Silvanus has produced a few Independent weekday puzzles in recent weeks and I have liked the couple I have blogged previously.
I enjoyed this one as well. It didn’t fall quickly but it was satisfying to get everything in the end. The parsing that held me up the longest was for THE LIKE at 17 across
I thought the definition ‘section’ for CAESAREAN at 4 down was well hidden.
This seems to be my day for blogging setters who favour references to excluding or including letters at various positions in words in the clues as I noticed a similar liking for the device in my Inquisitor blog elsewhere on the fifteensquared site today.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 8 | Relative, having foremost charges dropped, remains free (7) |
UNCLE (relative) excluding (having … dropped) C (first letter of [foremost] CHARGES) + ASH (remains) UNLE ASH |
UNLEASH (free) |
| 10 | Pallid condition of adolescent originally – adult I mean on reflection (7) |
A (first letter of [originally] ADOLESCENT) + (A [adult] + I MEAN) reversed (on reflection) A (NAEM I A)< |
ANAEMIA (lack of red blood corpuscles or of haemoglobin, a condition marked by paleness and weakness; pallid condition) |
| 11 | Genuine extremists infiltrating reformed union is very clever (9) |
GE (first and last letters of [extremists] of GENUINE) contained in (infiltrating) an anagram of (reformed) UNION IS IN (GE) NIOUS* |
INGENIOUS (skilful in invention or contriving; very clever) |
| 12 | Kind of fund for bad weather’s aftermath (5) |
SLUSH (reference SLUSH Fund [fund of money used, usually corruptly, in political campaigning and propaganda, bribery, undeclared commissions, etc]) SLUSH |
SLUSH (melting snow, the aftermath of bad weather, often becoming a mucky slippery mess) double definition |
| 13 | Remain undecided about old cleaner (6) |
HOVER (remain undecided) containing (about) O (old) H (O) OVER |
HOOVER (originally a brand name, now a generic term for a vacuum cleaner) |
| 14 | Porkies, soon heard regularly, getting an individual incarcerated (8) |
PRISONER (letters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 of [regularly] PORKIES SOON HEARD) PRISONER |
PRISONER (a person arrested and confined; an individual incarcerated) |
| 17 | Similar things, essentially skilful abilities, lacking in you (3,4) |
LIK (middle letters of [essentially] each of SKILFUL, ABILITIES and LACKING) contained in (in) THEE (you) THE (LIK) E |
THE LIKE (similar things) |
| 18 | One short of the usual number of members, unfortunately? (7) |
AMPUTEE (person lacking a limb [short of the usual number of members {limbs}]) AMPUTEE |
AMPUTEE – cryptic definition given in the word play |
| 20 | Gave up office, calmly accepting situation (8) |
RESIGNED (gave up office) RESIGNED |
RESIGNED (calmly submitting; calmly accepting situation) double definition |
| 22 | Irish city’s being defaced continually (6) |
GALWAY’S (Irish city’s) excluding the first letter (being de-faced) G ALWAYS |
ALWAYS (continually) |
| 25 | Reject shop daughter enters was unoccupied (5) |
D (daughter) contained in (enters) DELI (delicatessen; food shop) reversed (reject) I (D) LED< |
IDLED (was unoccupied) |
| 27 | Introduce stuff that can kick-start career (6,3) |
LAUNCH (introduce) + PAD (stuff) LAUNCH PAD |
LAUNCH PAD (place, event, etc which gives a good start to a career, etc) |
| 28 | Bending regularly at first stops being in pain (7) |
R (first letter of [at first] REGULARLY) contained in (stops) ACHING (being in pain) A (R) CHING |
ARCHING (bending) |
| 29 | Type of green American car (7) |
LINCOLN (descriptive of a bright-green cloth once made in Lincoln; also its colour) LINCOLN |
LINCOLN (brand of American car) double definition |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Artist receives tip from impressionist in foreign city (6) |
MUNCH (reference Edvard MUNCH [1863 – 1944], Norwegian artist) containing (receives) I (first letter of [tip from] IMPRESSIONIST) MUN (I) CH |
MUNICH (German [foreign] city) |
| 2 | Drain source of pus above ear (8) |
P (first letter of [source of] PUS + LUGHOLE (informal word for the ear) P LUGHOLE |
PLUGHOLE (drain) |
| 3 | Badly ruing November deal when going after money – it gives offence (10) |
Anagram of (badly) RUING and N (November is the international radio communication word for the letter N) and DEAL) LAUNDERING* |
LAUNDERING (when preceded by MONEY, descriptive of a criminal offence [MONEY LAUNDERING]) |
| 4 | Section of field protected by assorted canes (9) |
AREA (field, as used to describe a specialism in academia) contained in (protected by) an anagram of (assorted) CANES CAES (AREA) N* |
CAESAREAN (reference a CAESAREAN section to describe the delivery of a child by cutting through the walls of the abdomen) |
| 5 | Film lectures (4) |
JAWS (1975 thriller film) JAWS |
JAWS (lectures) double definition |
| 6 | Criticise current politician hugging occasionally (6) |
I (electric current) + MP (Member of Parliament; politician) + UGN (letters 2, 4 and 6 [occasionally] of HUGGING) I MP UGN |
IMPUGN (criticise) |
| 7 | Old soldier hears row erupting (8) |
Anagram of (erupting) HEARS ROW WARHORSE* |
WARHORSE (old warrior in any field of conflict) |
| 9 | Spit of land perhaps man’s right to sacrifice for hotel (4) |
ROOK (piece [man] in chess) with R (right) replaced by (sacrificed for) H (hotel) H OOK |
HOOK (a spit of land with a HOOKed end) |
