On checking, I find that this is only Angel’s second puzzle in the Indy, having made his/her debut just before Christmas last year. Tractable, with some succinct and precise cluing would be my executive summary, so bravo/brava to the setter.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Missing address?
HOMESICK
A cd.
5 Clue describing pit?
TIP-OFF
What is referred to in our house as a reverse anagram thingy. TIP-OFF is a cryptic clue for PIT, since it’s (TIP)* and ‘off’ is an anagrind.
9 A lingo developed after lesson for district
REGIONAL
A charade of RE for the school ‘lesson’ and (A LINGO)* The anagrind is ‘developed’.
10 One followed by a goddess
ATHENA
A charade of A, THEN and another A.
12 By luck, lab recreated molecule
BUCKYBALL
(BY LUCK LAB)* with ‘recreated’ as the anagrind. Hurrah for a science clue: a BUCKYBALL (full name Buckminsterfullerene) is a cage-like structure composed of 60 carbon atoms and looks just like a football.
13 Initially relapsing, every heroin addict battles recovery
REHAB
The initial letters of the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth letters of the clue.
14 Fearless competition
GAME
The dreaded ?A?E, with more possibilities than you can shake a stick at. A dd, and my last one in, since both the definitions were not the first synonyms that sprang to my mind.
16 Old family, one at war endlessly somewhere in Japan
OKINAWA
A charade of O, KIN, A and WA[R].
19 Male got ripped, concealing self-indulgence
EGO-TRIP
Hidden in malE GOT RIPped.
21 Sell fruit cocktail
HAWK
A charade of HAW and K for the last letter of ‘cock’. You have to employ the ‘lift and separate’ procedure to ‘cocktail’, turning it into ‘cock tail’, to make the clue work.
24 Western isle, and western part of troubled isle
LEWIS
An insertion of W in (ISLE)*, with the concise and precise cluing particularly praiseworthy here.
25 Change the rhythm, modifying pacy notes
SYNCOPATE
(PACY NOTES)*
27 Listings omitting Hotel Emily, for one
WATSON
Another clue I particularly liked, when I sussed it. W[H]ATS ON, and referencing the English actress Emily WATSON.
28 Wild as nights in a Sussex town
HASTINGS
(AS NIGHTS)*
29 Force union leader to wear frock
DURESS
An insertion of U for the initial letter of ‘union’ in DRESS. The insertion indicator is ‘to wear’
30 Fall back, holding onto old American support for cause
ESPOUSAL
An insertion of O and US in LAPSE reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘holding onto’ and the reversal indicator is ‘back’.
Down
1 Aromatic, full of energy through this means
HEREBY
An insertion of E in HERBY. The insertion indicator is ‘full of’.
2 Charms soldier wrapped in coats
MAGICS
An insertion of GI in MACS. The insertion indicator is ‘wrapped in’.
3 Christmassy present in the Seychelles
SNOWY
An insertion of NOW in SY for the abbreviation for ‘Seychelles’. The clue is fine, but I will just reflect that Christmases are very rarely snowy in most parts of the UK these days. That doesn’t stop Christmas cards, and particularly Christmas adverts on the TV, being full of the stuff. And while I’m having a chunter, the robin is an all year round resident of this country and doesn’t just appear perched on spade handles with 5cm of snow on top.
4 Corrupt archdeacon sacrificing Tory in absurd pretence
CHARADE
(ARCHDEA[CON])* with ‘corrupt’ as the anagrind.
6 Lay to rest, 6 points under discussion
INTERVIEW
A 4dn of INTER, VI for the Roman ‘6’ and EW for two of the ‘points’ of the compass.
7 Say ‘Throw to me!’ Or catch!
OVERHEAR
A homophone of OVER HERE! which is what you’d say if you wanted someone to throw the ball to you.
8 A fumble, a failure: torch it!
FLAMBEAU
(A FUMBLE A)* with ‘failure’ as the anagrind.
FLAMBEAU is an archaic word for a flaming torch.
11 Scraped out awful techno part
ALTO
The outside letters only (‘scraped out’) of A[WFU]L and T[ECHN]O.
15 No bras as I dealt with the results of chafing
ABRASIONS
(NO BRAS AS I)* with ‘dealt’ as the anagrind.
17 Recent partner drops year-long growth upward
NEWLYWED
A reversal (‘upward’, since it’s a down clue) of DEW for ‘drops’ (of water), Y, L and WEN. The final particle is a skin ‘growth’ or cyst, and is most often found in the archaic and somewhat derogatory term for London, The Great Wen. I mentioned it in one of my blogs a few weeks ago and nobody seemed that bothered about it, but I’m not persuaded that L for ‘long’ works. L for ‘length’, for sure.
18 Deployed to the war, causing trouble
HOT WATER
(TO THE WAR)* with ‘deployed’ as the anagrind.
20 Plump louse eats plant ends, causing blight
PEST
The last letters of the first four words of the clue.
21 Sounds like where jumpers might go, or where flyers go
HANGARS
A homophone (‘sounds like’) of HANGERS, with ‘jumpers’ in the clothes sense.
22 Subdues mother’s sisters beneath daughter
DAUNTS
A charade of D and AUNTS.
23 Tickle large prickly head
TEASEL
A charade of TEASE and L. I’m not completely convinced that TEASE and ‘tickle’ are the same thing.
26 Trump revealed hairstyle
OUTDO
A charade of OUT and DO.
Many thanks to Angel for the start to the Indy week.
Coincidentally, I have just been reading about fullerenes. It’s interesting that Euler’s formula shows that such a molecule must have exactly 12 pentagons but there are various possibilities for the number of hexagons (the Buckyball having 20).
