Something odd has been happening on the Independent website. Today’s puzzle should be 11,987 by Grecian, but earlier today the website was showing a puzzle from 4 years ago; it’s now been fixed. If you’ve just solved 10,736 by Rodriguez, here’s the blog that Duncan wrote for it back in 2021. If you’ve managed to get to the correct puzzle (on the Independent crossword app, or if you arrived at the website after the fix), then read on . . .
I took a while to get into this puzzle, partly because it’s a rather unfriendly grid with very few connections between the four corners. There were also a few entries that I hadn’t come across before, or had only met in passing and couldn’t remember. But it gradually fell into place, especially when our expected Tuesday theme started to emerge (more about that later). There are a number of personal names and titles in the clues, but none of them should be taken literally. I liked the counter-agent in 7a, 14d for being a lot more innocent than the surface might have suggested, and “bored silly” in 21d.
Today’s theme is the animated cartoon series The FLINTSTONES (8a/23d), set in the town of BEDROCK. It features FRED (contained in 3d) and WILMA Flintstone, their daughter PEBBLES, their pet dinosaur DINO (2d), and their neighbours BARNEY and BETTY RUBBLE. I think we can include COMIC in the theme too. Thanks Grecian for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | PETIT FOUR |
Fancy new outfit collected by counter- agent (5,4)
|
| Anagram (new) of OUTFIT, contained in (collected by) REP (short for representative = agent) reversed (counter).
Fancy = petit four = a small but often elaborate cake. |
||
| 8 | FLINT |
Firestarter has introduction from Fearne Cotton (5)
|
| First letter (introduction) from F[earne], then LINT (cotton fluff, or a fluffy cotton fabric).
Stone that can be struck with steel to produce a spark. |
||
| 9 | ELBOW ROOM |
Fantastic low header from Bobby Moore creating space (5,4)
|
| Anagram (fantastic) of LOW + first letter (header) of B[obby] + MOORE. | ||
| 10/4 | WILMA RUDOLPH |
Reindeer chasing housewife of 21 is old Dasher? (5,7)
|
| RUDOLPH (the red-nosed reindeer), after (chasing) WILMA (Fred Flintstone’s wife, who lives in 21d BEDROCK = housewife of 21).
I’m not an expert on US sprint athletes of the mid 20th century (old dashers), so Wilma Rudolph wasn’t a familiar name. But (as the song says) Rudolph is “the most famous reindeer of all”, so it didn’t take long to find her once I’d got a couple of crossers for the surname. |
||
| 12 | UNHAND |
One foreign worker is let go (6)
|
| UN (a form of “one” in French or Italian = one foreign) + HAND (as in “all hands on deck” = worker).
A rather archaic word, but I’ve seen it in descriptions of an affronted lady telling a man to stop bothering her: “Unhand me!”. |
||
| 13 | PRISSILY |
Snoop covering naked weapon like a prude (8)
|
| PRY (snoop = look into something that isn’t your business), around [m]ISSIL[e] (weapon) without the outer letters (naked). | ||
| 16 | DISROBE |
Journalist in The Mirror claiming rehabilitation of Boris to take off (7)
|
| ED (short for editor = journalist) reversed (in the mirror), containing (claiming) an anagram (rehabilitation) of BORIS.
I don’t think the grammar is quite right here. You can disrobe (take off your own clothes), or disrobe someone else (take off their clothes); but I don’t think “he disrobed his coat” works, for example. |
||
| 19 | PEBBLES |
23 goes drinking bubbly occasionally (7)
|
| PEES (goes = slang for urinates), containing (drinking) alternate letters (occasionally) from B[u]B[b]L[y].
Reference to 23d STONES. |
||
| 22 | ESCALOPE |
Issue besetting learner over slice (8)
|
| ESCAPE (issue, as a verb, as in water escaping from a broken pipe), containing (besetting) L (abbreviation for learner, as in L-plate) + O (abbreviation for over, in cricket scoring).
