No relaxed Sunday with this puzzle – I needed more than one sitting to complete it. Some clever misdirections and definitions. Thanks to eXternal, this being the 1st puzzle of his/hers that I’m blogging. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Across
1 Scorn satisfied politician taking over from noon, later (8)
CONTEMPT : “content”(satisfied) with MP(a politician) replacing(taking over from) the 2nd(later) “n”(abbrev. for “noon”).
6 Reject instrument, good for nothing (6)
GRATIS : Reversal of(Reject) { SITAR(the stringed instrument, derived from Hindi for 3-stringed) + G(abbrev. for “good”) }
9 Spiritual girl reported to have convulsion (6)
MYSTIC : Homophone of(reported) “miss”(an unmarried girl) plus(to have) TIC(a spasmodic twitching of a group of muscles, perhaps not so violent as a convulsion).
10 Not fair, monster gets over trap (8)
BRUNETTE : BRUTE(a monster) containing(gets over) NET(a device to trap, say animals, made of, well, netting).
Answer: Of a dark brown colour, in contrast to fair;light coloured;blond.
11 Correspondent blue, vital errors penned in review (8)
RELATIVE : Hidden in and reversal of(penned in review) “blue, vital errors “.
Defn: As an adjective, as in “bonus pay correspondent/relative to revenue”.
12 One should respect these trees (6)
ELDERS : Cryptic defn: Reference to the exhortation to “respect your elders”.
13 Repeat working over two words initially changed from cut and paste (6,6)
PEANUT BUTTER : Anagram of(working) REPEAT containing(over) NUT,BUT(2 words derived from “cut” by changing the initial letter). Nice misdirection with the nowadays often used “cut and paste”.
16 Extra agile of mind (12)
SUPPLEMENTAL : SUPPLE(agile;lithe) + MENTAL(of mind, as opposed to “of the body”).
19 Vice admiral initially took to the front very well (6)
AGREED : GREED(a vice;one of the seven deadly sins) placed after(… took to the front ) the 1st letter of(initially) “admiral “.
Defn: An expression signifying that what has been said is all right, ie. no disagreement with it.
21 Junk hotels do hammer home, perhaps (4,4)
TOOL SHED : Anagram of(Junk) HOTELS DO.
Defn: Cryptically, the home for tools, say;perhaps, hammers.
23 Recalling duck names confused park official (8)
LINESMAN : Reversal of(Recalling) NIL(zero;a duck in cricket scores) + anagram of (confused) NAMES.
Defn: One of the officials at a match in the park;British informal term for a soccer pitch.
24 Announcer drove around US city, heading west (6)
HERALD : HERD(a drove, of livestock) containing(around) reversal of(heading west, in an across clue) LA(Los Angeles, a US city).
25 The suspect fled capital city (6)
TEHRAN : Anagram of(suspect) THE + RAN(fled).
Answer: The capital city of Iran.
26 Ship on ocean with computers returning line revealed through water (8)
TIDEMARK : ARK(a large boat) placed after(on, in an across clue) reversal of(returning) { MED(short for the Mediterranean Sea) plus(with) IT(abbrev. for “information technology”, used as a collective noun for computers and such) }.
Answer: The line on the shore marking the highest or lowest point reached by tidal waters.
Down
2 Men, hot rampant horny beasts (6)
ORYXES : OR(abbrev. for “other ranks”;non-commissioned men in the military) + reversal of(rampant, like an animal rising on its rear legs, in a down clue) SEXY(hot sexually). Amusing and perhaps accurate surface.
… and the horny winner of that contest gets the girl:
3 Fish starter for four (5)
TETRA : TETRA-(the prefix;starter) for words indicating “four”, eg. in chemistry, “tetrachloride”.
4 Friend buried in another’s plot (9)
MACHINATE : CHINA(rhyming slang for “mate”, from “china plate”) contained in(buried in) MATE(another word for “friend”).
Defn: To plot;to scheme.
5 Dramatic scene in Arab country, disembodied limb at uprising (7)
TABLEAU : Reversal of(uprising) { UAE(abbrev. for the United Arab Emirate, an Arab country) + “limb” minus its 2 inner letters(disembodied) + AT }.
6 Judge with gold piercing backed product of Fabergé (5)
GAUGE : AU(the chemical symbol for the element, gold) contained in(piercing) reversal of(backed) EGG(a piece of jewellery in the shape of an egg, produced originally by Peter Carl Fabergé and his company.
7 Going by hearsay, cane toad abandoned lake (9)
ANECDOTAL : Anagram of(abandoned) CANE TOAD + L(abbrev. for “lake”).
Defn: Based on casual observations or accounts, in contrast to rigorous or scientific analysis.
8 Computer service hospital worker finds alien (8)
INTERNET : INTERN(a medical graduate undergoing practical training in a hospital) + ET(abbrev. for an extraterrestrial life-form).
13 Showman with young faithful follower touring East (9)
PUPPETEER : PUP(the young of some animals) + PETER(the faithful follower of Jesus Christ) containing(touring) E(abbrev. for “east”).
