I think this is Shabbo’s first appearance in the Independent, or in any of the papers covered by Fifteensquared. Always good to meet a new setter, especially one who can produce a puzzle as enjoyable as this one.
There’s a good range of different clue constructions, with nothing too obscure. Some clues are fairly straightforward, at least if you know the standard range of crossword setter tricks, but that’s not a bad thing for a Monday; others need a bit of lateral thinking, but are clear enough when you see them. Lots of good surfaces too. I was amused by 2d because I’m not far away from Barnet Hospital (though glad not to need its services right now), but my favourites were 20a for the neat construction and 6d for the delightfully wistful surface.
Thanks and welcome to Shabbo – let’s hope this is the first of many.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RHODE ISLAND RED | Free ranger in Providence? (5,6,3) |
| Cryptic definition: Rhode Island Red is a breed of chicken, which may or may not be free range, and Providence is the state capital of Rhode Island where this breed was first developed. | ||
| 10 | PRIOR | Earlier advertising about Olympic venue (5) |
| PR (public relations or press release, either of which could be considered advertising) around RIO (Summer Olympics venue in 2016). | ||
| 11 | DIVISIONS | Differences of opinion in leagues (9) |
| Double definition: the second refers to the various levels of the English Football League (or similar systems elsewhere), which used to be called First Division, Second Division etc, but are now called leagues. | ||
| 12 | RUBICON | Point of no return for Polish idol (7) |
| RUB (polish, as a verb) + ICON (idol). Crossing the Rubicon refers to taking a decisive and irreversible action – from Julius Caesar, who started a civil war by bringing his army across the Rubicon river (and hence out of the area he governed). |
||
| 13 | SEATTLE | Latte brewed in extremely suave city (7) |
| Anagram (brewed) of LATTE, in the outer letters (extremely) of S[uav]E. Extended definition: Seattle (on the US West Coast) is known for its coffee culture and Starbucks was founded there. |
||
| 14 | EQUIP | Provide on-line joke? (5) |
| An increasingly popular crossword trick: the prefix E- for “electronic” or “online”, which here turns a QUIP (joke) into an e-quip. | ||
| 16 | SAGE-GREEN | Foolishly reneges about silver colour (4-5) |
| Anagram (foolishly) of RENEGES, around AG (Ag = chemical symbol for silver, from the Latin argentum). A greyish-green resembling the colour of dried sage leaves. |
||
| 19 | OTHER HALF | Poor health for partner (5,4) |
| Anagram (poor) of HEALTH FOR. Jocular term for a spouse or significant other. |
||
| 20 | ACTOR | Both genders abandoned criminal player (5) |
| [malef]ACTOR (criminal, as a noun), with MALE and F (both genders) dropped. | ||
| 22 | TRAILED | Dogged pedant finally complained bitterly (7) |
| Final letter of [pedan]T, then RAILED (complained bitterly). Dog, as a verb = follow = trail. |
||
| 25 | HABITAT | Practice at home (7) |
| HABIT (practice) + AT. | ||
| 27 | BELL TOWER | Barker carries the first on The Belfry (4,5) |
| BELLOWER (barker = one who shouts), containing (carrying) the first letter of T[he]. I’m not sure whether this comes from “first on The”, or from “the first” with the second The being part of “The Belfry”, but it works either way. The surface refers to the English golf resort known as The Belfry. | ||
| 28 | EXCEL | Outperform forty in audition (5) |
| Homophone (in audition) of XL = forty in Roman numerals. | ||
| 29 | RENT-COLLECTORS | They are sent by letter to demand payment (4-10) |
| Cryptic definition: “letter” here is not a document sent by post but a landlord, who may employ rent-collectors to get payments from tenants. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HAIRBRUSH | Hospital to improve image – it should make Barnet more attractive (9) |
| H (abbreviation for hospital) + AIRBRUSH (to improve an image). Barnet is Cockney rhyming slang, Barnet Fair = hair, which may indeed be improved by the use of a hairbrush. |
||
| 3 | DORIC | Detectives went north to seize gold order (5) |
| CID (Criminal Investigation Department = detectives), reversed (going north = upwards in a down clue), containing (to seize) OR (heraldic term for gold). Order = style of architecture, of which Doric is one. |
||
| 4 | INDONESIA | Nose reconstruction in subcontinent or somewhere further east (9) |
| Anagram (reconstruction) of NOSE in INDIA (subcontinent). Indonesia, in south-east Asia and therefore “further east” relative to India. |
||
| 5 | LIVES | Survives uprising in Lebanese village (5) |
| Hidden answer, reversed (uprising in; upwards in a down clue) in [lebane]SE VIL[lage]. | ||
| 6 | NOSTALGIA | Longing to be lost again at sea (9) |
| Anagram (at sea) of LOST AGAIN. Nostalgia originally meant homesickness (from the Greek), but is now often used to mean a yearning for the past rather than necessarily for a specific place. |
||
| 7 | ROOST | Native Australians take time to settle (5) |
| ROOS (short for kangaroos = native Australians) + T (time). | ||
| 8 | DISCERN | Rescind incorrect notice (7) |
| Anagram (incorrect) of RESCIND. Notice (as a verb) = perceive = discern. |
||
| 9 | SPARSE | Odds are about snow initially being thin on the ground (6) |
| SP (starting price = odds in betting on horse-racing), then ARE containing (about) the initial letter of S[now]. | ||
| 15 | PARALYTIC | Military jumper left metropolis flipping drunk (9) |