A slice of meat, usually coated in breadcrumbs and fried. |
||
| 25 | RHUMBA |
Strange company taking on H from Steps (6)
|
| RUM (strange = unusual) + BA (I assume this means the airline whose full name is British Airways plc, but “company” is not the most helpful definition if that’s the case), containing H. For the surface, “H” is the stage name of one of the members of 1990s dance band Steps.
The dance (steps) otherwise spelled rumba. |
||
| 27 | COMIC |
Funny business with a lot of rodents (5)
|
| CO (abbreviation for company = business) + MIC[e] (rodents) without the last letter (a lot of . . . but not all). | ||
| 28 | TRIBUTARY |
Stream Metallica’s latest tracks following endless praise (9)
|
| Last letter (latest) of [metallic]A + RY (abbreviation for railway = tracks), following TRIBUT[e] (praise) without its end letter.
A stream or small river that flows into a larger one (rather than directly into the sea). |
||
| 29/18 | BETTY BOOP |
Animated character in Top Boy upset by speculation (5,4)
|
| Anagram (upset) of TOP BOY, after BET (a gamble = speculation).
Animated cartoon character from the 1930s. |
||
| 30 | ICELANDER |
European queen behind supermarket (9)
|
| ER (the late Queen Elizabeth) after ICELAND (UK supermarket chain specialising in frozen foods). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MERLIN |
He performed Magic Mike with topless barman (6)
|
| M (Mike in the radio alphabet) + [b]ERLIN (Irving Berlin, US composer, for which “barman” is a common crossword trick) without the first letter (topless, in a down clue).
Wizard from the legend of King Arthur. |
||
| 2 | DINOSAUR |
Criminal Dr No is stealing gold museum piece (8)
|
| Anagram (criminal = wrong) of DR NO IS, containing (stealing) AU (Au = chemical symbol for gold, from Latin aurum).
Perhaps a skeleton on display in the Natural History Museum; or dinosaur = museum piece = slang for something old and outdated. |
||
| 3 | OFFRED |
Handmaid is 100% upset getting interrupted by king (6)
|
| DEFFO (slang shortening of definitely = 100%) reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue), interrupted by R (abbreviation for king, from Latin Rex).
Title character in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. |
||
| 4 |
See 10 Across
|
|
| 5 | ALLIES |
Supporters heading off in scores (6)
|
| [t]ALLIES (scores = running totals), with the first letter (heading) taken off. | ||
| 6 | ENAMEL |
Celebrity getting into the Spanish hard stuff (6)
|
| NAME (celebrity, as in “a big name in the art world”) in EL (a form of “the” in Spanish).
The hard surface of teeth, or a similar hard glossy coating on metal. |
||
| 11 | WIDE |
Extra roomy (4)
|
| Double definition. Wide = a ball bowled in cricket that isn’t within the permitted target area, which results in an “extra” = a run added to the batting team’s score; or the opposite of narrow. | ||
| 14 | ILL |
Dicky Bird’s pecker needing no introduction (3)
|
| [b]ILL (beak = bird’s pecker) without the first letter (introduction).
Dicky, as in “a dicky tummy” = unwell. |
||
| 15 | YES |
Cool band (3)
|
| Double definition. Cool! = a slang expression indicating agreement; or the British prog-rock band formed in 1968 and still going, albeit with many changes of line-up. | ||
| 16 | DUE |
Expected fight to finish early (3)
|
| DUE[l] (a fight between two people to settle a disagreement), without the last letter (to finish early). | ||
| 17 | SAC |
Jessica Simpson holding retro bag (3)
|
| Hidden answer (. . . holding), reversed (retro), in [jessi]CA S[impson]. | ||
| 18 |
See 29 Across
|
|
| 20 | BLUE TANG |
Surgeon caught wasted on smack (4,4)
|
| Homophone (caught = heard) of BLEW (wasted, as a verb, in the sense of spending a lot of money in a short time on luxuries or gambling), then TANG (smack = a taste).
