The Teas-er get us off to the new week in fine style.
Nothing outrageous today but no obvious theme either.
Thanks Tees / PB
Across
1 English on staff love equestrian event (5)
RODEO
ROD – staff & E(nglish) & 0 – love
4 Drollery less desirable as one gets on! (8)
BADINAGE
As we get older we get BAD IN AGE
8 Romantic one understanding point in it (8)
IDEALIST
1 & a DEAL – to have an understanding & S -a compass point in IT
9 Flat accommodation for one letter (8)
ENVELOPE
Cryptic def, the post office calls large envelopes flats
11 One entertaining does partner in performance (7)
ONSTAGE
A Doe’s partner is a STAG inside ONE
13 Good deal needed for this call at whist (9)
ABUNDANCE
Personally I thought it was a call at Solo rather than whist, but it’s a double def
15 Authors get users to revise reference work (6,9)
ROGETS THESAURUS
A revised [AUTHORS GET USERS]* Very nice clue, pity authors have readers rather than users generally
18 Patsy succeeded with attack on head (9)
SCAPEGOAT
S(ucceeded) & CAPE – head & GO AT – attack
21 Passing comment causes depression in each pub (7)
EPITAPH
Cryptic- ish def and it’s PIT inside EA(ch) & P(ublic) H(ouse)
22 Old suite composed in isolation (8)
SOLITUDE
A composed [OLD SUITE]*
24 Pull out having contest no side wins (8)
WITHDRAW
WITH – having & DRAW – tie nobody wins.
25 Unsettled when flying (2,3,3)
IN THE AIR
Double definition
26 Minimum promotion among Northern Irish (5)
NADIR
AD(vert) inisde N(orthern) IR(ish)
Down
1 Beast caught between money and love (10)
RHINOCEROS
RHINO – slang for money & C(aught) & EROS – the god of love
2 Sauce that should get us into gear (8)
DRESSING
Double defs
3 Van Gogh used this anguish amid furious toil (3,5)
OIL PAINT
PAIN – anguish – inside a furious TOIL*
4 Vampire’s one beginning to excite rage (4)
BATE
A vampire BAT & start of E(xcite)
5 Popular achievement for sure (6)
INDEED
IN – popular & DEED – achievement
6 Fuss at home about judge becoming neighbour (6)
ADJOIN
J(udge) inside ADO 0 fuss & IN – at home
7 Peter Sellers holds tongue (4)
ERSE
Hidden –held by petER SEllers
10 Disgust aunt with ease when dancing (8)
NAUSEATE
A dancing [AUNT EASE]*
12 Director and rising female to cuddle as couple (8)
EASTWOOD
AS & TWO – couple all inside a reversed DOE – female
14 President — or where one is shot (10)
EISENHOWER
A shot [WHERE ONE IS]*
16 Presumably favouring genuine short hymn (8)
ANTIPHON
So ANTI – not in favour of a short PHON(y) –
17 Removed duo found in grass (8)
REPAIRED
PAIR – duo inside REED – grass
19 Literary lion takes time on slope (6)
ASLANT
ASLAN – the lion in the wardrobe & T(ime)
20 One leaving whole sheep’s heart in dish (6)
ENTREE
1 removed from ENT(i)RE & the heart of (sh)E(ep)
22 In Amritsar it’s something worn (4)
SARI
Hidden in amritSAR It’s
23 Remove top to drain jug (4)
EWER
The top taken off (s)EWER
Some v. good clues with RHINOCEROS my pick. Could be parsed as an &lit given the breed’s current fight for survival. Also liked ‘English’ in the wordplay for RODEO – not exactly the Badminton Horse Trials that come to mind.
Didn’t know ABUNDANCE as a whist/solo term and I’m embarrassed to admit I had to get BATE from the wordplay.
Thanks to Tees for a pleasant start to the week and to flashling.
