Independent 12,100/Salty

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Salty’s sixth puzzle in the Indy, but the first one to come up on my watch. A pleasure to solve and blog – one or two chewy clues, but all fairly indicated and some delightful surfaces.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Finance contract scam circulating online again
REPOSTING
A charade of REPO and STING. REPO is short for repurchase agreement, a contract in the financial markets involving selling and then quickly repurchasing securities. Sounds slightly dodgy but I’m sure it’s legal.

6 Intimate moment American scoundrel recalled
BOSOM
A reversal of MO and SOB for son of a bitch.

9 Courier art collection from NYC to Rochester?
UPSTATE
A charade of UPS the ‘courier’ and TATE the ‘art collection’.

10 Energy drink – delivered or in shops
FOR SALE
Aural wordplay (‘delivered’) of FORCE ALE.

11 Dutch practised capturing Belgium for experiment
DABBLE
A charade of D and an insertion of B in ABLE. The insertion indicator is ‘capturing’.

12 Personal bodyguards fending off cats and dogs?
BROLLIES
A cd. Which took me the longest time to see.

14 Newspaper editor’s leader inspired frenzy
RAGE
A charade of RAG and E for the initial letter of ‘editor’.

15 Something shocking in house, posh car or coat
HORROR FILM
A charade of HO, RR for Rolls Royce, OR and FILM.

18 Stands down the road among crowds
PLATE RACKS
An insertion of LATER in PACKS. The insertion indicator is ‘among’.

20 Orchestra director embraces the music of Acker Bilk
TRAD
Hidden in OrchesTRA Director.

23 Far-out rock concert’s finale bores stoned roadies
ASTEROID
An insertion of T for the final letter of ‘concert’ in (ROADIES)* The insertion indicator is ‘bores’ and the anagrind is ‘stoned’.

24 Where electoral system is cooked up and tested?
PROVEN
A charade of PR and OVEN.

26 Mould spread behind sink
DIE-CAST
A charade of DIE and CAST.

27 Who will deliver something to drink gravy from?
JUST EAT
Whimsically, you could drink posh gravy from a JUS TEAT.  The answer is referring to the online food delivery company.

28 Substitute for axes
PROXY
A charade of PRO and XY.

29 List of dishes seasoned with 50% kosher salt
CARBONATE
An insertion of BONA [FIDE] in CARTE. The somewhat unconvincing insertion indicator is ‘seasoned with’. CARBONATES are types of chemical salts: the one most folk will know is calcium carbonate, which is the chief constituent of chalk or limestone.

Down
1 Honest advice about river voyage with return ticket?
ROUND TRIP
An insertion of R into ROUND TIP. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.

2 Place quantity of drugs in editor’s in-tray?
POSTBAG
A charade of POST and BAG.

3 Flat includes parking as standard
STAPLE
An insertion of P in STALE. The insertion indicator is ‘includes’.

4 Nookie starts to exhaust mature couple
ITEM
Well, it does when you get to a certain age. A charade of IT for sex or ‘nookie’ and EM for the initial letters of ‘exhaust’ and ‘mature’.

5 Prefer short trader to risk everything
GO FOR BROKE
A charade of GO FOR and BROKE[R].

6 Crime mostly lower in Greater Manchester area
BURGLARY
An insertion of GLAR[E] in BURY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.

7 Language pointing up pronoun rules covering greeting
SWAHILI
An insertion of HI in I LAWS reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘covering’.

8 Expressions of wealth, so to speak
MIENS
Aural wordplay (‘so to speak’) of MEANS.

13 Trio claims novel typical of Voltaire?
MORALISTIC
(TRIO CLAIMS)* with ‘novel’ as the anagrind. ‘I have no morals, yet I am a very moral person’ is a famous quote from Voltaire. So you can pick the bones out of that to decide if Voltaire was MORALISTIC. But preferably not on this thread.

