Independent on Sunday 1,171 by Glow-worm

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A little while since I’ve blogged a Sunday Glow-worm, I think, so a nice change for me. I left this one a bit late in the week, so it was convenient that it wasn’t too onerous, and I seemed to sail through it fairly swiftly.

That’s not to suggest that there wasn’t anything of interest here. In fact there were a couple of nice reverse-cryptic devices, some international references that were new to me, and some nice interplay between several clues. Good stuff, all in all.

I didn’t spot any hidden or thematic matter, but look forward to being enlightened in case something has flown over my head.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 TILL – dd.
3 COUNTERACT – COUNTER + ACT.
9 MACHINE – CH in MAINE.
11 SUPPOSE – SUP + POSE.
12 LONG-RANGE – GRAN in (LONG + E[stablishment]).
13 ELATE – [m]E[a]L[s] A[n]T[h]E[a].
14 STEEPLECHASE – (SEE THE PLACES)*.
18 SECRET POLICE – (LEICESTER COP)*. I can only assume that I’m too young to have heard of the NKVD, but they don’t sound very nice at all.
21 HOURS – H + OURS.
22 PESTILENT – T in (P.E. + SILENT).
24 BUGABOO – BUG + AB + OO.
25 VAMOOSE – MOO in VASE.
26 AT THE LEAST – (THAT’S + ELATE)*.
27 ARKS – [m]ARKS.
Down
1 TIMELESS – a reverse cryptic, in that NIGH[t] could be clued as “timeless”.
2 LICENSEE – [r]E[nt] in SILENCE*.
4 ODEON – ODE + ON.
5 NISSEN HUT – H in SUNNIEST*.
6 EXPRESSIONISM – EXPRESS + (I in SIMON*).
7 AMORAL – A.M. + ORAL.
8 THE FEW – dd. Reference to Churchills famous Never, in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to so few quote, concerning the Battle of Britain airmen.
10 IRREPRESSIBLE – R[eading] in (LIB PEERS RISE)*.
15 EUROPHOBE – (OUR PHOEBE)*.
16 FIRE DOOR – FIRE + ROOD<.
17 RESTLESS – another reverse cryptic, since “eve” could be clued as a RESTLESS version of (Mount) Everest.
19 PHOBIA – HOB in PIA. Again, I wasn’t familiar with the airline, but it seemed feasible.
20 NUGGET – [lo]GGE[rs] in NUT.
23 SAVES – S[t]AVES, nicely confirming that 1D can indeed be used to clue the removal of a “t” in wordplay!

3 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,171 by Glow-worm”

  1. No, I can’t see a nina or a theme either.

    21a had me looking up the scientific names for families of glow-worms before the penny dropped. Favourite clue has to be SECRET POLICE for its clever surface.

    Thanks, Glow-worm and Simon.

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