Independent 10,659 by Klingsor

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It is always a joy to be blogging a puzzle by Klingsor — he is one of the setters I seek out. This one was perhaps a bit less challenging than sometimes, but we have the usual high standard of clueing.

Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

I don’t think Klingsor does Ninas, but since AURIC appeared early I did wonder if we were going to have the first names of Bond villains. We might, actually, but I don’t know many of them, and the Wikipedia list of Bond villains suggests not.

ACROSS
1 HIDEOUS Horrible defeat ultimately avoided by retreats (7)
hideou{t}s, the t being from {defea}t
5 RUGGED Not even wearing a wig? (6)
2 defs, the first relying on the equivalence of not even with uneven (= rugged), the second relying on the equivalence of wig and rug — in clues like this the setter really needs to have ‘Not even? wearing a wig?’, but that would interfere to some extent with the surface
8 ASCERTAIN Flexible rates? I can find out (9)
*(rates I can)
9 AURIC Nouveau riche somewhat concerned with gold (5)
Hidden in NouveAU RIChe
11 ORALS Skip first of ethics tests (5)
{m}orals
12 WOODENTOP Policeman needs to make impression in court work (9)
woo (dent) op — a ‘woodentop’ is a pejorative term used by plain-clothed British police for uniformed police officers, something I never knew, so this was my last one in
13 EXPOSURE Partner no longer certain about river outing (8)
ex (Po) sure — the ex is the partner-no-longer; the Po is the Italian river that is so useful to crossword setters
15 GAUCHE Nancy’s left? That’s awkward (6)
Nancy is a place in France, where they call ‘left’ ‘gauche’
17 HANDEL Composer is a crank, so they say (6)
“handle”
19 HANDYMAN One doing odd jobs had many shifts, note (8)
(had many)* N
22 EDINBURGH City diner mostly cooked hot food from the east (9)
(dine{r})* (h grub)rev. — this threw me until I had plenty of checkers, because it looked as if the definition was ‘food from the east’ and the wordplay (city dine{r})* h
23 BIGOT Leave boring part for sectarian (5)
bi(go)t — bit = part, not boring part; ‘boring’ is from the verb ‘to bore’ in the sense of making a hole in
24 SHEAR Husband dons dry fleece (5)
s(h)ear — to sear is to dry — more usually burn with heat, but Collins does give one sense as ‘to cause to wither or dry up’
25 CATATONIA Lack of mobility is first of troubles for Left in Spanish region (9)
The first of troubles is t{roubles}, and this replaces l (= left = Left) in ‘Catalonia’
26 HERESY Present extremely silly and contrary opinion (6)
here s{ill}y
27 RELEASE Let out once – or more than once? (7)
If you lease (= let out) something more than once you re-lease it
DOWN
1 HEAD OVER HEELS He loves her dearly (not half!) – could be so in love? (4,4,5)
(He loves her dea{rly})*
2 DUCHAMP Munch is inferior to Dutch artist (7)
Du champ — ‘Du’ is short for ‘Dutch’, and I was thinking it was just ‘D’, but that’s Germany — Marcel Duchamp
3 ORRIS Root for saving fine, upstanding gentleman (5)
{f}or (sir)rev.
4 STALWART Strong supporter of institute introducing new law (8)
st(alw)art, the alw being *(law) — ‘institute’ a verb
5 RANSOM Did career thus mark the price of freedom? (6)
ran so M
6 GRAVEYARD Pull up outside a very ramshackle place whose occupants have departed (9)
(a very)* in (drag)rev.
7 ERRATIC Upset about fancy car – it is unreliable (7)
(re)rev. *(car it)
10 COPPER NITRATE Compound 12’s pay after dark, we’re told? (6,7)
“copper night rate” — 12 being WOODENTOP, a uniformed policeman, as I’ve just learned — is this very nice or a chestnut?
14 SHERBORNE The woman’s brought to life in SE Dorset town (9)
S(her born)E
16 CATHETER Heading for Camden, tear off to catch the Tube (8)
C{amden} then ‘the’ in (tear)*
18 NAIVETE Inexperience of amateur seen in event I arranged (7)
A in (event I)*
20 MAGENTA Colour magazine regularly seen at bar (7)
mag. {s}e{e}n {a}t {b}a{r}
21 PRICEY Steep quarry encloses one cave’s opening (6)
pr(1 c{ave})ey — steep in the sense of being of a high price
23 BETEL Reportedly insect gets leaf to chew (5)
“beetle”

 

15 comments on “Independent 10,659 by Klingsor”

  2. Surprised not to have ever heard ‘woodentop’ as slang for policeman, but I shall now make good use of it!  Very enjoyable, so thanks Klingsor and John.

