We enjoyed this Crosophile puzzle – some very neat clues and nothing too tricky, despite one or two rather unusual words.
There’s a hopeful niña across the top and bottom of the grid, which seems to need to be finished off by 13ac, the end of 24ac, the beginning of 26ac and 21ac – a novel construction.
| Across | ||
| 9 | Cut top off sail with whip (5) | |
| SLASH | S (first letter or ‘top’ of ‘Sail’) LASH (whip) | |
| 10 | Playing out at front of church, sort of person to be good on keyboards (5-4) | |
| TOUCH-TYPE | An anagram of OUT (anagrind is ‘playing’) CH (church) TYPE (sort of person) | |
| 11 | A Parisian that’s hot and yearns for divorces? (9) | |
| UNHITCHES | UN (French for ‘one’ or ‘a’) H (hot) ITCHES (yearns) | |
| 12 | Perfect island settlement (5) | |
| IDEAL | I (island) DEAL (settlement) | |
| 13 | Running fast though middle section’s lacking bounce (6) | |
| SPRING | SPR |
|
| 14 | Happy son having energy and lots of fun in factory (8) | |
| SMILEFUL | S (son) + E (energy) FU |
|
| 17 | They put off novel narrators with gruesome topics (15) | |
| PROCRASTINATORS | An anagram of NARRATORS and TOPICS – anagrinds are ‘novel’ and ‘gruesome’ | |
| 19 | Extra unhealthy dependence on taking Charlie (8) | |
| ADDITION | ADDI |
|
| 21 | Insect almost settling on deer’s backside (6) | |
| BEHIND | BE |
|
| 24 | Notice gong in traditional house (5) | |
| ADOBE | AD (notice) OBE (Order of the British Empire – ‘gong’) | |
| 26 | In the distance mark, hard by a river, where crofter lives (9) | |
| FARMHOUSE | FAR (in the distance) M (mark) H ( |
|
| 27 | Topping former partner leads to jail (two to four in Pentonville) (9) | |
| EXCELLENT | EX (former partner) CELL (jail) + ENT (letters 2, 3 & 4 of ‘Pentonville’) | |
| 28 | Autonomous island nations almost free of The West (5) | |
| INDIE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | Many a matter pertains to Ms Perkins (6) | |
| ISSUES | IS SUE’S (‘pertains to’ Sue) – a reference to Sue Perkins, TV presenter, comedian, actress and writer | |
| 2 | Being a Dad, having tidied up hearth brought in provisions (10) | |
| FATHERHOOD | An anagram of HEARTH (anagrind is ‘tidied up’) in FOOD (provisions) | |
| 3 | Give a stir to their new drink additive (8) | |
| WHITENER | An anagram of THEIR NEW – anagrind is ‘give a stir to’ | |
| 4 | Prurient and snide, lacking breadth (5) | |
| ITCHY | ||
| 5 | Nanny‘s forged surname and identity (9) | |
| NURSEMAID | An anagram of SURNAME (and agrind is ‘forged’) + ID (identity) | |
| 6 | Kick and thrash, not as hard but with difficulty (6) | |
| THRILL | THR |
|
| 7 | Jane’s taking part in Henley regatta (4) | |
| EYRE | Hidden or ‘taking part’ in HenlEY REgatta | |
| 8 | Quality beer seller joining AA when drunk (4,4) | |
| REAL ALES | An anagram of SELLER and AA – anagrind is ‘when drunk’ | |
| 15 | Twist around final bud or clusters of flowers will grow on this (10) | |
| FLORIBUNDA | An anagram of FINAL BUD OR – anagrind is ‘twist around’ | |
| 16 | Chef‘s European food that is starter for Ritz? (9) | |
| ESCOFFIER | E (European) SCOFF (food) IE (that is) R (first letter or ‘starter’ of Ritz) | |
| 17 | Calms down, catalepsy being treated after finally dropping off (8) | |
| PLACATES | An anagram of CATALEPS |
|
| 18 | A ‘new’ alternative that’s recycled and not at all resounding (8) | |
| ANECHOIC | A N (new) CHOICE (alternative) with the last letter moved to the front, or ‘recycled’ | |
| 20 | Pitched high in area of dartboard (6) | |
| TREBLE | Double definition | |
| 22 | Fourth grade letter writer’s become profound (6) | |
| DEEPEN | DEE (letter ‘d’ – fourth grade) PEN (writer) | |
| 23 | Uninspiring time before ceremony (5) | |
| TRITE | T (time) RITE (ceremony) | |
| 25 | Make physical contact kicking back of foot. That hurts! (4) | |
| OUCH | ||
I liked the “multi-component” Nina and there were some good clues eg TOUCH-TYPE, ADOBE and EXCELLENT. I didn’t know ITCHY for ‘prurient’ or SCOFF as a noun for ‘food’ but I see they’re both in Chambers.
Thanks to Crosophile and B&J.
Thanks Crosophile and Bertandjoyce.
I enjoyed this crossword with its nina, but failed to parse ISSUES and had not met SCOFF as a noun before. ADOBE was really good, as were many other clues, and EYRE well hidden.
26a typo, H (hard), not house.
And Excellent Indie, echoing all our thoughts. Perhaps looking forward to the on-line life.
Nice puzzle & Nina, thanks to Crosophile, Bert & Joyce. I parsed ITCHY as (W)ITCHY, not knowing B as abb. for breadth & W being the better-known sim. for width. Wrong, but still kinda works.
The grid pattern said ‘nina’ and the initial letters of 1dn and 2dn suggested there might be one, so I was well primed. The top row soon emerged but I was then delayed by mis-remembering the quote as “If winter comes…”, and then locating “be far” was a bit tricky. But a very enjoyable crossword all the same.
My first thought for 14ac was PLEASANT from “plant” for “factory”, S for “son” and E for “energy”, though I couldn’t justify the second A. Crossing letters soon ruled it out, but it took me a while to get SMILEFUL, one of my last ones in.
Thanks, Crosophile and B&J.
Thanks, both, for the blog.
Quite pleased with myself for finishing this one, since looking back over it, there was some tricky (for me) stuff in it. I liked especially TOUCH-TYPE, which I’m capable of, and REAL ALES, which I’m fond of. The Nina passed my by as usual: I saw IF WINTER across the top row but went into cba mode after that.
The only hidden message I did see was EXCELLENT INDIE in the next to bottom row. It is. Or very soon, it was.
Thanks to Crosophile for the puzzle.
Did smile at the excellent indie bottom line as well, nina spotted even if it initially led me astray by guessing some wrong letters, thanks Crosophile and the B&J pair. Not the hardest Indy I’ve done but a pleasant diversion between bits of sandwiches. 🙂
Anyone else have problems getting the on-line version to work on a work machine, mine just hangs – suppose I could ask my systems administrator but unfortunately that’s me…
Thanks for the blog, Bertandjoyce, and for all the comments so far. I may be offline for rest of today so saying thanks now.
The “Excellent Indie” line, believe it or not, was inadvertent – though the nina was intentional 🙂
Hope these Indie crosswords keep on coming, one way or another …
Belatedly got round to printing this one off to do in the pub (thanks to Simon S), all very enjoyable.
Thanks to Crosophile, B&J