It was only a month ago that I had the pleasure of blogging a puzzle by Morph, so I was not expecting to get to blog another for quite some time.
I found this a harder-than-average solve overall. There were a few write-ins, such as 26, others with fiendish wordplay, such as 20, and the rest somewhere between the two. I only twigged how the wordplay at 22 worked at third perusal, and I still need help from fellow solvers with 10, where I feel that I have arrived at the correct solution having identified the definition, but where the wordplay continues to elude me. I will amend the blog later.
My favourite clues today have to be 20, for the clever way in which the wordplay runs into the definition, and 1D, for its smooth surface and cheeky definition. I also liked the riddle-like wording of 9.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | HARD AND FAST RULE | There’s no getting round it – two firms are in control
HARD AND FAST (=two firms, i.e. two words meaning firm as an adjective) + RULE (=are in control) |
| 09 | INITIAL | Coming in last, not first, it is not last but first
[IT + I<s> (“not last” means last letter dropped)] in <f>INAL (=last; “not first” means first letter dropped) |
| 10 | LAMBAST | Roast meat by way of light meal, you say?
LAMB (=meat) + AS (=by way of) + T (=light meal, as you say, i.e. homophone of “tea”); the definition is roast as a verb, i.e. to scold, criticise strongly |
| 11 | SKIRTING BOARDS | They stick to the edges of the room, avoiding gatherings of bosses
SKIRTING (=avoiding) + BOARDS (=gatherings of bosses, i.e. in companies) |
| 12 | RAJA | King not to back
AJAR (=not to, i.e. not closed, of a door); “back” indicates reversal |
| 14 | COMES ABOUT | Communist saboteur runs off after explosion happens
COM (=communist) + *(SABOTEU<r>); “runs (=R) off” means letter “r” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “after explosion” |
| 17 | YOU DON’T SAY | Today’s young endlessly in trouble? No kidding!
*(TODAY’S YOUN<g>); “endlessly” means last letter dropped from anagram, indicated by “in trouble” |
| 19 | INCA | South American murderer cut up and reassembled
CAIN (=murderer, i.e. of Abel in Bible); “cut up and reassembled” indicates that the word is split in two (CA-IN), with the parts being swapped round |
| 21 | UNMENTIONABLES | More than one chap in stable union sporting old-fashioned underwear
MEN (=more than one chap) in *(STABLE UNION); “sporting” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | KEYPADS | Digital controls that’ll open the door of accommodation
KEY (=that’ll open the door) + PADS (=accommodation, e.g. bachelor pads); “digital” in the definition refers to the use of fingers |
| 26 | AT ISSUE | A flimsy paper being disputed
A + TISSUE (=flimsy paper) |
| 27 | PURPOSELESSNESS | Drifting, sound contented, striking right attitude and missing point
PUR<r> (=sound contented, i.e. of cat; “striking right (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped) + POSE (=attitude) + LESS (=missing) + NESS (=point, i.e. in geography) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | HAIRSPRAY | Barnet manager praises performance after double left-right substitution
HAI-L-S (=praises) + P-L-AY (=performance); “after double left-right substitutions means that twice the letter “l” is replaced by an “r”; the cryptic definition refers to something to control (=manager) hair (=Barnet Fair, in Cockney rhyming slang) |
| 02 | REIKI | Turn up increasingly irritable after missing special Japanese massage
<sp>IKIER (=increasingly irritable); “after missing special (=SP)” means letters “sp” are dropped; “turn up” indicates vertical reversal |
| 03 | ARISTO | One found among tsarist oligarchy?
Hidden (“found among”) in “tsARIST Oligarchy”; & lit. |
| 04 | DOLING OUT | Rationing leave in unruly old unit
GO (=leave, as a verb) in *(OLD UNIT); “unruly” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | AD LIB | A foreign tabloid promoted with no forethought
A + DLIB (BILD=foreign tabloid, i.e. German magazine; “promoted” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 06 | TYMPANA | Yemeni leader and deputy – caught by a nationalist rising, they’re beaten
[Y<emeni> (“leader” means first letter only) + MP (=deputy)] in TANA (A + NAT (=nationalist); “rising” indicates vertical reversal |
| 07 | UP AND DOWN | Thus fluctuating pound wandered, finally losing 50%
*(POUND WAND<ered>); “finally losing 50%” means second half of word is dropped; “fluctuating” is anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 08 | ET TU | Brute follows these words, hearing U2 in translation?
