Math appears to be a new setter in the Independent series as I can’t find evidence of an earlier puzzle in the records.
Tuesday is usually theme day in the Independent but I can’t see one today. I have looked at REM songs and Dorothy SAYERS novels without success. If there is a theme I feel sure someone will enlighten us.
I’m not sure of my parsing for GIANT STAR. In fact, I’m not even sure the answer is correct.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1/4 | They inspired Shakespeare with “… for a horse!” and sets at play (4,2,3,5)
WARS OF THE ROSES (“A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” is a line from Shakespeare’s play Richard III, Act 5, scene 4, line 13. Richard died in 1485 fighting at Bosworth Field in the WARS OF THE ROSES) Anagram of [at play] W [with] and FOR A HORSE and SETS WARS OF THE ROSES* – alternatively, the W could be entered separately before making an anagram of the remainder |
| 10 | A reworking of Eros myth leads to …? (3,4,3,5)
THE SAME OLD STORY (an often-repeated event or situation – presumably most reworkings of the Eros myth end up telling similar stories) Anagram of (reworking of) EROS MYTH LEADS TO THE SAME OLD STORY* |
| 11 | It’s kind of me to follow Queen Liz’s successor (5)
RISHI (reference RISHI Sunak [born 1980], UK Prime Minister following Liz Truss [born 1975] in that role) R (Regina; queen) + –ISH (suffix forming adjectives signifying: somewhat, like, kind of, or similar to) + I (me) R ISH I |
| 12 | Like Liz Taylor or James Dean, one’s not featured in main sequence (5,4)
GIANT STAR (both Liz Taylor [1932 – 2011], English-American actress, and James Dean [1931 – 1955], American actors, could be considered GIANT STARs of the screen) I am not sure of the parsing for this. It may be a reference to GIANT STAiRs (for GIANT‘s Causeway in Northern Ireland near the sea [main]) excluding (not) I (one) to form GIANT STAR, but this doesn’t seem quite right to me GIANT STAR |
| 13 | Hamper containing cold, posh sandwich filling perhaps? (8)
CUCUMBER (sandwich filling. CUCUMBER sandwiches were considered posh due to their historical association with the British upper classes during the Victorian and Edwardian eras when CUCUMBERs were a luxury item) CUMBER (hinder; hamper) containing (containing) ( C [cold] + U [upper-class;posh]) CU (C U) MBER |
| 16 | Composer introduces tenor to group (5)
BATCH (a set; a group) BACH (reference one of the many classical composers with the surname BACH) containing (introduces) T (tenor) BA (T) CH |
| 18 | Furniture maker seen in designer collection (5)
ERCOL (British furniture manufacturer founded in 1920 by Lucian ERCOLani [1888 – 1976]) ERCOL (hidden word in (seen in) designER COLlection ERCOL |
| 20 | Bradman hit for six, got bowled out, not out for a duck (8)
MANDARIN (crested Asian duck) Anagram of (hit for six) bRADMAN excluding (got … out) B (bowled) + IN (opposite of out; not out) MANDAR* IN |
| 25 | Labour leader fighting Tory seat in Bury (3,2,4)
LAY TO REST (inter; bury) L (first letter of [leader] Labour) + an anagram of (fighting) TORY SEAT L AY TO REST* |
| 26 | Endlessly call Ivy back home (5)
VILLA (house; home) (cALL IVy excluding the outer letters [endlessly]) reversed (back) (VI LLA)< |
| 28 | Hole’s Courtney with The Smiths’ Johnny at one time produced Sinatra song (4,3,8)
LOVE AND MARRIAGE (song made famous by Frank Sinatra [1915 – 1998], American singer) LOVE (reference Courtney LOVE [born 1964], American singer, founder of the alternative rock band Hole) + (AND) + MARR (reference Johnny MARR [born 1963] formerly guitarist and songwriter with the band The Smiths) + I (Roman numeral for one) + AGE ([period of] time) LOVE AND MARR I AGE |
| 29 | Seafaring lady embraces boy (8)
MARITIME (relating to the sea; seafaring) MARIE (name of a lady) containing (embraces) TIM (name for a boy) MARI (TIM) E |
| 30 | Gets engaged and he gets into trouble (6)
MESHES (gets cogs engaged) HE contained in (gets into) MESS (trouble) MES (HE) S |
