Independent 10,703 by Tees

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An excellent puzzle that had me delving quite deeply at times to see how the clues worked.

I liked 17across with a neatly clued double letter removal – not a device you see often at all. 7D was also quite nice for maintaining a consistent maritime theme while actually having nothing to do with that – a clue that's better if you know that a brill is a fish than if you don't.

There was nothing too obscure apart from perhaps the city at 26, but the clue was easy enough to work out.

ACROSS
9 NUMBER ONE
Hit the XO? (6,3)

DD. XO is an Executive Officer, who might be referred to as Number One on a ship.
10 PLUTO
Left in place old Disney character (5)

L{eft} in put + o{ld}
11 NARRATE
Getting back to Coleridge, rating rushed over to tell story (7)

([Coleridg]e tar ran)<
12 TRAPEZE
On the gin, read out letters in swinging bar (7)

Trap(=gin) + hom of Es
13 WASH
Launder western money initially neglected (4)

W{estern} + [c]ash
14 BRER RABBIT
British chatter about stray animal in stories (4,6)

B{ritish} + rabbit(=chatter) around err
16 QUAKERS
Ducks missing Chandler’s debut in Friends? (7)

Qua[c]kers. Quakers were originally the Society of Friends.
17 ALUMNUS
Old pupil a bright one nothing escapes (7)

A lum[i]n[o]us
19 ACT THE GOAT
Fool about to get at chap almost drunk (3,3,4)

(To get at cha[p])*
22 PAIR
Put together power ballad? (4)

P{ower} + air
24 TANTRUM
So much French spirit causes outburst (7)

Tant(=French for so much, used in expressions like tant pis) + rum
25 CLASSIC
Quintessential Scots girl endlessly seen in cricket club (7)

Lassi[e] in CC
26 TARTU
You French with craftsmanship entering Estonian city (5)

Tu(=French for you) around art
27 OLIVE TREE
One bearing fruit to relieve poor (5,4)

(To relieve)*
DOWN
1 UNKNOWN QUANTITY
Dark horse that may be last in Derby literally? (7,8)

Not entirely confident but I think this just refers to the last letter in Derby being Y, which is one of the three consonants usually used to mean an unknown in algebra.
2 AMBROSIA
More than reasonable fare to Jupiter or Mars? (8)

Not at all sure on this. It might just be a CD referring to the ambrosia as extra special food of the Gods (of which Jupiter and Mars are examples) but the "more than reasonable" bit seems redundant, so it feels as if the must be more to it.
3 BELAY
Bark perhaps coming about the Spanish hold at sea (5)

Bay (as in dogs baying) around el
4 FOIE GRAS
Delicacy is mixed with forage (4,4)

(is forage)*
5 JESTER
Entertainer stumped amid derisive hoot (6)

St{umped)(=abbrev in cricket) in jeer
6 APPARATUS
Soldier dropped in wearing suitable American equipment (9)

Para(=soldier dropped in, referring to the use of parachutes) in apt + US
7 SUPERB
Brill for each coming aboard U-boat (6)

Per in sub. Brill here is obviously not a reference to the fish but short for brilliant
8 POVERTY STRICKEN
It prevents rocky ground becoming really stony (7-8)

(It prevents rocky)*. Def refers to being stony broke.
15 LECHEROUS
Mysterious clues about protagonist with roving eye (9)

Clues* around hero
17 ANARCHIC
An atmosphere dismissing current style is rebellious (8)

An a[i]r + chic(=style)
18 NOAHS ARK
Transport ship in drama crossing area by Channel island (5,3)

Noh(=Japanese theatre) around a{rea} + Sark
20 TUNDRA
Medic introduced to swimmer in wasteland (6)

Dr in tuna
21 GAMMON
Brexiter insulted loads empty gun with bullets (6)

G[u]n around ammo. Gammon is a pejorative term for a Brexiter.
23 RAVEL
Composer wasting time in tourism (5)

[T]ravel

14 comments on “Independent 10,703 by Tees”

  1. Great start to the week. Tees at his best, I thought. Yesterday, I remarked on one of the best anagrams I had seen and today we get 8d – We’re being spoiled. Thanks to Tees and Neal.

