Independent 9103 by Klingsor

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Klingsor always produces good crosswords and this is no exception. A whole lot of well-crafted clues and a difficulty level set (unwittingly perhaps) just high enough but not impossibly high.

 

 

 

 

I don’t think Klingsor does themes. Perhaps he does, and I’ll look silly for missing something obvious.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 SHEEPISH

Shamefaced husband admitted to date with Penny, a single mum (8)

s(h)ee p i sh
5 UNWARY
Careless sister, heading off, runs into street (6)

{n}un wa(r)y
8 APOLOGISED
A game plan almost goes west, having admitted fault (10)

a polo (desig{n})rev.
9 NEAR
Close tavern early, kicking some characters out (4)

Hidden in taverN EARly
10 PEER OF THE REALM
Could be Lord Alfred Tennyson’s first poem, without date, lost around here (4,2,3,5)

(here) in (Alfre{d} T{ennyson} poem)*, the anagram indicated by ‘lost’
11 ECONOMY
Organisation of money of country, principally? (7)

(money o{f} c{ountry})*,  a very good &lit.
13 MAJESTY
Lord accepts a joke, displaying dignity (7)

m(a jest)y
15 MUSTARD
Daughter’s rodent problem returned – pungent stuff required (7)

(d rat sum)rev.
18 DESPAIR
Literary giant‘s novel is read outside Portugal (7)

(is read)* round P — ‘novel’ the anagram indicator —ref Giant Despair, in Pilgrim’s Progress
21 ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE
Cryptic hint for nut blamed for scuffle? (5-3-6)

(nut blamed)* gives ‘and tumble’ — ‘rough’ is the anagram indicator
22 LIEF
Willingly romance female (4)

lie [= romance] f
23 ASSEVERATE
Declare top grade in history, having worried about studies on vacation (10)

I think this is (A [= top grade] ever [= in history] ate) round s{tudie}s, although I may well be wrong and perhaps someone knows better: ‘ever’ = ‘in history’ I’m not very confident about, but perhaps they are the same as in ‘he made the highest score ever’ and he made the highest score in history’
24 RESENT
Feel bitter about heartless doctor in hospital (6)

res{id}ent
25 ENGENDER
First off, humans must have sex to breed (8)

{m}en gender
Down
1 SHARPIE
Grasping women finish first and cheat (7)

harpies with the last letter at the beginnng
2 EROGENOUS
A certain vice president backed by America’s providing gratification (9)

(one Gore)rev. US
3 PRO BONO
One’s paid pop star for nothing (3,4)

pro Bono — a professional is paid, the pop star is Bono — pro bono is a legal term
4 SAINTLY

Holy Grail ultimately isn’t a hit? That’s unknown (7)

({Grai}l isn’t a)* y
5 UNDERRATE
Sell short skirts from unknown period (including slip) (9)

u{nknow}n d(err)ate
6 WANNABE
Nick’s in decline, but hopeful (7)

wan(nab)e
7 READMIT
Let in again to study with Cambridge University (7)

read MIT — the university in Boston, Massachusetts, is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology —there are those who say that this isn’t a university, but Wikipedia says “MIT, with five schools and one college which contain a total of 32 departments, is often cited as among the world’s top universities” so Wikipedia is not among that number
12 MARCH PAST
April here, meaning this military review? (5,4)

If April is here then the month of March is past
14 STARBOARD
Do nasty kids hold artist up? That’s right (9)

(d(RA)o brats)rev. — this took me some time to solve because although I had RA early, I had the wrong one
16 UKRAINE
This country abuts Russia’s borders in east (7)

UK R{ussi}a in E — another very good &lit.
17 TRUFFLE
Fungus is to irritate after short time (7)

t ruffle
18 DUDGEON
Duke conceals first name in prison, creating indignation (7)

The first n in dungeon is replaced by a d
19 SHUT-EYE
Back in embrace of woman, still you soundly sleep (4-3)

she round (yet u)rev. — u is ‘you’ soundly
20 ROE DEER
Beast‘s command to beloved oarsman overheard? (3,4)

“row, dear”
*anagram

14 comments on “Independent 9103 by Klingsor”

  2. This was a worthy Thursday challenge which I really enjoyed. I was stuck a few times and almost gave up but the satisfaction of a completed solve rewarded the effort. Favourites were EROGENOUS, ROE DEER, and RESENT for the (to me) uncommon crossword use of RES[ID]ENT for ‘doctor’. DESPAIR as a ‘Literary giant’ was new to me. I agree with your parsing of 23, ie ‘in history’ = EVER, although I was also a bit unsure about it.

    Thanks to Klingsor and John.

  3. Thanks, John. I agree with every part of your preamble – and with your parsing of ASSEVERATE.

    I had ticks against SHEEPISH, PEER OF THE REALM, ECONOMY, READMIT and UKRAINE.

    Many thanks to Klingsor for another excellent puzzle.

  4. Quite tough, but got there in the end.
    I couldn’t fully parse 23a, but think John has got it right.
    Thanks to S & B.

  5. After Dac’s relatively light relief yesterday it was – to me at any rate – back to some fairly easy clues to seed the grid, then grind to a halt and only finish with plenty of e-help. Not so much a game of two halves as four quarters; SW, NE, NW and SE in that order. Talking of games, 8ac gave us a change from the usual RU (not that I have anything against the oval ball). 10ac took a while, separating the definition from the anagram fodder; it had to be PEER OF THE REALM but I couldn’t find where the H came from. And I simply couldn’t parse 24ac. DESPAIR has to be my CoD for its misdirection – I was looking for a famous author rather than a character.

    Thanks, Klingsor and John

  6. I parsed 18A as referring to the novel DESPAIR by the literary giant Vladimir Nabokov.

    Some magnificent clues and it was a struggle. Had not heard of SHARPIE as (presumably) a noun. STARBOARD, UKRAINE, ASSEVERATE, EROGENOUS among others all top notch clues.

    Thanks to Klingsor and John.

  8. We completed the puzzle but we had three clues which we could not parse. We completed the puzzle on crossword solver so we knew we were correct. As it was getting late we came here for help.

    Many thanks John for 10ac, 18ac and 24ac.

    Thanks to Klingsor for a worthy Thursday challenge.

  10. Tipnrun@9 – The crosswords in the i are recycled Independent crosswords. Search for idothei on google and it will have a list of all the puzzles with comments and links to the original blog.

    Hope this helps.

  14. Bit late to this but wanted to add my congratulations and thanks to S & B for puzzle and blog. I found it testing but very fair and PEER OF THE REALM I thought was beautifully done. Beaten by LIEF and ASSEVERATE but no shame in coming that close I reckon.

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