Independent 8,692 by Klingsor (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 23/08/14)

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Classic Klingsor really, and very enjoyable. I seemed to get through this fairly swiftly, though the crossing pair of 10 across and 7 down beat me completely, and I had to go online to discover the answers. I still cannot explain them.

Across
1 INFIDELITY One heads off from Anfield – City lost, playing away (10)
I + ([a]NFIELD + [c]ITY)*.
6 OPUS Work in surgery with nurse regularly (4)
OP + [n]U[r]S[e].
9 MARYLEBONE Female scientist returns to East London area (10)
MARY + Alfred NOBEL< + E.
10 FOAM Cast’s acting not right? Be furious (4)
.
12 DOUBLE NEGATIVE Grammatical error that’s a no-no (6,8)
Fairly self explanatory, I’d have thought. Of course, double negatives aren’t the sin that pedants inevitably make them out to be. Allow my old tutor Graeme Trousdale to explain the cumulative negative.
14 ASGARD Like the sound of protection for old heroes’ final resting place (6)
Sounds like “as guard”.
15 STRIDENT A step ahead of conservationists? That’s grating (8)
STRIDE + NT.
17 SPRITZER After opening of Savoy Hotel stops for a drink (8)
S[avoy] + (RITZ in PER).
19 DIADEM Crown princess, notice, backed yours truly (6)
Princess DI + AD + ME<.
22 RACK ONE’S BRAINS Going west, is Nebraska or North Carolina first of all? Think hard (4,4,6)
(IS NEBRASKA OR + N + C[arolina])*.
24 CITY Half will abandon Kendal, say, for Carlisle? (4)
[feli]CITY.
25 CLOUDINESS With influence curtailed, I had to retire and head for obscurity (10)
CLOU[t] + I‘D< + NESS.
26 TALC Contrarily, two halogens combine to form mineral (4)
At< + Cl<. Astatine and Chlorine both being halogens, I learn.
27 PERTINENCE I’m losing nerve? The opposite, which shows suitability (10)
[im]PERTINENCE.
Down
1 IAMB I will need doctor after onset of athlete’s foot (4)
I + A[thlete] + MB. A metrical foot, and a classic Klingsor well-hidden definition.
2 FURLONG Description of Persian perhaps gets you some distance (7)
Persian cats have FUR which is LONG.
3 DELIBERATION Debate sending someone to prison? (12)
DE–LIBERATION.
4 LUBBER Bishop avoids fat, clumsy sort (6)
[b]LUBBER.
5 TANGENTS Relish measure associated with Eliot’s lines (8)
TANG + EN + TS Eliot.
7 PROFILE Tom collected information for short biography (7)
.
8 SUMMERTIME Season a little with a herb, we’re told (10)
Homophone of “some” + A + homophone of “thyme”.
11 RAMIFICATIONS Am I brought in to run story about Academy as a consequence? (12)
(AM I) in (R + (A in FICTION)).
13 MAASTRICHT Mum wants a hotel in exact place treaty was signed (10)
MA + A + (H in STRICT).
16 REVEILLE First Lady’s sick in the middle of street – it’s a wake-up call (8)
(EVE + ILL) in [st]RE[et].
18 RECITAL Movement of clarinet concerto (its third) missed out for concert (7)
CLARI[n]ET*. Remove the third letter of “concerto” from “clarinet”.
20 DUNGEON Tunnelled a long time to get outside new prison (7)
N in (DUG + EON).
21 ABRUPT Short brat’s struggling to keep up (6)
UP in BRAT*.
23 ESSE Being one’s self at heart (4)
[on]E‘S SE[lf].

 

* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition

 

13 comments on “Independent 8,692 by Klingsor (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 23/08/14)”

  1. Thanks Simon and Klingsor,

    I needed your help to parse CITY.

    PROFILE: pro = tom + file = information

    FOAM could be form (cast) with a (acting) instead of r (right).

    SPRITZER was wonderful.

  2. Unfortunately I looked at the blog before I realised I hadn’t done this one yet(I only get in on the day), which spoiled the pleasure a little as I had seen 1ac and for some reason 17d. However I completed the rest and managed to parse all but 10ac my LOI. SO well done Muffyword for that one.

    I liked 3d and 17ac.

    Thx all

  3. Like Simon, my last two were 10A, 7D, cheated on 7D, guessed 10A, couldn’t parse it; very obscure.

    Overall good fun, also thought SPRITZER really good. Wagnerian reference at 14A.

    Thanks to Klingsor and Simon.

  4. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who struggled with the 10ac/7dn crossers. I used aids to get FOAM but still didn’t see how it worked, and an unparsed PROFILE was my LOI from the definition, so thanks for parsing both of them Muffyword. I also struggled with the FURLONG/ASGARD crossers. With F?R at the front of 2dn I was sidetracked for way too long by trying to think of a way Farsi (Persian) could be included in the answer somehow, and it was only after I realised Persian referred to the cat that I saw the answer and how it worked, after which ASGARD became a write-in.

  5. I’m also glad to see everyone seems to have the same experience as me. I romped pleasurably through most of this then spent the second half of a long car journey staring at my last 4 blanks (27A and 4D as well as the 7D / 10A combo). I eventually came back to it some days later and 27A and 4D were suddenly glaringly obvious and as soon as I started thinking of synonyms for Tom 7D fell into place. Running through possibilities for 10A in my head FORM soon came up which morphed quickly into FOAM. I was mentally scorning myself for not seeing what now seemed straightforward enough, but it looks like I was too hard on myself.

    Thanks Simon and Klingsor.

  6. Usual Klingsor excellence. In 17ac I initially thought that he had taken a liberty in order to have a nice surface, and that a = per and for had no place in the wordplay. But that’s wrong I think: per = for and the definition is ‘a drink’, not as Simon has it merely ‘drink’.

  9. Thanks, Muffy, for parsing PROFILE, but I had to google to discover that Tom is rhyming slang (Thomas More) for prostitute. You learn smething useful every day.

  12. I think you’re correct about ‘per’ = ‘for a’ Simon. My apologies for suggesting otherwise.

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