| Down | |
| 1 | State alternatives to steam dessert (5,3)
WATER ICE (a dessert) WATER (a liquid; a state different to steam [water in its gaseous state]) + ICE (a solid, another state [water in a solid state], different to steam which is a gas) WATER ICE |
| 2 | Trots round middle of field to get grass (5)
REEDS (type of grass) REDS (Trotskyists [Trots]) containing (round) E (central letter of [middle of] fiEld) RE (E) DS – either E could be the one contained |
| 3 | Working with a new philosophy: self-love (7)
ONANISM (masturbation; self-love) ON (working) + A + N (new) + –ISM (suffix indicating the full word is likely to be a philosophy) ON A N ISM |
| 5 | Turkish delight? Almost cut in two by one’s husband (6)
HALVAH (a sweetmeat, originally Turkish, containing sesame seeds, honey, nuts and saffron; Turkish delight) HALVe (cut in two) excluding the final letter (almost) + A (one) + H (husband) HALV A H |
| 6 | Old tablet was found here being refurbished at store (7)
ROSETTA (reference the ROSETTA stone tablet discovered in 1799 by French soldiers in ROSETTA, a port city in Egypt) Anagram of (being refurbished) AT STORE ROSETTA* |
| 7 | At athletics, for example, Mark’s a fast runner (6,3)
SPORTS CAR (a vehicle that can go fast; a fast runner) SPORT (athletics is an example of a sport) + SCAR (mark) SPORT S CAR |
| 8 | One ‘Queen of Crime‘ for example’s framing another queen (6)
SAYERS (reference Dorothy SAYERS [1893 – 1957], English crime novelist recognised as one of the four Queens of Crime) SAY’S (for example’s) containing (framing) ER (Elizabeth Regina, another Queen) SAY (ER) S |
| 9 | A union that may be full of divisions (6)
LEAGUE (a form of union) LEAGUE (the English Football LEAGUE, for instance, is currently comprises three divisions – Champonship, League One and League Two) LEAGUE |
| 14 | To take deliveries, postpone until next time (5,4)
CARRY OVER (postpone until next time) CARRY (take) + OVER (a set of deliveries in cricket) CARRY OVER |
| 15 | Principle Theo abandoned to get some sleep (3)
REM (Rapid Eye Movemen [the rapid movement of the eyes in unison behind closed lids that accompanies phases of sleep during which dreams are particularly vivid]) theoREM (a demonstrable or established but not self-evident principle) excluding (abandoned) THEO |
| 17 | Resolves not to start diverting journeys (8)
UNRAVELS (resolves) fUN (diverting) + tRAVELS (journeys) with the first letters F and T excluded from each word (not to start) UN RAVELS |
| 19 | Love to complain about reception. It raises a stink (7)
ODORANT (raising a smell; making a stink) (O [character representing zero [love score in tennis] + RANT [complain]) containing (about) DO (party; reception) O (DO) RANT |
| 21 | Car in last place slowly getting off the mark (6)
ASTRAY (deviating from the correct path; getting off the mark) ASTRA (reference a Vauxhall ASTRA [model of car]) + Y (final letter of [in last place] slowlY) ASTRA Y |
| 22 | Christian church that’s against separating like this (7)
DIVORCE (a form of separation opposed by the Roman Catholic Church) V (versus; against) contained in (separating) (DIOR [reference Christian DIOR [1905 – 1957], French fashion designer] + CE [Church of England]) DI (V) OR CE |
| 23 | Love? Couple starting to knock about, it’s all downhill (6)
SLALOM (a downhill or zigzag ski-run among posts or trees, or between hanging poles in canoes.) SLAM (knock) containing (about) LO (first [starting to] two [couple] of letters in LOve) SLA (LO) M |
| 24 | Rarely what champagne retailers do, discarding one litre (6)
SELDOM (rarely) SELl DOM (DOM Perignon is a brand of vintage champagne that wine merchants will sell) excluding (discarding) one the Ls (litre) – either L could be one discarded SEL DOM |
| 27 | Resisting after initially loving vow (5)
LOATH (reluctant; resisting) L (first letter of [initially] Loving) + OATH (a vow) L OATH |
Found this very hard and needed a few aids to finish. Had exactly the same thought on GIANT STAR (?).
