Independent 10,727 by Tees

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This isn’t really an “easy Monday puzzle” – Tees (as usual) makes us work just a bit harder, but he’s always good value. I enjoyed it.

There are a few non-obvious definitions, and a few bits of “general knowledge” that might not be at everyone’s fingertips. But the unusual words are clued clearly, and the definitions make sense (and amusement) when you see them; nothing unfair, just a bit of thought needed. Favourites include 13a (sounds like some recent complaints from Europeans about American versions of their classic recipes) and 21a for the obvious-when-you-see-it definition. Thanks Tees.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 TONE
Character to eviscerate Nazarene (4)
TO + N[azaren]E (eviscerate = remove the inner letters).

Tone = character = style or manner.
3 CHAIN-SMOKE
Pull on weed relentlessly shackles donkey (5-5)
CHAINS (shackles) + MOKE (slang for donkey).

Chain-smoke = to smoke (cigarettes etc) continuously.
10 PORTEND
Left at sea, aim to make forecast (7)
PORT (seafaring term for the direction left, so “left at sea”) + END (aim = objective).

Portend = forecast = indicate that something is likely to happen.
11 SAILING
Sons in poor health — would this bring on nausea? (7)
S (abbreviation for son or sons) + AILING (in poor health).

The definition refers to seasickness, which might well be caused by sailing.
12 ADELE
Singer in a wooded hollow heard (5)
Homophone (heard) of A DELL (a wooded hollow).

Adele seems to be the current favourite singer for crossword setters; we’ve seen her a few times recently, in either wordplay or solutions.
13 LYONNAISE
Poor snail one Yankee cooked with onions (9)
Anagram (poor) of SNAIL ONE Y, where Y = Yankee in the radio alphabet.

Cookery terminology for a dish with finely-sliced onions (often fried).
14 CUT-THROAT
Ruthless to spread lies about terrible truth (3-6)
COAT (as a verb = to spread over a surface), around (lies about = is positioned around) an anagram (terrible) of TRUTH. I liked the misdirection of “lies” in the same sentence as “truth”.
16 EXACT
Weapon, returned to court, that causes bleed (5)
AXE (a weapon), reversed (returned), then CT (abbreviation for court).

Exact, as a verb = bleed = demand payment without mercy.
18 RHEUM
Discharge of gas put through drink (5)
HE (He = chemical symbol for the gas helium), inserted into (put through) RUM (a drink).

Discharge from the nose or eyes, for example as a result of the common cold.
19 PERTINENT
Fitting fresh cover for metal bearings (9)
PERT (fresh = cheeky / disrespectful), around (cover for) TIN (a metal) and E + N (two compass bearings = directions).
21 RAINSTORM
Right arm is not broken in heavy fall (9)
R (right) + anagram (broken) of ARM IS NOT.

Nicely misleading definition – this one definitely looked like an anagram, but it took me ages to think of a heavy fall of rain.
22 TESLA
Inventive sort decorates Lancastrian houses (5)
Hudden answer (. . . houses = contains) in [decora]TES LA[ncastrian].

Nikola Tesla, electrical engineer and inventor.
24 HEAVE TO
Energy cuts must stop (5,2)
E (energy) inserted into (cutting) HAVE TO (must, as in “I have to go now”).

Seafaring terminology for bringing a vessel to a stop.
25 ANODYNE
Annoyed when struggling to find pain reliever (7)
Anagram (when struggling) of ANNOYED.

A pain-relieving drug.
26 BLOOD MONEY
Ice for this lolly? (5,5)
Cryptic definition: the phrase has a few meanings, one of which is a fee paid to an assassin to kill someone. “Ice” (as a verb) is slang for “kill” in this sense of “get rid of someone inconvenient”, and “lolly” is slang for money. So nothing at all to do with an ice lolly on a stick.
27 HEBE
Goddess wants case dropped in Boeotian city (4)
[t]HEBE[s] (largest city of the Greek region of Boeotia), with the outer letters (case) dropped.

Greek goddess of youth, chief drinks-server to the rest of the gods.
DOWN
1 TAP DANCER
One needing floor that’s hard and carpet free? (3,6)
Anagram (free) of AND CARPET.

A dancer using metal-tipped shoes to create a rhythm on a hard floor; it really doesn’t work on carpet.
2 NERVE
Message sensibly conveyed in this bottle (5)
Double definition: the pathway for sensory messages in the human body, or nerve = bottle = slang for courage. (Though the Cockney rhyming slang derivation of “bottle” is somewhat less polite than “courage” might suggest.)
4 HIDALGO
Covered earlier clothing left for Spanish gentleman (7)
HID (covered) + AGO (earlier), containing (clothing) L (left).

The lowest rank of the Spanish nobility: just about considered a gentleman, but with no real title or wealth.
5 IN SHORT
Republican on camera coming round to sum up (2,5)
R (Republican) with IN SHOT (on camera) coming round it.

To sum up = in short = introducing a summary of what’s been said previously.
6 SCIENCE FICTION
Genre briefly returned in horrific series (7,7)
A bit sneaky, this one. Hidden in [horr]IFIC S[eries] is SCI-FI backwards (returned), which is an abbreviation (briefly) for SCIENCE FICTION, a genre of writing.
7 ORIGINATE
One trap set during harangue in spring (9)
I (one in Roman numerals) + GIN (a spring-loaded animal trap), contained in (set during) ORATE (harangue, as a verb = make an opinionated speech).

