (have good reasons for)

14. Well acquainted with and in contact with (4)
UPON

If you are well acquainted with a subject, you might be UP ON it

15. Fresh nurses start to re-examine rash (9)
IMPRUDENT

IMPUDENT (fresh) round or ‘nursing’ R (first letter or ‘start’ of re-examine)

18. Criticise church taking instrument back in fit of pique (9)
PETULANCE

PAN (criticise) CE (church – of England) round or ‘taking’ a reversal (‘back’) of LUTE (instrument)

19. Sexually attractive male boss (4)
STUD

Double definition – although many people would definitely not be sexually attracted to a STUD

21. Cleaner ticks off mourner (6-7)
CARPET-SWEEPER

CARPETS (ticks off) WEEPER (mourner)

24. Indecent milieu and activities of former pupils? (7)
OBSCENE

An OB (old boy – ‘former pupil’) SCENE might fancifully describe the ‘milieu and activities’ of such a group

26. Unchanging exterior masking sign of affection (7)
ETERNAL

ExTERNAL (exterior) missing or ‘masking’ the ‘x’ (kiss – sign of affection)

27. Son flusters about causing tension (9)
STRESSFUL

S (son) + an anagram (‘about’) of FLUSTERS

28. Fear about to transfix old man (5)
DREAD

RE (about) in or ‘transfixed by’ DAD (old man)

DOWN
1. Investigate possibility of ripping off patient (4)
CASE

Double definition – the first referring to ‘casing the joint’

2. Awful cameraman who could be better (11)
CRAPSHOOTER

CRAP (awful) SHOOTER (cameraman)

3. Catch business associate coming back after finishing early (6)
ENTRAP

A reversal (‘coming back’) of PARTNEr (business associate) missing the last letter or ‘finishing early’

4. Misled into supporting dreadful Conservative Government (9)
DIRECTION

An anagram (‘misled’) of INTO after or ‘supporting’ (in a down clue) DIRE (dreadful) C (Conservative)

5. Ship’s primary means of propulsion using blades? (5)
SCREW

A sort of clue-as-definition – we think it must be: S (first or ‘primary’ letter of ship) CREW (means of propulsion using blades -as in rowing) with SCREW referring to the propeller on an engine-driven ship, which itself has blades. All rather clunky, and not one of Serpent’s better clues in our opinion

6. Scrupulous doctor able to absorb material without pressure (8)
RIGOROUS

RIG (doctor) pOROUS (able to absorb material) missing ‘p’ (pressure)

7. Boring item input to computer had an effect (3)
BIT

Triple definition

8. Pretend computer systems issue involves accuracy (10)
EXACTITUDE

ACT (pretend) IT (computer systems) ‘involved’ in EXUDE (issue)

12. What damages growth is seniority surprisingly, not diversity (5,6)
AGENT ORANGE

AGE (seniority) + an anagram (‘surprisingly’) of NOT + RANGE (diversity)

13. Fortunate adult wary, not having succeeded initially (10)
AUSPICIOUS

A (adult) sUSPICIOUS (wary) missing ‘s’ (first or ‘initial’ letter of succeeded)

16. Gunpowder in small batches? (9)
PIECEMEAL

PIECE (gun) MEAL (powder)

17. Stupid advice to overworked crossword compiler? (8)
CLUELESS

An overworked crossword compiler might be advised to CLUE LESS

20. Cover opening of store in advance of publicity? (6)
SPREAD

S (first letter or ‘opening’ of store) PRE (in advance of) AD (publicity)

22. Flesh out support provided by board (5)
SHELF

An anagram (‘out’) of FLESH

23. Saint guided Bob? (4)
SLED

S (saint) LED (guided)

25. Gentleman incarcerated in prison following revolution (3)
SIR

Hidden (‘incarcerated’) and reversed (‘following revolution’) in pRISon

 

19 comments on “Independent 11,689 by Serpent”

  1. CASE
    Chambers says (transitive verb slang)
    to reconnoitre or examine, usu with a view to burglary
    I think this sense suits better for def 1 (another type of ripping off).
    Thanks Serpent and B&J
    COTD: SEARCH WARRANT
    Liked SCREW quite a bit (unlike B&J).
    BIT was good too.

  2. I wasn’t entirely sure about SCREW and see there are contradictory views already. It ‘sort of works’. GUNPOWDER was my LOI and I did not clock the L&S until afterwards – very cheeky. I wouldn’t generally regard meal – oatmeal, say – as powder but I see it has full dictionary support so there you go. And I hesitated with PETULANCE which seems to me to be a synonym of ‘pique’ rather than ‘fit of pique’. A ‘display of petulance’ would surely be synonymous with the latter.

    That said, there were some absolute delights in here – the surface for DESIRABLE, the definition of SEARCH WARRANT, the succinct charade that is CARPET SWEEPER, the clever and almost hidden anagrammed ‘into’ that ends the wicked DIRECTION, the lovely surface for AGENT ORANGE.

    Thanks Serpent and B&J

  4. Yes, B&J, you may have missed out on a Filbert but you got Serpent instead, so definitely no cause for complaint there. Super puzzle, much to enjoy – I particularly liked “rifle permit” as the definition in 11a.

