Independent 10,058 / Punk

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Punk has provided this Tuesday’s cruciverbal challenge. I realised this morning that it has been a long time since it last fell to me to blog a crossword by Punk, so this honour was probably long overdue.

4 was the gateway clue to the themed down entries and proved not too difficult to solve. That said, The Kinks were a little before my time, which meant that I was totally reliant on the wordplay to find their hits. This was a prime example of how the very nature of a cryptic crossword allows the solver to arrive at the correct answer, and to be confident that it is correct, without actively knowing the word in question or in this case the songs. Incidentally, managing to squeeze so many of their hits into this puzzle, and to do so using the down lights only, was doubtless a tour de force of grid-filling on Punk’s part.

I think that I have parsed almost everything to my satisfaction, perhaps with the exception of 10, where I am not fully convinced of the homophone, and of the Whistler reference at 11. My favourite clues today were the & lit. at 25; 28, for the misleading use of “see” as a verb in the surface reading of the clue and as a noun in the definition; and above all 8, for sheer entertainment value.

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

Across    
     
05 BIG WHEEL Ride, e.g. while high on end of jib

<ji>B (“end of” means last letter only) + *(E.G. WHILE); “high” is anagram indicator
     
08 OCHE Missile launchers stand behind this Irish revolutionary?

Cryptically, an Irish Che (Guevara) could be called O’Che!; the “missile launchers” of the definition are darts players
     
11 MANET Whistler’s subject clear for artist

MA (=Whistler’s subject, i.e. the mother of US artist James McNeill Whistler and subject of one of his best-known paintings) + NET (=clear, i.e. of charges); the reference is to French modernist painter Édouard Manet (1832-88)
     
12 IDLER Bum stuck in barrel dislodged from behind

Hidden (“in”) and reversed (“from behind”) in “barREL DIslodged”
     
13 KIT Stuff bird, having wiped rear

KIT<e> (=bird, of prey); “having wiped rear” means last letter is dropped
     
14 EXTERNAL Ten deathless shrouds outside

X (=ten, in Roman numerals) in ETERNAL (=deathless, immortal)
     
15 TANNER Old bit of silver, bronzer?

Cryptically, someone seeking a sun tan could be described as a “tanner” or “bronzer”
     
17 UNFROZE Close to Oamaru, back in New Zealand, ice finally melted

<oamar>U (“close to” means last letter only) + [FRO (=back, as in to and fro) in NZ (=New Zealand)] + <ic>E (“finally” means last letter only)
     
19 FILM SET Picture arrangement where leftism fails

*(LEFTISM); “fails” is anagram indicator; the “picture” of the definition is a film, movie
     
20 ILL-USE Maltreat heart of vile contemptible type, love not present

<v>IL<e> (“heart of” means all but first and last letters) + L<o>USE (=contemptible person; “love (=O) not present” means letter “o” is dropped)
     
21 GANGLAND Underworld horse’s retracted organ

GAN (NAG=horse; “retracted” indicates reversal) + GLAND (=organ)
     
24 UFO Mysterious sighting unconfirmed initially by government department

U<nconfirmed> (“initially” means first letter only) + FO (=government department, i.e. Foreign Office)
     
25 NORTH Direction of Mongolia from Bhutan or Thailand

Hidden (“from”) in “BhutaN OR THailand”; & lit.
     
26 THEME Motif in rousing song without an echo

<an>THEM (=rousing song; “without an” means letters “an” are dropped) + E (=echo, in radio telecommunications)
     
27 PELÉ Huge thing half going backward, great forward

ELEP<hant> (=huge thing); “half going” means 4 of 8 letters are dropped; “going backward” indicates reversal; the reference is to legendary Brazilian forward Pelé (1940-)
     
28 DIOCESAN See description in code as cryptic

*(IN CODE AS); “cryptic” is anagram indicator; the “see” of the definition is a diocese
     
Down    
     
01 LINNET Bird hiding upside down

TEN-NIL (=hiding, i.e. overwhelming defeat in sport); “upside down” indicates vertical reversal
     
02/18/16 DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF FASHION Knitted wool diehard, if adolescent, encapsulating rotten song by 4

OFF (=rotten) in *(WOOL DIEHARD IF ADOLESCENT); “knitted” is anagram indicator; the solution was a 1966 hit for The Kinks (=entry at 4)
     
03 YOU REALLY GOT ME Song by 4, my true love every second in torment, accepting partner having to leave

[ALLY (=partner) + GO (=to leave)] in *(MY TRUE + <l>O<v>E); “every second” means alternate letters only; “in torment” is anagram indicator; the solution was a 1964 hit for The Kinks (=entry at 4)
     
