Independent 8,537 by Raich

by

Welcome return from 15sq Old Boy Raich.

 

As far as can be discerned there’s no themes, Ninas or adulation of Sunderland AFC today but several clues to get the &lit spotters and decryers going.

Across

1 Part of neck ultimately grubby, unkempt (7)
SCRUFFY
SCRUFF & (grubb)Y

5 Coming back, pinch school soup (6)
BORSCH
ROB (pinch) rev & SCH

8 Party song (new): “Train an elite”? No! (14)
INTERNATIONALE
Red flag flying etc, [TRAIN AN ELITE NO]*

9 Corrupt lackey leaving caught giving out information? (5)
LEAKY
No C(aught) IN [LA(c)KEY]*

10 It could give cause to criticise small kitchen items (9)
SAUCEPANS
CAUSE* & PAN (criticise) & Small

12 Contents of bar, tinnies, when shaken? (10)
INEBRIANTS
Possible &lit here [BAR TINNIES]*

14 Mistake in party policy (4)
TYOP
Hidden in parTY POlicy

16 Cut rope for girl (4)
LASS
LASS(o)

18 Enter sect (bizarre) after second audition (6,4)
SCREEN TEST
S(second) & [ENTER SECT]*

21 Gallery blokes in road – that’s saying something! (9)
STATEMENT
[TATE & MEN] in STreet

23 Dog knocked over hens’ enclosure at entry to homestead (5)
POOCH
COOP rev * H(omestead)

24 Finance – I got it – recipe for change – such as this? (14)
GENTRIFICATION
[FINANCE I GOT IT R(ecipe)]*

25 Order always withdrawn at end of month (6)
DECREE
DEC(ember) & E’ER rev

26 Where the parterre’s regularly found? (7)
THEATRE
THE and alternate letters of pArTeRrE

Down

1 Absurd supermarket features, it’s said, in tourist location (6,5)
SCILLY ISLES
Hom of SILLY AISLES

2 Go back over contest – about time to cover it (7)
RETRACE
RE (about) & Time covering RACE

3 Fellow with weapon held up cart in rural location (8)
FARMYARD
F(ellow) & ARM & DRAY rev

4 Poet Paula’s recited? (5)
YEATS
Sounds like (paula) YATES

5 Source of heat, British, quite unusual, note (9)
BRIQUETTE
BR(itish) & QUITE* & TE (note)

6 We hear bird here in France (6)
RENNES
Hom of WREN

7 Left fish in island city (7)
CALGARY
L(eft) & GAR (fish) in CAY (alternative spelling for Key as in Florida Keys)

11 Missing wife, get the cash wrong shockingly? (5-6)
SHORT-CHANGE
Extended def, [THE CASH (w)RONG]*

13 Change the form of a large lady’s garment (9)
ALCHEMISE
A & L(arge) & CHEMISE

15 One state-supported accepts note after due time without difficulty (2,1,5)
ON A PLATE
Old Age Pensioner with N(ote) in & LATE

17 National sees I am struggling (7)
SIAMESE
[SEES I AM]*

19 One boasting “First!” after degree finally obtained? (7)
EGOTIST
Another rolled together clue, (degre)E & plus a boast of “GOT 1ST!”

20 Old and wise, he contributes to finest oratory (6)
NESTOR
The Indy setters club, hidden in fiNEST ORatory

22 Unexpected event leads to trouble, with individuals suffering terribly (5)
TWIST
Initial letters of Trouble With Individuals Suffering Terribly

*anagram

11 comments on “Independent 8,537 by Raich”

  1. I enjoyed this puzzle. I thought it was going to be a very fast solve when 1ac and 1dn went in immediately and the NW corner was soon completed, but after that I slowed down a little. It probably took me longer than it should have done to see INEBRIANTS, ON A PLATE, and GENTRIFICATION. I finished in the NE with SAUCEPANS after I finally saw CALGARY.

  3. Thanks Raich for an enjoyable puzzle and flashling for the blog.

    14ac: A typo in your answer (which currently reads TYOP).

    19dn: I read this more straightforwardly as “One boasting” (definition) IST (“First!”) after E (degree finally) GOT (obtained).

    Not so sure about the grammar in 10ac, although the intention is clear enough. I would have no problem with “It could give” as an anagram lead when the anagram is the whole answer (and, preferably, a singular noun), but for a construction such as used here, I cannot see what “It” refers to grammatically.

  5. @3Pelham Barton – I assumed “It” refers to the collection/set of letters (“sauce”) in the answer, which could give/spell “cause”.

    Not sure how such a clue would be described and certainly a bit unusual, but I thought OK.

    Thanks to Raich and flashling.

  6. A nice but not too difficult challenge, although there seemed to me to be rather a lot of anagrams. Having said that, I have to admit to being momentarily misled in 1ac thinking ‘unkempt’ was an anagrind.

    I liked 13dn, although having long been familiar with ‘alchemist‘ and ‘alchemy’ I never knew there was such a word as ALCHEMISE.

    Thanks, Raich and flashling.

  7. Nice crossword. I’m glad that the answer to 1ac was what it was, rather than SCRAGGY, which also works so long as you see ‘ultimately’ as indicating both the first and the last letters, which is OK I think. But if it was a clue to SCRAGGY it would be rather bad because scrag and scraggy are so related.

  8. We thought the same as gwep about 10ac. We also started off rapidly in NW corner but slowed down a bit towards the SE!

    All good stuff so thanks to Raich and flasling!

  9. Alas, I did thing 1ac was SCRAGGY which messed up the top left corner. But as I was out most of the day, I ran out of time finishing this, anyway.

  10. Wanted to comment on this puzzle yesterday, but the site seemed to be hors de combat for the latter part of the day.

    Fine puzzle in the usual Raich style: clear clueing, well-indicated definitions. The two homophone clues – SCILLY ISLES and RENNES – were my favourites in this one.

    Thanks to Raich and to flashling. Raich and I adulating SAFC? We will be if we win the cup this weekend …

  11. Many thanks, flashling, for the blog and to all for their comments. The alternative SCRAGGY did not occur to me – I’ll have to admit I did not know the word ‘scrag’ but it’s in Collins and Concise OED though described as archaic in the latter. As someone remarked, though, scrag and scraggy might have been too similar to be two different ways to the answer but certainly noted for the future.

    Raich will be at Wembley with the 31,000 Wearside contingent so fingers crossed though very much outsiders against Man City of course.

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