Independent 9274 / Crosophile

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It seems a while since we last blogged a Crosophile and we always enjoy his puzzles as there’s invariably something going on in the grid.

In this case, there’s a nina round three sides of the perimeter. At first sight it didn’t mean anything to us, and when we googled it we realised why – it relates to a fantasy / adventure book aimed at adolescents – definitely not our cup of tea! Crosophile manages to get the author’s name into the grid, and we’re pretty sure there are other references in there too.

Having said that, lack of knowledge of the theme did not stop our enjoyment of the puzzle – just how themed puzzles should be, in our humble opinion.

Across
8   You and I stood against malicious pest (6)
WEEVIL WE (you and I) EVIL (malicious)
9   Move fast when making bitch brunch? (3,3,2)
RUN FOR IT If you substitute RUN in ‘brunch’ FOR IT, you get ‘bitch’
10   The second person exchanged euros for investment in career reversal (8)
YOURSELF An anagram of EUROS (anagrind is ‘exchanged’) ‘invested’ in FLY (career, as in move quickly) reversed
11   Still one might add no good making prayers late in the day (4,2)
EVEN SO EVENSOng   (prayers late in the day) with ‘ng’ (no good) omitted
12   Music group regularly boycotted by tenor (5)
OCTET Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of bOyCoTtEd + T (tenor)
13   Acts for publicity purposes involved sauciness (9)
ISSUANCES An anagram of SAUCINESS – anagrind is ‘involved’
15   Showed sign of injury and with no sham walked unsteadily (4)
BLED shamBLED (walked unsteadily) without ‘sham’
17   Heroic tales and illustrations on the net? (5)
EPICS Illustrations on the internet could be described as E-PICS
18   Put in post without a penny paid out (4)
SENT SpENT (paid out) without ‘p’ (penny)
19   Appearances after the eclipse when some siren goes off (9)
EMERSIONS An anagram of SOME SIREN – anagrind is ‘goes off’
21   Around big top when adult chucks us out (5)
CIRCA CIRCus (big top) with A (adult) replacing or ‘chucking out’ ‘us’
24   King Priam’s wife from The Isle Of Man? (6)
HECUBA The Isle is CUBA and the Man is HE
25   He lurks by a river, around the hollow. Run! (8)
LOITERER LOIRE (river) around ThE (without the middle letter, or ‘hollow’) + R (run)
26   Unmelodious tango, if not full of energy (8)
TUNELESS T (tango) UNLESS (if not) round or ‘full of’ E (energy)
27   Consumers see energy providers squandering capital (6)
EATERS hEATERS (energy providers) without or ‘squandering’ the first or ‘capital’ letter
Down
1   Courageous and terrible choice after Capulet’s leader goes for Romeo (6)
HEROIC An anagram of CHOIcE with the ‘c’ (first letter or ‘leader’ of ‘Capulet’) replaced by R (Romeo) – anagrind is ‘terrible’
2   Dropping from the eaves after rook flies above one? (8)
OVERHEAD OVERHEArD (eaves-dropping) with the ‘r’ (rook) omitted or ‘flying’ – we’re not really sure about ‘dropping from the eaves’ as a substitute for ‘eaves-dropping’
3   With sun, vegetable is obviously thriving (5)
SLEEK S (sun) LEEK (vegetable) – a new meaning for us
4   Sponsor families in order to show a competent attitude (15)
PROFESSIONALISM An anagram of SPONSOR FAMILIES – anagrind is ‘in order’
5   Vernon after a close shave comes up with an adventure when asked for (2,7)
ON REQUEST vERNOn with the first and last letters omitted, or ‘shaved’ and reversed or ‘coming up’ + QUEST (adventure)
6   One Asian after kick-off sped around European (6)
KOREAN KO (kick-off) RAN (sped off) around E (European)
7   Energy and current after second time is the same, scientist discovered (8)
EINSTEIN E (energy) IN (current) repeated, or ‘is the same’ after S (second) T (time)
14   Resolved to accept thanks on return, being loyal (9)
DEDICATED DECIDED (resolved) round or ‘accepting’ TA (thanks) all reversed or ‘on return’
16   To prepare for exercise, member’s perfect somersaulting (6,2)
LIMBER UP LIMB (member) + PURE (perfect) reversed or ‘somersaulting’
18   What’s needed to climb fence going up over the top – have stab at it with this? (8)
STILETTO STILE (what’s needed to climb fence) OTT (over the top) reversed or ‘going up’
20   Boy is oddly rueful on Scottish mountain (6)
REUBEN Alternate or ‘odd’ letters of RuEfUl + BEN (Scottish mountain)
22   Church that’s sinister and full of spirits (6)
CHEERY CH (church) EERY (sinister)
23   Show pleasure when cycling for a long distance (5)
MILES SMILE (show pleasure) with the ‘s’ ‘cycling’ from front to back

 

6 comments on “Independent 9274 / Crosophile”

  1. The title of the book given by the nina, as well as the author, were new to me too, although seeing the nina helped avoid at least one error – for 18a, I originally had ‘send’ instead of SENT. Missed the significance of ‘Dropping from the eaves’ (obvious when writing it out) in 2, and couldn’t see how ‘with no sham’ worked in 15. EMERSION(S) was new to me, but otherwise nothing too esoteric, although I’ve probably missed a lot related to the nina.

    Enjoyable and a good ‘limber down’ from the er… bruising encounter with Nimrod on Saturday.

    Thanks to Crosophile and B&J.

  2. I spotted the nina, which (once I realised the bottom row of unches wasn’t part of it) helped me to finish the puzzle, though it didn’t mean anything to me till I googled it. There’s a blurb for the book here, though it doesn’t tell you too much, but it refers to an eclipse so EMERSIONS is presumably thematic and as B&J suggest there may be other references.

    Some good stuff again from Crosophile, though I thought the clue to 23dn was ambiguous – could have been either MILES or SMILE; I put in SMILE initially, which held me up briefly on 25ac and 27ac.

    Thanks, Crosophile and B&J

  3. Thanks, both.

    Late to this because have been out, but I did enjoy it. The nina did help with the last few, but like Wordplodder I had SEND instead of SENT (it doesn’t quite parse, of course) so once I’d sorted that out it couldn’t be much else.

    Never heard of the book or the author, so the puzzle was probably wasted on me. But I liked RUN FOR IT and LIMBER UP.

  4. Great! I’m a fan, which help I suppose, but great anyway.

    Thank you Crosophile and B&J.

  5. Thanks BertandJoyce for the blog, and thanks for the other comments. Glad you enjoyed it.

    Reuben Miles, by the way, is a newly published author and The Boy Who Spoke To Stars is the first part of a trilogy. I found it a very exciting intelligent page-turner and it deserves to become well-known! Reminded me a bit of Philip Pullman, which can’t be bad. 🙂

  6. Nice one colleague. I too am a fan of them there Dark Materialses, but will check your recommendation.

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