Independent 9052 by Kairos

by

An absorbing puzzle of medium difficulty.   I had a few slight questions on one or two of the clues, but it was overall of a good standard.

Across
1 JOCKSTRAP
Support US athlete’s role-reversal (9)

Jock’s + part<
6 BERET
Hat deprived fellow dropped(5)

Bere[f]t
9 WARSHIP
Party official entertains Arab head of state in frigate?(7)

Ar(ab) + s[hip] in whip
10 ROLLMOP
Cleaner’s on list to get food (7)

Roll + mop
11 STORMED
Attacked and kept blockading Malta (7)

Stored around M(alta)
12 UP TO NOW
Like Billy Joel’s girl and Oscar moving west to date (2,2,3)

Uptown + o with W moving to the end
13 BANK DRAFT
Row before transatlantic call to Joe and Bill (4,5)

Bank(=row) + draft (US equivalent of conscription to become a GI Joe)
15 ROVER
Get better after leaving city with traveller (5)

R[ec]over
16 ROPES
Timeless figures of speech. They are known by an adept (5)

[T]ropes
19 CHEERLESS
dreary US TV series about the French(9)

Cheers around les
22 MARTINI
Maybe it’s found in museum art in Italy (7)

Hidden in museuM ART IN Italy – I’ll freely admit cocktails aren’t my strong suit but I thought the It in Gin and It referred to vermouth, whereas Martini is already a cocktail made from similar ingredients.
23 POTHOLE
Explore with sexy eastern European after exchanging introductions (7)

Hot Pole with initial letters swapped – interesting way of doing a spoonerism without calling it such.
25 TOPSIDE
Joint operations in progress (7)

Ops in tide
26 AVARICE
A sin eating all rations primarily (7)

&lit of A vice around a[ll] r[ations]
27 REEFS
Banks return payment in Rupees (5)

Fee< in R(upee)s
28 TREATMENT
Jolly Jacks’ time in care? (9)

Treat(=jolly) + men + t(ime)
Down
1 JOWLS
Solemn people under Japan’s leader showing signs of ageing? (5)

Owls after J[apan]
2 CARTOON
Picture of empty box?(7)

Carton with nothing (O) in it.
3 SCHEMED
Planned school for publicity in patient preparation? (7)

Pre-med with SCH for PR
4 RAPID
Quickly accomplished uprising in Burundi Parliament (5)

Hidden, reversed in burunDI PARliament
5 PIROUETTE
Turn sanctimonious lecturer out of game of chance (9)

Pi + rou[l]ette
6 BOLSTER
Hold up a type of chisel (7)

DD – the second meaning was new on me
7 ROMANOV
Russian imperial family wander endlessly around country (7)

Rov[e] around Oman
8 TAPEWORMS
Records about officer and soldiers source of stomach upset? (9)

Tapes around WO (warrant officer) + RM
13 BAROMETER
Glass that shows sign of change under pressure? (9)

CD
14 ARCHITECT
Key specialist in design work? (9)

&lit. C + hi-tec in art
17 PORK PIE
Old recipe kitchen police included in mess food (4,3)

O(ld) + r(ecipe) + k(itchen) + p(olice) in pie, which can be a printing term meaning mess.
18 SPIRITS
Ghosts’ morale (7)

DD
20 RETRACT
Withdraw to learn a new skill after leaving Indiana for Connecticut (7)

Retrain with CT replacing IN
21 EMOTIVE
I have support for on-line test that is controversial (7)

E + MOT + I’ve
23 PLANE
Smooth tree’s surface (5)

Triple definition
24 EVENT
Party’s one result (5)

Seems to ba DD, although I’m struggling a little to justify the one
*anagram

28 comments on “Independent 9052 by Kairos”

  1. Thanks, Neal and Kairos.

    I think 22a refers to Martini as a brand of vermouth. I am struggling too with 24d.

  2. Thanks Neal, I couldn’t parse 3d.

    How is a bank draft a bill?

