Angel is an infrequent setter of Independent cryptic crosswords. This looks like the tenth since the first in 2020
Tuesday is theme day and we have four owls and four cats which are all referenced in the clues. I wondered if there was more, given that [Edward] LEAR was mentioned in a clue, so I looked for allusions to his nonsense poem ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ but I couldn’t find anything else in the grid. Nor could I find references to any of his other works.
We have BASSET running up the unchecked letter in the first column and we have BUNS in the unchecked letters in row 9, but entering BASSET BUNS into Google doesn’t produce anything useful.
KEN Jeong, referenced at 13 down was new to me and I had to check online who he was. The wordplay clearly led to KEN.
I think 1 across is just a cryptic definition as I can’t see any other wordplay. I quite liked the clues for EDITIONS, TAWNY and NON-FICTION but finished the puzzle feeling slightly underwhelmed which implies that I am missing something clever.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 8 | One’s journey begins in the ranks? (4,6)
TAXI DRIVER (A TAXI DRIVER will frequently start a new journey from a TAXI rank) TAXI DRIVER (cryptic definition explained above) cryptic definition TAXI DRIVER |
| 9 | Lear composed ‘Grey’ for example (4)
EARL (reference EARL Grey, a peerage of the United Kingdom. The first EARL was Charles Grey [1729 – 1807]. The current holder of the title is Alexander Grey [born 1968], the 8th holder of the title) EARL (anagram of [composed] LEAR) EARL* |
| 10 | Versions of equality, diversity and inclusion touted primarily by international statisticians (8)
EDITIONS (versions) EDIT (first letters of [primarily] each of Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Touted) + I (international) + ONS (Office of National Statistics; statisticians) EDIT I ONS |
| 11 | Ban left-wing type of crossword (6)
BARRED (type of crossword, such as The Listener, The Inquisitor, Enigmatic Variations and Azed, all blogged on fifteensquared. These crosswords usually appear in weekend newspapers, but there also specialist magazines like The Magpie which publish a range of BARRED crosswords of varying difficulties) BAR (ban) + RED (socialist; left wing) BAR RED |
| 12 | Superlatively silky southern vegetable, best when tip discarded (8)
SLEEKEST (most [superlatively] silky) S (southern) + LEEK (vegetable) + bEST excluding the first letter (when tip discarded) B S LEEK EST |
| 15 | 2, 11, 14 or 28 perhaps, swapping husband for Latin raider (6)
LOOTER (raider) hOOTER (Entries at 2 down, 11 across, 14 down and 28 across [LITTLE, BARRED, TAWNY and BARN] are types of OWL. An OWL can be described as a hOOTER) with L (husband) replacing (for) H (Latin) LOOTER |
| 16 | Disturbed if woman drew curtains in front of this? (6,5)
WINDOW FRAME (curtains can be found in front of a WINDOW FRAME) Anagram of (disturbed) IF WOMAN DREW WINDOW FRAME* |
| 22 | Cut new flower (6)
SEVERN (river, something that flows [flower]) SEVER (cut) + N (new) SEVER N |
| 23 | Cynthia’s disastrous end to outing at sea? (8)
YACHTING (an activity at sea) Anagram of (disastrous) CYNTHIA + G (last letter of [end to] outinG) YACHTIN* G |
| 26 | Have ambition when ripe for revolution (6)
ASPIRE (have ambition) AS (when) + an anagram of (for revolution) RIPE AS PIRE* |
| 27 | Artist related to member of the Lollipop Guild? (8)
MUNCHKIN (the three MUNCHKINS in the Wizard of Oz formed The Lollipop Guild) MUNCH (reference Edvard MUNCH [1863 – 1944], Norwegian artist) + KIN (relatives; related to) MUNCH KIN |
| 28 | Bran mixture for bovine body building (4)
BARN (a building in which grain, hay, etc are stored; a stable or cattle shed. Presumably the hay can be used as a bovine [relating to cattle] body builder) Anagram of (mixture) BRAN BARN* |
| 29 | Half-cut Bannon drunk tonic if telling the truth! (3-7)
NON-FICTION (if it’s NON-FICTION, it must be the truth) NON (half of the letters [3 of 6] of banNON) + an anagram of (drunk) TONIC IF NON–FICTION* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fundraising caper supported by party liberals – it could flop? (7)