14 Intended to chance red hot cooking (9)
BETROTHED : BET(to chance;to risk for a bigger return) + anagram of(cooking) RED HOT.
Defn: As a noun: the person whom one intends to marry.
15 Amount of leaves outside company event creates problematic situation (8)
QUAGMIRE : QUIRE(an amount of 24 or 25 papers;pages;leaves) containing(outside) AGM(abbrev. for “annual general meeting”, convened by a commercial company).
17 Old collector’s item on empty bed gone forever (7)
EXTINCT : EX-(prefix for “old”;former) + TIN(an item used to collect donations in) placed above(on, in a down clue) “cot”(a small bed) minus its inner letter(empty).
18 Man casually dropped before the Queen (6)
FELLER : FELL(dropped) placed above(before, in a down clue) ER(abbrev. for “Elizabeth Regina”, the Queen).
Defn: An informal;casual term for “a man”, derived from “fellow”.
20 Evildoer has distinctive way of doing things in lair (5)
DEMON : MO(abbrev. for “modus operandus”, a distincitive way;method of doing things) contained in(in) DEN(an animal’s lair).
22 Bolt, in brief, Olympic medallist (5)
SCRAM : S.CRAM(Steve Cram, British Olympic medallist, with “Steve” abbreviated). The surface refers to Usain Bolt, a Jamaican Olympic medallist, aptly named.
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Agree, scchua, not an easy puzzle.
Actually, perhaps the hardest eXternal so far.
That said, I liked the challenge.
In Sheffield, eXternal told me that he’s not someone who’s into themed crosswords – indeed, one more unthemed eXternal.
This was the kind of crossword in which the surfaces were rather unexciting but in which the clueing was top-notch.
That said, I cannot see why in 26ac MED is called ‘ocean’.
22ac (SCRAM) was my favourite – great clue.
Thanks scchua and eXternal,
I didn’t find this as hard as the last few IoS puzzles, but Sunday does seem to be the new Thursday for me, so it certainly wasn’t a doddle.
PEANUT BUTTER took me an unreasonably long time to solve as my last one in. I liked SUPPLEMENTAL, ORYXES and TOOL SHED especially.
[[The lady in pic 7 runs the risk of getting a tidemark, pic 10 shows a Triumph Herald, although I didn’t notice this immediately]]
I thought this was a very enjoyable puzzle to solve because of the tightness of the wordplay and some cleverly disguised definitions. I agree with Sil@1 about the strangeness of the use of “ocean” to define MED in 26ac, especially as replacing it with “sea” wouldn’t have affected the surface reading or made the clue any easier to solve, but that is a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent puzzle.
I found the bottom half of the puzzle easier to solve than the top half, and the NW corner was the last to be completed. The ORYXES/MYSTIC crossers were my last in after I was held up slightly by looking for an anagram of “men hot” with “rampant” as the anagrind. “Oxen” is a plural and I was trying to think of another animal that had that kind of ending in the plural, but once I couldn’t make it work I thought about the clue again and the penny dropped. If it was a deliberate misdirection it was very good.
Does anyone know a way of getting a decent print version of the IoS puzzles?
I manage the weekday Indy by downloading via Crossword Solver and then saving the puzzle as an XPS document. But the IoS puzzles don’t seem to be available via Crossword Solver.
[[1: Handmaid’s Tale –> Margaret Atwood –> ORYX and Crake
2: True Grit –> John Wayne –> The Sons of Katie ELDER
3: FELLER on a sewing machine
4: Sean Penn –> MYSTIC River
5: Restricted DEMON butterfly
6: Triumph HERALD
7: Is the woman washing herself with a bath PUPPET?
8: Picture is by Nickolas Muray – perhaps an example of a TABLEAU?
9: Maxwell’s equations (of electromagnetism) have GAUGE symmetry]]
Re #4, the IoS puzzles are available just like the daily ones, but appear one week behind (as they are prize puzzles). The same applies to the Sat ones.
Crosswordsolver won’t always play ball with IoS puzzles, there is a bit of jiggery pokery that Gaufrid knows that works.
I find I have to put in the actual URL of the Sunday puzzle instead of clicking on “Today’s puzzle”. This is in the form http://www.independent.co.uk/independent.co.uk/editorial/xword/c_ddmmyy.bin where ddmmyy is the date – and putting 101113 brings up the puzzle for 031113.
[[Hi muffyword & Keeper,
pic 2: John Wayne was in The Sons of Katie Elder, but I was thinking of Glen Campbell singing Wichita Lineman (American variant of LINESMAN);
pic 7: A TIDEMARK might be left on the lady’s tub, which I think is what muffyword was implying;
pic 8: That lady in solitary is playing solitaire, in which piles of dealt cards is called the TABLEAU;
pit 9: Maxwell’s DEMON was a thought experiment in thermodynamics.
Well done on the rest.]]
Thanks nmsindy and sidey.
Hadn’t thought of doing that, allan_c. It works. Thanks very much.
Now Crossword Solver seems to be having a problem with today’s Indy puzzle. Don’t know if my brain will be able to cope with an eXternal prize on a Monday 🙂