    I think 24d is “[a] party is one”

    Where would ‘k’ be used for kitchen?

  5. I had a slightly different parsing for 12ac: uptown + o with the added o moving west, i.e. to the left. Favourite clues today were for POTHOLE and CARTOON.

    Thanks, Kairos and NealH

  8. Some interesting stuff, fair enough for a Monday (or an old-style one). Thought the CD at 13D a bit weak.

    Other comments – 8D is TAPES around WO + RM.

    17D – confess to googling this, kp is apparently an acronym for kitchen police.

    24D I guess event is more or less transposable with result in the expression “in the event” (as it turned out, resulted).

    12A is a bit tricky, I thought it was UPTOWN + O with W{est} simply moving – actually to the east.

    Thanks to Kairos & NealH.

  11. NealH @7: You’re right, of course; I obviously didn’t think it through. Having got it in my mind that an o was moving to the left I saw what I wanted to see, not what I should have seen. Oops!

  12. Completed it, without too much difficulty, but several I couldn’t parse. Never heard of Uptown Girl but the answer was obvious. Thanks for the explanations.

    17dn, KP meaning Kitchen Police is in Chambers. It’s a US military punishment. Turns up in war films, some private saying he has to do KP.

  13. Martini is a brand of vermouth; a “dry martini” is a cocktail of gin and vermouth (also known as “gin and it”, though in fact it’s better with French Noilly Prat, I think).

    There are differences of opinion about the proportions of gin to vermouth. Kingsley Amis suggests letting light through the vermouth bottle fall on the gin.

  14. Thanks to NealH for the analysis and to all for your comments. There was one unusual feature that I thought people might have spotted but no one has commented on. I will not spoil the anticipation of finding it!

  15. Kairos – Oh! you are a tease….
    Great puzzle, I thought. Agree with Neal that this was absorbing and, thankfully, not another easy Monday write-in. I don’t understand the comments as Neal’s blog seems perfectly fine to me.
    Eyebrows were raised at BAROMETER though as it hardly seemed cryptic – perhaps that is Kairos’ “unusual feature”?!
    Many thanks.

  16. I did notice the ‘unusual feature’ three quarters of the way through from my jottings (or ‘from my Nottingham’ as auto correct keeps trying to tell me).

    Probably more likely to spot it this way than doing it on-line.

    It helped a little.

    Interesting idea and nice crossword.

    Thanks Kairos and NealH

  17. We finished the crossword late last night. We also had a few queries so checked online to see what others felt. We read the comment by Kairos (thanks for dropping in) and had another look at the puzzle. Joyce wondered whether it had anything to do with ‘Os’ as there are a number of double ones in the grid. She does however think that she is clutching at straws so any other hints would be most helpful.

  20. Oh dear! We cannot even blame it on the late night solve. We are still in the dark despite the hint. Perhaps someone could explain exactly what is going on and put us out of our ‘misery’ please.

  24. Will somebody please spell it out? I’ve looked 3 times now – possibly wasted 20mins (far longer than time took solving). Am working very long hours this week and haven’t more time. Perhaps B & J might return my Dac April fool favour – or Kairos, or even Gaufrid, will put me out of my mystery.
    (I solve on paper and access 225 by ‘phone – is this why I’m missing it? No more ‘clues’ though! I usually wake in middle of night, do a puzzle, and back to sleep; I’d have knocked off the Dac and/or Picaroon by now – instead I’ve spent longer on all this and must go back to sleep for an early start. Tragic.)

  26. Kairos, Kairos – Thank you, thank you. That’s precisely why I couldn’t see for looking! (and you’re a naughty boy….!)
    HAND x

  27. ….and well done for putting in their place those self-defeating killjoys who rely on cheats, aids and…. anagram solving thingies. Can they really appreciate your efforts, I wonder?!

  28. (….and B&J – I even checked your phrase for an anagram, but included the “Doh” so rather than help, just added to the frustration!)

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