Independent 9,484 / Scorpion

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Scorpion has provided today’s cruciverbal workout, which I am blogging rather late in the day owing to circumstances beyond my control.

I really enjoyed this puzzle, finding that I needed to chip away at it steadily from start to finish; at no point did solving one clue trigger a flurry of other solutions. In the end, Scorpion had the last laugh, in that I had to search Chambers to find both 4 and 15. As regards 15, I had convinced myself that we were looking for the name of a priest and was thus blind to any alternative readings of the clue. Incidentally, I was expecting the completed grid to form a pangram, which it would indeed have done had there been a “q” in it!

My favourite clues today are 8, 24, 25 and 26, all for surface, with 24 being especially clever in maintaining the theme of web publishing through the (misleading) definition and wordplay alike.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
07 CATAMARAN Actor in A Bridge Too far commandeers river boat

TAMAR (=river, between Devon and Cornwall) in CAAN (=actor in A Bridge Too Far, i.e. James Caan)
     
08 LOOT Money can corrupt, ultimately

LOO (=can, lav) + <corrup>T (“ultimately” means last letter only)
     
09 SWASTIKA Cross Devon, Cornwall, etc getting wine and spirit

SW (=Devon, Cornwall, etc, i.e. south-west England) + ASTI (=wine) + KA (=spirit, soul, i.e. in ancient Egypt)
     
10 AVATAR A museum informant flipped computer image

A + VA (=museum, i.e. Victoria and Albert) + TAR (RAT=informant; “flipped” indicates reversal)
     
11 DINGHY Transport used by some shedding hydrophobia?

Hidden (“some”) in “shedDING HYdrophobia”
     
13 DOOLALLY Out to lunch date, old couple left friend

D (=date) + O O(O=old; “couple” means x2) + L (=left) + ALLY (=friend)
     
15 PYJAMAS Priest, retiring to illustrate, about to pack clothing

P (=priest) + [JAM (=pack, squeeze into) in YAS (SAY=to illustrate, for example; “retiring” indicates reversal)]
     
17 VERANDA Part of building outsiders used in rumba on celebration day

VE (=celebration day, i.e. Victory in Europe Day) + R and A (=outsiders in rumba, i.e. first and last letter only)
     
20 CASHMERE Check when cutting that sheer material

[AS (=when, as conjunction) in CH (=check)] + MERE (=sheer, downright)
     
22 CHINTZ Fabric seen in middle of local tip unknown

<lo>C<al> (“middle of” means middle letter only) + HINT (=tip, indication) + Z (=unknown, in algebra)
     
23 MANTRA Repeated words to staff works in hindsight

MAN (=staff, as verb) + TRA (ART=works; “in hindsight” indicates reversal)
     
25 BUNGALOW Perhaps Barnet criminal turned over western residence

BUN (=perhaps Barnet, i.e. hairstyle) + GAL (LAG=criminal, convict; “turned over” indicates reversal) + O (=over) + W (=western)
     
27 THUG Rough stomach, having ingested hard rolls

H (=hard) in GUT (=stomach); “rolls (over)” indicates reversal; a rough is a hooligan, lout, yob
     
28 DUNGAREES Grease splattered on dingy workwear?

DUN (=dingy, dreary) + *(GREASE); “splattered” is anagram indicator
     
Down    
     
01 OTIS US entrepreneur upset model, size zero?

SIT (=model, for an artist) + O (=size zero); “upset” indicates vertical reversal; Otis is an American lift company
     
02 OMNIFY Make universal award – hand back at end of ceremony

OM (=award, i.e. Order of Merit) + NIF (FIN=hand, in slang; “back” indicates reversal) + <ceremon>Y (“end of” means last letter only)
     
03 ORLANDO US city loves to accommodate Republican people

[R (=Republican) + LAND (=people, nation)] in O O (O=love, i.e. zero score; “loves” = x 2)
     
04 ANSAFONE Recording device punk fan’s playing in hospital department

[*(FAN’S) + ON (=playing)] in A(&)E (=hospital department); “punk” is anagram indicator; Ansafone is a trade name for an answerphone, answering machine
     
05 ULNA Some of arm band blue, uncovering both towards the top

<b>AN<d> <b>LU<e>; “uncovering” means first and last letters are dropped; “towards the top” indicates vertical reversal
     
06 NO BALL Extra fat cat put on a couple of pounds

NOB (=fat cat) + A + L L (L=pound, in LSD; “a couple of” means x2); a no ball is an extra (run) in cricket
     
07 COW LILY Nightbird in Channel islands extremely lucky having aquatic plant

[OWL (=nightbird) in CI (=Channel Islands)] + L<uck>Y (“extremely” means first and last letter only)
     
12 GNASH Forcibly move canines using feet to dig down by tree

<di>G <dow>N (“feet to” means last letters only) + ASH (=tree)
     
14 ABACI Taxi back into capital on which people may be counting?

BAC (CAB=taxi; “back into” indicates reversal) in A1 (=capital, excellent)
     
16 ADELAIDE Consort‘s grant welcomed by English songstress

AID (=grant) in ADELE (=English songstress); Adelaide was the queen consort of William IV
     
