ST 4328 (Sun 10 May) – Antiestablishmentarianism

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 8:25

Not the best puzzle this week with lots of loose clues and crosswordese. I have queries at 13ac, 19dn and 21dn.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 INHERITANCE; (ENTIRE CHAIN)*
10 OX + LIP – a ‘neat’ is a classic piece of crosswordese meaning a head of cattle.
11 BOB + O + LINKS – the bobolink is an American songbird known to me only from a Magpie puzzle of some time ago quoting Emily Dickinson: Some keep the Sabbath going to church; I keep it staying at home, With a bobolink for a chorister, And an orchard for a dome.
12 BANDOLEER – I knew the word but not this spelling, I’ve only ever seen ‘bandolier’.
13 IDOLA; (DIAL + O)* – according to Chambers this is the plural of ‘idolon’, meaning ‘a false notion’, so I’m not sure about the definition here.
14 ELEVEN (2 defs) – I liked this (‘…one by one’).
16 MAD + RIG + A + L – ‘sported’ is superfluous here.
18 ELECTION; ELEC[tric] + (INTO)*
20 AGATES; AGA + (SET)*
23 LORN + A – I was held up here by putting in ‘amiss’, which can’t really mean ‘Forsaken’ but at the time seemed close enough for the ST.
24 HER + BARIUM – again held up here with an inexplicable entry of ‘herborium’. A good job the ‘a’ was checked or this would have stayed wrong.
26 NEWS + KILLS
27 OLEIN; O[ut] + (NILE)* – ‘Start out’ = ‘The start of “out”‘ is regrettably standard for the ST.
28 ARISTOCRATS; (ACTOR IS STAR)* – how can ‘overbearing’ be an anagram indicator?

Down
2 NYLON; (N + ONLY)*
3 EX + P + LODE – a ‘lode’ is a vein containing a metallic ore.
4 IN B(R)ED
5 ARBOREAL; ([p]OLAR BEAR) – why ‘now’? In musical notation ‘p’ stands for ‘piano’ (Italian for ‘soft’ or ‘softly’).
6 COLLIE + R – the painter John Collier.
7 DOUBLE + DEALING – the first word here was obvious but the second took me a while.
8 UNSOUGHT; U + (GUNSHOT)*
9 ESTABLISHMENT; (THE MINE’S BLAST)* – nice enough anagram but hardly original: from #4322 in March, “Concern about the mine blasts (13)” and from #4270 a year earlier, “The mine blasts shaking the powers that be (13)”.
15 EYEBROWS; “I BROWSE”
17 POTHOLES; (THE POOLS)* – very weak definition.
19 TRACKER; rev. of CART, + K + ER – how is the vehicle here ‘carrying’ king and the Queen? Isn’t it the other way round? Perhaps I have misinterpreted this.
21 GL + AMOUR – I’ve never seen ‘gl’ as an abbreviation for ‘girl’ but can’t see how else this clue can work.
22 FRESCO; (FOR CES) – a CE is a civil engineer, hence ‘engineers’ = ‘CEs’ in this indirect anagram.
25 INEPT; rev. of PEN in IT

4 comments on “ST 4328 (Sun 10 May) – Antiestablishmentarianism”

  1. I had 21D as G(irl) + L’AMOUR. I agree with your interpretations of 13A and 19D though, as I had exactly the same thoughts.
  2. I thought this was quite clever, not weak at all, , I also liked 8 down with rattle causing gunshot to be the anagram.
  3. I was vaguely aware of the N American avifauna at 11a – possibly from this puzzle 10 years ago – sadly not from the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

    I had no IDOLA about 13a – didn’t know it was a plural so did not notice that the clue was faulty on that basis.

    My LOI was TRACKER at 19d. Never mind that the King & Queen are carrying the CART – since when was “surfaces” a reversal indicator?

    I don’t mind start out = O at 27a but the indirect anagram fodder at 22d (Civil Engineers = CES) drew a tut.

    It was enjoyable – that’s the main thing. Thanks to quirky setter & editor & Talbinho for the blog.

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