Independent 10,342 by Serpent

by

Serpent fills the Thursday spot this week.

Overall, we found much of this rather less challenging than we have come to expect from Serpent, but one or two clues did cause some head-scratching – not least 16d, a composer we had never heard of before.
As usual with Serpent puzzles, we found ourselves checking the completed grid for a theme or nina, and, lo and behold, we realised that there was a nina running clockwise round the outermost unches. With a bit of electronic help we discovered that this is the title of a piece of chamber music by the hitherto (to us) unknown composer at 16d. Having listened to an extract of the piece, we’re rather glad we’d never heard it before!

image of grid

ACROSS
1 Philosophical Society dons were in control (8)
RESIGNED

S (society) in or ‘donning’ REIGNED (‘were in control’)

5 Book set in university town in Cheshire is fit for purpose (6)
USABLE

B (book) in U (university) SALE (town in Cheshire)

10 Infer -500 = 40-40? (5)
DEUCE

DEdUCE (infer) minus the second ‘d’ (Roman numeral for 500)

11 European Union created reforms to change political beliefs (2-7)
RE-EDUCATE

An anagram of EU CREATED – anagrind is ‘reforms’

12 Government representatives backed me by detaining fool (7)
EMBASSY

ME reversed or ‘backed’ + BY round or ‘detaining’ ASS (fool)

13 One spawned by former partner (7)
OLDWIFE

OLD (former) WIFE (partner) – a kind of fish we’d never come across before

14 Engineer gripped by depression stopped working outside and became detached (10)
DISENGAGED

ENG (engineer) in or ‘gripped by’ SAG (depression) with DIED (stopped working) outside

19 Substantial figure he had invested in former college and not returned (10)
POLYHEDRON

HE’D (he had) in POLY (former college) NOR (and not) reversed or ‘returned’

23 One learning from on-line books by boss (7)
STUDENT

E (on-line) NT (New Testament – ‘books’) after STUD (boss)

24 Greet us with waving action (7)
GESTURE

An anagram of GREET US – anagrind is ‘waving’

25 PM behind head of state about following up denial (9)
AFTERNOON

AFT (behind) ER (the Queen – ‘head of state’) + ON (about) following NO (denial)

26 Moderate degree partner regularly conceals (5)
ABATE

BA (degree) in or ‘concealed by’ alternate or ‘regular’ letters of pArTnEr

27 Lecturer working with fellow author (6)
LONDON

L (lecturer) ON (working) DON (fellow) – a reference to Jack London, American author (1876 – 1916)

28 Perform with a man performing as a woman? (8)
TRANSACT

A man performing as a woman could be described as a TRANS ACT

DOWN
1 He dreads being mistaken for people like Prince Harry (8)
REDHEADS

An anagram of HE DREADS – anagrind is ‘being mistaken’

2 Crushing blow cut short party (8)
SQUABASH

SQUAt (short) without the last letter or ‘cut’ + BASH (party)

3 Colleagues single-handedly keep making ill-informed judgements (8)
GUESSING

Hidden in or ‘kept by’ colleaGUES SINGle-handedly

4 Relay broadcast ahead of time (5)
EARLY

An anagram of RELAY – anagrind is ‘broadcast’

6 Firm dropping case of security guards (6)
STURDY

TURD (dropping) in or ‘guarded by’ first and last letters or ‘case’ of SecuritY

7 Act the giddy goat and get lost (4,2)
BEAT IT

BE A TIT (be a fool or ‘act the giddy goat’)

8 Opening to see recording of Small Island (6)
EYELET

A homophone (‘recording’) of ISLET (small island)

9 Rally where Republican really embraces concern for the environment (8)
RECOVERY

R (republican) VERY (really) round or ’embracing’ ECO (‘concern for the environment’)

15 Approval of god usurped by priest in worship (8)
ADOPTION

ADOraTION (worship) with ‘ra’ (god) replaced or ‘usurped’ by P (priest)

16 Composer‘s unfinished oratorio with incomplete finale (8)
MESSIAEN

MESSIAh (oratorio) without the last letter or ‘unfinished’ ENd (finale) without the last letter or ‘incomplete’

17 Uproar where French expression of amusement is faced by British (8)
BROUHAHA

OU (French for ‘where’) HAHA (expression of amusement) after or ‘faced by’ BR (British)

18 Claim to participate in street dancing (8)
INTEREST

IN + an anagram of STREET – anagrind is ‘dancing’

20 Trouble dogs American behind attack (6)
ASSAIL

AIL (trouble) follows or ‘dogs’ ASS (American word for ‘behind’)

21 Something of little value hardly raised following objection (6)
BUTTON

NOT (hardly) reversed or ‘raised’ after BUT (objection)

22 Eccentric widower devastated after losing wife (6)
WEIRDO

An anagram of WIDOwER without one of the ‘w’s (wife) – anagrind is ‘devastated’

24 King George I stops for dying subject? (5)
GONER

GR (King George) round or ‘stopped by’ ONE (1)

 

6 comments on “Independent 10,342 by Serpent”

  1. Since EYELET can refer to a peephole, I think the definition for 8d could be “opening to see”.

    I wondered whether to consider GESTURE as an &lit.

    Didn’t know SQUABASH or MESSIAEN and needed word fits for these. Easy to parse after these cheats. I did spot the nina after finishing and googled to see the 16d link.

    Didn’t know OLDWIFE either. Guessed it then checked my Chambers where it is listed as two words.

    Thanks, as always, to Serpent and to Bertandjoyce.

  2. The Nina music doesn’t quite do it for me either, but the story of the circumstances under which it was composed and first performed is fascinating. I didn’t know OLDWIFE (which apparently is another word for that old crossword staple the ‘alewife’) or SQUABASH, but I didn’t have too many quibbles with the rest. I liked the surface for WEIRDO.

    Time for a bit of Wolfgang Amadeus I think.

    Thanks to Serpent & B&J

  3. A nice of the straightforward and the head-scratching but enjoyable to solve as usual with a Serpent.   My favourite was the ‘numbery’ one 10a

    Thanks to Serpent and B&J

  4. One or two guesses that we had to confirm in Chambers, but otherwise quite straightforward.  We got MESSAIEN without difficulty but confess to our shame that we missed the nina, especially as it’s one of Messaien’s more approachable works (and, yes, we like Wolfgang Amadeus as well).

    Thanks, Serpent and B&J

  5. Needed word searches to get 2dn and 13ac, neither of which I knew.  Didn’t spot the Nina, despite Messiaen being one of my favourite composers.  I can get quite ecstatic over his Vingt Regards sur L’enfant Jesus, a two-hour long piano piece.  (The quartet is a bit too short for my liking.)

    It would be his 111th birthday next week.

  6. Many thanks to Bertandjoyce for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment on the puzzle.

Comments are closed.