18 DOT-COMS Businesses most unsettled about Conservative leader after event

DO (=event, party) + [C<onservative> (“leader” means first letter only) in *(MOST)]; “unsettled” is anagram indicator
     
19 WEBBING Net search engine finding part of a bird’s anatomy

WEB (=net) + BING (=search engine)
     
21 APACHE At pace, he’s constantly cutting off hooligan

A<t> PAC<e> HE<s>; “constantly cutting off” means last letter is dropped from each word
     
22 CON MAN Charlie, active knight perhaps, who takes people for a ride

C (=Charlie, in radio telecommunications) + ON (=active) + MAN (=knight perhaps, in chess)
     
24 TOGA Volunteers checking half of blog that’s seen in the forum?

<bl>OG (“half of” means 2 of 4 letters only are used) in TA (=volunteers, i.e. Territorial Army)
     
26 APEX One repeats adult film, showing climax

APE (=one repeats, mimic) + X (=adult film)
     
     

 

12 comments on “Independent 9,484 / Scorpion”

  2. what a great puzzle, thanks Scorpion. I can only echo Andrew’s comment about the thematic grid-fill in the across clues, without which I don’t think I would have unpicked PYJAMAS!
    Thanks to RR for the blog; I wouldn’t mind being a fly on your wall when you twig the shtick!

  3. Well, this was a challenge which required a lot of chipping away at, and electronic help. Not so much a puzzle of two halves as one of four quarters. Failed to spot the theme, although BUNGALOW and VERANDA made me wonder if there was some sort of theme related to buildings, but I decided it was just co-incidence.

    OMNIFY was new to me; needed checking in Chambers (which describes it as ‘rare’) and also checking ‘fin’ as slang for ‘hand’.

    I thought 4dn had to be some sort of ‘phone’ but never think of the device referred to other than by its generic name.

    Favourite was CATAMARAN for its use of ‘Tamar’ – once I’d googled to find actors in A Bridge Too Far.

    Thanks, Scorpion and RatkojaRiku

  4. Enjoyable challenge which ultimately defeated me by 5 clues. Although I missed it, the well-implemented theme turned out to be prescient as I’ve just returned from seeing Viceroy’s House aus dem kino with the silver-haired parents. Of course, I must admit I wouldn’t have spotted the theme even if I had have solved after being immersed in filmic India, not only because of my natural denseness, but because my late Grandpa told me the derivation of ‘bungalow’ came from English builders not having enough cash to complete the second floor of a house and suggesting they bung a low roof on it instead. Lots to admire here as well as the gridfill and my COD honours going to the lovely 9a and the naughty , but very misdirective, 26d so thanks to the one with a sting in his tail for the puzz and to RR for the enlightenment.

  5. Missed the clever theme, but didn’t spoil my enjoyment. Ultimately fell at ANSAFONE and VERANDA. Could almost pick out any as favourites, but I’ll go for the ‘Forcibly move canines’ at 12 and BUNGALOW.

    Thanks to Scorpion and RatkojaRiku.

  6. I don’t think I would have spotted the theme in a million years, I’m impressed you recognised it Andrew, and of course I’m impressed with Scorpion’s grid fill

    I decided to look at 15sq with about 5 left, feeling tired I guess.. I had to refer to chambers a lot.

    I got ansafone but hadn’t heard of it as a trade name. I didn’t manage to find cow lily in chambers or collins which made me worry – hadn’t heard of the plant, but that’s what the word play indicated.

    webbing, dungarees and doolally made me smile most I think

    Many thanks scorpion and thanks RatkojaRiku for the enlightenment

  7. I found this one exceedingly tough and thought it was going to defeat me. In the end, I needed help to get just 4dn and 17ac.

    I missed the theme, but at the back of my mind was a line from a Tom Stoppard play where two characters are competing to get the most Indian words into an English sentence. The winner was something like, “I was having a spot of tiffin on the veranda of my bungalow when I got some kedgeree on my pyjamas so I had to go to the gymkhana in my dungarees.”

  8. I don’t like clues like the one to CATAMARAN, I’m not sure how many rivers there are in crosswordland but A Bridge Too Far has over 100 credited actors.

  9. Could somebody run the parsing of VERANDA past me?

    Impressive puzzle, though irritated by ANSAFONE.

  10. gwep@9

    VE = celebration day (VE day =Victory in Europe day, 8 May 45 allied victory)
    + R AND A are the outsiders (outer letters) in rumba

  11. I can see sidey’s point @8, and I was initially baffled by the clue to 7ac – even suspecting that the capitalisation in the film title was a misdirection and the film had nothing to do with it. But then I got the initial C from 7dn and googling for the film reduced the likely actors to Caine, Connery and Caan (and I admit I’d never heard of the latter). I don’t really know why ‘Tamar’ suddenly occurred to me as the river, but there was the answer. It was my CoD because of that and also because ‘Tamar’ made a change from the ‘usual suspects’ of Dee, Ure, Tay, etc – or even good old R.

    But we all have our individual likes and dislikes of clue types, and long may diversity continue – fifteensquared would be the poorer without it.

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