Independent 9,282 / Morph

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Morph’s latest puzzle offers today’s cruciverbal entertainment.

I thought that this was a medium-difficulty puzzle by Morph, and I made steady progress through it until coming to something of a standstill in the NW corner of the grid. That said, my last-one-in was 22D, since I did not know that a “queue” could be a type of plait.

My progress in the NW corner was held up by the fact that I did not know the words at 1A or 5, although I teased both answers out of their wordplay. I guessed 2 from its definition, but not knowing “vajazzle” prevented me from understanding the wordplay – thank heavens for Wikipedia!

My favourite clues today were 1D, for making me smile once the penny dropped, and the & lit. at 25.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 TABBOULEH Forbidden to put something smelly in the French hotel salad

[B.O. (=something smelly, i.e. body odour) in TABU (=forbidden] + LE (=the French, i.e. the French for the) + H (=hotel); tabbouleh is a Mediterranean salad, introduced from Lebanon
     
06 IMBUE Setter’s down, lacking letter to start fill

I’M (=setter’s, i.e. speaking as Morph) + B<l>UE (“lacking letter to start”, means initial letter “l” is dropped)
     
09 ARMED TO THE TEETH Dangerous, having an offensive mouth?

Cryptically, someone who is “armed to the teeth” could be described as having an “offensive” (=attacking) mouth
     
10 SOLAR Energy obtained from spun sucralose?

Hidden (“from”) and reversed (“spun”) in “sucRALOSe”
     
11 ALMA MATER Mum divides change, being old school

MAMA (=Mum) in ALTER (=change)
     
12 CONTACTLESS System for paying politician’s not very subtle

CON (=politician, i.e. Conservative) + TACTLESS (=not very subtle)
     
17 EUROSCEPTIC I’m not keen on Brussels sprout mashed with ice and coke – it’s not acceptable

*(SPROUT + ICE + C<ok>E); “it’s not acceptable (=ok)” means letters “ok” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “mashed”
     
20 HEARTHRUG Listen from start to finish on good comfy spot by the fire

HEAR (=listen) + THRU (=from start to finish) + G (=good)
     
22 PHOTO Post Office seizing sexy image

HOT (=sexy) in PO (=Post Office)
     
23 COMPUTERISATION Flexible Morph endlessly tenacious with IT in move to new technology

*(MORP<h> + TENACIOUS + IT); “endlessly” means last letter dropped; “flexible” is anagram indicator
     
24 SHOOK Southern punch caused agitation

S (=southern) + HOOK (=punch)
     
25 SIGHTSEER One expressing desire to take in Thailand and that part of Asia, perhaps

[T (=Thailand, in IVR) + SE (=that part of Asia, where Thailand is located] in SIGHER (=one expressing desire); & lit.
     
Down    
     
01 TRANSACT Conduct drag show?

Cryptically, a drag show could be described as “a trans(vestite) act”
     
02 BUMBLING Blundering with vajazzle in the wrong place?

Cryptically, if vajazzle is ornamentation for the female genitalia, then “bum bling” is ornamentation for the other side of the body, i.e. “in the wrong place”
     
03 ODDER E.g. Castro’s party served up more rum

RED (=e.g. Castro, i.e. Communist) + DO (=party); “served up” indicates vertical reversal
     
04 LOOK AFTER Nurse babe, swaddling behind

AFT (=behind) in LOOKER (=babe, i.e. attractive woman)
     
05 HO-HUM Boring tool giving off electronic sound

HO<e> (=tool; “giving off electronic (=E)” means letter “e” is dropped) + HUM (=sound)
     
06 INTUMESCE Swell music teen’s playing

*(MUSIC TEEN); “playing” is anagram indicator
     
07 BREATH Hint at planting climbing plant outside

AT in BREH (HERB=plant; “climbing” indicates vertical reversal); a breath is a slight suspicion, hence a “hint”
     
08 EXHORT Run into old flame with passionate urge

R (=run) in [EX (=old flame) + HOT (=passionate)]
     
13 AWESTRUCK Confronted by terror, America and regional allies fight

A (=American) + WEST (=regional allies) + RUCK (=fight, i.e. in prison slang)
     
14 EASY-GOING Tortuously agonise about unknown quantity, then start to get mellow

[Y (=unknown quantity, i.e. in algebra) in *(AGONISE)] + G<et> (“start to” means first letter only)
     
15 ATROPINE What’s your poison – a protein shake …?

*(A PROTEIN); “shake” is anagram indicator; atropin(e) is a poison found in deadly nightshade
     
16 SCHOONER … rather have two servings of champagne in glass?

CH<ampagne> (“two servings” means first two letters only) in SOONER (=rather)
     
18 WHACKS Reported increase in incidences of corporal punishment

Homophone (“reported”) of “wax” (=increase, opposite of “wane”)
     
19 WARM TO Grow fond of poor Tom after conflict

WAR (=conflict) + *(TOM); “poor” is anagram indicator
     
21 REEDS Rushes studies in audition

Homophone (“in audition”) of “reads” (=studies)
     
22 PLAIT Queue up with landlord Murray to get into groundlings’ section

LA (AL=landlord Murray, i.e. the English comedian Al Murray, best known for his character The Pub Landlord; “up” indicates reversal) in PIT (=groundlings’ section, i.e. in theatre); a queue is a braid of hair hanging down the back of the head

10 comments on “Independent 9,282 / Morph”

  2. Mea culpa.
    In the on-line edition, you can click an icon to give you the answer, which is cheating pure and simple. But it’s tempting to click on it anyway when you’re sure of a write-in, just to save time. This morning, in 1ac., I had, I thought, an anagram (‘salad’) of HOTEL, BO and a French LE and the final H jostling in my head and without pausing to parse properly, or at all, I thought “Oh, it’s SHIBBOLETH” and confidently clicked the icon. Don’t bother telling me it’s the wrong number of letters and a skinny definition to say the least. I know. Shan’t be doing that again.
    Shame. It was a good puzzle – thanks Morph & RR – and I finished it but it doesn’t count. Glad to have got that off my chest.
    Grr.

  3. Quite a few hard ones I thought. I also guessed, though was completely unable to parse PLAIT, never having come across this meaning of ‘queue’ and missed some of the elements of the SIGHTSEER &lit. Of the clues I could parse my favourites were TABBOULEH (hard work!), CONTACTLESS and WHACKS.

    Thanks to Morph for an enjoyable challenge and to RatkojaRiku.

  4. It’s not often that solving a crossword clue leaves me helpless with laughter for around 30 seconds, so well done Morph for ‘Bumbling’.

  6. Sorry if this has been answered long ago elsewhere, but since the Indie no longer works on PC (can’t enter letters, navigate with arrows, etc.), I haven’t been doing the Indie much for the past few weeks except occasionally on my phone (on which it works slightly better). Has anyone else had this problem or, more to the point, know a solution?

  7. Ian SW3
    What browser are you using when the on-line version doesn’t work? I have no problems (i.e. everything works as it should) when using Win10/IE11.

  9. It does seem to work in IE or whatever Microsoft’s new browser is called, but I won’t be switching browsers just to do the Indie. I hope they fix it soon, as it’s been weeks.

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