Independent 10,108 by Klingsor

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It’s always a joy to blog a crossword by Klingsor, something I don’t seem to have done for a while. Of just the right level of difficulty for me, and as usual plenty of very good clues.

Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

Across
1 PUB-CRAWL Charlie stops fight after turning up for boozy event (3-5)
(up)rev. b(C)rawl
5 CUPRIC Endlessly reduced cost of copper (6)
cu{t} pric{e}
9 LOATHING See, a slight phobia could become abhorrence (8)
lo a thing — “she’s got a thing about spiders”
10 SHODDY Short comprises rum of poor quality (6)
sh(odd)y — initially I thought shy = short was a bit doubtful: someone who is shy is short, in that they are short of words, but … — then I realised that it was in the sense of being lacking: “the arrow was a metre short/shy of the target”
12 BARNABY RUDGE Novel read by urban guerrillas primarily? Yes and no! (7,5)
(read by urban g{uerillas})* — I think the anagram indicator is ‘Yes and no!’, which is the only possibility I can see, the more obvious candidate ‘Novel’ already being used as the definition — I’m not sure that the clue qualifies as an &lit. [The jury is out on this. Rather than my trying to say anything much here, you’ll probably be better off reading the comments below.]
15 TORUS The sound from bull ring? (5)
“Taurus”
16 SATISFIED Is heartlessly sacked after a day served (9)
Sat. is fi{r}ed
18 ANAGLYPTA A scold has aptly designed wallpaper (9)
a nag (aptly)*
19 GRAIL Good storyteller from the east cherished ambition (5)
g (liar)rev. — search for the Holy Grail
20 ILLUSTRATION Inside fancy restaurant, for example (12)
illus(trat)ion — inside ‘fancy’ is ‘restaurant’
24 SICKIE Rod needs time off – that is, day off work (6)
s{t}ick ie
25 DOMINATE Tower over there’s vacated after work on burst main (8)
do *(main) t{her}e
26 YES-MEN Country welcoming special lackeys (3-3)
Ye(s)men
27 INFANTRY Grunts in attempt to keep cool (8)
in (fan) try — it was presumably this, although I’d never heard the term in this sense: it’s there in the dictionaries as an American slang usage
Down
1 POLE European model has left for Sweden (4)
pose [= model] with its s replaced by l
2 BEAU Lover‘s knot, as they say (4)
“bow”
3 REHEARSAL Preparation H gets arse sorted? True about that (9)
(H arse)* in real — apparently Preparation H comes in a tube and is a treatment for piles — not sure if this is an &lit.; I don’t think so, more that it has &littish qualities
4 WIN ONES SPURS Playing in red, perhaps southern football team gain distinction (3,4,5)
win(on)e S Spurs — on = Playing, wine = red, perhaps
6 USHER Effusive person not displaying good conduct (5)
{g}usher — usher/conduct a verb
7 RED ADMIRAL Real Madrid’s high flyer (3,7)
(Real Madrid)* — a butterfly, one that used to be fairly common but nowadays is quite a sighting — pity, as it’s one of the most beautiful things anyone ever saw
8 CLYDESDALE Companion of Bonnie Scotland’s top stableman mounts English horse (10)
Clyde [as in Bonnie and Clyde] S{cotland} (lad)rev. E
11 ABSTRACT NOUN Cook can burn toast, showing carelessness perhaps (8,4)
*(can burn toast) — ‘carelessness’ is an example of an abstract noun
13 STRAVINSKY Scorer‘s rising skill’s very popular with broadcaster (10)
(art’s)rev. v in Sky — scorer in the sense of someone who handles scores, ie a composer
14 DREADLOCKS What inexperienced bargees may do is a shock! (10)
If a bargee is inexperienced then locks may be a source of dread — shock of hair
17 SIGNORINA Son takin’ no notice of a young Italian woman (9)
s ignorin{g} a
21 SUITE Train to become head of economics (5)
suit [= become, as in ‘that hat suits/becomes you’] e{conomics} — train = suite seemed something of a stretch and I wasn’t sure about this until it could hardly be anything else, but I suppose they are just about equivalent
22 CAST What’s found in Monica’s tool shed? (4)
Hidden in MoniCA’S Tool
23  DEFY Brave Yankee agent retires (4)
(Y Fed)rev. — Y = Yankee is in the NATO alphabet

*anagram

12 comments on “Independent 10,108 by Klingsor”

  1. I interpreted 12 across as meaning that yes, Barnaby Rudge is a novel form of the letters that follow but no, it is not a novel read by urban guerrillas. Don’t know if it’s &lit or not – I seldom get involved in those debates!

     

    Thanks J and K

  2. I thought this was an absolutely superb crossword. The surface readings are things of beauty and much appreciated by such as me.

