Independent 8,573 by Kairos

by

Nice mostly gentle run out from Kairos today.

The odd grid suggests Nina may be found but I can’t see her.

Thanks Kairos

Definitions underlined where appropriate. I’ll be on the road for a few hours so corrections will largely have to wait until this afternoon.

Across

8 A great many swapping partners in the dark (5)
NIGHT
North not South in SIGHT, a great many

10 He’s a louse getting drunk here (9)
ALEHOUSES
[HE’S A LOUSE]* with “getting drunk” playing a double duty

11 Oddly swirly and so shiny (7)
SILVERY
Odd letters of SwIrLy and VERY (so)

12 Criticise bar’s collapse (7)
PANCAKE
PAN criticise & CAKE bar, collapse, PANCAKE here referring to a pancake landing on an aircraft where the wheels fail.

13 Beam maybe easily moved (5)
LIGHT
Double definition

15 Piece of writing cut short (3)
PAR
Short for PARagraph and PAR(e) a cut “shortened”

16 Title one omitted from movement by Holst (3)
MRS
M(a)RS one of Holst’s planets.

17 Talk about girl’s return (3)
YAK
KAY reversed

19 Depend on the French spuds? (7)
NEEDLES
A SPUD can be a needle used in an eye operation, I know enough about that after my cataract op! And NEED (depend) & LES (the french, plural)

20 Erroneously includes a character in The Matrix (3)
NEO
Not Paul B this time, hidden in erroroNEOusly and the lead character from the film The Matrix. Cake, red or blue pills, no I didn’t get it either.

23 Former taxmen beginning to exhibit resentment (3)
IRE
Inland Revenue & E(xhibit)

24 Island excluding European broadcaster (3)
SKY
SKY(e) less E(uropean)

25 Cut and run in Slough (5)
SHRED
R(un) in SHED (slough)

27 Carrier is understood to include help coming back (4,3)
TOTE BAG
ABET (help) in GOT (understood) all reversed

29 Meeting involves computers in police operation (7)
SITTING
I.T. in STING

32 Means of getting in touch with German state poetry (4,5)
LAND LINES
LAND (each German State is a LAND) & LINES (poetry)

33 Test invulnerability (5)
PROOF
Double Def

Down

1 Common sense dropping new responsibility (4)
ONUS
NOUS with the N dropping a bit

2 Medical condition encountered in first years (4)
STYE
Hidden in firST YEars

3 Song about Dutch girlfriend (4)
LADY

LAY around D(utch)

4 Portly team played for the laity (10)
TEMPORALTY
[PORTLY TEAM]*

5 Low note in literary month (4)
MOON
MOO (low of cattle) & N(ote), many moons ago

6 Charlie’s nana elected to follow Booth? (8)
ASSASSIN
ASS charlie, ASS nana, IN elected, as in Wilkes Booth, other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln…?

7 A group holds positive outlook (6)
ASPECT
P(ositive) in A SECT

9 Silence bully regularly imprisoned in political detention centre (5)
GULAG

bUlLy in GAG

13 Luxury car losing curved line (3)
LEY
(bent)LEY as in LEY lines, took me a while to see this one.

14 Trace metal, for example, is turned up (5)
TINGE
TIN & EG rev

15 Pressure on sergeants performing for publicist (5,5)
PRESS AGENT
P(ressure) & SERGEANTS* The Max Clifford sex case makes an interesting surface to this one 🙂

16 Supports teachers without hesitation (5)
MASTS
ER hesitation removed from MAST(er)S

18 Recreational activity sees board member taking dope with Tory leader (8)
KNITTING
NIT dope & T(ory) all in KING a chess board member

