Independent 10,199 by Serpent

by

The usual highly enjoyable crossword from Serpent. There are some very cleverly-concealed definitions; this sometimes results in [see below]

Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.


[continued from above] things being defined in a way that purists would carp at: we have blithe = happy-go-lucky in 12ac, daily = regularly in 2dn, low = subdued in 4dn, tolerance = open-mindedness in 13dn, newcomer = immigrant in 15dn (not sure about these synonyms: some of them may be exact enough), and the purists would say that ‘perhaps’ should be used more often. Thus ‘Newcomer, perhaps, upset …’ in 15dn. An immigrant isn’t necessarily a newcomer. But to do this would make it all rather cumbersome and it seems that many setters nowadays don’t mind the definition by example.

When I saw this I thought “well it’s midsummer day, and no doubt Serpent will have a Nina connected with ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ or something like that”. But apparently not. I’ve looked closely at the finished crossword and can see nothing: the Phi yesterday had to be then and Serpent has simply appeared on Friday as a result.

Across
1 LADYBIRD Woman touching girlfriend leaves imprint (8)
Lady [woman] bird [girlfriend] and the leaves imprint is the imprint that is in connection with books (leaves = pages), specifically the Ladybird books
5 SIFT Separate Lives reviewed by newspaper (4)
(is)rev. FT — is = lives worried me a bit, but presumably it’s ‘he lives at No. 23’/’he is at No. 23’
8 ENDIVE Leaves new video endlessly playing (6)
(ne{w} vide{o})* — endives are found in some salads
9 BEARABLE Possess characteristic of farmland that’s sustainable (8)
be [possess characteristic — not sure how (something to do with acting?)] arable [of farmland]; I’m being a bit vague here and perhaps the parsing is different from this [It seems agreed amongst various commenters below that ‘possess characteristic of farmland’ = ‘be arable’.  I think they’re right.]
10 SWAY Influence bringing about changes in relation to course (4)
(yaws)rev.
11 KNIGHTHOOD Title of cover by The Darkness on the radio (10)
“night” hood
12 BLITHE SPIRIT Coward acts with happy-go-lucky courage (6,6)
blithe [happy-go-lucky] spirit — acts from Noel Coward’s play Blithe Spirit
16 LEGIONNAIRES Servicemen organise line dancing (12)
(organise line)*
18 COURT OF LAW Action-packed venue failing to take care of ill-fated tour earlier (5,2,3)
flaw, with (earlier) c/o *(tour) — the actions are court actions
20 ARCH Walk without using front part of foot (4)
{m}arch
21 EMINENCE Distinction from this place initially spurned by artist (8)
Emin [Tracey] {h}ence
22 ENIGMA Imagine bad setter’s abandoned puzzle (6)
({I}magine)*
23 BLUE Top sportsman who’s up and down (4)
2 defs: the top sportsman who’s up at Oxford or Cambridge, and low-spirited
24 EYELINER Survey vessel’s instrument for enhancing lamps (8)
eye [survey] liner [vessel] — the lamps are the eyes
Down
1 LONE WOLF Independent agent to provide author with advance we hear (4,4)
“loan Woolf” [Virginia]
2 DAILY Be sick in back yard regularly (5)
ail in (yd)rev.
3 BREAK NEW GROUND Pioneer providing means to end gun row (5,3,6)
pioneer a verb — if you break ‘new ground’, ie form an anagram of it, you get ‘end gun row’
4 RABBI Teacher‘s introduction to apocryphal books in bible class? (5)
R(a{pocryphal} BB)I
5 SPAGHETTI Stranded fare in complex interchange just before junction (9)
The stranded fare is the food that’s in strands, and the complex interchange just before junction is Spaghetti Junction, that interchange near Birmingham
6 FOLLOW Flock of sheep almost subdued dog (6)
fol{d} low
7 CATHERINE WHEEL Spinner producing spectacular display here, whence tail collapses (9,5)
(here whence tail)* — the firework
13 TOLERANCE Open-mindedness of revolutionary band getting into ecstasy? (9)
t(ole)rance, the ole being (ELO)rev. — Electric Light Orchestra
14 PRO In favour of supporter surrendering power finally (3)
pro{p} — finally because there are two occurrences of a p and Serpent is signposting the second one
15 NEWCOMER Immigrant upset Conservative women meeting head of state (8)
*(C women) ER
17 NORMAL Typical Indonesian or Malaysian houses (6)
Hidden in IndonesiaN OR MALaysian
19 LEERY Cunning criminal merely wants money (5)
*({m}erely)
20 ANION One’s charged friend wanting free ticket (5)
{comp}anion — comp = free is something I’d never heard, but here it is (under comp in American (2)) in Collins

*anagram

7 comments on “Independent 10,199 by Serpent”

  1. For 9a I just thought to ‘Possess characteristic of farmland’ = to BE ARABLE, but I’m probably missing something. I put in ANION unparsed from the def. (thanks for the explanation) and missed the parsing for TOLERANCE.

    I wondered if there was a theme +/- Nina but couldn’t spot one either. I don’t know if BLUE EYELINER along the bottom row has any significance.

    My favourites were the ‘clue as answer’ BREAK NEW GROUND, the ‘Coward acts’ def and my last in, LADYBIRD.

    Thanks to Serpent and to John.

  2. Serpent tends to have Ninas of some kind or other. Can’t see one here but did note that NEW appears in 1d, 3d, 7d and 15d.

    Thanks to Serpent and John.

  3. We too parsed 9ac as ‘be arable’.  Some ingenious clues, we thought, although working them out didn’t take too long; everything was fair and gettable.  Favourite was BLITHE SPIRIT, and in 16ac the mental image of the French Foreign Legion line dancing raised a smile.

  5. Agree with BE+ARABLE   Lovely as always but spent ages trying to find his signature after filling the grid.i still wonder whether I’ve missed something.

    Thanks to Serpent and John

  6. High quality puzzle as ever, although I got a bit stuck in the NE corner.

    I particularly liked TOLERANCE.

    Thanks Serpent and John.

  7. Couldn’t parse 6d (got it now) and 10a, but managed everything else. Stared at the grid for ages but can’t see a Nina.

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