  2. Great fun – thanks Tees. Agree with Hovis @1 that POVERTY STRICKEN is brilliant.

    Thanks also to NealH for blogging. We hadn’t heard of XO for an Executive Officer, so needed the blog for the explanation of 9ac. We don’t have anything to add to your parsings of 1dn and 2dn. In 1dn I think the “literally” is telling us to look at the letter y. In 2dn I guess the “reasonable fare” is good for the surface, while the food of the gods can be nicely downplayed as “reasonable fare”.

  3. Simply 7dn!

    I agree with Hovis and DavidO about the parsings and with their admiration for the brilliant POVEERTY -STRICKEN.
    I also had ticks for NARRATE, with its nod to the Ancient Mariner, UNKNOWN QUANTITY, FOIE GRAS, APPARATUS, LECHEROUS and NOAH’S ARK.

    I also liked the linking of BRER RABBIT (Joel Chandler Harris) with the character from FRIENDS.

    Many thanks to Tees and NealH for a grand start to the week.

  4. Hear hear to previous comments about the excellent anagram at 8D. I’ve often tried to create sensible anagrams and it’s jolly hard. I couldn’t parse 9A but it had to be Number One – I thought there might be an excretory allusion, but apparently not. 1D leapt out at me, almost without thinking. I thought we were on our way to a pangram, but there’s no X. Thanks Tees and Neal.

  5. Lots to like; I’m with others on the anagram/clue of the day and Eileen has identified most of my other favourites though I’d add QUAKERS to the list. (btw, NealH, whilst you’re right that the formal name of the movement has changed, I think present day Quakers are still referred to as Friends). JESTER also made me smile … as it should, I guess. Amazing that, with all the coverage, the association of GAMMON with Brexit has completely passed me by.

    Good to see TARTU cropping up in a puzzle again…..(!)

    Thanks Tees and NealH

  7. nice to finish after failing miserably to spot anagrams all over the place… obvious when solved.. as regards AMBROSIA, is there a homophonic element as in ROSIA=ROSIER ? doesn’t seem to allow for the AMB bit.. just rambling now..
    thanks to Tees n NeilH

  8. Tees crosswords are always good but this one was really very good.
    And so, I echo all the praise in the comments above.
    8dn wasn’t the only one that was brilliant, one could easily add a few more (like 16ac, 22ac, 27ac, 1dn or 18dn).
    Like DavidO I hadn’t heard of XO but it’s clear now.
    By far the best puzzle of the day (in my opinion).
    Thanks to NealH & Tees.

  9. We don’t usually look for themes or ninas in a Tees puzzle, but as the blog suggests, there does seem to be a bit of a nautical theme, beginning with NUMBER ONE. PLUTO has been the name of several Royal Navy ships (as well as the acronym for PipeLine Under The Ocean). The WASH is of course an inlet of the North Sea. BELAY, as the definition in the clue indicates, is an order on board ship to hold something (such as a rope when hauling on it) and SUPERB has, like Pluto, also been the name of several warships – most recently a submarine. And, to round it all off, NOAH’S ARK, although more a floating zoo than a transport ship we would think!
    But theme or no theme, this was a satisfying solve, even if we couldn’t parse 9ac – we didn’t know the XO abbreviation although we’d come across EO.
    Thanks, Tees and NealH

  10. Unknown Quantity: The justification given seems apt. Y is an unknown in algebra. ‘Literally’ seems redundant though.

  12. Outrageously ace puzzle here I think, so I’ll dive in to say so. Did this via Zoom with pals, and we thought the ‘more than reasonable fare to Jupiter or Mars’ one to be a CD referencing the idea that AMBROSIA is of extra-special quality, so fare that is ‘more than reasonable’. It’s a gag about private space ships too of course, so another nice thing for topicality. Great.

  14. Started strongly tailed off at the end though, thanks for explaining UNKNOWN QUANTITY (too clever for me) and AMBROSIA . I enjoyed NUMBER ONE and GAMMON

    Thanks Tees and NealH

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