The Independent on Sunday puzzle has historically been one that is reasonably accessible, but I found this one to be chewy in many areas, particularly when it came to the parsing. Mebbes just me having a bad hair day.
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 Opponent‘s for change, not against
ANTAGONIST
(NOT AGAINST)* with ‘for change’ as the anagrind.
6 Clobber game when it retreats
GARB
A reversal of BRAG, the card game.
10 Remark companion’s missed by complete accident
UTTERANCE
UTTER [CH]ANCE, with the CH standing for Companion of Honour.
11 Still passionate in chamber?
PHOTO
An insertion of HOT in PO. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. PO is informal British English for chamber pot.
12 Ticks over icons on mobile?
IDLES
A dd. The second meaning I had never heard of, but they are apparently a type of icon on mobile phones.
Edit: Hovis has a much better explanation. It’s aural wordplay (‘on mobile’) of IDOLS. Thank you to him.
13 Sensitive English poet originally appointed Laureate
EMOTIONAL
A charade of E, MOTION and AL for the initial letters of ‘appointed’ and ‘Laureate’. The poet referred to is Sir Andrew MOTION, perhaps best-known for being Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009.
14 See about crossing Alps getting fresh passes
ELAPSES
An insertion of (ALPS)* in SEE reversed. The anagrind is ‘getting fresh’ and the insertion indicator is ‘crossing’.
16 Merciless leader restricts team socialising
MIXING
An insertion of XI for eleven or ‘team’ in MING. The insertion indicator is ‘restricts’. MING the Merciless is a character from the Flash Gordon comic strip.
19 They might be Rick’s family mugs
STEINS
The German beer glass is also the surname of the TV chef Rick STEIN. A dd.
20 Cutter, when returned, secured by husband and wife
HANDSAW
An insertion of AS for ‘when’ reversed in H AND W. The insertion indicator is ‘secured by’.
23 It’s relaxed, with ‘ace’ fare?
CAFETERIA
(IT ACE FARE)* with ‘relaxed’ as the anagrind. A cad: the whole clue is the definition.
25 Ex-PM in retreat following book
BLAIR
A charade of B and LAIR.
26 Multiple terms of reference rule out issues
EMITS
[R]EMITS
27 Walls of chapel best trimmed with romantic illumination
CANDLELIT
The outside letters of ‘chapel’ are C AND L; this is followed by ELIT[E].
28 Swallows perhaps settle nose to tail
EATS
A ‘settle’ is a type of couch or SEAT. The setter is inviting you to move the first letter of that to the end.
29 Moor vessel, checking bows essentially in order
FELLOWSHIP
An insertion of OW for the middle letters of bOWs in FELL and SHIP. The insertion indicator is ‘checking’.
Down
1 Rude, coarse artist becoming accepted by Society
ABUSIVE
I will hold my hand up to using the Fifteensquared Bloggers Phone a Friend option to parse this one, because I couldn’t see it. We need to take the RA for ‘artist’ out of ABRASIVE for ‘coarse’ and substitute U for ‘accepted by society’ (the U and non-U distinction which only ever crops up in crosswords these days).
2 “Excite a little” – that encapsulates it
TITILLATE
An insertion of IT in (A LITTLE)* The insertion indicator is ‘encapsulates’ and the anagrind is ‘excite’, which is also the definition, unless you want to consider this another cad, which is probably a better option.
3 Spears raised regularly during spear song
GORES
Hidden ‘regularly’ in SpEaR sOnG reversed. ‘Raised’ works because it’s a down clue.
4 Note doughnut with new taste, possibly rhubarb
NONSENSE
A charade of N, O for ‘doughnut’, N and SENSE.
5 Copper on radio for so long
SEE YOU
Copper, chemically, is Cu, which if you pronounce it out loud (‘on radio’) is SEE YOU.
7 Sailors having a party on top deck
ADORN
A charade of A, DO and RN for Royal Navy or ‘sailors’.
8 Pirate needing repair to globe
BOOTLEG
(TO GLOBE)* with ‘needing repair’ as the anagrind.
9 Dispenser of drams? One article which might replace glasses
OPTICIAN
A charade of OPTIC, I and AN.
