A sound and entertaining puzzle from Hippogryph to get the puzzling week in the Independent underway.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Golf tournament finished without a clear resolution
OPEN-ENDED
A charade of OPEN and ENDED.
10 Apple’s torch possibly gets strong support
I-BEAM
Whimsically, if a torch were made by Apple, it might be called an I-BEAM, on the model of I-PHONE, I-PAD, I-POD …
11 Work out Carry On film’s 25% sex?
KEEP FIT
A charade of KEEP for ‘carry on’, F for 25% of ‘film’ and IT.
12 Frozen song title – animated success
LET IT GO
A charade of (TITLE)* and GO. The anagrind is ‘animated’. ‘She made a great go/success of the part.’ You could consider this a cad if you were that way inclined.
13 Flatter doctor leading Iowa’s premier emergency room
DRIER
A charade of DR, I for the initial letter of ‘Iowa’ and ER. DRY and ‘flat’ are synonymous in their insipid/lacklustre sense.
14 Cabin littered with a lot of plants
BOTANICAL
(CABIN A LOT)* with ‘littered’ as the anagrind.
16 Mo Salah regularly hit goalpost after ditching second suspect eye doctor
OPHTHALMOLOGIST
‘Eye doctor’ with 15 letters is pretty much nailed on to be OPHTHALMOLOGIST, but the parsing proved a bit trickier. It’s (MO S[A]L[A]H HIT GOALPO[S]T)* with ‘suspect’ as the anagrind.
19 American substitutes for magicians’ silver band?
MUSICIANS
Hippogryph is inviting you to substitute US for ‘American’ for AG for ‘silver’ in ‘magicians’.
21 “Greasy peppermill on the counter” claims 17th century journalist?
PEPYS
Hidden reversed in GreaSY PEPpermill. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, has a number of claims to fame: he witnessed the execution of Charles I; he married a fourteen-year-old; and he suffered badly from bladder stones.
22 Mount exercise to prepare missile
TORPEDO
A charade of TOR, PE and DO. ‘I’m going to do/prepare saumon en croûte for lunch.’
23 Glastonbury headliner is, in short, owed a large beer
DUA LIPA
A charade of DU[E], A, L and IPA. Far too many contemporary references in the Indy these days. We need more Ancient Greeks, Biblical heroes and obscure Shakespearean characters. Not.
24 Say Bedouin‘s name in French, Bill?
NOMAD
A charade of NOM, the French word for ‘name’ (which might be familiar through nom-de-plume, for example) and AD.
25 Less sensitive individual could be a leader
NUMBER ONE
A charade of NUMBER, in the sense of ‘more numb’ and ONE.
Down
1 Space bears with hair? Some kind of mystery
LOCKED ROOM
The parsing relies on the fact that this is a down clue. ROOM for ‘space’ ‘bears’ or carries LOCKED, which means ‘with hair’. A LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY, I learned today, is a subgenre of detective fiction where a murder is committed in a room that appears locked from the inside, making it seemingly impossible for the perpetrator to have entered or left the scene undetected.
2 Hot, always, fish sandwiches
FEVERISH
An insertion of EVER in FISH. The insertion indicator is ‘sandwiches’.
3 Recommend inhaling e-cigarette
REEFER
An insertion of E in REFER. The insertion indicator is ‘inhaling’.
4 Trend in retirement is correct
EDIT
A reversal of TIDE.
5 Adoring a suitor with old pants
IDOLATROUS
(A SUITOR OLD)* with ‘pants’ as the anagrind.
6 Console with cool look after cutting negative comment
NINTENDO
An insertion of IN and TEND in NO. The insertion indicator is ‘cutting’.
7 Calls up about opening in pelvis getting infected
SEPTIC
An insertion of P for the initial letter of ‘pelvis’ in CITES reversed. ‘Up’ works as the reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue.
8 Boss elephant’s first to leave
UMBO
[J]UMBO
14 Poison label absurd on kebab we’re told
BELLADONNA
A charade of (LABEL)* and aural wordplay (‘we’re told’) for DONNER. The anagrind is ‘absurd’.
