Italicus slopes into town to deliver the Monday Indy puzzle for our enjoyment. Some delightfully crafted surface readings in this offering, and only two words that I balked at.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
8 Make carvings and suchlike with tip of hacksaw
ETCH
A charade of ETC, for etcetera or ‘and suchlike’ and H for the first letter of ‘hacksaw’.
9 Van or Ute sprayed gold has style
ART NOUVEAU
(VAN OR UTE)* plus AU for ‘gold’. The anagrind is ‘sprayed’ and if you’re struggling to make sense of the surface, a UTE is an Australian English word for a ‘utility vehicle’.
10/26 Royal figure
REGNAL NUMBER
A cd.
11 Pampered boy crosses river with government agent
SPOON-FED
An insertion of PO for the Italian ‘river’ in SON, followed by FED.
12 Swore at journalist covering trial
ATTESTED
An insertion of TEST in AT ED.
14 Almost bursting on Parisian street? In a sorry state!
RUEFUL
A charade of RUE and FUL[L].
16 Suggest knight is involved in planned murder
HINT
An insertion of N for the chess ‘knight’ in HIT.
17 Daily Mail’s initial allure
CHARM
More offensive words in the Indy cryptics. A charade of CHAR and M for the first letter of ‘Heil’. Sorry, ‘Mail’.
18 English pound a Napoleonic prison
ELBA
A charade of E, LB and A for the island where Napoleon was imprisoned.
19 Goddess welcomes bishop with fifty varieties of tea
HERBAL
An insertion of B in the Greek goddess HERA, followed by L for the Roman numeral for ‘fifty’.
21 Twisted knee, having stood in oil
KEROSENE
An insertion (‘in’) of ROSE for ‘stood’ in (KNEE)*
23 Leave hearing aid in box
CLEAR OUT
An insertion of EAR in CLOUT.
27 Square reported argument about a bike
QUADRANGLE
A homophone of QUAD (‘bike’) WRANGLE.
28 Heavy metal front man
LEAD
A dd. One word with two different pronunciations. A feature of the English language that was designed by Brexiteers to discourage foreigners from learning it and subsequently flooding into the UK to dilute our ethnicity/take our jobs/fraudulently claim welfare/get free operations on the NHS (Daily Mail, passim, ad nauseam).
Down
1 Canny wee sister craftily hides joint
STREETWISE
An insertion of T (as in T-joint) in (WEE SISTER)*
2 Take a risk and talk about religion in Northern Ireland
CHANCE IT
An insertion of CE for the ‘religion’ in NI, all inserted in CHAT.
3 Line in sacred text upset prostitute
HARLOT
An insertion of L in TORAH reversed (‘upset’, since it’s a down clue). The TORAH is a sacred text in the Jewish tradition: what it exactly refers to is interpreted variously.
4 Company providing lifts back to outskirts of Inverness
OTIS
A rather strange trade name for a definition (although it’s a good surface reading). A reversal of TO followed by IS for the outside letters of ‘Inverness’.
5 Initial pairing of New Moon and Aries around the 3rd of August
MONOGRAM
Another nicely constructed surface. An insertion of G for the third letter of ‘August’ in (MOON)* and RAM, the sign representing ‘Aries’.
6 Get even-shaven genital parts
AVENGE
All things are possible with a steady hand and a sharp razor. Hidden in shAVEN GEnital.
7 Record Irishman coming up on Ecstasy
TAPE
A reversal (‘coming up’, again because it’s a down clue) of PAT followed by E. I remember a discussion a while ago now on the Indy thread where some folk considered ‘Pat’ for ‘Irishman’ pejorative.
13 Drained delta on estate
DRANK
A charade of D for the ‘delta’ in the phonetic alphabet and RANK. This definition of ‘estate’, as ‘order’ or ‘class’ is given in my dictionaries, but marked as ‘dated’.
15 Bruce worked with Andy to contain a problem in city
URBAN DECAY
An insertion of A in (BRUCE ANDY)*
17 Cab, say, dropping Oscar in middle of ring road
CALLOWAY
This is a bit unfair, I think, because without the General Knowledge it’s not easily guessable, and the GK is obscure (for me, anyway). It’s referring to the American Jazz musician and bandleader Cab CALLOWAY, and is an insertion of O (more phonetic alphabet) in CALL and WAY.
18 Group seen performing with Mel B on tour
ENSEMBLE
Two anagrams: (SEEN)* and (MEL B)* Two anagrinds as well: ‘performing’ and ‘on tour’. Mel B is a Spice Girl, sometimes referred to as ‘the one who could sing’.
