Independent 10,853 by Wire

by

Wire provides today’s challenge, with a few tricky parsings but plenty of fun.

We seem to have a few references to Members of Parliament, and several references to telling lies. Surely Wire isn’t suggesting that our MPs might be untruthful? – well, they’ve said it often enough about each other, despite Parliamentary rules forbidding them to do so.

Lots of good surfaces: I liked the bolting horse in 7d, the rodent breeding problems in 10a, and the drinking excursion in 15d. 1a is ingenious; I wondered whether some of the other entries are meant to relate to him, but I couldn’t find either ORDER or TENNIS so perhaps not. Thanks Wire for an enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 BERCOW
Who’s cursed by oddly going to the Left? (6)
Odd-numbered letters (oddly) of W[h]O[s] C[u]R[s]E[d] B[y], reversed (going to the left = reading right to left).

Clue-as-definition, referring to the former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who went to the (political) Left earlier this year by defecting from Conservative to Labour.
4 CROSSBAR
Posts support this angry poet for the most part (8)
CROSS (angry) + BAR[d] (poet; for the most part = all but the last letter).

The horizontal bar of the goal (between the posts) in football and other sports.
9 DEPOT
Racked up units presumably around storage facility (5)
TOPED (archaic / literary word for “drank” = racked up units of alcohol, presumably) reversed (around).
10 ENIGMATIC
Reproduction of giant mice is not simple (9)
Anagram (re-production) of GIANT MICE.
11 PINOCCHIO
Characters pressing retired fool over fabled liar (9)
PI + CHI (two Greek characters), containing (pressing) CON (as a verb = deceive = fool) reversed (back), then O (over in cricket scoring).

Children’s story character: a wooden puppet with a bad habit of telling lies, whose nose grows longer every time he tells one.
12 LIEGE
Misrepresent the investments of gauche lord (5)
LIE (misrepresent) + outer letters (investment = outer coating or clothing) of G[auch]E. I thought that was rather hard.”Lie” doesn’t quite work grammatically, because to misrepresent something is to lie about something; and these meanings of investment are somewhat obscure.

As in “my liege”, denoting feudal allegiance in the Middle Ages.
13 STICKABILITY
Perseverance and deftness on the hockey pitch? (12)
Cryptic definition: someone who’s deft with a hockey stick might be said to have STICK ABILITY.

Informal word for “the ability to stick to a difficult task”.
17 PARTISANSHIP
Loyalty of priest and skilled worker joining craft (12)
P (abbreviation for priest) + ARTISAN (skilled worker) + SHIP (sea-going craft).
20 UVULA
Dangly bit of gold captivating sweetheart on return (5)
AU (Au = chemical symbol for gold), containing (captivating) LUV (informal version of “love” = term of address to a sweetheart), all reversed (on return).

The dangly bit at the back of the mouth (between the tonsils).
21 OMISSIONS
Gaps in bone plugged by operation (9)
OS (anatomical term for bone, from the Latin), plugged by MISSION (a military operation).
23 PEACENIKS
Incas keep wild doves (9)
Anagram (wild) of INCAS KEEP.

Dove = someone who avoids war = peacenik, using the suffix -nik (from Russian / Yiddish) meaning a person associated with a specific cause or activity.
24 APHID
Exposure of tape with concealed bug (5)
[t]AP[e] (exposure = removing the outer layer) + HID (concealed).

Bug = insect.
25 TARTRATE
Regularity of pastries perhaps getting salt (8)
Cryptic definition: the regularity with which pastries appear might perhaps be called the TART RATE.

Salt = a chemical compound, in this case one derived from tartaric acid.
26 VENOUS
Some derive no use from a vessel (6)
Hidden answer (some . . .) in [deri]VE NO US[e].

Vessel as in blood vessel; venous = from a vein.
DOWN
1 BUDAPEST
22 worked aboard boat up in city (8)
Anagram (worked) of SPADE (the answer to 22d), contained in (aboard) TUB (a cargo boat) reversed (up, in a down clue).
2 ROPING IN
Feeling at home with leader away recruiting (6,2)
[g]ROPING (feeling) + IN (at home), with the leader (first letter) taken away.

Rope in = persuade (someone) to get involved in a task = recruit.
3 OPTIC
Note found in old copper device attached to bottle (5)
TI (a note in the musical sol-fa scale), found in O (old) + PC (police constable = copper).

A device attached to an upturned bottle of spirits behind a bar, used to dispense a standard measure.
5 RHINOPLASTIES
They can mitigate the problems of ‘prominent’ fibbers? (13)
Cryptic definition. Rhinoplasty = cosmetic surgery on the nose, which might (facetiously) be needed by someone with the same problem as Pinocchio (see 11a).
6 SIMPLETON
Charlie not upset after lies PM fabricated (9)
NOT reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue), after an anagram (fabricated) of LIES PM.

Charlie = simpleton = idiot.
7 BATTEN
Secure former Earl whose horse has bolted (6)
[mount]BATTEN (former Earl; there is still an Earl Mountbatten, but “former” presumably refers to the first Earl, Lord Louis Mountbatten), with the MOUNT (horse) having run away (bolted).

