Independent 10,916 by Bluth

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More inventive clueing from Bluth today.

We didn’t have too much of a problem until it came to 3d which took us quite a while to unravel. We wondered whether anyone could help us with the wordplay in 2d though.

Smooth surfaces throughout – which we always like – thanks Bluth.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Private meeting’s focus for cabinet (6)
CLOSET

CLOSE (private) T (middle letter or ‘focus’ of meeting)

5. Gold disc follows rendition of Rita Ora’s debut musical composition (8)
ORATORIO

OR (gold) + O (disc) after an anagram (‘rendition’) of RITA and O (first letter or ‘debut’ of Ora)

9. Harry Enfield met corruption (10)
DEFILEMENT

An anagram (‘harry’) of ENFIELD MET

10. Inside Socrates and Pythagoras’ meeting spot (4)
ESPY

Hidden ‘inside’ SocratES PYthagoras – ‘meeting’ is included to indicate that there is no ‘and’ between the two

11. Bluth covers breaking news: vacuous actor reveals masculine habits (8)
MENSWEAR

ME (Bluth) around or ‘covering’ an anagram (‘breaking’) of NEWS + ActoR without the middle letters or ‘vacuous’

12. Brilliance of good man caught in honey trap (6)
LUSTRE

ST (saint or ‘good man’) inside or ‘caught’ by LURE (honey trap)

13. Register old design (4)
LOGO

LOG (register) O (old)

15. Due to be sold overseas – or to European Community (8)
EXPECTED

EXPorTED (to be sold overseas) with ‘or’ changing to EC (European Community)

18. Bishop on course that’s short and sweet (8)
SYLLABUB

B (bishop) on SYLLABUs (course – missing last letter or ‘short’)

19. Completely understand the woman’s missing voice (4)
ALTO

ALTOgether (completely) missing ‘get’ (understand) ‘her’ (the woman)

21. Saatchi’s opening with good artist occasionally making animation (6)
SPIRIT

S (first letter or ‘opening’ of Saatchi) PI (good) aRtIsT( alternate letters or ‘occasionally’)

23. Firm breast not completely seen – breaking the watershed – it’s stimulating (8)
NICOTINE

CO (firm) TIt (breast) missing last letter or ‘not completely seen’ inside or ‘breaking’ NINE (the watershed for programmes on TV)

25. Femme fatale‘s make up (4)
VAMP

Double definition

26. Ultimately you auction Dali off to our museum — Saatchi not happy with lack of diversity (10)
UNIFORMITY

Last or ‘ultimate’ letters of yoU auctioN DalI ofF tO ouR museuM SaatchI noT happY

27. Fireproof top carried by online fashion retailer (8)
ASBESTOS

BEST (top) inside or ‘carried by’ ASOS (online fashion retailer)

28. Isolated – perhaps Messi’s lost one yard (6)
LONELY

LiONEL (Messi, as in the footballer Lionel Messi) missing i (one) + Y (yard)

DOWN
2. Superior Italy in match with English (5)
LIEGE

I (Italy) in LEG (match?) + E (English). However, we are not sure that leg is a direct synonym for match – we cannot find it in our Chambers app or our ‘dead-tree Collins. Is it a ‘match’ in the ‘leg’ of a tournament perhaps?

3. Roswell wanting base to take alien order without researching satellite dish (5,4)
SWISS ROLL

An anagram (‘alien order’) of ROSWeLL without or ‘wanting’ E (base) outside or ‘without’ ISS (International Space Station – ‘researching satellite’). All a bit contrived we feel. Roswell has no doubt been included because it is the centre of a number of alien conspiracy theories.

4. Something drawn by Titian is layered (6)
TIERED

TIE (something drawn) RED (Titian)

5. Restyled mod band is neater – they accept change (3-5,7)
ONE-ARMED BANDITS

An anagram (‘restyled’) of MOD BAND IS NEATER

6. Perhaps Springbok to run off after six footer (8)
ANTELOPE

ELOPE (to run off) after ANT (‘six-footer’)

7. Beyonce first to sing once free – Put A Ring On It follows (5)
OBEYS

BEYonce without or ‘free of’ once + S (first letter of sing) after or ‘put on’ O (a ring)

8. Raab, maybe visiting Crete – if constituents agitated, it’s not ideal (9)
IMPERFECT

MP (Raab maybe) inside or ‘visiting’ an anagram (‘constituents agitated’) of CRETE IF

