Independent 8,806 by Eimi

by

Monday morning and back to work with a rare outing from the editor.

A plain crossword as far as I can tell, no obvious theme or ninas but a fair sprinkling of risqué stuff.

Nothing too obscure here making a nice quick solve, thanks Eimi.

completed grid

Across

1 Lie around, say, in underwear (6)
BASQUE
Sounds like BASK
4 Cutting lots of love games, one assumes (8)
QUICKSET
Of hedgerows, especially hawthorn. A quick set in tennis would have lots of short or love games where no points are won in return.
10 Hardy’s description of inferno heat possibly (7,4,4)
ANOTHER FINE MESS
As in Laurel and Hardy, [INFERNO HEAT]* MESS, not totally convinced by the surface as I can’t imagine how the phrase would be uttered from the image provided, of an inferno perhaps but…
11 Politician producing nothing, absolutely nothing, but anger touring outskirts of Goole (5,6)
NIGEL FARAGE
Oooh very good Eimi, G(ool)E in NIL nothing & F.A. nothing & RAGE anger.
13 Hotel 99 here in Rome (3)
HIC
H(otel) & IC (99). I know it shouldn’t be IC really in Roman numerals
14 Pietersen’s out? A growing concern, perhaps (4,5)
PINE TREES
[PIETERSEN]* is out
15 Poster girl somewhere in Ireland (5)
ENNIS
Jessica Ennis certainly appeared on posters for Santander bank at least, double def.
16 Two queens in transparent fabric (5)
SHEER
SHE cat & Her Maj.
17 One cricketer among rugby tour group drinks (9)
LIBATIONS
1 BAT in the british LIONS
19 Hoax method of payment (3)
COD
Double def – Cash On Delivery is a quaint notion in these days of internet payments.
20 11’s lot cared about having sound principles (5-6)
RIGHT-MINDED
Tricky to describe UKIP as Right wing when they seem to have few but contradictory policies, even so it’s RIGHT (UKIP like) & MINDED cared about.
22 Seek office relocation for printer founders (3,3,9)
RUN FOR PRESIDENT
[PRINTER FOUNDERS]* are relocated
24 Comedian making unusual noises during Sunday School (8)
SESSIONS
john SESSIONS used to be everywhere. NOISES* unusually in S(unday) S(chool)
25 Ill feeling one’s encountered in back passage (6)
ANIMUS
I’M inserted into ANUS, back passage. Thanks Eimi for making me type that! Been taking lessons from master Halpern I see.

Down

1 Note sent over about uncooked meatloaf (5)
BRAWN
RAW in N.B. reversed
2 Unions involved in coercion? Just the opposite! (7,8)
SHOTGUN WEDDINGS
Coerced unions…
3 One filling seats at university before recital’s beginning – English composer’s included (11)
UPHOLSTERER
UP at university & ERE before & R(ecital) with HOLST inserted
5 Terribly insular? They’re taking the piss (7)
URINALS
INSULAR* terribly. I can’t imagine this being allowed in the Times or Church Times somehow.
6 Rod and line that’s caught (3)
CUE
Sounds like QUEUE
7 New partner’s child’s concealed woman and he’s protected by dull composer (7,8)
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
HEN woman in STEP-SON & HE in DIM dull
8 They set a precedent with matches in box? Just the opposite (4,5)
TEST CASES
CASE box in TESTS matches rather than the other way around
9 Make a fuss when drug is found in old car (6)
CREATE
E(cstacy) inserted into CRATE old car
12 Sparks flying in tea circle (11)
ELECTRICIAN
[IN TEA CIRCLE]* flying
14 Brief communications containing job and employee’s documents (9)
POSTCARDS
POST job & CARDS (documents, P45/P60 usually.)
17 Delivery method that’s on message, according to PR person (3-4)
LEG-SPIN
LEG (the ON side in cricket) & SPIN (what PR does)
18 One in order’s not right, dash it! (6)
BOTHER
R(ight) removed from B(r)OTHER
21 Fruit becomes less fresh (5)
DATES
Double def
23 Famous Jedi’s beginning and ending with charm (3)
OBI
OBI (wan ken)OBI
*anagram

13 comments on “Independent 8,806 by Eimi”

  1. Defeated by a couple. Haven’t heard of QUICKSET but no real excuse for failing to get CUE. OBI was also unfamiliar so put it in but needed this place to parse it. 11A was terrific, I thought, and I liked 7D too.

  2. Also defeated by a couple of these, 4A ( never heard of), and 15A (lack of knowledge of Irish geography and general dumbness).
    Laughed out loud at 5D and 25A.
    Is this the ultimate recognition of NF as a national figure? I still won’t vote for him as I think he’s just a chancer, but then again we’ll end up in 11A whoever wins.
    Enough of that, I still can’t persuade myself there’s a theme, although 19A does offer possibilities with the aforementioned…
    Thanks to Eimi and to flashling.

  3. Thanks Eimi and flashling. I think you are looking for too much in 10ac. At first I thought of the wrong Hardy, but then it was so delightfully clear: another fine (in a) mess.
    Libation I accept as a drink, but I prefer to think of it in the classical sense of wine poured out on to the fround as an offering to the gods.
    Hard work, but I almost got there. Didn’t get OBI or QUICKSET

  4. Thanks Eimi and flashling.

    6dn: I took the “line that’s caught” as referring to an actor’s cue, but flashling’s explanation seems just as plausible.

  6. Another one here who’d never heard of 4ac. Found it with a word search.

    I got 15ac, but couldn’t work out why. Of course I’ve heard of, and seen on TV etc., Jessica Ennis, but the surname on its own just didn’t make the connection for me.

    I’m even more surprised as to how long it took me to get 7dn. He’s something of a favourite of mine, – went to see Assassins last month.

    And 18dn completely misled me. Sure it must be BATTER – someone in the batting order – but couldn’t parse it further. Agh!

  7. Excellent puzzle, which I much enjoyed, particularly URINALS and NIGEL FARAGE. I’m sure the HIC next to the latter is just a coincidence, because he’s never seen with a pint in hand, is he?

    A few tricky ones, including QUICKSET, which I’d never heard of, but got there in the end.

    Thanks to flashling for blogging.

  9. Flashling and Pelham: I took 6dn as a double definition, a snooker cue being a rod and an actor’s cue, as Pelham interpreted it, being the line that’s caught. Never thought of the homophone aspect although ‘caught’ is used often enough as a homophone indicator.

  10. Thanks Eimi for the Monday work-out.

    We had two left and we both made up QUICKSET as a possible word to fit in 4ac. It was Beet though who worked out the parsing while Joyce checked the definition. That enabled us to get CUE. Couldn’t believe we hadn’t worked it out earlier.

    Thanks flashling – a Happy New Year to you.

  12. Thanks to flashling and all commenters. Quite right, no theme, just a hopefully quite gentle vanilla crossword for back to work. I was thinking of a homophone of queue in 6 Down, but it’s true that the other interpretation works as well.

  13. Thanks for dropping in eimi@12. From my point of view, it is always nice to know the setter’s intention when there is any possible doubt about it.

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