Independent 8992 by Crosophile

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A 1-acrossly constructed puzzle by Crosophile which I found to be fairly difficult in places.

Across
1. Nice to see gold suit put back in fancy blue wrapping (9)
Beautiful Au + fit< in blue*
6. A painter‘s become deflated? (5)
Degas DD – de-gas
9. Rent trouble? This is quite a blow (7)
Tornado Torn + ado
10. I’m named Head of Explosives after results of bomb disposal (7)
Nominee No mine (=result of bomb disposal) + E[xplosives]
11. Friend axes meeting place making a switch first (10)
Originally Ally + origin (where axes on a graph meet) switching positions
12. Swing as a musical genre? (4)
Rock DD
14. Medical specialism with not one medic to dispose of the dead (6)
Entomb ENT + 0 MB (zero doctors)
16. Trendy town but not the capital (5-2)
Right-on [B]righton
18. Not even a hint of overdraft with direct debit (3)
Odd O[verdraft] + DD
19. Approve the thing next year as an asset to the community (7)
Amenity Amen + it next to y(ear)
21. Assorted fine weather without rain (6)
Sundry Sun + dry
24. With added chilli, seeing special takeaway is not at all hot (4)
Iced [Sp]iced
25. Misplaced individual, very unfashionable for a Parisian run (10)
Trespasser Tres passe + r(un)
28. Conjure up how one of the spirits might introduce itself at end of séance? (7)
Imagine Hom of I’m a djinn + [seanc]e
29. How long program lasts is finally under minute perhaps? (3,4)
Run time ([unde]r minute)*
30. Lowest point of drain complex (5)
Nadir Drain*
31. Shed light on stand up to about my top of shelving and over it (9)
Demystify Defy around my + s[helving] + it<

Down
1. Only 100mph for a fast driver? (6)
Button But + ton, referring to Jenson Button
2. A rising revolutionary in Aquarius say? (3,4)
Air sign (A rising)*
3. Short of ecstasy, erotic magic could be seriously funny (10)
Tragicomic ([E]rotic magic)*
4. List of plants fellow read occasionally (5)
Flora Odd letters of “fellow read”
5. Dollars spread around North Dakota in letters (9)
Landlords Dollars* around ND
6. A stately building to meet my requirements? (4)
Dome Do me, as in “it’ll do me”.
7. When at sea, get bang out of this? (7)
Gunboat &lit – (bang out)*
8. Make The Sound Of Music around mountain top – not while doing this (8)
Speaking Sing around peak
13. Advisers advanced to repair American city resorts for some Londoners (5,5)
Agony aunts A + go (as in repair to somewhere) + NY + ‘aunts
15. A lover of ornate finery in a person’s embrace (9)
Boyfriend Finery* in bod
17. Bordered by a lot of flags, central section of mullioned building (8)
Pavilion Pavin[g] around [mul]lio[ned]
20. Eastern variety of marled stone (7)
Emerald E + marled*
22. Tell composer endless passage needs a bit of imagination (7)
Rossini [C]rossin[g] + i[magination] – Tell refers to William Tell, an opera written by Rossini
23. Lively zebra with eye mostly for a run (6)
Breezy * of Zebra with ey[e] replacing a. Run seems to be the anagram indicator.
26. To play guitar on the street is unusual? (5)
Strum St(reet) + rum
27. Seaside attraction ripe for development (4)
Pier Ripe*

23 comments on “Independent 8992 by Crosophile”

  2. Apparently, it is a change in policy – they no longer use the Crossword Solver format and the online puzzle is the previous day’s.

  3. My iOS Crosswords app cannot load this puzzle. I went to http://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independents/
    to find a webpage I didn’t recognise which looked unplayably awful on Chrome on my iPad. I then tried a desktop browser which was slightly less unplayable but still looks dreadful- the text is horribly blurry, not properly rendered. There are disparaging reviews from the last month there. I went to leave a 1-star review, but it demands a facebook identity, which I decline to disclose. Waiting for the dead tree version means doing the crossword the evening after it is published making it rather less likely I’ll visit here. Independent, you just wrecked your online puzzle, I’m afraid.

  4. I feel a complete fool – I solved the whole puzzle fairly easily, but could not parse 11A – and about 50 years ago I sneaked a maths degree! Did not love the surface of $D – that really should be ‘fellows’ which makes a mess of the parsing, but improves the grammar.

    Pleased to see that those of us who spend our pension on actually buying the newspaper get a head start nowadays.

  5. Poddy, I could not agree more. A great puzzle Crosophile, and thanks Nealh for the blog. I also got ‘originally’ but the axes reference escaped me.

  6. Sad news about the change in policy. Unless someone finds a new way around it, it means I shall no longer be able to enjoy doing the Indy crossword. Since I already buy “another” daily paper, I’m afraid I won’t be buying the Indy just for the puzzle.

  8. I’m one of the smug ones who actually buy the paper, so don’t have a problem with the change, yet. When our local Post Office/ newsagent closes in a month or so I will join the disenchanted.
    I really liked this puzzle as it combined some easy stuff, but also some toughies, eg 25A.
    I have a different version of the clue for 26D in the aforementioned paper. ‘Run out from stage platform to play guitar’. Same answer obviously, but weird.
    Thanks for an excellent puzzle Crosophile, and of course to NealH for the blog.

  9. Very enjoyable. Thanks to both.

    Poddy@4 – it’s ‘read’ as in past tense, which makes surface and parsing fine, I think.

    26d in DTV is different: “run out from stage platform to play guitar” which I entered from crossers but couldn’t parse. It’s probably obvious to everyone else .

  16. I too am trying to solve online access. Can you explain a bit more about crossword solver newmarketsausage? I have an app on my android phone but it is very clunky.

  17. Thanks Neal & Crosophile, I get the dead tree version so didn’t notice the online change until Gaufrid emailed me to inform us bloggers. The lack of online sources is going to make the blogging process on the day a bit more laborious to put it mildly.

    Got most of the Brighton links but some passed me by, and as a maths graduate embarrassingly failed to twig the origin bit too.

    Just realised today is the fifth anniversary of me blogging here (a Tyrus as it happens), doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun.

  18. Thanks for the blog NealH and all the nice comments. And well done Geebs for spotting all the Brighton references

  19. ScrivTheRed @ 16

    You can download Crossword Solver from:

    http://crosswordsolver.info/

    I don’t know if this is the app you have on your phone or not. I use Crossword Solver on my desktop and it works fine. It allows you to solve interactively with check, reveal and cheat buttons. You can also get a print version from it, although some people (me among them) have to use a somewhat circuitous route.

    Up till today, you could get the day’s Indy cryptic on it. Now you can only get the previous day’s puzzle (and earlier puzzles too, I assume).

  20. Thanks NealH for the blog.
    Really no criticism but it should have been published tomorrow.
    (since the Indy’s gone mad)

  21. Lovely puzzle – Bright(on) as a Button! Single quibble was “for a run” as anagrind in 23dn (“wandering” may have served better, for example). Many thanks Crosophile, and to NealH.
    [Is the online change a clever ploy by Indy – how many readers may now buy it, and will another paper’s circulation be affected accordingly? Thank goodness for my local library’s photocopier!]

  22. @21
    Anagram indicator in 23d is just “run” – as in become runny. Popular indicator with ximeneans/azedders.

  23. A 1ac crossword but the timing is 18ac. As for the format, it ought to be 14ac-ed and revert to what it 11ac was!

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