Friday is normally a day for a puzzle from Phi, but he set the Tuesday puzzle this week. Tees is in the Friday slot.
The clue at 9/10 across looked a bit bizarre on first sight, but when the penny dropped, I liked it a lot.
I don’t think there is a theme, but a few of the entries relate to food and drink that you might find in a gastro pub – BLOOMER, REAL ALE, eggs [LAYER], BOOZE, fish [JOHN DORY] and MORTADELLA.
The clue for ENDGAME puzzled me with its reference ‘bins’ until I did a bit of research into the Samuel Beckett play.
I wonder how many solvers increased their vocabulary of collective nouns today. For me, KNOT as a collective noun for toads was a new definition.
The clue at 26 down for JEER is almost a reversal of the one for JESTER in Phi’s puzzle (Independent 11903) on Tuesday, earlier this week. Phi added ST (street) to JEER to make JESTER whereas Tees is taking ST (stone) out of Jester to leave JEER.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 9/10 | See 12 (5-9)
CROSS REFERENCE (direction to information at another place) CROSS REFERENCE (the clue acts as REFERENCE or direction to the answer at 12 across (ANGRY [CROSS]) CROSS REFERENCE |
| 11 | State brief time at sea not bad (9)
MINNESOTA (American State MIN (abbreviation for [brief] MINute [unit of time]) + an anagram of (bad) SEA NOT MIN NESOTA* |
| 12 | Mad King George some must admit (5)
ANGRY (mad) ANY (some) containing (must admit GR [Georgius Rex; King George]) AN (GR) Y |
| 13 | Kangaroo eating large crusty loaf (7)
BLOOMER (crusty loaf) BOOMER (large male kangaroo) containing (eating) L (large) B (L) OOMER |
| 15 | Something genuine in the round? (4,3)
REAL ALE (a beverage that often forms part of a round of drinks) REAL (something genuine) + ALE (beer) REAL ALE – possibly an &Lit clue |
| 17 | Productive hen always held in both hands (5)
LAYER (a productive hen who LAYs eggs) AYE (always) contained in (held in) (L [left] + R [right] – both hands) L (AYE) R |
| 18 | Fish turned around (3)
DAB (a fish) BAD (gone off; turned) reversed (round) DAB< |
| 20 | Med resort accommodates hotel in suitable place (5)
NICHE (situation, place or condition appropriate for a person or thing; suitable place) NICE (French city resort on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea) containing (accommodates) H (hotel) NIC (H) E |
| 22 | Aged men supply drama with bins (7)
ENDGAME (play by Samuel Beckett [1906 – 1989] in which the central character’s parents live in dustbins) Anagram of (supply – derived from supple) AGED MEN ENDGAME* |
| 25 | Swiss food company’s lies close up (7)
NESTLES (lies close [to / up]) NESTLÉ‘S (belonging to a Swiss multinational food and drink conglomerate) NESTLES |
| 26 | Writer in rapture brought to church … (5)
JOYCE (reference James JOYCE [1882 – 1941], Irish author) JOY (rapture) + CE (Church [of England]) JOY CE |
| 27 | … and back, into a Mitford-approved vein to the point of producing disgust? (2,7)
AD NAUSEAM (to the point of producing disgust) AND reversed (back) contained in (into) (A + U [During the 1950s, Nancy Mitford [1904 – 1973] developed the concept of “U” {upper} and “non-U” language, whereby social origins and standing were identified by words used in everyday speech] + SEAM (vein [of ore, for example]) A (D NA<) U SEAM |
| 30 | Net at sea to keep cows mostly buoyant (9)
EBULLIENT (enthusiastic, exuberant, buoyant) Anagram of (at sea) NET containing (to keep) BULLIES (intimidates; cows) excluding the final letter (mostly) S E (BULLIE) NT* |
| 31 | Hard stuff in black and slimy mud? (5)
BOOZE (alcoholic drink; hard stuff) B (black as in the description of a lead pencil) + OOZE (slimy mud) B OOZE |
| Down | |
| 1 | First to span river in Dodge (4)
SCAM (trick; dodge) S (initial letter of [first to] SPAN) + CAM (river that flows through Cambridge) S CAM |
| 2 | Sea Denizen can perform on track (4,4)
JOHN DORY (golden-yellow fish of the mackerel family. A sea denizen refers to an organism or creature that inhabits the ocean or sea) JOHN (a slang term for lavatory; CAN is another such term) + DO (perform) + RY (railway track) JOHN DO RY |
| 3 | They say your writer will land in water (4)
ISLE (land surrounded by water) ISLE (sounds like [they say] I’LL [your writer will]) ISLE |
| 4 | Branch Indy news supremo protected (8)
ARMOURED (protected [by ARMOUR or ARMOUR-plate) ARM (branch) + OUR ED (this being the Independent crossword. the Indy news supremo is OUR EDitor) ARM OUR ED |
| 5 | Two females in AA with Irish pigeon (6)
AFFAIR (pigeon, as in ‘it’s his / her pigeon’ meaning ‘it’s his / her AFFAIR’) ([F {female} + F {female} – two females] contained in [in] AA) + IR (Irish) A (F F) A IR |
| 6 | Short fat kid visits relations (5-5)
GREAT AUNTS (relations) TAUNT (kid) contained in (visits) GREASE (fat) excluding the final letter (short) E GREA (T AUNT) S |
| 7 | Mystery mage swimming round North Island (6)
ENIGMA (mystery) Anagram of (swimming) MAGE containing (swimming round) (N [North] + I [island]) E (N I) GMA* |
| 8 | Bank simply ignoring me (4)
RELY (bank) MERELY (simply) excluding (ignoring) ME RELY |
| 13 | Listening device left in: note something sticking out (5)
BULGE (something sticking out) (L [left] contained in [in] BUG [listening device]) + E (musical note) – BU (L) G E |
| 14 | Sausage roll made at Barking (10)
