Independent 7,244 by Raich
Posted by Simon Harris on January 4th, 2010
Well, well! I wonder how familiar Raich will be to Independent-solving Fifteensquareders 
I’ve tackled a few barred crosswords by Raich, including an Inquisitor that earned me a nice bottle of champagne, but I believe this is a debut as far as the weekday Independent is concerned, so congratulations to Raich.
I found this quite hard, though apart from a couple of clues I can’t really see why. Perhaps just the unfamiliarity of blogging on a Monday morning!
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | BASS VIOL – BASS + VIOL[ence]. |
| 9 | MANQUÉ – [show]MAN QUE[stions]. |
| 10 | LHASA – HAS in LA. Capital of Tibet. |
| 11 | GUNNERS – NER[d] in SNUG<. |
| 12 | POOL – dd. |
| 13 | RUT – dd. |
| 14 | AFLOAT – 0 in A FLAT. |
| 15 | MELODY – DOLE< in MY. |
| 17 | SEEDED – SE[c]EDED. |
| 20 | LAPSED – PS in DEAL<. |
| 22 | POT – P[ro] O[n] T[able]. |
| 23 | STEP – hom. of “steppe”. |
| 24 | CLEAVER – A in CLEVER. |
| 25 | BLUES – BLUE + S[avings]. For me, the hardest one here. “Blues” as in “Blues and Royal”, and “blue” also being a verb meaning “to squander”. |
| 26 | UNREAL – (LEARN + U)*. |
| 27 | SERGEANT – dd., I think. Not sure who the “fabric worker” in question is. |
| Down | |
| 1 | BALLROOM DANCING – (BAND + MAN + GIRL + COOL)*. |
| 2 | ISRAEL – (RILES A)*. |
| 3 | GIZA – hom. of “geezer”. |
| 4 | FLIGHTY – F + LIGHT + [part]Y. |
| 5 | OMENTA – OMEN + T[h]A[t]. |
| 6 | UNSEALED – (SUN LEAD + E)*. |
| 7 | RUSSIAN DRESSING – def. + cd. |
| 13 | RED – [c]RED[o]. |
| 16 | LISTENER – SET* in LINER. |
| 18 | EAT – E + A + T. |
| 19 | APPRISE – hom. of “a prize”. |
| 21 | DEVILS – LIVED< + S. |
| 23 | SAUCER – (USE A + C[oppe]R)*. |
| 25 | BIRO – RIB< + O[xford]. |
January 4th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Oh, eimi,
What have you let happen here?
Last season’s “Big Four” in nickname form…
Hopefully this will need to be updated in future similar puzzles?
January 4th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Hi Simon
27a SERGE (fabric) ANT (worker)
January 4th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Simon,
27ac. Serge is fabric, Ant is worker.
Def: One in charge of private…
January 4th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Sorry, G…
January 4th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Hi Ian, yes, of course I couldn’t hold on to this puzzle for too long, as I doubt Liverpool will be in the Big Four at the end of the season, despite tomato-face’s “guarantee”.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Congratulations to my loyal IOS blogger on his daily debut, with a tricky little puzzle!
January 4th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Oh, well done nmsindy,
I didn’t realise it was you.
Just a quick word of advice if you want to re-use this puzzle in future…
You could have sure, spry or sort for 25d., leaving 25ac. easy to fill.
(You might also have to do something about 12ac. and 11ac…).
January 4th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Well well indeed. Congratulations, Niall! Thoroughly deserved after some excellent thematic offerings in the last couple of years (many of which got the better of me unfortunately)
A nice dayboo this, I have to say. Lots of short answers, many of which I found pretty tricky, but all perfectly fair. Looking forward to more in the future.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Well done Mister Poacher-Gamekeeper.
January 4th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I would think that 26ac is better annotated as
U + (LEARN)*.
January 4th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Well done Niall – I was going to whinge slightly about the collection of three-letter answers in mid-grid but I guess the theme forced this – as usual I missed it completely, despite my “bloke” in 3D being “Gazza” for a while – bad geography leading in turn to “BASS what?” bafflement at 8A.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Very nice debut. Really liked 1d.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
An excellent 15 x 15 debut from Raich. It was very much on the difficult side and a challenge well worth taking on. Favourite clue was 1 down, with 26 across, 4, 23 and 25 down closely following. As someone who is indifferent to football, the theme was lost on me, but that didn’t spoil it. Great stuff, hats off to Raich.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
So many times it seems I have been on the receiving end of very kind and encouraging words from NMS, but no need for either from me today: a very strong debut, with some excellent clueing, that speaks for itself.
Congrats and very well done, Niall.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Excellent debut and congrats to Niall. Only twigged the theme after solving OMENTA. Favourite clues: MANQUE, BALLROOM DANCING and BIRO.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Many thanks to Simon for the excellent blog and to all for the comments which are very much appreciated.
Raich is not a supporter of any of the BIG FOUR clubs, but allegiances of close relations mean there is no way he could be associated with banter addressed at a team from a NW port…
January 4th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Congrats on your debut Raich. I also found this tough and like others could not really see why by the end. I was stuck on 21 down for ages, even though I was looking for the fourth of the Big Four.
Fave clues those to BALLROOM DANCING, UNREAL and MANQUE. And of course 7 down for the reference to the little Russian maestro…
January 9th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Anyone cre to explain 7 down RUSSIAN DRESSING?
January 11th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Hi Davey – I no longer have the clue to hand, but I seem to recall it was a reference to one Andrei Arshavin. He’s a Russian footballer currently playing in the UK. After a game, he would presumably be getting dressed, so that’s the cryptic def. I think the other side to it was simply a reference to something you’d put on your food, so that’s the straighforward def.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Thanks Simon.