20 Democrat in New York bolstering supporter’s spirit
BRANDY
An insertion of D in NY after BRA for ‘supporter’; again, because it’s a down clue, ‘bolstering’ gives you the order of the elements.
22 Forest defender denying second to Scottish team
RANGER
Another great surface reading. RANGER[S]
24 Youth accepts universal homage
LAUD
An insertion of U in LAD. LAUD is given as a noun in dictionaries, so fair enough to have ‘homage’ as a synonym.
25 Like takeaway food in African country
TOGO
The subsidiary indication is suggesting that takeaway food would be TO GO.
Many thanks to Italicus for the start to the Indy week. More like this, please.
Thanks to Pierre and Italicus
Very nice, smooth touch.
With GK you either know it or you don’t, but Cab Calloway was one of the greats, so perhaps not all that unfair.
He also, of course, appeared in the Blues Brothers.
Calloway not on the list of six jazz musicians I could name (at a pinch) so a failure for me.
A great puzzle with lovely smooth surfaces just slightly spoilt for me by the obscure 17d and the seemingly obligatory poor taste clue in 6d.
5d was probably my favourite but there were plenty of other candidates.
I bunged in REGNAL CIPHER early on without enough thought which created a few problems for me in the SE sector until the penny dropped.
Many thanks to Italicus for the fun and to Pierre.
I do enjoy the puzzles from this setter but I’ve never heard of the jazz musician which meant that 17d remained unsolved and I baulked at the surface read of 6d. Please don’t go down that route, Italicus, your talent doesn’t need cheap smut to make its mark.
Plenty of ticks on my printout with 14,17 & 18a plus 2 & 5d crowding the podium.
Thanks to Italicus (more, please) and to Pierre for the comprehensible review – not all bloggers seem to share your ability!
It is a shame about 17d because it is otherwise a superb puzzle with faultless surface readings.
I have to say that I had no problem with 6d as it was a funny surface with a very cleverly disguised definition.
I’m with gsolphotog on 6d. It’s nice to see an inclusion clue that isn’t trivial to see and I see nothing wrong with the humour.
As for 17d, although I also didn’t know the jazz musician, I thought the clue was written in such a way that it could easily be guessed and then Googled to learn something. One of my pet hates is obscurities clued using an anagram where there are too many possibilities to make even an educated guess.
Calloway, the Hi-De-Ho man, perhaps best known for “Minnie the Moocher” – I’m not surprised that you’ve never heard of him, but he was good in his time.
See https://youtu.be/8mq4UT4VnbE and sing along.
Thanks Geoff Wilkins for the link. I am still smiling at the wonderful performance and wish I had remembered him.
I also take your point Hovis, it is very fairly clued, if in a different league for degree of difficulty from the rest of the clues.
I wonder if it had been ‘Cab for one’ instead of ‘Cab say’ would the penny have dropped a little more readily?
We liked this, especially Pierre’s comments on a certain so-called newspaper. 17dn was a write-in for us, but we thought there might be adverse comment here. Last ones in were 13dn and 21ac, once we remembered ‘rank’ for ‘estate’.
No real favourites, it was all good.
Thanks, Italicus and Pierre.
Everyone else seems to have enjoyed it as well, then. I’ll add myself to the list of those who enjoyed rather than was offended by 6dn. Each to his or her own, of course.
Thank you for your nice comment, Jane. All the bloggers on Fifteensquared are good, I find, and each has his or her own style, which is nice. My current life/work balance is more weighted towards the former rather than the latter, so mebbes I have a bit more time to fill out the blog than my fellow workers. It’s good fun, and always (on the Indy blog at least) an interesting discussion, which is why I keep on doing it.
Thanks Italicus and Pierre
Re 17D, not only was Cab Calloway very well known in the jazz field, he was also featured in The Blues Brothers, which would have exposed him to a very wide audience.
Another who failed on CALLOWAY but it is perfectly fair and having heard of
Cab C I really have no excuse. AVENGE amused me (schoolboy humour I guess) and it was the most stretching of the Monday puzzles for me with only LAUD in the SW until the end. Thanks to Italicus and Pierre – and I agree all the bloggers are great and I like that each has their own style rather than a proscribed format.
Many thanks to Pierre for his witty blog and to all for your comments. I guess I am part of the generation that grew up with The Blues Brothers, so thought Cab Calloway would be better known! Very glad if I put a few smiles on a few faces.
@13White King, difficult to use any format that is proscribed.