Independent 10,398 by Kairos

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I found this a mixture of easy and tricky clues.

There were a few terms and usages of words that were unfamilar to me, which made finishing the puzzle hard work.

Across
1 CENTRE Regularly cleans Tories’ meeting place (6)
  Odd letters of cleans tories
4 ELDER Wife leaves joiner for church official (5)
  [W]elder
8 CO AUTHOR One helping with joined-up writing? (2-6)
  CD
10 WORTHY Argue about your old mayor? (6)
  Row< + thy
11 OSMIUM Heavy Metal single covered by Big Mama (6)
  I in OS mum
12 EXHAUST Car part – tyre for Ford? (7)
  American spelling of tyre.  From the context, I assume the Ford must be Henry Ford.
13 BRAIN DRAIN Cure for hydrocephalus leads to loss of intelligence (5,5)
  DD.   Hydrocephalus is the accumulation of fluids in the brain, so may be treated by draining the brain.
15 FROM Out of shape men rejected (4)
  I think this is form with the OR bit (the men=Ordinary Ranks) backwards
16 MILL Beginning of Moloch’s evil works (4)
  M[oloch] + ill
18 SETTLEMENT Insurance payment for subsidence (10)
  DD
21 YARDAGE Measure of silver included in ready change (7)
  Ag in ready*
22 ANIMAL Object to a pound holding new creature (6)
  (Aim + a l) around n{ew}
24 CARHOP Complain about call to American waitress (6)
  Carp about ho.  A carhop serves customers in their cars.
25 TRACTION Friction arising from offensive by Turkey (8)
  Tr (internet and car reg abbrev for Turkey) + action
26 BROOK Stand for one reading in John’s gospel? (5)
  R[eading] in book
27 PEPPER Go for each salad item (6)
  Pep + per
Down
1 CROSS Traverse cold Antarctic sea (5)
  C{old} + Ross, the Ross Sea being in the Antarctic region
2 NAUTILI Astronaut I like keeps marine molluscs (7)
  Hidden in austronaut i like
3 REHOMED Show group of animals briefly returned and put in a new pen (7)
  (Demo her[d])<
5 LOWCHEN Quiet companion gets nurse for dog (7)
  Low + CH + EN.
6 EARMUFF Slice of pear muffin provides a winter warmer (7)
  Hidden in pear muffin
7 SHUT DOWN Stop editing whodunits after leaving India (4,4)
  (Whodun[i]ts)*
9 RE ENACTMENT Mock battle with soldiers invading abandoned TA centre (2-9)
  Men in (ta centre)*
14 RAINY DAY Adrian has two years struggling in time of need? (5,3)
  (Adrian Y{ear} Y{ear})*.  Colloquially, a rainy day is a time of need, as in keeping something for a rainy day.
17 LURCHER Dog walker under the influence of alcohol? (7)
  DD
18 SHAMPOO Go away carrying current bathroom cleaner (7)
  Shoo around amp
19 LEAKAGE Escape heading away from dreary season (7)
  [B]leak + age
20 MAINTOP Principal and head meet somewhere onboard ship (7)
  Main(=principal) + head(=top). The maintop is a platform below the main mast.
23 AMOUR Love morning time on the radio (5)
  AM + hom of hour

*anagram

12 comments on “Independent 10,398 by Kairos”

  1. A mixed bag for me but enjoyable nonetheless.

    Pleased to eventually figure out FROM. A nice, tricky clue. Guessed CARHOP & LOWCHEN both new to me.

    Had to cheat to get BROOK.

    Who pronounces the OUR in AMOUR as HOUR? No one I know.

    Thanks to Kairos and Neal.

  3. I enjoyed this.  Parts were quite straightforward but some parts were very challenging.  BROOK was my last one in, and I couldn’t parse FROM.

    I am a bit puzzled by CARHOP as I thought HO was American slang for prostitute, which is the only meaning that Chambers gives.

    Hovis @1.  Regarding 23d, I don’t think there is any suggestion that the answer is a homophone, simply that the component part OUR is a homophone of HOUR.

    Many thanks to Kairos and to Neal.

  4. Rabbit Dave, Chambers gives several meanings for “ho” – the meaning as an interjection being relevant here.

    I did wonder whether your suggestion for 23d was correct at the time. I vaguely remember another setter once doing this. If that is the intention, I still think it is a godawful clue but to each his/her own.

  5. Thanks Kairos, NealH

    There are always a few sucker punches in Kairos puzzles.  I found FROM & BROOK very hard, but came completely unstuck with PEPPER.  I thought it was a choice between WEEPER and PEEPER (the former a type of onion, the latter maybe a TOMato? desperate) and gave up like an idiot.

    re 23d: this is probably unfair, but I quote Kairos with one of his other hats on:

    ‘I think solvers would be right to grumble that the homophone does not work in the solution.  It is something I have (rightly) been picked up on.’

     

  8. We found this to be a mix of the straightforward and the more devious.  CARHOP and LOWCHEN were new to us and had to be confirmed from Collins – neither of them are in Chambers.  We thought of REHOMED for 3dn from crossing letters but couldn’t see the parsing for absolutely ages.

    We liked OSMIUM, EARMUFF and RAINY DAY among others.

    Thanks, Kairos and NealH.

  10. Didn’t have chance to look at this until late yesterday and confess to leaving it to finish off this morning.   Not sure that I would have got either BROOK or FROM without the checkers narrowing the field.    BRAIN DRAIN was probably my favourite although I do have a soft spot for a LURCHER.

    Thanks to Kairos for the challenge and to NealH, particularly for the parsing of FROM.

  12. I was dubious about that one as well but interpreted it as one letter of reading  = R.  I don’t think R is an official abbreviation of reading other than colloquially in the 3 Rs.

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