Surgeon = surgeonfish; the “blue tang” (for example Dory in Finding Nemo) is a variety of surgeonfish. |
||
| 21 | BEDROCK |
Bored silly with designer foundation (7)
|
| Anagram (silly) of BORED, then CK (abbreviation used by the fashion designer Calvin Klein). | ||
| 23 | STONES |
Tennis establishment to John McEnroe was ultimately the pits (6)
|
| Last letters (ultimately) from [tenni]S [establishmen]T [t]O [joh]N [mcenro]E [wa]S.
Pit = stone = the hard centre of a fruit such as a cherry. |
||
| 24 | AVIATE |
Greedy daughter exits having swallowed fly (6)
|
| AVI[d] (greedy) without the D (daughter), then ATE (swallowed).
Fly, as a verb, as in “aviator” = someone who pilots an aircraft. |
||
| 25 | RUBBLE |
Undressed 23 pretty much drained after massage (6)
|
| BLE[d] (drained) without the last letter (pretty much = nearly all), after RUB (massage).
Reference to 23d STONES; rubble = stones that haven’t been dressed (shaped or polished). |
||
| 26 | BARNEY |
Row 2 (6)
|
| Double definition. Slang for a noisy argument = row; or a reference to 2d DINOSAUR = title character of the US cartoon series Barney and Friends. |
The correct puzzle is on the website now.
Nice to be reminded of the Modern Stone-age Family; thanks to Grecian and to Quirister for the blog.
I found some of the clues quite challenging and therefore very satisfying when I eventually saw them – eg 7ac PETIT FOUR, 9ac ELBOW ROOM, 20dn BLUE TANG and 23dn STONES
It took a while for the theme to emerge, at which point my heart sank, as I haven’t seen a single episode of The Flintstones but I was quite surprised at how many of the references I somehow recognised. Grecian is one of those setters whose clues have an integrity that I know I can rely on and so it’s always worth persevering.
My other favourites were PEBBLES, TRIBUTARY, DINOSAUR, BEDROCK and AVIATE – lovely surfaces all round.
Many thanks for an enjoyable workout, Grecian and to Quirister for the customary fine blog.
Andrew @1, thanks – I’ve updated the intro.
Especially liked 23d STONES, for the flashback to 22 June 1981 and “You guys are the absolute pits of the world, you know that?” — {as parodied here.}
Wilma Rudolph is worth a wiki, I’m sorry to have never heard of her until today.
Quite a bit of this was mystifying – managed to guess loi OFFRED using the confetti as a checker, but revealed BARNEY (before getting RUBBLE), RHUMBA (despite writing RHUM..) and a couple others. Managed OK with ICELANDER, though, who knew there could be a supermarket hidden in there?
This grid gets moans even from the accept-anything Guardian commenters. For lack of crossers, bad connectivity, limited word lengths, it’s one of the Guardian’s worst, and that is saying something.
Thanks both. Very entertaining, and whilst my knowledge of the theme was flimsy, it still helped on a few. LOI the previously nho BLUE TANG – I am not generally a fan of a clue with a partial definition i.e. surgeon instead of surgeonfish, though I see how it assists the surface.
TFO@6: I too had wondered whether a surgeon might be a surgeonfish without its fish, so I looked it up at oed.com:
“… 2. 1855– = surgeon-bird n., surgeonfish n.” citing “1880 ‘Surgeons’ occur in all tropical seas. A. Günther, Introduction to Study of Fishes 439″
[I still won’t believe a wheelie can be a bin without its bin, though, no matter what Chambers may say, until I see a citation.]
8 across is cleverer than you might think. Firestarter is a song by The Prodigy- lead singer the late Keith FLINT.
Well worth watching the video on YouTube, but not with your mother.
Fun puzzle, and I saw the theme for once.
Thanks to setter and excellent blogger.
Two or three here that were NHO for me, but the clues made them ok to derive, so fair enough. Dave Gorman will be seething about 19ac. 😂
Many thanks to Quirister for the excellent blog and to the solvers of course. Apologies for failing to get BAMM-BAMM into the grid 😉. G
James @5 Yes, totally agree. Having read about Wilma Rudolph I wonder if she might have inspired one of Forest Gump’s talents?