15 Aeroflot use a terminal inspiring pleasure seeker
LOTUS-EATER
Hidden in AerofLOT USE A TERminal.
17 Country house had a nice bust inside
HACIENDA
An insertion of (NICE)* in HAD A. The insertion indicator is ‘inside’ and the anagrind is ‘bust’.
18 Send down naughty child, overturning respectful denial
IMPRISON
A charade of IMP and NO SIR reversed.
20 Cut back Southern press
SCRIMP
A charade of S and CRIMP.
21 Object in SpaceX with peak returns
PLANET
We need a lift-and-separate of SpaceX; then it’s a reversal of TEN (X in Roman numerals) and ALP.
22 Picked up bit of a fork in the river
TYNE
Aural wordplay (‘picked up’) of TINE gives you the second most important river in the North-East of England.
23 Start to pile mixture of earth and water over ditch
DUMP
A reversal of P for the initial letter of ‘pile’ and MUD.
Many thanks to Hippogryph for this morning’s puzzle.
A new setter to me, whether the glyph be hippo or hiero.
I can’t fault it, and I really enjoyed it.
In 10(ac), I’ve seen before the “Apple” device to generate the “i” prefix, but stupidly went for A-BEAM, which made NINTENDO, 6(d) a bit evasive!
Lots of variety, in both wordplays and definitions, and some original ideas. Best for me, 1(d)LOCKED ROOM, and 16(ac), which I’m chickening out on, and calling “The Mo Salah anagram”. And what an anagram!
Excellent stuff, thank you, Hippo & Pierre
Apologies for my muppetry in misnaming the setter. Now corrected.
I thought this was very enjoyable, although I really struggled to spell 16a!
Many thanks to Hippogryph and to Pierre.
Great fun. I thought LET IT GO was v clever (the clue, not the damned song) and learned the meaning of UMBO (a jorum for me). Struggled with the parsing of LOCKED ROOM, so thanks Pierre for that, and to Hippogryph.
For some reason I prefer it when solution and parsing come to mind together, so today I liked HACIENDA and IMPRISON but was less keen on the eye doctor. Thanks to Hippogryph and Pierre.
Thanks both. In Marrakesh this Monday, so this was very enjoyable for the terrace. UMBO is new for me also, and whether we start with jumbo or Dumbo is the ‘elephant in the room’. I felt I needed said eye-doctor after unpicking that one. Clear winner for a favourite is LOCKED ROOM – if bears from space have or were to travel here, doubtless that is where the authorities would place them.
That was a real challenge for me and I was a DNF where the top left corner was concerned so grateful for the hints. It’s been a while since I last tackled one of this setter’s puzzles and the lack of practice certainly showed. My favourite clue was OPEN-ENDED.
Thanks to Hippogryph for the challenge and to Pierre for the review – not a bird in sight today!
Not too much difficulty, except it took me ages to get BELLADONNA. I got my popular songs confused and entered LET IT BE for 12ac. When I corrected it, I entered AMBO for 8dn, wrong 4-letter word ending -MBO.
I thought this was lovely, and at a Guardian Monday level although the Indy’s puzzles don’t work like that. I too enjoyed LOCKED ROOM but I think NINTENDO, despite being obvious once you’ve got the O checkers, took the crown; I love clues in which you have to retokenize the natural English in the surface for the cryptic reading. For the same reason, I guess, I do enjoy divide-and-conquers when they’re not too far obscured, and so PLANET tickled me too, especially now that I’ve finally made peace with the idea of an alp being a mountain (the Alps are named after the high meadows – alps – found there, and so I’m guessing the mountain meaning arose from popular usage based on misunderstanding?)
Did anyone else flirt with LEVERING for FEVERISH? I’d have put money on crosswordland’s favourite fish being called for once I had the I checker!
Thanks both
Thanks to Pierre for the excellent blog – when I was first thinking about a pseudonym I did consider Hierogryph/Hierogriff but once it was pointed out that there was already a setter called Hieroglyph I decided to go down the Hippo-route but can understand that can still cause some confusion 🙂
Thanks to all who took time to do the puzzle and provide comments which are always helpful – I’m really pleased that you all found something to enjoy in this one