Lark continues the Independent weekday series today
This was a good midweek puzzle with virtually all the entries being well-known words or phrases. The only entry I don’t think I have used in conversation is OUTBARGAIN at 18 across.
I had to think about the parsing of the clue for HAIR TRIGGER at 7 down where I puzzled over the words ‘for backside’. In the end, I decided that it told us that the anagram came after or at the back of (backside of) the H for hospital. (see comment 1 by Hovis below which sets out the correct wordplay that I missed)
It’s Tuesday, so that means it is Independent theme day. Films are not my strong point, but even I was able to spot a few film titles in the grid. I knew that Christopher Nolan directed OPPENHEIMER, so I had a look at Wikipedia to see what else he directed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he directed all the eight titles in the grid.
The films are:
Across – INCEPTION, DUNKIRK, INTERSTELLAR, MEMENTO and FOLLOWING.
Down – TENET, INSOMNIA and OPPENHEIMER.
I liked the clue for TENET which brought in Elon Musk and X although the entry had nothing at all to do with social media. On the other hand, the anagram for ORTHODONTIST was based on a clue that definitely did relate to the entry.
Thanks to Lark for an entertaining puzzle.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | In church, one pursues point about Genesis (9)
INCEPTION (beginning; creation; genesis) IN + CE (Church of England) + an anagram of (about) POINT IN CE PTION* |
| 6 | Men‘s competition winners not male? (5)
CHAPS (men) CHAmPS (champions; competition winners) excluding (not) M (male) CHAPS |
| 10 | Eminem track describing the writer’s reproductive organ (6)
STAMEN (the male reproductive organ of a flower) STAN (reference the musical track STAN performed by the American rapper Eminem [born 1972]) containing (describing) ME (the writer) STA (ME) N |
| 11 | Put in the water to upset pivotal maritime operation (7)
DUNKIRK (reference the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of DUNKIRK, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The event has been described as a pivotal moment in the war.) DUNK (dip [a biscuit, etc, that one is eating] in water, tea or other beverage) + IRK (annoy; upset) DUNK IRK |
| 12 | Doctor to specialise primarily in tooth adjustment (12)
ORTHODONTIST (someone who rectifies crookedness in teeth; someone who specialises in tooth adjustment) Anagram of (adjustment) DR (doctor) and TO and S (first letter of [primarily] Specialise) and IN TOOTH ORTHODONTIST* |
| 14 | Speak to be sorted out with new monitor (4,4,2)
KEEP TABS ON (check on; watch; monitor) Anagram of (sorted out) SPEAK TO BE + N (new) KEEP TABS O N* |
| 16 | My account may close (1,3)
I SAY (an exclamation calling attention or expressing surprise, protest, sudden joy, etc.; my!) ISA ([Independent Savings] Account) + Y (last letter of [close] maY I SA Y |
| 17 | Journalist travelling west visits an Arabian port (4)
ADEN (port city in the Arabian country, Republic of Yemen) ED (editor; journalist] reversed [travelling west) contained in (visits) AN A (DE<) N |
| 18 | Make a better deal than posh supermarket, ultimately chasing nothing but profit (10)
OUTBARGAIN (surpass in negotiating; make a better deal than) O (character representing zero or nothing) + U (upper-class; posh) + T (last letter of [ultimately] supermarkeT + BAR (except; but) + GAIN (to obtain to one’s advantage; to profit) O U T BAR GAIN |
| 20 | Satellite with rather vacuous name travelling between celestial bodies (12)
INTERSTELLAR ([intervals] between celestial bodies) Anagram of (travelling) SATELLITE and RR (letters remaining in RatheR when the central letters ATHE are removed [rather vacuous]) and N (name)(new) INTERSTELLAR* |
| 23 | Reminder: that video everyone’s sharing? Not funny (7)
MEMENTO (something kept as a reminder) MEME (an image or video that is spread widely on the internet, often altered by internet users for humorous effect) + an anagram of (funny) NOT MEME NTO* |
| 24 | European countries exporting cold curries (6)
BALTIS (India-style curries that originated in Britain) BALTIcS (descriptive of the European countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) excluding (exporting) C (cold) BALTIS |
| 26 | Passionate energy missing from dull article written earlier (5)
ANGRY (passionate) AN (indefinite article) + GReY (dull) excluding (missing) E (energy) AN is written in the answer before (earlier) than GRY AN GRY |
| 27 | Two students in debt going after Foreign Office post (9)
FOLLOWING (after; post) FO (Foreign Office) + LL (two Ls [learners; students]) + OWING (in debt) FO LL OWING |
| Down | |
| 2 | Crazy time to enter student union (4)
NUTS (crazy) T (time) contained in (to enter) NUS (National Union of Students; student union) NU (T) S |
| 3 | Space containing large tree (3)
ELM (tree) EM (printing term for space equivalent to the width of a letter m) containing (containing) L (large) E (L) M |
