Independent 12,076 by Madcap

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I don’t think I’ve come across puzzles by Madcap before,

so I didn’t really know what to expect. What I found was very enjoyable indeed, with several clues standing out for their neat, pithy construction. I particularly liked STRIVE (as it happens, in Cornwall’s recent county council elections, Reform UK and Conservative candidates in both St Ives wards were all but overwhelmed not by Labour but by a Lib Dem and an Independent, though Reform still did horribly well elsewhere), the nifty anagrams for ON THE ROAD and UKRAINIAN, the smart &lit that gave us TEAR and the witty definition for POPLAR.

I can’t quite decide whether the repetition of solutions in IRON and IRONIC is a good thing or not, but I did like the clue for 6dn, so I guess I think it’s good. Thanks very much to Madcap.

MOH’s frankly fatuous hardness scale rating: Calcite

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 PICK-ME-UP
Collect this person shot in the arm (4-2-2)
Double definition, one literal, one metaphorical. At first I thought it was going to be an envelope (indicated by ‘collect’) of ‘pick up’ around ‘me’, but that would mean ‘collect’ was doing double duty as synonym and indicator, so a DD it is
6 INCISE
Cut is fashionable length maybe, we hear (6)
IN (fashionable) + CISE (soundalike – ‘we hear’ – of ‘size’, ‘length, maybe’)
9 STRIVE
Labour in Cornish town all but overwhelms right (6)
ST IVEs (‘Cornish town all but’) around (‘overwhelms’) R
10 POOH-POOH
Bears ridicule (4-4)
Double dose of AA Milne’s ursine creation
11 ON THE ROAD
Do another cocktail, like a tramp (2,3,4)
Anagram (‘cocktail’) of DO ANOTHER
12 TANK
Fail assignment after change of direction (4)
TAsK with S changed to N (‘change of direction’)
14 PENARTH
Here in Wales, calligraphy’s hot (7)
PEN ART (‘calligraphy’) + H
15 TEA LEAF
Eastenders’ criminal is one soaked in drink (3,4)
Double definition, the first referring to cockney rhyming slang for ‘thief’
17 TYRANNY
Counterfeit art New York duplicated is unreasonable use of power by state (7)
Anagram (‘counterfeit’) of ART NY NY (‘New York duplicated’)
19 NEW MOON
First in regular monthly series is novel with Doctor No returning (3,4)
NEW + MO (medical officer, so ‘doctor’) + reversal of NO
22 TEAR
Water dropping with being sad? (4)
Anagram (‘being sad’) of wATER minus W (‘dropping with’) and the whole clue also functioning as definition
24 UKRAINIAN
This country converted Iranian national (9)
UK + anagram (‘converted’) of IRANIAN
26 GO EASY ON
Carefully treat simple-hearted fool (2,4,2)
Envelope of EASY inside GOON (ie, with ‘simple’ at the heart of ‘fool’)
27 IRONIC
Thatcher’s character in charge? Or is this sarcastic? (6)
IRON (‘Thatcher’s character’ as in the Iron Lady) + IC. One could expound on how irony and sarcasm really aren’t the same thing, but it’s way too early in the morning…
28 YIELDS
Poor lady’s not one that is included in profits (6)
Anagram (‘poor’) of LaDYS minus the A (‘not one’) with IE (‘that is included’) inside
29 SINGSONG
Wrong medal worn by first of soldiers in noted gathering (8)
SIN (‘wrong’) + GONG (‘medal’) around (‘worn by’) S (‘first of soldiers’). I seem to recall a fairly recent discussion on this site about the use of ‘gong’ for any sort of award/medal/official recognition being very much a UK thing
DOWN
2 INTENSELY
See tennis played at the top with great passion (9)
ELY (‘see’) with anagram (‘played’) of TENNIS above (‘at the top’)
3 KRISHNA
I shrank, disturbed to see god (7)
Anagram (‘disturbed’) of I SHRANK
4 EXECRATING
Loathing executive class (10)
EXEC + RATING
5 POPLAR
One barked “It’s cool to be non-u” (6)
POPuLAR (‘cool’) without the U
6 IRON
Number 26 in the table – or 27 out of one hundred (4)
For the definition, iron has the atomic number 26 in the periodic table; IRONic (27ac) without IC (‘out of one hundred’)
7 CAPITAL
Real Madrid perhaps? (7)
Double definition – the first sense being something akin to what Marx termed ‘real capital’ (ie capital invested directly in means of production) as opposed to ‘fictitious capital’ (stocks and shares) or ‘money capital’ (liquid funds). At least, that’s how I read it. Maybe there are other senses in which ‘real’ can indicate ‘capital’. Real estate, perhaps? [Or, as Hovis @1 very sensibly points out, it’s the national currency of Brazil. Doh.]
8 SCORN
Sniff at lumps on foot, toe is pushed up (5)
CORNS (‘lumps on foot’) with the S moved up to the top
13 RELEGATION
Country’s leader going on and on before demotion (10)
RE (in the matter of, so ‘on’) + LEG (the ‘on’ side in cricket, so ‘on and on’) before nATION (‘country’s leader going’)
16 ADORATION
Loving relationship admitted by a professor (9)
Envelope (‘admitted by’) of A DON around RATIO
18 AIRMAIL
Make public broadcast of man getting international post (7)
AIR + soundalike (‘broadcast’) of ‘male’
20 MANGOES
He travels to get fruit (7)
MAN + GOES
21 SKUNKS
Weed’s for contemptible people (6)
Double definition, though the apostrophe in ‘weed’s’ makes it feel a little awkward
23 EMOJI
Digital image of Simpson captured by old media producer (5)
Envelope (‘captured’) of EMI (‘old media producer’) around OJ (that Simpson, though other Simpsons are available)
25 BYES
Picked up purchases as extras (4)
Soundalike (‘picked up’) of ‘buys’

