Independent 10,336 / Dutch

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It is a year and half since I last blogged a puzzle by Dutch, so I was pleased to renew my acquaintance with him today.

I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle. I got off to an incredibly slow start, but then I speeded up quite considerably as the grid filled up. And indeed there was a lot of fun to be had along the way.

I am happy with my parsing of all but 17, where I was unfamiliar with this expression, having met only “real-life” and “true-to-life” myself. The entry at 3 was new to me, as was this particular sense of the entry at 6.

As for my favourite clues, I particularly liked 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, all for surface; 8, for ingenuity; and 2, 15A and 21, all for putting a cheeky grin on my face.

Interestingly, there is a Nina around the perimeter of the puzzle, which spells out IN THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND, referencing what was originally a hit in English for Noel Harrison in 1968. I suppose the relevance here from our compiler’s perspective is the Dutch connection!

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

Across    
     
07 WOMANISH In a scrum, I am shown to be unmanly

*(I AM SHOWN); “in a scrum” is anagram indicator
     
09 ARMFUL Toxic husband falling out is all she can bear

<h>ARMFUL (=toxic); “husband (=H) falling out” means that letter “h” is dropped
     
10 EIRE Nation of characters remarkable in their eloquence

Hidden (“characters, i.e. letters, remarkable”) in “thEIR Eloquence”
     
11 ERADICATES Roots out drug issues involving cocaine

E (=drug, i.e. ecstasy) + [C (=cocaine, colloquially) in RADIATES (=issues, emits)]
     
12 HEATER Maybe fire her over lunch?

EAT (=lunch, have midday meal) in HER
     
14 TEAR INTO Passionate about putting career first? Rubbish

TEAR (=career, race ahead) + INTO (=passionate about); to tear into something is to rubbish it, dismiss it as worthless
     
15 SMALLHOLDINGS Properties of underwear that will inspire cuddling

HOLDING (=cuddling) in SMALLS (=underwear)
     
17 TRUE-LIFE Time to regret being grounded in reality

T (=time) + RUE (=regret) + LIFE (=(a) being)
     
19 SHERIF Muslim ruler apparently not as loud as western lawman

SHERIF<f> (=western lawman); “not as loud as” means “ff (=fortissimo, in music)” becomes “f (=forte)”
     
21 NON-NATURAL Forced Widdecombe, on making a comeback, to join loony ultra

NONNA (ANN=Widdecombe (i.e. UKIP MEP) + ON; “making a comeback” indicates reversal) + *(ULTRA); “loony” is anagram indicator
     
22 BUSY Blue sky sometimes is unavailable

B<l>U<e> S<k>Y (“sometimes” means alternate letters only are used)
     
23 INFORM Where students learn to sing?

IN <a> FORM (=where students learn); colloquially, to sing is to inform on, to grass up
     
24 STILETTO Tilt toes to fit this?

*(TILT TOES); “to fit” is anagram indicator; & lit.-ish
     
Down    
     
01 IODINE I eat under the moon

IO (=moon, of Jupiter) + DINE (=eat); I is the chemical formula for iodine
     
02 NAPE Scruff has shag, perhaps, before writing letter ending romance

NAP (=shag, as in shag-pile carpets) + <romanc>E (“letter ending” means last letter only); the scruff of the neck is the nape of the neck
     
03 DIHEDRAL Artfully hide returning fat with particular angle

*(HIDE) + DRAL (LARD=fat; “returning” indicates reversal); “artfully” is anagram indicator; in geometry, dihedral means bounded by two planes, hence “with particular angle”
     
04 MANILA Scandal in America not fully written up in paper

Hidden (“not fully”) and vertically reversed (“written up”) in “scandAL IN AMerica”; manila is strong brownish paper
     
05 IMPATIENCE Mince pie at work? Can’t wait for this!

*(MINCE PIE AT); “work (=manipulate, knead)” is anagram indicator; an impatient person can’t wait for anything
     
06 LUNETTES Stringed instruments inlaid with ten inverted horseshoes

NET (TEN; “inverted” indicates reversal) in LUTES (= (old) stringed instruments); lunettes are small horseshoes
     
08 HEART-TO-HEARTS Are cards kept close to the chest in these talks? On the contrary

Cryptic definition: a heart-to-heart is a frank, open discussion, in which one’s cards (=hearts) are not kept close to one’s chest!
     