| 4 | Belief in X and leaders in Elon’s team (5)
TENET (any opinion, principle or doctrine which a person holds or maintains as true; belief) TEN (X is the roman numeral for ten, [and also, of course, the name of the social media channel owned by Elon Musk, thereby helping the surface of the clue]) + ET (initial letters of [leaders] each of Elon and Team) TEN E T |
| 5 | Socialist former PM informally returns, taking on two days’ irregular employment (3,4)
ODD JOBS (irregular employment) (S [socialist] although I can only find it as part of a longer abbreviation such as SWP [Socialist Workers’ Party] + BOJO [informal name for BOris JOhnson {born 1964}, former UK Prime Minister]) containing (DD two D [day], giving two days) and then all reversed (returns) (O (DD) JOB S)< |
| 7 | About to leave grand geriatric hospital with treatment for backside and sensitive spot on arm (4,7)
HAIR TRIGGER (a trigger, responding to very light pressure, that releases the hair of a gun [an arm]; sensitive spot on arm) Anagram of (with treatment) G (grand) and GERIATRIc, excluding (to leave) C (circa; about) and H H AIR TRIGGER*– I think ‘for backside’ means that H is the first letter of the answer and is not part of the anagram. The anagram of just G and GERIATRI then follows to form the backside of H) (Hovis at comment 1 has explained how I missed an R out of the component parts of the anagram. The anagram is formed from G (grand), GERIATRI and R (last letter of )(backside of) foR (for backside) to form HAIR TRIGGER* |
| 8 | Asians‘ painstaking struggles to oust nogood serpentine character (10)
PAKISTANIS (Pakistan is an Asian country) Anagram of (struggles) PAINSTAKIng excluding (to oust) NG (no good) + S (a character with a serpentine [winding] shape) PAKISTANI* S |
| 9 | Popular Spectator header: classically, everything is being undesirably woke? (8)
INSOMNIA (sleeplessness; prolonged inability to sleep; undesirably awake [woke]) IN (popular) + S (first letter of [leader] Spectator) + OMNIA (Latin [classically] word for ‘everything’) IN S OMNIA |
| 12 | Pioneer working with physicists and military leaders to harness explosive (11)
OPPENHEIMER (reference Robert OPPENHEIMER [1904 – 1967], American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often called the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in overseeing the development of the first nuclear weapons [explosives]) Anagram of (working) PIONEER and PMHE (first letters [leaders] of each of Physicists, Military, Harness and Explosives) OPPENHEIMER* (I’m not sure how leaders qualifies all four of the words, it’s as if you have to use it twice -‘Physicists and Military leaders’ and then ‘leaders to Harness Explosive’) (Again, Hovis @ comment 1 has solved my puzzlement. The word ‘leaders’ is not required for HE as ‘harness’ ia being used as a containment indicator and HE is an abbreviation for High Explosive. The construction therefore is OPPEN (HE) IMER*) |
| 13 | Central actor in disturbance following field agent (7,3)
LEADING MAN (central actor in a play or film) LEA (meadow; field) + DIN (noise; disturbance) + G-MAN (an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) LEA DIN G-MAN |
| 15 | After kicking cocaine, drinking excessively is exciting (8)
AROUSING (exciting) cAROUSING (drinking freely and noisily; drinking excessively) excluding (after kicking) C (cocaine) AROUSING |
| 19 | Band separates to look for musical direction (7)
TREMOLO (a musical direction to produce tremulous effect by a rapid succession of the same note or of two notes at least a third apart) (REM [reference the band R.E.M., an American alternative rock band formed in 1980] contained in [separates] TO) + LO (look!] T (REM) O LO |
| 21 | Tag left on murder victim (5)
LABEL (tag) L (left) + ABEL (in the Bible [Genesis 4 1:16], ABEL was murdered by his brother Cain) L ABEL |
| 22 | Baker somewhat unlikely to be brought up (4)
KILN (a large oven used for baking; baker) KILN (reversed [brought up; down entry] hidden word [somewhat] in uNLIKely) KILN< |
| 25 | City-wide regulation (3)
LAW (regulation) LA (Los Angeles, American city) + W (wide) LA W |
7d. You are missing the third R from foR (backside).
12d ‘harness’ gives the inclusion for HE (explosive).
Brilliant crossword.
Hovis @ 1
Thanks – your comments on 7d and 12d clearly explain the wordplay that puzzled me. I’ll update the blog.
Nice puzzle, but a shame about ‘Spectator header’ and ‘physicists and military leaders’. Leave that to lesser publications. ‘Leaders’ is also used in another clue, albeit more coherently.
Any ideas about ‘one pursues’ in 1a?
I think the parse for INCEPTION is:
In = IN church = CE one = I pursues (comes after) point = PT about = ON = IN CE PT I ON.
A good spot, PostMark, makes much more sense of the surface.
An excellent crossword which I enjoyed very much. Even though I was expecting a theme I only really twigged it after the event…
Thanks Lark and ds
PostMark @ 4
Your parsing makes more sense than mine. It’s not been my best day for parsing the entries.