    I parsed 12a as cruciverbophile. Loved the construction for CLYDESDALE.

    I feel that the anagram for RED ADMIRAL should be a chestnut but I don’t recollect ever seeing it so a big tick from me.

    Got stuck in the SW and resorted to a thesaurus search on “train” to get “suite”. Given that it was listed, it should be ok but I would never have thought of it. After this cheat, the rest followed.

    Thanks to Klingsor and John.

  3. I did like the inexperienced bargee.

    Didnt bother looking up alt meanings of INFANTRY-just followed the instructions.

    Reliable setter, thanks Redshank and John

  4. Thanks for the blog, John.

    I loved this puzzle and concur entirely with hovis’s comment except that I didn’t think twice about suite = train, thinking of the derivation of suite [something that follows] but I have just looked it up and find Chambers’ first definition of SUITE is ‘a train of followers or attendants’.

    My favourite today, among many great clues, was ABSTRACT NOUN. I was also chuffed, like copmus, to work out INFANTRY from the wordplay and discover that the unlikely ‘grumps’ really was the definition.

    Many thanks, Klingsor, for another super puzzle.

  6. An enjoyable solve but we had doubts about some of the clues.  In 5ac we thought ‘copper’ was doing double duty; since the chemical symbol for copper is Cu the ‘cost of copper’ could be ‘Cu price’ which if only ‘price’ is reduced gives CUPRIC.  We needed the blog to see the correct parsing.

    In 12ac we took the ? or maybe the ‘yes and no’ to indicate that ‘novel’ was doing double duty.  And possibly ‘Yankee’ in 23dn could be doing double duty by indicating that ‘fed’ is an American term.

    LOI was BEAU after resorting to a wordfinder – and a resounding ‘doh!’ when we saw it.

    A lot to like, though, including ANAGLYPTA, ILLUSTRATION and STRAVINSKY.

    Thanks, Klingsor and John.

  7. Excellent puzzle, the highlight for me being defs. such as ‘a shock’, ‘Grunts’, the innocuous looking ‘example’ and ‘carelessness perhaps’. The (now) obvious 23d went in unparsed, so one up to the setter this time.

    Thanks to John and Klingsor.

  8. I’m another who thought this was an excellent puzzle. Having only just discovered him in his Klingsor and Alberich guises recently he has gone to in the top echeleon of setters for me. Like Eileen I thought there were many great clues – unlike Eileen I did pause over SUITE and came here without INFANTRY (even though I thought it must be ANTRY at the end), BEAU and DEFY (even though it had to be a the same Y). Interesesting how uncertainty inhibits thinking – I’m fairly certain if I’d had either Y clue in for definite I’d have got the other. Cotd was BARNABY RUDGE for me – I’ve no idea what you’d call it – with DREADLOCKS a close second. I think I’ve always seen Ximinean setting as slightly old-fashioned, or more following old rules, whereas I like the idea of innovaating and coming up with new devices. Last Saurday’s FT prize and this one demonstrate that setters who have a more Ximinean approach are just as inventive and write puzzles that are every bit as enjoyable. Out of interest and if anyone who knows reads this which of the Guardian setters would be classed as Ximenean? Great stuff. Thatnks to Klingsor and John.

  10. BARNABY RUDGE is the solution to an enigma wrapped in the puzzle of clue.
    I re-read the novel it recently. If you don’t know it – I’d forgotten – it’s a historical novel, set many years before CD’s birth with the 18thC Gordon Riots as background.
    Dickens was of course socially driven but even he was out of sympathy with the aims and methods of the rioters. So whether your average ‘urban guerilla’ either then, or in Dickens’ time, or today would read and enjoy it – ‘Yes, and/or No’ – I have no idea. I’m sure the clue is some sort of &lit but I’ve no idea whose side it’s on, if any.
    Still, that’s why we do this stuff.
    Thanks as always to both.
    Thanks to both for the fun.

  11. Thanks to John and Klingsor

    This had just about everything I enjoy in crosswords. It is a masterclass of variety, ingenuity, accuracy, subtlety of language and more.

    12a had my head spinning. It can be read in so many ways (as Grant @10 implies), that I don’t know which to pick. What I do know is that once you resolve the anagram you know you have the right answer – the sign of a good clue.

    11d is a peach. a pearl, a paragon, a paradigm even,

    I look forward to more

  12. As others have already said, an enjoyable crossword with many smiles along the way. We were surpised by the anagram in 7d – we don’t recall seeing it before either but it is a gem.

    Thanks John for the parsing of 20a – LOI and we just couldn’t see it but so obvious when it was pointed out.

    Thanks Klingsor.

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