As far as we can tell, this is Windsurfer’s second published Indy puzzle. However, as far as fifteensquared is concerned, he has also compiled puzzles for S&B get-togethers in Derby in 2014 and 2106 and York in 2014. Perhaps there will be another for the Leicester S&B on 4th May? (Details on the home page)
We found the puzzle fairly easy at first and rattled through most the clues, but then got rather stuck with the last few clues in the eastern half, not helped by Joyce misremembering the French for ‘summer’ at 16ac and entering ‘FEST’ and Bert not noticing it!
There are one or two rather clunky surfaces and some slightly obscure synonyms, but overall, good Thursday fun.
Across
1 Select path US designed for high flyer (5,7)
SPACE SHUTTLE
An anagram of SELECT PATH US – anagrind is ‘designed’
10 Commercial before 11 is direct (7)
ADDRESS
AD (commercial) DRESS (11across – ‘garment’)
11 Singular outfit exhibiting good paintings about guys (7)
GARMENT
G (good) ART (paintings) round MEN (guys)
12 What player discarded to be precise (5)
EXACT
If an actor or musician (‘player’) were to discard his or her act, it could fancifully be described as an EX ACT – not one of the best clues in our opinion
13 Chest insert in doctor’s list (8)
CASELOAD
CASE (chest) LOAD (insert)
15 One producing small movements with market, each tip-off activated (10)
WATCHMAKER
W (with) + an anagram of MARKET eACH (without the first letter or ‘tip off’) – anagrind is ‘activated’
16 Fine summer in Nice for festival (4)
FETE
F (fine) ETE (‘summer’ in French)
18 Check website regularly is on time (4)
TEST
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of wEbSiTe after T (time)
20 Large body found at otherwise endless wild party (10)
SATURNALIA
SATURN (‘large body’, the planet) + ALIAs (‘otherwise’) without the last letter or ‘endless’. We’re not too sure about ‘alias’ = ‘otherwise’ – ‘otherwise known as’ would be better, but doesn’t work with the surface
22 State what old sopranos can’t achieve in the main (4,4)
HIGH SEAS
A homophone (‘state’) of HIGH Cs (notes that ‘old sopranos can’t achieve’)
24 Record some regret, nervously rejected (5)
ENTER
Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘rejected’) in regRET NErvously
26 Huddled together about space next to street light (7)
NESTLED
EN (‘space’ in printing) reversed or ‘about’ + ST (street) LED (light)
27 Model I parcel up (7)
REPLICA
An anagram of I PARCEL – anagrind is ‘up’
28 Polite comments about delightful figs, perhaps roughly heard (12)
PLEASANTRIES
PLEASANT (delightful) + a homophone (‘roughly heard’) of TREES (‘figs perhaps’). Interesting choice of tree species!
Down
2 Download history describing old Constable (7)
PODCAST
PAST (history) round or ‘describing’ O (old) DC (detective constable)
3 Crooks, it’s said, are fast runners (8)
CHEETAHS
A homophone (‘it’s said’) of CHEATERS (criminals)
4 Belt commandos hard (4)
SASH
SAS (commandos) H (hard)
5 Thankless international organisation reported place packed with ashes (10)
UNGRATEFUL
UN (international organisation) + a homophone (‘reported’) of GRATE FULL (‘place packed with ashes’)
6 Discover barristers examining brief (5)
TERSE
Hidden (‘dis-covered’) in barrisTERS Examining
7 Elevated god with appreciation for horror (7)
EYESORE
EROS (god) EYE (appreciation, as in ‘an eye for art’) all reversed or ‘elevated’
8 Abandoned writer, shortly looking outside and searching for hidden stream (5,8)
WATER WITCHING
An anagram of WRITEr without the last letter or ‘shortly’ (anagrind is ‘abandoned’) in WATCHING (looking) – a new phrase for us!
9 Eyes an American woman showing programs overseas (7,6)
STUDIES ABROAD
STUDIES (eyes) A (American) BROAD (woman)
14 No charge excluded as barn dances arranged – those in Spain? (10)
SARABANDES
An anagram of AS BARN DAncES without or ‘excluding’ ‘nc’ (no charge) – anagrind is ‘arranged’
17 Able to make story after being this low (5,3)
UNDER PAR
If you put ‘able’ UNDER PAR, you make ‘parable’ (story)
19 Enrols in Society to drink, accepting gin cocktail (5,2)
SIGNS UP
S (society) SUP (drink) round or ‘accepting’ an anagram of GIN – anagrind is ‘cocktail’
21 Gentlemen’s way, having three to be entertained (7)
LATRINE
LANE (way) round or ‘entertaining’ TRI (three)
23 What you do alone without Victor (5)
SOLVE
SOLE (alone) round or ‘without’ V (Victor in the phonetic alphabet)
25 Unarguably embraces upset relative (4)
GRAN
Hidden (’embraced by’) and reversed (‘upset’) in uNARGuably
I’d never heard of WATER WITCHING either (I suppose it’s the same thing as water divining) and put in a careless ‘water watching’. SATURNALIA is not the first word that comes to mind for ‘wild party’ and was my last in after almost giving up on it.
I liked the def. for WATCHMAKER, the surface for LATRINE and the original word play for UNDER PAR.
Thanks to Windsurfer for #2 here and to B&J
We ended up with about four clues unsolved on the right hand side of the grid and had to resort to a wordfinder, which gave us SATURNALIA and CASELOAD, and helped us to see LATRINE and STUDIES ABROAD. Otherwise (btw we’ve no problem with that word as a synonym for ‘alias’), a fairly satisfying puzzle but we weren’t taken with ‘insert’ for ‘load’ and we thought also that 9dn was a bit weak.
We hadn’t come across WATER WITCHING before, but it is in Chambers. Favourites, though, were WATCHMAKER and HIGH SEAS.
Thanks, Windsurfer and B&J.
Thanks for the comments; it’s always good to get the feedback about what does and doesn’t work.
Thanks BJ for a good blog; a small point but the TRI- was ‘having three.’
I parsed 9D with a minor difference, A (an) BROAD (American woman). Also didn’t much like CASELOAD, had to cheat to get it. Some good ones though, including WATER WITCHING (had to check it after guessing), LATRINE and PLEASANTRIES. Haven’t seen SARABAND(E)S with the E.
Thanks to Windsurfer and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks gwep @4; yes, your parsing is what I was intending. LOAD = insert as in loading/inserting a film into a camera.
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Windsurfer
I found this well crafted and enjoyable. The only synonym I found a bit iffy was THANKLESS.
Water witching and sarabandes were unknown but gettable.
LOAD/INSERT a video cassette was the first thing that came to mind for me.
17d COD for the penny drop moment