Independent 9,289 by Phi

by

The usual nice crossword from Phi today, with some excellent clues, such as 7ac and 1dn. I am a little unsure about 13dn, which will I’m sure be explained in due course.

In the unches at the top and the bottom we have WILSON KEPPEL, and reading upwards in the unches on the left we have E BETTY. Wilson, Keppel and Betty were a popular music-hall act but I can find nothing else: nothing stands out in the answers and it doesn’t seem to have been any sort of anniversary. But no doubt I haven’t looked far enough.

Across
7 GAUCHE Sinister Parisian displaying inelegance (6)
gauche = left in French, and sinister = left
8 EPILEPSY Disease curtailed sight? Extra writing added to large amount probing that (8)
e(pile PS)y{e}
10 TEENAGER Young person‘s type of shirt – new snazzy gear (8)
tee n (gear)*
11 CORSET Stays ready after reduction in crop? (6)
cor{n} set
12 ICICLE Source of water current, cold, that is infiltrated by chlorine (6)
I [= current] c i(Cl)e — Cl = chlorine
14 CROTCHET Note fork (article not needed for feed) (8)
crotch [= fork, I suppose] e{a}t
16 SPARSE Uncommon success in bowling engrosses son (6)
spar(s)e — I had never heard of this and had to look it up: a spare is a success in ten-pin bowling, when it is all knocked down with a ball to spare
18 THAMES River quietens after introduction of hydrant (6)
t(h)ames
20 VERTEBRA Irish broadcaster in brave broadcast, showing some backbone (8)
RTE in (brave)*
21 EQUINE English colt abandoning fruit suitable for horses (6)
E quin{c}e
22 DORSET Little point embracing upturn if one’s excluded county (6)
do(r{i}se)t
24 FORELIMB Revolutionary runner making entry in book of member (8)
(b (miler) of)rev.
26 PELLAGRA Disease from vitamin deficiency: everyone returned to tuck into confection of grape (8)
(all)rev. in (grape)*
27 MAGPIE Shaman carrying holy bird (6)
mag(pi)e
Down
1 WAVE What toppled surfer with a heartless violence? (4)
w a v{iolenc}e
2 ICONOCLAST Dissenter caught breaking into various locations (10)
c in (locations)*
3 LEAGUE French article unclear, dismissing initial alliance (6)
le {v}ague
4 SECRECY Limits to some battlefield in concealed state (7)
s{om}e Crecy
5 OILCLOTH Too chill at sea? Here’s waterproof stuff (8)
(too chill)*
6 NEAR Closely note taste in music? (4)
n ear
9 STEVENSON Author‘s position over red meat I twice ignored (9)
s{i}te ven{i}son
13 CASSEROLE Dish state function involving trace of socialism (9)
cas(s{ocialism})e role — although I can’t quite see how state = case — if indeed I have parsed it correctly
15 CAMOUFLAGE Caught with a sign of discontent about national symbol? Disguise required! (10)
c a mou(flag)e
17 SABOTAGE Wise in restricting a parasite’s destructive activity (8)
s(a bot)age
19 CAT-FLAP Confusion after jazz fan’s given access to house? (3-4)
cat [= jazz fan] flap [= confusion]
21 EURO-MP Power increasingly picked up, involving university representative (4-2)
(p mor(u)e)rev. — it always seems a bit unfair when the definition says ‘2’, leading one to expect a two-letter word, when it is in fact an abbreviation; but I can see no alternative, since to spell it out as an abbreviation makes it too easy
23 SILK First appearance of some kind legal representative (4)
s{ome} ilk
25 MAIL Post: old woman has one on line? (4)
ma 1 l

*anagram

12 comments on “Independent 9,289 by Phi”

  1. Pleasant, end of week puzzle, with nothing too obscure although I bunged in a few from the defs. and I’m afraid I can’t help with the parsing of 13. I wondered if ‘State’ was CA but I still don’t know how SSE fits in and I’m probably barking up the wrong tree. I was held up at the end by CORSET which was my favourite of the day. Thanks for explaining (and providing) the Nina which helped me get NEAR.

    Thanks to John and Phi.

  2. Thanks John
    Re 13dn, from Collins under ‘case’ – “a specific condition or state of affairs; situation”.

  3. My father was a great fan of W, K and B, and would sing me Richard Murdoch’s version of Luigini’s Ballet Egyptien, which was the music they used. It starts:

    My aunt’s name is Mrs Fanny Waterbutt and she lives down in Burton-on-Trent
    When she goes out shopping on her bicycle she always gets the handlebars bent

    but he could never remember the rest. Last year the winner of the odd book title was Too Naked for the Nazis, which turned out to be a bio of W, K and the various Betties. My father would have loved that, and I read it in his memory. He would have found the full version of Murdoch’s lines, which go on to include

    SABOTAGE at Poole in DORSET
    CAMOUFLAGE my uncle’s CORSET

  5. Ps Richard Murdoch made rather a thing of putting words where no words were intended. Always very diverting.

  6. Re CASSEROLE:
    I’d parsed ‘state function’ as CA’S ROLE without thinking too deeply about it. Seems OK to me.

    You don’t hear much these days of the Murdoch-type triple rhyme, as in the Much-Binding songs. Gge Formby used it all the time, of course, and Victoria Wood’s Ballad of Freda and Barry was perhaps it apotheosis.

  7. I found this one way more confusing than the usual Independent.. Usually I can complete close to 95pc without Checking for errors.. Sigh .. I deplore the use of a word to indicate the first letter without a qualifier like c for colt .. And case for state is iffy.. silk as legal rep is Also unusual..

  8. @8Srividya colt is not just a random word beginning with “c”, it’s the abbreviation for a colt throughout the racing world, in racebooks, newspapers, pedigrees, stud books etc etc.

    Couldn’t get CROTCHET or SECRECY (should have seen that one).

    Thanks to Phi and John.

  9. With the left hand side done but struggling with the right, I noticed WILSON along the top so I looked to see what else might be there and quickly guess KEPPEL and BETTY, which helped greatly finishing this off.

  10. A busy week has given me little time for crosswords or to do much on 15sq but lurk; however, I was able to catch up today. And a nice treat today from Phi; all fell into place nicely, the only thing I had to look up was ‘spare’ to parse 16ac – and I spotted the nina for once. Favourites were VERTEBRA and STEVENSON.

    Thanks, Phi and John.

  11. I wrote the Wilson, Keppel & Betty biography: Too Naked for the Nazis, and am hugely flattered that this was used by Phi to source Richard Murdoch’s lyrics. (Like Phi, I knew the song long before I discovered WK&B.) I’m particularly pleased to have the trio immortalised in a crossword, as I once set a few (under the name of Convar), including one for the old Listener magazine and three for Gyles Brandreth’s “The (Almost) Impossible Crossword Book”.

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