Independent 8,467 by Anax

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For quite a while Anax was absent from the Indy on weekdays, but he made a welcome reappearance recently and does not seem to have lost any of his flair. There are many outstanding clues here. Of course I found this difficult and would have been seriously delayed had it not been for the Reveal button, but everything was so far as I could see perfectly sound and those on which I’m unconfident will I’m sure be made clear and their excellence displayed.

There were many cross-referential clues, which made it hard to get started, but once they had been solved all was well. Or more or less well.

Definitions in italics.

Across

1 Disputed sort of claim on 7? (9)
POLEMICAL
pole (claim)* — 7 is NORTH, which is pole

6 Dance – the hustle – that doesn’t need me (5)
CONGA
Not sure here, but I think it’s con [= hustle] ga{me}, where ‘game’ is defined by ‘that’, another example of a hustle

9 Broken stones ultimately from 8 (5)
METAL
{fro}m et al, which is the academic/Latin way of saying ‘and others’ — an unusual meaning of the word ‘metal’

10 A duke running round tower was sweaty (9)
PERSPIRED
(per d) round spire — a = per as in ‘per diem’, ‘a day’

11 Following tramp, big woman’s replacing old man (10)
STEPFATHER
[step fat her — am never comfortable with this type of definition: the last three words of the clue are the equivalent of a noun — I once said this in a similar comment on another crossword and was told firmly that it was quite OK and that ‘replacing old man’ was a gerund. So that’s all right then] — actually on a second look I think that none of this is relevant and the definition refers to a ‘replacing old man’, like a substitute old man

12 This is crack, as is 20 (4)
SHOT
sort of 2 defs — a shot is a crack and a film is shot

14 Loaf half unmade? Desperately sad (7)
MOANFUL
(Loaf unm{ade})* — not a word I was familiar with but easy enough wordplay

15 A head nearly tucked into part of 20’s snack (7)
TEACAKE
eac{h} in take — an each is a head and a take is part of a film

17 Discover how to subtly get in the way? (4,3)
NOSE OUT
I had this quite early on but rejected it because it seemed to bear no relation to the clue; yet it evidently does — it seems to me that to get in the way is to stick your nose in, so if you take it out then you are apparently not getting in the way … no …

19 4 6d see returning 24 (7)
POLARIS
(lo)rev. in Paris — capital [= Paris] cups [i.e. contains] …

20 Skin / flick (4)
FILM
2 defs — the surface skim and the feature film

22 Act tastelessly and spot topless 20 24 (3,7)
BEN AFFLECK
be naff {f}leck — 20 24 is film star

25 A 6d 24 12 20 (9)
SPARTACUS
(a cups star)* — 6d is cups, 24 is star, the anagram indicator is ‘shot’, which is 12

26 Legally prevent board being shortened (5)
EMBAR
embar{k}

27 I have some children working switches (5)
OWNER
A devilish hidden reversed, which I took a while to see when solving, then forgot about when doing the blog, and I’ve at the last minute remembered: it’s childREN WOrking

28 Old favourite about to stop new scheme (9)
EXPEDIENT
(ex-pet) around (die n)

Down

1 Babies fitted with minute footwear (5)
PUMPS
pu(m)ps

2 21 thus converted some disciples (9)
LUTHERANS
(learn thus)* — 21 is learn — disciples of Luther

3 20 of motley cast, and what some read into that (2,4,4)
MY LEFT FOOT
(of motley)* with FT [what some read, or Financial Times] inside

4 Block of savings (7)
CAPITAL
2 defs

5 Chief seeing 24 with leg broken (7)
LARGEST
(star leg)* — 24 is star

6 See people delivering silverware (4)
CUPS
c UPS — c is the letter see, UPS is the delivery firm

7 A 24 right to be featured in drama (5)
NORTH
rt in noh — rt = right, a noh is a Japanese drama common in crosswords but perhaps less so in real life

8 Mobile or handset etc (3,6)
AND OTHERS
(or handset)* — the anagram indicator ‘mobile’

13 20 24‘s offensive play (5,5)
SALLY FIELD
an offensive is a sally, a play is a field (somehow, not quite sure how) —this actress

14 A publication of bloke’s life story? Two lines deleted (9)
MANIFESTO
man {l}ife sto{ry} — a remarkably happy coincidence/clever spot/brilliant clue

16 A 20 24 describing a 20 24 – mostly pleasant (9)
AGREEABLE
a Gable round Ree{d} — referring to Clark Gable and I think to Oliver Reed

