Independent 9,776 by Vigo

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It’s Vigo to start our crosswording week at the Indy.

Often Vigo puts a Nina or theme in her crosswords but I can’t spot anything, perhaps someone out there can.

 

completed grid

Across

1 Rear black cat keeping coat oddly short (6)
BOTTOM
B(lack) & cOaT & TOM cat. Actually as it its the even numbered letters of coat why ODDLY?

5 Resistance intended to follow from French (8)
DEFIANCE
DE (of, from in French) & one’s FIANCE – intended

9 Dislike detective with way to get a street drug (8)
DISTASTE
D.I. & ST(reet) & A & ST(reet) & E(cstacy)

10 Unacceptable to entertain independent thought (6)
NOTION
I(ndependent) inside NOT ON

11 Miss equipment returned by lecturer (4)
GIRL
RIG – equipment reversed & L(ecturer)

12 Appearing as unpleasant aroma surrounding strange rarity (10)
PORTRAYING
RARITY* strangely inside a PONG

13 Go about two (6)
REPAIR
RE – about & PAIR – two

14 Cut back on tough fish (8)
PILCHARD
CLIP reversed & HARD

16 Sherlock uttered joke that’s crude (8)
HOMESPUN
Sounds like HOLMES & a PUN

18 Targeting infantry holding back fire (6)
IGNITE
The answer is hidden reversed in the clue

20 Wasteful university employee left institute by entrance (10)
PROFLIGATE
PROF & L(eft) & I(nstitute) & GATE

23 Cart reversed into quad (4)
YARD
This is one of those clues where you’re not sure which way it goes but it’s DRAY for cart reversed

24 Reveal hairy armpit (6)
IMPART
ARMPIT* hairily

25 Sound of hotrod crashing into animal (8)
ORTHODOX
Mayby not the most obvious synonym but it’s a crashed HOTROD* & OX for an animal

26 Concerned with journalist accepting team is unbalanced (3-5)
ONE-SIDED
ON – concerned with & ED(itor) with SIDE inserted

27 Bug managed to land on spinning deer (6)
RANKLE
RAN – managed & a spun – reversed ELK

Down

2 Men with qualification to kill make hole in head (7)
ORIFICE
O.R. & IF – qualification *& to ICE – kill in US slang

3 Arouse bird sick with a case of Togaviridae (9)
TITILLATE
TIT & ILL & case of  T(ogavirida)E. No I didn’t know what that was either. It’s a family of viruses.

4 Criminal report said a pimp pilfered (15)
MISAPPROPRIATED
A criminal [REPORT SAID A PIMP]*. Nicely done Vigo, simple construction but a great clue.

5 Bleak for Blake being day behind? (5)
DREAR
I guess the for Blake is meant to A: indicate it’s an older use, B: misdirection as BLEAK* = BLAKE. Anyway it D(ay) & REAR (behind)

6 One undertaking retrial forced, unfortunately, to involve UN (7,8)
FUNERAL DIRECTOR
UN inside [RETRIAL FORCED]* unfortunately

7 Nervous participant sympathetically covered (5)
ANTSY
Hidden answer

8 Witch swallowing love elixir finally gets musical performer (7)
CROONER
O – love inside and old CRONE & end of (elixi)R

14 Hollow slate vessel (3)
PAN
triple def

15 Gutless hero with no money going off for romantic interlude (9)
HONEYMOON
A gutted H(er)O & [NO MONEY]*  gone off

17 People pulling together? (7)
OARSMEN
I guess this is just a cryptic def – can’t see more

19 Announcement of fixed period with fuel trouble (7)
TURMOIL
Sounds like TERM & OIL

21 Signals of lustful hyena attracting females last of all (5)
FLAGS
Last letters of oF lustfuL hyenA attractinG femaleS

22 Keep away from contrary leading lady hosting ball (5)
AVOID
O – ball shaped inside a reversed DIVA

15 comments on “Independent 9,776 by Vigo”

  1. Can’t see any theme/Nina. Even letter of coat in 1a because oddly short. Favourite was ORTHODOX. Thought 17d was a good use of a cryptic definition. Nice start to the week. Thanks to Vigo and flashling.

