Independent 10,511 by Bluth

by

Better come clean and admit it – I’m a Dave Gorman fan …

… ever since I saw his Googlewhack Adventure show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2003.
Early in that show he showed his crossword predilection – making a joke about being awarded a dictionary for winning the Everyman crossword “as if crossword solvers didn’t already have several dictionaries”.  I’ve seen him several times since, both live and on his own TV Channel (that is his channel isn’t it?), and his intelligent humour comes through in all of it.   I can’t help thinking he’d do better if he is a bit more offensive but he always shies away from it (like in the interstices in row 3 and column 8).

So here he is – as Bluth – still in the early stage of his new adventure as a crossword setter – already promoted to the Saturday slot (I can’t help still thinking of Saturday as the Prize crossword and a cut above the ordinary days of the week even though there is no prize these days)  – with a puzzle at least as good as those first two published.

Solving was fun.  A swift start with 1/2 first read and first solved.  Then clues fell steadily as I worked around the puzzle in an anti-clockwise manner till the end of the first pass (all clues attempted) where I had about half the puzzle filled and a largely untouched top right corner.  Among the clues worth special mention here as particularly satisfying: 16D
The second pass started with cracking the long anagram at 9A – a cracking anagram indeed and much more satisfying to solve than, say, its oppo at 29A (which was given from the enumeration and definition as much as the anagram fodder). That gave much needed letters in that top right corner and helped with the many unsolved crossing down lights.
Using A for ADULT in 8D was very sneaky.  Continue at 7D kept me guessing.  But the toughest by far was 6D – with all the crossing letters -E-O-D could be many, many words some of which might have some relationship with “Church” or “After” – the only way to resolve it was realising who the singer was, and provided the best PDM of the grid.  So

Keep ’em coming Dave!

Across
9 ANABOLIC STEROID No Deal act, Boris and I worked up – it helped Johnson win once (8,7)
(NO DEAL ACT BORIS + I)* AInd: worked up.  Ref. Ben Johnson (Canadian Sprinter – not Bojo).
10 AMERICA Country accepted organised crime ace (7)
A[ccepted] (CRIME)* AInd: organised A[ce]
12 FRONTAL Regularly ignored forlorn St Paul’s altar hanging (7)
Solved purely from wordplay: F[o]R[l]O[r]N [s]T [a]L  (alternate letters ‘regularly ignored’).
I had to check that the decorative cloth hanging at the front of an altar is properly called a Frontal
13 EXCALIBUR Old character voiced legendary blade (9)
Ex- “calibre” Homophone Indicator: voiced.  First legendary blade that springs to mind so bit of a write-in from the definition with the homophone wordplay confirming
14 DANCE Social distance one street away (5)
D[ist]ANCE.  Nice topical surface reading
15 IMPINGE Influence Independent politician in General Election initially (7)
I[ndependent] MP (politician) IN G[eneral] E[lection].
18 TRAGEDY Attempt to take in old play (7)
AGED (old) inside TRY (attempt).  Methinks that wordplay for this word has been used before
21 ECLAT Naked pecs? Add muscle for striking effect (5)
[p]EC[s] LAT (muscle)
23 INCAPABLE Useless sailor emptied latrine after panic at sea (9)
(PANIC)* AInd: at sea, AB (sailor) L[atrin]E
25 ROADIES Stage crew run over crazy ideas (7)
R[un] O[ver] (IDEAS)* AInd: crazy
26 ACRONYM Master follows athletic sidekick to find Tardis, say (7)
A[thletic] CRONY (sidekick) M[aster].  TARDIS is an archetypal acronym.
The Master and athletic sidekicks (and also Bradley Walsh) are also found in Doctor Who
29 A MONTH OF SUNDAYS Famous host, Danny broadcast for ages (1,5,2,7)
(FAMOUS HOST DANNY)* AInd: broadcast.  Pick your favourite famous Danny:  Wallace / Baker
Down
1/2 DATABASE Information hiding up in caves a bat adopted (8)
Hidden Reversed in cavES A BAT ADopted.  One day everyone will understand the difference between information and data – never mind.   First one in
3 BOULLION Stock gift containing lead free pen (8)
[q]UILL (pen, lead free)  inside BOON (gift).  This needed all crossing letters to get – probably the toughest clue in the puzzle. I very much liked the “lead free” double meaning.
4 BICARB Two cups overturned following half Arabic source of fizz (6)
[ara]BIC, BRA< (two cups, overturned)
5 ASK FOR IT Cycle fork in a squat leads to court trouble (3,3,2)
FORK with the K “cycled” to the front inside A SIT (a squat)
6 BEYOND After singer departs for church (6)
BEYONCÉ (singer) swap the final CE (church) for D (departs).  Last one in.  Toying with SECOND for ages.
7 CONTINUE Carry On Doctor, in one cut (8)
(IN ONE CUT)* AInd: doctor. A very neat clue 
8 ADULTERY A European railway’s cheating (8)
ADULT (A) E[uropean] RY (railway)
11 MAXIM Saw a team keeping two metres apart (5)
A XI (team) inside MM
15 ICE CREAM Formality over college paper – it’s a sweet course (3,5)
ICE (formality) C[ollege] REAM (paper)
16 POLKA DOT Today Klopp is lacking finishers, but looking towards the top spot (5,3)
Reversed (looking towards the top) in TODA[y] KLOP[p].  This clue sparkles – inventive wordplay, storytelling surface – what more can you ask?
17 EMISSION Turned up noise to conceal Military Intelligence special release (8)
M[ilitary] I[ntelligence] S[pecial] inside NOISE<
19 APPARENT Obvious answer pages are not vacuous (8)
A[nswer] PP (pages) ARE N[o]T
20 DELAY Lag finally escaped lock-up (5)
[escape]D, YALE< (lock, up)
22 THIRTY This number‘s dry without singer’s introduction (6)
THIR[s]TY (dry, no S[inger])
24 COARSE Inferior, firm rump (6)
CO (firm, company) ARSE (rump)
27/28 NEAR MISS Local girl’s close shave (4,4)
NEAR (local) MISS (girl)

