Independent 8,383 / Hob

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It is Tuesday today and it falls to me to bog Hob’s latest puzzle, my second opportunity to do so in the last two months.

I found this a quirky and thoroughly entertaining puzzle. It was obvious from a quick perusal of the clues that 14 was to offer the gateway to the theme, and Hob offered us a fairly straightforward clue here. Despite having spent the last three weeks in Denmark, I imagined that I would struggle to come up with the names of enough famous Danes to fill the thematic entries in the puzzle. I spotted where Niels Bohr and Peter Schmeichel were to be slotted in very quickly, but then I ran out of names, especially when it became clear there was no place for Hans Christian Andersen in this puzzle! Eventually, I realised that there might be a canine connection, which enabled me to work out the remaining thematic entries, albeit sometimes on the strength of the wordplay rather than any familiarity with the cultural references. The engineer at 3 was also new to me.

Annoyingly, despite having an anagram to resolve any doubts, I misspelt Peter Schmeichel in the grid, which meant that I was then unable to solve 4D. It was only when searching the thesaurus and stumbling across the right answer that I realised my mistake. It served me right for being lazy with the anagram!

As for my clues of the day, I rather liked 6 for its unusual (and perhaps controversial?) wordplay and 18A for its smooth surface.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues

Across  
   
01/10 PETER SCHMEICHEL The sheep circle round about male 14

M (=male) in *(THE SHEEP CIRCLE); “round” is anagram indicator; the definition is “great Dane” (=entry at 14), referring to footballer Peter Schmeichel, Man U and Denmark goalkeeper
   
04 RECUSANT Dissenting bombast about pre-Euro currency

ECUS (=pre-Euro currency) in RANT (=bombast)
   
08 INSTINCT Gut feeling unopened cans can contain tasty starters

<t>INS (=cans; “unopened” means first letter dropped) + TIN (=can) + C<ontain> T<asty> (“starters” means first letters only)
   
09 APOGEE Highest point of a horse only half visible when crossing river

PO (=river) in [A + GEE<-gee> (=horse; “only half visible” means that half of letters are dropped)]
   
11 BASH Party in front of Birnam Wood

B<irnam> (“front of” means first letter only) + ASH (=wood)
   
12 SMUGNESS Fool needing to wear Superman’s first cape to gain self-satisfaction

MUG (=fool) in [S<uperman> (“first” means first letter only) + NESS (=cape, i.e. headland)]
   
15 RADIOS Sets ultimately for so long

<fo>R (“ultimately” means last letter only) + ADIOS (=so long)
   
16 ORDEAL Test of French in examination

DE (=of French, i.e. of in French) in ORAL (=examination)
   
18 CUPBOARD Press prize awarded by committee

CUP (=prize) + BOARD (=committee)
   
20 PACT Reported full agreement

Homophone (“reported”) of “packed” (=full)
   
21 TYCHO BRAHE Setter in heat, misbehaving with oddly curly 14

HOB (=setter, i.e. of this crossword) in *(HEAT + C<u>R>l>Y); “oddly” means odd letters only are used; “misbehaving” is anagram indicator; the definition is “great Dane” (=entry at 14), referring to the Danish nobleman Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), known for his accurate astronomical and planetary observations
   
24 MUTANT Genetically-modified article eaten by dog

AN (=article) in MUTT (=dog, i.e. a mongrel)
   
25 EINSTEIN Genius // shown by Disney’s 14

Double definition: the reference is to German physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) AND to a Great Dane (=entry at 14) called Einstein in the 1988 Disney film
   
26 LEVERETS Baltic people said to bear always big-eared youngsters

EVER (=always) in homophone (“said”) of Letts (=Baltic people)
   
27 XHOSA Language of love seen on kiss with hot sex appeal

O (=love, i.e. nil) in [X (=kiss, i.e. at end of letters) + H (=hot, i.e. on tap) + SA (=sex appeal)]; Xhosa is a Bantu language of South Africa
   
