Independent 7370 by Hypnos

by

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism

A moderately challenging puzzle by Hypnos. There were no real stand-out clues for me but everything was well constructed. One or two of the clues were quite tricky to work out, 22 being an interesting example of how to make an extremely easy anagram more difficult by adding a second clue.
 

Across
7 Gujarati: (I tug around a Raj)<.
9 Elvish: Elvis + h – not sure this exists as a language outside of Tolkien.
10 Apse: [L]apse.
11 Grub Street: (Burgers t[as]te)*.
12 Stalin: A l in nits<.
14 Nintendo: Intend in no.
15 Reward: [He]reward, HE being the old crossword staple His Excellency and the rebel is Hereward the Wake.
17 Winger: W[h]inger.
20 Abstruse: St r in abuse.
22 Attest: CD – Edgbaston being a test match ground in Birmingham.
23 Standstill: Till (= work) on stand.
24 Chum: C + hum.
25 Marina: Marin[e] + a(mateur). Jolly is slang for Royal Marine.
26 Terrapin: P(=poise) in terrapin. The one slightly unsatisfactory clue, I felt, with another of these somewhat obscure single character abbreviations.
Down
1 Quipster: Qu + [h]ipster. Hipster seems to have various meanings, but one is similar to hepcat, a fan of jazz.
2 Vane: Hom of vain.
3 Jargon: Jar + nog<. I was held up for a while by thinking the second half would be gin, but the realization that it had to be a drink reversed helped me to get there.
4 Helsinki: ([T]hink lies)*. Ref to these agreements.
5 Overweight: Over (cricket deliveries) + weight.
6 Ascend: A scen[e] + d.
8 Iguana: Again* around [co]u[rt].
13 Lawn tennis: Law + NT (Northern Territories) + Ennis (Irish town).
16 Rousseau: [T]rousseau.
18 Rasputin: Ra + sin around put.
19 Depict: CD, the idea being that a lowland Scot/Englishman might want to de-Pict. I’m not sure of the historical credibility of this, since the Picts were an ancient tribe who fought against the Romans.
21 Betray: B + RTE< (Irish TV network) + a y(ear).
22 Allure: 3 defs – laurel*, l[eaves] in a lure and “seductive quality”. As NMSIndy pointed out, more likely l[eaves] l(eft) in a Ure.
24 Clay: I think this is Cla[SS]y. Cassius Clay + the SS.

7 comments on “Independent 7370 by Hypnos”

  1. Pleasing puzzle, not too difficult, thanks for explaining CLAY which I did not understand, tho I got it right. I thought the ALLURE was two Ls in A URE (runner = river). Favourite clue ATTEST, also esp liked the clue for STALIN.

  3. Thanks, Neal. Challenging today for me, but with perseverance managed it apart from VAIN, which I would consider a synonym for fruitless rather than useless, but Collins confirms it. Also spent too long trying to make 1ac an anagram of ‘I exert a g’.

    A good puzzle though, and with 22ac in mind, off to see if we can roll over Bangladesh before lunch.

  4. Thanks NealH.
    I enjoyed this a lot,quite challenging but ‘doable’ without having to use reference books.
    Particularly liked 7 & 12 across.
    Last to go in was 2 down,one of those where the check letters(*A*E) are of little help.

  5. Missed jargon, as I was also convinced on gin, backwards other drink on top. Nice start to the week though.

  6. Missed ‘Vane’. Thought it could be’gage’, i.e. ga[u]ge, ‘u’ being an abbreviation for ‘use’ (tho never heard of it before). You find the expression ‘weather gage’ in relation to fighting ships in the days of sail; a ship which had the weather gage in relation to another was to windward and hence had an advantage. But I wasn’t convinced.
    Thanks for the explanations of ‘marina’ and ‘clay’ which I got without fully understanding the clues; I’d forgotten about ‘jolly’ as slang for a marine.

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