Independent 10,395 by Klingsor

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I always enjoy Klingsor’s crosswords: not horribly difficult, but not too easy either, and a nice variety of excellent clues with lovely surfaces.

Definitions in darkviolet, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

 

ACROSS
1 CALLISTO Satellite phone, one with extremely strident ring (8)
call [phone] 1 s{triden}t O — one of the moons of Jupiter
5 CHASTE “Like a Virgin” followed on the radio (6)
“chased”
9 LEA A bit of arable area? (3)
Hidden in arabLE Area, &lit.
10 SLEEP AROUND Play away – cryptically suggesting strips? (5,6)
It cryptically suggests strips because (sleep)rev. is peels
12 OVER-THE-TOP Too much to hope broadcast will include Green (4-3-3)
vert [green] in (to hope)* — vert is green in French and green in heraldry
13 STIR Gentleman has time inside prison (4)
s{t}ir — this is a possible explanation of why we use the word ‘stir’ for ‘prison’. Lots of people have made suggestions.
15 MOHAIR Ignoring commercial, radio ham spins a yarn (6)
(r{ad}io ham)*
16 NEUTRON A bit of a nerve, pinching Juliet’s rear? One’s not charged (7)
neu({Julie}t)ron
18 SOD’S LAW To hell with cabbage salad! Pessimists believe it (4,3)
sod [to hell with] slaw
20 SEDUCE Corrupt French noble appears in court (6)
se(duc)e — see as in court, date, go out with
23 ARGO Old ship is slowly heading off (4)
{l}argo
24 ADMINISTER I strained muscle at first, going out for run (10)
(I strained m{uscle})*
26 SWALLOWTAIL Fall for one wearing incredible short dress coat (11)
swallow [fall for: be convinced by] ta(1)l{l}
27 ASH Wood remains in fireplace perhaps (3)
2 defs
28 NIECES Relatives requiring new compositions without piano (6)
n {p}ieces
29 MENSWEAR Male attire ultimately could be answer! (8)
(m {attir}e answer)*, &lit.
DOWN
1 CALLOW Jersey, say, worn by everyone is green (6)
c(all)ow — the cow is possibly a Jersey — one wears an overcoat so is inside it; ‘all’ wears ‘cow’ so is inside it — perhaps one might carp at the fact that the idea of wearing something has already appeared (at 26ac)
2 LLANERO New driver on road runs over plainsman (7)
L [learner driver] lane r{uns} o{ver} — a llanero is a South American herder
3 INSATIABLE Fashionable fur coats primarily attract the insanely greedy (10)
in s(a{ttract} t{he} i{nsanely})able — coats is a verb and indicates containment
4 THE MERRY WIDOW They worried about involving head of music with operetta (3,5,5)
(they worried)* round m{usic}, then w [with] — oh dear, I thought at first, Klingsor has used ‘with’ as a link-word: no he hasn’t — he’s too good to do that
6 HARE In conversation, shock fast runner (4)
“hair”
7 SHUNTER Sons watch a locomotive (7)
S hunter [a type of watch] — have I found a blemish in a Klingsor crossword? Surely s = son, not sons? Certainly in Collins it is just the singular, although in Chambers it’s either.  The Independent crossword doesn’t use Chambers, so far as I know.
8 ENDURING Patient wants nurse in (8)
EN [Enrolled Nurse] during [in]
11 PROGNOSTICATE Talk foolishly about old heretic being divine (13)
pr(o gnostic)ate — divine a verb
14 QUADRILLES I’ll denote, for a start, square dances? (10)
(I’ll d{enote} square)*, &lit.
17 ASSASSIN Booth perhaps was for polling soldiers? Wrong (8)
{w}as SAS sin [wrong] — John Wilkes Booth was the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln; William Booth founded the Salvation Army (the soldiers connection?)
19 DOGBANE Kinky bondage – it’s said to be bad for setters? (7)
*(bondage) — the setters are the canine type — dogbane I’d never heard of but its name explains
21 COTTAGE Prison accommodates 12 – it’s a small building (7)
c(OTT)age, 12 being over-the-top
22 ARCHER Topless protester, one taking a bow? (6)
{m}archer
25 ALOE Plant from Austria bloomed regularly (4)
A {b}l{o}o{m}e{d}

 

9 comments on “Independent 10,395 by Klingsor”

  1. My favourites were ARCHER, OVER THE TOP.

    New for me was hunter = watch.

    I could not parse 17d (and still do not understand it), or the TAIL bit in 26a.

    Thanks, Klingsor and John.

  2. Thanks Klingsor and John

    I think Klingsor is OK with S = sons in 7. It’s from genealogy or possibly Debrett’s: “Person x, m Person Y, 2s 2d, for instance.

  3. Thanks, John. I agree entirely with your preamble.

    As usual, I have ticks galore – such clever clues, with lovely surfaces and many smiles. I really can’t list them all but will just mention the two that produced a real laugh: NEUTRON and DOGBANE.

    michelle @1 – ASSASSIN: [w]AS [for polling – poll = take the top off] + SAS [soldiers] + SIN [wrong]; TAIL: I [one] in [wearing] TAL[l] [incredible, as in ‘a tall story’] minus the last letter [short].

    Many thanks, Klingsor for a most enjoyable solve.

  4. Thanks, Eileen. I did not know that poll = ‘cut off the top of (a tree or plant), typically to encourage further growth’ but I see it in my online dictionary now. Thank you for explaining. I will try to remember that for future use.

    [I am glad that I discovered how easy it is to do the Indy online now. We should try to get JinA over here!]

  5. I too couldn’t parse Assassin so thanks John and Eileen. Otherwise all went in very smoothly so thanks left in ruler’s alternative!

  6. A medium difficulty challenge, we thought, but all gettable.

    We puzzled a bit over 17dn, then it suddenly clicked what was going on (and I think the William Booth/Salvation Army connection is a red herring.)

    A minor quibble about 9ac – surely a LEA is a meadow, therefore grazing rather than arable land?

    Plenty to like, though; difficult to nominate a CoD, but SOD’S LAW makes it by a short head.

    Thanks, Klingsor and John

     

  7. I thought that too, Allan_C, but under the second heading in Chambers defines LEA as arable land under grass or pasture. Never knew that before!

    Thanks K and J.

  8. Took an awful lot of wrong turnings, but was pleased to get there in the end.

    I stymied myself in the NW by entering ARE (one hundredth of a hectare) for arable area.

    And then there was QUADRILLES.  I couldn’t see the anagram, got hung up on “for a start, square” meaning QUAD at the top, then spent an inordinate amount of entirely pointless mental energy trying to work out how “I’ll denote” = RILLES.  Something to do with ILL being at the core of the matter (Latin res)???  Ah well.

    Thanks for the fun and enlightenment, Klingsor and John respectively.

    (It was less gruesome than today’s Guardian!)

  9. Having said in my beginning of the day post on Puck in The G that I’d have to to do this one it took me all day on and off! Apart from decorating and other diy stuff I held myself up by entering CHASED rather than CHASTE and needed MrsW to put me straight – and get ENDURING as loi. I needed to come here to fully parse ASSASSIN – I missed the polling pronounced with o as in holly rather than holy – a typically hidden in plain sight clue from a master setter – thanks to him and John.

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