Down  
   
01 PANIC Fear // of god

Double definition; panic can mean relating to the god Pan, hence “of god”
   
02 TOTEM Came across books about family emblem

MET (=came across) + OT (=books, i.e. Old Testament); “about” indicate vertical reversal
   
03 RANKINE Scottish engineer with cycle smuggled cattle

RAN (=smuggled) + KINE (=cattle, i.e. Biblical); the reference is to Scottish engineer William Rankine (1820-72), who devised the Rankine cycle to predict the performance of steam engines
   
04 RETCHES Blighters recited gags

Homophone (“recited”) of “wretches” (=blighters)
   
05 CRAWLER Slow-moving vehicle in West Sussex town, shortly to go over river

CRAWLE<y> (=West Sussex town; “shortly” means last letter dropped) + R (=river)
   
06 SCOOBY-DOO 14 finally calculates 10000 x 50000

<calculate>S (“finally” means last letter only) + C (=100) + 00 + BY (=x, as   in 6ft x 5ft) + D (=500) + 00; the figures in the clue are broken down in the wordplay; the definition is Great Dane (=entry at 14), referring to a Great Dane called Scooby-Doo in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name
   
07 NIELS BOHR 14 with no time for cavorting in brothels

*(IN BRO<t>HELS); “no time (=T)” means letter “t” dropped from anagram, indicated by “cavorting”; the definition is “great Dane” (=entry at 14), referring to Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
   
13 MARMADUKE How the Queen may be addressed by a noble 14

MARM (=how the Queen may be addressed, i.e. ma’am) + A + DUKE (=noble); the definition is Great Dane (=entry at 14), referring to a Great Dane called Marmaduke in the cartoon strip by Brad Anderson
   
14 GREAT DANE Hamlet possibly ate garden produce

*(ATE GARDEN); “produce” is anagram indicator
   
17 LET IT BE Song of bird born in shelter

[TIT (=bird) + B (=born)] in LEE (=shelter); the reference is to the 1970 Beatles single Let it be
   
18 CACHETS Seals hiding place with bits of tape and string

CACHE (=hiding place) + T<ape> + S<tring> (“bits of” means first letters only)
   
19 PHOENIX Photos containing horse and one exotic bird

[H (=horse) + *(ONE)] in PIX (=photos); “exotic” is   anagram indicator
   
22 RATIO Proportion current during rocket-assisted take-off

I (=current, i.e. in physics) in RATO (=Rocket-Assisted –Take-Off)
   
23 HAIFA Port of Shanghai, familiarly

Hidden (“of”) in ShangHAI, FAmiliarly
   

12 comments on “Independent 8,383 / Hob”

  1. So most of the wordplay was very user-friendly and I’d heard of the engineer and the goalkeeper, looked at a list of 14s to get 21a and then I stared and stared at 6d which has to be my d’oh of the day.

    Thanks to Hob for an entertaining time (and the large d’oh moment) and to RR for the explanations.

  2. I thought I was going to struggle with this one despite the gateway clue being easy enough to crack. Once I realised that the themed answers could be either dogs or people I got the three dogs easily enough. I knew NIELS BOHR and, more fortunately, TYCHO BRAHE, and it was actually PETER SCHMEICHEL that took me the longest and I needed quite a few checkers before I saw it. RECUSANT was my LOI after I finally saw RETCHES, although I have to confess that my first go at it was “recusing” and I only gave it the requisite amount of thought after I didn’t get the “congratulations” message.

  3. A most entertaining crossword. Particularly interesting clueing. I liked 15A RADIOS, 3D RANKINE, loads more. Did not know about the canine EINSTEIN and MARMADUKE characters, nor that SCOOBY-DOO was a Great Dane, but gettable from the word play. Have to mention 5D CRAWLER, as I was brought up in Crawley and did not expect to find it in a cryptic crossword.