15 Clean egg is in return packaging
SANITISE
An insertion of NIT and IS in SAE for Stamped Addressed Envelope. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. A NIT is a louse egg. Nitty Nora the hair explorer will be remembered by those of a certain age.
17 Halal shin’s prepared as God would have it
INSHALLAH
(HALAL SHIN)* with ‘prepared’ as the anagrind. INSHALLAH is a transliteration of an expression in Arabic which is more commonly rendered as ‘god willing’.
18 Coinage of novel phrase about Northern Line
SHRAPNEL
An insertion of N and L in (PHRASE)* The insertion indicator is ‘about’ and the anagrind is ‘novel’. SHRAPNEL is slang for loose change or ‘coinage’.
19 Salmon, company reared on island in case of shortage
SOCKEYE
An insertion of CO reversed and KEY in SE, the outside letters of ‘shortage’. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
21 Eavesdrop on women fronting independent pop-up!
WIRETAP
A charade of W, I and PATER reversed. We need a (very slight) lift-and-separate on ‘pop-up’ to give ‘pop’ for PATER and UP as the reversal indicator in a down clue.
22 One making predictions tipped paddleboat?
ORACLE
[C]ORACLE
24 Carry on investing roubles in flutter
FLIRT
An insertion of R in FLIT. The insertion indicator is ‘investing’.
25 Shout half-heartedly downstairs
BELOW
BEL[L]OW. Or BE[L]LOW. Take your pick.
Many thanks to Stamp for this Sunday’s puzzle.
Thanks Stamp and Pierre!
Loved EMOTIONAL (lovely surface) HANDSAW (an old device nicely employed), CAFETERIA (great setting), CANDLELIT (dim? on the contrary 🙂 ), ABUSIVE (smooth and friendly. Well. Not exactly but a beauty), TITILLATE (applies to the whole puzzle, I guess. My COTD) and ORACLE (another one to the list for the setter’s slant in the surface)!
OPTICIAN
I initially thought the ‘which’ was not quite right in the def but quickly realised OPTICIAN could mean an OPTICIAN’s.
INSHALLAH
It’s generally used after mentioning a wish (applies to something in future). I may be wrong.
Great Puzzle overall!
BEL[L]OW. Or BE[L]LOW. Take your pick. 😀
I didn’t know about the Sunday tradition and it seems to me the Indy crossword is akin to Forrest Gump’s take on life because apart from theme-day you never know what you’re gonna get, even Eccles on a Saturday. I’m not complaining and although I agree with ‘chewy’ I would add ‘in places’. I thought there were some very smooth surfaces in the puzzle and it’s one I enjoyed. Likes for PHOTO, SHRAPNEL, EATS, MIXING, the def in BOOTLEG and the tipped boat. I thought 23a was a CAD but perhaps not one of the better ones, imho. Couldn’t parse 1d or 15d until I read the blog so thanks very much Pierre (I hope your hair is better now) and thanks Stamp.
INSHALLAH
The blog does mention ‘god willing’. So my comment@1 has no new content. Apologies.
Enjoyed this. For IDLES, I took it as a homophone (on mobile) of IDOLS (icons). In 23a, you need to remove the S from the anagram fodder.
Chewy and tough but most rewarding. Loved Emotional and Antagonist amongst many others.
Thanks Stamp and Pierre
IDLES
Hovis@4
Ah! I was also misled into thinking about idle icons.
I want something to blame it on. Yes. I see it now. The question mark! 😉
(I know Stamp will say something like ‘(a) mobile is an example of a phone
and the ? is a DBE indicator’).
“12 Ticks over icons on mobile?
IDLES…. apparently a type of icon on mobile phones.”
Never seen this usage and cannot really see it in wild now. Unless Setter meant that a mobile phone might have an icon indicating Idle – in which case it is a very wide and relaxed definition (mine has an icon indicating Independent as an example). I am probably missing something
Matthew Newell@7
IDLES
Please see comment#4
@Hovis and KVa. Ah yes – that makes much more sense. Thnx
Thank you, Hovis, for the better explanation of IDLES. Blog corrected.
