Independent 7945 by Quixote

by

I find Quixote pretty much the easiest of the Indy setters and I found this puzzle very easy indeed even by his standards, solving in what for me was a very fast time indeed, 14 mins.

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 STANDARDS      stand (are situated)   Ards (NI football club) – they now play in the second tier of league football in NI but have won both IFA Cup and League in the past.   From Newtownards, though currently without their own ground.     Definition: flags

6 FEED    Double definition

10 INGESTS   (sign set)*

11 ALLAYER    all aye r

12 LEARN     lea  (ba)rn

13 RELEGATED     legate (Pope’s representative) in red

15 PRIME MINISTER     4 = RISER    (MP riser in time)*  &lit

18 TURN THE HEAT ON    Double definition

20 MEN-AT-ARMS   (Smart name)*

22 GHENT    hen (bird) in gt (great)    In Belgium

23 LASSOER    ass (idiot) in (role)*

25 EDITION     E (English)  diction (way of speaking) less c = primarily conveyed (1st letter)

26 YORK   Double definition – cricket term (particular type of bowling)

27 DAMASCENE   dam (mother) a  scene (dramatic sequence)      One of the meanings of Damascene is ‘from Damascus (Syria)’

DOWN

1 SKI SLOPE     (risks)* less r (right)  lope (run)

2 AFGHANISTAN   (a fan’s hating)*

3 DISINTEGRATION    rat (rodent) in (indigestion)*

4 RISER   hidden in enterpRISE Rejoices

5 SMALL-TIME   defn:  insignificant     refers to ‘time is the enemy’, I think

7 ELY     A see (religion) well-known to solvers   rely less r (its leader ie 1st letter)

8 DERIDE   defn:  jeer at    Ed (Editor) = journalist (turning up ie going upwards in this down clue)  RIDE = fair(ground)  amusement

9 ILL-GOTTEN GAINS   (glistening a lot)*

14 TURN THE TIDE    King Canute (11th century) showed he did not have power over the tide

16 INTERBRED    interred (buried) around B (bone initially ie 1st letter)

17 INSTANCE  (an insect)*

19 EMPLOY    defn: make use of    ’em = them   ploy = cunning plan

21 STEAM   defn:  sort of water ie when boiled    stream (brook) less r = river

24 SIR   stir (prison) less t = time

 

8 comments on “Independent 7945 by Quixote”

  1. I agree with you, nms – this was an easy solve, despite a footie reference and initially putting UP instead of ON as the last word of 18a. Completed in two passes in under 20 minutes.

    Thanks, Quixote, for a gentle introduction to the week.

  2. Very nearly put UP in 18a but something nagged and left it till I had 17d. Very easy to me too, didn’t time but reckon certainly less than 15 mins. Ta NMS and the Q.

  3. 1 across:
    The first football match I ever went to see was Coleraine v Ards, and I once went all the way to Castlereagh Park (their old ground) from Coleraine by train and bus for a league game only to find when I got there that the game had been postponed due to bad weather!
    So thanks for the memories Quixote!

  4. Thanks, nms. Yes, this one fairly flew in; I’m by no means a fast solver but I reckon the quarter of an hour mark as well.

    Nice variety of clue types and a gentle puzzle, perfect for improving solvers I’d say.

    Only a tiny point: I personally would define INGEST as ‘take in’ rather than ‘take up’, biologically at least. The nutrient would be ‘taken up’ when it was DIGESTED.

  5. Not much else to add – a gentle start to the week. A lot of anagrams but all the surface reading made sense. Last one in was 22a – just couldn’t see it until we had the final checking letter.

    Thanks nmsindy and the Don!

  6. Not being up on football (certainly not NI football, anyway), it took me a while to see how 1 across worked and I carelessly put disintegrating for 3 down, which held me up a bit on 23. But nothing very challenging apart from that – a nice &lit in 15 across.

  7. Agree with all the remarks above: very easy but utterly sound and enjoyable, a good crossword for a novice solver.

    K’s D had one tiny point; I had another: surely ‘Damascene’ means ‘from Damascus’. So is ‘in Arab city’ correct? It doesn’t seem quite right to me.

Comments are closed.