    A really diverting work out, thanks and admiration to Hob. Extremely lucid blog from RatkojaRiku, got SCOOBY-DOO from the numeration, had a vague idea about the way it worked, cleared up by RR.

  5. This is only the second Hob puzzle I completed so far.
    I left his debut (Saturday) puzzle on the shelf for months as I couldn’t find a way in. Eventually, I solved that ‘sheepish’ one just a couple of weeks ago – and I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of it.

    This time, I didn’t find Hob’s crossword very hard.
    Everyman solvers must have had a déjà vu with the gateway clue (14d) while the scientist at 7d popped up elsewhere too today.
    In general, the cluing had a light touch and was quite original in places (15ac – RADIOS, for example).

    For me, all in all, and certainly in 6d’s SCOOBY-DOO, this crossword had a Guardian feel about it [by which I do not mean the occasional sloppiness over there].
    All at once I remembered a previous puzzle by Hob (didn’t solve it but read the blog) featuring Scarborough (football club).
    Now there’s one Guardian setter who has its roots in this Yorkshire town. And, eureka, his pseudonym over there is more or less synonymous to Hob.
    Am I right?

    Good crossword!
    (and many thanks to you, RR)

  6. I was less keen than others on this. Not a bad puzzle by any means, but a bit stodgy in places; or that could have just been me. When the first themed clues turned out to be dogs, my enthusiasm dipped a bit (don’t like them), but when a couple of scientists appeared, it perked up again.

    And indeed, thank you to Hob for the straightforward gateway clue.

    As an ardent royalist (isn’t that little rascal Prince George just sooooo cute?) I must point out that if you ever get to meet Brenda, you say MAM to rhyme with PAM, and not MARM to rhyme with HARM.

    Thanks to Hob, and to RR for bogging …

  7. Thoroughly enjoyed this one by Hob. All three humans were familiar (as RR says, add Andersen and that just about covers famous Danes, doesn’t it?). I wasn’t too confident with cartoon dogs, but the wordplay was very helpful — but I still haven’t a scooby (thanks Rowland #4) who EINSTEIN is. E=mc squared or something like that.

  8. Thanks RR, got great dane straight off but struggle d to finish. Scooby inspired and like RR threw in the wrong spelling despite having read his son’s name a few minutes earlier in a football match report. Ta Hob.

  9. Well, I got 6dn, but I couldn’t see how it worked. I was looking for those other famous Danes Carl Nielsen and Sandi Toksvig. (I’m also a fan of Rued Langgaard, but I’d have been really surprised if he’d turned up.)

  10. Interesting. Just discovered that trying to access pages from the Independent from the US you now have to pay after viewing five pages in a month. That appears to include the crossword page. Looks like I won’t be doing the crossword for the rest of my holiday. (This didn’t happen last year.)

  11. If our memory serves us right we blogged a Danish themed crossword a while back which featured Sandy Toksvig in the grid. We looked out for her here but no joy – just dogs and people who Joyce had never heard of!

    Thanks Hob – inventive clueing – we liked 6d – but maybe that’s because Joyce solved it from the enumeration and the final letter.

    Thanks RR for the blog!

  12. This made me smile, as I used the same theme in the picture round of a pub quiz I set about a year ago. Very pleased to see that Schmeichel – one of the best ever between the sticks – made it. (Alas, no Vitus Bering or Lars Ulrich…) I wasn’t familiar with Einstein the dog, so I initially thought 25a might be ANDERSEN (the Disney bit a reference to The Little Mermaid). And “Queen” in 13d (not the mention the M_R start) put me onto MARGRETHE until the crossing answers proved that untenable. Fun stuff from Hob.

    Dormouse @10: Gaufrid helpfully clued me in on the following software, which allows you to download the Indy crossword (and shouldn’t limit you to 5 per month in the US):

    http://www.crosswordsolver.info/

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