04 THE KINKS Group is contemplative, pinching cute pink bottoms

[<cut>E <pin>K (“bottoms” means last letters only)] in THINKS (=is contemplative); the reference is to the English rock band The Kinks, formed in 1964 by Ray and Dave Davies
     
06 WATERLOO SUNSET Battlestar ready for song by 4

WATERLOO (=battle) + SUN (=star) + SET (=ready, prepared); the solution was a 1967 hit for The Kinks (=entry at 4)
     
07 LOLA That’s hilarious! A song by 4

LOL (=that’s hilarious, i.e. Laughing Out Loud in textspeak) + A; the solution was a 1970 hit for The Kinks (=entry at 4)
     
09 IMPECUNIOUS Short of money, income up I cracked America

*(INCOME UP I) + US (=America); “cracked” is anagram indicator
     
10 STAR-STUDDED Brilliant thing read aloud, packed with celebrities

STAR (=brilliant thing) + homophone (“aloud”) of “studied (=read, i.e. at university)”
     
22 APEMAN Identify parent standing for song by 4

NAME (=identify) + PA (=parent); “standing” indicates vertical reversal; the solution was a 1970 hit for The Kinks (=entry at 4)
     
23 BRAD Rusty head in duff nail

R<usty> (“head” means first letter only) in BAD (=duff)
     

 

13 comments on “Independent 10,058 / Punk”

  1. Failed to parse LINNET (oops!), and also gave up trying to untangle YOU REALLY GOT ME.  Thought MANET’s MA a whisker indirect.

    Other than that, I found it lots of fun, with a huge grin at the OCHE.

    Thanks to Punk and RatkojaRiku.

  2. The Hollies yesterday, THE KINKS today, who knows maybe The Seekers tomorrow.

    Great to be reminded of all those familiar songs; I fear (L-L-L-)LOLA will be hard to get out of my head for the next few days and then APEMAN will probably take over for the rest of the week.

    Loved the ‘Irish revolutionary’ and the association, even in reverse, of PELE and the ‘half going’ elephant.

    Thanks to Punk and to RR.

  3. Not sure what others will think of this. I wasn’t mad keen but quite enjoyed it. Since I knew all the Kinks songs that were present, many of the long solutions were write-ins for me with the reasoning left until after I completed. Not my preferred way of solving cryptics.

    I did cheat on GANGLAND. I could only think of ‘vanguard’ as a word that fitted, which didn’t make any sense, so I resorted to a word fit.

    OCHE was my FOI which I loved. A definite LOL clue. Thanks to Punk and RatkojaRiku.

  4. Another day another Indy ear-worm –  another group from my ‘era’

    Thanks to Punk and RR

  5. Music is very weak area for me and I gave a bit of a groan when I saw the puzzle was themed around a group.  Fortunately, the Kinks is just about the only group I know anything about, having taken an interest in their work after watching a documentary a few years ago.   That made the puzzle a lot easier to solve.

    I was also very dubious about the homophone – it seems a big stretch to equate studded with studied (what sort of accent would you need?)  I wasn’t keen on the ten-nil for hiding either.   Surely it depends on the sport – fifteen-love in tennis only represents a one-point lead.  I felt it needed an extra indication to say that it was football related.   A reference to 27 might have been a good way of doing that.

     

  6. The problem, as ever, with the theme is that once 4 is solved you have half the grid filled from enumeration alone if you know the group well (and as a native Muswell Hillbilly I do.) It makes all the effort that must go into writing the clues seem a terrible waste.

  8. I was happy enough with studded / studied and equally so with ten-nil as a thrashing (clearly it would need to be a result to be a thrashing so the 15-love analogy is meaningless).

    I certainly can’t think of a game where a ten-nil defeat wouldn’t be a thrashing.

    Being a big fan of 4 down this was easier than a normal Punk for me but still very enjoyable despite Mr Crabtree’s well-made point at 6.

  9. I certainly can’t think of a game where a ten-nil defeat wouldn’t be a thrashing. – Well basketball perhaps but hardly likely!

  12. I agree with NealH that a reference to 27 in 1 would have clarified which sport we were dealing with.

  13. Can’t say we found this particularly satisfying.  We worked through the acrosses first and got sufficient crossing letters for 2/18/16 to be obvious from the enumeration, after which the rest of the themed answers were write-ins and then it was just a case of mopping up the remaining few acrosses and downs.  Last two in were GANGLAND and PELE after the relevant pennies dropped.

    Thanks, though, to Punk and RatkojaRiku.

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