This is the second Independent puzzle from Magus
The first puzzle had a theme, but I am struggling to find one here. There may be something going on in the seas as ORCAs (KILLER whales) prey on LUMPFISH and we have INFESTED WATERS in the bottom row.
I’m guessing the Robin DAY we want is the political journalist and knight, but I did discover another Robin DAY who was a leading furniture designer.
IRON MAN as FE MALE took me a while to parse, as did FIFTY, simply referred to in the wordplay as L. The parsings only came to me late in writing the blog.
I guess our American word spotters will be muttering about ‘offer’ as a definition for KILLER plus the entries HEAVYSET and TANK CAR. There were also a couple of American geographical references in the clues and the grid.
I had to do a bit of research on Skunk Anansie and The Prodigy as they don’t feature in my music collection!
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Spanking offer? (6)
KILLER (an informal or slang meaning of KILLER is ‘something impressive’. SPANKING can be defined similarly) KILLER (as a verb, ‘off’ can mean to kill in American slang, so an ‘offer’ could be a KILLER) double definition KILLER |
| 5 | Sea creature in oddly overlooked pulp film spooked mum (8)
LUMPFISH (sea creature) (Anagram of [spooked] UP [letters 2 and 4 {even letters, oddly overlooked} of pUlP] and FILM) + SH (quiet!; silence; mum) LUMPFI* SH |
| 9 | Holy saints must take 10 to retract vile cant (10)
SACROSANCT (very sacred or holy) ([S {saint} + S {saint}, giving saints] containing [must take] ORCA [entry at 10 across] reversed [to retract]) + an anagram of (vile) CANT S (ACRO<) S ANCT* |
| 10 | Half-cut tumbler’s flipped over in 1 (4)
ORCA (KILLER [entry at 1 across] whale) ACRO (first 4 of 8 [half] letters in ACRObat’s [tumbler’s]) reversed (flipped over) ORCA< |
| 11 | One-dimensional storyteller touring outskirts of Newcastle (6)
LINEAR (in or of one dimension) LIAR (story teller) containing (touring) NE (outer letters of [outskirts of] N ewcastlE) LI (NE) AR |
| 12 | Independent newspaper boss tackles politician with skill in broadcast (8)
IMPARTED (made known; broadcast) (I [indep[endent] + ED [editor; newspaper boss]) containing (tackles) (MP [Member of Parliament; politician] + [with] ART [skill]) I (MP ART) ED |
| 13 | Perhaps press doctor to take Antabuse, primarily to kick cocaine (5)
MEDIA (the press form one component of the media) MEDIc (doctor) with A (first letter [primarily] of Antibuse] replacing (to kick) C (cocaine) MEDI A |
| 14 | Gore‘s book savagely doles dirt on Hillary, for starters (9)
BLOODSHED (clotted blood; gore) B + an anagram of (savagely) DOLES and DOH (first letters of [for starters] each of Dirt, On and Hillary) B LOODSHED* |
| 18 | Cautiously advancing petition about the end of vaping (9)
TIPTOEING (advancing cautiously) Anagram of (about) PETITION + G (last letter of [end of] vapinG) TIPTOEIN* G |
| 20 | Middle of old age? (5)
FIFTY (an age) L (central letter of [middle of] oLd, is the Roman numeral for fifty) FIFTY |
| 23 | Excuses one under five running through Smiths (8)
FORGIVES (excuses) IV (Roman numerals for four [one under five]) contained in (running through) FORGES ([black]SMITHS’ working areas) FORG (IV) ES |
| 25 | Hurt by rotten death (6)
OFFEND (hurt the feelings of) OFF (rotten) + END (death) OFF END |
| 26 | Forster initially married a Miss Woodhouse? (4)
EMMA (reference the title character EMMA Woodhouse in the Jane Austen novel EMMA) EM (initials of the forenames of E M Forster [1879 – 1970], English author) + M (married) + A EM M A |
| 27 | Conservative creep’s measure that doesn’t cover much (6,4)
SQUARE INCH (a measure of area that covers a small section of something) SQUARE (old-fashioned; conservative) + INCH (edge forward; creep) SQUARE INCH |