I will be travelling and likely out of touch the rest of the day

20 comments on “Independent 10,511 by Bluth”

  1. I too would say ‘keep them coming Dave!’  Not that tricky but lots of smiles while solving which suits me fine

    Thanks to Bluth and beermagnet

  2. Seems Bluth has been looking up all the things A is an abbreviation for. We have A(ccepted), A(thletic) and A(dult).

    Managed to get 9a straightaway but what a great clue. This, together with 16d (even though I don’t follow football) were my favourites today.

    Had to use a word fit to get BOUILLON – a real stinker.

    Thanks to Bluth and beermagnet.

  3. Like Hovis I needed to consult a word list for 3D, which otherwise I’d never have got in 29A! I was also stuck on 6D but eventually the penny dropped.  Excellent clueing, so thanks Bluth and Beermagnet.

  4. All mostly straightforward and although 3dn was our LOI we didn’t need (says he, smugly) a wordfinder for it.  9ac took a while to work out but we thought from the outset it was a different Johnson and before we had any crossing letters wondered if it might be Lyndon B; don’t know why we didn’t think of an athlete.

    We liked 11dn and 14ac for their topical surfaces but favourite was POLKA DOT.

    Thanks, Bluth and beermagnet.

  5. No such church as a ‘tenord’ I see.  Ah, well.

    Maybe a DNF but I still really enjoyed this. POLKA DOT was a clever variant of a reverse hidden with a def almost hidden by the misleading wordplay. I agree ANABOLIC STEROID was an excellent anagram and like allan_c @4, I was chuffed to work out the initially impenetrable looking BOUILLON.

    Thanks to Bluth (and congrats on his Saturday debut) and beermagnet

  6. Welcome back, Bluth.  A lovely solve, thanks.  My only complaint is that you didn’t give me anything to complain about.  I’ll have to look elsewhere.

    By the way, a Grauniad setter this week used the apostrophe device that raised my eyebrows last time, and there was no controversy.  Perhaps I made too much of the style point.

  7. Even in the prize-giving days, I’ve found an amazing variation in difficulty in the Saturday crossword, some being knocked off in half an hour, others where I’ve stared at it all day and got three answers.  This was at the thirty minute end of the spectrum but that’s not a complaint.  I just seemed to be on the right wavelength for this.  I’d even heard of the singer in 8dn. 🙂

    The only aid I needed was to look up 12ac to confirm that a FRONTAL was an altar cloth.  I’m enough of a foodie to know of 3dn but I couldn’t spell it.  Fortunately the word play helped me out.