14. Regularly taking volleys – initially most players improve action during school games periods (9)
OLYMPIADS

Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of vOlLeYs + the first or ‘initial’ letters of Most Players Improve Action During School

16. Skilled worker in boat’s crew (9)
CRAFTSMAN

CRAFTS (boats) MAN (crew as in man the lifeboats)

17. Hamper from ex-students with one who skipped school about to replace case from Amazon (8)
OBSTRUCT

OBS (old boys – ex students) TRUanT (one who skipped school) with C (about) replacing ‘an’ (first and last letters or ‘case’ of Amazon)

20. Decorative strip bearing motto in small capitals on mug (6)
SCROLL

SC (small capitals) on ROLL (mug). We weren’t sure about MUG = ROLL but Chambers lists them as synonyms for ‘to attack and rob’

22. Blended puree with Indian bread (5)
RUPEE

An anagram (‘blended’) of PUREE

24. Glaringly obvious, in retrospect – expelling extreme elements of Labour (5) – definition corrected – thanks Bluth @ 18 (and widdersbel @ 21) for pointing out our error – slip of the mouse
NATAL

bLATANt (glaringly obvious) reversed or ‘in retrospect’ without or ‘expelling’ first and last letters or ‘extremes’

 

27 comments on “Independent 10,916 by Bluth”

  1. I wouldn’t have thought of ‘leg’ as a direct synonym for ‘match’ but a two game series – home and away in a cup competition for example – will be divided into first and second legs. Which might help with LIEGE but I was lost trying to parse SWISS ROLL which was a bit of a bung and pray, though I could see Roswell had a roll to play!

    Some tricky removals and substitutions through this puzzle that made for some tortuous parsing experiences but got there in the end. It’s one of those substitutions that gets my vote for COTD, though: EXPECTED is clever and I so nearly bunged in exported before re-reading the clue and focusing on the wordplay.

    Thanks Bluth and B&J

  2. Like PostMark, EXPECTED was my favourite today, although I felt this didn’t reach Bluth’s usual high standard – maybe just me though. I felt leg as meaning “stage” was a reasonable fit with “match”. 4d was quite clever. Had to guess “roll” could mean “mug” in that sense but this is news to me.

  3. I too marked EXPECTED as a favourite, particularly as I too nearly fell into the exported trap. I also had to mutter a bit at SWISS ROLL in order to parse it

    Thanks to Bluth and B&J

  5. Enjoyable but hard work. I missed TIERED and muttering or not, couldn’t parse SWISS ROLL, which I never would have worked out, or SCROLL which went in from the def. Even though we’ve had it recently I’d also forgotten about NINE for ‘watershed’.

    I liked LIEGE one of those interesting contronyms about which we had a themed puzzle a few weeks or so ago.

    Thanks to Bluth and B&J

  6. The usual mixture from this setter, with mostly enjoyable clues spoiled for me by some strange surfaces for a few of the more wordy clues. My only parsing failure was the ROLL part of SCROLL.

    My top three were DEFILEMENT, EXPECTED and TIERED.

    Thanks to Bluth and to B&J.

  7. I failed in the NW corner, unable to see CLOSET and SWISS ROLL. Leg = match is fine by me, i.e the first match in a tie. The clue for 26A was excellent. Thanks Bluth and B&J.

  9. Enjoyed all of this bar the horribly clunky 7D and it was solved pretty quickly by my standards too.
    18 was my favourite for simplicity and surface.
    Thanks to Bluth and B&J

  10. Another vote for 18a, and for the same reasons. Enjoyed this a lot, though I could never have muttered hard enough or long enough to parse 3d. 17d was a bit convoluted, too, and in these parts we’re not truants who play truant; we’re twaggers who twag off. But it would be unreasonable to expect the rest of the world to cope with a clue based on that ? Thanks to Bluth and Bertandjoyce

  11. Kurukveera @8. You may be correct. I took “to take alien order” as the anagram indicator and E as base, commonly used by setters to refer to the natural logarithm base (or log to base e). I reckon either works.

  12. I’m also in the enjoyable but tough in places camp. I didn’t have a problem with LEG as MATCH in European football.
    My favourite was 8D – unexpectedly topical given the usual lead time for publication.