| 28 | Crawling home, royal fool back in England (8)
INFESTED (crawling with insects, for instance) IN + FESTE (jester [royal fool] in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night) + D (last letter of [back of] englanD) IN FESTE D |
| 29 | Weeps as server’s losing current (6)
WATERS (fills with tears; weeps) WAiTER’S (server’s) excluding (losing) I (electric current) WATERS |
| Down | |
| 2 | Number one tipple in West? (7)
IMAGINE (name of a musical number written by John Lennon [1940 – 1980]) I (Roman numeral for one) + (GIN [tipple] contained in [in] MAE [reference MAE West [1893 – 1980], American actress) I MA (GIN) E |
| 3 | Crook dressed in scarlet (9)
LARCENIST (thief; crook) Anagram of (dressed) IN SCARLET LARCENIST* |
| 4 | Concerning type seen in Martha’s Vineyard? (6)
RESORT (Martha’s Vineyard is an island in Massachusetts, just south of Cape Cod. It is well known as a resort destination) RE (about; concerning) + SORT (type) RE SORT |
| 5 | Linda Martell’s last song performed on audio channel in the US (4,6,5)
LONG ISLAND SOUND (LONG ISLAND SOUND is a marine sound [channel] and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south) (Anagram of [performed] LINDA and L [final letter of {last} martelL] and SONG) + SOUND (audio) LONG ISLAND* SOUND |
| 6 | Figure of speech Homer coined to describe dance (8)
METAPHOR (figure of speech) Anagram of (coined) HOMER containing (to describe) TAP (type of dance) ME (TAP) HOR* |
| 7 | Picked up weak spot in deck (5)
FLOOR (deck) FLOOR (sounds like [picked up] FLAW [weak spot]) FLOOR |
| 8 | Stash Spielberg’s cap with Bruce’s tail on island (7)
SECRETE (conceal; stash) S (first letter of [cap] Spielberg) + E (last letter of [tail] brucE) + CRETE (Greek island) S E CRETE |
| 13 | Dull lover has no energy (3)
MAT (dull [of a surface]) MATe (partner: lover) excluding (having no) E (energy) MAT |
| 15 | One tight collaboration between members of Skunk Anansie and The Prodigy? (9)
SKINFLINT (miser; one who is tight with money) SKIN (reference SKIN [born 1967], lead singer of the band Skunk Anansie) + FLINT (reference Keith FLINT [1969 – 2019], dancer and vocalist of the electronic dance act The Prodigy) SKIN FLINT |
| 16 | Possibly Robin Hood’s finale, alas (3)
DAY (probably a reference to Sir Robin DAY [1923 – 2000], British political journalist, but maybe Robin DAY [1915 – 2010], British furniture designer renowned for the stacking polypropylene chair) D (last letter of [finale] hooD) + AY (alas) D AY |
| 17 | Stocky baddie on Gogglebox (8)
HEAVYSET (predominantly US term meaning someone with a large build; stocky. Defined in Collins dictionary with a hyphen and in the OED without a hyphen. Can’t see a definition in Chambers) HEAVY (thug; baddie) + SET (television; googlebox) HEAVY SET |
| 19 | Superhero split female in two! (4,3)
IRON MAN (name of a Marvel superhero who has appeared on the silver screen in a series of films) FEMALE can be split into FE (chemical symbol for IRON) and MALE (MAN) to give IRON MAN IRON MAN |
| 21 | Maybe VAT charge cut for passenger-free vehicle (4,3)
TANK CAR (A US and Canadian term for a form of railway wagon carrying a TANK for the transport of liquids. Not used for passengers) TANK (a vat is large container for the storage of liquids) + CARe (charge [someone in CARE]) excluding the last letter (cut) E TANK CAR |
| 22 | Mug up on bank’s charter? (6)
BORROW (charter) ROB (steal; mug) reversed (up; down entry) + ROW (a bank) BOR< ROW |
| 24 | Legendary cricketer‘s grand career (5)
GRACE (reference W G GRACE [1848 – 1914], English cricketer, widely considered one of the sport’s all time great players) G (grand) + RACE (run fast; career) G RACE |
I think ‘Smiths’ in FORGIVES is the verb ‘to smith’ defined in Chambers as ‘to forge’?
