Independent 8936 / Hob

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Hob is a once a month setter on the Independent weekday series.

 

 

 

This was a puzzle that looked as it might have had a theme given the number of possible names in the grid and a little bit of research proved it to be so.

The theme was drummers.  Some are better known than others, but I picked up the following from the Wikipedia page on ‘well known’ drummers:

  • Jorg MICHAEL (not very well known to me) – Stratovarius, Axel Rudi Pell, Running Wild, Rage and Mekong Delta
  • COPE + LAND to form Stewart COPELAND – Curved Air, The Police, Animal Logic and Oysterhead
  • Charlie WATTS – The Rolling Stones
  • TEES (Independent setter and drummer to boot),
  • Billy COBHAM (another off my radar) – Mahavishnu Orchestra
  • Mitch MITCHELL – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
  • Buddy RICH,
  • Ginger BAKER – Cream and Blind Faith
  • Keith MOON – The Who
  • Phil COLLINS – Genesis, Brand X, Flaming Youth and Frida
  • Pete BEST, – early The Beatles, pre Ringo Starr
  • Stanton MOORE (rather obscure to me) – Galactic
  • Max ROACH (another less well known to me) and
  • Martin CHAMBERS – The Pretenders.  Wikipedia also lists Dennis CHAMBERS

This puzzle had many enjoyable clues and was a good work out for a Friday (although I had expected to see a puzzle from Phi)

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

6 / 31

 

Revolutionary sort of chemical treated ill son (7,7)

 

Anagram of (sort of)  CHEMICAL + an anagram of (treated) ILL SON

MICHAEL C* OLLINS*

MICHAEL COLLINS (Irish revolutionary leader, killed in an ambush in 1922)

 

7

 

A sheep eating pasture ultimately devoured completely (3,2)

 

A + (TUP [male sheep] containing [eating] E [last letter of {ultimately} PASTURE])

A T (E) UP

ATE UP (devoured completely)

 

9

 

Manage to cycle round a group of oil-producing countries (4)

 

OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) with the letters cycled round – last to first – to form COPE)

 

COPE (deal with; manage)

 

10

 

Power units in Temple tube station’s vans (5)

 

WAT (Thai temple or monastery, think the Temple of Angkor WAT)) + TS (first letters of [vans {vanguards leading}] each of TUBE and STATION)

 

WATTS (power units)

 

11

 

Letters of support? (4)

 

TEES (more than one of the letter T)

 

TEES (supports for a golf ball)  double definition

 

12

 

One who wants backing over piano being played again (8)

 

DESIRER (one who wants) reversed (backing) containing (over) P (piano [musical terminology])

RE (P) RISED<

REPRISED (repeated; played again)

 

15

 

Hour on horse?  A mount’s heading for Surrey village (6)

 

COB (short-legged strong horse) + H (hour) + A + M (first letter of [heading] MOUNT)

 

COBHAM (village in Surrey)

 

17

 

Song some gay MC announced (1,1,1,1)

 

Y M C A (hidden word in [some] GAY MC ANNOUNCED)

 

Y M C A (song by the Village People which has come to adopted as a gay anthem.  Y M C A stands for the Young Men’s Christian Association)

 

19

 

Scoundrel that’s a Nobel Prize winner (5)

 

CUR (scoundrel) + IE (id est; that is)

 

CURIE (reference Marie and Pierre CURIE joint winners of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics along with Antoine Henri Becherel.  Pierre got a half share of the prize while Marie and Antoine only got a quarter share each)

 

20

 

Bag lady regularly eats one (4)

 

LD (letters 1 and 3 [regularly] of LADY) containing (eats) AN (one)

L (AN) D

LAND ([verb] secure; bag)

 

21

 

Composer’s unfinished finale to opera for Hindu god (6)

 

BRAHMS (reference Johannes BRAHMS [1833 – 1897], German composer) excluding the final letter [unfinished] S + A (last letter of [finale to] OPERA)

 

BRAHMA (the first god of the Hindu triad, the creator of the universe)

 

22

 

Cambridge University has small room housing Hungary’s top writer (8)

 

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in the city of Cambridge Massachusetts; Cambridge University) + (CELL [small room] containing [housing] H [International Vehicle Registration for Hungary])

MIT C (H) ELL

MITCHELL (reference Margaret MITCHELL [1900- 1949] American author of Gone with the Wind; writer)

 

25

 

Loaded rifle, in case harassment starts (4)

 

RICH (first letters of [starts] each of RIFLE IN CASE HARASSMENT)

 

RICH (having lots of money; loaded)

 

27

 

Mug dropping ecstasy – one with a bun in the oven? (5)

 

BEAKER (mug) excluding (dropping) E (ecstasy tablet)

 

BAKER (one who may have a bun in the oven)

 

29

 

A day without love for Titania, perhaps (4)

 

MON (Monday; day) containing (without; outside]) O (love score in tennis)

MO (O) N

MOON (Titania is the largest moon of the planet Uranus)

 

30

 

Big cat, cross with queen after first of each litter is gone (5)

 

LIG (first letters of each of [first of each] LITTER IS GONE) + ER (Elizabeth Regina)

 

LIGER (offspring of a LION and a female TIGER; big cat cross])

 
Down
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

1

 

Old revolutionary in the firing line (4)

 

O (old) + CHE (reference CHE Guevara,[1928 – 1967], Argentine Marxist Revolutionary)

 

OCHE (the line, groove or ridge behind which a player must stand to throw in darts; firing line)

 

2

 

Gross saying about death sentences? (6)

 

FAT (gross) +  (SAW [saying] reversed [about])

FAT WAS<

FATWAS (formal legal opinions or decisions issued by a Muslim judicial authority, eg that someone should die or be killed; death sentences)

 

3

 

