It’s Thursday and it’s Nestor so we expected to have our work cut out here. We weren’t disappointed!
There were some devious clues here plus a few new words which needed checking. There were, as usual some lovely surfaces. Thanks Nestor, we enjoyed this one!
We will not have internet access for the rest of the day so hopefully if there are any problems you can sort it out amongst yourselves!
| Across | ||
| 6 | Stuffed geese I adapt for …? | |
| PATE DE FOIE GRAS | An anagram of GEESE I ADAPT FOR and a play on the fact that geese are force-fed or ‘stuffed’ to produce the well-known paté. It’s Joyce’s turn completing the blog today and if she remembers correctly it’s defined as an &lit. Despite having solved cryptics for over 40 years, she still doesn’t like using the definitions concerning the types of clues. She just likes the solving! | |
| 9 | Conspiracist probably is the reverse of restrained | |
| DENIER | REINED (restrained) reversed | |
| 10 | Bird brain’s case – without credit, it’s “elementary” | |
| TITANIUM | TIT (bird) + |
|
| 11 | Superior start to one’s education | |
| FIRST CLASS | If you are in your first class you’ve probably just started at school! | |
| 13 | Ordered fabric in psychedelic designs, regularly dropping ecstasy | |
| TIDY | TI |
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| 14 | Formal head covering almost too marvellous for rappers? | |
| TOP HAT | TO |
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| 16 | Stern article’s lining used to be something worn by fishermen | |
| WADERS | DER (German article) inside or ‘lining’ WAS (used to be). Joyce, who wrote up the blog thought that DER related to the German newspaper DER STERN until she checked that it had no article in its title. Bert, who solved the clue thought it related to a German writer – possibly this one. When Joyce checked she found out he was not a writer at all but a Psychologist! However, it could just be that it relates to the fact that Stern is a German name. | |
| 18 | Olympian hampered by size, usually | |
| ZEUS | Hidden within the clue or ‘hampered by’ siZE USually | |
| 19 | Most senior, doddering education expert | |
| MONTESSORI | Anagram of MOST SENIOR (anagrind is ‘doddering’) | |
| 21 | Get right to the start in Open University correspondence: it’s for the better supposedly | |
| ROULETTE | OU (Open University) + LETTER (correspondence) with R (right) moved to the beginning or ‘start’ | |
| 23 | An uproar assailing the ears is vexing | |
| ANNOYS | Sounds like (assailing the ears) AN + NOISE (uproar) | |
| 24 | Plea for understanding as tormented, going out with wicket taken for one | |
| DON’T GET ME WRONG | Anagram of TORMENTED GOING (anagrind is ‘out’) with W (wicket) replacing I (one) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | British spirit to seek support of duke, accepting European tale of neglect | |
| BABES IN THE WOOD | B (British) + ABSINTHE (spirit) + WOO (seek the support of) + D (duke) around or ‘accepting’ E (European) | |
| 2 | Sun’s brought up dirt, innit? | |
| HELIOS | SOIL (dirt) + EH (innit) all reversed or ‘brought up’. This was our last one in despite two clues referring to it. We can’t believe we couldn’t solve it earlier – especially as we are now in Greece! | |
| 3 | Note the Queen’s friend clutching a pipe | |
| MEERSCHAUM | ME (note) + ER’S (Queen’s) + CHUM around or ‘clutching’ A. Bert vaguely remembered a word ending in CHAUM which helped us here but he couldn’t remember what it was. | |
| 4 | Iron Lady’s first term initially had compassion | |
| FELT | FE (iron) + L (Lady’s first) + T (term initially) | |
| 5 | Unfair woman’s main impact shackling French and English | |
| BRUNETTE | BRUNT (main impact) around or ‘shackling’ ET (French for and) + E (English) | |
| 7 | Embargo over such as Disney and Universal getting lifted | |