16 Timid teen working as shop girl in Paris
MIDINETTE
(TIMID TEEN)* with ‘working’ as the anagrind. A word I had never heard of.

17 Prepare to use ATM?
GET READY
A dd. READY is slang for cash.

19 Old style expertise cracked code
ART DECO
A charade of ART and (CODE)* with ‘cracked’ as the anagrind.

21 Artist introduces island: “Nice ‘ere, innit?“
RIVIERA
An insertion of I in [Diego] RIVERA, the Mexican artist. The insertion indicator is ‘introduces’. Nice is found on the Riviera, n’est-ce pas?

22 Nearly new, largely fake artwork
FRESCO
A charade of FRES[H] and CO[N].

23 Do sums seem reasonable?
ADD UP
A dd.

25 Cracked open a beer?
AJAR
A charade of A and JAR.

Many thanks to Salty for today’s puzzle.

23 comments on “Independent 12,100/Salty”

  1. I’m far from 100% in tune with this setter, so this was a challenge.
    REPO (1ac) seems to be a favourite with setters recently. Not really dodgy, and nothing to do with repossession.
    Basically, a short-term cashflow vehicle, a bit like pawning your silverware. Sell some bonds, release cash, buy them back in, say, one month. The net loss on the deal equates to interest you might pay taking out a short-term loan.
    This setter obviously likes the device ” find the synonym, but don’t use all of it”: BROKE(R)/ GLAR(E)/ FRES(H) + CO(N)/ BONA(FIDE). It’s a tough play for solvers.
    Some quibbles for me: 1(d), HONEST = ROUND (?); 14(ac) “inspired” not pleasing; 2(d) POSTBAG, simply poor; 21(ac) ” Nice ‘ere innit” (??).
    8(d) If MIEN ( ie demeanour/ manner/ bearing ) = “expression”, the so be it, but not for me.
    29(ac) “seasoned with” = insertion indicator. You’re just making it up, aren’t you ?
    Not my bag of salt, but each to their own.
    Thanks to Salty & Pierre

  2. Excellent puzzle.
    Many to like.
    Top faves:
    BOSOM (SOB isn’t used in the UK? Maybe the origin is American?), FOR SALE, BROLLIES, JUST EAT (my COTD),
    SWAHILI (good clue. More than that, I have a personal ‘affection’ for this language), RIVIERA (Nice is of course here
    as the blog says, ENB@1. Nice one for me) and FRESCO.

    Thanks Salty and Pierre (great blog).

  3. I seem to have made rather heavier weather of this than with previous Salty puzzles but I enjoyed teasing (most of) it out. The blog was very helpful.

    I must have met SOB before but it didn’t spring readily to mind, though I knew 6ac had to be BOSOM.
    I didn’t recognise REPO.
    The salt that first occurred to me was washing soda.
    I was initially puzzled by ROUND = honest, too, ENB@1 but, as so often, Hamlet rode to the rescue again: Polonius to Gertrude, when asking her to speak to Hamlet about his behaviour: ‘Be round with him …’

    I had ticks for BROLLIES, JUST EAT, PROXY, MORALISTIC and ART DECO.

    Many thanks for the workout, Salty and for the blog, Pierre.

  5. LD@4: because to lower is to glare.

    From Chambers:

    intransitive verb
    To look sullen or threatening
    To scowl
    noun
    A scowl or glare
    A gloomy threatening appearance

  7. Just when I’d got used to “lower” meaning “cow”, it means “glare”. It’s good that setters keep us on our toes. PLATE RACK was very cleverly constructed. A clever puzzle from Carbonaty.

  8. Many thanks to Pierre for the blog and to all who have commented. Small note on 22d – I intended COD, which I think is a better synonym for fake than CON, but either works well enough.

    Eileen @3 – thanks for the Hamlet quote, that’s perfect. Round is an interesting word that has many, many meanings listed in the OED. It’s one of those funny quirks of English that ROUND can mean SQUARE in some senses…

    ENB @1 – Yes, I am just making it up – that’s the fun of setting! Always in a way that is fair to solvers, I hope, but all feedback welcome and points noted. By the way, “inspired frenzy” is one of the definitions of RAGE given in Chambers, verbatim.

