Independent 11,157 by Bluth (Saturday Puzzle 16 July 2022)

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My second Saturday Bluth in quick order (although that means they are ten weeks apart)…and I made pretty hard work of it…

…taking quite a while to get any footholds. There were a few reasonably quick ‘gimmes’ – CUR, ODE, NOISE, FABLE, DREAM; a few where I probably just about made par…and then more where I was hacking around in the rough and landing in the bunkers, or sliding by on the second or third putt.

(No golfing theme in the puzzle, or any other theme/Nina, as far as I can see…I’ve just been a bit caught up with the blanket Open coverage this week!…)

Many surface reads and parsings to admire – once I’d worked them out, which, in the case of MELANGE, was only when I was writing up the blog.

I enjoyed the misdirection of ‘Oscar Wilde’ in 1A; the TELEMARKETER at 27A hoping that their prospect might pick up the phone; the BritPop band SUEDE ‘rocking’ their audition at 23D; the joey making his first tentative hops at 12D in OUT-OF-POCKET…and the COB at 2D as ‘partner to pen’!

 

 

As I suggested earlier, a pretty tough solve – would have been well worth the Saturday ‘Prize slot’ in the olden days! Many thanks to Bluth for the challenge, and I hope all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
1A ACADEMY AWARD Oscar Wilde ultimately means parting shot about following a rogue (7,5)

A + CAD (rougue) + E (ultimate letter of wildE) + MY AWARD (DRA_M, or shot, parted by WAY, or means = DRAWAYM, all reversed, or about)
9A FABLE Following clever fiction (5)

F (following) + ABLE (clever, adept)
10A LYRICISTS Disheartened translators after 50 years defining French here – their words have been noted (9)

L (50, Roman numeral) + YRICIS (YR_S, years, around, defining, ICI, French for ‘here’) + TS (disheartened TranslatorS)
11A SHOWMEN Quiet ladies moving over to the left for entertainers (7)

SH (quiet) + OWMEN (W-O-MEN, moving O, over, to the left)
13A INDIANA I essentially rename state (7)

INDIA (phonetic alphabet, I) + NA (middle, or essence, of reNAme)
14A INTERJECT Throw in – and Italian side shoot over crossbar initially (9)

INTER (Inter Milan, Italian football side) + JE_T (shoot) around C (initial letter of Crossbar)
17A NOISE In casino, I sense interference (5)

hidden word in ‘casiNO I SEnse’
18A AWFUL Terrible sea view if you fulfil all the terms (5)

all the last letters, or terms, of ‘seA vieW iF yoU fulfiL’
19A CRATERING Putting holes in phone box first (9)

CRATE (box) + RING (phone)
21A IRON MAN Superhero’s press piece (4,3)

IRON (press) + Man (piece, e.g. chess)
22A EASTERN Oriental flower planted in space (7)

E_N (en, space, printing term) around ASTER (flower)
24A NO KIDDING Seriously agreeing to tour King & I (2,7)

NO_DDING (agreeing) around (touring) KI (king, and I!)
25A EPOXY Resin record with two unknowns on disc (5)

EP (Extended Play, vinyl record) + O (disc) + XY (maths, two unknowns)
27A TELEMARKETER Broadcast TV spot with consumer wanting answer – one hopes prospects pick up (12)

TELE (homophone, i.e. broadcast, of TELLY, or TV) + MARK (spot) + E(A)TER (consumer, without A – i.e. ‘wanting’ answer)

[Prospects being prospective customers, and a telemarketer hopes they pick up the phone!]
Down
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/parsing
2D COB Partner to pen business book (3)

CO (company, business) + B (book)

[A COB being a male swam, partner to a PEN, a female swan!]
3D DREAM Medic having pill before noon to induce trance (5)

DR (doctor, medic) + E (ecstasy tablet, or pill) + AM (ante meridian, before noon)
4D MELANGE Sense peril after all banks withdraw causing confusion (7)

(S)MEL(L) (D)ANGE(R) – sense peril, removing all outer letters, or withdrawing ‘banks’

[Only parsed this while writing up the blog!]
5D AIRLIFT Plagiarise song’s opening and style of delivery (7)

AIR (song) + LIFT (plagiarise)
6D ACCEDENCE Accompanied Prime Minister once church supports consent (9)

