Independent 8891 / Crosophile

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Crosophile appears once a month but doesn’t have a regular slot in the week, unlike other some other compilers. His last puzzle which we also blogged, seemed to divide opinion but we don’t think that this one will have the same effect.

We thought some of the clues were quite tricky and needed the internet to check on 7d. We tried various ways of parsing 16ac until we came up with the correct arrangement of letters as we were hooked on TEND = BIAS and/or NUS = students!

Across
1   Little creatures like snuggling mum and love to be back in the heart of it all
AMOEBAS AS (like) around or ‘snuggling’ MA (mum) around O (love) + BE reversed or ‘back’ inside or ‘in the heart of it all’
5   Brand of comedy to glorify the unemployed
JOBLESS JO (as in the comedienne Jo Brand) BLESS (glorify)
9   Criminal twins and they might be like young adults
TWENTYISH An anagram of TWINS and THEY (anagrind is ‘criminal’)
10   The whole orchestra show disapproval and one tenor’s retiring
TUTTI TUT (show disapproval) + I (one) T (tenor) reversed or ‘retiring’
11   Wheels around a supply table with dates on it
CALENDAR CAR (wheels) around A LEND (supply)
12   Conservative’s forte at end of day is obscure
CLOUDY C (Conservative) LOUD (forte) Y (end letter of daY)
13   Retreat for home – supermarket bananas left there
MORRISON SHELTER MORRISONS (supermarket) and an anagram of L (left) + THERE (anagrind is ‘bananas’)
16   Controversial bias is seen in students getting first in Oxford perhaps?
TENDENTIOUSNESS An anagram of SEEN IN STUDENTS around or ‘getting’ O (first in Oxford) anagrind is ‘perhaps?’
19   Lorry driver’s lost recipe for Sydney’s food
TUCKER TrUCKER (lorry driver) without or ‘losing’ R (recipe)
21   Robber initially breaks in for article of theft of our currency
STERLING STEaLING (theft) with R (first letter of Robber or ‘initially’) instead of A (article)
24   Unconventional about regulation clothes
OUTRE Hidden or ‘clothed’ in abOUT REgulation
25   Quite disturbed – better after removing coat in customs?
ETIQUETTE An anagram of QUITE (anagrind is ‘disturbed’) + bETTEr (middle letters only or ‘removing coat’)
26   Adult wearing hot tweeds ________?
SWEATED A play on the fact that an A (adult) inside or ‘wearing’ an anagram of TWEEDS (anagrind is ‘hot’) may well have SWEATED!
27   Postpone final after find out tip taken from promoter
SUSPEND END (final) after SUS (find out) and P (first letter or ‘tip’ of Promoter)
Down
1   Can it possibly caper?
ANTIC An anagram of CAN IT - anagrind is ‘possibly’
2   Blade carried round part of prison is spotted
OCELLAR OAR (blade) around or ‘carrying’ CELL (part of prison)
3   One bite that’s nasty, to do with pet hate
BETE NOIRE An anagram of ONE BITE (anagrind is ‘nasty’) RE (to do with)
4   One’s caught in prison fight and commotion
STIRABOUT A (one) inside or ‘caught’ in STIR (prison) + BOUT (fight)
5   Old Henry in Japan heartlessly tells us where to go
JOHN O (old) H (Henry) inside JapaN (first and last letters, or ‘heartlessly’)
6   A radical? Some mildly tub-thumping revolutionary
BUTYL Hidden and reversed or ‘revolutionary’ in the clue mildLY TUB-thumping
7   Hand over responsibility for Treebeard’s disease?
ENTRUST Treebeard featured in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and was the eldest ENT. RUST refers to a disease of plants. We hope we weren’t alone in wondering how the parsing worked out. We needed the internet to check it out.
8   Where repairs were made for one pristine yacht initially in broken pieces?
SHIPYARDS I (one) P Y (initial letters of Pristine Yacht) inside SHARDS (broken pieces)
13   Is not a nasty stomach upset above all indicative of genetic changes?
MUTATIONS An anagram of IS NOT A (anagrind is ‘nasty’) with TUM (stomach) reversed or ‘upset’ above
14   Throws out of court such charming people
SMOOTHIES SHIES (throws) around or ‘outside of’ MOOT (court). We’re not sure that ‘smoothies’ charm us though!
15   Covers up hours involved in targets
ENSHROUDS An anagram of HOURS (anagrind is ‘involved’) in ENDS (targets)
17   Accessory Nike etc developed
NECKTIE An anagram of NIKE ETC (anagrind is ‘developed’)
18   A letter I put in post out of love captured Helen’s heart? Quite the opposite
EPISTLE I inside or ‘put in’ PoST without O (love) inside hELEn (middle letters only or Helen’s heart). ‘Quite the opposite’ refers to the fact that ELE is round the outside rather than inside or being ‘captured’.
20   E.g. fair coming to town for starters
EVENT Cryptic definition - EVEN (fair) T (first letter of Town or ‘for starters’) – a fair is an example of an ‘EVENT’
22   Piggy craving good grass
GREED G (good) REED (grass)
23   Given wages and something to eat
FEED Double definition

