Independent 9,975 by Alchemi

by

Apologies for the slight lateness of this blog. Mild computer problems.

I’d always thought that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the difficult days. Not that this was all that easy, but it was on the easy side of average. On the whole very pleasant, although there are one or two I’m not quite sure about.

Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.

What an extraordinarily large number of clues: 36, and Alchemi is being paid by the crossword presumably, not by the clue, so someone who does ¾ of that number of clues gets paid the same, I imagine. Alchemi is giving himself a lot of extra work; this suggests that he has a reason for this, but I can find no theme.

Across
1 SHOT Try way to bypass house … (4)
s(ho)t
3 MOTHERLESS … Elmer’s in trouble, being orphaned (10)
I don’t really get this, for two reasons: it appears to be (shot [the previous answer] Elmer’s)*, but how is the ellipsis a good enough indication that you have to choose the previous answer?; and if you’re motherless you’re only halfway to being orphaned. It looks like an anagram of something in mess, but this doesn’t work.
10 SHERIFF Improvise with novel law officer (7)
She [the novel by H. Rider Haggard that is so prevalent in Crosswordland, suggesting that it is of greater merit than it perhaps is] riff [= improvise]
11 ANTIGUA Island against dung? No, no! (7)
anti gua{no}
12 LED ASTRAY Zeus-lover’s drinks carrier seduced (3,6)
Leda’s tray
14 LET IT I don’t care if a title does revolve! (3,2)
(title)*, but there are so many other words (if, a, does) that one suspects something else. However, I think this is it.
15 MAINLINE Mother queuing to shoot up (8)
Ma in line
17 WREATH Anger about European flower ring (6)
wr(E)ath
20 NOTIFY Books provided in city alert (6)
N(OT if)Y
22 WHISTLER Painter with seconds to stop megalomaniac (8)
w Hi(s)tler
26 FARGO Film distant game (5)
far go [the Japanese game] — my knowledge of films ends around 1970, so I had to check this
27 PULSE RATE Real upset organised in a heartbeat (5,4)
(Real upset)* — but surely pulse rate is rate of heartbeat, not heartbeat itself?
30 ROLLING On the beat, Pat misses being rich (7)
{Pat}rolling
31 RIDDLED Theologian angry about being punctured a lot (7)
ri(DD)led
32 DIAMANTINE Like precious stones maintained badly (10)
(maintained)*
33 GROW Expand German fight (4)
G row
Down
1 SISAL Plant starts to show improved safety after lecture (5)
s{how} i{mproved} s{afety} a{fter} l{ecture}
2 OREAD Mountain-dweller‘s mineral promotion (5)
ore ad — a mountain nymph
4 OFFERING Having stopped using ecstasy, call for sacrifice (8)
off E ring — two sentences please, where ‘off’ and ‘stopped’ are interchangeable, although I’m sure our intrepid readers will easily produce something
5 HEAR YE Town crier’s announcement: “Man needs a whiskey” (4,2)
he a rye
6 RATTLER Snake right under child’s toy (7)
rattle R — or a rattlesnake as I, unlike Americans, would call it. Another example of American influence on our language, not that this in particular is really a bad thing.
7 EIGHT BALL The big problem with everything – you don’t want to be behind it (5,4)
(The big)* all — with _A_L and ‘with’, I was looking for something about a wall, but no — this is another Americanism, which comes from the game of pool — there are some who would baulk at the nounal anagram indicator
8 SHAFT Film some of mine (5)
a mine shaft is part of a mine, so it is some of it — the second film in this crossword, although whether this refers to the 1971 or the 2000 version I’m not sure
9 TINSEL Can trade mostly worthless gaudiness (6)
tin sel{l}
13 ERA Period Queen Anne initiated (3)
ER A{nne}
15 MAN Piece of blancmange (3)
Hidden in blancMANge — the chess piece or man — the hidden indicated by ‘of’, although one is lured towards ‘Piece of’
16 INTER ALIA Among others in a retail supply (5,4)
(in a retail)* — supply = ‘supple-ly’
18 HER Woman‘s nearly arrived (3)
her{e}
19 CHILDREN Country doctor comes in with new issue (8)
Chil(Dr)e n
21 FLORIDA Red-faced American’s home? (7)
florid A — a sort of &lit., but not a full one because the whole thing isn’t used in the wordplay
23 STEADY Bad dates the end of Joy as girlfriend (6)
(dates)* {Jo}y
24 EFT Port gets rid of large amphibian (3)
{l}eft
25 SPIGOT Plug ends up saving energy (6)
go in (tips)rev.
26 FIRED Old curse about right director being sacked (5)
fi(R)e! D
28 ADLER Bill will hope Ryanair finally shrink (5)
ad {wil}l {hop}e {Ryanai}r — referring to Alfred Adler, the psychotherapist/shrink
29 ENDOW Present object that hurts (5)
end ow!

