Independent 8,538 by Alchemi

Today’s offering from Alchemi is a very pleasant, not too difficult but perfectly challenging, crossword. There are one or two places where pedants would grumble, but few, and I think all is well (apart possibly from 25ac, although no doubt someone will point out a perfectly sensible way in which ‘setting’ is an anagram indicator).

The long answer at 17ac has its two main characters in the top and bottom unches. This provided some help, as I saw the Nina some time before the end, which is unusual. Whether there is anything else I’m not sure: I last saw the play nearly 50 years ago and remember little about it except the repeated ‘Let’s go/No/Why not?/Because we’re waiting for Godot’, and even that may be an inaccurate memory.

Definitions in italics.

Across

9 Dislikes adult interpretations (9)
AVERSIONS
A versions

10 Strangely eager to contract (5)
AGREE
(eager)*

11 Some captains win games with such bowling (7)
INSWING
Hidden in captaINS WIN Games

12 Chocolate cake to have covered in cheese (7)
BROWNIE
br(own)ie

13 Country house lawyer comes to tea (5)
DACHA
DA cha — DA = District Attorney

15 You wouldn’t keep a cool head in this battle (9)
BALACLAVA
If you were wearing a balaclava to keep your head warm, you wouldn’t be keeping a cool head in this

17 Drama working in a restaurant having omitted to take a lot of drugs (7,3,5)
WAITING FOR GODOT
waiting forg(OD)ot — waiting = working in a restaurant — OD = overdose = a lot of drugs

19 Was Archishop of Canterbury internally backing organ’s sound quality? (9)
RESONANCE
(nose)rev. in (ran CE) — the question mark really applies to the ‘ran CE’ rather than the sound quality

21 After tea, we hear cricket side are left with varying pitch (5)
TONAL
t on a l — tea, we hear is “tea” = t — cricket side = on — a = are, the unit of area

23 Touched, auntie regularly beginning to cry – with this sort of result? (7)
OCEANIC
{T}o{u}c{h}e{d} A{u}n{t}i{e} c{ry}

25 Puts underground storage unit in stone setting (7)
ENTOMBS
I think this is mb [= megabyte] in (stone)*, but where is the anagram indicator for ‘stone’? — what else can be the storage unit, and what else can be the stone? — now that I look at it ‘setting’ seems to be the anagram indicator, but although this is given as one in Chambers Crossword Dictionary I can’t see how it is

27 Says missing the first tee is enough (5)
SATES
s{t}ates (the first t is missing)

28 Serves exactly 2200 scattered dots (7,2)
ATTENDS TO
Exactly 2200 = at ten [in the 24-hour clock] (dots)* — but what is the significance of ‘exactly’?

Down

1 Redeployed invader not new or changed (6)
VARIED
(invader – n)*

2 Stages final parts of double weddings (4)
LEGS
{doub}le {weddin}gs — there are some who would carp and say that ‘final parts of’ isn’t good enough because it doesn’t tell you how many of these final parts there are, but I think it’s perfectly OK, nothing different from ‘centre of excellence’ to indicate ll or elle etc.

3 There’s hope when greedy-guts has to hand over a grand for a share (10)
ASPIRATION
as pi{g} ration — ‘for a’ is padding I think and I can’t see how it indicates juxtaposition

4 Takeaway food setter gets by going up in silence (5,3)
DOGGY BAG
dog (by)rev. in gag — am not keen on the definition by example and feel it should have been ‘setter, say’ or some such

5 Woman‘s short description of ringer (6)
ISABEL
a description of a ringer is ‘is a bell’, so omit the final letter

6 Shark almost crazy by the end of the fight (4)
MAKO
ma{d} KO — the mako shark is a type of shark — I’d never have got this without the help from the Nina, which fortunately I got in time, since I’d never heard of one

7 Metal group‘s press people accepting help (4,6)
IRON MAIDEN
iron m(aid)en — referring to the heavy metal group of musicians

8 What’s germane about the Middle East (8)
RELEVANT
re Levant

14 100 bones broken – these might be useful notes (4,6)
CRIB SHEETS
c ribs (these)* — it’s tempting to see the definition as the last five words, but it must be the last four

16 Thinking about going at it another way (10)
COGITATING
c (going at it)*

17 Openings for actor really hoping to get into poorer film (3,5)
WAR HORSE
(a{ctor} r{eally} h{oping}) in worse — this film

18 Musical show involving a treetop (8)
OPERETTA
(a treetop)*

20 Somehow certain I should leave the drink (6)
NECTAR
(certain – I)*

22 The end of April is good in French city (6)
LISBON
{Apri}l is bon — bon = good in French

24 Gun emplacement catches squadron leader in trap (4)
NEST
s{quadron} in net — very strictly speaking it should be ‘squadron’s leader’, but this type of thing is widespread and in my opinion is no problem

26 Some cream is only paste (4)
MISO
Hidden in creaM IS Only

*anagram

14 comments on “Independent 8,538 by Alchemi”

An enjoyable solve, although I think I may have seen a similar nina in another puzzle in the not too distant past. Maybe I’m just doing too many puzzles.

I entered MAKO from the wordplay with fingers crossed and was pleased to see that it was correct. I finished in the NW with LEGS my LOI after 9ac, 4dn and 5dn.

I wish the blogger would give the nina at the end of the solution – – .

A very nice offering from Alchemi. As usual I managed to miss the nina: very neatly done.

Thanks for the blog, John: you’ve cleared up a couple of solutions where I couldn’t quite see all the parsing.

On ‘setting’ as an anagram indicator, I imagine it’s from printing: to [type]set is to arrange the type (the letters).

An enjoyable puzzle, though not a high degree of difficulty for a Tuesday.

In 3D, the “g” in pig is swapped (handed over) “for a share” (ration). Agree with John’s point about 4D.

17D the second “o” in forgot has been inadvertently omitted from the parsing.

Filled in 25A from the available letters, without, I now realise, parsing it. Don’t object to “setting” as anagram indicator.

Thanks to Alchemi and John.

Nice one, Alchemi.

17ac fell into place once I had a few crossing letters and then I spotted that VLADIMIR would fit the top unches and all went pretty smoothly after that, although ‘2200’ in 28ac had me looking for the letters MMCC somewhere until crossing letters gave me the answer.

Is it just coincidence that someone with the name Vladimir might occupy a DACHA and live (or have lived) in BALACLAVA?

Thanks to setter and blogger.

Thanks john for resolving resonance, that beat me. Alchemi, it was rubbish. Ok it was quite fun really.

Thanks to John for the blog, and to everyone else for the comments.

@allan_c Complete coincidence.

@John The “exactly” was to try and forestall what would have in my view been justifiable howls of protest at the lack of indication for the AT if I’d not put anything there.

@flashling Glad it was suitably disappointing.

@Andy B I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you’d seen this nina before somewhere. When you notice that WFG is 7,3,5 and that the two lead characters are both eight letters, it takes approximately seven nanoseconds to realise that there’s the framework of a puzzle, so it must have occurred to someone else before. The next thing you discover is that there’s no way (at least that I could find in several hours) of hiding POZZO, so there’s no point in trying get LUCKY in either, let alone two 3-letter entries which are both BOY, but clued differently (since the two boys which appear in the play are different).