13 TRADE UNION Deal with marriage association that improves relations

TRADE (=deal with) + UNION (=marriage); the “relations” of the definition are industrial relations
     
15 SURROUND Ring Tusk about avoiding borders (never ending like a circle)

SU (<t>US<k>; “avoiding borders” means first and last letters are dropped; “about” indicates reversal) + <neve>R (“ending” means last letter only) + ROUND (=like a circle)
     
16 DISCLAIM Dutch is right – say it isn’t so!

D (=Dutch) + IS + CLAIM (=right (to something))
     
18 ISTHMI Is the contracted motorway to provide narrow junctions?

IS + TH<e> (“contracted” means last letter dropped) + M1 (=motorway); an isthmus is a narrow neck of land connecting two larger portions, hence “narrow junctions”
     
20 IN SITU SI unit for movement in designated position

*(SI UNIT); “for movement” is anagram indicator
     
22 BEER On the mend, abstainer rejected drink

BE<tt>ER (=on the mend, less ill); “abstainer (=TT, i.e. teetotaller) rejected” means letters “tt” are dropped
     

 

11 comments on “Independent 10,336 / Dutch”

  1. Another lovely puzzle by Dutch. I think I’d have missed the Nina had the wordplay at 15d not alerted me to it.

    Thanks to Dutch & RR

  2. We spotted the nina for once and it helped us to finish.  We did wonder if it was the 50th anniversary of the song so were a bit surprised to find it dates from 1968.

    We liked the surface of 15ac and the &lit-ishness of 24ac, as well as the use of the chemical symbol in 1dn.

    Thanks, Dutch and RatkojaRiku.

  3. Good to see that you’re still compiling, Dutch, quite a while since we’ve seen one of yours.

    3d was new to me and, as usual, it took me a while to register the chemical symbol.   It also took our blogger to point out the Nina!   Your definition of 13d made me smile.

    Many thanks for the puzzle and thanks to RR for the review.

     

     

  4. Thanks to RatkojaRiku and Dutch

    I parsed 8d as chest (heart) to cards (hearts), i.e. contrary to “cards close to chest”, but I suppose either works.

    All good fun, especially “smallholdings”.

  5. Great puzzle, not a dull clue.  I found it quite hard until I filled in the edge with a little less than half completed.  Particularly liked DISCLAIM, IODINE, MANILA, SMALLHOLDINGS, HEATER.

    Thanks Dutch, RR

  6. Nice to have Dutch back (and on form too!)
    This crossword has all the lightness of touch that is characteristic to this setter.

    Meanwhile, I found this crossword considerably easier than yesterday’s Eccles, also a favourite.
    I am only saying this because for me this puzzle didn’t feel as a Thursday puzzle.
    Which says nothing about the quality, only about, ah, whatever?!

    I missed the nina and am curious about the significance of it (if there is).

    Many thanks to RR & Dutch [hope you’re working on the next one already!]

  7. Most enjoyable! I only realised Dutch had one out because I was alerted to Eimi’s Tuesday themer and spotted Dutch’s bame in the Indy list. O happy coincidence!

    I completely missed the nina. (Sil, it’s a haunting song from the 60’s, used as the theme tune to the film The Thomas Crown Affair, which includes the line “never ending, like a circle”. Plug the nina into YouTube).

    So many good clues I wouldn’t know where to start listing them.

  8. Tony, I know the song well but not well enough to recall the line you mention.

    So, here we have a crossword in which the nina is linked to (or even part of) the wordplay of just one clue (15d).

    That’s novel, isn’t it?

    [whether the song is haunting, well, there we might disagree, I’m afraid – I have a different take on the 60s]

  9. Sil, I listened to the song again after I wrote that (the Dusty Springfield cover, not the Noel Harrison original) and in fact I’m not sure those exact words occur, though they are at least very reminiscent of the actual lyrics. Baerchen@1 does say that 15d ‘alerted’ him to the nina. I’m not sure there’s any significance to the it other than the obvious ‘Dutch’ connection and that it gave our friend a constraint to work within. I’m surprised not to see Dutch commenting here as is his custom and hope he is well and that he will be at the George next week.

  10. Tony, the (English) lyrics of the song contain separately “Round like a circle” and “Never ending” (in its first two lines).

    But what is this ‘obvious Dutch connection’ (as both you and RR mention)?

    Not just ‘windmill’, I hope? That’s such a stereotype. There are a lot more countries with windmills, even the UK has quite a few.

  11. As I said on the Eimi blog this week, I don’t often get to do the Indy puzzles, but I was tempted to try this one as well, and I’m glad I did.
    I looked for a Nina when I had only a quarter of the perimeter letters missing but couldn’t see it. Two clues and two more letters later there it was: very neat.
    There were many good clues here: I particularly liked SMALLHOLDINGS, NON-NATURAL, IODINE, ISTHMI, DISCLAIM and IN SITU.
    Thanks to Dutch and RR.

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