Setter popping in to thank Pierre for an excellent blog, despite the tonsorial challenge, and commenters for their contributions. Yes, ‘on mobile’ was intended as a homophone indicator. The editor did query whether it was sufficient; I felt ‘mobile’ and ‘phone’ to be virtually synonymous these days so concluded it would do the job. And, yes, both CAFETERIA and TITILLATE are intended to be &lit/CAD. I find substitutions to be the most difficult devices to spot as a solver so Pierre has my sympathy for ABUSIVE: the simplicity of the change appealed to me. Thanks again.
I initially had flog for 6 across, golf backwards.
For 11a PHOTO I had to check that “chamber” could mean PO without its pot. “It’s in Chambers“, of course, appropriately enough.
oed.com has ‘chamber I.7. 1829– euphemistic. = chamber pot n….’ – with citations including Thackeray and Joyce.
Thanks both. For me, this was the ideal level of challenge, perhaps factoring in that it is Sunday. I did have question marks against the ‘U” substitution in ABUSIVE and the chamber for po match-up in PHOTO but both are addressed here, so I shall happily move on to hurling abuse at the online weather forecast rather than looking out of the window.
All went well, until it didn’t.. same as others have mentioned. Ended up as guesswork, followed by tumbleweed… which is always annoying… however the high spots were pretty high, with maybe SHRAPNEL coming out on top, mostly cos of trying to explain the usage to the French in the boulangerie .. another tumbleweed moment..
Thanks Stamp n Pierre for a sympathetic blog
Thanks Stamp for a nicely written crossword. I had many favourites including MIXING, HANDSAW, NONSENSE, SEE YOU, ADORN, SANITISES, SOCKEYE, and WIRETAP. There were also a number I couldn’t parse — GARB (never heard of ‘brag’ nor did I know that use of ‘clobber’), IDLES (new to me), ABUSIVE (too byzantine for my abilities), OPTICIAN (didn’t know ‘dispenser of drams’), and EMITS (didn’t know ‘multiple terms of reference’). Thanks Pierre for explaining it all.
Found this to be quite a tricky little number so I was sharing our blogger’s pain. Just read a comment from our setter on a puzzle elsewhere which he found tricky and I had to shout out ‘serves you right’ which made me feel a lot better…….
Top three for me were STEINS, FELLOWSHIP & ORACLE.
Thanks to Stamp and to Pierre for the sadly birdless review.
Thanks for parsing 1D. Knew it had to be ABUSIVE but could not figure out why.
Wonder if the setter was also thinking of the Ace Cafe on the North Circular for 23A?
Fun all round.
Completely beaten by ABUSIVE. Didn’t parse WIRETAP because I was never posh enough to have a mater and pater. No complaints though as any puzzle that works in Ming the Merciless is ok by me. If only the blogger had been Flash (ah-ah) ling, saviour of the universe.
Thanks to Stamp and Pierre.
We apologise for being late arrivals to the party. We have been away (again – no rude comments please Stamp/PostMark!) and have only just found time to tackle today’s puzzle.
We sorted out ABUSIVE fairly easily – great clue – but were not so impressed with CAFETERIA.
All good fun though as expected. Keep ‘em coming Stamp!
Thanks for the blog Pierre.
I-feel_your_pain @12 don’t worry. You weren’t the only one. I confidently entered FLOG before any crossers too. I thought it was a cryptic no-no to have 2 possible correct answers.
A day late but throroughly enjoyed this. Interesting that some found it chewy, I am used to Stamp’s alter-ego over at MyCrossword where he can be much tougher! Perhaps it’s the old ‘wavelength thing’. Having said that, I was held up for several minutes over my last few in but that’s my deficiency as the clues were very fair.
Liked ANTAGONIST (great spot), MIXING, ABUSIVE (back-parsed but very clever), SANITISE, SHRAPNEL and WIRETAP.
Thanks both!
Thanks for the blog, I have friends on Stamp duty, they printed it out for me and I had an invigilation so doubly welcome.
My ignorance of mobile phones helped me with IDLES just being idols/icons. Very enjoyable set of clues but I would prefer fewer definitions at the front.
I put in FLOG without a thought but had to rethink when I put the Downs in, I do not blame the setter for this, they have GARB in the grid and think of a clue and probably unaware of the alternative. Brag is a much better game anyway.