As in “batten down the hatches” = secure everything on board ship before an approaching storm.
8 ROCKER
60s rebel nutcase may have gone off this (6)
Cryptic definition: nutcase = slang for someone who has gone mad = gone off their rocker.

Member of a 1960s subculture associated with motorbikes and rock’n’roll music.
10 EXHIBITIONIST
Flamboyant sort of hit in box set 11 remastered (13)
Anagram (remastered) of HIT IN BOX SET + II, where I = 1 in Roman numerals.
14 KOALA BEAR
Raised a fine sailor to feed king’s animal (5,4)
A + OK (fine = good enough), reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue), then AB (able-seaman = sailor) inserted into (to feed) LEAR (Shakespearean king).
15 CHOO-CHOO
Talk fondly about a type of ‘booze train‘ (4-4)
COO (as in “bill and coo” = talk fondly) around HOOCH (illicitly produced alcoholic drink = a type of booze).

Childish word for a train, from its sound (in the days of steam trains).
16 EPISODES
Pies thrown prior to poetry events (8)
Anagram (thrown) of PIES, before ODES (poetry).

At first I thought “episode” suggested a period of time and “event” a specific occurrence, so they didn’t quite match. But a “medical event” and a “medical episode” are synonymous I suppose.
18 PUPPET
11 was one place to cover part of Javid’s remit (6)
PUT (place, as a verb) covering PPE (personal protective equipment: used by National Health Service staff, and therefore in the remit of the Health Secretary Sajid Javid). He hasn’t been in the job for long; I wonder whether Wire originally wrote this clue referring to Hancock and then had to make a hasty change?

Reference to 11a PINOCCHIO.
19 AU PAIR
Help with introductions to an unusual party broadcast (2,4)
First letters (introductions) to A[n] U[nusual] P[arty], then AIR (as a verb = broadcast).

Au pair = a young person from overseas, providing domestic help in exchange for accommodation and language experience.
22 SPADE
Picked up sterilised tool (5)
Homophone (picked up) of SPAYED = neutered (applied to a female animal) = sterilised.

11 comments on “Independent 10,853 by Wire”

  1. Thanks Wire and Quirister. Nice Monday puzzle but DNF because of 1a-hadnt heard of him but glad I have now. Stout fellow!

  2. I found this a bit of a slog, I’m sorry to say. Not my cup of tea.

    Thanks anyway to Wire and also to Quirister.

    Copmus @1. I’m astonished that you haven’t heard of 1a. Whatever one’s political leanings, he brought the venerable office of Speaker into utter disrepute by completely ignoring the basic requirement of impartiality required by that office.

  3. Thanks for the blog, Quirister (and Wire for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle). Addressing two of your queries, Chambers Thesaurus gives lie and misrepresent as synonyms. (I just mistyped “goves lie” there – Freudian slip!!!) And “an episode” can be a tantrum which is certainly an event and would fit with the surface.

    I thought this was very smooth with some of the constructions absolutely delightful: BERCOW set the tone and is as &littish as they come for me; STICKABILITY was funny and PARTISANSHIP has a lovely surface; TARTRATE was another laugh and I’m glad it was a ‘clean’ definition 😉 ; SIMPLETON may have a political surface but was cleverly written with the definition almost overlooked; hooch in CHOO CHOO was a lovely spot; SPADE is brilliant and I’ll round off with EXHIBITIONIST with that neat misdirect back at the ’eminence grise’ of this puzzle: the lurking PINOCCHIO.

  4. Sorry to say that I didn’t really enjoy this one – possibly down to the way in which the clues were constructed. Not to worry, others have obviously found it more to their liking.

    Thanks to Wire for his efforts and to Quirister for the confirmation of parsing.

  5. Some very strange clues here, but I suppose that’s what cryptic crosswords are all about. 1A completely defeated me and I suspect most other solvers. Apart from this, enjoyed it, so thanks Wire and Quirister.

  6. I found a lot of the clues very tough today, though having read the blog some of them I really should have got. In others my general knowledge wasn’t as general as Wire’s, but we live and learn! And I did love 1A.

  8. Quite challenging for a Monday, but we got everything, albeit with a few unparsed. Favourites included ENIGMATIC, STICKABILITY and BUDAPEST.
    Thanks, Wire and Quirister.

  9. I think there was lots to like here.
    Yes, like Dormouse @7 I needed a word search to get 5dn.
    Some very strange clues here? (Tatrasman @5) – I didn’t see them.
    A bit difficult for a Monday but, then, yesterday’s Filbert wasn’t the obvious IoS crossword either.
    In my opinion, two fine puzzles in a row.
    Like PostMark @3, I treasured the &lit at 1ac [not sure whether I totally agree with Rabbit Dave @2].
    I love a bit of politics in crosswords, so 18dn wasn’t wasted on me.
    Many thanks to Quirister & Wire.

  10. Yet another who needed a word search for 5dn, but I’m definitely among those who really enjoyed this.

  11. I tend to agree with the “strange clueing” camp.. or maybe defs as well.. 5dn being a good example… I could go on..
    Thanks Wire n Quirister

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