Independent 10,068 by Loglady

by

The puzzle can be found here.

Hello, and happy Caturday.  I found this puzzle by Loglady less chewy than many of the puzzles often served up for us on Saturdays, but not quite a piece of cake … except that it was iced with some delicious surfaces, with an &lit cherry on top.

In addition, the excited porpoise of 11a made me smile, if not actually go “ha”, and I loved the entwined limbs heating things up in 18d.  Thanks, Loglady.

In the clues below, definitions are underlined.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.

 

Across

1a   Ancestor’s lost English refrains (8)
FORBEARS
FORB[e]AR’S (Ancestor’s) having lost E (English)

6a   Examined for teaching qualification (6)
PROBED
PRO (for) and BED (teaching qualification: BEd, Bachelor of Education)

9a   Jailbird cunning to return mob loot (10)
CONTRABAND
CON (jailbird), then the reversal of (… to return) ART (cunning) followed by BAND (mob)

10a   Regretted being offensive in speech (4)
RUED
This could be RUDE (offensive) when said aloud (in speech)

11a   Porpoise goes “ha” when excited (6)
SEAHOG
GOES HA when anagrammed (when excited).  It’s nice to have a porpoise …

seahog

12a   Toy containing chip with unknown amount of data (8)
KILOBYTE
KITE (toy) containing LOB (chip) with Y (mathematical unknown).  They’re both shots, but is a chip really equivalent to a lob, even enough for crosswords?

13a   One arranging music speaker, picking up right-hand box (12)
ORCHESTRATOR
ORATOR (speaker) containing (picking up) R (right-hand) plus CHEST (box)

17a   Uncouth fellow bet on golfer to get Masters win finally (12)
BACKWOODSMAN
BACK (bet on) WOODS (Tiger, golfer) is to go next to (to get) MA (Masters) and the last letter (… finally) of wiN

20a   Lady in US presidential scandal, reported by name (8)
MONICKER
This sounds like (… reported) MONICA (Lewinsky).  Ah, for the quaint presidential scandals of the past …

22a   Historical building was leaning (6)
LISTED
I’m hesitant to call this a double definition as I’m not sure the first part strictly qualifies as one, but the intention is clear: a LISTED building is a historical building

24a   Natural aptitude on the fiddle (4)
BENT
Another double definition with a neat surface

25a   Fall ill by regressing into fear for livelihood (5,5)
DAILY BREAD
AIL (fall ill) + BY reversed (regressing) all put into DREAD (fear)

26a   Mostly accurate summary (6)
PRECIS
Mostly PRECISe (accurate)

27a   Canine upended shopfront then urinated as parting statement (8)
GODSPEED
DOG (canine) reversed (upended) + S (shopfront: the front of [a] Shop), then PEED (urinated)

 

Down

2d   Method of estimating distance travelled round sports arena before touchdown (8)
ODOMETRY
O (round letter) and DOME (arena, perhaps a sports arena) before TRY (touchdown in rugby).  (I wondered if “sports” could instead be a positional indicator, but decided it can’t really mean next to, so settled for it being the type of arena)

3d   Tough, except with children (5)
BUTCH
BUT (except) with CH (children)

4d   Sealing cracks in air-conditioning, result is soothing (9)
ANALGESIC
SEALING is anagrammed (cracks) inside AC (air conditioning)

5d   Person avoiding work is less tense (7)
SLACKER
A double definition, again with a pleasing surface.  When avoiding work I’m usually more tense, but then I’m more of a procrastinator than a slacker

6d   Told to sell bicycle (5)
PEDAL
It’s a homophone of (told) PEDDLE (to sell)

7d   Boa devouring tail, or so our representation shows (9)
OUROBOROS
An anagram (… representation) of BO[a] missing the last letter (devouring tail) with OR SO OUR shows this ancient symbol of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.  I first met the ouroboros only recently (in a puzzle by – who else? – Serpent) and was on the verge of forgetting the word, so am happy to have my memory refreshed here

ouroboros

8d   Incidents suppressed by eleven Tsars (6)
EVENTS
The answer is contained within (suppressed by) elEVEN TSars

14d   Doctor is rich but arrogant (9)
HUBRISTIC
Make an anagram of (doctor) IS RICH BUT

