Independent 8531 by Quixote

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I found this at the harder end of the Quixote spectrum, with quite a lot of fairly unusual words. Clues like 13 and 5 were tough to get without most of the crossing letters.

Across
1. Become aware of Bill’s comment about phony diamonds (6)
Notice Not ice – not entirely sure why Bill is required. Presumably ice was
originally police slang for a diamond.
4. Red vehicle carrying sailor to pub (8)
Cinnabar Car around inn + ab.
9. Drink served around hospital brings complaint (5)
Whine Wine around h(ospital).
10. She’s clued up making plans (9)
Schedules (She’s clued).
11. Noblemen meeting Queen with anger aboard ship (7)
Squires SS around Qu + ire.
12. Town‘s room accommodating most of the bridge players (7)
Heswall Hall around ESW (most of the bridge team because they are named after
compass points).
13. Appoint elder to deal with a flighty type (12)
Lepidopteran (Appoint elder)*.
17. Pledges to distribute the cheap toys (12)
Hypothecates (The cheap toys)*.
20. The last tricky act to avoid detection (7)
Stealth (The last)*.
22. Old character engaging little boy in computer period (3,4)
Run time Rune around Tim.
23. Pieces of food left over in the course of flights (9)
Escalopes L(eft) o(ver) (separate abbreviations) in escapes.
24. Animal swallowing king’s old coin (5)
Groat Goat around R.
25. Independent smuggled into terrible lecture in a bag (8)
Reticule I in lecture*.
26. French person with nothing on — not a fashionable style! (6)
Breton B[a]re + ton(=fashionable style).

Down
1. Little women may be restricted by shouting? Not at all! (6)
Nowise W[omen] in noise.
2. Attempt falling short with one cocky young fellow making blunder (4,2)
Trip up Tr[y] + pup.
3. Most joyful to be finding something full of treasure across lake? (9)
Cheeriest Chest around Erie.
5. Flipping hush, you racist old monster! (13)
Ichthyosaurus (Hush you racist)*.
6. Meeting points where one gets any number of poems (5)
Nodes N(=any number) + odes.
7. Poetry contributing a dull conclusion to social event (8)
Balladry Ball + a dry.
8. Sort of theft — with ruddy pounds being stolen (8)
Rustling Rusting around L.
10. Private sanctuary is special then? Extraordinarily (7,6)
Sistine Chapel (Is special then)*.
14. Moaner has little hesitation to undermine precious child (9)
Tweenager Nag + er after twee(=precious).
15. Attendant — the man protecting donkey when there’s dog around (8)
Chasseur Cur around he around ass.
16. Meal son missed got rid of? That’s a blow (8)
Uppercut [S]upper + cut.
18. Eat too much in one session in place (3,3)
Pig out I go In put.
19. Something tiny squashed by jumper, might you say? (6)
Lepton Hom of “leapt on”.
21. Plant shown shooting up in classical illustration (5)
Lilac Hidden, reversed in classiCAL ILlustration.

13 comments on “Independent 8531 by Quixote”

  1. Thanks Neal and Quixote,

    Isn’t NOTICE a triple definition?

    I also found this more difficult than usual for Quixote.

  2. I managed all except 26a and 19d, so not too bad, although I do usually finish Quixote’s puzzles. Does that mean we’ve had similar education/cultural experience? I often wonder about this.

    Thanks to setter and blog for a pleasurable experience.

  3. Neal

    Re 1 across, ice isn’t just police slang. I quote from Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend:

    Get that ice, or else no dice!

  4. Also found this trickier than usual for Quixote. I had the same trouble as @2Heather McKay; filled in Breton unparsed with a shrug, but gave up on 19D.

    (Sir) Ian Botham was born in 12A.

    Query “Noblemen” (aristocracy, members of the peerage) in 11A. Think “Gentry” a more accurate description of the squireage.

    Thanks to Quixote and NealH.

  5. Count me as another who found this trickier than Quixote’s usual Monday puzzles, and it felt more like one of the Don’s Pasquale puzzles, but even towards the harder end of that spectrum. Having said that, it was an enjoyable challenge that made me rack my brains.

    Of the long answers, I saw ICHTHYOSAURUS and SISTINE CHAPEL relatively quickly, but HYPOTHECATES and LEPIDOPTERAN took a while to untangle. LEPTON was my LOI.

    I agree with Muffyword@1 that 1ac is a triple definition where bill=notice.

  6. Thanks Quixote for an enjoyable challenge and Neal for the blog.

    1ac: I would not call this a triple definition, but a three part clue made up of two definitions (“Become aware of”, “Bill”) plus wordplay (“comment about phony diamonds” = NOT ICE).

  7. My apologies to any who went immediately for HANWELL rather than HESWALL. Certainly nowhere near the worst clue of the year (as suggested on another website) but I would have avoided the ambiguity had I noticed it. Thanks for generally friendly feedback otherwise.

  8. Since I restarted cryptics about five years ago I can’t remember ever having to give up on a Quixote, but I had to give up on this one. In fact when I was getting back into the black arts, I always used to look forward to his puzzles, because they were/are generally accessible for improving solvers.

    I think it was some of the definitions that did for me. ESCALOPES are indeed ‘pieces of food’, but so are lots of other things; HESWALL similarly is a town (but some mathematician can tell me how many three-letter combinations are possible from NSEW). ICHTHYOSAURUS was pretty obviously an anagram, but ‘old monster’ didn’t point this solver in the direction of the answer; and NOWISE I had never heard of.

    Ho hum. There’s a recycled Quixote in the Indy i today. Might have a go at that later to rediscover my mojo.

  9. Perhaps that’s addressed my concerns. While I’ve been typing, the setter has come onto the blog as Pasquale …

  10. Thanks, Neal, I needed the blog to parse BRETON.

    1ac was one of my last few in as I failed to separate “phony diamonds” and could only think of “paste” which hasn’t enough letters anyway; a real facepalm moment when I got the crossing letters and the penny dropped.

    And thanks, Quixote, for the challenge.

  11. I thought I was sailing through this but then got stuck on top left and bottom right. Finally got the top left worked out but I too had trouble with 26ac and 19dn. I guessed BRETON without being entirely sure why, and then got LEPTON only after a word search, a word I really should have been able to get.

  13. Re the query at #8, the number of possible results when taking three letters from ENSW is 24. Four different sets of letters (e.g. ENS, ENW etc), each of which can be arranged six ways e.g. ENS, ESN, NES, NSE, SNE, SEN.

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