Independent 10,775 by Morph

by

A delightful puzzle full of lots of variety.

14 and 15 were the pick of the bunch for me but most of it was very good.

ACROSS
1 ROAM
When abroad, use phone with nothing in memory (4)

O in RAM
3 WELL BORING
Extremely tedious, going down to get water (4-6)

DD
10 VILLA
Very sick beginning to ‘Animal House‘ (5)

V{ery} + ill + a[nimal]
11 POSTERIOR
Advert around carnival city showing butt (9)

Poster around Rio
12 SENEGAL
Eagles flying over North African country (7)

Eagles* around N{orth}
13 RICOTTA
Italians make a meal of this reform of Riot Act (7)

(Riot act)*
14 PALISADE
Royal adviser on radio raised stakes (8)

Hom. This is properly pronounced as "pal ass ade", which sounds like "palace aide".
16 NOSED
After rejection, half-hearted offspring proceeded cautiously (5)

S[e]ed after no(=rejection)
18 SINAI
Territory taken back in Egyptianisation (5)

Hidden, rev in Egyptianisation
19 UNMAILED
Cropped male nude I sent – not in post (8)

(Mal[e] nude I)*
21 BY SIGHT
Snap up building land on basis of report and from appearance (2,5)

Hom of buy site
23 LIE DOWN
‘A Song for Europe’? Have to go to bed! (3,4)

Lied(= a European name for a song) + own(=have)
24 ISOTHERMS
Hotlines, perhaps, between ideologies being different (9)

Other in isms(=ideologies)
25 CUBAN
Metal bar from island (5)

Cu(=copper, chemical symbol) + ban(=bar)
26 EXASPERATE
Anger old queen – snake, being clasped, bit (10)

Ex ER around asp + ate(=bit)
27 TEXT
Message from old flame in ‘Times’ (4)

Ex in t{ime} twice
DOWN
1 RAVISH
Transport similar to mass gathering? (6)

CD/DD – rave-ish
2 ALL IN VAIN
Wasted and full of oneself – no use whatever (3,2,4)

All in(=wasted) + vain
4 EXPEL
Old footballer chucking last boot out (5)

Ex Pel[e]
5 LASERBEAM
Seal savaged fish keeping its head down – ray? (5,4)

Seal* + bream with the b moved down a letter
6 OVERCONFIDENCE
Excessive ego of one pursuing maiden? (14)

Not sure on this seems to be confidence after over (a maiden being an example of an over) but I'm not sure why one would be confidence
7 IDIOT
Fool regularly taking Air Djibouti (5)

Even letters of "air djibouti"
8 GARLAND
Leaves fish out of water, might one suppose? (7)

CD/DD with the second part being gar land i.e. a gar (type of freshwater fish) on land
9 BARGAINING CHIP
Pub obtaining means of digital identification as business asset? (10,4)

Bar + gaining + chip
15 ADULTERER
Breaking rule with date, right? I am (9)

&lit – (rule date r{ight})*
17 SEE DOUBLE
Two options for gambler to make pair out of singleton? (3,6)

CD/DD. The subsidiary def refers to see and double as two possible calls in a game such as poker.
18 SUBSIDE
New player joining team in collapse (7)

Sub(=new player in the sense of one just coming onto the pitch) + side
20 UNKNOT
Punk, notwithstanding trousers, to get out of bondage (6)

Hidden (indicated by trousers) in punk notwithstanding
22 SHONA
Made light of American replacing English language in Africa (5)

Shone with A{merican} instead of E{nglish}
23 LISZT
Composer, unknown, dropping down ranks of minor celebrity (5)

Z-list with the Z moving towards the end

17 comments on “Independent 10,775 by Morph”

  1. I read 6d as saying if you are attempting (pursuing) a maiden over then you would be exhibiting over confidence.

    Couldn’t parse 1d. Who says “ravish” as “rave-ish”?

  2. I found this quite challenging but good fun.

    “Old” = “ex” was a bit overdone, and, like Neal, I couldn’t understand the wordplay of the second part of OVERCONFIDENCE.

    PALISADE was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Morph and to Neal.

  3. I always enjoy a Morph crossword and this one was no exception, although I do think he is getting more difficult as time goes on

    Lots to enjoy although I do agree with Hovis about 1d

    Thanks to Morph and NealH

  4. Lots of clues here I really enjoyed, even if it was a bit harder than Monday puzzles usually are and OVERCONFIDENCE was only semi-parsed. I had to finish in two goes as I initially put in a lazy ‘in sight’ for 21a and therefore couldn’t get SUBSIDE, which was my last in. GARLAND is a good word to add to the list of non-verb organic ‘leaves’.

    I particularly liked the surface of UNKNOT and my favourite SINAI, which would qualify as an &lit in my book (though someone who knows what they’re talking about will probably tell me it isn’t!).

    Thanks to Morph and NealH.

  5. WordPlodder @4. I think SINAI qualifies as a “semi &lit clue” (ghastly phrase!) where the whole thing is the definition but only part of the clue is the wordplay.

  6. Thanks both. I am just persuaded on the parsing of OVERCONFIDENCE., however RAVISH does not work for me, although the answer was not elusive.

  7. A satisfying solve, solving the last one just as I finished breakfast, though I agree that RAVISH and OVERCONFIDENCE seem on the dodgy side, even though they couldn’t have been anything else. I set off on the wrong course at 8D with ‘gurnard’, which is a fish, and having visited a holiday centre on the Isle of Wight called Gurnard Pines, but soon realised that couldn’t be right. Thanks Morph and Neal.

  8. I really enjoyed this crossword, though it took a bit of hard thinking here and there. I had no problem with ‘ravish’ = ‘a bit like a rave’ = ‘similar to mass gathering?’ – especially with the question-mark at the end of the clue.
    I could not parse ‘nosed’, however, as I became certain that ‘nos…’ was offspring ‘after rejection’ and was trying to make ‘ed’ somehow be ‘half-hearted’ also reversed (kicks self).
    Thanks to Morph for an interesting and engaging crossword and to NealH for the enlightening blog

  10. A most enjoyable puzzle although I did find a few caused me problems – 6d for example. Like others I did like PALISADE.

    Many thanks to Morph for a great puzzle and NealH for the blog.

  11. Thanks Rabbit Dave @5, I’m sure you’re right about the “semi &lit”. I’ll get it right some day.

  13. Not an easy ride by any means but still plenty to enjoy. Like others, it was PALISADE that stood out for me and I also liked the short TEXT and ALL IN VAIN.

    Thanks to Morph and to Neal for the review.

  14. I thought there were some very craftily obfuscated constructions here. Specially liked the short pair TEXT and ROAM.
    I also went for SON< in 16a, and was therefore looking for a reason for ED; also still unconvinced by OVERCONFIDENCE.
    Definitely growing to like Morph. Thanks also to NealH

  15. We failed to parse LIE DOWN (didn’t think of ‘Lied’ for song) and NOSED (couldn’t shake off the idea that ‘rejection’ was a reversal indicator). But the rest was fine. Favourite was ISOTHERMS.
    Thanks, Morph and NealH.

  16. I can’t see any problem with 1d. It’s not a “sounds like” clue. The two meanings in a DD don’t have to have the same pronunciation.
    Thanks all

  17. DuncT @16. I would agree with you if it was a DD. It seems to me to be a definition + a cryptic definition and, especially since a “raveish” spelling would seem more likely, I feel it doesn’t work. No rule book on this, so really a matter of opinion but many didn’t like it so best avoided in future IMO.

    On the other hand, I still don’t see the objections to 6d.

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