Independent 7621 by Crosophile

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Some very pleasing clues in what, I think, is Crosophile’s second Indy appearance, solving time 36 mins.

No Nina/theme that I have spotted but very happy to be put right if I’ve missed something

* = anagram

ACROSS

7  PERCUSSION    (supersonic)*

8 LASS    class less c (cold)

10 SWEET-TALK       wee t in stalk       Excellent clue

11 CADGE    d (penny) in cage (pound) ie prison    d = penny in old money

12 DISCO    Di’s  co

13 SEQUENCE    que = what (in Spanish) in (scene)*

15 THERAPEUTIC       Nice division between definition/wordplay at healing/recipe    U = OK for kids (film classification) in (recipe that)*

16 COWARDLY     Definition:   chicken    CO  rd (road)   l (left) in way

19 AMIGO     Am I?  = do I survive? = am I here, I think     GO = turn

22 AVOID   A (absolute – temperature)  VOID  (heartlessness)

23 TIGHTWADS     tight = drunk     children in care = wards    heartless = take away the middle r

24 SHED    Double definition, with Slough given the false capital crossword convention allows

25 CONTRADICT      definition: counter      con = scam    detective with paintings over = CID ART (all reversed)   T = the  eg Northern usage

DOWN

1 EPISODE    definition:  pilot, possibly  eg trial TV show    short letter = ep (abbrev for epistle)  ie (that is) about sod (nasty man)

2 ORDERS    a very pleasing double definition in a clue that had an old-fashioned feel of crosswords as they developed in earlier days

3 AUCTIONEERED     (one cure a diet)*

4 ESSAY     Sounds like  “S A” = Salvation (Sally) Army

5 ZOO KEEPER     This was my last answer    An &lit type clue where the whole clue is the definition.   ‘about’ in the clue indicates reversal of the first 7 letters of the answer ie zoo keep    becomes peek  (look)  o (abbrev for on)  oz (ounce) followed by ER  (scraps of edible refreshment)  ie first letters

6 SARDONIC   (I scorn ad)*   and with no heart = ad

9 SKEWED   K  (kelvin – SI unit)  in sewed

11 COURT MARTIAL   Cryptic definition

14 MAELSTROM      L  in maestro  M    l = angular momentum   m = mass

15 TOWROPES     tower less e   opes  = short form of opens

16 OCEANS      A clue I liked a lot    e = energy in o (old)  cans (tins)   drink = the sea

17 COSSETS    COS    SETS

20 ITALIC      Pisa = Leaning Tower , italics, type that slants (leans) like this

21 AGATE    a gate

9 comments on “Independent 7621 by Crosophile”

  1. Thanks for the blog nmsindy and Crosophile for an enjoyable puzzle.

    Favourites were 10A SWEET TALK, 13A SEQUENCE and 25A TIGHTWADS. I thought there was a bit of over-reliance on single letter abbreviations: 18A COWARDLY: C(ombined) O(perations), 25A CONTRADICT: T for T(he), notwithstanding its Northern usage, and 5D ZOO KEEPER: O for O(n), but I guess that’s setter’s licence.

  3. Have to agree that 17d doesn’t quite work for me, orders almost had me beat expecting a deeper wordplay.

    Thanks NMS and Crosophile.

  4. Thanks, nms.

    When I was doing this, I was saying to myself ‘this is solid, but not particularly inspiring’, but when I’d finally finished and then read your blog, I revised this opinion. There was indeed some inventive clueing; I also liked SWEETTALKS and SEQUENCE. Nice to see plenty of scientific abbreviations in as well – Kelvin, Angular Momentum and Mass – and perhaps an unintended nod to Descartes at 19c.

  5. This was enjoyable and not too taxing apart from my last two, Contradict and Zoo keeper. I was contemplating going through all 676 possibilities for ?O?. This might have taken me a long time given that the answer is Zoo. Instead I had a hot bath and the answer came to me by osmosis. Clearly it was the T’ in contradict and the O’ in Zoo Keeper that threw me. These are more often seen in barred crosswords but they are not particularly obscure and I cannot see any particular objection to them.

  6. Thanks nmsindy and Crosophile. Liked this one, although zoo keeper, tightwads and amigo took time. Zoo keeper was last in – thought of lots of unlikely keepers (loo keepers, dog keepers!) before the penny dropped, but needed your blog to explain the wordplay completely. Didn’t see the &lit until right at the end.

  7. Thanks, nmsindy,for the blog and thanks for all other comments, too. Helpful, to one just starting to break into ‘straight’ cryptic setting (at least, I hope so), to know what goes down well and what doesn’t. I’ll take note.
    And I’d better start putting in some ninas!
    Incidentally, 20d Italic. I was a bit having my cake and eating it with the Pisa ref. since Italic is also ‘relating to Italy’.
    And yes, Kathryn’s Dad, there was a subliminal nod to Descartes in 19a (I think…!)

  8. Some good stuff here but the six clues with bad checking led me to believe that there was a Nina there. There wasn’t. In which case they can’t be justified, in my opinion at least (although evidently not that of several others). I felt that in 11ac d = penny was unsatisfactory, since p = penny and 40 years after decimalisation shouldn’t the old penny be signposted? I felt 11dn was a very weak cd, unless I’m missing something. In 17dn how does sets = runs to seed? (It’s probably there in some dictionary, not to hand.) 20dn seemed a bit loose: how does it work exactly? I can’t see what ‘to’ is doing.

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