Independent 6,749 – Punk

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Inventive stuff as per usual from Punk. A nice mix of clues – some easy, some harder, some cheeky and some just downright inspired. I struggled with the NW corner and there are few answers I can’t quite piece together, but a very enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.

Across
9 WELFARE – ERA,FLEW rev.
10 ENAMOUR – OMAN in RUE rev.
12,13 THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME – Boom boom!
15 ALIMENTARY CANAL – (A,CENTRALLY A MAIN)*
20 SEC – Odd characters in SkEtCh
24 REBECCA LOOS – O in (SOCCER ABLE)* – Genius! I’d love to know how this clue came about. For any latecomers, Rebecca Loos was the PA who allegedly (or maybe actually) had dalliances with Goldenballs Beckham a few years back. She’s dined out on the publicity ever since, although I reckon this is the first time she’s been name-checked in a non-tabloid newspaper for a few years
25 FIE – FI[-l]E – Don’t think I’ve seen this word before. It’s an interjection “denoting disapprobation or disgust, real or feigned”
26 LATRINE – R,IN in LATE
 
Down
1 SWASTIKA – It’s an ‘old German standard’, but I can’t work out the wordplay here at all
2 PLANCK – C in PLANK – Had never heard of Max Planck before. German quantum theorists ain’t my strong point.
3 BASTILLE – TILL in BASE
5 DEBUGGER – DE[-ad],BUGGER – Very nice!
6 MAGPIE – MAG,PIE – “Glossy” is a nice definition for mag(azine) here
7 DOWNTOWN -DOWN,(WONT)* – ‘Pet’ here referring to Petula Clark. Very cheeky
16 INCUBATE – N(“plan finally”) + CUBA all inside IT,E
17 TEENAGER – TEE,[-o]NAGER – Very tough, unless you happen to know that the onager is an Asian ass. Or you had all the checking letters and it was the obvious answer!
18 CREOSOTE – Not sure on this one, assuming that the answer is right
20 SURELY – US rev. + RELY
21 ORCHID – ORC,HID
23 OFFEND – OFF,END

4 comments on “Independent 6,749 – Punk”

  3. Ah, Petula Clark! I thought the Pet Shop Boys might have covered Downtown (actually, they probably did).

  4. I enjoyed this a lot. 24A, 5D and 7D all raised a chuckle and 12/13A a (slightly uncomfortable) smile.

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