Independent 7,295 by Mordred

by

An interesting one this, I think – neither too hard nor too easy, though for several the answer came more easily than the explanation.

There’s a Nina across the third and antepenultimate rows of the grid, a reference to the work of 15ac. It also looks like there may have originally been an attempt to spell out the name of the relevant actor.

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

Across
7 OCCUR – OC + CUR.
8 DISPOSAL – (PLAIDS SO)*.
11 TRIPOLI – TRIP + OIL*.
12 RETRACT – RE + TRACT.
13 RIVIERA – (I in RIVER) + A?. I don’t think I’ve got to the bottom of this one yet.
14 GREYISH – R[ed j]E[rse]Y in (Lillian) GISH.
15 SERGIO LEONE – (I SEE LOREN GO)*.
20 INHUMAN – IN + (UM in HAN).
22 INCLINE – IN + (Patsy) CLINE.
24 STEWARD – SET* + WARD.
26 AGELESS – (SEA LEGS)*.
27 FARTHEST – FART + (S[ound] in THE*).
28 V-SIGN – V[ulgar] + SIGN &lit.
Down
1 POTTERY – POTTER + [harr]Y.
2 ACHIEVES – H[enman’s] I[ncreasingly] E[rratic] V[olleys] in ACES.
3 CREOLE – RE in COLE.
4 ADMIRATION – (MOI RADIANT)*.
5 TSAR – [tha]T’S A R[ussian].
6 HAWAII – (AW + AI) in HI.
9 ON THE GO – ON (playing) + THE + GO (card game).
10 ITCHY – [t]ITCHY.
14 GALLIVANTS – IV[y] in GALLANTS.
16 REMNANT – MEN* in RANT.
17 EPIDEMIC – EPI[c] + MEDIC*.
18 FIRST – FIRS + [hu]T.
19 LESSENS – hom. of “lessons”.
21 HEEHAW – cd., I think
23 CLEAVE – C + LEAVE.
25 DOER – strange, the wordplay is [artis]T + O’ER, but the applet, and 24ac, confirm DOER.

15 comments on “Independent 7,295 by Mordred”

  1. 25 is Dore with the e raised.

    No idea about riviera and even with all the crossing letters Ms Gish didn’t spring to mind. Otherwise rather good.

  3. Thanks, Simon.
    Not totally sure about 13ac. either. There is a River Bug in Ukraine…
    I think 25d. refers to this artist.
    Were you suggesting:
    CLIN
    T E-WARD?

  7. Or, Simon, did you mean “CRINT” down the second row?
    (A suggestion of a “chow mein” western, perhaps?)
    Also, (Lee) VAN “CLEAVE” is in there too…

    I’ll get me coat.

  8. Managed to finish this one eventually, but put in DOER, RIVIERA and GREYISH without understanding why. I thought 21d was very odd, and some of the other clueing was a bit convoluted. Never heard of Ms Gish, but no doubt there’ll be some who’ve never heard of Ms Cole either. But not a bad puzzle at all.

  9. RIVIERA
    IanN14 is on the right track – it is indeed the River Bug, so wordplay is RIV(I)ER + A(way).
    Nice to see A being used like this; we’ll now have to be on the lookout for H, W, L, D etc.

  11. Thanks Simon and all for the explanations. I need a few guesses to finish this one off.

    Further to what Mordred himself said yesterday, this is exactly the kind of puzzle that makes me glad the Indy is now my first port of call. There are some great &lits in here and a nice Nina (which was a massive help in opening up the tougher lower part of the grid!). Great stuff.

  12. Yes, this was a good puzzle, which I did not find too hard, tho not being too familiar with 15 across or indeed films generally tho I had heard of Ms Gish. Favourites, ADMIRATION, STEWARD, TSAR among others.

Comments are closed.