Independent 10,077 / Silvanus

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Silvanus has compiled today’s puzzle for our mid-week entertainment. He is a compiler whose crosswords I have only a modest amount of experience of solving and blogging.

I thought that this was pitched at the right level in terms of difficulty, with a few write-ins to get me started but enough more challenging clues to require me to go away and come back to the puzzle for a second stab.

I think that I have parsed everything to my satisfaction, but I needed Chambers to confirm the abbreviation at 11; it also took a while for the penny to drop at 4. I wasn’t sure if the “basis of” at 19D referred to a first letter or a last letter, although in this particular case the word actually began and ended with the same letter.

My favourite clues today were 28, for reminding me of childhood TV; and 7, 12, 13, 17 and 24, all for surface.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 HIPPOCAMPUS University behind joint work about area of the brain

HIP (=joint, i.e. body part) + PO (OP.=work, i.e. opus; “about” indicates reversal) + CAMPUS (=university)
     
10 PICTOGRAM Graphic representation of topic surprisingly given little weight

*(TOPIC) + GRAM (=little weight); “surprisingly” is anagram indicator
     
11 TEPEE Township shortly to be announced as home for Native Americans

Homophone (“to be announced”) of TP (=township; “shortly” indicates abbreviation)
     
12 NARROW Strict new replacement for head of school

HARROW (=(public) school); “new (=N) replacement for head of” means first letter is replaced by letter “n”
     
13 INTEGRAL Whole elected government finally has extensive backing

IN (=elected, of e.g. party) + <governmen>T (“finally” means last letter only) + EGRAL (LARGE=extensive; “backing” indicates reversal)
     
14 ELFISH Tricky German eleven is handy up front

ELF (=German eleven, i.e. the German word for “eleven”) + IS + H<andy> (“up front” means first letter only)
     
16 OUTSIDER Our diet’s unusual, it’s expected to be unsuccessful

*(OUR DIET’S); “unusual” is anagram indicator; an (rank) outsider in a horse race would not be expected to win it
     
19 DEADLINE Target time of fault notified to telephone engineer?

Cryptically, a customer with a dead (telephone) line would notify it to a telephone engineer
     
20 PONCHO Cape in North Carolina with hotel having mostly shameful exterior

[NC (=North Carolina) + H (=hotel)] in POO<r> (=shameful; “mostly” means last letter is dropped)
     
22 SURPLICE Picked up spare ecclesiastical garment

(Near) homophone (“picked up”) of “surplus (=spare, excess)”
     
24 DEBRIS Ruins make-up of bride close to nuptials

*(BRIDE + <nuptial>S); “make-up of” is anagram indicator
     
27 SYNOD Council now and then spying on debtors, primarily

S<p>Y<i>N<g>O<n> (“now and then” means alternate letters only) + D<ebtors> (“primarily” means first letter only)
     
28 COMPOSITE Amalgamation of Internet pages dedicated to Yorkshire comedy character?

COMPO (=Yorkshire comedy character, in Last of the Summer Wine) + SITE (=Internet pages)
     
29 UNDERTAKING Solemn business // pledge

Double definition; “undertaking”, i.e. providing funeral services, is a solemn business
     
Down    
     
02 INCUR Become liable to maintain curfew is holding

Hidden (“is holding”) in “maintaIN CURfew”; cf. to incur expenses
     
03 PROCONSUL Conflicting arguments succeeded to dishearten unconventional old magistrate

PRO + CON (=conflicting arguments) + S (=succeeded) + U<nconventiona>L (“to dishearten” means all but first and last letters are dropped); the proconsuls were magistrates in Roman times
     
04 CORK Stop up in my bunk, polishing off cake

COR! (=My!, as an exclamation) + <bun>K (“polishing off bun (=cake)” means letters “bun” are dropped); to cork is to bung (up), stop up
     
05 MOMENTUM Second union’s beginning to attract male Corbyn supporters

MOMENT (=second, jiffy) + U<nion> (“beginning” means first letter only) + M (=male); Momentum is a left-wing organisation allied to the Labour Party and very loyal to party leader Jeremy Corbyn
     
06 UNTIE Dropping third character from soap, BBC displays resolve

<a>UNTIE (=BBC, i.e. Auntie Beeb); “dropping third character (=letter) from soap” means letter “a” is dropped; to resolve is to unravel, solve, hence “untie”
     