Thought this crossword was ok but not great. In particular, I felt that 16a would work better if “one, “ was omitted and wondered what “it” was doing at the end of 8d (other than for the surface).
Very nice start to the week, and we think we spotted a mini-theme, with LEWIS, HASTINGS, WATSON, and SNOWY(!) being detectives’ sidekicks. FLAMBEAU is also a regular character in the Father Brown stories, but we think he’s a nemesis rather than a sidekick.
Also, in 5ac, it’s particularly clever that the word “Clue” is a definition of the answer.
Thanks to Angel and Pierre.
A nice Monday crossword- I too spotted the mini-theme and agree with DavidO about the cleverness of Clue in 5a
Thanks to Angel and Pierre – 14a was my last one in too!
This was light and pleasant but relatively unexciting, with 14a my favourite.
Although I am a chemist by training that was a long, long time ago and 12a was a new molecule for me. I stared in disbelief at the anagram fodder for quite a while before looking up the only answer I could unscramble from those letters, and I found to my amazement it really does exist.
Thanks to Angel and to Pierre.
Picking up on a couple of Pierre’s specifics: I was OK with tease=tickle in the sense of stimulate – particularly an emotion (SOH for example). Can they also mean the same when applied to extrication? Teasing/tickling out an idea or something that is physically stuck? I do recall a recent discussion of L for long – but not where I saw it! I thought I remembered SML – Short/Medium/Long – as clothing measurements.
I also agree with Pierre’s admiration for LEWIS which, along with OVERHEAR, WATSON, HOMESICK and HASTINGS, earn my ticks for today. As does the mini theme – well spotted DavidO.
My only tiny quiblet – I’ve never hung a jumper on a coat hanger – they live in drawers in my house – so 21d didn’t work so well for me.
Thanks Angel and Pierre (no hawk picture? [And I hope you saw the Damascene pigeon the other day. One to add to the collection.])
Thanks Pierre. L for Long as in trouser sizes, perhaps?
Coincidentally we had FULLERENE in a Brummie puzzle in the Guardian last week.
Well, unlike some previous commenters, I thought this was excellent, and well done DavidO for spotting the mini-theme. My only quiblets (thanks PostMark) are insular: at 16A Okinawa doesn’t seem to me to be ‘somewhere in Japan’, being some 400 miles away; then I was thrown at 24A as Lewis is the northern part of the mysteriously divided (troubled?) island that contains both Lewis and Harris, but eventually worked it out. Thanks Angel and Pierre.
Good spot on the detective sidekicks team, DavidO. I did see LEWIS and WATSON next to each other, but thought no further (and would never have got HASTINGS as one of the quartet). SNOWY will always be MILOU to me, as a further excuse.
L for ‘long’? Okay then, that works for me from now on. I suppose it’s a bit like H and C for ‘hot’ and ‘cold’: you might not find them in dictionaries but they stare at you from taps every day when you wash your hands.
DavidO: in the tv series Flambeau is indeed a recurrent opoent, but in the short stories he begins as a foe, but Father Brown succeeds in redemming him, and he becomes FB’s sidekick in several episodes.
Lots of favourites: 10, 12, 16, 24, 25, 27, 29, 3, 15, 23, 26.
28: Wondered if you were tempted by wild-ass night in…. 🙂
14 took me far too long. Speaking of which, L=long was my only eyebrow-raise, but I expect it’s attested somewhere.
@Hovis: “one” is for the first A in 16.
A fun solve, with some nice head-scratchers (a little detective-work required, ahem.)
Cheers Angel and Pierre.
I started well with this but then had quite a bit of head scratching. Several took me longer than they should have done when I realised what the parsing was.
It seemed there was an unusually high number of anagrams but that wasn’t a problem. Although I knew Buckminsterfullerene and assumed 12a was connected to it the abbreviated version was new to me.
I too struggled with 14A, but the pair of TIPOFF and FLAMBEAU were my LOIs.
TheVoidTLMB @10. I realise that but, the point I was making, is that “at war endlessly” gives AWA and the clue as written essentially makes “at” just a link word. As such, I still think my comment @1 stands.
@Hovis: Ah, right. Fair enough then.
Thanks for the info Goujeers!
Found this somewhat tougher than Angel’s debut puzzle and failed to parse NEWLYWED. As for BUCKYBALL, that was completely new to me and had to be investigoogled.
Plenty that I did enjoy and I think the simple ATHENA was my favourite.
Thanks to Angel and to Pierre for the review and the explanation of how 17d worked!
just me bunging in HOMELESS at 1a then?
Thanks to Angel & Pierre
baerchen @16: not just you, no. And NAMELESS was a hesitant thought early on.
Found it hard to believe buckyball was a word. One day I’ll have to stop saying “I must learn some science” and actually learn some science. I liked the terseness and cleverness of 1 and 5a and the surfaces of 7 and 8d. Like others, I needed the blog to unravel newlywed, so thanks to Pierre and to Angel.
Angel said on Twitter there were 6 links. Hawk is a sidekick in an obscure to me series. Thanks Pierre and the Angelic one
Mostly straightforward but we needed a wordfinder for NEWLYWED, and had to google for people named Emily (our first thought was ‘Bronte’ but we knew it couldn’t possibly be that).
We’re with Goujeers@9 about Flambeau being Father Brown’s sidekick rather than nemesis. But then we’re aficionados of Chesterton’s original stories and we gave up watching the latest TV adaptation after two or three episodes as they were an utter travesty and as for the later ones, they are simply ridiculous parodies. Why can’t scriptwriters leave things as they are?
But back to the puzzle. Plenty to like and our favourites included SYNCOPATE, OVERHEAR and, for its apt surface, ABRASIONS.
Thanks, Angel and Pierre