Independent 9,699 by Vigo

by

A nice mixture of clues, mostly on the easy side but a few that had me scratching my head for parsings.

19 was possibly the trickiest, although others may disagree.  No knowledge of current affairs or arcane literature was required, so it was a fairly accessible puzzle.  Even the tricky-to-spell word at 13 was so carefully clued that you couldn’t go wrong if you understood the directions.

Across
8 OUTLYING Unfashionable, untruthful and remote (8)
  Out + lying
9 ATE OUT Went to restaurant for tea? (3,3)
  Reversely clued anagram of tea*.
10 LICE Story about Conservative bloodsuckers (4)
  Lie around c(onservative)
11 GEESE Good bishop’s office is returned to English fools (5)
  G(ood) + see< + E(nglish)
12 TOSH Nearly throw away hearts and tripe (4)
  tos[s] + h(earts)
13 AESTHETE When taking drug the teen oddly becomes person of refinement (8)
  As around E + the + odd letters of teen
16 BONSAI Elitist rejected first class oriental art (6)
  Snob< + AI
18 EDAM Cheese substitute’s last used by mother (4)
  [Substitut]e + dam
20 CURED Preserved copper colour (5)
  Cu + red
21 TEEN Young person supports dropping second name (4)
  Tee[s] + n(ame)
22 VALOUR Bravery of ladies possibly coming back and relating to us (6)
  Lav< + our
23 DOGGY BAG Harry has joke about yobs regularly getting leftovers container (5-3)
  Dog(=harry, as in to harry someone) + gag around odd letters of yobs
26 OOPS Apologetic exclamation found in old love note (4)
  O(ld) + o(=love) + PS, post-script.
28 FERAL Iron man’s heart captured by game that’s savage (5)
  Fe(=iron) + [m]a[n] in RL, abbrev for Rugby League.
30 SUIT Pose clutching proper diamonds perhaps (4)
  Sit around U
31 MUTATE Transform mostly silent gallery (6)
  Mu[m] + Tate.  Had me thinking for a while it was a mistake with parsing of mut[e] + Tate.
32 SERAGLIO Rages about returning painting to palace (8)
  Rages* + oil<.  Although normally clued as harem, a seraglio can refer to a Turkish palace.
Down
1 NUBILE Sexy, fresh broadcast receives vitriol (6)
  Hom of new(=nu) + bile
2 GLUE Stick leg out covering middle of rug (4)
  Leg* around [r]u[g]
3 NIGGLE Horse in river finds carp (6)
  GG in Nile
4 OGRE About to follow old German monster (4)
  Re after o(ld) G(erman)
5 WATER BED Irrigate garden feature in retirement spot (5,3)
  Water(=irrigate) + bed(=garden feature)
6 NEAT Pure nun initially upset (4)
  N[un] + eat, used in the sense of to worry, as in the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
7 OUTSTARE Hold gaze longer than revealed, getting tears flowing (8)
  Out(=revealed) + tears*
14 TEMPO Almost seduce love in time (5)
  Temp[t] + o
15 ERRED Reader performing without acting made a mistake (5)
  Re[a]der*
17 NATTY Vote against adopting dry spruce (5)
  Nay around TT
19 DIALOGUE Put up with old man taking year to finally resolve discussion (8)
  Laid< + o(ld) gu[y] + [resolv]e
20 CAREFREE Pedestrianised to save energy without responsibility (8)
  Car-free(=pedestrianised) around E(nergy)
24 GALORE Prisoner brought up rock in abundance (6)
  Lag< + ore
25 ALIBIS Excuses boxer twice in Paris (6)
  Ali + bis, a French artistic direction meaning to give an encore.
27 SCAR Mark found in Christmas card (4)
  Hidden in christmaS CARd
29 RASH King remains reckless (4)
  R(=Rex) + ash
30 SAGE Son, mature and wise (4)
  S(on) + age

*anagram

13 comments on “Independent 9,699 by Vigo”

  1. Thanks to Vigo and to NealH.
    I also found the parsing for DIALOGUE a bit gritty, although filling the grid was a bit of a doddle having clocked the perimeter almost immediately

  4. This must have been about our quickest solve ever. With the exception of 1 and 19 (our last ones in, helped by spotting the nina) they were all just about write-ins. We began to wonder if the Indy had somehow given us the Rufus or the Quiptic from another place.

    Several smiles along the way, including VALOUR, DOGGY BAG and the idea of “Conservative bloodsuckers”.

    Thanks, Vigo and NealH

  5. Thanks Vigo and NealH.

    Great setting to make the NINA without introducing obscurities.

    Good start to the week with smooth cluing. I liked OUTSTARE and DIALOGUE.

  7. Completely missed the Nina (not unusual for me!) but still much enjoyed this one as is invariably the case with Vigo’s puzzles.
    Thanks to Neal for the help with parsing 6&25d – should have seen the use of ‘eat’ in 6d but genuinely didn’t know the French term in 25d.
    Think 8a got clue of the day for me.

    Thank you, Vigo – more soon please.
    PS The decryption of 16a needs a tweak.

  8. ‘Nothing to see here’.

    The Zucker brothers’ spoof cop series ‘Police Squad’ (pre ‘Naked Gun’ and ‘Airplane’) once had a firework factory burning, with the officers saying ‘nothing to see here’.

    Thanks Vigo and Neal Most enjoyable, and to echo Jane, more soon please.

  9. A nice gentle start to the week. Lovely clues throughout as we’ve come to expect from Vigo. I completely missed the perimeter message, though should have been looking for something with a grid like that!

    Thanks to Neal and Vigo (and belated congrats to the latter for her debut elsewhere last Monday)

  10. Thank you to NealH for the blog and to everyone who has commented. This was my first (and likely last) perimeter Nina. Tricky to do without using words that have me reaching for the dictionary…

  11. Vigo@10: “… perimeter Nina. Tricky to do without using words that have me reaching for the dictionary…” I know what you mean; some of my efforts for S&B gatherings have ended up with downright obscurities. So congratulations on making it such an accessible puzzle.

  13. I found this pretty good too. Quite liberal use of the abbreviations list in places, and the odd shuddering moment (eg DIALOGUE), but there were many nice moments.

    Thanks both.

Comments are closed.