A pleasant, if not too taxing, solve from Morph today – no obvious tricks, but it was a treat…(oops, I’m a week early with the Halloween puns…)
I haven’t blogged a Morph puzzle since May 2015 – Indy 8913 – pre-Brexit, pre-Covid, pre-Trump-as-POTUS…such innocent, happy times…what a lot has happened since (;+<)
11A BOB+BING raised a chuckle, and a big tick on my solving copy – what a lovely clue!
16A ETERNAL TRIANGLE went in quite early, but was my LOP – last one parsed – an intricate &lit, I believe? 6D STREAK was also &lit-ish.
The short and sweet clue for 5D (Commute, hands raised) evoked bygone memories (from March, pre-Covid) of people crammed in tube trains with their hands raised (and armpits correspondingly opened!)… Also succinct was 20D (One getting 2p?). Was this a double definition, or does the question mark imply a little liberty with the meaning of ‘get’?…
I couldn’t see any particular theme or Nina – but I may have missed something,
Overall, an enjoyable solve with some nice surface reads and sound clueing – thanks to Morph, and hope all is clear below:
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 7A | METADATA | Got together with a potential partner, one covering up electronic background information (8) | background information / MET (got together with) A + DAT( |
|
| 8A | WATER | Conflict around borders surrounding the most precious resource (5) | most precious resource / WA_R (conflict) around T( |
|
| 11A | BOBBING | Hope Crosby’s enjoying ‘Sleigh Ride’? (7) | enjoying sleigh ride / BOB (Bob Hope) + BING (Bing Crosby)! |
|
| 12A | CYPRESS | Evergreen City, bypassing midfield, push forward (7) | evergreen / C( |
|
| 13A | THORN | Spike in rent around end of month (5) | spike / T_ORN (rent) around H (end of montH) |
|
| 14A | NITPICKER | Fussy person, one making selection after getting money back (9) | fussy person / NIT (tin, or money, back) + PICKER (one making selection) |
|
| 16A | ETERNAL TRIANGLE | Threesome in extremely adventurous liaison, primarily relating in complicated way (7,8) | &lit / E_AL (first, or primary, letters of Extremely Adventurous Liaison) around TERN (set of three, threesome) + TRIANGLE (anag, i.e. in a complicated way, of RELATING) |
|
| 19A | ENCRYPTED | Aim to keep call private? Ensured it’s so (9) | ensured it’s so (i.e. private) / EN_D (aim) around (keeping) CRY (call) + PTE (private) |
|
| 22A | CARAT | Carry round a little weight (5) | little weight / CAR_T (carry) around A |
|
| 23A | OPPOSER | Work given to model is a con (7) | a con (as opposed to a pro) / OP (opus, musical, work) + POSER (model) |
|
| 25A | TORNADO | Bullfighter endlessly changing direction, one twisting around (7) | one twisting around / TOR( |
|
| 26A | SLEEP | Strips after retiring for shuteye (5) | shuteye / PEELS (strips) retiring, or reversed = SLEEP |
|
| 27A | FIRST AID | Tree beside grave gets emergency treatment (5,3) | emergency treatment / FIR (tree) + ST AID (grave, sober) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | PEMBROKE | Politician turned up penniless in Welsh town (8) | Welsh town / PEM (MEP, politician, turned up) + BROKE (penniless) |
|
| 2D | MALIGNANCY | Hate grand city in France – country’s superior (10) | hate / MALI (country) above (superior to, in a Down clue) G (grand) + NANCY (city in France) |
|
| 3D | MARGINAL | Alarming, stumbling on the edge (8) | on the edge / anag, i.e. stumbling, of ALARMING |
|
| 4D | MASCOT | It’s lucky mother’s got somewhere to put baby (6) | it’s lucky / MAS (mother’s) + COT (somewhere to put a baby) |
|
| 5D | SWAP | Commute, hands raised (4) | commute / PAWS (hands) raised again, in a Down clue) = SWAP (commute, or exchange) |
|
| 6D | STREAK | Run in street, shamefully naked, unclothed (6) | &lit / ST (street) + R (run) + EAK (anag, i.e. shamefully, of ( |
|
| 9D | RESURRECTION | Ace dismissed by harassed course trainer, being late riser? (12) | late riser (i.e. something that makes the late, or dead, arise) / anag, i.e. harassed, of COURSE TR( |