Spring = originate as in a river springing from its source.
8 EAGLE
Hunter and dog requiring no introduction (5)
[b]EAGLE (a type of dog), without its first letter (requiring no introduction).
9 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
Border teams helped to build new town (5,9)
HEM (border) + anagram (to build) of TEAMS HELPED.

Town in Hertfordshire, UK. “New town” refers to towns designed and built after WW2, to accommodate people displaced by bomb damage or needing to move out of poor-quality overcrowded housing; Hemel Hempstead was one of the earliest, along with a few others around London and elsewhere.
15 THE MIKADO
Make hit plays and perform amusing opera (3,6)
Anagram (. . . plays) of MAKE HIT, then DO (perform).

Comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan.
17 TETE-A-TETE
Repetitive notes written about adult in private meeting (4-1-4)
TE (note in the sol-fa musical scale) four times (repetitive), around A (abbreviation for adult).

Tête-à-tête (French “head-to-head”) = a private conversation between two people.
19 PRO BONO
Enquiry ended early on ring with no charges (3,4)
PROB[e] (enquiry; ended early = last letter dropped) + ON + O (ring).

Pro bono = term for professional work (especially legal representation) undertaken without charging fees, for the benefit of those who can’t afford to pay. (Short for Latin pro bono publico = for the public good.)
20 RAMPAGE
Servant goes with crowd for violent disorder (7)
PAGE (servant, as in page-boy) added to RAM (crowd = fill with people, as in “the train was completely rammed this morning” – as we might have said in the days when 9-5 commuting was considered normal).
21 REHAB
What’s taken into staff about to give treatment (5)
EH (eh? = what? = I didn’t catch what you said), taken into BAR (staff = pole) reversed (about).
23 STYLE
Reportedly steps over fence in dash (5)
Homophone (reportedly) of STILE (wooden steps built to enable climbing over a fence).

Dash = style = smartness in dress sense or behaviour.

13 comments on “Independent 10,727 by Tees”

  1. I thought this was about right for a Monday but then perhaps I knew the right ‘stuff’ Enjoyable as ever

    Thanks to Tees for the crossword and Quirister for the blog

  2. I struggled with this, especially NW corner, but got there eventually. Loved the sneaky ‘sci-fi’ at 6D but didn’t like S for sons, spent too long trying to work SS into it. Thanks Tees and Quirister.

  3. I thought usual stuff from Tees… good mix of subtle misdirection like 2dn n proper smiley ones like ADELE… was lucky I feel that the new town leapt of the screen at me… I also didn’t go thro’ the correct convolutions to get 6dn…
    Very enjoyable
    Thanks Tees n Quirister

  5. Thanks Tees and Quirister

    Tatrasman @ 2: S = son or sons is a standard abbreviation in genealogy, eg ‘Person X 2s: Person Y 1s 1d’.

  7. I had no idea about the ‘Boeotian city’ and so had to take a punt on HEBE which I associate more with horticulture than Greek mythology. I’d also never heard of LYONNAISE in a culinary sense, but wordplay was obviously helpful.

    I’m pretty sure I’ve seen something similar before, but ‘Ice for this lolly?’ was a great clue.

    Thanks to Tees for a good workout and to Quirister

  8. Second time this week donkey=moke. I might remember it now. Thanks to Quirister for the quality blog. Thanks also to Tees – just about right for “a lad with a morning head” as Bertie Wooster says.

  9. Don’t think I’ve solved many of this setter’s puzzles previously but I quite enjoyed this one. Learned about a new Spanish gentleman and had a question mark alongside 6d for some time, having missed the reversed hidden.
    26a was clever and gets my vote for today.

    Thanks to Tees and to Quirister for the review.

  10. I could have had SON, couldn’t I, for that S, cos it would still have made the cryptic grade. Next time, I promise.

    There isn’t a list of single-letter indicators for the Indy as far as I know, though I’d be totes happy to be put right on that. Likewise FT. The list I once used for single-letter indication is still available: it’s called Chambers! But since with that you can have more or less anything for your indicator, and enrich your surface accordingly, I don’t suppose it’s really fair. The Times one lets you have SON or SONS inter alia (though not many bloody alia) for S, whilst the DT one says SON, and I quote, ‘but not SONS’. No messing with that lot, I can tell you.

    Thanks everyone, and Quirister for the super blog.

  11. We found this a bit trickier than some of Tees’ puzzles but we made it in the end. We got 6dn from crossing letters but couldn’t parse it although it seemed to have something to do with the letters in ‘horrific series’. And we didn’t spot the anagram for TAP DANCER – we just saw the whole clue as a cryptic definition. Favouriye was LYONNAISE.
    Thanks, Tees and Quirister.

  12. I was today years old when I finally got an Opera in the crossword 🙂

    ADELE my favourite clue, also enjoyed HEMEL HEMSTEAD

    Like JayJay @8 I remembered donkey from the other day but I couldn’t remember what the term was!

    SCIENCEFICTION completely baffled me (as opposed to the mildly baffled which is my standard parsing level) so thanks as ever for the excellent blog Quirister and of course to Tees for the challenge

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