Independent on Sunday 1,634 by Tees

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The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi everybody.  Another week, another Tees, and I’m not complaining!  This is the IoS, so as expected I found it rather gentler than last Saturday’s, but no less fun.  I wouldn’t be me if my favourite wasn’t the PEEPING TOM at 12a; I also very much liked 5d, IN THE SAME BREATH and more.  Thanks Tees!

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. Link words are generally omitted for clarity.

 

Across

1a    Break from wearing corsets? (10)
STAYCATION
Whimsically, you could interpret the answer as a holiday from wearing corsets/stays.

7a    One might pick this rugby forward (4)
LOCK
A double definition

9a    Girl corrupted round adult clubs: item for the press? (6)
GARLIC
An anagram of (… corrupted) GIRL goes round A (adult).  Add C (clubs) to get something which might be put through a garlic press

10a   Parasite in record dispute sent back millions (8)
TAPEWORM
TAPE (record) + ROW (dispute) reversed (sent back) + M (millions)

11a   Japanese fighter gives you nothing (4)
ZERO
Two definition, the first being a plane which I dimly recall meeting in a crossword before

12a   Mimicking bird, cat who looks for excitement? (7,3)
PEEPING TOM
PEEPING (mimicking bird) + TOM (cat)

14a   Orchestra to transgress, less authentic for an audience? (8)
SINFONIA
SIN (to transgress) + FONIA, which sounds like (… for an audience) PHONIER (less authentic)

16a   Value returned welcoming a Biblical brother (4)
ESAU
USE (value) reversed (returned) containing (welcoming) A

18a   Kevin shortly consuming one chicken dish (4)
KIEV
KEV (Kevin shortly) around (consuming) I (one)

19a   Stretch out scandal involving Mister Musk? (8)
ELONGATE
A scandal involving Elon Musk might be termed ELONGATE

21a   Both rather drunk, fans may swoon over him (5-5)
HEART-THROB
BOTH RATHER anagrammed (drunk)

22a   Duck takes sheep outside for wander (4)
ROAM
O (duck) with RAM sheep around it (outside)

24a   All for end in feud in Maltese capital (8)
VALLETTA
ALL replaces the END in V[end]ETTA (feud)

26a   One died in fight — but when? (6)
FRIDAY
I (one) and D (died) in FRAY (fight)

27a   Go mad when retired (4)
STAB
BATS (mad) when reversed (retired).  I’m already mad, and would love to retire, but have a few decades to serve yet …

28a   Pedant and stoic clash explosively (10)
SCHOLASTIC
STOIC CLASH, anagram (explosively)

 

Down

2d    Torment me on the radio? (5)
TEASE
A homophone of (… on the radio) TEES (me: the setter)

3d    Outbreak of cowardice? (6,5)
YELLOW FEVER
Another clue structured like 1a: YELLOW FEVER could perhaps be an outbreak of cowardice

4d    Gangster on his own without detonator (2,6)
AL CAPONE
ALONE (on his own) outside (without) CAP (detonator)

5d    Sharing soapy water on getting into it together? (2,3,4,6)
IN THE SAME BREATH
IN THE SAME BATH (sharing soapy water) with RE (on) inserted (getting into it)

6d    Pot knocked over — family needs serviette (6)
NAPKIN
PAN (pot) reversed (knocked over) + KIN (family)

7d    Deep Blue (3)
LOW
Two definitions

8d    Winger wrecked motor car touring north (9)
CORMORANT
An anagram of (wrecked) MOTOR CAR going around (touring) N (north)

13d   Large singer dressed in Scots headgear (11)
GLENGARRIES
LARGE SINGER anagrammed (dressed, as in set in order or arranged).  I had to do a bit of letter-shuffling before I could recall the word to mind

15d   One can rave about European wandering (9)
ITINERANT
I (one), TIN (can) and RANT (rave) around (about) E (European)

17d   Certain people cannot be so described (8)
DOUBTFUL
A cryptic definition.  I am certain of this, so cannot be described as DOUBTFUL

20d   Position figures around university (6)
STATUS
STATS (figures) around U (university)

23d   Craftsman on the fiddle a dull one (5)
AMATI
A + MAT (dull) + I (one)

25d   Room for experimentation in alcohol abuse (3)
LAB
The answer is found in alcohoL ABuse

 

14 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,634 by Tees”

  1. Thanks Kitty and Tees, a DNF sadly for me on 11a just didn’t know the fighter. Oh well. Otherwise a very pleasant romp.