Excessive amount left in narrow passage (4)

 

L (left) contained in (in) GUT (narrow passage)

G (L) UT

GLUT (excess quantity

 

4

 

Service area for butcher (8)

 

MASS (religious service) + ACRE (a measurement of area)

 

MASSACRE (slaughter; butcher)

 

5

 

Tube station’s second to none (4)

 

BEST (hidden word in [‘s indicating possession] TUBE STATION)

 

BEST (second to none)

 

6

 

Actor playing Romeo (5)

 

Anagram of (playing) ROMEO

MOORE*

MOORE (reference Roger MOORE [1927 – date], British actor)

 

8

 

"Man on board" includes the German getting up when it’s still dark (7)

 

PAWN (chess piece; man on [chess] board) containing (includes) (DER [one of the German forms of ‘the’] reversed [getting up; down clue])

P (RED)< AWN

PREDAWN (a time of day when it is still dark)

 

13

 

Fish recipe, with fish left out (5)

 

R (recipe) + (LOACH  [small river fish] excluding [out] L [left])

 

ROACH (a silvery freshwater fish of the carp family)

 

14

 

Kind of wheat outside upper-class house (5)

 

DRUM (slang for house) containing (outside) U (upper-class)

D (U) RUM

DURUM (a kind of spring wheat grown especially in Russia)

 

16

 

Wind out through this when leaving Basel, Switzerland (5)

 

BEL (letters remaining in BASEL excluding [leaving] AS [when]) + CH (International Vehicle Registration for Switzerland from Confederatio Helvetica)

 

BELCH (void wind from the stomach)

 

18

 

Military officer, say (7)

 

MARTIAL (sounds like [say] MARSHALL [officer rank])

 

MARTIAL (military)

 

19

 

Bach’s confused with REM?  Judge works here (8)

 

Anagram of (confused) BACH’S and [with] REM

CHAMBERS*

CHAMBERS (a judge’s room for hearing cases not taken into court)

 

23

 

Delight as farm brings in harvest – rapeseed, initially (6)

 

TILL (work the land; cultivate; farm) containing (brings in) HR (first letters of [initially] each of HARVEST and RAPESEED)

T (HR) ILL

THRILL (delight)

 

24

 

City in Italy, on Sardinia (5)

 

LYONS (hidden word in (in) ITALY ON SARDINIA)

 

LYONS (city [in France])

 

26 /28

 

Feature of can-can giving drunk a 23 (4,4)

 

HIGH (drunk) + KICK (THRILL [23 down])

 

HIGH KICK (feature of the can-can dance)

 

29

 

Animal forgets intro repeatedly before performing linked set of pieces in a suit (4)

Anagram of (performing) (ANIMAL excluding [forgets] the first two letters [intro repeatedly] AN)

MAIL*

MAIL (defensive armour [reference suit of armour] for the body, formed of overlapping or meshed steel rings)

 

10 comments on “Independent 8936 / Hob”

  1. I’m hopeless at spotting themes, so thanks for the enlightenment, duncanshiell. At least I could finish this in a reasonable time, unlike yesterday’s challenge. I did find that I had to pencil in numerous answers, but they all turned out right in the end. Tyrus, thanks for not making it _too_ hard!

  2. I managed the puzzle but missed many of the subtleties so the blog was a valued friend again. Thanks to both!

  3. Thanks Hob for an enjoyable solve and duncanshiell for theme-spotting. I was sure it must be dictionary related, given both Chambers and Collins!
    Just to be sure Marie Curie isn’t sold short: she also got a whole Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.

  4. I thought this was an inventive and enjoyable puzzle. Well done to Duncan for spotting the theme because I missed it completely. I only saw the hidden BEST after I got TEES, and FATWAS was my LOI. At the start I confidently wrote in OPEC for 9ac before the checker from OCHE told me I’d got it the wrong way round.

  5. Enjoyable and solvable without knowing the theme – which is as it should be.

    Superb misdirection re Cambridge for MITCHELL, but I needed the blog to parse WATTS. One minor quibble; the name of the French city is actually LYON (although Wikipedia gives LYONS as an alternative).

    Thanks, Hob and Duncan.

  6. No Phi and a grid that screams NINA – what’s cracking off here, I asked myself. And I was still asking myself an hour later: I would never have seen that in a squillion years, so well done Duncan for elucidation.

    Didn’t need the theme, though, as Allan said. It all went in nicely, with BELCH and OCHE my favourites today.

    Bravo, Hob.

  7. Yes, quite an obscure theme (and well done getting that much in) – I hadn’t realised there was a competition on…

  8. An excellent and thorough blog, Duncan, as per usual – and fairly close to my intentions in regard to the themed entries.

    I wasn’t aware of Jorg MICHAEL, so that’s one up to you. Elsewhere I was thinking of Steve MOORE, the ‘Mad Drummer’ whose Woodstick 2010 YouTube clip went viral and got him well known, in drumming circles at least. There are also a couple of not-so-well-known options for LYONS: Darren (NYC jazz) and Tony (The Lightyears).

    And you never mentioned the appearance of the drummer from Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem….

  9. Thanks Duncan for spotting the theme. We knew there must be one, there were so many ‘names’ within the grid. Despite noticing BAKER and WATTS we didn’t think of drummers. We actually got engaged after the last Cream concert and saw them at their reunion when they were even better! Joyce was also ill after each time she saw the Who due to Keith’s bass drumming. It was still worth it though.

    Bert really likes drummers and most of the ones on your list Duncan, are heroes of his.

    Thanks Hob for the puzzle and the memories.

  10. Struggled a bit towards the end, and there were several I couldn’t parse (didn’t know drum meaning house), but 2dn was the only one I needed help getting.

    22ac could just as easily be referring to David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas among others.

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