Independent 11,989 / Bluth

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Bluth’s latest offering graces the “pages” of the Indy today.

I found this puzzle to be thoroughly entertaining and not too difficult for me to tease out on a mid-week morning.

The fact that entries often do not cross at initial letters in this grid made the solving that bit harder, but I think that I got there in the end. I found the parsing quite tricky, especially the subtraction devices used in 11 and 23. Please let me know I have slipped up anywhere.

My favourite clues today were 16/17/18 for tightness of construction and for making me smirk; 7 and 8, for smoothness of surface; 17D, for ingenuity; and 28, for conciseness.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
08 ANTE Cannot be ignoring odds to make bet

<c>A<n>N<o>T <b>E; “ignoring odds” means odd letters are dropped
     
09 FLOOR SHOWS Defeat demonstrates these acts are unstaged

FLOOR (=defeat, stump) + SHOWS (=demonstrates, proves); the “un-staged” of the definition means that the acts are not performed on a physical stage or platform
     
10 PLEDGE Polish brand was first adopted by banks for paying with Euro

LED (=was first) in [P<ayin>G (“banks (=edges) for” means first and letters only are used) + E (=euro)]; Pledge is a brand of furniture polish!
     
11 EXISTING Former partner is agreeing friend must go for real

EX (=former partner) + IS + T<ally>ING (=agreeing; “friend (=ally) must go” means letters “ally” are dropped)
     
12 AGNUS DEI Anguished about husband missing prayer

*(ANGUIS<h>ED); “husband (=H) missing” means letter “h” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “about”
     
14 AT MOST 4, 13, 25 east of Berlin and no more

ATM (=hole in the wall, entry at 4, 13, 25, i.e. automated teller machine, cashpoint) + OST (=east of Berlin, i.e. the German word for east)
     
16/17/18 A BIT ON THE SIDE After wife goes mad he waits in to bed mistress

*(HE <w>AITS IN TO BED); “after wife (=W) goes” means letter “w” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “mad”
     
19 TENNIS On vacation the news is following sport

T<h>E (“on vacation” means middle letter is dropped) + N N (news= 2 x N=new, as in NT) + IS
     
21 ENTIRELY I depend on hospital department completely

ENT (=hospital department, i.e. ear, nose and throat) + I + RELY (=depend)
     
23 DEATH ROW Discovered dream cast in prison block

<i>DEA<l> (=dream, perfect; “dis-cover-ed” means first and last letters are dropped + THROW (=cast, hurl)
     
26 ENROBE Invest using terms for the loan your honour

<th>E <loa>N <you>R (“terms for” means last letters only are used) + OBE (=honour, i.e. Order of British Empire); to invest is to clothe with insignia of office, hence “enrobe”
     
27 GRACE KELLY Finesse lines taken by main actress

GRACE (=finesse, elegance) + [LL (=lines) in KEY (=main, most important)]; the reference is to US actress Grace Kelly (1929-82)
     
28 SACK Fire // rifle

Double definition= to sack is to fire from a job AND to sack is to rifle, plunder, loot
     
Down    
     
01 INELIGIBLE Being ill at sea – on board that is unacceptable

*(BEING ILL) in I.E. (=that is, id est); “at sea” is anagram indicator
     
02 HEADBUTT Nut is part of garden shed according to Spooner

Spoonerism (“according to Spooner”) of “(flower) bed (=part of garden) + hut (=shed)”; colloquially, to nut someone is to headbutt them
     
03 OFFEND Needle’s bad design

OFF (=bad, rotten) + END (=design, purpose)
     
04/13/25 HOLE IN THE WALL Court artist losing focus with cut in great source of money

HOL<b>EIN (=court artist, to Henry VIII; “losing focus” means middle letter is dropped) + [HEW (=cut) in TALL (=great, substantial)]
     
05 IRRITATE Drive round the bend and follow posh car covering miles

IMITATE (=follow, copy); “posh car (=RR, i.e. Rolls Royce) covering miles (=M)” means letters “rr” replace “m”
     
06 RHYTHM Beat poem mostly describing hollow triumph

T<riump>H (“hollow” means all middle letters are dropped) in RHYM<e> (=poem; “mostly” means last letter is dropped)
     
07 SWAN Perhaps pen article after small whiskey

S (=small, in sizes) + W (=whiskey, in NATO alphabet) + AN (=article, in grammar); a female swan is known as a pen
     
15 SADDLEBACK Breed of pig in land to the rear

SADDLE (=land, burden, as verb) + BACK (=to the rear)
     
17 ON STRIKE In and out

Double definition: to be on strike is to be “in”, batting, in cricket AND to be “out”, taking industrial action
     
18 SURPRISE Start firm without capital – exporting avocados initially

P<a>RIS (=capital (city); “exporting avocados initially” means first letter – “a” – is dropped) in SURE (=firm, stable); to start is to surprise, startle
     
20 NOTICE Review books – decent covers

OT (=books, i.e. Old Testament) in NICE (=decent); a notice is a review, critique, write-up
     