Very gentle for a Tees (actually, even for a Monday Indy puzzle) I thought, but it hit the spot perfectly. Might not have remembered ANTIPHON but for the wordplay: it’s really nice when wordplay guides you towards a word you know only hazily. Did have to check that ABUNDANCE was indeed a whist call. Last in was RHINO, and what a nice way to end.
Thanks Tees and Flashling.
WordPlodder @1 – I got BATE from the wordplay too, but don’t feel embarrassed to admit it!
The gentlest of today’s cryptics but great fun – I particularly liked 1d
Thanks to Tees and Flashling
First time I’ve tried a Tees puzzle but it certainly won’t be the last.
Quite happy to admit to not knowing the call at whist, the 4d definition of rage or the short hymn – wordplay plus BRB needed for those.
Favourite was 1d for the reason mentioned by WordPlodder@1.
Thanks to Tees and to Flashling – especially for the info on a ‘flat’ which I’ve only heard used in relation to the theatrical world.
Thanks Tees and flashling
I think ‘users’ is fine in 15. Sure, you ‘read’ a novel or factual book, but you’re far more likely to say you ‘use’ a reference work.
The game in which abundance is a declaration is solo whist (though often referred to simply as solo). A rather terse blog. In 1A I would have expressed this as ROD + E +O. [Good point, it was early and when I wrote this, fixed, flashling]
Tees used to be a bit terrifying, but now seems much gentler. Raced through most of this, bit of a lull in the SW corner, eventually had to ask my wife the name of the lion in Narnia.
Thanks to Tees and flashling.
I was once accused of “obsessing” about grid designs but this one is rum. I assumed it must be like that for a reason, but if it is I can’t see it.
Thanks to Tees & flashling
Thanks Flashling for explains flat. I also didn’t know the whist term, or the hymn. I don’t know many hymns at all. I liked Rogers thesaurus, it took a few checkers before I managed the anagram. Repaired surprised me – how is that removed?
Many thanks Tees
Baerchen@8, yes, my solve wasn’t helped by the double unches
Spell check seems to prefer Rogers – ok….
Dutch @9
“Repaired surprised me – how is that removed?”
Under both ‘remove’ and ‘repair’ (transitive) Chambers has the definition ‘to withdraw’.
We got this in just about two passes despite double unches and less than 50% checking in some lights so nothing to complain about. A bit of lateral thinking needed to get EASTWOOD; favourites were EPITAPH and RHINOCEROS.
Puzzled, though, by a message about a note from the puzzle’s creator that appeared on downloading but on clicking on it nothing happened.
Thanks Tees and flashling.
I solved this crossword as if there wasn’t anything extraordinary going on.
Fine clueing (as ever with Tees), no problems with finishing the thing, but.
After reading the comments above and the remarks about ‘double unches’, I had another look.
Well, well, there’s quite a lot of ’em!
Really unusual – in particular, for the Independent.
Even if – as an individual solver – I am fine with it, I do wonder why the Mighty Mike (just joking) gave Tees the green light.
I was rather taken with the grid. Double unches aplenty, but with clues as fair, and as Teasy, as these I was never in trouble. Good Monday fare.
I have not seen this grid before, anybody?
Rather late to the party – we were still catching up on the weekend puzzles yesterday, and have only just got around to this one.
We were also amazed by the grid – twelve double unches and four 2×2 black squares – not a grid we would have expected from the Indy, despite the more relaxed attitude with regard to grids by comparison with the ‘other side’. We also thought there must be a reason for this, but if there is we can’t see it.
Having said that, the grid didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the puzzle, which was definitely much easier than we have come to expect from Tees.
Anyway, thanks to Tees for a good start to the week (even it is Tuesday for us!) and to flashing for the blog
It is a Telegraph grid originally used by the late Colin Parsons in the Sunday Telegraph. Nice to have at least half the letters interlocking eg three letters out of four and five out of eight.
Thank you for the info Cephas.
F.