| PARA (short for paratrooper = parachute jumper in the military) + L (left) + CITY (metropolis) reversed (flipping). Slang term for what the police would call “drunk and incapable”. |
||
| 17 | GIFT HORSE | Unusual foresight – avoid an oral examination here (4,5) |
| Anagram (unusual) of FORESIGHT. As in the proverb “never look a gift horse in the mouth” – don’t be critical of something you’ve been given as a gift. (From the practice of judging a horse’s age, and therefore its value, from how worn its teeth are.) |
||
| 18 | ESTATE CAR | Vehicle, say, in hurry up … (6,3) |
| STATE (say), in RACE (hurry) reversed (up, in a down clue). | ||
| 19 | OCTOBER | … only to be caught by zero credit for a month (7) |
| TO BE contained in (caught by) O (zero) + CR (abbreviation for credit). The “only” doesn’t seem to add much, except to make slightly better sense of the continuation from the previous clue. | ||
| 21 | RATTLE | Worry when Twitter fails to open (6) |
| [p]RATTLE = chatter = twitter, with the opening letter dropped (fails to open). Rattle = disturb = worry. |
||
| 23 | ALL-IN | Tired of wrestling? (3-2) |
| Double definition: exhausted, or a style of wrestling where no holds are ruled out. | ||
| 24 | DOWEL | Peg would be advised to finish early (5) |
| DO WEL[l] (be advised, as in “you would do well to pay attention”), with the last letter dropped (to finish early). A wooden peg used in furniture joints. |
||
| 26 | BLEAT | Grouse featuring in reputable attraction (5) |
| Hidden answer (featuring) in [reputa]BLE AT[traction]. Grouse = bleat = complain. |
||
Delighted to see Shabbo reach the ‘big time’ with this perfectly pitched Monday crossword. Lots to enjoy – my particular favourite was 13a which I thought was a perfect &Lit
Looking forward to more crosswords from you in the future Shabbo and thank you for this one. Thanks also to Quirister for the blog
Very pleasing puzzle, gentle in terms of difficulty – I found top half easier than bottom half. Favourites, GIFT HORSE and OTHER HALF. A fine debut, if that is the case, as it seems it is.
Thanks also to Quirister for the excellent blog.
Thanks for a fine blog, Quirister.
I enjoyed this debut puzzle, especially RUBICON, OTHER HALF, GIFT HORSE and, with Quirister, NOSTALGIA and MALEFACTOR [a new twist on the usual MALE FACTOR charade] and, especially, with crypticsue, SEATTLE.
Many thanks and welcome to Shabbo – I look forward to the next one.
Great stuff, Shabbo. This was light and a lot of fun – a really good Indy debut! Accurate cluing and mostly smooth surfaces made for a very enjoyable solve. My one and only (very minor) reservation was the use of “only” as surface padding in 19d.
My podium comprises 13a, 19a & 17d.
Many thanks to Shabbo and to Quirister.
Welcome to Shabbo – another graduate from Big Dave’s site. A delightful puzzle ideally suited to the ‘gentle Monday’ slot. Not that it was a doddle; we were held up in the SE corner for a time thinking 21dn was (t)witter until we realised 20ac could only be ACTOR – which took us a few moments to parse – and then saw EXCEL for 28ac.
Our favourite – a laugh out loud moment when we saw it – was GIFT HORSE.
Thanks, Shabbo and Quirister
Welcome Shabbo – looking forward to the next one.
Fun crossword – just right to start the week. Hard to pick a favourite but others have mentioned the ones we liked.
Thanks Quirister.
Well done, Shabbo, a very commendable debut from which my personal picks were 12,13&28a plus 23d. Hope there will be plenty more to come from you.
Thanks to Quirister for an excellent review – hope you don’t need that local hospital any time soon!
Welcome to Shabbo. Started off well with RHODE ISLAND RED and plenty of good ones to follow. The mention of ‘The Belfry’ induced NOSTALGIA for those seemingly far off times when we could watch Rory and co. work their magic on the fairways. Maybe one day…
Thanks again to Shabbo and to Quirister
What everybody else said. Another addition to the Indy stable and a very good debut from a setter who I hope to see more of in the future. OTHER HALF was an object lesson in concise clueing with a great surface reading.
Many thanks to you all for your very kind words. To say that I am excited to have a puzzle included in a quality national newspaper would be a massive understatement!
My thanks to Mike for giving me the opportunity and to Quirister for an excellent blog.
RD – I agree with you on the issue of “only” in 19d. It was added at the last minute to improve the surface reading of the link. It is mere padding and probably should not be there.
As a trip to the pub to celebrate is unfortunately not possible at the moment, I will open a nice bottle of Adnams Ghost Ship at a respectable hour and raise a glass to you all!
Shabbo, thanks for dropping in. Excellent choice of celebratory beverage, too. Cheers!
I’m late as I somehow managed to print out a Morph puzzle from 31 May 2018 and only realised when I came here! So a relief to find that the actual puzzle for today was gentle and fairly quickly completed. None the worse for that, very enjoyable in fact, so thanks and welcome to Shabbo and Quirister for the blog.
Thanks, Shabbo that was fun. It is always nice when 1a leaps out at you and the rest followed nicely. It took a few moments for 10a 2d and 27a to reveal themselves but loved the puzzle and Quirister’s explanations too. Adnams not available in my locale but I will raise a glass of Black Sheep
John Bee@13 – lucky you, to be in Black Sheep country! – but I love Suffolk, too. 😉
Nice work Shabbo.
A late comment from me to say how thoroughly enjoyable this crossword was, Shabbo. Warmest congrats to you on your excellent debut! Very well done!