An enjoyable and largely accessible IoS puzzle from Poins. His cluing style can border on the intricate, but there’s nothing wrong with that as long as everything is clearly signposted, as it is here. And this intricacy does, I think, allow him to produce some lovely story-telling surfaces, which I for one do appreciate.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Feel indignant at now being considered without poise
RESENT
[P]RESENT. P is the abbreviation for ‘poise’, which is ‘the cgs unit of viscosity; the viscosity of a fluid in which a tangential force of 1 dyne per square centimetre maintains a difference in velocity of 1 centimetre per second between two parallel planes 1 centimetre apart’. But you knew that already.
4 Offer for sale a letter written about Tybalt’s end in feud
VENDETTA
A nod to Shakespeare from our Sunday Shakespearean setter. A charade of VEND and an insertion of T for the last letter of TybalT in ETA for the Greek letter.
9 Forced through split near top of duct
DRIVEN
D for the first letter of Duct followed by RIVEN.
10 Unusual characteristic
PECULIAR
A dd.
12 Avoid touching claw stuck in swimmer’s back
LET ALONE
An insertion of TALON for ‘claw’ in LEE, which is a reversal (‘back’) of EEL. Which is a swimmer, except when it’s jellied, when it doesn’t move at all.
13 Animal god’s tail is sharp
SHREWD
A charade of SHREW and D for the last letter (‘tail’) of goD.
15 Joy‘s song
GLEE
Well, wouldn’t you know it, a GLEE is ‘a type of song originating in 18th-century England’. So it’s a dd.
16 Consider story surrounding British deserter found in river
DELIBERATE
It’s intricate, but it’s clearly signposted: put B for ‘British’ in LIE for ‘story’ and put that and RAT in the River DEE.
19 Old hand gets tangled stems apart
PAST MASTER
(STEMS APART)*
20 Manage to get work in the centre of Gloucester
COPE
OP for ‘opus’ or ‘work’ in CE, the central letters of GlouCEster.
23 Deny being divided over the return of bill
RECANT
RENT for the past participle of ‘rend’, so ‘divided’ with an insertion of CA for a reversal of AC, account, or ‘bill’.
25 Starts to express reservations after mother gets Heather to feign sickness
MALINGER
A charade of MA, LING and ER for the first letters of Express Reservations.
27 Made progress when promoted
ADVANCED
A dd.
28 One say, left outside overturned, can catch fire
IGNITE
A charade of I and an insertion of TIN for ‘can’ in EG for ‘say’, reversed. To make this work, I think you have to have two reversal indicators: ‘left’ and ‘overturned’.
29 Remain, largely reflecting on foreign agent’s rank
SERGEANT
Poins is asking you to reverse RES[T] and follow it by (AGENT)* The removal indicator is ‘largely’; the reversal indicator is ‘reflecting’; the anagrind is ‘foreign’.
30 Information on an ancient city near Troy requiring immediate attention
URGENT
A charade of UR for the ‘ancient city’, GEN for ‘information’ and T for ‘Troy’ ounces.
Down
1 Doctor fled in torment warning of danger
RED FLAG
An insertion of (FLED)* in RAG.
2 Moves quickly to involve small boy lacking in initiative
SHIFTLESS
An insertion of LES in SHIFTS. I’m not keen on these ‘small boy’ clues for diminutives. I know lots of big boys called LES or ED.
3 Get at heartless girl over entrapping newspaper boss
NEEDLE
The ‘heartless girl’ is EL[L]EN; reverse that and insert ED (not a small boy) and you’ve got your answer.
5 Continually edges away from stern
EVER
[S]EVER[E].
6 Failed ultimately to get anything at all on the queen’s female offspring
DAUGHTER
A charade of D, AUGHT and ER. AUGHT is a archaic or literary word for ‘anything at all’.
7 Second entry essentially covering a former US politician
TRICE
Another middle letter excision: T for enTry ‘essentially’ followed by Condoleezza RICE, former US Secretary of State. This word is really now only known in the phrase IN A TRICE.
8 Cut down with a spanner
ABRIDGE
A plus BRIDGE.
11 A French girl touring Sweden for free
UNLEASH
A charade of UN for one of the French words for ‘a’ and S in LEAH.
14 Generous artist overwhelmed by defamation
LIBERAL
An insertion of RA in LIBEL.
17 Next to a tall and slender page
ALONGSIDE
A charade of A, LONG for ‘tall and slender’ and SIDE for ‘page’.
18 An artist from this place not starting with distinction
EMINENCE
Tracey EMIN, CBE, RA followed by [H]ENCE.
19 Possibly revealing her breasts for Spooner
PERHAPS
I don’t usually like Spooner clues, but this made me laugh, so I shall overlook my prejudice this once. Spooner would have this as HER PAPS.
21 Sort of art seen as serious
EARNEST
(ART SEEN)*
22 Bit of funding for opening of spice shop
FINGER
The spice is GINGER; replace the first letter with F for the first letter of Funding and you’ve got a verb meaning to ‘shop’ in the criminal sense.
24 Deal with Cuba concluded
COVER
A charade of C and OVER.
26 A passage from Sartre inspiring restraint
REIN
Hidden in SartRE INspiring.
Thank you to Poins for this morning’s puzzle.
Thanks for the blog, Pierre. In 2D, I think ‘small’ refers to the word rather than the person.
7dn – TRICE! Of course! Obvious now, but I kept thinking the politician was Ike, and the only word that could fit was “trike”, which didn’t fit the definition.
Hi nms. Not really sure what you were getting at about SHIFTLESS. Is it not just LES in SHIFTS?
I found this an enjoyable puzzle that was probably on the slightly easier side of the IoS offerings. Having said that, I only got RESENT from the definition so thanks for the parsing Pierre, and I agree with your parsing of SHIFTLESS. UNLEASH was my LOI after FINGERS.
Comment #1 seems to have been misinterpreted. It was not querying the explanation of the wordplay in the blog i.e. LES in SHIFTS but, rather, just saying the setter’s “small boy” was IMHO indicating that an abbreviated version of the name i.e. LES was being used.