Independent 10,831 by Tees

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Tees on a Wednesday – always a fun challenge.

I thought most of this was fairly straightforward, but there were a few trickier clues that needed a bit of thought to parse. I enjoyed the groan-inducing puns in 5d and 19d, and lots of good surfaces. Although I’m not generally a fan of cryptic definitions, I really liked 9a, which was initially baffling and then (with a few crossers) obviously right and rather clever. Thanks Tees as always.

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

ACROSS
1 MALICE
Rancour in African country church (6)
MALI (country in West Africa) + CE (Church of England).
4 BASSET
Dog born with attractive feature (6)
B (abbreviation for born, for example in genealogy records) + ASSET (attractive feature).

Short for basset hound = a short-legged hunting dog.
9 PERSONAL PRONOUN
It is what it is (8,7)
Cryptic definition. Personal pronoun = one associated with a particular grammatical person (first person = I / we, second person = you, third person = he / she / it / they). So the sentence could be expanded as ‘A personal pronoun is what “IT” is’.
10 STEREO
Sound system bent trees round (6)
Anagram (bent) of TREES + O (round).
11 OBSOLETE
Dead fish taken in to be cooked (8)
SOLE (a flatfish) taken into an anagram (cooked) of TO BE.
12 CONCRETE
Substantial clubs on Greek island (8)
C (abbreviation for clubs in card games) + ON + CRETE (Greek island).

Concrete (as opposed to abstract) = real = substantial.
14 LOW-KEY
Relaxed look at wicket by opener (3-3)
LO (lo! = look!) + W (abbreviation for wicket, in cricket scoring) + KEY (opener for a lock). The surface suggests the cricket meaning of “opener” as one of the first two players to bat.
15 THIRST
Craving beer at last in the present time (6)
Last letter of [bee]R in THIS (the present) + T (time).
18 GENERATE
Create case for trade after classes (8)
Outside letters (case) of T[rad]E, after GENERA (classes of animals or plants).
21 FIGURINE
Soldier retreats to Ur breaking nice statuette (8)
GI (American soldier) reversed (retreats) + UR, inserted into (breaking) FINE (nice).
22 CUP-TIE
Competition caught up with Bond (3-3)
C (caught, in cricket scoring) + UP + TIE (bond = personal association or obligation).

A sports match in the course of a cup (knock-out) competition.
24 KNUCKLE SANDWICH
Lunch packed with punch? (7,8)
Cryptic definition. Slang term for a punch in the mouth.
25 TWENTY
Banknote left in tray emptied (6)
WENT (left = departed), in T[ra]Y (emptied = middle letters removed).

Short for a twenty-pound or twenty-dollar note.
26 ROB ROY
Outlaw keeping old brother in line (3,3)
O (old) + BRO (slang abbreviation for brother), kept in RY (short for railway = line).

The Scottish folk hero Rob Roy MacGregor.
DOWN
1 MAESTRO
Virtuoso left band — no piano turning up (7)
[p]ORT (left in seafaring terminology) + SEAM (as in coal seam = band = something distributed in a long thin line), without the P (p = piano = quiet in musical terminology), all reversed (turning up, in a down clue).

Maestro = virtuoso = an accomplished musician.
2 LOSER
Failure more relaxed missing an Oscar (5)
LO[o]SER (more relaxed), without one O (Oscar in the radio alphabet).
3 CONDONE
Pardon prisoner executed (7)
CON (short for convict = prisoner) + DONE (executed = completed).
5 AEROSOL
After training Rosa and Leo can type (7)
Anagram (after training) of ROSA + LEO.

A type of can (spray can). Groan.
6 SUNFLOWER
Oil source seen in Van Gogh’s art? (9)
Double definition, though the two are actually the same thing; maybe it’s a cryptic definition instead, with the surface suggesting oil as in oil paint. The plant Helianthus, which produces showy yellow flowers (such as those painted by Van Gogh) and oil-bearing seeds.
7 TRUSTEE
Set out to stop honest administrator (7)
Anagram (out) of SET, inserted into (stopping) TRUE (honest).

Trustee = a member of the administration board of an organisation.
8 ALCOVE
A Liberal by coastal area in recess (6)
A + L (abbreviation for Liberal) + COVE (coastal inlet).
13 CARBUNCLE
Vehicle black and dirty not an eyesore (9)
CAR (vehicle) + B (abbreviation for black, as in B/W) + UNCLE[an] (dirty) without the AN.

Carbuncle = a cluster of boils. The word acquired the meaning “eyesore” when Prince Charles used it to describe a modern (and, in his view, ugly) extension to a historic building.
16 HAIRNET
At sea the rain warrants cover for head (7)
Anagram (at sea = shaken up) of THE RAIN.
17 TRIPLET
Excursion allowed for one child in three? (7)
TRIP (excursion) + LET (allowed).
18 GREASE
The fat of the land do we hear? (6)
Homophone (do we hear?) of the land (country) of GREECE.
19 NO CAN DO
Party enforcing six-pack ban? Impossible (2,3,2)
Six-pack = six cans of beer sold as a package. Do = slang for a party (social occasion). So a party where guests are asked not to bring beer might be a NO-CAN DO. Groan.

Slang for “I can’t do that”.
20 TWITCHY
Really small marrow finally included in stew? (7)
TITCHY (slang for “really small”), including the final letter of [marro]W.

In [a] stew = twitchy = agitated.
23 POWER
Wartime captive meeting monarch might (5)
POW (short for Prisoner Of War) + ER (Elizabeth Regina = British monarch).

Might, as a noun = power.

10 comments on “Independent 10,831 by Tees”

  1. A nice straightforward crossword from Tees but with the usual high enjoyment factor. Lots to enjoy, although unlike our blogger, I have met similar clues to 19d before

    Thanks to Tees for the fun and Quirister for the blog

  4. lots of good cluing led to a reasonably swift solve… I liked 19dn.. made me smile, as did AEROSOL… forever embedded as a genius sketch in Not the Nine O’Clock News.. good to see Rob Roy make an appearance… one of my favourite Walter Scott novels.. couldn’r parse MAESTRO but had enough to get it.. I feel DEAD is a strong def for OBSOLETE… altho probably entirely accurate, I like to think there is too much inbuilt obsolence in our current time… but I’m guessing that’s just a sign of aging… ditto the amount of time I had to think about 9ac…
    thanks Tees n Quirister

  5. Nicely balanced puzzle with LOW-KEY and GREASE coming out on top for me.

    Thanks to Tees and to Quirister for the review.

  6. Very enjoyable solve despite one or two groans such as for 19dn.
    WE saw SUNFLOWER as a cryptic definition.
    HAIRNET rang a bell as it was similarly clued only a few days ago. We thought it might have been by Tees’ alter ego in the FT but it turns out it was Crosophile in the Indy; it must be just coincidence, though, given that that the puzzles were probably compiled weeks if not months apart.
    Thanks, Tees and Quirister.

  9. Thanks Tees. I hadn’t heard of CUP-TIE and I didn’t know “titchy” as really small but TWITCHY was the only word that made sense; otherwise I made quick work of this crossword with AEROSOL, NO CAN DO, and PERSONAL PRONOUN being favourites, the latter for its surface. Thanks Quirister for parsing, I couldn’t figure out MAESTRO.

  10. Without knowing grammar, I immediately bunged in definite article at 9a, thinking crikey, I’ve seen this one a few times.

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