 

16 comments on “Independent 8891 / Crosophile”

  1. My, this was a struggle-and-a-half. Mostly very clearly clued, but I spent ages working on 13A. I wrote in 16A, “tendentiousness”, having only the initial T as a hint, and I thought I was doing well. Ah, well, that’s probably not the only delusion I’ll entertain today.

    I didn’t know “ocellar” or “stirabout”, I didn’t (and don’t) remember the Tolkien character at 7D, and I never did quite see 14D “smoothies”, all of which intersect 13A. But I did get there eventually, all bar a mistake in 14D.

    If anyone asks how long it took me to transform Nike Etc into a word, I will decline to answer. 🙂

    A good challenge. Thanks, everyone!

  2. Thanks Crosophile and BertandJoyce
    I found it easy enough to get the solutions, but I confess that several were entered partially or completely unparsed. I had no idea at all how SMOOTHIES worked!
    “Butyl” is the straight-chain alkyl group C4H9-

  3. Thanks for blogging, B&J.

    I was one of those who wasn’t that keen on Crosophile’s last (themed) puzzle, but I did enjoy this offering. BUTYL and MUTATIONS got ticks, because they are science-based and don’t reference the works of Jane Austen; I learned something about MORRISON SHELTERS (I’d only come across ANDERSON SHELTERS); and I thought TUCKER and JOBLESS were cleverly clued.

    Not mad keen on ENTRUST, since along with CS Lewis I’m in the ‘not another f***ing elf’ category when it comes to Tolkien (actually, it turns out that it wasn’t CS Lewis who said it). And I don’t understand the dd in FEED. Surely it needs to be ‘give wages’ in the surface?

  4. I found this a good mental workout. Unlike Emrys@1 TENDENTIOUSNESS was my LOI after SMOOTHIES. It also took me a while to see MORRISON SHELTER.

    I had no problem with ENTRUST and liked the clue, but as a Tolkien fan I wouldn’t say anything else. I also have no problem with FEED = “given wages” in the past tense.

  5. Thanks Crosophile and Bertandjoyce

    Kathryn’s Dad @ 3: to expand what Andy B says about FEED, some judges are described as feed as they are given wages on a case by case basis rather than being salaried.

  6. Had to resort to a word search for smoothies – just couldn’t think of anything that fitted and “out of” as a containment indicator totally defeated me. I’m probably just too used to seeing out as indicating an anagram.

  8. @7
    The Velvet Underground? How much have you found? I think I can see the 4 main ones but is there more? Wouldn’t have seen it on my own.

  9. @ 7 & 8

    Depending on hoe far you stretch it, I can see

    JOHN CALEndar

    cLOUdy gREED

    STERLING MORRISON

    sMOothies or aMOebas TUCKER

    cLOUDy

    OUTRE (as they were certainly called in the early days)

  11. Thanks for the nice blog and the comments. Well done,Simon S; you’ve got the lot, except I intended aMOEbas for MOE TUCKER.
    Can’t say I’m particularly a fan, actually, “White Heat, White Light” being one of the worst albums I can remember buying, but a nice setter challenge to fit them all in, even so 🙂

  13. Very clever, crosophile
    Takes me back to the early 70s, to a college room with a water bed and a suspicious smell – none of them mine! I did become a fan, though.

  15. Guess that’s a decade too young problem! But seriously CP, I’m 52 what is the target audience? I’m not suggesting you do modern stuff like the buzzcocks though.

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