21 Former wife leaves tract of open land (3)
OLD
No W(ife) in (w)OLD

22 Young Liberal’s name I raised (6)
LITTLE
L(iberal) & TITLE with the I raised a bit.

26 Greek character pockets state money (5)
RHINO
RHO (Greek letter) pockets INdiana

28 Announcer’s shout in party (4)
BALL
Sounds like BAWL

29 Frame elite soldiers on heroin (4)
SASH
S.A.S. & H(eroin)

30 Record note about additional premium (4)
TAPE
TE note around A(dditional) P(remium)

31 A rare mistake – nonsense (4)
GAFF
GAFF is listed in Chambers as MISTAKE (rare) rather than GAFFE

*anagram

16 comments on “Independent 8,573 by Kairos”

  4. Although you don’t need to know this to solve this nice crossword, several of the solutions are from a poem by Roger McGough:

    Mrs Moon
    sitting up in the sky
    little old lady
    rock-a-bye
    with a ball of fading light
    and silvery needles
    knitting the night

  5. Thanks, crypticsue @4. I hadn’t come across that; all I could think of was The Owl and the Pussycat who danced by the 13 of the 11 5.

    Interesting that 10 and 32 are both plural, which made me think for a few seconds before entering them; just coincidence no doubt that they are symmetrically placed in the grid.

    Thanks, flashling, for the blog. I needed it for several answers which I got but couldn’t parse. And ‘spuds’ for needles was new to me.

    And, of course, thanks to Kairos.

  6. I got this all out apart from LITTLE (what sidey said about 7dn and 22dn). I quite liked it, although it was hard for a Monday and the grid was hinting there was something going on. Well done crypticsue for pointing it out, but I bet 99 solvers out of 100 won’t have seen it. In which case, the question ‘why bother?’ could be posed. A question that perhaps only the setter can answer. Maybe he’s listened to too many editions of Poetry Please or is a fan of The Scaffold …

    ‘Spuds’ for NEEDLES a new one on me too.

    Thanks to Kairos and flashling.

  7. What’s wrong with the occasional in-joke? It’s a delightful gift to anyone who gets it, so let’s not begrudge crypticsue her fun.

  10. I wouldn’t dream of begrudging crypticsue her fun, Polly. I was just saying it’s a pretty obscure theme that will have gone over the heads of most solvers, including those who comment here. Didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the crossword.

  11. I made a bit of a pig’s ear of this, especially in the bottom left, where I made several guesses which were spectacularly wrong. (For instance, I was working of “ring tones” for 32ac.)

    I was really annoyed that I couldn’t get 6dn without a search, as not only is it obvious (once I got it) but I’ve read dozens of histories of the American Civil War and Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins is a favourite of mine.

    Incidentally, 12ac, pancake can mean a collapse of a building as well as a plane landing without undercarriage.

  12. I usually grumble when there is 2/5 checking. 2/6 is really quite something. Amazing.

    15dn seemed a bit odd, with ‘Pressure’ in the clue and ‘Press’ in the answer.

  13. Thanks flashling for the parsing of 8ac.

    We thought something may be going on so thanks Crypticsue for the link. We are quite happy for setters to have some fun with hidden themes – you can still solve the puzzle without needing any specialist knowledge.

    This was a good one – tricky for a Monday and 22d took some sorting out. Thanks Kairos!

  14. 12A What is a “cake bar”? I took bar to mean bar of soap = cake of soap. Like some others, didn’t get the 2/6 22D. Query young equating to little.

    Thanks to Kairos & flashling.

  15. gwep @14: Cake bars are small rectangular cakes, wrapped in plastic then wrapped again in lots of 5 or 6 and sold at about twice the price you would pay for a cake of equivalent (or greater) weight. Supposed to be handy to put in a lunch box or something. What’s wrong with cutting and wrapping your own cake? But then, some people have more money than sense.

  16. Is the word “about” in the clue for 17 across redundant? “Talk about girl’s return”.

    “yak” can only be used intransitively, without a direct object, and can therefore mean “talk” but not “talk about”. And the “about” in the clue is not there to indicate reversal of “girl”, as “return” has that function.

Comments are closed.