    I read the clue for SCREW as a simple cryptic definition with the intention, as you say, being to trick you into thinking of rowing blades rather than a propellor’s blades. “Ship’s primary” to indicate S seems a bit woolly in a way that I would consider uncharacteristic of Serpent, so I’m not convinced that was his intention. I may be wrong!

    PM @2 – PETULANCE can mean an instance of petulant behaviour, according to the OED, though I agree it is more commonly used in the abstract.

  6. I found this quite chewy, but never stopped making progress. LOI was CASE, because I was persistently reading the split in the wrong place.

    SEARCH WARRANT had a lovely def, CARPET SWEEPER was very neat, AGENT ORANGE and DIRECTION had some nicely concealed anagrams, and CRAPSHOOTER was silly but made me smile. I don’t know if it’s just an impression, but there seemed to be a lot of deletions in this puzzle, all done very fairly.

    I wasn’t sure about SCREW. I think it’s meant to be S + CREW &lit, and that works, but it doesn’t feel entirely satisfying – as Widdersbel suggests @4, it feels like the tantalising &lit pulled Serpent just a bit out of shape in making it work. I guessed the answer at first sight, but wasn’t totally certain. On PETULANCE, I was happy with it as a solver – it was clear and I’m happy that it can refer to an instance of petulance. But it’s also the sort of slightly stretchy definition I’m trying to avoid as a setter. I think Serpent’s fine to do some things novices like me should avoid, though.

    Thank you Serpent and B&J

  7. I liked SCREW, too. And it goes with REGATTA, and The Boat Race coming up on Saturday. This year they won’t be chucking the coxes into the sewage.
    Thanks S & B&J

  8. B&J@5
    CASE
    When I post something, I should be willing to listen to any feedback. I will always value
    it if you correct me. Thanks in advance. Thanks for all the enlightenment hitherto.

  9. I’ve never been much of a fan of SCAT[ter] singing, apart from: ‘Ella Fitzgerald’s scatting, for example, drew extensively on popular music. In her 1960 recording of “How High the Moon” live in Berlin, she quotes over a dozen songs, including “The Peanut Vendor,” “Heat Wave,” “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”.’ It’s here.

  10. I’m with B&J re 19ac. Able to perform tirelessly maybe, not necessarily attractive with it.
    Some head scratching over 5d trying to think of a type of boat ending ROW. Gave up and bunged in SCREW anyway, although it felt a bit vague.
    Hoping to see 2d in a future puzzle as a gambling owl.
    Pleased to have completed a Serpent anyway.
    Thanks Serpent and B&J.

  11. Thanks both. Just couldn’t see PIECEMEAL despite all the crossers, and perhaps as I was weary by that time – this week’s puzzles have felt quite tricky on the whole. So only one answer missing, but needed much of the content here to fill gaps in parsing; perhaps that there are so many references to dictionary definitions more than common usage partly explains why. For what it is worth, I too thought STUD indicated activity and not attractiveness, and as for SCREW maybe best left that they may or may not sit well together.

  12. Well the pop up box on the online app tells me I spent an hour and 45 minutes of my day completing this. But complete it I did! And I think I came to all the same conclusions as our bloggers.

    And afterall, what else to do on such a miserable day. Still CRAPSHOOT (my favourite clue) gave me something to chuckle at for a good 30 seconds. Also liked the definition for SEARCH WARRANT when it finally came to me.

    Add me to the “entered SCREW because what else could it really be, but I don’t particularly like it” gang. It seemed a bit neither here nor there as a clue.

    Thanks to Serpent for passing a good chunk of a typical British spring day, and to B&J for a pristine blog.

  13. As Serpent usually has some sort of signature I scoured for one today.

    I wonder if it may be related to Trump, who had a CACHE of documents which were uncovered by a SEARCH WARRANT, who has often displayed IMPRUDENT PETULANCE, thinks of himself as a STUD with his OBSCENE remarks and causes us STRESSFUL DREAD at the prospect of another term that is not DESIRABLE. He also has a PIECEMEAL approach to policy, possibly has a SCREW (or several) loose, definitely has middle-age SPREAD,/ with rambling speeches that lack DIRECTION.

    On the other hand, I may be barking up a gumtree.

  14. Simon S – If only! Laughed out loud when we read your comment.

    Please Serpent, tell us that Simon S has uncovered the theme.

  15. Thanks Serpent. Except for my failure with PIECEMEAL this crossword eventually came into focus. I thought the clues were excellent with IMPRUDENT, PETULANCE, CRAPSHOOTER, RIGOROUS, EXACTITUDE, AUSPICIOUS, CLUELESS, and SHELF among my favourites. I couldn’t find a nina nor could I parse ETERNAL or SCREW. Thanks B & J for the blog.
    [Simon S @13: It’s amazing what we see, isn’t it? You make a good case for a theme. You could have also put CLUELESS in the mix — Trump supporters describe the current President as just that.]

  16. Many thanks as always to Bertandjoyce for the excellent blog, and to everyone who has been kind enough to comment. Special thanks to Simon S for uncovering a theme I never knew was there!

    This is one of the rare occasions where I didn’t have a theme or nina. Just to keep you all guessing…

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