ACC (accompanied) + EDEN (Anthony Eden, Prime Minister, once) + CE (Church of England)
7D DESTABILISE Shake from Aldi is best served over ice, conclusively (11)

DESTABILIS (anag, i.e. served, of ALDI IS BEST) + E (concluding letter of icE)
8D ESTATE AGENCY One who’ll help you move car before operation (6,6)

ESTATE (car) + AGENCY (operation)

[…move house…]
9D FASCINATIONS Attractions of sin – it’s a can of worms (12)

anag, i.e. worms, of SIN IT’S A CAN OF
12D OUT-OF-POCKET Joey’s description on first jumping down? (3-2-6)

a baby kangaroo (joey) on its first foray from its mother’s pouch, or pocket, might be described as OUT OF POCKET?!

[…down, financially…]
15D ROLE MODEL Electronic cycling demo breaking wheel for example (4,5)

ROL_L (wheel, turn) around (broken by) E (electronic) + MODE (de-mo, cycling round by two letters to give mo-de)
16D CUR Wipe bottom of short dog (3)

CUR(T) – short, with bottom letter wiped off

[Not an appealing image given by the surface read!]
19D CONFIRM Hardened criminal starts to give corroborative evidence (7)

CON (convict, criminal) + FIRM (hardened)
20D AVENGER 21 say outrage inspires cover of Vogue (7)

A_NGER (outrage) around (inspiring) VE (outer letters, or cover, of VoguE)

[21A being IRON MAN, one of the Marvel Avengers…]
23D SUEDE Britpop band rocked in audition (5)

homophone, i.e. in audition – SUEDE (Britpop band) can sound like SWAYED (rocked)
26D ODE Regularly reading toddler’s poem (3)

regular letters from ‘tOdDlEr’

9 comments on “Independent 11,157 by Bluth (Saturday Puzzle 16 July 2022)”

  1. Thank you, mc_rapper67: I managed to fill the grid but needed your explanations of how several answers worked — which has now increased both my understanding and enjoyment of the crossword.

    I particularly liked 18A (now you’ve pointed out “terms”, which I’d failed to understand) and 12D (now you’ve pointed out there is actually a definition in there, which I’d completely missed). Thank you to Bluth for the fun.

    [I also quite like 23D’s new single, which I’ve heard both 6 Music and Radio 2 play.]

  2. Parts of this were very challenging indeed. 1a was a strange one for me. I solved it instantly from the first word of the clue and the enumeration, but the very complex parsing ended up being my final act to complete the puzzle.

    OUT-OF-POCKET was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Bluth for the fun and to mc_r for the review.

  3. I couldn’t quite see 14A and hesitated for a while over ‘intersect’, but eventually decided it had to be INTERJECT. Like Smylers @1, I needed to come here for an explanation of several others. Thanks Bluth and McRapper.

  4. Whatever hat he’s wearing I always find Blurh’s puzzles great fun and this was no exception. Filling in the grid was somewhat easier than justifying it but that’s usually the case for me with this setter.
    I have plenty of ticks on my page, INTERJECT& CUR making me smile but runaway favourite has to be the laugh out loud and quite brilliant OUT OF POCKET.
    Thanks Bluth and mc_rapper

  5. Seeing a tweet from Bluth that he’s got a puzzle out always brightens my day, but after a few quick successes, including 1A, I did struggle with this one. In part this was some lacking general knowledge, but a lot of the time I just didn’t spot things I did know (e.g. Eden as PM, cob & pen as swan).

    1A, 10A and 12D all favourites for me.

    Thanks to Bluth for another challenge and mc_rapper67 for making sense of the bits that confounded me.

  6. I enjoyed this. I liked the Oscar Wilde bit, though the temptation is to see the definition and A CAD and not bother with the rest of the parsing. NO KIDDING was my favourite.

  7. Thanks Bluth for a nicely crafted crossword. My top choices included SHOWMEN, NO KIDDING, AIRLIFT, and CONFIRM. It took me awhile to get a foothold with EPOXY my FOI. There was much I could not fully parse — INDIANA, AWFUL, MELANGE, and TELEMARKETER — so thanks mc_rapper67 for the help.

  9. Thanks for the various comments and feedback – and to Bluth for popping by.
    Nothing too controversial, and glad to have been of help in tying up any loose ends…

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