MORTADELLA (Italian pork sausage, flavoured with coriander, etc) Anagram of (barking) ROLL MADE AT MORTADELLA* |
| 16 | Sheep must guard river vessels (5)
EWERS (water jugs; vessels) EWES (female sheep) containing (guard) R (river) EWE (R) S |
| 19 | Money from toads curse protects (8)
BANKNOTE (a form of money) BANE (curse) contains (protects) KNOT (collective noun for a group of toads) BAN (KNOT) E |
| 21 | Mexican politician once cooked with lard (8)
CALDERON (reference Felipe CALDERÓN [born 1962], 63rd President of Mexico from 2006 to 2012; Mexican politician) Anagram of (cooked) ONCE and [with] LARD CALDERON* |
| 23 | Test for one newly off the drink? (3,3)
DRY RUN (rehearsal; test) DRY (descriptive of someone who doesn’t drink) + RUN, together describing a test for someone newly off the drink – possibly an &Lit clue DRY RUN |
| 24 | Fish gobbling fellow up in coat (6)
ENAMEL (to coat with a glossy surface) EEL (fish) containing (gobbling) MAN (fellow) reversed (up; down entry) E (NAM<) EL |
| 26 | Comedian losing stone makes gibe (4)
JEER (gibe) JESTER excluding (losing) ST (stone) JEER |
| 28 | Take lead from unusually large boss (4)
UMBO (the central boss of a shield) JUMBO (unusually large) excluding the first letter (taking lead from) J UMBO |
| 29 | It was appropriate to get together (4)
MEET (archaic [it was] term for qualified [appropriate]) MEET (to get together) double definition MEET |
CROSS REFERENCE-loved it. I think it’s a new device.
DRY RUN is more of a cryptic def? ‘newly off’ and therefore needs to practise
before being sure?
Thanks Tees and duncan.
I liked the linked clues a lot too. Tees in good form with AD NAUSEAM, JOHN DORY, and GREAT AUNTS my top picks. Also enjoyed AFFAIR for pigeon which I haven’t see before, the clue for BULGE with the, for me, misleading note, and the knot of toads which I had to look up. Thanks to both blogger and setter.
Beaten by UMBO which I have only encountered once before, in a puzzle here (Eccles?). Not often enough for it to have entered the memory banks so a hopeful but non-confident answer of (t)UBBY was, unsurprisingly, rejected.
Nice to see Tees back with an enjoyable puzzle. I share likes for CROSS REFERENCE, GREAT AUNTS and AD NAUSEAM with KVa and Sofamore and also enjoyed BLOOMER and EBULLIENT for the surfaces, NICHE for the Nice setting, ARMOURED for the use of ‘our ed’ and MORTADELLA for the fun use of the much-loved Barking.
Thanks Tees and duncan
CROSS-REFERENCE was very clever. I needed to check CALDERON. UMBO is a great word. Thanks, both.
I have a feeling I once saw a performance of Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ in which Vladimir and Estragon were in dustbins, but may be wrong, though I have never seen ‘Endgame’. I gave up trying to parse 27A, but thanks anyway to Tees and Duncan.
I don’t know whether 9/10 across makes me want to thump Tees or shake his hand… Proper penny drop moment though. Brilliant!
Tatrasman – unlikely. I know from experience that Beckett’s estate is very strict about productions of his plays following his stage directions, which are very specific. No dustbins in Godot!
In his lifetime Beckett was very strict about his works too.
My college drama society wanted to put on All That Fall, but were told that they were not allowed to charge admission, as it had been created as a radio play.
So entrance was free, but you had to buy a programme…
Perhaps I was being dense, but I found this tough going today. Not helped when I put in SKIP for dodge instead of SCAM. Well worth persevering – with help – to enjoy the entertainment. Agree with favourites noted above, CROSS-REFERENCE gets a star ⭐
Thanks Tees and DS
Thanks Tees for the fun. I admired CROSS REFERENCE, of course, along with JOHN DORY, GREAT AUNTS, RELY, DRY RUN, and ENAMEL. I missed UMBO, making the same error as PostMark @3. (I figured ‘ubby’ might be Cockney for ‘hubby’ the ‘boss’ of a household but then again Tees would never be that old fashioned.) Thanks duncanshiell for explaining a ‘knot’ of toads as well as Mitford in AD NAUSEUM, two of my parsing gaps.
Thanks Duncs, thanks all for comments.
REAL ALE is just a cd (to me anyway) with a slight nudge towards drama in the round. If it had been closer in the grid to ENDGAME it might even have worked 🙁 Beckett of course was among the apologists (in transition I think) for Finnegans Wake when the first episodes appeared in the late 1920s. One of them, Anna Livia Plurabelle, was in this grid (hence the several watery clues still in there) but we pulled the plug (see what I did there) on it due to obscurity.
A ‘Mitford-approved vein’ is a U-SEAM, geddit.
Tees – I did wonder briefly if JOYCE and BLOOM[ER] were suggesting a theme…
Loved CROSS-REFERENCE and enjoyed plenty of the others. Struggled with ISLE since I couldn’t interpret the “they say”; if ‘they’ are talking about somebody, they wouldn’t say “I’ll”. Nho pigeon or MEET with those meanings, nor UMBO; like other commenters I winged the first two but came unstuck on the third. KNOT only came back to me during back-parsing. Every day’s a school day!
I was convinced that GREAT AUNTS was —-H AUNTS with “haunts” being “visits” and so struggled for ages trying to find a truncated fat kid (Cartman?) to fit those first four letters. I was quite disappointed when the remaining checkers led to the true solution but upon reflection it’s also good!
Thanks both