| 15 | One petitioning overthrow is keeping in charge (10) |
SUPPLANT (oust; overthrow) containing (keeping) I/C (in charge) SUPPL (IC) ANT |
SUPPLICANT (one petitioning) |
| 16 | Information on each record, it indicates variable pedigree (9) |
GEN (information) + EA (each) + LOG (record) + Y (a letter used to indicate a variable in mathematical equations) GEN EA LOG Y |
GENEALOGY (pedigree of a particular person or family) |
| 17 | Time left to take in new marine storage facility (8) |
(T [time] + L [left]) containing (to take in) an anagram of (new) MARINE T ERMINA* L |
TERMINAL (storage and distribution facility) |
| 19 | Stirrer of trouble gutlessly a court supports (8) |
TE (TROUBLE excluding the central letters [gutlessly] ROUBL) + A + SPOON (court in a sentimental way) TE A SPOON |
TEASPOON (item of cutlery often used as a stirrer) |
| 21 | Join Central Essex Police? Nothing to lose (6) |
S (middle letter of [central] ESSEX) + POLICE excluding (to lose) O (nothing) S PLICE |
SPLICE (join together by overlapping) |
| 23 | Is backing leading snooker player, having supportive position (6) |
IS reversed (backing) + DING (reference DING Junhui [born 1987], Chinese snooker player, currently ranked number nine in the world) SI< DING |
SIDING (allied with; backing) |
| 24 | Fight expected to be given approval ultimately (4) |
DUE (expected) + L (last letter of [ultimately] APPROVAL) DUE L |
DUEL (fight) |
| 26 | Starts to disembark arriving into station platform (4) |
DAIS (first letters of [starts to] each of DISEMBARK, ARRIVING, INTO and STATION) DAIS |
DAIS (platform) |
Nowt wrong with that. THE LIKE appeared in another puzzle troday with slightly trickier wordplay.
Thanks all.
Lots of misdirection here making a very enjoyable solve. Finished, without cheats, except for 5d where I entered PANS which sort of worked but wasn’t happy with it. JAWS is better
Many favourites. Despite their unpleasantness, I particularly liked PLUGHOLE and AMPUTEE. I recently said I rarely like cryptic definitions but the latter was another good example of how to write one. CAESAREAN was another great clue. Finished with HOOVER & MUNICH.
Thanks to Silvanus and Duncan.
An enjoyable solve – like copmus, I had noticed THE LIKE in the crossword I solved before this one
Thanks to Silvanus for the fun and Duncan for the comprehensive explanations
Don’t you just love those alphabet trawls? Especially when you’re too lazy to bother going through all the possibilities and take a few short cuts. ‘Cans’, ‘pans’, ‘bags’ but no JAWS. That’ll learn me.
Still, no complaints and there were some clues I really enjoyed including PLUGHOLE, CAESAREAN and the ‘edgy’ AMPUTEE. I agree about the parsing of THE LIKE which I found harder than the other version elsewhere today.
Thanks to Silvanus and Duncan.
Our setter is getting to be quite the master of hiding definitions in plain sight – 4d being a great example.
Had my work cut out with a couple of these and confess to having to check on the snooker player – I’m still back in the day of Steve Davies et al!
Plenty of ‘ticks’ on my sheet with 20,22&27a plus 2&4d making the leader board.
Many thanks to Silvanus and thanks to Duncan for the blog.
A bit tricky in places but we almost finished unaided – needed a wordfinder for ALWAYS – so obvious when we found it. Doh! Favourite was PLUGHOLE for the smile it raised despite the slightly unpleasant surface.
Thanks, Silvanus and Duncan.
Five Down- the one that got away! I had ‘Pans’ but could see ‘t was not right. As my old grandmother used to say (having taken her teeth out): “Jaws! Just A Wubber Shark.”
Pleasant solve; I ticked PRISONER (good use of regularly), AMPUTEE (nice cd), PLUGHOLE and SPLICE.
Thanks Silvanus and Duncan for an excellent blog.
Same as others I failed on 5 down. I had NAGS, a film about horse racing that’s so obscure there is no mention of it on the Internet at all.
Didn’t know DING but the answer was gettable even so. I don’t complain about GK as I treat crosswords as a learning process, and in any case a name like Ding should have rung a bell…
Nice puzzle.
Quite good but spoiled by 1ac. ‘Foremost charges’ doesn’t mean the first letter of ‘charges’. Maybe I’m being too fussy since nobody else has mentioned this, but I’m sure you wouldn’t see this from any of the established good setters. Nor would they have answers with <50% checking when there isn’t a Nina. Or is there one?
As ever, thanks to everyone for their comments and to Duncan for his excellent decryptions.
Coincidentally today marks the second anniversary of my first Independent puzzle, so it was a very appropriate choice of slot on the editor’s part.
@Wil Ransome, “foremost” in 1a was actually changed to “foremost of”, but for some reason this tweak didn’t make the final cut. I’m sorry it marred the puzzle for you.
How annoying, Silvanus. ‘Foremost of’ would have been fine.
Very late so most of it has been said. This is the first Silvanus I’ve done and I look forward to more as it was a real tussle to get through it. My quibble is over the number of clues using a “take a letter off” type device – I counted 10 of them. Thanks to Silvanus and Duncan.
The Spielberg ghost theme helped me finally crack JAWS and ALWAYS. A fun solve!
Well done to Myelbow @14 for being the first person to pick up on the ghost theme, just as I was thinking nobody was going to notice it!