Independent 11,070 by Rodriguez

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An enjoyable challenge from Rodriguez today.

The main feature today is indicated in 1d/19d: the pairs of across answers in symmetrical positions are anagrams of each other. It’s an impressive feat to achieve this with single-word entries in every case and without needing anything too 21a (or even 9a) to complete the pattern.

In terms of individual clues, I thought 16a was a neat trick, but my favourite was probably 3d where all three of the apparent food references turn out to be (appropriately enough) red herrings. Thanks Rodriguez for the fun.

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

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8 DIAL
American wearing hat over face (4)
A (short for American) inserted into (wearing) LID (slang for a hat) reversed (over).

Dial = face of a clock.
9 NEOLOGISMS
One fresh record one’s writing showing updated terms (10)
Anagram (fresh) of ONE, then LOG (record) + I’S (one’s) + MS (short for manuscript = writing).

Neologism = a newly-coined word or phrase, or a new meaning for an existing one. I think the second meaning works better here.
10 BERTHING
Docking £1000 after the front of recycling bin’s smashed (8)
G (slang for £1000 = short for “grand”), after an anagram (smashed) of THE + front letter of R[ecycling] + BIN.

Docking = (a ship) coming to its berth in a port = berthing.
11 PETARD
Jack enters sports day – it goes off with a bang (6)
TAR (Jack = slang for sailor), inserted into PE (physical education = sports) + D (day).

Petard = an explosive device.
12 COTERIES
Officer goes around Spain in select circles (8)
CO (commanding officer, in the military) + TRIES (goes, as in “have a go”), around E (abbreviation for Spain).

Coterie = an exclusive or unwelcoming group of people.
14 EMIR
Ruler pirouetting in merriment (4)
Hidden answer, reversed (pirouetting in . . .) in [mer]RIME[nt].

Ruler in an Islamic state.
16 ATHENA
How Aaron starts to be an incarnation of wisdom (6)
The name Aaron starts with a double A: A THEN A.

Greek goddess of wisdom; also spelled Athene.
18 ANTHEA
Name seen in full set of articles (6)
The definite article THE, between both forms of the indefinite article AN and A.

A woman’s name.
20 MIRE
Mud on east of big road (4)
RE (on = on the subject of), after (east of = to the right of) MI (M1 = motorway = big road).
21 ESOTERIC
It’s not easy to grasp broken toe – cries out bandaging it (8)
Anagram (broken) of TOE, with another anagram (out) of CRIES wrapped around it (bandaging it).
24 PARTED
How hair may be cut – about time! (6)
PARED (cut back, or with the outer layer cut off) around T (time).
26 BRIGHTEN
Cheer from Tories hosted by Scottish eminence (8)
RIGHT (as in right-wing = Tories), inserted into (hosted by) BEN (Scottish word for a mountain peak = eminence).

Cheer, as a verb = brighten = improve the mood of.
27 GLOOMINESS
The pits in chilly houses? Rodriguez leaves in misery (10)
MINES (pit = a coal mine) in [i]GLOOS (chilly houses) without I (Rodriguez, the crossword setter, talking about himself).
28 LAID
What one gets, having sex in Welsh party (not quietly) (4)
[p]LAID (short for Plaid Cymru = Welsh political party) without the P (p = piano = musical term for quietly).

As in “to get laid”.
DOWN
1/19 MIXED DOUBLES
This suggests lob used for tennis – or pairs of across answers here? (5,7)
Reverse anagram: DOUBLES is an anagram, MIXED, of LOB USED.

Tennis played by teams of one man and one woman. The additional definition tells us that the pairs (doubles) of across answers in symmetrical positions are anagrams (mixed) of each other.
2 BLOTTO
Bishop with house is out of it (6)
B (short for bishop) + LOTTO (house = alternative names for the game of bingo).

Blotto = out of it = slang for very drunk.
3 INCINERATE
Destroy egg on sandwiches near bananas (10)
INCITE (egg on = encourage) around (sandwiching) an anagram (bananas = crazy) of NEAR.
4 ROUGH IT
One hosted by queen should eschew luxuries (5,2)
I (one in Roman numerals) hosted by R (short for Latin Regina = Queen) + OUGHT (should).
5 CO-OP
Partner of Bill Paxton’s opening a shop (2-2)
COO (Bill’s partner in the phrase “bill and coo”) + opening letter of P[axton].

UK retail chain, run as a consumer co-operative, providing food shops and other services.
6 OINTMENT
Cream doughnut? Determined to eat 1000 (8)
O (doughnut = ring) + INTENT (determined), containing (to eat) M (a thousand in Roman numerals).

A slightly suspect definition: creams and ointments can both be forms of topically-applied medicine, but generally an ointment contains much more oil than a cream.
7 EMBROIDER
Decorate in black tight red moiré skirts (9)
B (short for black, as in a 2B pencil), with an anagram (tight = drunk) of RED MOIRE around it (. . . skirts).
13 SHAPELIEST
Performing Pilates, she may become this? (10)
Anagram (performing) of PILATES SHE.

Extended definition: those who use the Pilates exercise regime may hope to become fitter, though I’m not sure “shapelier” is really the point.
15 STOICALLY
Thus guards to join together with fortitude (9)
SIC (thus: mark used by editors to indicate that an apparent error is taken directly from the original text), containing (guarding) TO, then ALLY (as a verb = join together).
17 EJECTION
27, losing head in dismissal (8)
[d]EJECTION (27 = reference to 27a GLOOMINESS), losing its first letter (head).
19
See 1
22 INHALE
What Clinton wouldn’t do with cool and hot drink (6)
IN (cool = slang for in fashion) + H (hot) + ALE (a drink).

