Independent 9,500 by Klingsor

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A pleasingly round-numbered puzzle from Klingsor today.

Klingsor does crop up on Saturdays fairly regularly, though without wishing to sound over-confident, this one seemed relatively tractable for that day of the week.

In fact I seemed to make brisk progress throughout, though there was plenty to enjoyt along the way. 19 across was a superb and witty &lit with a flawless surface, while 23 down was also a cracker, once I spotted how it worked.

If there is any kind of theme or Nina – which seemed possible given the puzzle number – I’ve yet to spot it. No doubt keener-eyed readers will set us all straight if so.

Across
1 AFTERNOON Fear not, no criminal will give you time of day (9)
Anagram of (FEAR NOT NO).
6 HOKUM Cobblers are busy gathering endorsement (5)
OK in HUM.
9 RUCTION End of year sale doesn’t start row (7)
[yea]R + [a]UCTION.
10 SO THERE Drunk’s present, whether you like it or not! (2,5)
SOT + HERE.
11 CECIL Caught nits going round Rhodes? (5)
C + LICE<. Reference to Cecil Rhodes, of course.
13 EXPECTANT Muscle contributes to surviving in the club (9)
PEC in EXTANT.
14 TOLERABLE Free beer to all? That’s not bad (9)
Anagram of (BEER TO ALL).
16 HERO Andromache romantically embraces Hector? (4)
Hidden in [andromac]HE RO[mantically]. The classics are largely lost on me, but it seems this will be Hector, “a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War”.
18 TACT Tourist on vacation eats a cold delicacy (4)
(A + C) in T[ouris]T.
19 OVERSLEEP After drunken revels, rise at last to go into work? (9)
(REVELS* + [ris]E) in OP.
22 JAM-PACKED Full spread’s a bargain, so they say (3-6)
JAM + homophone of “pact”.
24 TENON Part of joint composition makes comeback (5)
NOTET<.
25 ANODISE Put coat on – one’s secured by a knot (7)
I‘S in A NODE.
26 ACRYLIC Short girl outside shed tears fabric (7)
CRY in ALIC[e].
28 ANTON Bruckner perhaps is new, after a fashion (5)
A + N + TON. Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. A signature music reference from Klingsor, and indeed Bruckner himself made an appearance in Independent 9,314.
29 DEFECTIVE Dick gets fine for first time, being out of order (9)
From DE[t]ECTIVE with the first T replaced by F.
Down
1 APRICOT Fruit and a soft cheese? No thanks (7)
A + P + RICOT[ta].
2 TIC Twitch, seen every so often? (3)
Alternate “every so often” letters of T[w]I[t]C[h] and &lit.
3 RAILLERY Banter in bar getting really heartless, sadly (8)
RAIL + (RE[al]LY)*.
4 OUNCE Cat‘s to spring, scratching Penny (5)
[p]OUNCE. The snow leopard, encountered a great deal more frequently in crosswords than in real life.
5 NOSEPIECE Relative adopts pose, waving part of bridle (9)
POSE* in NIECE.
6 HI TECH Delay importing European industrial interior design (2,4)
E in HITCH.
7 KEEP AN EYE ON Pay one keen employee finally for mending watch (4,2,3,2)
Anagram of (PAY ONE KEEN + [employe]E).
8 MAESTRO Powerful current endlessly missing top of lightning conductor? (7)
MAE[l]STRO[m].
12 COLD COMFORT Little relief provided by hot toddy perhaps? (4,7)
I think the wordplay just means that a hot toddy may be of some comfort when you have a cold.
15 BLOCKHEAD British rugby player kept consuming drug, being an idiot (9)
B + LOCK + (E in HAD).
17 ESOTERIC Secret or inner, primarily, put another way (8)
Anagram of (SECRET + O[r] + I[nner]).
18 TIJUANA Mexican chap accommodated by his aunt – here? (7)
JUAN in TIA. Quite possibly &lit too.
20 PANACHE Slate and pine give sense of style (7)
PAN + ACHE.
21 MALIGN Run down top of mountain range (6)
M[ountain] + ALIGN. I wondered if “range” and “align” could be the same thing, but Chambers has its first definition of “range” as “to set in a row or rows”, so that’s me told.
23 DWARF Daughter initially feared rabbit asking “What’s up, Doc?” (5)
D + (F[eared] R[abbit] A[sking] W[hat’s])< It took me a while to spot either the definition or the wordplay, but it’s great.
27 LEI Some money for wreath (3)
Two definitions: the currency of Romania, and a traditional Hawaiian garland.

 

* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations

 

8 comments on “Independent 9,500 by Klingsor”

  1. Thanks Simon and our eminent Wagnerian.

    Maybe, just maybe, as you say, a tad more tractable than is his wont.

    But 23 down is one of the best clues I have ever seen. Nothing short of fantastic.

    My friends know that I often cite a clue and say that it shows why I could never be a setter. 23 down is the ultimate example of that. It may even silence me forever on the subject, it being the definitive last word.

    Bravissimo!

  2. DWARF goes straight into Grant’s Little Book of Favourite Clues. Excellent cartoon-based misdirection with a great twist.
    Enjoyed the whole puzzle, which I didn’t find a straightforward as Simon: a nice Saturday workout.
    Thanks to both.

  3. Usual quality puzzle from Klingsor and for those of you who like coincidence, go to the FT and see how Klingsor and Goliath clue the same answer (almost identically). Thanks Simon for the blog.

  4. And bizarrely as I continue with the FT puzzle, another identical answer but clued completely differently

  5. Top-notch stuff, I thought. The solve went pretty smoothly and quite quickly, though my last few in the NW held me up a bit. No clue of the day today for I canna choose a fave when there is so much marvelousness on display. Many thanks to Klingsor for an excellent puzzle and to SH for the blog.

  6. An excellent Saturday offering from Klingsor. I started out fairly confidently but slowed down towards the end, the SE corner being the last to surrender. 23dn was my LOI – a brilliant clue but for me the honours for CoD are shared by the four down clues at each side, namely APRICOT, MAESTRO, TIJUANA and, top of the list, PANACHE (something which this setter has in spades).

    Thanks, Klingsor and Simon.

  7. Many thanks Klingsor

    Massively enjoyable, with 19a and 23d as stand out favourites

    Thanks Simon for excellent review – minor glitch in 18a

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