  2. This was light but very enjoyable with the single exception of 1a which I thought was iffy.

    I didn’t know that SCHOLASTIC could be a noun, but a quick check in Chambers confirmed this.

    PEEPING TOM was my favourite (great pic, Kitty!)

    Many thanks to Tees for the fun and Kitty for her usual great blog.

  3. I misled myself for a while: I was convinced 5d would be IN THE SAME BUBBLE – topical, referencing soapy water, meaning together… Which threw me for a bit in the South as a result. But everything resolved satisfactorily in the end. Nice to see LOCK clued in a way that doesn’t reference hair! DOUBTFUL, SINFONIA, VALLETTA, STAYCATION and PEEPING TOM were favourites. ELONGATE has appeared in similar forms several times this year across the G and the Indy; not Tees’ fault but it leaped out. AL CAPONE, I’m afraid, solved from the enumeration alone and I was a little surprised by encountering SCHOLASTIC both as a noun and with the meaning given in the clue. Live and learn.

    Thanks Tees and Kitty

  4. Pleasant Sunday entertainment. I liked STAYCATION, PEEPING TOM and FRIDAY and enjoyed working out the parsing of IN THE SAME BREATH. A bit of education as well, with SCHOLASTIC as a noun new to me as for Rabbit Dave @2 & PostMark @3 and GLENGARRIES now added to the ‘headgear’ / hats list for future crosswords.

    Thanks to Tees and Kitty

  6. This was a bit of a relief after the Everyman. Good, entertaining crossword.

    My likes were the same as Kitty’s, plus FRIDAY and ITINERANT.

    Thanks Tees and Kitty.

  7. Have to say that I think I preferred PostMark’s interpretation of 5d but this was nevertheless another enjoyable romp from Tees. I did check on the spelling of the Scottish headwear and the name of the Japanese fighter but quite happy with everything else.
    Top three were STAYCATION, PEEPING TOM & TEASE.

    Thanks to Tees and to our favourite feline for the review and birdy pic!

  8. When I’d solved 2/3 of the clues in less than twenty minutes (which is quite an achievement for me!) I thought this was an usually easy puzzle, but the last few were toughies. Didn’t get the parsing of 1a, 13d included a bit of guesswork on the spelling, 23d escaped me as I’d never heard of the violin maker and didn’t know mat was a valid spelling and 17d didn’t click even with all the crossers, but having seen the answer it was one of my favourites.
    Certainly fun overall.

  9. Same as Sheepish @8 I flew into this parsing clues like I knew what I was doing (previous posts on this blog have confirmed I don’t) and then hit the wall and got entirely stuck and needed quite a bit of help to complete

    Of the ones I managed FRIDAY, TEASE and DOUBTFUL were my favourites

    GLENGARRIES, AMATI and SINFONIA all new to me (I had a few attempts around SYMPH… as the starter but wasn’t aware of this spelling)

    Thanks a lot Tees and Kitty

  10. Enjoyable as usual for a Tees crossword. Add me to the list of those who were amused by PEEPING TOM. (Nice photo, Kitty) Other ticks went to STAB, TEASE, and the current puzzle staple, ELONGATE. Thanks to both.

  11. A pleasant enough Sunday solve with no problems apart from guessing the Japanese fighter and googling to confirm it. A change to see ‘gangster’ as the definition in a clue instead of a way of cluing AL. Plenty to enjoy including SINFONIA, ESAU, SCHOLASTIC, GLENGARRIES and SCHOLASTIC.
    Thanks, Tees and Kitty.

  13. Having not completed an Indy crossword for several days, I’m pleased to say I completed this in about half an hour.

  14. [PostMark @3: From the Sunday NY Times (noncryptic) puzzle — Southern university beefs up campus security?
    ELON ELONGATES GATES.]

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