Independent 9,609 by Daedalus

by

An absorbing puzzle with an excellent variety of clues.

There was some use of colloquial expressions and Americanisms, which made some of the parsing a little tricky, but was also good for forcing you to think about the clues.   I thought 8 and 7 were both very clever (7 of course quite topical after the recent casting change).

Across
1 DEMONIACAL Furious protest before the French murderer returns (10)
  Demo + (la Cain)<
6 ADZE It might be used for dressing tots when bawling (4)
  Hom of adds (an adze can be used for dressing wood)
10 SURE THING Remove their guns, OK? (4,5)
  (Their guns)* – remove as an anagram indicator seems a little odd – suppose it could be intepreted as re-move.
11 LUCRE Entice Conservative inside with sordid cash (5)
  C(onservative) in lure
12 EXTINCT Can court after former partner’s gone (7)
  Tin + c(our)t after ex
13 BLOWOUT Attack includes small explosion (7)
  Bout (as in a bout of some illness) around low(=small, as in low prices)
14 PARLOUR GAME A moral purge scuppered indoor entertainment (7,4)
  (A moral purge)*
16 WED You and I would take the plunge (3)
  DD – we’d
18 REC Crash heard in miniature car park (3)
  Triple clue: hom of wreck + hidden in miniatuRE Car
19 REPETITIOUS It’s in Europe and it’s horribly dull (11)
  (Its + Europe + it)*
22 SUPREMO What’s happening about Farah’s boss? (7)
  Sup (short for wassup = what’s up) + re + Mo (Farah)
23 SPENSER Poet and writers in series (7)
  Pens in ser(ies)
25 USUAL In America, rural Republicans aren’t seen as common (5)
  US + rural with the Rs removed
26 FLASHCARD Rolls possibly Dutch learning aid (9)
  Flash car (of which a Rolls would be an example) + D(utch)
27 TREK Hiker turning back makes it appear it’s a long hike (4)
  Hidden, reversed in hiKER Turning
28 FREE SPIRIT Bohemian going begging with whisky, perhaps (4,6)
  Free(=going begging) + spirit (of which whisky is an example)
Down
1 DISTEMPER Paint a hunk of a nudist emperor (9)
  Hidden in nuDIST EMPERor
2 MERIT Weary spymaster returns with warrant (5)
  (Tire M)<, M being James Bond’s boss.
3 NOT ON YOUR NELLY I disagree with Blair over ballot box – yell harshly? Never! (3,2,4,5)
  No, Tony (=I disagree with Blair) + o(ver) + urn(=ballot box?) +  yell*
4 AVIATOR One flies along a road over hill (7)
  A + via (which is a Roman road) + tor
5 ALGEBRA Badly garble a calculation with symbols (7)
  (Garble a)*
7 DOCTOR WHO Do this and you might see how I go back in time (6,3)
  Doctoring who gives how*
8 EJECT Did BS characters’ followers get cast out? (5)
  Advance each letter “Did BS” e.g D to E, I to J etc.
9 ALL OVER THE SHOP Clumsy pub landlord’s partner Seth dancing jig (3,4,3,4)
  Al lover (a ref to Al Murray, whose alter ego is the pub landlord) + seth* + hop
15 RECAPTURE Get back using transport around City area (9)
  Rapture around EC
17 DISCREDIT Stain round object coloured it (9)
  Disc + red + it
20 PROFFER Present lecturer’s iron rule (7)
  Prof + Fe + r(ule) – present used as verb
21 TESTATE Willing to examine mischievous goddess (7)
  Test + Ate, a Greek goddess symbolising the folly of recklessness.
22 SQUAT Occupy building as seen in street (5)
  Qua(=as) in st
24 STAIR Part of flight from a prison’s over (5)
  A with stir around it

*anagram

13 comments on “Independent 9,609 by Daedalus”

  1. I do enjoy Daedalus cryptics and this was no exception. Lots of innovative clueing. I quite like re-move as an anagram indicator. REC was also a strange but likeable clue as was the use of ‘sup in 22a. My favourite was EJECT, very cleverly thought out. As I’m sure others will say, it was only spoilt by the gaffe in 7d. Calling The Doctor by the name of the TV programme is as big a sin as calling a certain monster Frankenstein. Thanks to all.

  2. Thanks Daedalus and NealH

    A fun puzzle, which has the added extra of being a pangram (which are nowhere near as uncommon as people try to make out).

  4. Thanks NealH but I (and many others) would still disagree. I am aware of the War Machines reference but this was generally held to be a mistake on the writer’s part. A license plate hardly counts. In the very first episode, Ian calls The Doctor ‘Doctor Foreman’ and he replies “Doctor Who?” and that’s where the name comes from. I made the reference to Frankenstein because there are plenty of places where people refer to the monster by that name – doesn’t make it right. Enough said I think, but regardless I do think the surface of the clue is excellent.

  5. A fairly challenging but enjoyable solve. We got SUPREMO and TESTATE from the definitions and crossing letters; didn’t know ‘wassup’ (we parsed 22ac as [what]’S UP RE MO) or the goddess. 6ac was our LOI and we’re not sure whether the Z needed to complete the pangram suggested ADZE or vice versa – we realised both just about simultaneously.

    Favourites were REPETITIOUS, FLASHCARD and EJECT, with honourable mentions for ADZE and DOCTOR WHO.

    Thanks, Daedalus and NealH.

  6. Thanks to Daedalus and NealH. This a great puzzle with admirable economy in the clue surfaces…..makes it sometimes trickier to solve, but very satisfying when solved. I like the overall originality too.
    My favourites include FLASHCARD, PROFFER, SPENSER and RECAPTURE.

  7. Thanks to Daedalus for a good Monday challenge (phew) and to NealH for the blog. FLASHCARD v good, although Dutch will probably sue for copyright infringement.
    Anyone whose cryptic thirst remains unslaked might do worse than pop in to BigDave’s site today and have a look at a debut puzzle by Whynot in the Rookie Corner. Not completely polished, but you can definitely see a precious stone in there, I think

  8. Enjoyably engaging, I thought. Hard in total, but with plenty to get you going though ultimately I got beat by the crossers at 6a and 8d. Honours today go to the invention of which there was much so thanks to Perdix’s Uncle for the puzz and to The Horseman for the blog.

  9. Some of Daedalus’ previous puzzles I haven’t been so keen on, but I thought this was an excellent example of a daily cryptic. I liked DEMONIACAL in particular, and SPENSER was very good too. Couldn’t understand EJECT, but stuck it in anyway.

    Well done to the setter and thanks to Neal for the blog.

  10. Thanks to all for comments and of course to NealH for the blog. I fear Hovis probably has a point on 7d. Incidentally the clue was written before the recent news item. When I realised the serendipitous timing, I thought it would be nice to change ‘I go back in time’ to ‘she’ll go back in time’, but the puzzle had been edited and uploaded by then.

  11. Sup.

    This was a bit different. Hard but ultimately refreshing. I had to beaver away a bit to get there, but in the end managed it all on my own, so very satisfying.

    Yes, SUPREMO’s SUP made me smile. URN as a ballot box was a new one on me but that box was easily checked.

    I liked DOCTOR WHO. There was a nice bit of silliness in the latest series about how that might in fact be The Doctor’s real name. After all, we don’t know what it is! It is a shame that the sex change couldn’t be made in time, but no use crying over spilled milk.

    Also liked the clever EJECT and more.

    Many thanks to Daedalus and to Neal for the review.

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