RAGDOLL (A floppy DOLL made from old RAGs of cloth) RAG (riotous festivity, especially and originally of undergraduates (now, in British universities, associated with the raising of money for charity; fundraising caper) + DO (party) + L (Liberal) + L (Liberal) to give liberals RAG DO LL – this being a down entry, the letters DOLL are supporting the letters RAG |
| 2 | Small dot left in for first time (6)
LITTLE (small) tITTLE (dot) with L (left) replacing (for) the first T (time) LITTLE |
| 3 | Woodland entered by old track (6)
GROOVE (track cut into the surface of a record) GROVE (woodland) containing (entered by) O (old) GRO (O) VE – either O could be the one contained |
| 4 | Poetic twilit periods, part of compline/vespers (4)
EVES (word used by poets to describe twilit periods) EVES (hidden word in [part of] complinE VESpers EVES |
| 5 | Footballer – one with a drinking problem maybe (8)
DRIBBLER (footballers DRIBBLE [move the ball forward little by little] sometimes) DRIBBLER (one who lets liquid fall from their mouth whilst drinking) double definition DRIBBLER |
| 6 | Legacy broadcast via radio tower (8)
HEIRLOOM (any object that is passed down through a family from generation to generation; legacy) HEIR (sounds like [via radio] AIR [broadcast]) + LOOM (to appear indistinctly or as in a mirage, especially in an exaggerated or magnified form; to tower) HEIR LOOM |
| 7 | Beer brewed by the German producer and seller of 1, 20, 27A and 27D, for instance (7)
BREEDER (a producer and seller of animal, such as cats [RAGDOLL [1 down], PERSIAN [20 down], MUNCHKIN [27 across] and MANX [27 down]) Anagram of (brewed) BEER + DER (one of the German forms of ‘the’) BREE* DER |
| 13 | Jeong perhaps appearing in Gene Kelly retrospective (3)
KEN (reference KEN Jeong [born 1969], American stand-up comedian, actor and physician) NEK (hidden word in [appearing in] geNE Kelly) reversed (retrospectively) KEN< |
| 14 | Spooner’s rendition of Bad, or Golden Brown (5)
TAWNY (brownish-yellow or brownish-orange colour; golden brown) Reverend Spooner might pronounce TAWNY as NAWTY (naughty [bad]) TAWNY |
| 17 | Among others, Portuguese and Russian cycling (8)
IBERIANS (descriptive of people native to Potugal and Spain; Potuguese among others) SIBERIAN (a native of Siberia in Russia) with the letters cycled one place left and around to the end to form IBERIANS IBERIANS |
| 18 | Awkwardly snog nude in damp dark places? (8)
DUNGEONS (damp dark places) Anagram of (awkwardly) SNOG NUDE DUNGEONS* |
| 19 | Starts to appreciate silvery hair colour (3)
ASH (a light silver-grey colour) ASH (first letters of [starts to] each of Appreciate, Silvery and Hair) ASH |
| 20 | Asian language according to Welsh woman? (7)
PERSIAN (an Asian language) PER (according to) + SIAN (Welsh female forename; Welsh woman) PER SIAN |
| 21 | Terribly ironic about introduction to satire that’s biting (7)
INCISOR (a tooth at the front of the mouth, a cutting or biting tooth. Anagram of (terribly) IRONIC containing (about) S (first letter of [introduction to] Satire) INCI (S) OR* |
| 24 | Frank, defiant response to “You can’t do that!”? (6)
CANDID (frank) CAN (opposite of [defiant response to]) CAN’T + DID (defiant response to YOU CAN’T DO THAT) CAN DID |
| 25 | I drained tequila shot first, somewhere in the South Pacific (6)
TAHITI (island in the South Pacific) TA (letters remaining in TequilA when the central letters are removed [drained]) + HIT (shot) + I TA HIT I |
| 27 | From site of motorcycle races, some perform anxiously (4)
MANX (descriptive of the Isle of Man where the TT motorcycle races are held annually) MANX (hidden word in [some] perforM ANXiously) MANX |
A particularly nasty grid layout, with over half of the solutions starting in an unchecked square. It’s not helped by the rather critically-positioned 8(ac), TAXI DRIVER, which doesn’t hack it for me, relying as it does on the artifice of “ranks”. A singular journey starts from a singular (taxi)rank.