| OUTLAW | O (over) WALT (as in Walt Disney) + U (Universal) reversed or ‘uplifted” | |
| 8 | Strongly tedious, monstrously wasting time? | |
| SOUL DESTROYING | Anagram of STRONGLY TEDIOUS (anagrind is ‘monstrously’) | |
| 12 | Red meat eaten by Parisian from bistros springing up | |
| SHAMEFACED | HAM (meat) inside or ‘eaten by’ DE CAFES (French for ‘from bistros’) reversed or ‘springing up’ | |
| 15 | Old man with 2 in One Direction made him controversial | |
| PASOLINI | PA (old man) + SOL (sun – 2down) + IN + I (one). Pier Paolo Pasolini was a controversial Italian film director. | |
| 17 | Against occupying, I retreat and sink | |
| INVEST | V (against) inside or ‘occupying’ I + NEST (retreat) | |
| 20 | Thatcherite possibly supporting 2 more than a couple | |
| SUNDRY | DRY (Thatcherite – she didn’t tolerate WETS!) underneath or ‘supporting’ SUN (2 down) | |
| 22 | Republic received about nothing | |
| TOGO | GOT (received) reversed or ‘about’ + O (nothing). The official name however of this republic is the Togolese Republic. | |
I failed to solve 2d, 17d & 16a, and I needed help to parse 24a, 15d, 9a, 13a, 20d.
My favourites in this puzzle were ROULETTE, BABES IN THE WOOD, PATE DE FOIE GRAS, MEERSCHAUM & BRUNETTE.
Thanks for the blog, Bertandjoyce.
Thanks for the blog. A really good straight, tough puzzle. I took the “der” in WADERS to be “the definite article as found in the publication Stern”. My last in was 20, which I really liked – probably not easy for non-Brits, though.
A hard puzzle indeed with very few giveaways and I was pleased to have finished it. I know that Thursday puzzles in the Indie can be notoriously difficult, but I couldn’t help wondering if this one would have been best left until a Saturday.
Elegant puzzle from a top setter. Very enjoyable.
Nicely tough, if you see what I mean. I didn’t know the film director but the wordplay was very clear.
Thanks to B&J and Nestor too.
crypticsue@5
as someone who failed to finish the puzzle, I knew the director @ 15d, but failed to parse the clue!
Thomas99@2
I solved 20d but couldn’t parse it – yes, hard for non-Brits (of which I am one).
Hi B&J. I think in 8dn the whole clue is the definition, and in the wordplay “wasting time” is an indication to remove one of the two Ts.
Thanks, B&J. Tough indeed, but all gettable with a bit of perseverance. I ‘reverse solved’ HELIOS, having managed the two related answers. Clever clue.
I agree with Pelham about SOUL DESTROYING – otherwise there’s one T too many.
Enjoyed this one in the end – thanks to Nestor. Hope you are seeing plenty of HELIOS in Greece, you two!
Cor and I thought tyrus was tough last week. Was going to mention 8d as being a rather better clue than the blog made out but beaten to it. Thanks Nestor and b&j who are currently drunk on retsina or greek brandy no doubt.
Actually we have just managed to locate a bar with internet access but we have a coffee and a coke in front of us! You are correct about 8d of course. It is really tricky using an ipad to correct the blog – it sometimes loses all the coloring etc so it’ll have to wait for the time being. Thanks for sorting out the errors amongst yourselves though!
Flashling@9: Well, I certainly found Tyrus last week hard, but I found this a bit easier. I finished it, eventually, with a bit of electronic help at the end. Only got half a dozen answers last week.
Great puzzle and blog here.
I parsed DER in WADERS in the same way as Thomas99 @ 2 and I also ha HELIOS as last one in.
I thought it splendid.
Comments at 2 & 12 correct; “der” is one word for the (definite) article “the” in German, therefore as used in the publication Stern.
In 23A I don’t think it needs to be “an” + “noise”, simply “a” + “noise”. It is not necessary to reproduce “an”, an identical indefinite article to “a”, as it is only used in the clue because the following word, “uproar”, starts with a vowel.