  13. Oddly I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected to, no idea why. Maybe it was a little more convoluted than usual but not by much. I just didn’t get the same sense of fun as I usually would from Bluth. Probably just an off day for me.

    Swiss roll I bunged in from crossers and decided to let someone smarter than me explain the parsing – thanks B&J

    I was fine with leg for match, and found this is in the Chambers app under leg.
    “8. In sports, one event or part in a contest consisting of two or more parts or events.” From that you could define almost any game, set, rubber or match of many sports as a leg.

    Thanks Bluth and B&J

  15. Bingy @14: not sure I agree. A cup tie is a match, even before it has been played, lost, drawn or won. Of course, a tie can result from a draw – but a different sort of draw!

  16. Bingo @14. Not how I read the clue. If a match is drawn then it is a tie, so a tie is something (e.g. a match) drawn.

  18. Thanks for the blog, B&J and for the comments so far.

    I think the underlining might be a tad wrong in 24D – or at least I didn’t consider the word ‘elements’ to be part of the definition.

    The ‘extreme elements’ are what are removed from BLATANT – and the definition is simply, ‘of labour’.

    I’m amused by the discussion concerning when a tie is a draw. Bingy @14 – yes, when a match has been drawn it becomes a tie… and so a tie is something drawn.

    Kurukveera @8, B&J’s parsing and Hovis’s explanation are both as intended. While ‘base to take’ could be taken to mean, E, ‘alien order’ by itself wouldn’t really suffice as an anagram indicator and it isn’t doing double duty.

    Chambers: e – the base of the natural system of logarithms

    I didn’t think Leg/Match remotely controversial. As someone who follows Champions League football where each team plays their European opponent home and away, I’m used to seeing the two terms used interchangeably in football reports.

    “They face a difficult first leg/match away in Rome but will be delighted to play the second leg/match back at Anfield.” etc etc

    Cheers all.

  20. Kurukveera@8 Your suggestion of the E being given by base to take is a good one, and certainly the more obvious interpretation if you’re unaware of the crossword convention of using base to indicate E. That leaves alien order as the anagram indicator; it is an anagrammy phrase, linked by juxtaposition to the fodder, in the same way that ‘constituents agitated’ is an anagrammy phrase linked by juxtaposition to ‘Crete if’ in 8 down. Yours is a perfectly sensible way to interpret the clue.

  21. Thanks Bluth and B&J. Lots of good fun clues here. DEFILEMENT was my favourite – I don’t mind the more convoluted surfaces but this one is beautifully neat and concise. I more or less got there with SWISS ROLL but didn’t get the base part (maths not my strong suit). No problem with match=leg for me.

    Idiotically, I wrote in NARCOTIC for 23a, even though I did remember NINE=watershed from Bluth’s recent effort. This error held me up for ages in that corner. Doh!

    I was going to mention ’elements’ being incorrectly highlighted as part of the definition in 24d but I see we’ve already had it from the horse’s mouth.

  22. Thanks to Bluth for dropping by and, among other things, pointing out our error in including ‘elements’ as part of the definition for 24d – now corrected. Thanks also to widdersbel.

  23. I thought the Beyonce clue was neat once I worked it out, and the extended definition of putting a ring on after promising to love, honour and OBEY.
    Haven’t seen a one-armed bandit that accepts coins for many years. Doesn’t mean I won’t be playing one on Monday for the first time in over 3 months.

  24. Thanks BertandJoyce, plenty to unpack here and i never did work out what NATAL had been whittled down from (crossers were friendly thank goodness) and failed on ESPY having offered a tentative EXPO as a plausibly Greek meeting place. I agree that many clues are quite wordy but I really enjoyed unravelling eg OBEYS and ALTO although it took a while, lots of other inventive tricks as you note, i thought OLYMPIADS and ORATORIO worked really well, thanks Bluth.
    GreginSyd does that mean that pokies are now contactless-only in Aus? I was happy with that definition as the term can reasonably stretch to any “fruit machine” here and they still take coins. Best of luck anyway!

  25. Thanks Gazzh, hope they’re not now contactless That’s where the fun is, but they only accept notes here in NSW.

  26. “Pokies” being short for “poker machines” referring to early gambling slot-machines mostly featuring poker card games characters .In case anyone was wondering.

  27. A day late to this & must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. LONELY was my PDM as it took an embarrassingly long time for the parsing coin to drop. COTD was the topicality of the IMPERFECT surface read.
    Many thanks

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