15d   Legless giant getting stared at (9)
TROLLEYED
TROLL (giant) next to (getting) EYED (stared at)

trolleyed

16d   Rip dead hedging off tree (8)
LACERATE
LATE (dead) around (hedging off) ACER (tree)

18d   Limb wrapped in limb – it’s heating up! (7)
WARMING
ARM (limb) inside (wrapped in) WING (another limb)

19d   One who watches over you, missing nothing unusual (6)
VOYEUR
OVER Y[o]U without O (missing nothing) made into an anagram (unusual)

voyeur

21d   To hell with Britain: rejected honour (5)
KUDOS
SOD (to hell with) UK (Britain, not really all of the UK, but often loosely applied to the whole country) reversed (rejected)

23d   Strong wine’s lifted mood (5)
STROP
PORT (fortified wine), together with its ‘S, reversed (lifted, in a down answer)

 

14 comments on “Independent 10,068 by Loglady”

  1. Don’t remember OUROBOROS appearing in a Serpent crossword but, fortunately, was a word I knew. I own a book (never read) called ‘The Worm Ouroboros’ by E R Eddisson.

    As you say, lots of nice surfaces. Fairly easy but I struggled more than I should have with VOYEUR, my LOI.

    Lovely blog, particularly the great pictures. Thanks Kitty and thanks also to the Loglady.

  3. Hi Hovis.  The ouroboros Serpent wasn’t an Indy puzzle, but one in the Magpie.  The entry method had to be deduced, and it turned out that answers had to be entered in a snaking manner.

    Before you think I’m some 10-a-day crossword addict (partly true, but not quiiite up to that level!) I’ll add that it wasn’t my puzzle, just one I was “helping” (hindering) a friend with.  Maybe I should have said more above the line, but am uneasy about chatting too much on the blog for one puzzle about another one entirely.  Seems a bit inconsiderate to the setter.  But I’m sure Loglady will forgive this comment!

  5. Thanks to Kitty and Loglady

    Some nice clues, VOYEUR was my favourite.

    I only know the self-devouring snake from crosswordland – it was in a Pasquale clue (15/09/2015) using its alternative spelling UROBOROS

  6. Ouroboros came from rewatching Red Dwarf recently, I’d never heard of it before that. It’s written on an abandoned baby’s cot, Lister being Scouse reads it as ‘our Rob or Ross’, which I enjoyed

  7. Seems I’m alone in being unfamiliar with the snake and that’s not the spelling of 20a that I would use either.

    Didn’t care for 27a but 15&21d were my favourites which must imply that it’s just toilet humour I dislike – wonder why?

    Thoroughly enjoyed the solve so thanks to Loglady for that and of course thanks to Kitty for another great blog.   I was going to comment that setters must appreciate getting a ‘Kitty type blog’ but I see that Loglady has beaten me to it.   Keep ’em coming, Kitty, you’re a star.

     

  8. Took me a while to remember ouroboros – brilliant clue. I also laughed at KUDOS.
    Many more excellent clues. Thank you Loglady and thanks kitty

  9. A pleasant, and not too difficult solve.  We too wondered about the equivalence of ‘lob’ and ‘chip’.  OUROBOROS was our LOI after crossing letters and wordplay suggested it and one of us seemed to remember it from somewhere; Chambers soon confirmed it for us.

    Too many nice clues to nominate a CoD.  Thanks, Loglady and Kitty.

  10. I thought of OUROBOROS as soon as I read the clue but couldn’t remember how to spell it, and I couldn’t immediately parse the clue so I waited till I had a few more crossing letters.  But I have read the book by Eddison, although I can’t remember much about it.

  11. Had the O’s and U the wrong way round for OUROBOROS which I vaguely remember having coming across before, but couldn’t dredge up. Very clever, now I see the full meaning of the word.

    I also liked the surface for KUDOS, TROLLEYED for ‘Legless’ and DAILY BREAD.

    Thanks to Loglady and Kitty

     

  12. Kitty – I think the Magpie puzzle you have in mind by Serpent used the word “boustrophedon” rather than “ouroboros”.  It was a cracker.

  13. Richard – ooooops!  Yes, that was the one.  Well, that would explain why I had trouble remembering “ouroboros” from it … can’t see myself forgetting either of those now!

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