18 Sticky produce of woodland destruction, roughly speaking (7)
TREACLE
“tree cull”

19 Spotlights seen as performance has finished (5,2)
PLAYS UP
If the performance has finished, the play’s up

21 Master runs into 20 director (5)
LEARN
Lea(r)n — referring to the film director David Lean

23 Bleak area near Rorke’s Drift, ultimately a limestone area (5)
KARST
{Blea}k {are}a {nea}r {Rorke’}s {Drif}t

24 Terminal piece missing from jump lead (4)
STAR
star{t} — the terminal piece of ‘start’ is t

*anagram

14 comments on “Independent 8,467 by Anax”

  1. Thanks for the blog. This one was hard work for me. Your parsing is far more likely to be correct than mine, but for 6a I had “con game”, not just “con”, referring to hustle and an alternative for 7d might be that “drama” (North is apparently the name of at least a couple of films) is the clue = Noth (Chris Noth, an American actor in Sex & the City etc) containing r for right. Your explanation is a bit more plausible and elegant.

    I think 17a is “nose out” as in to nose out into traffic, ie carefully join (subtly get in) a stream of traffic on a thoroughfare (the way).

  2. John, in 13dn I think play/field are verbs in the sporting sense.

    I agree that because of the all the cross-referencing clues it was difficult to get a toehold in this puzzle, and for a while I was staring at a mostly empty grid. I chipped away at it steadily and managed to finish it without resort to aids, but it was more of a mental challenge than a pleasurable experience. POLARIS was my LOI shortly after BEN AFFLECK and PLAYS UP. My trouble in the SE came because I confidently, but incorrectly, initially entered “shows up” for 19dn.

    Count me as another who doesn’t like “replacing old man” as a definition for STEPFATHER. IMHO I think “replacement old man” is more grammatically correct, although it would make a mess of the surface reading. I’m sure there are some of you out there who will be able to tell me why I’m wrong.

  4. Thanks, John. I think 7D NORTH refers to the NORTH STAR. Re #2, I’d also pencilled in ‘shows up’ until POLARIS put me on the right track.

  5. Just too hard for my commute, got about half and gave up. Thanks Ansx and John but too much like hard work not enjoyment.

  6. Thanks for the explanations John. I found this one v hard (as usual for me and ANAX). Still not sure I follow somethings which are probably obvious to others. eg 19D performance ends, fine, but spotlights ? Shows up actually fits the clue better to me.. Anyway it’s all a learning process.

  7. Thanks for the blog John, & to Anax for quite a tricky puzzle.

    re 13d, the only sense I can think of that field=play is that to ‘field’ a ball in cricket, is the same as to make a ‘play’ in baseball.

  8. shikasta@7 – re 13dn: that’s what I was referring to in my comment @2.

    Rowland@3 – re 11ac: interesting theory, and you are almost certainly right because the clue can be read a different way than I originally thought. I had taken “woman’s” to be “her”, but if you split “women’s” then “woman” can also be “her” and the “‘s” becomes part of the definition, i.e. “‘s replacing old man”. Very devious if that is what Anax intended.

  10. Hi Everyone

    For “play” = “field”, one might say that a cricket team is playing or fielding two spinners, meaning including them in the team.

  11. When we saw that it was Anax we thought we’d better start solving ealier than usual!

    As others have said, the inter-connected clues took a bit of sorting. With a bit of guesswork along the way, it didn’t take as long as we had feared. Our last one in was BEN AFFLECK which ended the solve with a smile once we had sorted out the parsing.

    We thought NOSE OUT was linked to what you somtimes have to do to get out into traffic – the ‘way’ being the road?

    Thanks to Anax and John

  12. I’m with flashling@5 here, except that I didn’t have a commute, I was at home with a cup of hot chocolate and a copy of Chambers, and I got a mere handful of answers.

  13. I did complete it, and there were certainly one or two very clever clues – but a crossword has to be enjoyable to solve as well as being clever in my opinion…and this one seemed to have too many clues which you could admire once you had the answer, but the wordplay was too obscure to lead you to that answer.

    But then I suppose you can’t please everyone. I’m sure there are many people much cleverer than me who found this a breeze.

    I like the final explanation for NOSE OUT! And the reversed Hidden Word clue completely got me! Grr!

    If you “play up” the importance of something, you emphasise it or spotlight it.

    When you said “an each is a head”, I think you meant to say — ‘each’ = ‘a head’ (as in “£10 each”)

    Thanks John.

  14. Yes, very hard (because of all these (annoying) cross references).
    Boy, it took me some time.
    Couldn’t explain NOSE OUT but now I got it, quite good.

    Not sure whether I like S as ‘ultimately’ Rorke’s, though.

    My first entry was by far my favourite: 8d (‘Mobile or handset etc’) – just brilliant.

    Thanks John (and Anax for the challenge – and now for today’s Loroso!)

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