  9. I enjoyed this and agree with everything Eileen said @3. I struggled with BOSOM and I am ashamed to confess I did not know Voltaire was MORALISTIC so eventually turned to an anagram solver for that one. MIDINETTE I have encountered before but only in a crossword: Pasquale clued it in January in the G (using the same construction as the two other times it has appeared over a decade ago: a charade of motorway eatery so full marks to Salty for a fresh approach. As our blogger observed, some lovely surfaces which are a trademark of this setter.

    DABBLE, PLATE RACKS, ASTEROID, ROUND TRIP, STAPLE, GO FOR BROKE and ART DECO were my faves.

    Thanks Salty and Pierre

  10. Great stuff although struggled in the lower right corner. Needed the blog to explain CARBONATE, RIVIERA (crosswords make me feel like a philistine) and PROVEN which I teased out from the checking letters.

    Not sure whether to really love or totally hate JUST EAT. It’s such a silly play on words.

    Thanks Salty and Pierre.

  11. Thanks both. Difficult to say this was enjoyable as it took me so long, although I did complete unaided. Some very straightforward to maintain confidence, along with some I simply misread for so long including PROVEN. RIVIERA went in last without conviction – I certainly don’t know the artist amongst the thousands of candidates, and still don’t fully understand the quirky expression, apart from Nice, which provides the definition.

  12. I almost gave up with the NE empty. Areas of Greater Manchester are not my specialist subject, but once I’d dredged Bury up from somewhere it slowly fell in place. It took me a while to justify SWAHILI and went round in circles with LOI BROLLIES. Bouncers? Lions? Am I looking for a breed of dog? Cryptic definitions certainly the hardest for me to twig.

    All adds up to an enjoyable solve for me.

    Thanks Salty and Pierre.

  13. Just to explain the RIVIERA clue more explicitly than I did in the blog. ‘Nice, ‘ere, innit?’ could be rendered in standard English as ‘Nice is here, isn’t it?’ And of course Nice is on the RIVIERA. The only slight quibble is that the French don’t really call it the Riviera – for them it’s the Côte d’Azur.

  14. Thanks Pierre – I’m aware the specific expression is attributed to Lorraine Chase, perhaps amongst others, but I still don’t see how that lends itself to the clue which could otherwise have just stated “Nice here”. The rest may be just extension of artistic licence, however for me it was quite a distraction.

  15. “Nice ‘ere, innit?” was popularised by Lorraine Chase in one of the TV adverts she did for Campari. Later also made into a song, though her other song, Luton Airport (also based on a line from one of the Campari ads) is probably better remembered. And none of this will mean anything to anyone unfamiliar with 1970s British telly. For which, apologies.

  18. I learned today that S.O.B. is an Americanism. I did once come up with this clue, which I’m proud of:

    Every son of a bitch has one core belief (5)

    I didn’t know the delivery company JUST EAT; it’s presumably the equivalent of our GrubHub (a company that picks up food from restaurants and delivers it, with the consumer using a single app for the purpose; since they both take a cut from the restaurant and charge a service fee to the customer, it’s better for everyone if you order directly from the restaurant if at all possible.) (Wow, that was a sentence whose end forgot its beginning, but I won’t edit it.) Anyway, the crossers and the amusing jus teat got me there. I did also find “Nice here, innit?” amusing, so no complaints here.

  19. Oh, and I was under the impression for some reason that the British shortening of umbrella (ella, ella, eh, eh, eh–sorry, that was my inner Rihanna taking over) was spelled BRELLIES, not BROLLIES. Oops.

  20. SWAHILI a write-in. It’s our national language here. Glad that KVA likes it. I wouldn’t call this a ‘Mondayish’ one, took me ages and complete. Thanks Salty and blogger.

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