Independent 8,490 by Hob

Yesterday in a private email someone told me that this might be up my street. I still don’t know what he meant, for this is a pleasant crossword from Hob which runs close to some of the edges of convention, but just about stays clear of overstepping them. Perhaps he was teasing me about the fact that there is a bit of football here. But not much, and I think I can cope all right.

The plays of Alan Ayckbourn are mentioned frequently in the clues, and Hob has cleverly used some of the words in these titles to provide wordplay indicators. Very nice, but I suspect I’m missing something and no doubt it’s an anniversary of something. But not his birth, anyway.

Definitions in italics

Across

1,1D Our bank can lay off this puzzle’s writer! (4,9)
ALAN AYCKBOURN
(Our bank can lay)* — the theme of this puzzle, many of his plays

3 How The Other Half Loves, heading off somewhere in Egypt with current partner (9)
UXORIALLY
{L}uxor i ally — adverb from uxorial: as a wife

9 Woolly stuff from male in Woman In Mind (8)
CASHMERE
ca(sh(m)e)re — two inclusions, not helped in the solving by my thinking that the woman was ‘her’

10 Trouble arising from adult party (3)
ADO
A do

11 A Chorus of Disapproval is said to be intoxicating stuff (5)
BOOZE
“boos” — the homophone indicator not, as I first thought, in the title of the play but ‘is said to be’

13 Rover for Deputy Adjutant-General? (8)
GADABOUT
Deputy Adjutant-General is DAG, so ‘gadabout’ = ‘gad about’ = ‘dag’

14 Absurd Person Singular lacks funny roles? That’s harsh (9)
UNSPARING
(Person Singular – (roles)*)* — the anagram indicator in the title of the play

18 Wrong metallic element to burn (5)
SINGE
sin Ge — Ge is germanium, which Chambers says is a metalloid element, so no doubt that’s metallic

21 Broadcasting expertise? Not at all (5)
NOHOW
“knowhow” — the homophone indicator ‘broadcasting’

24 Copy of picture, say, after clipping (9)
PHOTOSTAT
photo stat{e}

28 Relatively Speaking (for some) small archipelago (8)
ANTILLES
“auntly” s [yes thanks Rorschach, this is right] — at least that’s what I think it’s meant to be — some would say that ‘auntly s’ and ‘Antille{s}’ don’t sound the same at all, but Hob does add hopefully ‘for some’, so perhaps there are some people somewhere who pronounce them similarly — maybe ‘auntly’ said in an American accent just about does it — but then others would say that ‘auntly’ isn’t really a word — that would have included me until I looked in Chambers and there it is

29 Guy reporting what makes up a third of 24, half of 33 and two-thirds of 26 (5)
TEASE
“T’s” — there are three of them in the nine-letter ‘photostat’, three of them in the six-letter ‘tattoo’ and two of them in the three-letter ‘OTT’

30,31 Film surgeon’s face during boob job? (3,4)
BUS STOP
Because of the arrangement of these answers, they can be read as ‘bust op’ [with s{urgeon} included — thanks K’s D] — Bus Stop was a 1956 film starring Marilyn Monroe

32 Class A speed, one buyer said (8)
AMPHIBIA
A mph 1 “buyer” — yet another homophone that would not meet with universal approval: “be-a” and “buyer” don’t usually sound the same

33 Edinburgh show is rubbish as well (6)
TATTOO
tat too

34 False bottom journalist found in RAM (7-2)
TRUMPED-UP
t(rump ed)up — RAM is ram

35 19 rounds 2.71828 as 15/7? (4)
IDES
IDS round e — this refers to the fact that the 15th of July is one of the days that are the Ides — 2.71828 is meant to be e, a mathematical constant that is the base of the natural system of logarithms; it isn’t this actually, only a very close approximation to it

Down

1 See 1 across
AYCKBOURN

2 Worried team, in one sense (7)
ANXIOUS
a n(XI)ous

3 Girl covering bit of leg with part of arm (4)
ULNA
Un(l{eg})a — ‘bit of’ indicates the first letter — this use of ‘with’ as a word meaning ‘the preceding wordplay leads to this definition’ always grates with me: you never see it with Dac or Azed or some other well-known setters

4 A cause of abnormal growth, some reason cogently (7)
ONCOGEN
Hidden in reasON COGENtly

5 Stones left by bum, almost under tree (7)
ASHLARS
ash l ars{e}

6 Song now disturbed rest (3,4)
LIE DOWN
lied (now)* — I wanted this to be ‘lay down’ but couldn’t explain the d

7 Religious group in Time And Time Again (4)
SECT
sec t — two different times, so time and time again

12 Worried about letter from abroad (3)
ETA
(ate)rev. — but the answer could equally well be ‘ate’ since it isn’t clear what ‘about’ refers to: some people say this doesn’t matter and you just have to wait until the checkers tell you, but me …

15 Some still water left out for dog number two? (3)
POO
poo{l} — dog number two is the number two produced by the dog

16 What’s needed to surf in Scarborough, perhaps, initially (3)
ISP
I{n} S{carborough} P{erhaps} — internet service provider

17 Turnover split in two, showing sticky stuff (3)
GOO
‘turnover’ split in two is ‘turn over’ — go = turn, o = over — Hob is careful here not to offend the sticklers

19 Tory papers covering Sun leader (3)
IDS
ID S{un} — IDS is a Tory (Iain Duncan Smith)

20 Nurse on set topless, playing in Just Between Ourselves (5,4)
ENTRE NOUS
(nurse on {s}et)*

22 Henry named in London team? (7)
HOTSPUR
2 defs — the word ‘Hotspur’ was originally applied to Henry Percy — ref Tottenham Hotspur

23,8 In famous conflict, The Norman Conquests initially cut short when given to northern printer (7,6)
WILLIAM CAXTON
William C{onquests} ax{e} to n — William is ‘In famous conflict, The Norman’ — in the Norman Invasions, that famous conflict, William was The Norman

25 Better half of hot American group (7)
HUSBAND
h US band

26 Bottom’s excessive (3)
OTT
Hidden in BOTTom — the hidden indicator simply the ‘s, something that seems to be becoming widespread

27 Absent Friends may be set wrongly in time by video game (7)
TOASTED
(set)* in (t 0AD) — Absent Friends may be toasted — 0AD is apparently a video game

28 Cleaner /side (4)
AJAX
2 defs — Ajax the foaming cleanser (I thought it was this but evidently it’s the scouring cleanser) and the football side from Amsterdam

*anagram