Independent 8958 – Quixote

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Quixote fills Dac’s Wednesday slot this week.

 

We found this a somewhat frustrating but ultimately fairly straightforward solve – frustrating because at first it looked as though there might be a theme, but as far as we can see there are just two connected answers at 13 and 14, then there are three words and one place-name that we hadn’t encountered before, and lastly 25ac where the wordplay doesn’t seem to work properly as far as we can see.

Having said that, it was pretty obvious what the solutions were in all cases, so perhaps it’s just us.

Across
1   Limit school subject being taken by fundamentalist?
RESTRICT RE (Religious Education – school subject) STRICT (fundamentalist)
5   Annual meeting without English is showing a type of prejudice
AGEISM AGM (annual meeting) round or ‘without’ E (English) IS
9   Sort of practical joke? Jolly mistake on reflection
BOOBY TRAP PARTY (jolly, as a noun) BOOB (mistake) reversed or ‘on reflection’
11   Was in charge and took control after game
RULED LED (took control) after RU (Rugby Union – game)
12   Thus male needs another name, edging off in foreign country
SOMALIA SO (thus) M (male) ALIAs (another name) with the last letter or ‘edge’ omitted or ‘off’
13   Singer put on old vehicle
DONOVAN DON (put on) O (old) VAN (vehicle) – showing our age – we were into ‘new age’ folk when we first met in 1965 – Donovan’s ‘Universal Soldier’ EP was Bert’s first Christmas present to Joyce!
14   Fellow’s rhymes for yesteryear’s pop song
MELLOW YELLOW MELLOW and YELLOW rhyme with ‘fellow’ – one of Donovan’s singles from 1967 (when we were moving on to heavier music!) We wondered if there might be a Donovan theme here, but apparently not! Pity!
18   Patriot’s tone quivering when making solemn avowal
PROTESTATION An anagram of PATRIOT’S TONE – anagrind is ‘quivering’
21   Mum’s got stuck in a bit of furniture – wild but likely to calm down?
TAMABLE MA (mum) ‘stuck’ in TABLE (a bit of furniture)
22   Thames meanders round a part of the capital
EAST HAM An anagram of THAMES (anagrind is ‘meanders’) round A
24   Foreign money must be robust, right?
HALER HALE (robust) R (right) – new to us – apparently it’s a monetary unit in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
25   Tiny fellow, one tickling the ivories, not one banging drums
TIMPANIST TIM (tiny fellow) PiANIST (one tickling the ivories) without the first ‘I’ (one) – this clue doesn’t quite work as far as we can see, as the second ‘one’ is needed for both the wordplay and the definition
26   Coercion to put on finer attire around university
DURESS DRESS (put on finer attire) around U (university) – the ‘finer’ seems superfluous
27   A left-winger’s to remain inside, taken into custody
ARRESTED A RED (left-winger) with REST (remain) inside
Down
1   One very intimate penetrating soldiers, one of many in a cell
RIBOSOME I (one) BOSOM (very intimate) in or ‘penetrating’ RE (soldiers)
2   Fish immediately going into that cold water
SNOW-MELT NOW (immediately) in SMELT (fish)
3   Viceroy always entertains this member of top family
ROYAL Hidden in or ‘entertained by’ viceROY ALways
4   Builder’s beginning to get stuck into nasty terrace, transforming London thoroughfare
CARNABY STREET B (first letter or ‘beginning’ of ‘builder’) ‘stuck’ in an anagram of NASTY TERRACE – anagind is ‘transforming’
6   Lord again replaced chandelier
GIRANDOLA An anagram of LORD AGAIN – anagrind is ‘replaced’ – another new word for us which needed a search to determine which letter went where once the crossing letters were in
7   Terribly violent, no end, feeling great passion
IN LOVE Another anagram – of VIOLENt without the last letter, or ‘no end’ – anagrind is ‘terribly’
8   With-it girl appearing in Italian city
MODENA MOD (with-it – if you were around in the 1960s!) ENA (girl) – not an Italian city we’d heard of before
10   Males departed, sailing around in old ship
PADDLE STEAMER An anagram of MALES DEPARTED – anagrind is ‘sailing around’
15   Upper-class cheat, 7 repeatedly, not quite a paragon, a self-absorbed 23
OUROBOROS U (upper class) ROB (cheat) in O O (love repeatedly – see 7d) + ROSe (paragon) with the last letter omitted or ‘not quite’ – certainly a new word for us, and we hadn’t come across ‘rose’ = ‘paragon’ before
16   Wife is hard with inclination to get a series of desirable items
WISH LIST W (wife) IS H (hard) LIST (inclination)
17   Excited and hugging one chum
ANIMATED AND round or ‘hugging’ I (one) MATE (chum)
19   Yearned to be married, having lost first husband
ITCHED hITCHED (married) with the first ‘h’ (husband) omitted or ‘lost’
20   Novelist who proceeds at a slow pace?
AMBLER A reference to Eric AMBLER, the thriller and spy novelist
23   Tempter appearing in lascivious nakedness
SNAKE Hidden or ‘appearing’ in lasciviouS NAKEdness

 

10 comments on “Independent 8958 – Quixote”

  1. So that explains why we had Dac last Wednesday when it should have been his week off. Not too difficult except that I needed a word finder for OUROBOROS, and only got GIRANDOLA from the anagram fodder (although I vaguely remember encountering the word before).

    22ac caught my eye because in the grid it of course becomes EASTHAM rather than EAST HAM, and Eastham is the lock on the Mersey where the Manchester Ship Canal begins. So an alternative clue might be ‘Thames meanders round a lock on another river (7)’; or the Mersey could be named to make things easier for the geographically challenged.

    Thanks, Quixote and B&J

  2. Nice puzzle: I guessed Girandola (from Girasola) but had to find ouraboros. Thanks to both.

  3. Girandola was guesswork from the crossing letters. OUROBOROS I had to work out from the clue, not quite recalling the spelling on the cover of The Worm Ouroboros some 50 years after I read it. But I do remember reading it!

    This was a quick canter, and none the worse for that, thank you, Quixote. Bertandjoyce, thank you for the blog, wspecially having somewhere to cut and paste OUROBOROS from!

  4. I enjoyed this, although I confess that I didn’t bother to try and parse OUROBOROS because I knew the word, and GIRANDOLA went in both vaguely remembered and as the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder. RIBOSOME was my LOI. I agree with B&J about the problem with the clue for TIMPANIST, although to be honest I didn’t notice it at the time.

  5. Thanks for feedback. I remember reading about The Worm Ouroboros through my interest in CS Lewis. I think the clue for TIMPANIST is fine, actually — the cancellation applies to just one of the I’s. I suppose I could have specified it as the ‘first one’ -and if I wanted to take out both I’s I would have maybe have written ‘every one’. The Donovan song was sparked off by hearing it on the radio (with my instantly seeing the possibility of an easy-to set clue) and Donovan was added as a mini-theme tease, knowing that there is something of a tradition in The Indy crossword for dated pops!

  6. Quixote, that’s not the (bloggers’) point.
    The cancellation of I is indicated by ‘not one’, am I right?
    If so, then what about the definition?
    We need ‘one’ for that too.

  7. Or the second ‘one’ in the clue is doing double duty as letter to be deleted and part of def for word required.

  8. Yes, Rishi, that’s what I’m saying (as do B & J).
    I might be wrong but Quixote doesn’t do ‘double duty’.
    He’s too precise for that.

  9. Don might perhaps include this clue as an exercise for editing in a future edition of his manual. Jus’ kidding.

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