Independent 8807 / Radian

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Radian has produced a puzzle that tests the grey cells today.

 

 

 

I may be accused of writing a spoiler in that first sentence today.  If so, I apologise if I have given the theme away too early.

The theme came to me fairly quickly as Romanian currency is a frequent visitor to barred crosswords such as the Inquisitor and the Listener so LEU and T from the ‘last of it’ led me to SLEUTH

I had heard of all the SLEUTHS except Sergeant CUFF at 11 down.  Indeed Sergeant CUFF is the greatest puzzle of all to me, as I have no ideas for the wordplay to generate CUFF.  I look forward to being enlightened.

There was a good deal of thematic material in the grid, both in the acrosses and the downs.  Often thematic crossword are heavily skewed to thematic entries in either Across or Down but not both.

I enjoyed a number of clues today, such as the one for RHAPSODY at 1 across because of its surface and the one for FATHER BROWN at 5 across because of its many constituent parts.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

1

 

Music‘s sharp, out of tune and oddly uneven (8)

 

Anagram of (out of tune) SHARP + ODY (letters 1, 3 and 5 [odd {unevenly} letters] of ODDLY)

RHAPS* ODY

RHAPSODY (emotional piece of music)

 

5 / 25 ac

 

10 show disapproval at woman’s black spikes (6,5)

 

(AT + HER [woman] + B [black, on lead pencils]) contained in (spikes) FROWN (show disapproval)

F (AT HER B) ROWN

 FATHER BROWN (reference the priest FATHER BROWN, SLEUTH [10 across] in novels by G K Chesterton)

9

 

Upset at recent break in play (8)

 

Anagram of (upset) AT RECENT

ENTR’ACTE*

ENTR’ACTE (the interval between acts in a play)

 

10

 

Track cash in Bucharest, last of it nicked by mum (6)

 

(LEU [standard monetary unit{cash} in Romania {Bucharest}] + T (last letter of {last of} IT) contained in (nicked by) SH! (be quiet; mum)

S (LEU T) H

SLEUTH (track)

 

12

 

10 cross ring going out (5)

 

MOROSE (sour-tempered; cross) excluding (going out) O (ring-shaped letter)

 

MORSE (reference Inspector MORSE, SLEUTH [10 across] in novels by Colin Dexter)

 

13

 

Increasingly corrupt Iraq led US to be bamboozled (9)

Anagram of (to be bamboozled) IRAQ LED US

SQUALIDER*

SQUALIDER (increasingly corrupt)

 

14

 

10 puts port back in mug (6)

 

RIO (RIO de Janiero, port city of Brazil) reversed (back) contained in (in) POT (mug)

P (OIR)< OT

POIROT reference Hercule POIROT, (SLEUTH [10 across] in novels by Agatha Christie)

 

16

 

Doubt about case that ignores a lie (7)

 

IF (whether; doubt) reversed (about) + ACTION (legal case) excluding (that ignores) A

FI< CTION

FICTION (a lie)

 

19

 

Brought on popular leader backed by Germany (7)

 

IN (popular) + DUCE (the title assumed by the Italian dictator Mussolini; leader) + D (Deutschland; Germany)

 

INDUCED (brought on)

 

21

 

Mathematician‘s secretary’s about 50 (6)

 

PA’S (Personal Assistant’s [secretary’s]) + CA (circa; about) + L (Roman numeral for 50)

 

PASCAL (reference Blaise Pascal [1623 – 1662], French mathematician)

 

23

 

Contrary to popular belief, he edited article (9)

 

HE + an anagram of (edited) ARTICLE

HE RETICAL*

HERETICAL (contrary to popular belief)

 

26

 

Feds’ article trapped another 10 (6)

 

(FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation; Feds] containing [trapped] A [indefinite article]) + AN ([another] indefinite article)

F (A) BI AN

FABIAN (SLEUTH [10 across], reference Robert FABIAN, detective from Scotland Yard, whose memoirs formed the basis of the television series FABIAN of the Yard and broadcast between 1954 and 1956)

 

27

 

State officer leads his men to a party (8)

 

COL (colonel; officer]) + OR (other ranks; [his] men) + A +DO (party)

 

COLORADO (State of the United States of America)

 

28

 

Large Ford crosses states to capital (6)

 

(L [large; size in clothing] + KA (a model of Ford car]) containing (crosses) USA (United States of America; states)

L (USA) KA

LUSAKA (Capital city of Zambia)

 

29

 

Good boy scraps best suit (4,4)

 

G (good) + LAD (boy) + RAGS (scraps)

 

GLAD RAGS (best suit)

 
Down
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

1

 

Cold moist rhubarb and yogurt starter (6)

 

RHEUM (the rhubarb genus) + Y (first letter of [starter] YOGURT)

 

RHEUMY (cold and damp; cold moist)

 

2

 

Shattered Waterford book end (9)

 

Anagram of (shattered) WATERFORD

AFTERWORD*

AFTERWORD (epilogue; the concluding section of a book)

 

3

 

10, one in a black suit (5)

 

SPADE (a playing card in the suit SPADEs, which is one of the two black suits)

 

SPADE (reference Sam SPADE, SLEUTH [10 across] in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammet)

 

4

 

Touch up property son left in file (4,3)

 

(TAD [small amount; touch] reversed [up; down clue]) + (ASSET [property] excluding [left] S [son])

DAT< A SET

DATA SET (file)

 

6

 

Team needs to follow ball all over the place (3,6)

 

Anagram of (all over the place) BALL + LACKS (needs)

ALL B* LACKS

ALL BLACKS (The New Zealand Rugby Union team)

 

8

 

I call that woman up first for what idle cabbie wants (8)

(HER [that woman] reversed [up; down clue]) + (I + RING [call])

REH< I RING

REHIRING (what an idle cabbie wants)

 

11

 

Good conductor leaves 10 (4)

 

CUFF – I am completely defeated by the wordplay for this entry  I haven’t even got the inkling of an idea.