10 comments on “Independent 12,076 by Madcap”

  1. In 7d, I took ‘real’ = ‘capital’ in the money sense (of Brazil).
    I sometimes wonder whether clues like 1a or 21d should be classed as DD. 1a because you need to drop the hyphens for the first and 21d because you need to add an apostrophe for the first. Not worth agonising over though.

  2. Thank you Hovis, of course! The Brazilian real is surely what the clue’s referring to. Blog amended thusly.

  3. Liked ON THE ROAD, TEAR, IRON and EMOJI.
    Had the same parsing as Hovis@1 for CAPITAL.

    Thanks Madcap and MoH.

  5. Some ingenious constructions here: “calligraphy”/PEN ART; “Doctor No”/MOON; “simple-hearted fool”; and many more delights.
    Some lovely surfaces, too.
    Unlike others, I felt 11(ac), ON THE ROAD, was a bit clunky, but it’s going solo in that respect.
    Will Madcap pay us a visit, and say, ” REAL- the blogger’s parsing was actually what I had in mind”. Possibly not, but a fascinating take on it by MOH. And well done for leaving it in, whilst updating for Hovis’s take, @1. Occam’s razor, and all that.
    Cracking puzzle and blog, really enjoyed both, thanks Madcap & MOH.

  6. The pleasure in doing this was somewhat vitiated by having to endure hypocritical Israeli propaganda beforehand, but I liked the pen art.

  7. Thanks both. Just right for a Monday. POPLAR was a late entry as I fell into the trap of wanting to enter a breed of dog, and I had to look up ‘non-u’ afterwards to discover its meaning. I’m another unsure about ON THE ROAD although it was obviously the answer, as it potentially lacks a primary definition.

  8. Enjoyed this… not swift but pretty steady. Liked the St Ives clue and On The Road.. whimsically thought of Charlie Chaplin, and how one doesn’t see so many men of the road, as in my youth. Way more inner city homeless but rarely on the road… maybe due to the lack of sheltering hedgerows, as I say, whimsical… many others are worth mentioning but I’d plump for MANGOES as it made me laugh..
    Thanks Madcap n moh…

  9. New setter to me. Very much enjoyed it. Favourites PENARTH, MANGOES, and SINGSONG, all for making me laugh. Thanks to Madcap, and hope to see you again. Thanks to moh, likewise.

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