|
| 10D | OBSTREPEROUS | Set super booster to ‘loud’ (12) | loud / anag, i.e. set, of SUPER BOOSTER |
|
| 15D | INACCURATE | Where g-good parts of an egg may be found? Wrong! (10) | wrong / a ‘curate’s egg’ is something that is good in parts and not so good in others, so g-good things might be stutteringly found IN A C-CURATE(‘s egg) |
|
| 17D | REDSTART | Maybe cherry’s sour for bird (8) | bird / RED (cherry, colour) + S (possessive ‘s) + TART (sour) |
|
| 18D | GERMANIC | Like Wagner’s Ring, came with translation (8) | like Wagner / anag, i.e. with translation, of RING CAME |
|
| 20D | COPPER | One getting 2p? (6) | double defn? 2p (coin) / to cop can be to get/catch/obtain something, so someone who cops could be a COPPER?! And a 2p coin is commonly referred to as a COPPER |
|
| 21D | TARIFF | Charges a rector getting into dispute (6) | charges / T_IFF (dispute) around (got into by) A + R (rector) |
|
| 24D | SAPS | Drains baths from the bottom (4) | drains / SPAS, or baths, from the bottom up, gives ‘SAPS’! |
|
15d earned a bit of a hmm, but that apart, this was very enjoyable with a few good tussles needed to unravel some of the wordplay – although I did fail to parse 19a because I didn’t know the abbreviation for “private”.
My podium choice was BOBBING, ETERNAL TRIANGLE and STREAK.
Many thanks to Morph and to mc_rapper67.
Thanks to Morph for another treat of a crossword – unlike RD I liked 15d , and 11a also made me smile
Thanks also to mc_rapper67
Very pleasant, nothing too taxing but not a doddle either.
11 ac stirred memories of a similar clue many years ago, probably in the Graun, although there the BOBBING was the movement, not the sleigh ride.
ENCRYPTED was our favoutite, with INACCURATE as runner-up.
Thanks, Morph and mc_rapper67
What crypticsue said – with the addition of the little gem MASCOT.
Many thanks to both.
Enough to keep you thinking, but not many frustrations thank goodness, apart from ETERNAL TRIANGLE, which I couldn’t parse. Yes, I thought COPPER was a double def
Favourite, because I like the word (and haven’t seen it often in crosswords) was OBSTREPEROUS.
Thanks to Morph and mc_rapper67
I think I’m going to return to lurking permanently, but had to pop in today to say how much I loved this puzzle.
Too many great clues to mention individually. Not an uncommon “problem” with Morph puzzles!
Many thanks Morph and mc_rapper (oh, now I’m imagining a world without the tern you mention in your preamble … ).
Kitty @6: I’ve only been commenting on here over the last few weeks but let me try to persuade you not to ‘return to lurking’. One thing I’ve noted is the huge discrepancy between the number of Guardian posts and those for other publications. The Indy has some superb and enjoyable setters as well as hardworking bloggers and it would be a shame to see any poster disappear from the relatively small number who give them feedback and praise.
I agree with the general tone – not the trickiest of puzzles – but some lovely clues and very high marks from me for many of the surfaces. Succinct, relevant, smooth and coherent. Indy setters seem to come up with a goodly number of either pure &lits or &littish clues and the two mentioned by our blogger are good examples. I generally struggle with ‘stutter clues’ but unlike Rabbit Dave and like crypticsue and allan_c, INACCURATE was a favourite. Others I really liked included WATER (even though the surface was a little convoluted), CARAT and SLEEP which is delightful. MALIGNANCY was a joy to patiently assemble – backwards in my case and GERMANIC has one of those beautiful relevant surfaces I praised earlier. COTD has to be BOBBING: there might be better clues but I’ve never spotted that Bob/Bing connection despite the number of times I’ve seen the two stars linked and it produced the same chuckle and tick as for mc_rapper67.
Thanks Morph and blogger.
