Independent 7766 by Radian

by

Radian seems to be doing a French course today.

.

Bit of an oddity for our theme day, French words, dictionaries, Harry Potter and Tom Cruise. Oh and it’s a pangram of course, only a single this time though. [Edit Spotted typos corrected]

Across:

1 POTTER 2 * T(ime) in PO(w)ER (women thrown out)
5 TEESSIDE SEES* in TIDE. Guest appearance from Tees.
9 CHERUBIM [H(enry) M(ike) BRUCIE]*
10 PRINCE Hom PRINTS
11 NARCISSISTIC CAR* in [INSISTS (m)IC(k)]*
13 BAKU B.A. + UK rev
14 KEROSENE ROSE in KEEN*
17 JONATHAN Biblical friend of King David. [HAT ON]* in JAN(uary)
18 CURÉ UR (primitive/original) in CE – a French priest
20 CUSTOMS HOUSE C(aught) + US, 23 is Cruise so + TOM’S HOUSE
23 CRUISE C(linton) + 1 in RUSE
24 RAINCOAT CROATIAN*
25 I DARE SAY [I’D A YEAR + S(eventies)]*
26 SAWYER Hidden reversed in jeffREY WASn’t
Down:    
2 OCHE Hidden in ricOCHEt
3 TARANTULA TA + NATURAL*
4 ROBERT TREBOR (mints) rev ROBERT is a French/English dictionary – see 8
5 TOM DICK AND HARRY 23 TOM cruise + DICK dictionary (it’s in Chambers) + HARRY potter
6 EXPOSURE Double def
7 SWIGS S(mall) + no N in WI(n)GS
8 DICTIONARY NOTIC(e)* in DIARY
12 MANOEUVRED N + OEUVRE in MAD
15 SACRED COW C(atholic) in CREDO all in SAW (perceived)
16 CHAMBERS Cryptic DD Chambers dictionary and Rooms in the Legal Inns
19 QUAILS Double def
21 TRIER R(iver) in TIER.
22 FAZE Alternate letters in FrAzZlEd

 

11 comments on “Independent 7766 by Radian”

  1. Thanks, flashling.

    Got TOM DICK AND HARRY almost straightaway, from the enumeration, which of course was a help with bits of the rest of the puzzle. There were a few I found hard nearer the end, and CUSTOMS HOUSE was my smiley moment this morning.

    No doubt you mean I DARE SAY for 25ac. I’m sure some Dicks give it as I DARESAY.

  2. Thanks flashling and Radian: good fun. I struggled with QUAILS and SWIGS – it’s often the shorter ones that are hardest, if they don’t surrender immediately. I think 17a should be JONATHAN, to fit the word play.

  3. Good puzzle, which I found a mixture of some quite easyish clues and others that were very tricky, with my last five answers taking as much as all the previous ones to solve. Spotting the pangram was the key, as that led me to suspect a Q in 19D. Favourites clues, SWIGS, EXPOSURE and the very subtly hidden SAWYER. Thanks, Radian and flashling. flashling drew attention to an NMS typo in yesterday’s Quixote blog – I think there’s one today in 12 Down, where an E has been forgotten, I think, in answer and wordplay shown.

    [Edit So there is(was) NMS – bitten by Word’s autocorrect thanks]

  4. Thanks, flashling, as well as to Radian.

    SAWYER took me the longest time (and it was yet another TOM in the puzzle, although not clued as that). As nmsindy @3 said, it was a mixture of easy and hard clues, so there was enough to get a toehold to start and then consistent challenges to advance.

    The challenging ones to me were TEESSIDE, NARCISSISTIC, and finding SAWYER, while ROBERT was a guess since I was familiar with neither the confectioner nor the French dictionary (although when I was a lad and studying French I probably knew it then). And OCHE was new to me; the wordplay was clear but I had to confirm it online. Darts is very much a niche sport here.

  5. Did this puzzle late afternoon after getting bored at work … 🙂

    After a very slow start not even that tricky, though I failed on ROBERT. Well, it had to be that – but just like the previous speaker I wasn’t familiar with the ‘dictionary’ (also not sure whether it being French should have been indicated in some way) nor with the ‘confectioners’ (whose chocolates are better known as Cadbury).

    Also failed on QUAILS (19d) though I should have known that Radian’s a dedicated Pangrammist which would, perhaps, have given me the Q.

    I have just two questions left:
    (1)
    Why does ‘Mick strips’ equal [m]IC[k]. I think ‘Mick stripped’ would be better, ‘Mick strips’ feels like the opposite: M and K. But I am happy to learn that I am wrong.
    (2)
    I see ‘to be beyond reproach’ as the definition of SACRED COW, which can’t be right as one is a verb and the other a noun. Is this meant to be a kind of &Lit?

    Good puzzle (the quirkiness of 13ac [wanted to avoid British Airways?] and the unwanted use of Harry in 22d [because of 5d] couldn’t spoil the fun for me) with the spider of 3d as one of the very best because of its, um, natural surface.
    Many thanks to Radian (and to flashling for the blog)

  6. Not sure why quails was so hard to spot, my last one too, Sil, I think for sacred cow the “to be” bit means here’s the definition, Mick strips is just the outer covering has been taken off.

    Thanks to those who spotted my early morning inability to proofread or type after a night out 🙂 At least I could solve.

  7. Hi Flashling,
    when you say I took “to be” as the introduction to the definition, then this definition would be “beyond reproach” – still not a noun.

    Don’t get me wrong, I understand that “to strip” means “take away the first and the last letter”, but here it didn’t feel comfortable to me because of the use of the present tense [which Radian needed for the surface, true].
    BTW, in your blog you make IC part of the anagram fodder which I think is not right. In my opinion it is: (CAR)* divides {(INSISTS)* + [m]IC[k]}.
    That would solve the potential ‘problem’ of an indirect anagram.
    And – funny enough – I then feel more comfortable with our friend Mick. Isn’t life strange? 🙂

  8. you may well be right Sil, I just saw the answer in my head while solving and didn’t really check whilst blogging, mea culpa. Dreadful day after the blog was posted, a problem working for the ambulance service, when they say emergency they mean it…

  9. I agree with MikeC @ 2 about the shortest ones sometimes being the hardest. SWIGS and QUAILS were my last in and only with the help of a word finder.
    In 20a I thought at first we might be looking for the name or location of TC’s residence so was relieved to find otherwise.
    Never spotted the pangram – hadn’t made the connection between Radian and pangrams before; I must remember that in future.

  10. Sil et al:

    Parsing of 11 (with which I’m happy) is as Sil has it at #7. STRIPS has to be in the present tense, although the subjunctive STRIP would be grammatically more accurate.

    15 A late edit doesn’t seem to have made it into the final version. The definition should have included the words AN INSTITUTION before BEYOND REPROACH.

    I’m slightly surprised I got away with CHANGEOVER=TIDE in 5A.

  11. Radian @ 10: I didn’t think of changeover=tide. I parsed it as change=edit with ‘over’ as a reversal indicator.
    Talking of reversals, re 4d, TREBOR is the founder’s name reversed, i.e. ROBERT, as it says on my packet of mints.

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