Bill Clinton claimed that he’d tried marijuana once but didn’t inhale it.
23 DENIM
Material dug up from the south (5)
MINED (dug up), reversed (from the south = reading upwards in a down clue).
25 DRIP
Recipe possibly guacamole wraps for wimp (4)
R (short for Latin recipe = take, in old-fashioned drug prescriptions), surrounded by (. . . wraps) DIP (of which guacamole is an example, indicated by “possibly”).

Drip = wimp = slang for a feeble person or one lacking confidence.

26 comments on “Independent 11,070 by Rodriguez”

  1. I’m lost for words. This was one of the best crosswords I have ever seen in my many years of solving. Superlatives fail me, so I’ll leave it at that. (His Guardian crossword today is also a beaut.)

  2. Rodriguez has become one of my favourite compilers. His puzzles are always both challenging and fun. This one was no exception with ATHENA my favourite.

    The symmetrically placed anagrams passed me by. Very well done, Quirister, to have spotted that, and even more impressive is that Rodriguez was able to produce such a construction without resorting to obscurities.

    Many thanks to R & Q.

  3. Another splendid crossword from Rodriguez – I noticed what was going on very early on and long before I actually solved 1/19. My particular favourite was 11a

    Thanks very much to Rodriguez and Quirister

  4. I can only try (and fail) to understand how Rodriguez managed to pull off this symmetrical word pair anagram grid so successfully. It took me a while to realise what was going on but then the trickery helped with the BRIGHTEN and BERTHING pair, my last couple in.

    I do share Quirister’s reservations about ‘Cream’ and OINTMENT not being the same but this was my only quibble in an otherwise excellent puzzle.

    Thanks to Rodriguez and Quirister

  5. WordPlodder @4. While she cannot be considered as a definitive source of synonyms, my five-year-old granddaughter always calls “ointments” creams, possibly because the latter is much easier to say and to spell.

  6. [RD @5 – your granddaughter is correct of course. Who can possibly win an argument against a five year old child!]

  7. Very nice idea well done Rodriguez and nicely blogged Q, Twigged quite early what was going on which helped the full solve no end.

    For a blast from the past look up Independent 8498 / Donk for possibly the most bizarre set of clues I’ve ever seen 🙂

  8. Great start to the day (with pot of Dilmar)
    I already had a couple of pairs when I saw reference to across clues which assisted more across clues but that cunning word “LOB” clouded things until the final couple of clues
    Then another JB in the Graun!
    Grateful for small mercies

  9. What fun! About as good as it gets. (Am I to understand that Rodriquez has a piratical alter ego in the Guardian?)

    Thanks both for the distraction – I admit I didn’t bend the gaze towards the parsing of GLOOMINESS and was grateful that I could rely on Quirister to save me the trouble.

  10. A glorious double dose from this setter today and I think I’m inclined to agree with Hovis who has suggested on the G page that the Indy offering probably wins by a short head. Struggling, as I now sometimes find myself, to simply fill a grid with words – any old words – and get them to interlink without resorting to horrific choices as ‘filler’, I have no idea how Rodriguez managed to create this delightful mirror image, the indicator in the middle and then a bunch of completely ‘normal’ filler words to complete his grid. And that’s before we even get to the clueing … Could’ve ticked every one but will stick with the twin ladies – ATHENA and ANTHEA and the very cheeky LAID.

    Lovely job for which many thanks Rodriguez. And to Q for the super blog.

  11. Alphalpha @ 9 Rodriguez is Picaroon in the g and Buccaneer in the FT.

    Thanks to him for two excellent puzzles today and to Quirister for the blog.

  14. Ditto passim. I only wish some irritating git inside my head hadn’t kept on seeing the anagrams and blurting out the answers before I’d solved the clues.

  16. A double-dose of Picaroon/ Rodriguez, and not the first in recent days. I note. Also a good puzzle, perhaps rather better than the Guardian one for me, as I preferred the construction. Excellent work.

  17. Marvellous. Hugely entertaining. Took me ages to get going but it led to the most wonderful of PDMs when I saw what was going on (with the ATHENA/ANTHEA pair). The GLOOMINESS/NEOLOGISMS pair is a particularly good find.

    And thanks, of course, for the blog, Quirister.

  18. Thanks to PostMark for drawing attention to this on the Guardian blog. I hardly ever do the Indie crosswords (its website drives me mad), but I loved this, as I did Picaroon’s – I seemed to be on the setter’s wavelength today. As soon as I’d got mire/emir at the beginning I realised what was happening, given 1d’s reference to ‘pairs of across answers’, and it really helped. I’m rather ashamed to admit that ‘mixed doubles’ was actually my loi, though – having completed everything else, it took me far too long to see it.

  20. Great crossword by a true genius. It was slow going at first but guessing MIXED DOUBLES helped me a great deal in moving along. I did reveal a few at the end and definitely needed Quirister to help with parsing; for example, the brilliant ATHENA was beyond my grasp. Thanks to all.

  23. A superb achievement by Rodriguez to fit in all those pairs of anagrams – the only downside was that once we twigged what was going on solving became a case of ‘find the anagram’ which took the edge of the challenge a little bit. Good fun all the same.
    Thanks, Rodriguez and Quirister

  24. In yesterday’s guardian blog I said Picaroon is the best setter around at the moment. This offering as Rodriguez only confirms it. For me, seeing the names, Picaroon, Rodriguez and Buccaneer at the top of a puzzle mean I m going to have great fun.
    The Guardian blog yesterday running to more than 70 comments was marred by the distraction from the superb puzzle by the petty arguments whether arrows can be ‘fired’or not.
    I am glad this one did not follow suit with whether a setter can clue ‘ointment’ as ‘cream’

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