  3. Another absolutely superb Klingsor crossword. His clue construction never ceases to amaze me. The clue for EDINBURGH is a beautiful misdirection. So many great clues, EDINBURGH & GRAVEYARD being favourites. I’m sure others will mention otters, so to speak.

    My father and his father were both policemen, yet I’ve never heard of Woodentops outside the Watch with Mother programme from my youth.

    I’ve always felt that “head over heels” is a strange expression. It’s were your head normally is, after all, but somehow “heels over head” doesn’t sound right.

    Thanks to Klingsor and John.

  5. Yes, a lovely puzzle. The allusion to Edward Munch the Norwegian painter of The Scream in 2d was wittily clever.

    Thanks to Klingsor and John

  6. A nice start to Thursday. WOODENTOPS was a favourite. It was originally going to be the title of the tv programme we ( of a certain age) remember as The Bill. Following on from that COPPER NITRATE was another excellent answer.
    Thanks Kingsor and John

  8. Another lovely puzzle from Klingsor.

    I’m another who didn’t know WOODENTOP for policeman. I think I first met COPPER NITRATE as a cracker joke – but I still liked Klingsor’s treatment of it.

    My ticks today went to GAUCHE – I’m a sucker for these clues – EDINBURGH, for the misdirection, CATATONIA, HEAD OVER HEELS (as in turning somersaults, Hovis), GRAVEYARD and CATHETER – both super surfaces.

    Thanks once again, Klingsor, for a super puzzle and John for the blog.

  9. Eileen @8. I realise the somersaults meaning but still think “heels over head” is closer in meaning since you don’t have to do anything to get your head over your heels. Perhaps this is why some people say “a?*e over t!t” for somersaults 🙂 (but probably not in the ‘falling in love’ sense).

  10. I did know WOODENTOP, but took a while to parse it after entering it from the def and crossers. ERRATIC was a bit harder than it first looked and CATATONIA wasn’t the first word to come to mind for ‘Lack of mobility’, so this needed a bit of thought to fill up the grid.

    Good to see a few crossword STALWART(s) like ORRIS to add to the enjoyment.

    Thanks to Klingsor and John

  11. Klingsor rarely if ever disappoints, and this was one of his best.  But we seem to get on his wavelength quite easily so there were no problems.  EDINBURGH was superb and we also liked CATATONIA -and several others.  We took a while to get 12ac thinking ‘protector’ fitted the few crossing letters at one point, not that we could have parsed it – but then the old chestnut 10dn put us on the right track, although we didn’t know the particular usage of WOODENTOP.

    Not that it signifies anything, but we notice that the definition in 23ac is an anagram of the answer in 8ac.

    Thanks, Klingsor and John.

  12. Is 10d very nice or a chestnut? It’s a very nice chestnut, I reckon. Thoroughly good stuff throughout. I’m also in the Edinburgh fan club, and thought hideous was very neat
    Thanks to Klingsor and John

  13. ScottieJan@6… really? Woodentops best remembered as part of Watch with Mother… obvs well before my time…

  14. Joyce only knew Woodentops from her childhood although Bert thought he had vague memories of it being a policeman. Lots of lovely misdirection and great clues throughout.

    We also liked the allusion to Munch the Norwegian painter in 2d.

    Thanks to John and Klingsor.

  15. 17a made me smile, and 12a had me wondering if I had missed something back in the’70s. 22a was nearly the LOI, and had me totally barking up the wrong tree. 25a was clever, 10d has achieved national-treasure status.

    I do wonder if there may be some sectarians who aren’t 23s …

    Lots of fun, and thank-you to Klingsor.

     

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