Independent 8561 by Raich

by

This was a relatively gentle start-the-week puzzle from Raich with lots of well-constructed clues. There were a few that needed a bit of thought e.g. 24 and 6.

Across
1. Bill, controversial broadcaster, on the other side?(6)
Across Ac +(Jonathan) Ross
4. He wants to buy second farm machine (7)
Shopper S(econd) + hopper
9. One sharing top role in charge of advanced Republic (5,4)
Costa Rica Co-star + IC (in charge) + a(dvanced)
10. Hearing tenor, fifty, including tune from East (5)
Trial T(enor) + l containing air<
11. Adult party bringing cause to feel embarrassed (5)
Abash A(dult) + bash
12. One “axing” replaced gratuities after English left? (9)
Guitarist Gratuiti[e]s* – axe can be a slang term for any musical instrument but
often refers to an electric guitar
13. Labour’s traditional opponent in London? (7)
Capital DD – labour’s enemy in Marxist theory
15. Tool police embrace entirely (6)
Mallet All in met
17. With no redundancy initially, in employment in Surrey town (6)
Woking Wo[r]king
19. Footballers from Republican French city (7)
Rangers R(epublican) + Angers
22. So caustic about quality of sound? (9)
Acoustics (So caustic)*
24. Weapon from South Africa – sawn-off one? (5)
Sabre SA + bre[n]
26. Slyly taped expert (5)
Adept Taped*
27. Chief executive in power, accommodated in workplace (9)
President P(ower) + resident (as in resident servant)
28. Relaxing inside tented houses (7)
Detente Hidden in insiDE TENTEd with houses as the containment indicator
29. Tennis equipment woman’s finding lower down (6)
Nether Net + her

Down
1. Antiquated principal cut assistance to clubs (7)
Archaic Arch + ai[d] + c(lubs) – playing card abbreviation
2. Religious adherent – a street artist going round (5)
Rasta A st(reet) in RA
3. Unfortunately pa gets hit in such a Western (9)
Spaghetti (Pa gets hit)*
4. Where to watch 19A? Admit us somehow (7)
Stadium (Admit us)*
5. Variety show regularly brings up old Italian port (5)
Ostia Alternate letters of vArIeTy ShOw, reversed. Ostia was a port in
Ancient Rome.
6. Spin one finds shameful promoting, say, unfair advantage (9)
Privilege PR (public relations=spin) + vile + eg<.
7. Give account (touching) in the evening (6)
Relate Re(=touching) + late
8. Watch over Rome’s foremost poet (6)
Virgil Vigil around R[ome]
14. Advocate, forward individual, going over books (9)
Proponent Prop (Rugby forward position) + one + NT
16. Lads lined up to deliver big win (9)
Landslide (Lads lined)*
18. See good rider cutting fruit (7)
Glimpse G + PS in lime
19. After Lee left, tea lady right to be more optimistic (6)
Rosier Rosie [Lee](=tea) + r(ight)
20. Industrial plant ponged here (core of it) (7)
Smelter Smelt + [h]er[e]
21. Difficult to absorb aid to navigation – that’s a risk (6)
Hazard Hard around A-Z (as in London A-Z).
23. No role model, I’m obliged to be taken in by hospital (5)
Satan Ta in san(itorium)
25. Check follows social gathering in wood (5)
Beech Bee (as in Spelling Bees and the like) + ch(eck)

9 comments on “Independent 8561 by Raich”

  1. I agree that this wasn’t on the difficult side, but I still found it a pleasant Monday solve. PRESIDENT was my LOI once I’d finally sorted out the wordplay and definition for GLIMPSE. I liked the “one “axing”” definition in 12ac.

  2. Thanks for blogging, Neal. I never time myself, but this one did go in quickly. Some good clueing as always from Raich. I liked VIRGIL and CAPITAL especially.

    I’m sure that the setter and I both wished that 16dn was ‘& literally so’; but we’d be in cloud-cuckoo land if we did, because at the minute the Lads can’t score a goal for love nor money.

    Thanks to him anyway for today’s puzzle.

  3. For reasons I can’t now fathom, I struggled with this more than any Raich before. Must have been the busy work day.
    Ta to Neal and Raich.

  4. Not too difficult, although I couldn’t parse some of the answers, and if I’d known ‘axe’ for a musical instrument I’d forgotten it. So thanks to Neal for the blog – and of course Raich for the puzzle. Liked COSTA RICA and VIRGIL.

  6. And me out of it, K’sD in many ways. Oh well, at least I eventually got there and could have fully blogged it.

    I rather miss NMS’s comments here….

  7. I couldn’t see why resident meant accommodated in workplace, but the blog does explain. Still seems a bit odd. And those clues where there is a comma but in the wordplay you have to disregard it always seem to me to be a bit doubtful: 19dn really should say ‘After Lee left tea lady …’ shouldn’t it? I suppose that you can just about read the clue as ‘Tea lady, after Lee left …’. And also I suppose you can read it as ‘After Lee has left, tea lady …’. OK then.

    But apart from these very minor niggles an excellent crossword I thought. Very Indy with its nods to football (16dn) and rock music (12ac).

  8. Late again ……. we started this late and then couldn’t keep our eyes open!

    We completed about half last night, Bert filled in the rest in his head this morning leaving Joyce to fill in the grid later. As others have said, not too dificult but a few that needed crossing letters and others that took a little time to parse.

    Thanks Neal and Raich.

Comments are closed.