07 SPONGE Aquatic creature gone perhaps after swamp is drained

S<wam>P (“is drained” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + *(GONE); “perhaps” is anagram indicator
     
08 SPORADIC Detectives feared essentially on operations being set up and isolated

CID (=detectives) + <fe>AR<ed> (“essentially” means central letters only) + OPS (=operations); “being set up” indicates (here full) vertical reversal
     
09 DEALER Trader in alley regularly described by affectionate term

<a>L<l>E<y> (“regularly” means alternate letters are used) in DEAR (=affectionate term)
     
15 FLAGRANT Conspicuous mark by bottom of ear that soldier bears

FLAG (=mark, highlight, as verb) + <ea>R (“bottom of” means last letter only) + ANT (=soldier)
     
17 STONEWORK Suspect Tories know I ignored evidence of masonic activity

*(TOR<i>ES KNOW); “I ignored” means letter “i” is dropped; the “masonic” reference in the definition refers to stonemasonry, not freemasonry!
     
18 UNICYCLE College revolution that requires someone well-balanced in control

UNI (=college) + CYCLE (=revolution)
     
19 DESIST Stop believer defending basis of Scriptures

S (“basis of”, i.e. fundamental principle, means first letter only) in DEIST (=believer)
     
21 OYSTER Secretive individual partly regrets youth, on reflection

Hidden (“partly”) and reversed (“on reflection”) in “regRETS YOuth”
     
23 LADEN Left port packed with cargo

L (=left) + ADEN (=port, in Yemen)
     
25 REIGN Predominance of bad weather, we hear

Homophone (“we hear”) of “rain (=bad weather)”
     
26 SMUT Salacious material in small amounts oddly being overlooked

S (=small, in sizes) + <a>M<o>U<n>T<s> (“oddly being ignored” means all odd letters are dropped)
     
     

 

12 comments on “Independent 10,077 / Silvanus”

  2. Its pouring with rain here and in Queensland summer, thats good weather.

    Dont like SPORADIC for ISOLATED.

    CAMPUS is a university site

    I’ll stop here before I sound like someone else.

  4. Setter here with a couple of quick clarifications:

    In response to Dansar’s thought re 20a, RR’s interpretation is correct.

    Copmus – Chambers says “campus” can be the university or college itself as well as the ground/site on which it is based.

    I shall revert later with the customary thanks to blogger and commenters.

     

     

  6. Thought our setter had definitely twiddled a bit with the difficulty knob this morning but I thoroughly enjoyed the solve.   I did need to verify the abb. for township and confess to not being au fait with Corbyn supporters.

    Top three for me were 19&22a plus 7d.

    Thanks to Silvanus for the fun and to RR for the blog.

  7. I enjoyed DEBRIS for the surface and also really liked CORK, UNTIE, SPONGE, UNICYCLE and DESIST.

    Thanks Silvanus – looking forward to your next one! – and thanks to RatkojaRiku for the blog.

    P.S. This is the fourth Indy puzzle in a row whose setter I had the pleasure of chatting to last Saturday!  What a great turnout from the lovely Indy setters.  (Big Dave’s Blog Birthday Bash in Little Venice – put the date in your diary for next year: 25th Jan 2020, all welcome.)

  9. Thanks Silvanus; entertaining crossword. I liked the simple CORK and the UNICYCLE well-balanced man.

    Thanks RatkojaRiku for a good blog. I thought 28 must have been COMPO’S IT but then where did the E come from, doh!

  10. Went in fairly quickly, and I did like 28ac.

    David@8:  I remember a Frank Muir story on My Word back in the day where he was talking about a vicar who was wearing a garment that used to belong to an army chaplain.  He’d bought it at an army surplice store.  Worked for me that, works for me now.

  11. Many thanks to RatkojaRiku and to everyone else who commented.

    All comments are always appreciated, even if they are solely gripes about homophones!

     

  12. We found this very straightforward and everything went in without recourse to any assistance; one or two things (e.g. TP for township) we weren’t familiar with but the answers were obvious.  Must have been one of our quickest solves ever.  Thanks, Silvanus and RatkojaRiku.

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