This appears to be the third puzzle by this compiler in the Indy, and it is certainly the first one that I have solved and blogged.
I was excited at the prospect of tackling work by a new-to-me compiler, and Jeemz certainly did not disappoint. I thought that there was a good variety of clues in terms of difficulty, from accessible anagrams, at 7 and 31, which offered lots of first and/or crossing letters, to clues that needing a lot more teasing out, at 15, 21, etc.
I have to admit that Jeemz came out on top today, as I fell foul of the intersecting entries at 15, 20 and 21, and I am glad that I admitted defeat fairly quickly by my standards, as I don’t think that I would have worked them out – I didn’t know the back formation at 15, nor the slang word for a talking-to at 20. Incidentally, there were quite a few other colloquialisms in this puzzle, e.g. “snow” at 5 and “gets a load of” at 12. Maybe this will prove to be a regular feature of this compiler’s work.
My favourite clues today were 1D, 3, 4, 11, 17 and 18, all for smoothness of surface; and 22, for splitting up “wage war” in the wordplay. I would appreciate confirmation of my parsing at 13 (brief?) and 22 (definition).
I look forward to future outings with this setter so that I can become more familiar with his style.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
|
||
| 1 | LEFT STANDING |
Sinister reputation’s surpassed (4,8)
|
| LEFT (=sinister, in heraldry) + STANDING (=reputation, status) | ||
| 9 | UNCIVIL |
Ill-bred university lecturer embraces endless twisted debauchery (7)
|
| CIV (VIC<e>=debauchery, immoral behaviour; “endless” means last letter is dropped; “twisted” indicates reversal) in [UNI (=university) + L (=lecturer)] | ||
| 10 | REPLICA |
Copy detailed response by art institute (7)
|
| REPL<y> (=response; “de-tail-ed” means last letter is dropped) + ICA (=art institute, i.e. Institute of Contemporary Arts) | ||
| 11 | BAND |
One could have groupies excluded from audition (4)
|
| Homophone (“from audition”, i.e. listening) of “banned (=excluded, barred)” | ||
| 12 | VIEWS |
Gets a load of contest points (5)
|
| VIE (=(to) contest, compete) + W S (=points, i.e. of compass); in slang, “to get a load of something” is to look at it, view it | ||
| 13 | TONG |
Chinese society‘s brief clothing capturing centre of attention (4)
|
| <atte>N<tion> (“cente of attention” means middle letter only) in TOG (=brief clothing, i.e. short word); a tong is a Chinese guild or secret society, especially one associated with organised crime | ||
| 16 | NICE WORK |
Great job making French bread? (4,4)
|
| Since Nice is in the south of France, “Nice work” could entail “making French bread”, be that bread baguettes or euros! | ||
| 17 | GEMINI |
A sign car vacated garage earlier on (6)
|
| G<arag>E (“vacated” means all but first and last letters are dropped + MINI (=car); Gemini is a sign of the Zodiac | ||
| 18 | ORDEAL |
Ordinary Democrat going through unimagined nightmare (6)
|
| O (=ordinary, as in O level) + [D (=Democrat) in REAL (=unimagined)] | ||
| 20 | TWIGGING |
Getting tense – what for? (8)
|
| T (=tense, in grammar) + WIGGING (=what for, scolding, dressing down); in slang, to twig is to understand, hence “getting” | ||
| 24 | EBBS |
Withdraws books probing core elements of Einsteinian physics (4)
|
| BB (=books) in <einst>E<inian> <phy>S<ics> (“core elements” means middle letters only) | ||
| 25 | SABLE |
Valued creature‘s partially disabled (5)
|
| Hidden (“partially”) in “diSABLEd”; sables are martens valued for their fur | ||
| 26 | SCAT |
Improvised performance on your bike! (4)
|
| Double definition: scat is “improvised performance” in jazz AND an interjection meaning shoo, go away, hence “On your bike!” | ||
| 29 | CRINKLE |
Cold arena leads the French to screw up (7)
