Independent 10,757 by Italicus

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A relatively gentle Monday puzzle which was full of well-designed and sound clues.

28A was my favourite, simply for the neat reversal of having shorn applied to something other than the sheep.

ACROSS
1 CAMARADERIE
America cunningly infiltrated by a revolutionary communist brotherhood (11)

America* around (a red<)
7 FAB
Remarkable female born on the first of April (3)

F{emale} + A[pril] + b{orn}
9 RIOJA
Song about imbibing orange juice and wine (5)

Air< around O{range} J{uice}
10 LEFTOVERS
Unwanted parts of European newspaper hoarded by enthusiasts (9)

E{uropean} FT(=Financial Times) in lovers
11 ALBATROSS
Sailor crossing lake saw tortoises avoiding the odd bird (9)

Ab around l{ake} + even letters of saw tortoises. An albatross is a large seabird which is occasionally sold as a cinema snack.
12 IRATE
Mad terrorists appearing from both directions with common end (5)

IRA + ETA< with the a being common to both.
13 NUANCED
Subtle daughter follows sister around a church (7)

D{aughter} after (nun around a + CE)
15 LINK
Associate with large tattoo (4)

L{arge} + ink(=tattoo as a verb)
18 PLOT
Dismissing one airman’s plan (4)

P[i]lot
20 MALTESE
Met seal migrating from Mediterranean island? (7)

(Met seal)*
23 CREEP
Toady caught aristocrat returning (5)

C{aught} + peer<
24 IN THE PINK
Blooming popular record covered by Muse (2,3,4)

In(=popular) + EP(=Extended Play, old record) in think(=muse as a verb)
26 RANSACKED
Searched sedan car abandoned outside King’s Head (9)

(Sedan car)* around K[ing]
27 EXILE
Banish from English team taking on the French (5)

E{nglish} + XI + le
28 EWE
Not as many shorn sheep (3)

[F]ewe[r]
29 ENTERTAINER
Showman, put in army in Ecuador, deserted (11)

Enter + TA + in + E[cuado]r
DOWN
1 CURTAINS
The end of short article defending international society (8)

Curt + (an around i{nternational}) + s{ociety}
2 MOONBEAM
Low rafter supports new illumination (8)

Moo(=low) + (beam after n{ew})
3 REACT
Answer concerns area north of Connecticut (5)

Re + a{rea} + CT(=Connecticut)
4 DELTOID
Spinning led to detective twisting muscle (7)

Del< + to + DI<
5 REFUSAL
Earl shamefully accepting fellow American’s knock-back (7)

Earl* around f{ellow} + US
6 EMOTIONAL
Sensitive email not surprisingly is filled with love (9)

(Email not)* around o
7 FOETAL
Adversary cut story short in early stage of development (6)

Foe + tal[e]
8 BASKET
Hamper request to partake in wager (6)

Ask in bet
14 CALIPHATE
Excerpt infused with a loathing for theocratic state (9)

Clip around a + hate
16 SEDITION
Rabble-rousing second issue (8)

S{econd} + edition
17 NECKWEAR
Make out feature beneath women’s clothing (8)

Neck(=make out) + w{omen} + ear
19 THICKET
Covert offensive interrupted by yokel (7)

Tet around hick
20 MATADOR
Gypsy holding information about killer (7)

(Rom around data)<. Rom refers to a member of the Romany people and a matador is normally the bullfighter who delivers the fatal blow to the animal.
21 ACCRUE
Collect a working party’s report (6)

A + hom of crew
22 SEANCE
Irishman joins church for spiritual experience (6)

Sean + CE(=Church of England)
25 ENEMA
Some upstanding militiamen ended purge (5)

Hidden, rev in militamen ended

14 comments on “Independent 10,757 by Italicus”

  1. Couple of minor errors/typos in blog. In 11a, need the A from sAw as well and 4d should have led<. Don’t know why there are so many missing spaces in the clues (at least in my printout). These occur in 12a, 1d and 16d.

  3. Also a minor quibble , it’s the odd letters of tortoise that are used in spite of the instruction to avoid odd letters?
    Other than that a thoroughly enjoyable start to the week.Thanks Italicus and NealH

  5. A minor frustration with the Independent is when, as we have today, there are mistakes in the typesetting. When I did this a little earlier there were several instances of words being run together in the clues and, of course, one doesn’t know whether they are intentional. They seem to have cleaned up now(!) but were definitely there when I solved.

    Panthes @3: it’s the odd letters of “saw tortoises” which gives the ATROSS

    Ticks today for ALBATROSS, CAMARADERIE, MOONBEAM, THICKET for the misdirection and the lovely CALIPHATE.

    Thanks Italicus and NeilH

  7. I too was thrown by the words running together in three clues, and began to think there might be a theme to this, but apparently not. At 17D I didn’t know ‘neck’ = ‘make out’, and thought it might be ‘deckwear’ (which I’ve seen advertised in boating magazines,) so squeezed both D and N into the first square to be safe! Apart from this all fair and square so thanks Italicus and NealH.

  8. I was another one thinking the words running together in some clues might be part of the puzzle, but no, just a trainee typesetter! Calling for the even letters of two words combined was a good trick. Makes no difference, but I parsed 4d as an anagram (spinning) of LEDTO plus DI (twisted – back to front). Enjoyed moonbeam, caliphate and irate in particular. Thanks to Italicus and NealH.

  9. Enjoyed today’s – challenging enough without being impenetrable and made steady progress over a few visits , DNF as usual but only a few I didn’t get at all.

    I thought IN-THE-PINK was excellently done and my favourite

    I didn’t know Covert=Thicket and was nowhere near either parts of the wordplay!

    Equally as distracted as the above posters around the errors in the clues (trying to work out if ‘endof’ was a thing) but can’t say I floundered on this alone!

    Thanks a lot to Italicus for the perfectly (for me) challenging crossword and to NealH for making sense of it all

  10. This was light but great fun with EWE my favourite.

    I can’t see how “covert” defines THICKET.

    Many thanks to Italicus and to Neal.

  12. NealH @11. Thanks very much. I looked it up in Chambers and the definition there isn’t linked to “thicket”. I should have carried on looking as I see it is in Collins!

  13. Nicely done by our setter who has paid commendable attention to concise clues and good surface reads.
    Plenty of ticks on my sheet with top marks going to EWE, CURTAINS, CALIPHATE & THICKET.

    Many thanks to Italicus and to Neal for the review.

  14. A generally easy solve with only a few tricky bits. NECKWEAR was our LOI as we spent ages hunting down ‘make out’ as ‘neck’; eventually found it tucked away in Chambers under ‘make’ but noted as ‘chiefly American slang’.
    Favourites were IRATE and NUANCED but there was lots more to like.
    Thanks, Italicus and NealH.

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