Independent 11,763 by Methuselah

by

My first blogging of a Methuselah puzzle but looking at the archives he may not be as old as Methuselah but he has already produced a fair output.

A medium level of difficulty I would say with some interesting (in a good way) clueing devices. 12ac took a while to parse but is very neat, 14ac was a great misdirection and 15dn so very apt. Favourite was probably 7dn but such smooth surfaces characterised this puzzle

Thanks Methuselah – and hears to another 10,000 years

Across
8 Transport lobby called out (4)
Homonym of hall (lobby) = HAUL

9 One attached to bottle’s taken in by fancy settee for confidential chats (4-1-5)
(settee)* around teat(one attached to bottle) = TETE-A-TETES

10 Parts regularly given to a stalwart old spear-carrier (6)
A sTaLwArT oLd (parts regularly) = ATLATL

11 Getting a point for runs, wipes floor with competition (3,5)
Thrashes (wipes floor with) swapping e (a point) for r (runs) = THE ASHES

12 Ship meals primarily consumed with this person? (8)
me *this person) + ss(ship) + m (meals primarily) + ate (consumed) = MESSMATE

14 A couple of extra marks possibly given to us in German class (6)
Cryptic definition to German u’s in Schule (class I think) = UMLAUT

16 Celebrated Indian bowler possibly embraced by mother (7)
hat(bowler) in mama (mother) = MAHATMA

18 Dodgy salesmen ignoring latest viral complaint (7)
(salesmen-n)* = MEASLES

21 Hires reins after horse has bolted (6)
leashes (reins) – h (horse) = LEASES

23 Completed maths problems involving area for things with segments (8)
sat(completed) sums(maths problems) around a (area) = SATSUMAS

25 Checks out female beasts of burden? (8)
Cryptic definition to Asses (female) = ASSESSES

27 Confirm where fans of 11 may be found (6)
at Test (as per 11 – The Ashes) = ATTEST

29 Suspect tame as hell in spite of everything (3,3,4)
(tame as hell) = ALL THE SAME

30 Flightless birds in muddle not using wings (4)
bemuse (muddle) – be (wings) = EMUS

Down
1 Stop evil AI getting back to planet (4)
Hal (evil AI) + t (back to planet) = HALT

2 Completely lost, having ruined atlas with ale (3,2,3)
(atlas + ale)* = ALL AT SEA

3 A certain McCartney reported to do with the stars (6)
Homonym os stellar (to do with stars) = STELLA

4 Saint given a day? Figures (7)
st + a + Tues (a day) = STATUES

5 Relative of husky bloke unable to speak (8)
male(block) + mute (unable to speak) = MALEMUTE

6 Prickly plant beginning to tickle one under canvas (6)
t (beginning to tickle) + easel(one under canvas) = TEASEL

7 Crossword setter copied and pasted some online content (4)
me (crossword setter) copied and pasted (me) = MEME

13 Cheer‘s echo not appearing after expected interval (5)
e(echo) + late(not appearing after) = ELATE

15 Group of theologians involved in rulemaking (5)
hidden rULEMAking = ULEMA

17 Those inspiring works capturing tastes now and then (4-4)
muses (those inspiring) around TaStEs = MUST-SEES

19 Endeavour and others latch onto leads from the least expected sources (8)
shut(latch) + The Least Expected Sources = SHUTTLES (think NASA)

20 Two large countries turning on Luxembourg in predictable way (2,5)
Rev. Aus + Usa (two large countries) + L (Luxembourg) = AS USUAL

22 Methuselah repeatedly shelled out for professional solver (6)
(Methuselah – Meah (repeatedly shelled))* = SLEUTH

24 Selection of items arranged by caddy, might you say? (3,3)
Cryptic definition with tees (golf caddy) and teas (tea caddy) TEA SET

26 Old sailor that barnacle clings to? (4)
DD SALT (barnacle clings to a rock equating to salt?)

28 Stomach’s turned by lewd material (4)
Rev tum’s (Stomach’s) = SMUT

18 comments on “Independent 11,763 by Methuselah”

  1. SALT
    barNACLe has (a) SALT in it.

    Thanks Methuselah and twencelas!
    Loved THE ASHES (Bright stuff), MESSMATE (Quite neat, mate!), UMLAUT (earns extra marks for sure), SLEUTH (double discovery in the only case we know of. Must be good) and SHUTTLES (Already talked about Discovery. Hmm…this was a mini Challenger. Enterprise of the setter visible).