|
| C (=cold, on tap) + RINK (=arena, for skating) + LE (=the French, i.e. a French word for the); to crinkle is to screw up, crumple | ||
| 30 | SEISMIC |
Crib most ideas going round – oddly that’s ground breaking (7)
|
| C<r>I<b> M<o>S<t> I<d>E<a>S; “oddly” means alternate letters only are used; “going round” indicates reversal; both literally and figuratively, “seismic” means ground-breaking, earth-shattering | ||
| 31 | UGLY CUSTOMER |
Gym culture so unorthodox it produces dangerous opponent (4,8)
|
| *(GYM CULTURE SO); “unorthodox” is anagram indicator | ||
| DOWN
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||
| 1 | LACONIC |
Brief result of amateur boxing scam (7)
|
| CON (=scam, fraud) in LAIC (=amateur, non-professional, of cleric) | ||
| 2 | FIVE |
Number first to forage on river with its banks cleared (4)
|
| F<orage> (“first to” means first letter only) + <r>IVE<r> (“with its banks cleared” means first and last letters are dropped) | ||
| 3 | SOLDIER |
Join compiler coming in commando? (7)
|
| I (=compiler) in SOLDER (=join, fuse, of metal); a commando is a soldier serving in a special service brigade | ||
| 4 | ARROWS |
Husband steers clear of upsets and quarrels (6)
|
| <h>ARROWS (=upsets, distresses); “husband (=H) steers clear of” means letter “h” is dropped; quarrels are square-headed arrows for crossbows, say | ||
| 5 | DUPE |
Snow on to higher ground penetrating outskirts of Dundee (4)
|
| UP (=on to higher ground) in D<unde>E (“outskirts of” means first and last letters only); in US slang, to snow is to mislead, deceive with persuasive talk, hence “(to) dupe” | ||
| 6 | NAIROBI |
Dreadful rain over British Island’s capital city (7)
|
| *(RAIN) + O (=over, on cricket scorecard) + B (=British) + I (=island) | ||
| 7 | DUMB INSOLENCE |
Disrespect demonstrated by unsilenced mob surprisingly! (4,9)
|
| *(UNSILENCED MOB); “surprisingly’ is anagram indicator | ||
| 8 | LAUGHING STOCK |
Aunt Sally‘s happy family? (8,5)
|
| LAUGHING (=happy) + STOCK (=family, as in from good stock); an Aunt Sally is the butt of everyone’s jokes, hence a “laughing stock” | ||
| 14 | TWEAK |
Provocative dance’s vulgar ending succumbs to a minor adjustment (5)
|
| TWERK (=provocative dance); “vulgar ending (=last letter) succumbs to a” means letter “r” is replaced by “a” | ||
| 15 | HENGE |
Woman say from the South Circular area (5)
|
| HEN (=woman) + GE (E.G=say, for example; “from the South” indicates vertical reversal); as a back formation from Stonehenge, a henge is a circular area surrounded by large upright stones | ||
| 19 | DABBING |
Lothario initially’s avoiding flirting or touching (7)
|
| DABB<l>ING (=flirting (with), toying (with)); “Lothario‘s initially (=first letter) avoiding” means letter “l” is dropped | ||
| 21 | WELL-SET |
Fine service, hard and fast (4-3)
|
| WELL (=fine) + SET (=service, of crockery); “well-set” means firmly fixed, strongly built, hence “hard and fast” | ||
| 22 | INCOMER |
Wage war ultimately with extraterrestrial visitor? (7)
|
| INCOME (=wage, pay) + <wa>R (“ultimately” means last letter only) | ||
| 23 | GATEAU |
Meal taken by most of old France constitutes cake (6)
|
| TEA (=meal) in GAU<l> (=old France, i.e. historical name for France; “most of” means last letter is dropped) | ||
| 27 | OKAY |
Sweet Fanny Adams upsetting pack animal engenders sanction (4)
|
| O (=Sweet Fanny Adams, i.e. nothing at all, zero) + KAY (YAK=pack animal; “upsetting” indicates vertical reversal; to okay something is to sanction, approve it | ||
| 28 | FIRM |
Beginnings of friendship in rough male company (4)
|
| F<riendship> I<n> R<ough> M<ale>; “beginnings of” means first letters only |
RR is correct, this puzzle encompassed an enormous range of difficulty. It was certainly challenging overall and mostly good fun.