*anagram

19 comments on “Independent 9,975 by Alchemi”

  1. I share John’s raised eyebrows regarding LET IT and MOTHERLESS, having spent far too long looking for anagram fodder to fit inside MESS. For 20a I had NOTICE, which parses fairly reasonably when used as a noun, consequently never getting FLORIDA.

    Maybe a passing commenter could explain why I wouldn’t want to be behind an eight ball – lost on me!

    Otherise plenty of economical and clever clues so thanks to Alchemi and John

     

  3. Doofs – correctamundo. This was Alchemi 461, and with that prompt, I didn’t really have much choice.

    As to the ellipsis in 3a, I’m rather disappointed to have people raising eyebrows at it, because it’s the first time I’ve managed to use that device correctly. Beginning a clue with an ellipsis is supposed to mean that you use the solution to the previous clue, and I’ve never before found an opportunity to do it. That some setters fail to observe that isn’t my fault.

     

     

  4. I bow to your superior knowledge Alchemi.  I’d always thought that it was something from the previous clue itself, not the answer to it.

  5. And for those who are still on the theme: its’ about Eric Clapton’s second album 461 Ocean Boulevard from 1974.

    Motherless Children, Let it Grow, [I] Shot [The] Sheriff and Mainline Florida are some of the tracks on it.

    Very nice.

    [and full marks to the ellipsis!]

  6. Thanks Alchemi and John

    Spotted the theme part-way through, so dredged my memory banks for the other bits of track titles and looked for where they might fit, which sped things up a bit. Must dig the album out.

    How about “The central heating is off/stopped”?

  7. Certainly needed help today with some of the parsing – particularly 3a & 7d – so many thanks for that, John.

    Thanks also to Alchemi for the challenge.

  9. It started to rain so the match was off / stopped.

    If you use that bodyline tactic again you’ll be off / stopped.

  11. We didn’t have any problems with the ellipses.  Not that we saw the device as the one and only correct way to use them.  As we see it they can be used (a) as here, (b) to link two unrelated clues into one surface and (c) as a single ellipsis meaning the definition/answer is the word ‘ellipsis’.  Of the three (b) is by far the most common, (a) less so, and (c) extremely rare as obviously it’s not a device that can be used very often although we have encountered it once.

    LET IT wasn’t really a problem either – we see it as a response to someone telling you something’s going to happen.  If that doesn’t bother you you might say “so what?” or possibly “let it!”.

    But we had a struggle with 12ac – in fact we were LED ASTRAY into thinking it was something to with Ganymede, the cup-bearer (drinks carrier?) to the gods, until we came to solve 13dn.  And in 17ac we were fixated on ‘anger’ being ‘ire’ for a long time until the penny dropped.

    Needless to say we missed the theme.  But thanks, Alchemi and John.

    PS. Doofs@1: for why you don’t want to be behind the eight ball click here.

     

  12. Thanks Alchemi; good entertaining crossword with a few challenging clues.

    Thanks John; I agree with allan_c@11 that there is more than one way of using ellipses. For further discussion, click here.

    I particularly liked the (Pat)ROLLIN and the OFF E RING.

     

  13. SHOT and SHERIFF were my first two in which constitutes record themespotting for me (although at that point I hadn’t narrowed it down to an album of course, and frankly never would’ve). Lots or great stuff here so many thanks to Alchemi &  John

  14. Thanks Alchemi and John. Also thanks to allan@11 for the eight ball link.

    Held up over 21d because I had written in “ notice “ for 21a – OT inside city of Nice.

  16. I got NOTIFY no problem, but managed to enter ADAMANTINE for 32ac, without checking it actually was an anagram of “maintained”.  (I now see there are not enough a’s.)  Not a theme I would have noticed.

  18. Kitty@17: “a misdirected mess of MOTHERLESS” – what a lovely turn of phrase; not only an alliteration but it rhymes as well!  That’s brightened the morning for me.

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