  3. Most enjoyable; IMPART clue as good as it gets. Couldn’t see a theme either although I did notice the subliminal pitch for the Graun Monday gig in the Nina in column 8.

    Only kidding. Probably.

    Thanks to Vigo&flashling

  4. I got held up on a couple at the end – the “in head” misled me in ORIFICE (there are, after all, others elsewhere) and I was meowing up the wrong tree with ORTHODOX.

    All good though.  OARSMEN were the third thing that came to mind for 17d (after the intended diversion and a detour which I won’t detail) so that one worked well for this solver.  I Liked HOMESPUN and HONEYMOON but thought IMPART brilliant.

    Thanks Vigo and Flashling.

  5. A steady solve, helped by the two long down answers being easily gettable.  LOI and also our CoD was ORTHODOX, with IMPART a close second for CoD.  We also liked PILCHARD and HOMESPUN.  ANTSY was a new word for us but clear from the wordplay and confirmed in Chambers.  In 5dn we thought ‘Bleak for Blake’ might refer to William Blake using ‘drear’ to mean ‘bleak’, possibly in this poem.

    Thanks, Vigo and flashling.

  6. Wonderfully concise cluing from Vigo as we have come to expect.   I particularly liked the wordplay for the ending of 9a.

    Thought that 2d possibly needed something to indicate ‘for example’ – as Kitty said, that isn’t the only part of one’s body to have an ORIFICE.

    Thought I was missing something in 5d – is there perhaps a reference to William Blake’s ‘Earth’s Answer’ poem?

    Top marks going to ARMPIT – nice one, Vigo.

    Many thanks to Vigo and to Flashling for the blog.

  7. Thanks Vigo, good entertaining start to the week, and easier than the Grauniad’s.

    Thanks flashling, I liked the men with qualification and the FUNERAL DIRECTOR.

    I’ll leave a comment in ‘General Discussion’ about accessing this Indy puzzle.

  8. Thanks for blogging, flashling – good to see you back.

    Entertaining indeed – liked all of it really, but IMPART is particularly good.  I’m usually one to have a go at the placement of ambiguous homophone indicators, but the YARD/DRAY one today is completely clear, I think.  I still don’t understand the Blake/Bleak thing though.  DREAR is not a particularly archaic usage, is it?

    Brava, Vigo.

  10. A pleasant start to the week which found me on the wavelength for this puzzle. A BOTTOM to RANKLE solve with very few delays. Liked the qualified men, the undertaker and the hard fish. Thanks Vigo and Flashling.

  11. I was a bit mystified by 1ac too: and not sure the definition tags on too well there either, but it was a nice solve generally. Thanks both.

  12. I puzzled about the inclusion of “Blake” in 5 down but my edition of the OED takes “drear” as chiefly poetic (shortened from dreary).

    On a personal note, many decades ago (with the help fo Dr Bronowski) I struggled to understand Blake but regrettably did not get beyond “Songs of Innocence and Experience”. I did recall “Earth’s Answer” and cofirmed that he has the phrase “dread and drear” in the first stanza.

    It is an early “feminist” poem – is that significant?

  13. Thank you Flashling for the blog, much appreciated.

    As far as Blake goes it was intended to indicate the poetic nature of the answer.  Had thought of just using Bleak for Blake? (5) as the clue but decided it was a) annoyingly misleading and b) not that cryptic and therefore not that satisfying but kept it as the definition.  Maybe I shouldn’t have!

    Thank you also to all who took the time to comment.  I have enjoyed reading the feedback. Also sorry if this is a repeat post.  I am away from home in an internetless house and had to come to the pub to have a quick visit to the site but when I first posted it all went blank so not sure what happened….

    V x

     

  14. K’sD @8: I think you meant ‘reversal’ rather than ‘homophone’ but your point was, like the clue, clear enough.

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