I found this tough with the odd nho like TANK CAR and LUMPFISH, the various American references whether signalled or not and some missing GK (I was aware that Keith (?) FLINT was in The Prodigy – he died fairly recently – but know nothing of Skunk Anansie so assumed SKIN must have been a band member). I also failed to spot the odd indicator like ‘coined’ as an anagrind.
I can’t see a theme either but wonder if there is one, given Magus appeared for the first time just a month ago.
Thanks Magus and duncan
I agree that there’s a fishy smell going on….SHARK hidden, middle row. DIABLO, in 13 + 14 (ac).
I can’t quite make my mind up on this puzzle; lots of very craftily set clues, flashes of originality….but then there’s the likes of TANK CAR, 21(d), ugh.
Certainly, I think 2(d) deserved [ ” ,say?” ] to close the clue, for Mae, though she’s a regular WEST DBE. The old girl’s here twice ( 2nd row).
All-in-all, a very good puzzle, enjoyable, and no nasties.
Cheers, Magus + Duncan
The clunky ones and the obscure ones spoiled my enjoyment of the excellent ones.
I didn’t really want to spend time researching Skunk Anassie or the Prodigy.
Sorry !
Liked SACROSANCT, FIFTY, METAPHOR and IRON MAN.
Thanks Magus and Duncan.
It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Jaws! (To the day.) Hence the hidden shark crossing Long Island Sound, the infested waters etc.
How is FLOOR a homophone for FLAW? Being Irish I have a real problem with homophones!
Herb @ 5 – you’re a demigod!
Three went in unparsed, FIFTY I tried to justify as a rather weak reference to the score in the ‘middle’ of a dartboard, the nho TANK CAR and to my shame the rather good IRON MAN, which I should have seen. SKINFLINT was only parsed after googling the bands. Was I alone in trying for too long to shoehorn in ‘Doh’ somewhere in 6d as Homer’s figure of speech?
Somehow I still enjoyed this so thanks to Magus and of course Duncan
Herb@5 aha…nice catch!
So, we can include, KILLER/BLOODSHED/ RESORT/ FIFTY/ TANK(?), and possibly more.
A belated hats off, to Magus.
The FLOOR/FLAW homophone appeared elsewhere very recently. You have to accept that homophones only need to work in some accents, not necessarily your own.
Duncan, you should correct the spelling of “Independent” in your heading (I guess it could affect future site searches otherwise).
I spotted the theme, but I was only really looking for it because FIFTY was the last answer I worked out, and I was unhappy with the definition if it wasn’t referring to the fiftieth anniversary of something. I suppose having a setter other than Phi on a Friday could have suggested that there was a theme relating to the specific date.
ORCA is the name of the boat used for hunting the shark in the film. Also the clue to 4d refers to Martha’s Vineyard where the film was shot, and 8d refers to the director Spielberg and Bruce, the nickname for the prop shark used in the film.
Thanks, Magus and duncanshiell.
Thanks both. Assuming this was a Phi puzzle, I didn’t look for a theme, although I suspect it would still have evaded me. Liked the device for FIFTY, but I barely recognise either definition for KILLER the ‘offer’ variety being I assume only acknowledged in crossword-land.
Tough but ultimately enjoyable! Magus is a setter with a distinctive ‘wavelength’ to tune into, I find, and luckily I am familiar with his work under another setter name elsewhere. And I spotted the theme nice and early too!
Favourite was the non-theme IRON MAN.
Many thanks Magus and duncanshiell.
Ironman very clever. Tank car very poor.
My happily splashing daughter
Said: ‘My legs are getting shorter’
Well, what a twit
To go and sit
In shark-infested water
Spike Milligan, I think. Missed the theme even though I knew it was the anniversary.
I’ll be along later. Yes, there’ll be something to spot.
Not for me. Got maybe a third with much cheating, then gave up.
Ta lots to the peerless duncan, et al. Special thanks also to Herb @ 5 for (slightly) easing my panic.