Wasn’t keen on ‘shamefully’ as an anagrind and so couldn’t parse 6D but it was clear enough what the answer was.
Also thought something was going on across the top when the 1st 3 down clues I solved were 2, 3 and 4 which all began with an M but PEMBROKE put me right (am I allowed to mention places in Wales?!).
Enjoyed this so thanks to Morph and mc_rapper67 for the blog.
I enjoyed this, and have just forwarded 21D, 15D and 9D to a rector friend to bring a smile to her and her curate’s faces. I struggled with some – in 11a I assumed enjoyed => ate so interpreted it as a container clue and 1D was my last one in as I thought it was cluing a politician rather than a place in Wales, as politician = MP and a penniless one would just be M and you can’t turn up a single letter. Couldn’t parse eternal triangle either, but now I know not all terns fly!
I wasn’t particularly convinced by 15 or 20d but there were plenty of others to enjoy in this one. Learned a couple of things in the shape of METADATA and that specific definition of TERN.
Think my top three were MASCOT, RESURRECTION and GERMANIC.
Thanks to Morph and to mc rapper for the review.
Hi Postmark @7 🙂
Thanks, and I certainly agree with you. The Indy puzzles are brilliant (definitely my favourite of the dailies), and it’s so wrong that the comments here don’t reflect that.
I used to comment below the line regularly, and when I do I like to do it properly, reading the blogs and previous comments and checking back for any replies. This doesn’t take up much time in the scheme of things, but it adds up – and these days I’m busy with work and other hobbies. (I mean hobbies other than crosswords, not that work is a hobby!) While on annual leave I thought I’d do the experiment to see if I could get back in the habit, but I just can’t. So, after tomorrow, I’ll just go back to rarely commenting other than on my own blogs.
Sheepish @ 9
You can turn up a single letter! There have been, over the years, instances where, for example, an M in the clue becomes a W in the solution. Possibly not in the Indy, maybe someone like Philistine or Qaos in the graun.
Re #11, I fully understand that decision. Esp as you blog quite a few puzzles, not just on this site. There are only 24 hours in every day and, as a former blogger, I know how much time it takes esp to try to ensure one explains everything correctly.
Not as hard as some Saturday’s or morph crosswords but satisfying nonetheless. Kitty please continue to comment and lurkers please do comment. As a former blogger there is little more dispiriting than working hard on a blog and no one seeming to care. I imagine the setters must feel the same.
I don’t know who is responsible for the header, but can I just point out that the month is wrong.
While I’m here, there wasn’t much to hold me up here, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. I liked 19a, but I wasn’t happy with the parsing of 20d.
Lovely crossword from a setter who is always an inspiration to me
Or does that sound too much like the dubious “He is my Muse” …. ? 🙂
That’s funny, Kitty.
I just thought that especially in the last couple of weeks you made more contributions than ‘ever’.
Both posts and comments.
What about becoming a semi-lurker?
Thanks for all the comments and feedback – header duly corrected – my ‘tern’ to apologise to NNI at #15 for the lazy cut-n-paste…
15D and 22D seem to have raised a few eyebrows…I was happy with 22D, but should maybe have quibbled a little on 15D…where does the ‘egg’ of the c-curate fit in?…
Simon S and Sheepish – yes, single letters can be ‘terned up’, but more so in the more ‘involved’ barred thematics than the ‘plain’ blocked 15-by-15s…
reddevil at #8 – I think ‘shamefully’ helps the surface read and the nakedness…but I agree, maybe not a much-used anagrind… And yes, maybe I should have put PEMBROKE in a separate, socially distanced grid…(;+>)
Kitty – to paraphrase Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles, ‘just keep on doing that voodoo that you do so well’…
Thanks Raich @13, Flashling @14 and mc_rapper @17 🙂
Sil @16, my Indy blogs are on 4 week and 5 week cycles, which means that once every 20 weeks they coincide.
Semi-lurker sounds ok. I would like to pop my head in sometimes, because just occasionally I actually have something to say. It just became inexplicably difficult to do that.
To return briefly to the crossword (!) I agree that the location of the stutter in INACCURATE is a bit random, but it’s so cute.