Thanks to Muffyword at comment 2 below for showing that the parsing is CU (a good [electrical] conductor) + FF (folio; leaves [of paper])

CUFF (reference Sergeant CUFF, SLEUTH [10 across], detective in The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins)

 

15

 

Where vehicle goes round with awful racket (9)

 

CAR (vehicle) reversed (goes round) + an anagram of (awful) RACKET

RAC< ETRACK*

RACETRACK (where a vehicle goes round,. sometimes with an awful racket, but I understand that Formula 1 has reduced the noise emitted by engines this year)

 

17

 

Someone fancies her tip at a Roman institute (9)

 

I (Institute) + (AT A ROMAN reversed [tip])

I NAMOR A TA)<

INAMORATA (a woman in love; one assumes that there is someone reciprocating the feeling to fit the definition ‘someone fancies her’)

 

18

 

It’s just terrible losing the lead (8)

 

FRIGHTFUL (terrible) excluding the first letter (losing the lead) F

 

RIGHTFUL (just)

 

20

 

10 set up 1000 10s (4)

 

(K [1000] + CID (Criminal Investigation Department; detectives; SLEUTHs [10 acrosses]) reversed (set up; down clue)

(DIC K)<

DICK (private eye; SLEUTH [10 across])

 

21

 

Tree product used as a sweetener? (4,3)

 

PALM OIL (reference OIL someone’s PALM [bribe them; offer them a sweetener])

 

PALM OIL (a tree product)

 

22

 

10s turn over clubs (6)

 

SPOONS (according to Chambers a word used commonly to refer to 3-woods [clubs] in golf.  I think it is now a very old-fashioned term and not one I have heard on our golf course for many years) reversed (turn over)

SNOOPS<

SNOOPS (SLEUTHS [10 acrosses])

 

24

 

10 and what he solves? (5)

 

REBUS (an enigmatical representation of a word or name by pictures representing the component parts of the word, as in a puzzle or a coat of arms; puzzle)

 

REBUS (reference Inspector REBUS; SLEUTH [10 across] in the novels by Ian Rankin)

 

25 / 7

 

10 certain to catch foreign hoodlums, except last 3 (10)

 

BOUND (certain) containing (to catch) an anagram of HOODLUMS excluding (except) the last three letters UMS

B (LOODH*) OUND

BLOODHOUND (SLEUTH)

 

 

 

12 comments on “Independent 8807 / Radian”

  1. I could get 10 only after I had got REBUS (with the crosses from HERETICAL and LUSAKA providing the entry point) – then, the other shamuses fell into place nicely enough! Liked the puzzle a lot – thank you, Radian. And thanks to duncanshiell for a very well-done blog.

  4. I always thought INAMORATA was passive. A woman loving would surely be “inamorante.”

    Thanks, Radian and Duncan.

  7. Took rather a while to get SLEUTH, after that manageable.

    Agree with @4Ian SW3, inamorata is a female who is loved “she is my inamorata (sweetheart)”, so no problem.

    Thanks to Radian and duncanshiell.

  8. @4 (&7)
    Loving/loving person in Italian isn’t inamorante (not a word I’ve ever seen); it’s amante (which is what Cavaradossi calls Tosca in Recondit’ armonia – “l’ardente amante mia”). Inamorata comes to mean lover/mistress because it originally meant (something close to) “enamoured (one)”, not because it means “loved (one)” (it’s not the past participle of amare). (To be enamoured of something is, roughly, to love it, and the Italian usage is I believe fairly similar.)

    But re current English usage you’re right, inamorata does usually mean something like lover or mistress, or even (see Collins) “woman with whom one is in love”, so the clue is certainly fine.

  9. I enjoyed this a lot, and am greatly reassured by the fact that Duncan was as baffled by CUFF as I was.

    Thanks to both.

  10. Thanks for blogging, Duncan. Can’t say I enjoyed this as much as others did: I got SLEUTH early doors, but some of the themed clues were so obscure (to me) that I gave up with a few to go. CUFF? Obscurely clued and no idea of the link. Is MOROSE a synonym for ‘cross’? Not where I live (yes, I know it’s in Thesauruses). I’d always say MORE SQUALID rather than SQUALIDER, which just sounds ugly to me.

    So not my favourite ever Radian, but thank you to him anyway.

  11. Thanks all for cuff and data set which I just couldn’t see. Sleuth came straight after the cold solved poirot which rather gave a bit away.
    Twas fun, thanks Duncan and Radian.

  12. Well, I got the theme long before getting 10ac, but I finished it, even if 11dn was more a guess with a distant memory of the name, and I certainly couldn’t parse it, either, so thanks for the explanations.

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