The NW corner was a grind. A few other clues were awkward too: such as “half-cut Bannon” to get NON, 29(ac), NON FICTION. Hmm.
The owl and the (pussy) cat theme(s) seemed lame, to me. There may be more to this, than I am seeing.
Some good stuff in the mix, I enjoyed the cycling Russian (17d), and the concise Spoonerism of 14(d), TAWNY, is very smart with a clever surface.
Whilst this puzzle didn’t click with me, I look forward to the setter’s next challenge…. I may be loving Angel’s instead.
Thanks, Angel & duncan
Duncan’s second paragraph sums up my thoughts exactly about the theme.
We had two very obscure (to me!) Americans appearing in 29a & 13d.
1d is a bit strange. The answer to the clue should be enumerated (3,4) but the type of cat is (7).
NHO “tittle” meaning a dot.
My top picks were TAWNY, IBERIANS and CANDID.
Thanks to Angel and to Duncan.
Is the “outing at sea” also thematic? I liked the incongruity of the painter of The Scream being related to the Munchkins.
Not sure I’d describe Steve Bannon as a very obscure American but wish that he was!
A fair and approachable puzzle. CANDID made me laugh and is my COTD.
Thanks Angel and duncan
I took the BARN to be a building for (some) animals with bovine bodies. I shall now spend the rest of the day with the image of cows wearing headbands pumping iron.
Never come across tittle as a dot before.
Thanks Angel and duncan.
I thought this was extremely jolly. CANDID’s fun and TAWNY, WINDOW FRAME & IBERIANS all tickled me. Plenty of owls and more than enough cats for me in here. Ta lots to Angel and duncan.
“Tittle,” for those unfamiliar, is specifically the dot that appears in a lowercase i or j. The word frequently occurs in those “did you know there’s a word for that” lists that circulate around the Internet. (Speaking of which, the plastic doohickey on the end of your shoelace is called an aglet.)
PeteHA3 @ 5
Chambers defines ‘tittle’ as a dot, stroke, accent, vowel point, contraction or punctuation mark.
I think tittle can refer to the dot above the lowercase letter i. I’ve also seen jot described as the cross on a lowercase letter t. Together they may lead to the phrase ‘not a jot or a tittle has been overlooked’, meaning ‘not even the smallest detail has been ignored’.
Earl Grey for the tea, surely?
No clue about taxi ranks.
Thanks both. The last two for me held out longer than the rest combined, being the intersecting TAXI DRIVER and LITTLE. For the former, I first tried tank-driver, then lady-driver, considering the military and the nobility, and then threw in a crossing but unjustified myrtle for the owl. I should have remembered to cross my Tees and tittle my eyes….
By coincidence “tittle” was used in conversation with our company’s graphic designer last week as we debated various fonts to use for a particular project and how one might style the tittle in the brand name to reinforce the rest of the design. Not sure I had heard it used before.
And in another coincidence, our company’s has an owl mascot, so we have been talking about barn and barred owls.
Agree that the theme isn’t much, but I found the puzzle to be the right level of difficult and oddly on my wavelength, so I may have enjoyed it more than most. Thanks to Angel and DS!
Very enjoyable and quite breezy imo.
I enjoyed the theme too. 8 entries. Two references to those. And a few more spread around in various clues.
Thanks duncanshiell and Angel.
I looked up 225 and found that Angel is not a new setter, before printing it.
Normally I struggle with Tuesday puzzles, often with UKGK themes, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the double theme –
RANKS in this context appeared recently, so that was helpful to get 8a.
Liked – EDITIONS, IBERIANS, PERSIAN, RAGDOLL and CANDID.
Would like to see Angel more often.
Bit late to the party. Loved CANDID. Thought there was plenty thematic stuff. Thanks to both