Independent 10,135 by Tees

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Just what we need to brighten up a dull Monday morning: some sparkling wit from Tees.

Among lots of very good clues, I particularly enjoyed the laugh-out-loud puns of 15a, 4d and 13d. But the prize for show-off cleverness goes to 19d, which must have been very satisfying to think up. Thanks to Tees.

Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

Across
1 ELISABETH Girl priest beats terribly hard (9)
ELI (the usual Old Testament priest in crosswords) + anagram (terribly) of BEATS + H (hard, as in grades of pencil lead).
6 EMEND Better people brought in by news boss (5)
ED (editor = news boss) containing MEN. Emend = improve = better, as a verb.
9 SALVO Burst ball seen after Slav fouled (5)
Anagram (fouled) of SLAV, followed by O (a circle, or it could be seen as a ball). Burst as in a burst of gunfire.
10 AESCHYLUS His hero was bound to be released by Shelley (9)
A tricky cryptic definition. The link here is Prometheus; Aeschylus wrote the Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound, although that isn’t the earliest version of the legend, and Percy Shelley wrote a play Prometheus Unbound based on later elements of the same story. There’s also Mary Shelley, his wife, who wrote Frankenstein with the subtitle The Modern Prometheus.
11 ECONOMICAL English, rich, holding on and saving money (10)
E (English) + COMICAL (rich: “that’s rich” = “that’s amusing”, in a slightly sarcastic sense), containing ON.
12 STOA Columns covered from Athens to Alexandria (4)
Hidden answer (covered) in [athen]S TO A[lexandria]. Stoa = an ancient Greek colonnade; not exactly in common usage but I’m sure I’ve seen it in another crossword recently. It’s probably a useful filler word for the awkward corners of crossword grids.
14 ROMAINE Cardinal tucked into eggs and lettuce (7)
MAIN (cardinal = chief or important, as in the four cardinal points of the compass) in ROE (fish eggs). It used to be called Cos lettuce, but perhaps the supermarkets wanted to give it a more interesting name?
15 DOUBLET Garment suitable for non-drinker? (7)
Non-drinker = teetotal, abbreviated to TT, so DOUBLE T.
17 SINCERE Straight transgression needs church and Bible studies (7)
SIN (transgression) + CE (Church of England) + RE (Religious Education).
19 EXPANSE Vessels in river region (7)
PANS (cooking vessels) in the river EXE (as in Exeter).
20 BARE English seen after pub in the altogether (4)
BAR (pub) + E. In the altogether = slang for naked.
22 PEARLY KING Ancient family in power good for decorated trader (6,4)
EARLY (ancient) KIN (family), in P (power) G (good). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearly_Kings_and_Queens.
25 RAVISHING Mad about one’s 5 — gorgeous! (9)
RAVING (mad) around I’S H (5d = husband = H).
26 LOUSE Leonardo’s outside to exploit rotter (5)
Outside letters of L[eonard]O + USE (exploit). Louse = rotter = a contemptible person.
27 YIELD Give up being ridiculously idle after years (5)
Anagram (ridiculously) of IDLE, after Y (years).
28 ENDOWMENT Natural talents providing income (9)
Double definition.
Down
1 ENSUE Girl under topless men? Result! (5)
SUE (girl’s name) below [m]EN. Result, as a verb.
2 ISLE OF MAN Where Douglas is stirring semolina with force (4,2,3)
Anagram (stirring) of SEMOLINA + F (force). Douglas is the capital of the Isle of Man.
3 APOLOGISED Journal, in article ready to go, expressed regret (10)
LOG (journal) in A (the indefinite article) + POISED (ready to go).
4 EXAMINE Study what was formerly a bomb? (7)
EX (prefix indicating “formerly”) + A MINE (as in minefield).
5 HUSBAND Man United having to manage wisely (7)
Double definition: a man united in marriage (I’m sure I’ve seen this pun before, but it’s still good), or to manage resources carefully.
6 ECHO It precedes foxtrot in the choreography (4)
Hidden answer in [th]E CHO[reography]. Echo = E in the radio alphabet, followed by Foxtrot = F.
7 ECLAT Chapter in story elevated brilliant success (5)
TALE reversed (elevated = upwards in a down clue), containing C (chapter). Eclat (properly starting with E-acute because it’s French) = a showy display, or a great success.
8 DISMANTLE Separate night ends in gloomy quarter (9)
End letters of N[igh]T in DISMAL (gloomy) + E (east; quarter = one of the four cardinal directions of the compass).
13 MURPHY’S LAW Why things go wrong in potato salad? (7,3)
MURPHY (an Irish potato variety) + SLAW (a salad of shredded raw vegetables, usually cabbage). Murphy’s Law, summarised as “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.
14 RASPBERRY One may have blown it in expressing disapproval (9)
Cryptic definition: blow a raspberry = make a noise to signify disapproval.
16 LONGITUDE Such a line to guide perhaps round pole? (9)
L (line) + anagram (perhaps) of TO GUIDE, around N (North Pole). Clue-as-definition (&lit); lines of longitude run between the North and South Poles.
18 EREMITE One living alone before having child (7)
ERE (before) + MITE (small child). Eremite = a variant form of “hermit”, from the same Greek root.
19 ENRAGED Grenade exploded, grandee wounded, furiously angered? (7)
Where do I start?  There are three separate anagrams here (grenade, grandee, angered), each with its own anagram indicator (exploded, wounded, furiously). And the last of these is also the definition. Too clever by half.
21 REVUE Right woman to host university entertainment (5)
R (right) + EVE (woman’s name) containing U (university).
23 GHENT Fellow stables horse in treaty town (5)
GENT (gentleman = fellow) containing H (= horse = slang for heroin). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Ghent.
24 USED Employed elderly initially in Bucks? (4)
USD (abbreviation for US Dollars, or “bucks” in slang), containing the initial letter of E[lderly].

 

10 comments on “Independent 10,135 by Tees”

  1. Rattled through most of this but thoroughly enjoying it. Took a little while to get PEARLY KING & DISMANTLE. I’m sure I won’t be the only one who could only see 1 word that fitted the crossers for 10a. Had to resort to a word fit to get the answer, followed by some googling.

    Thanks to Tees and Quirister.

  2. Thanks, Quirister.

    Like Hovis, I thoroughly enjoyed this, especially the clever AESCHYLUS – and the amusing picture of Douglas stirring semolina and the unsuccessful potato salad. In fact, there were lovely story-telling surfaces throughout.

    We’ve seen all those anagrams involved in 19dn before but this was a particularly clever way of combining them – bravo, Tees.

    STOA does crop up quite a bit in crosswords: the Stoics took their name from the painted stoa in Athens, where Zeno, their founder, taught.

    Many thanks, Tees, for the fun.

  3. My views match Eileen’s – as per usual

    My particular favourite was the very clever 19d

    Thanks to Tees and Quirister

  4. An excellent crossword spoilt only for me by AESCHYLUS. It’s a straight general knowledge clue with no other way to solve it.

  7. Hello.

    Thanks Quirister and all who partook.

    12ac ‘columns covered’ was intended as the def for that one, with simply ‘in’ as the inning thingummy.

    Cheers

    Tees

  10. Why are we so late to the party?  Well, we missed this puzzle a fortnight ago so when today’s Indy failed to show up we went back to this one.  And great stuff it proved to be.  Thanks, Tees and Quirister.

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