    Having dismissed Boris, my next thought for a Johnson was Samuel.  I got the clue from the crossers and the anagram fodder and then realised who it referred to.  Today’s puzzle in the Indie was charades of famous British poets and I totally failed to recognise a picture of the athlete Ben Johnson standing in for the poet Ben Jonson

  8. @6 hi Ian SW3 – I’m glad that you’ll be looking elsewhere for your grumbles. I did notice that in the Guardian – Matilda, I think it was – and I allowed myself a wry smile at the way it was so uncontroversial this time round!

    Oh, and thanks Beermagnet for the blog!

  9. You certainly are a fan, beermagnet, so I won’t risk voicing any of my ‘hmms’!

    Top of my pops were ROADIES and NEAR MISS.

    Thanks to Bluth and his contented reviewer.

  10. A refreshing canter, rather than my usual crawl. Only failures were the aforementioned sneaky A = ADULT in 8d (even with the answer in properly I *still* never saw it) and trying to parse AXI in 11d from TEAM = AXIS with the end SAWn off. Funny how the mind works sometimes. As for many, 3d & 6d were last, but I nailed ’em. 7d and 20d were favourites.

    Thanks Bluth and beermagnet

  11. @9 I don’t think there’s any risk associated with voicing your ‘hmms’ Jane… it can stimulate conversation/debate, no more, no less. I’m eager to learn and I’m sure you’d do so respectfully.

  12. As Dormouse says, there’s always been a wide variation in the degree of difficulty of the Saturday puzzles, but I’m always more interested in how good a cryptic it is (except of course when it’s impossibly difficult, when you don’t get far enough to express an opinion on it …)  BOUILLON didn’t give me much pause, but speaking French helps (bouillir is to boil, une bouilloire is a kettle).  Don’t come asking me for help when it comes to plants, though.

    This was a good cryptic, full of carefully constructed surfaces and with one or two laughs along the way (1ac wouldn’t have been out of place in Private Eye, except it would have somehow had ‘pisspoor’ as the anagrind).  Well done, that man.

    And beermagnet is contented.  So we can all go to bed on the summer solstice happy bunnies.

  13. This was a lot of fun, many thanks Bluth. Like others i found Klopp particularly nice, and I enjoyed 9a, especially as it kept me in suspense while i gathered a few more checkers. Love the surface humour and topicality, my kind of puzzle.

    And thanks for dropping in, always very nice. Jane won’t mind me saying that she normally goes hmm if there is some crudeness on offer, though of course I can’t know for sure that is the case today.

    and thank you as always beermagnet

  14. A fun solve with lots of smiles along the way. We had to resort to a word search for 3d – glad we weren’t alone in having difficulties with that clue.

    It wouldn’t be a Saturday puzzle without some head scratching.

    Loved 1ac which took a while to work out from the anagram.

    We have no idea who Dave Gorman is but we certainly enjoy the puzzles set by his alter ego.

    Thanks beermagnet and Bluth.

  15. Hi Bluth – my apologies for not replying to you before now.   Dutch is quite correct in saying that it’s usually crudeness that gains my ‘hmms’ although I’m pleased to see (unlike our blogger it would seem!) that you tend to steer away from that.   My issue in this one was with some of the surface reads – 4,5 & 17d to mention a few specifics.   It may be that such niceties are considered to be less important these days but I do hope not!

  17. Simon Anthony ended with BOUILLON and got there by postulating the top row only contained musical notes.
    I also noticed it, not before completing the puzzle, and wondered if it represents some well-known tune
    DBBBABCA  in rhythm  q ssq q q q q seems familiar but I cannot place it [q=quaver; s=semi-quaver]

  18. I use to know a Simon Anthony – we were both regulars at the BBC Proms back in the eighties – but it doesn’t seem to be the same guy.

  19. Thanks to beermagnet and Bluth

    Some nice stuff

    5d doesn’t quite work grammatically. I know “leads to” suits the surface in its suggestion of legal action, but the imperative “cycle” demands something like “to get”, or even no link words at all.

    16d doesn’t quite work for me either though 99 out of 100 solvers wouldn’t care about the redundant “but” in the cryptic reading.

  20. “Today Klopp is lacking finishers” is also problematic grammatically.

    In the surface reading “is” applies only to “Klopp”, but in the cryptic reading it applies to both “today” and “Klopp”.

    That reading requires “are”.

    In order to avoid this clash, and also to avoid the need for “but” later on, perhaps –

    Today Klopp backs off aiming for the top spot

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