Independent 8883 by Tees (Saturday Prize Puzzle 4 April 2015)

13 comments on “Independent 8883 by Tees (Saturday Prize Puzzle 4 April 2015)”

1. I agree that this was a good quality Saturday puzzle. I didn’t know the ON THE SQUARE connection to freemasonry and got it from the wordplay, MOUNTAINSIDE was only parsed post-solve, VICARIAL took a while to see, and DESCENDS was my LOI. At 18ac it took longer than it should have done for me to equate MAKER with God, and the cryptic allusion to knitting of “casting agent” only occured to me once I had the answer.

2. Thanks Mike

   Ace blog. The ‘casting agent’ concerned refers to a foundry engineer, though as (I think) you’ve inferred, there is another occupation that’s to do with fashion. Everything else you’ve totally nailed, so thanks indeed.

   Cheers to Andy B too, for chiming in.

   PB.

3. All splendid stuff, hard enough to need a number of visits, but not insoluble.

   Particularly liked EXONERATE, MOUNTAINSIDE, VICARIAL.

   Many thanks Tees and to mc_rapper67 for the blog.

4. Tees – thanks for the explanation of PATTERN-MAKER. It is actually in my Chambers but for some reason I didn’t bother to check it post-solve.

5. Thanks for the comments and feedback, especially Tees for popping by.

   I have to admit that I didn’t really give too much attention to the definition of PATTERN MAKER as ‘casting agent’. When I first read the clue my instinct for ‘casting agent’ was TALENT SCOUT, or SPOTTER, with ‘casting’ and ‘agent’ in the theatrical sense – but that didn’t fit, and then later the wordplay and crossing letters pretty much gave PATTERN MAKER and I moved on – vaguely thinking it referred to patterns/shapes being cut (cast?) in fabric, or something making (casting?) shapes in the form of an industrial ‘cookie cutter’-type machine…

   I should really have revisited this while writing the blog – as per Andy B, a quick check in Chambers would have helped – but it was a Friday train home after a long working week!…

6. Yes, a very fine and not too devious Tees crossword [is he ever devious?].

   I had to check what NKVD stands for and wasn’t fully sure of a couple of my other parsings.
   For example, I didn’t know that ‘pat’ = ‘quickly supplied’.
   Though, for not fully understanding 8d I must kick myself. Ow, that hurts!

   I am not sure that a ‘first wife’ is automatically an EX, and surely an EX doesn’t have to be a ‘first wife’.
   But I am fine with it (and with my EX, too).
   Another clue that needed some thinking was 1d and the ‘plump in girth’ bit in particular.
   I see it as FAT (plump) going around (in girth) E + RN.

   At the risk of becoming the next hedgehoggy, I would like to question the use of ‘badgers’ in 17d.
   For me, it doesn’t work as the anagram indicator is placed in front of the fodder.
   ‘Badger’ I’m OK with but that doesn’t make sense in combination with ‘tear’.
   I am happy to hear what Tees thinks of this.
   Just like Tees is happy to hear what the jolly one thinks of all this.

   Many thanks mcr.

7. Sil @6:

   For various reasons I did not attempt this puzzle and am looking in out of curiosity, but if you will let the wrong PB answer your concerns about 17dn: “badgers” is the indicator for CETE – the anagram indicator is “madly”. Thus the parsing of the wordplay is something like “(a word that means) badgers (with the letters of the word) tear around (but out of their normal sequence – ‘madly’)”.

8. Well spotted other PB. Your erudition around puzzles far exceeds my own, so you’re definitely the number one.

   And yes, the badgers clue breaks down as something like CETE, TEAR around after anagramming, definition.

   Thanks to all who came by, and again to Mike C. Re Jolly, it is indeed a great shame that he feels honour-bound to stick to Guardian threads. Or maybe he doesn’t …

   PB

9. Oh God – you’re right PB as is Tees.
   So please, forget about that part of my comment!

   Grrr.
   Sorry, I was wrong.

   [wish hedgehoggy would say that every now and then]

10. Btw thanks to Sil for his usual enjoyable foray. Definitions for EX I use include ‘first wife/ husband’, ‘former/ previous/ erstwhile lover’ etc etc. ‘Out of’ also I’ll sometimes plump for, or indeed ‘topless sex’.

    In a down clue, of course. You can’t have topless sex horizontally.

11. Sil @ 6

    I also raised an eyebrow at ‘ex’ as ‘first wife’ – and made a mental note to mention it in the blog, but forgot. I trust that my first, current and hopefully last wife (all currently the same person!) won’t ever fall into that category… As you say, a first wife could be an ex, but not all exes are first wives…

    On 8D, as per Pelham Barton above, I think it works with some implied punctuation/embellishment as: ‘Badgers (, with) tear around(,) madly( – ) and so forth (2,6)’. Badgers as ‘cete’ being part of the answer, and ‘madly’ as the anagram indicator for TEAR = ET RA.

12. Bad timing – I seem to have crossed with Sil and Tees whilst crafting my last posting…so my repetition of the parsing of 8D is a little redundant…and Tees has also justified ‘ex’ – although my two electronic versions of Chambers, plus one of Collins, only give ‘ex-‘ as ‘former spouse’, not specifically the first. But a minor quibble…

13. I agree that it’s a bit vague, Mike. ‘Former partner’ is very clear, and allows for a bit of misdirection if you can squeeze in some other wordplay about companies, for example. I will add these excellent comments to my mental notebook.

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