  4. UMLAUT
    In a German class, you may see a few u’s with UMLAUTs. If there is more to it, I am missing it.
    TEA SET
    With the ‘arranged’ meaning SET (the TEE and TEA angles mentioned in the blog), there seems
    to be more ways than one to interpret this clue.

  5. KVa @4. I agree about UMLAUT but think it a cleverly constructed surface with “us” to be interpreted as multiple ‘u’ and “marks” not those that a pupil may get in a test say. Liked the superb &lit for MESSMATE, and I think MUST-SEES is also meant as an &lit, albeit not as good a one.
    There’s a typo in the blog for 4d. ‘s’ should be ‘a’.
    I do like Methuselah as a setter. Although, I didn’t care so much for his last outing, I did enjoy this one.

  6. Thanks twencelas and Methuselah.
    What a fantastic grid-fill with ‘me’ ‘me’ as theme :-).
    Very impressive!

  7. Hovis – I had noted the perimeter letters were a very limited set but (doh) neither what they anagrammed nor that it extended to the remainder of the solutions. A remarkable gridfill – which does explain the odd (very odd) inclusion. All was very fairly clued, though, so I only needed help with the spear carrier. MESSMATE is a lovely &lit in my book and probably COTD though there were plenty of worthy contenders including MEASLES, MAHATMA, LEASES, MALEMUTE, SHUTTLES, SLEUTH and SALT for the neat inclusion. I think MUST SEES is also an &lit. Otherwise there is either no def or MUSES is doing double duty. I think the surface does a decent job of describing the solution.

    A raised eyebrow for STELLA which I entered the wrong way round to begin with – I think with the homophone in the middle it’s totally ambiguous – and ‘by’ sat slightly uncomfortably in SMUT as it gives us ‘wordplay by definition’ which I’d prefer to see the other way around but that’s a personal thing.

    Thanks Methuselah and twencelas

  8. Hovis25
    UMLAUT
    Noticed the marks-class misdirection. Liked it. I thought the clue was probably not alluding to the
    German word schule.
    MUST-SEES
    Agree with you. It’s an &lit (at least intended to be one as you say).

  11. I did notice something odd was going on in the grid, with ALL AT SEA, TEA SET, MEASLES, LEASES, and so on, but would never have twigged exactly what.

    I found this rather hard at the finish – despite having studied German at A-Level I was befuddled by UMLAUT, trying to get UNS (‘us in German’) involved. And I’d never heard of the unlikely-looking ATLATL, so pleased that it wasn’t a creation of my own.

    Didn’t parse BARNACLE fully – very good.

    Thanks both.

  12. On the SALT clue, fairly recently Monk had the clue “Purification process that might render barnacle bare (12)”.

  13. Hovis@10
    😀
    I don’t know how much German you know. I can’t spell Deutsche (spell-checked and corrected) without electronic help.
    That notwithstanding, I have opinions on the subject.

  14. KVa @13. Hardly know any German. I do usually manage to spell Nietzsche without checking which is something I guess. I know a little Spanish but not enough to either speak it or understand someone speaking it. French and Latin were compulsory at school but I’ve forgotten most of what I learnt.

  15. Thanks Methuselah, that was great. I missed ATLATL but all else went in without angst. My top picks were THE ASHES, MEASLES, ALL THE SAME, STATUES, AS USUAL, and SLEUTH. Thanks to twencelas for the blog and to Hovis @3 for the remarkable discovery.

  16. Thanks both. Also failed on ATLATL for the combination of reasons that I did not know it, that it does look like a viable word, and that the clue uses ‘given to’ I assume as an instruction, in which case ‘applied to’ might have given me something more of a nudge, but then again, it may not. I suspect I would have needed an extra couple of years to spot the device of restricting letters used to those of the setter’s name,

  17. Great spot, Hovis@3 😉 We didn’t need to know the German for class to solve UMLAUT, just that they can be Üsed on Üs ⟨as well as Äs and Ös).
    Thanks M&T

  18. Above my pay grade for an unhealthy proportion… parsing wasn’t so much a problem as an afterthought… on inspection ATLATL is a spear-chucker not a spear-carrier, an extra in the theatre, designed to give your arm an extra joint… maybe that’s what he meant..
    Thanks Methuselah n twencelas

Comments are closed.