Independent 7,385/Tees

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Thursdays are never particularly easy in the Indy and, after an initial run through of the clues on this one, I thought I’d be relying heavily on the online cheat facility by the time I got to work. Once I eventually cracked the long anagram though, the grid opened up and I managed to polish it off just before I got off the bus.

All in all, this was a really good, tough solve with some great clues and smooth surfaces. Exactly what we’ve come to expect of a Thursday!

Across
1 ALMOST – sALMOn ST
5 YUGOSLAV – VAL’S O GUY rev.
9 ROUSSEAU – S(ociety) in ROUSE + AU (gold)
10 OPIATE – I ATE after OP
11 RELIGIONLESS – (LORELEI SINGS)*
13 SNAG – SN (tin) + AG (silver)
14 NUISANCE – IS in NUANCE
18/5D/16 I WAS YOUNG AND I NEEDED THE MONEY – (IN WOODEN-HEADED TEENY GUY IS MAN)*
20 BANTAMWEIGHT – (1 MAN WET)* in BIGHT
23/22 BIGGIN HILL – BIG (great) G(ood) IN HILL (elevation)
24 DOVETAIL – (VOTE)* in DAIL
25 BETRAYED – Not 100% sure here. I think traveller is ET and still is AY, but not sure where the R comes into play
26 SEEMLY – EMLY[-n] on SE (corner)
Down
2 LYON – L + YON
3 OESTROGEN – (TO GEN[-d]ER SO)*
4 T-CELLS – TELLS about C(old)
6 GEOLOGIC – CIG in O(xygen) in OLEG, all rev.
7 SPILL – S(ulphur) PILL
8 ANTISOCIAL – (INTO CALAIS)*
12 ANTHRACITE – IT in AN THRACE
15 ARISTOTLE – TOT in (ISRAEL)*
19 AGAVES – Hidden in japsoniA GAVE Scent
21 TIGER – G in TIER

11 comments on “Independent 7,385/Tees”

  2. Thanks, Ali.

    This was made harder for me by the fact that the long anagram meant absolutely nothing to me – but I enjoyed the rest of it!

    I really liked the surface reading of 24ac. and the fact that 26ac was in the SE corner!

    I think it’s worth pointing out the reference to ‘The Few’ RAF Battle of Britain pilots in 23/22.

  4. Very good, I thought. Was pleased to polish this off unaided in a lunch hour. Last in was SEEMLY as the only Emlyn I can name was a Scouser who captained England.

    Didn’t spot the “few” reference, so well pointed-out, Eileen.

  5. I had much the same experience with this. It was very slow going until I’d got enough letters to have a go at the anagram and then suddenly there wasn’t much left of the grid. Seemly was the last one – had great difficulty thinking of a Welshman since it wasn’t any of the usual suspects like Taff, Griff, Evan…

  6. Good stuff, with the long anagram just about defining itself, I think! Neater and tidier than the Guardian’s puzzle as is often the case with the Indy. Best use of EMLYN prize to the setter, but many tight clues. Tripped up temporarily by the AYE in BETRAYED.

  7. Yes, this was very enjoyable, quite tough, could not work out the long anagram till I’d quite a few crossing letters, then the puzzle was not too too hard to complete. As walruss says, the definition of that long entry in the anagram fodder was very good.

  8. The downs today seem to have been easier than the acrosses, which had as others have mentioned some toughies in them. I managed SEEMLY, but would never in two months of Sundays have understood what was going on.

    As walruss has said, the long anagram just about got over the line, but – it’s just a personal thing – they’re not my favourite type of clue.

    Ali, thanks for blogging: I think we’re missing 17ac – SHANGHAI – which was one of the ones I particularly liked. To save you the bother, for lurkers I will explain it here and thank Eileen at the same time for explaining to me the principle a week or so ago.

    S (last among thieves) HANG (to dangle) HAI (homophone for high, far from ground) – and ‘when caught’ is the homophone indicator as in ‘hear’ – I didn’t quite ‘catch’ what you said.

    So you see, Eileen, I was paying attention in class.

    Good puzzle, thank you Tees.

  9. Many thanks to KD, to Ali for a splendid blog, and to all for kind comments.

    Some of you may have noticed a choice of clues on offer today for BIG/ G/ IN/ HILL, one using ‘massive gravity’, the other ‘great good’. I think we went for ‘great good’ as G for gravity isn’t strictly represented in any of the main refs. But somehow G forced its way back in to the paper edition?

    Viva la Mexico.

  10. Just couldn’t get seemly, was convinced that appropriate in the clue referred to steal somehow. Still, good ‘un Tees

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