ET TU is a translation into Latin of “you too”, a homophone (“hearing”) of U2; “Et tu, Brute?” is a quotation from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar |
| 13 | JOURNEYER | Little woman taking pot, one seeing things? She’s tripping
JO (=little woman, i.e. from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women) + URN (=pot) + EYER (=one seeing things); the definition refers to someone being on a trip, travelling |
| 15 | EVAPORATE | Argentine leading lady initially to hold forth and let off steam
EVA P (=Argentine leading lady, i.e. Eva Peron; “initially” means first letter only of surname is needed) + ORATE (=to hold forth) |
| 16 | TRANSFERS | Ref’s rants about footballers’ exchanges
*(REF’S RANTS); “about” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | OREGANO | Old ass picked up aromatic plant
O (=old) + REGANO (ONAGER=ass, i.e. donkey; “picked up” indicates vertical reversal |
| 20 | RADIUS | Heavy guns deployed – underground head entering more than half suspended District and Circle line?
RA (=heavy guns deployed, i.e. Royal Artillery) + [U<nderground> (“head of” means first letter only) in DIS<strict> (“more than half suspended” means more than half of letters are dropped); the definition refers to geometry |
| 22 | TASTE | Try heading for centre of country
S-TATE (=country); “heading for centre” means that the first letter (“heading”) – “s” – ends up as the middle letter (“centre”) |
| 23 | LISLE | Yarn from L-Lewis?
L (transposed from clue) + ISLE (=Lewis, i.e. in the Outer Hebrides) |
| 24 | SKIP | Leave out // rubbish here
Double definition |
Thanks RatkojaRiku and Morph,
Re LAMBAST – Lamb as t(ea)
HAIRSPRAY was my favourite.
Just to note that 6D is TYMPANA not TYMPANI.
Thanks RR and M. Good stuff. Lots to like – but 22 and the parsing of 10 defeated me.
I entered the incorrect “tympani” initially but couldn’t solve 14ac, so I looked at it again, changed it to TYMPANA, and then got COMES ABOUT, my LOI.
Some really excellent clueing and most enjoyable. Took a while to finish. I also had tympani at first, which left the most unlikely I-O-T as the second word for 14A. As I did some Latin at Uni, should be obvious that the plural of tympanum (neuter) is tympana; and nice to see the rare use of the vocative case in 8D.
With LAMBAST, I immediately thought “lamb” + “baste” (basting in cooking most frequently used when roasting) satisfied the homophone indicator, so forgot about “by way of light meal”. As it seems the version “lambast” rather than “lambaste” is generally pronounced with a short “a”, my theory wouldn’t have worked anyway.
Excellent puzzle, thanks to Morph and RR.
Superb – a very ‘dotty’ day with lots of ‘favourites’ so a big thank you Morph and RR too.
Thanks for the explanation of 10 and the more careful proof-reading of 6 than I had managed! The blog has been amended accordingly.
Enjoyable puzzle from Morph. A bit like Animal Farm’s ‘four legs good, two legs bad’ this was a case of ‘top half easy, bottom half definitely not easy’. But not bad by any means: there was some excellent clueing in here and in the south I liked JOURNEYER and EVAPORATE when I finally got them.
And some footie thrown in as well at 1dn. This is the Indy, after all.
Thanks to RR for explaining a few I couldn’t parse, and to Morph for the puzzle.
Oppo and me had a great solve here, lots of chewy and charming wordplay, lovely. The only quibble for us is the way the CAIN morphs (hey, I made a joke by accident!) into INCA. It sounds like it’s an anagram. No qualms if you disagree, but I imagine doing that sort of thing must be pretty difficult.
Thanks Indy & blogger.
26ac, your “write-in”, was my second to last in. Just couldn’t see it at all.
Thanks for the blog. Like others, I couldn’t get the wordplay for the AST in 10a. And 20d stumped me altogether. Favorite clue was 9a, which I thought was brilliantly constructed. Like KD @8, I also enjoyed 13d and 15d.
Lots to enjoy here and quite a few that needed some serious head-scratching.
It was getting late so we used an electronic search for 21ac and the groaned when we found the solution but it did enable us to finish the puzzle.
Thanks RR and Morph.
It’s been a good week in the Indy so far, despite where they have placed the crossword in the dead-tree version recently!