A GIANT STAR is an evolved star that has left the main sequence. A red dwarf is another. The Sun is a main sequence star that will eventually ‘leave the main sequence’ and become a Red Dwarf. From Google obviously but that will be the setter’s intention. The actors were both in the movie GIANT (I knew that part).
I thought the theme was summed up in the Sinatra song: there several mentions of LOVE AND MARRIAGE in clues and solutions.
Liz Taylor and James Dean were the stars of the 1956 movie, Giant.
I enjoyed the puzzle. Couldn’t parse ASTRAY until I read the blog. Bit sneaky with the ‘y’ and not a car I’m familiar with but no complaints because the answer was obvious. Favourite might be LEAGUE and the long entries were fun. Thanks Duncan and Math.
A remake of the 1989 divorce comedy THE WARS OF THE ROSES just called The Roses and starring Benedict CUMBER/BATCH and Olivia COL/MAN has just come out. Various others clues are about love or divorce too.
I enjoyed this especially the long answers, MARITIME and DIVORCE. Thanks to Duncan and Math, who IIRC is an Indy setter who recently returned after a long break.
I too was thinking maybe sea-related, having nho a “main sequence star”, nor of Giant the movie. And while both actors were indeed stars, I wouldn’t class them as giants; so thanks sofamore @2.
And in 24d, the def is apt since sales of Dom would be relatively rare (tho praps not at Hedonism in Mayfair 🙂 ).
Charlie @5, yes, I noticed the ads for Roses.
Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Math and duncan.
Many thanks to Duncan for the detailed blog and to commenters for the comments. I’m not entirely new but certainly infrequent enough a visitor to always seem a stranger. @2 Sofamore’s quite right with my intentions for GIANT STAR and, @5, well done Charlie for spotting the couple who are undergoing separation in the grid and thanks for noticing/highlighting the theme.
…and I should also say thanks to eimi for helping with the liberal application of Mr Sheen to my original number 2 submission.
I found this a very enjoyable puzzle which yielded only slowly. Well done to Charlie@5 for spotting the theme; I’d only got as far as seeing a number of clues related to love and separation.
I’d not heard of ERCOL or HALVAH but the wordplay was (eventually) clear, nor the film Giant which left me assuming Math is a particular fan of those actors! I did assume that leaving the main sequence was an astronomy thing, though I didn’t investigate further.
I realise on reading the blog that I never did parse WATER ICE (I was thinking WA for Washington (state)) and something to do with steaming rice 😅 when I only had bits pencilled in. So technically a DNF.
I was hampered by hamper meaning enCUMBER as well as cumber, making it possibly the def, so I waited for the E checker to fall before filling in the first two letters and then untangling the parsing; a nicely hinted def!
Faves were LAY TO REST, MESHES and REEDS.
Thanks both!
Thanks both. Very entertaining, and not without its challenges, notably GIANT STAR wherein one definition feels very general, and the other was GK beyond my reach, alongside WARS OF THE ROSES, familiar of course to me as a Lancastrian although the Shakespeare angle was unknown. The theme is as contemporary as you can achieve, and I am happy to at least have spotted the actors’ names, whilst being singularly unaware of anything on at the cinema for far too long now, until it reaches the small screen.
Nice to see Math’s return with this and one earlier recent puzzle, if memory serves, after a huge gap since much earlier appearances in the Indy (in the old print days – of the fairly distant past now).
Enjoyed this. Because I slept in this morning, it had to wait for happy hour here in Chicago.
I love the movie Giant; a bit sad that Rock Hudson and Sal Mineo didn’t get any love here. (If you prefer your actors heterosexual, a very young Dennis Hopper has a tiny part too.) But it’s a bit of a strange watch, because Liz and Rock are acting more or less normally, while James Dean–way too young for his part–kind of chews the scenery; it’s almost like they’re in two different movies. Any way you slice it, though, it’s among the best work of all three of their careers. (For Jimmy D, Rebel Without a Cause is better; that’s true for Sal Mineo too.)