Independent 7,044 by Math – Fifteensquared

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Math is another setter whose puzzles I’ve never happened to blog before. I found this one inventive, and quite challenging in places. There’s a couple where I can’t quite make the wordplay work, even though all the components are clearly there.

Having a deep disinterest in contemporary cinema, that there must be a theme only became apparent when I later Googled for “R. Langdon”, so readers may have to fill in some gaps on that front.

Across
8	NO ONE – dd. “Any person or thing of little value, a nonentity” being one of the several definitions of “cipher” which I tend never to be able to remember.
9	EMILE ZOLA – E + MILE + ZOLA (Budd).
11	ESTONIA – (A1 + NO TSE)<, I guess, but I can’t quite convince myself of “NO TSE” for “fly half”, as I don’t feel right about where the NO comes from.
12	MOLIERE – I guess this is hom. of “Molly Air”, being a song about Molly, of which Molly Malone is one. Again I can read this several ways and not quite click on any of them.
15	LITRE – LIT + RE. Very nicely done.
16	EARTH – ART “entering” EH.
17	AIR – [-f]AIR[-y]. I was briefly puzzled by “endlessly”, but of course it just means both ends.
18	WATER – cd.
20	PETAL – PEAL “around” ‘T.
22	CASTRATED – CAST + RATED. “No longer knackered” is quite an amusing def.
24	ANAGRAM – A NAG + RAM.
25	OFF FORM – O[-il] F[-irm] F[-ind] F[-irst] O[-il] R[-ig] M[-anager’s].
27	INKSTANDS – (AND + T[-exaco] + SINKS)*.
28	RESIN – RE SIN.

Down
1	ANGELS – AN GELS. As in “angel investor”.
2	FOOTWEAR – (ARE TWO OF)*.
3	CERN – CER[-ta]IN. Presumably “on electric current” is just to round out the surface reading?
4	RENAISSANCE MAN – RAN “to capture” (MANIACS SEEN)*.
5	BELLFLOWER – BELLOWER “about” FL.
6/13	ROBERT STEVENSON – (EVENT SO ROBS RENT)*. Robert Stevenson designed a lighthouse, so “main” here was as in “sea”.
7	CAPE FEAR – cd? CAPE is a head, as in “headland”, but is that all there is to this?
10	IMMUNE RESPONSE – (MENU ON PREMISES)*.
14	EXHILARATE – [-b]EXHIL[-l] + [-se]A + RATE.
16	EMPHASIS – E + MP + HAS + IS.
19	TITMOUSE – (TIT + OUSE[-l]) “crossing” M. I especially enjoyed the use of “booby” here.
21	THANKS – presumably a reference to T[-om] HANKS.
23	DEMONS – DEMOS “about” [-in]N.
26	FIRE – F + IRE.

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