Independent 9800/Kairos

Congratulations to Kairos. That’s an L of an achievement.

 

 

 

A pleasing and well-constructed puzzle for the Monday slot, and one which sees us celebrating Kairos’ fiftieth puzzle (for the Indy, I presume – I am not sure if he sets elsewhere). How do we know this? Around the perimeter it says: THIS IS CROSSWORD NUMBER FIFTY. Well done to him. I think I have solved all of the fifty, and blogged a few as well, and I’ve never seen a duff one.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letters removed

definitions are underlined

Across

8 Chinese force surrounds group of ladies going off course
YAWING
An insertion of WI in YANG for YIN’s best friend in the Chinese philosophy force field. I did know the verb to YAW, but had forgotten exactly what its relationship was with its best friends, PITCH and ROLL.  This short video tells you all you need to know.

9 Remove electronics from peacekeeper leaving unit behind
UNSOLDER
Kairos is inviting you to remove the I (one, or ‘unit’) from UN SOLDIER.

10 Learner involved in lace making is gossiping
TATTLING
TATTING is, I learned this morning, a technique in lacecraft. So put L for ‘learner’ in that and you’ve got your answer, which I guess most of us are more familiar with in the verb to TITTLE-TATTLE.

11 Beefsteak maybe found by cat, a Manx one
TOMATO
The big TOMATO is a charade of TOM, A and TO[M]. Manx cats have no tails, which is the hint to remove the last M.

12 LSD fired up musicians
FIDDLERS
(LSD FIRED)* with ‘up’ as the anagrind.

13 Forces out European team with the French trailing
EXILES
A charade of E, XI for an eleven or ‘team’ in a lot of sports, and LES for one of the words for ‘the’ in French.

14 Sleeps half-heartedly with bouts of illness
DOSES
DOS[S]ES

17 In retrospect a film studio entertains adult with hot material
MAGMA
A reversal (‘in retrospect’) of A and MGM with A for ‘adult’ inserted.

20 Key religion has money taken away by North Dakota
ISLAND
A charade of ISLA[M] and ND. Think Florida Keys.

22 Supports first three characters coming back with seafood
LOBSTERS
‘Supports’ is/are BOLSTERS (either the noun or the verb, doesn’t matter). If you reverse the first three letters, you’ve got LOBSTERS.

25 Companion of female director eating nothing in France
FRIEND
An insertion of RIEN for the French word for ‘nothing’ in F and D.

26 The future of Annie’s Song?
TOMORROW
John Denver can continue to lie sleeping. Tomorrow is a song from the Musical Annie. I so knew that.

27 Edit article about university networks
RETICULA
(ARTICLE U)* with ‘edit’ as the anagrind gives you the plural of RETICULUM.

28 Slowly notice silver moon
ADAGIO
Lovely clue: simple and elegant with a great surface. A charade of AD, AG and IO for definitions of the last three words of the clue.

 

Down

1 Tropical monkey died in tree
TAMARIND
The ‘tropical monkey’ is the TAMARIN and you need to add D to that to get the tree.

2 Handled dumped husband for Jack
HILTED
The setter is asking you to take the J out of JILTED and replace it with H.

3 Ensign I teach holds Kindle
IGNITE
Hidden in ensIGN I TEach.

4 Imply Madness singer has time to take ecstasy
SUGGEST
Did you know that SUGGS was the lead singer in Madness? Well, he is, so you need to add T for ‘time’ to that and insert E for the drug.

5 Distinctive theory describes different meteorological feature
ISOTHERM
An ISM is a general term for a ‘theory’ and OTHER inserted into that gives you the solution.

6 Making smaller slender type of pottery
SLIMMING
A simple charade of SLIM and MING. So simple it was nearly my LOI.

7 Focus of modern army unit dropping
CENTRE
‘Modern’ is RECENT and the ‘army unit’ is RE or Royal Engineers. Since it’s a down clue, if you ‘drop’ the RE bit, you end up with CENTRE.

15 Part of dish that was donated by Adam?
SPARE RIB
A cd cum dd, referring to the story from Genesis 2:21-22

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (King James Bible)

Some folk of a religious persuasion continue to believe that men have fewer ribs than women, but that view is best described by another two parts of a man’s anatomy, found around 30cm below his ribs.

16 Kitchen equipment associated with drink
SIDE DRUM
A charade of SIDED and RUM. ‘Kitchen’ is a slang word for the percussion section of an orchestra, presumably because there’s a lot of (tuneful) banging and rattling going on in there.

18 Complicated aria involves bumbling trio in form of combat
AIR-TO-AIR
(TRIO)* in (ARIA)* The two anagrinds are ‘complicated’ and ‘bumbling’ and the insertion indicator is ‘involves’.

19 South American river has sources in an undiscovered upland area
PLATEAU
A charade of PLATE and AU for the first letters of ‘an’ and ‘undiscovered’.

21 One bishop in diocese has emphatic way to address Trump?
SIRREE
An insertion of I and RR for Right Reverend or ‘bishop’ in SEE for ‘diocese’. I’m a bit Trumped out, both in real life and crosswordland, but Kairos is using the narcissistic one to indicate that you would only hear ‘Yes, sirree!’ in the USA, more particularly in the West Wing, where the Donald surrounds himself with sycophants who manage to say ‘Yes, siree!’ for around 42 days before resigning.

23 Complain about Bill’s partner embracing old bird
BEMOAN
More best friends: Bill and Ben, Flowerpot Men. You need to insert MOA in BEN. Flobbalob to you too.

24 Article briefly studied in part of on-line discussion
THREAD
A charade of TH[E] and READ brings the first part of this on-line discussion to a close.  Over to you.

Thanks to Kairos for the start to the Indy week.