I didn’t finish courtesy of 5d (American slang needed! 😯 ) and 15d. I’m not fully convinced by the definition for 12a.
Thanks to Jeemz and to RR.
Regarding 13a, I took this as abbreviated ‘togs’ slang for clothing. I’m not sure if this is what you had in mind. I can’t see the extraterrestrial reference in 22d either, is it maybe a term used in a presumably well known SciFi film I’m unaware of?
Also a dnf, for whatever reason I just didn’t see SABLE!
Otherwise a nice stretch of the grey matter, thanks Jeemz and RR
Very tricky. 13(ac), I took it the “clothing” = TOGS, and brief = drop the last letter.
12(ac), the idiom ” get a load of this xxxx ” doesn’t seem to lend itself to pluralisation?
21(d), WELL-SET, also seems a bit stretchy.
DUPE, a bizarro. Does ” snow on to” actually work?
I don’t think I’ve met DUMB INSOLENCE but I presume it’s a known saying?
I know a few interpretations of AUNT SALLY, but not LAUGHING STOCK.
It’s an accomplished puzzle, but personally I wasn’t totally in tune with the setter.
Thanks Jeemz & Riku
Doofs@2, apologies, you beat me to it, with TOGS.
And DUMB INSOLENCE is, I discover, “a thing”….dumb ignorance on my part.
22(d) I assumed it was a sort of, “double-take”; wherein ET visitor = ALIEN = a stranger / incomer.
I’m afraid had quite a few issues like this, sometimes there’s no vibe for the setter’s style.
Like RR, I also got stuck on the crossing of 15D, 20A and 21D, mainly because I put GEMMA for 15D (EG reversed, MM for memorandum (circular)?, A for area) and then couldn’t get 20A
I also got stuck on 21D as I was convinced that the def. was just ‘fast’ rather than ‘hard and fast’, as I thought that SET defined hard (which it can do, but not in this clue), and was adamant that fine was F, but then couldn’t think of a 3 letter word meaning service
Like Rabbit Dave @1 I also didn’t know the US slang term – I put in DOPE as I know that both SNOW and DOPE are slang terms for drugs
In 13A I thought it was TOGA we were shortening rather than TOGS but I think the latter works better
Overall a tricky but enjoyable puzzle – thanks Jeemz and RR
I was held up by putting Trapping for TWIGGING, but I enjoyed the challenge. I only remembered the con sense of DUPE once the wordplay had led me to it. I am struggling to think if a non-sexist context for “Get a load of….”
As already mentioned, a great range of clues and a very enjoyable challenge.
Thanks to Jeemz and RR
Another excellent puzzle from Jeemz that was both challenging and enjoyable in equal measure. WIGGING, LACONIC and SOLDIER were particular highlights for me.
Thanks to Jeemz and to RR for a top puzzle and blog
Agree with much of the above. Liked the two long anagrams to get me going, but found other bits tougher.
Happy with WELL-SET. Visualise a WELL-SET fence post. Hard and fast is right.
Thanks both
Thanks both. Whilst there was only TONG as an outright unknown, some of the apparently more accessible answers proved difficult, or evasive before assistance was sought. For example, WELL SET where service/set only works in a single instance, and HENGE wherein I’d take hen for ‘female’ but not necessarily ‘woman’ unless I had a good dentist.