This seems to be only the fourth Indy puzzle from Italicus, and the first one we have had the pleasure of blogging.
Despite the rather unfrientdly grid (four quarters each with only one connection to the central crossers), we enjoyed the solve – no unusual words and no unnecessarily complicated wordplay, but still plenty to get us thinking.
Looking forward to the next one!
Across
1 It’s back to front in remarkably cheap imitation (8)
PASTICHE
ITS reversed (‘back to front’) in an anagram of CHEAP – anagrind is ‘remarkably’
5 Long snake that is crossing river (6)
ASPIRE
ASP (snake) IE (that is) round or ‘crossing’ R (river)
9 21 meets fashionable Grand Prince (8)
CHARMING
CHARM (something thought to possess occult power, such as an amulet – 21down) IN (fashionable) G (grand)
10 Outlaw group sex (6)
BANDIT
BAND (group) IT (sex)
11 Uncovering plot by tomboy involved delicate operation (8)
LOBOTOMY
pLOt without the first and last letters or ‘uncovered’ + an anagram of TOMBOY – anagrind is ‘involved’
12 Upon reflection, partial decision made barrister curse (6)
BEDAMN
Hidden (‘partial’) and reversed (‘upon reflection’) in ‘decisioN MADE Barrister’
14 William’s bitter about Foreign Office overturning written agreement (4,2,4)
BILL OF SALE
BILL’S (William’s) ALE (bitter) round FO (Foreign Office) reversed or ‘overturning’
18 Amish deter rioting and violent crime (5,5)
ARMED HEIST
An anagram of AMISH DETER – anagrind is ‘rioting’
22 Give immunity to former European parliamentarian and Tory leader (6)
EXEMPT
EX (former) E (European) MP (parliamentarian) T (first letter or ‘leader’ of Tory)
23 It stops some from reaching the highest heights (8)
DWARFISM
Cryptic definition
24 In on fix before I start (6)
ORIGIN
ON round RIG (fix) I
25 Regularly reading Camus, thus mentally connected to The Fall? (8)
AUTUMNAL
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of cAmUs ThUs MeNtAlLy
26 Stoker’s tool left on barge (6)
SHOVEL
L (left) after or ‘on’ SHOVE (barge)
27 Partisan soldier hides diamonds in this place (8)
ADHERENT
ANT (soldier) round or ‘hiding’ D (diamonds) HERE (in this place)
Down
1 26’s companion left Earl in tricky situation (6)
PICKLE
PICK (‘companion’ of ‘shovel’ (26 ac)) L (left) E (earl)
2 Quiet place of worship, without cardinal, gets run-down (6)
SHABBY
SH (quiet) ABBeY (place of worship) without the ‘e’ (east – a ‘cardinal’ point)
3 Trendy course covering Alien Resurrection and The Prisoner (6)
INMATE
IN (trendy) MA (Master of Arts – a university ‘course) + ET (alien) reversed or ‘resurrected’
4 Servant? Give over! (10)
HANDMAIDEN
HAND (give) MAIDEN (over – in cricket, where no runs are scored)
6 Evade wealthy Arab, reportedly gone bad (5,3)
SHAKE OFF
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of SHEIKH (wealthy Arab) + OFF (gone bad)
7 Country gent’s a trader (8)
INDIAMAN
INDIA (country) MAN (gent)
8 Widened delta after 10 died in river (8)
EXTENDED
D (delta in the phonetic alphabet) after TEN D (died) in EXE (river)
13 Cut off Welsh inside institute (5,5)
FLESH WOUND
An anagram of WELSH (anagrind is ‘off’) in FOUND (institute)
15 Starving artist imbuing classical subject with love (8)
RAVENOUS
RA (artist) VENUS (‘classical subject’) round or ‘imbuing’ O (love)
16 Setter’s favourite: “Upstanding old soldier’s complaint” (8)
IMPETIGO
I’M (‘setter is’) PET (favourite) + O (old) GI (soldier) reversed or ‘upstanding’
17 Parental type protagonist disembowelled in a video nasty (8)
ADOPTIVE
ProtagonisT (without the middle letters or ‘disembowelled’) in an anagram of A VIDEO – anagrind is ‘nasty’
19 Beef or game? (6)
GROUSE
Double definition
20 Working in café, as intended (6)
FIANCE
An anagram of IN CAFE – anagrind is ‘working’
21 Tragic figure with no husband harbours uniform fetish (6)
AMULET
hAMLET (tragic figure) without ‘h’ (husband) round or ‘harbouring’ U (‘uniform’ in the phonetic alphabet)
*anagram
An enjoyable solve – thank you to Italicus and B&J
Seems to be a dearth of comments for this.
I wouldn’t say there were “no unusual words” since INDIAMAN seems pretty obscure and BEDAMN is a bit unusual.
I think Italicus is an excellent addition to the Indy stable and, as crypticsue said, this was an enjoyable solve.
Finished with DWARFISM then GROUSE. In 1a I felt that “it’s back to front” would be SIT but a full reversal is also fine.
To Italicus and Bertandjoyce.
Whoops! Meant to write “Thanks to…”
Indeed an enjoyable puzzle with 21d my favourite.
Hovis, interesting point regarding the huge discrepancy between comment levels for Guardian versus Indy puzzles.
I happily pay (indirectly as a supporter) for Guardian puzzles and subscribe to the Telegraph crossword section.
I sometimes fear for the future of the Independent who have, I think, the biggest stable of superbly talented setters.
Thank you to Italicus for today’s offering and B&J for their blog
A generally enjoyable solve but a few quibbles. We’d agree that BEDAMN and INDIAMAN are a bit obscure. (An Indiaman, btw, was a ship of the East India Company’s fleet in the 18th and 19th centuries.) And is ARMED HEIST a phrase in common use? Armed robbery, yes, and ‘heist’ on its own but we can’t say we’ve heard or read reports referring to an ‘armed heist’. Also, ‘left’ to indicate ‘L’ cropped up twice, in 1dn and 26ac. DWARFISM was our LOI, after a lot of head-scratching to think of a word that fitted the crossing letters, and we failed to parse 3dn although the answer was obvious.
Plenty to like, though. Favourites included PASTICHE, ASPIRE and AMULET.
Thanks, Italicus and B&J.
Many thanks to B&J for the kind review and the accurate parsing. And as there are so few comments today, I can thank each of you in person, so thanks to Crypticsue, Hovis, Gsolphotog and Allan_c for taking the time to write in. Maybe all the other solvers were too busy watching the shenanigans in the Tory party!
Always great to see the setter dropping in. Thank you for that Italicus.
A very pleasant and enjoyable solve…thank you Italicus once again.
My favourites were 5a, 10a, 22a, 25a and 20d. Some very good misdirection as ever.
Yes, maybe the ongoing Tory psychodrama was even more distracting than usual yesterday…bedamn!
Thanks to BertandJoyce for the review.