22 TIE-DYE Colour fabric – occasionally Beryl does it on the counter

Alternate letters (“occasionally) of “<b>E<r>Y<l> D<o>E<s> + IT: “on the counter” indicates reversal
     
24 EARN Make vase in audition

Homophone (“in audition”) of “urn (=vase)”
     

21 comments on “Independent 11,989 / Bluth”

  1. 17d: I’d never heard of the cricket meaning of ON STRIKE. Nor has oed.com, despite having this citation in the definition of deep:
    “2021 Santner hit the next ball deep into the outfield and..the pair sprinted through for three runs to bring Mitchell back on strike.
    Financial Express (Bangladesh) (Nexis) 26 March” — For that, we need to go to the other place:
    The Cambridge Dictionary, with its bad grammar: “In cricket, the batter who is on strike is the one who the ball is being bowled (= thrown) to:
    He takes the single to put Edwards back on strike. Warne is bowling and Strauss is on strike.” …

  3. Very, very clever stuff. So many nicely constructed surfaces, and ingenious devices.
    I confess, I went gungadin on at least 6 or 7 of the solutions, and spent ages reverse-engineering the wordplays, but that was as enjoyable as completing the grid, when the lightbulbs eventually went on.
    It’s Cheltenham this week, so 8(ac) tickled my fancy; my betting rule is ” always finish on a winner”, but, alas, the finish here (24dn), EARN, was the only loser in the field.
    Who cares? The rest of the runners were Gold Cup standard.

    Great puzzle, great blog, hats in the air, Bluth + Ratkoja

  4. Made a total dog’s breakfast of this with lots bunged unparsed. Missed the ‘ally’ subtraction, the ATM, the ll in Kelly, and finished feeling grumpy. Time to hit the bar, thanksxanyeay to Bluth and RR, no complaints,, ii’s totally a grumble.ginf.

  7. I can’t say anything bad about this crossword. Mostly as I don’t want to end up as the subject of his next comedy routine, but also because it was very good with plenty of humour and good surfaces.

    I couldn’t parse SURPRISE or EXISTING (so thanks for the blog) but nothing else fitted. HEADBUTT got me metaphorically doing just that to the wall before it came to me.

    Favourites were: PLEDGE, A BIT ON THE SIDE,

    I didn’t see Bluth’s trademark ‘celebrity’ clue where a celebrity’s name is used in the word play. Unless GRACE KELLY counts.

  8. I did not spot HOL(b)EIN so am glad of the blog. Lots of fun surfaces as per and the odd cunning deception: was I the only one trying to anagram either ‘needle’ or ‘design’ in 3d? Especially when I had E-D as final crossers! Clever also to use one long solution to clue just the three letters ATM.

    Faves include: ENTIRELY, INELIGIBLE, RHYTHM, SWAN, SADDLEBACK and TIE-DYE and the schoolboy in me smiled at the surface for A BIT ON THE SIDE.

    Thanks Bluth and RR

  9. FYI, this setter is also in The Telegraph today. Same difficulty but easier grid shape (more starting letters) in my opinion.

  10. PostMark@8
    No, you are not alone. ( 3 down). OFFEND.
    It had to be a double-bluff, ( or is that bluth), of which was the fodder, and “bad” the anagrind.
    I spent a lot of wasted time on that one.
    Damn this setter. He’s a clever bugger.

  11. Thanks Bluth for a stimulating crossword with my top picks being DEATH ROW, SWAN, and NOTICE. Like PostMark and E.N.Boll& I spent too much time on 3d trying to anagram two words until I solved FLOOR SHOW.
    (I’m sure Bluth meant to mislead us which is one reason why I like him.) I couldn’t parse HOLE IN THE WALL, EXISTING, or SURPRISE — thanks RR for the help.

  12. @2 FrankieG – really? That’s so last century. Latin-loving scholars contorted the English language to make it fit the structure of Latin sentences. Often clarity is improved by putting the preposition at the end.

    Anyway, hope jane wasn’t too offended by 16/17/18. Disgusting concept!

    Fun puzzle but needed help with parsing for 5D&18D

    Thanks Bluth and to RatkojaRiku for the explanations.

  13. TripleJumper @12: even with the preposition at the end, the pronoun should still be “whom.”

    FrankieG @1: so there’s a cricket term that I knew and you didn’t? Geez Louise, will wonders never cease.

    Where’s the memo about how to add a profile picture here?

  14. @13: I was going to ask that, Where did these come from. (Or should that be, Frow where did these come.)

  15. mrpenney, Dormouse, et al, to create an avatar use gravatar.com and add a photo there linked to your alias and email address.

  18. Thanks RatkojaRiku and thanks all.

    Postmark, E.N. Boll & Tony Santucci @8, 10&11 – I hope you won’t be disappointed to learn that 3D wasn’t deliberately constructed to mislead you into trying anagrams… that’s just a happy accident.

  21. bluth@18
    Under the Compilers’ Rules And Practising guidelines ( 1957, revised 2025) you are now ethically obligated to use SERENDIPITY in a puzzle, in the next 3 months.
    Please note: ” Dwarf shits himself, after calmness eating hot salsa “, would be totally unacceptable.

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