Independent 10,883 by Mev

by

There was no compiler mentioned in the copy I received but various self-references in the puzzle made it fairly clear.

I haven't seen this compiler before but it was a very competent offering with some impressive anagrams.

ACROSS
1 ABILITIES
Skills of adult bisexual inside of slip knots (9)

A{dult} bi{sexual} [s]li[p] + ties(=knots)
6 JAPAN
Hard black varnish containers – one not closed (5)

Ja[r] pan
9 HOTEL
Popular European student accommodation (5)

Hot + E{uropean} + l
10 SPONSORED
As 1D might be – odds on very sunburnt (9)

SP(=odds) + on + so(=very) + red(=sunburnt)
11 EVEN
Smooth clue Mev wrote – satisfaction finally (4)

Last letters of "clue Mev wrote satisfaction".
12 VENTRICLES
Opening broken relic’s hollow cavities (10)

Vent + relics*
14 ELITE
80s computer game‘s typeface size is best (5)

Triple def – Elite was a 1984 computer game and also a font size.
15 PHANTOMS
Vacant podium has not dispelled visions (8)

(P[odiu]m has not)*
17 ASTEROID
Starfish formed by a biochemical compound (8)

A + steroid. Less common meaning of asteroid referring to a member of the Asteroidea class.
18 MAIZE
Puzzle surrounding Mev’s oil supplier (5)

Maze around I
20 SUPERHUMAN
Extraordinary hesitations over Midlothian following Drink Aware notices initially (10)

Sup(=drink) + Er and um around [lot]h[ian] + a[ware] n[otices]
22 IGBO
Roy Orbison’s book promoted without article in African language (4)

[The] Big O (nickname for Roy Orbison) with b moved up and the definite article removed.
24 APARTMENT
Accommodation of a point about Gilbert and George? (9)

A pt around art men(=Gilbert and George, a well-known art duo).
25 AMMAN
Morning person builds city (5)

AM + man
26 SPEED
Rate of ocean’s retreat (5)

Deep's< (as in the the deep).
27 SUCCESSES
Flipping American cricket club gets five points and wins (9)

US< + c{ricket} c{lub} + ESSES (5 compass points)
DOWN
1 ATHLETES
Herath let Eskinazi reveal sportspeople (8)

Hidden in "Herath let Eskinazi"
2 IN THE FIRST PLACE
Tie French plaits up originally (2,3,5,5)

(Tie French plaits)*
3 ISLE
Passage on the radio could be key (4)

Hom of aisle
4 ISSUE
Tons redacted from paper publication (5)

[T]issue
5 SHORTHAND
Dash north to translate symbols (9)

(Dash north)*
6 JUST IN TIME
Method of delivery of magazine supporting Welby (4-2-4)

Time (magazine) after Justin (Welby, current Archbishop of Canterbury).
7 PARALYMPIC GAMES
Apple’s magic army on the rampage in active competitions (10,5)

(Apple's magic army)*. Active possibly in the sense that they are on at the moment.
8 NUDIST
One without kit frequently found double-dipping a shirt (6)

This seems to be every 4th letter of "found double-dipping a shirt"
13 CELEBRATED
Extolled being famous (10)

DD
15 PRODUCERS
Overseers of audio staff in dark red clothes from Rhodes (9)

Rod in puce R[hode]s
16 HEROINES
Protagonists drug gutless enemies (8)

Heroin + e[nemie]s
19 ESSAYS
SAS orated short pieces (6)

Hom of SAS promounced as S + As
21 ATTIC
Revolutionary occupants of illicit tavern’s high chamber … (5)

Hidden, rev in illicit tavern
23 LATE
… and the rest rising not soon enough (4)

(Et al)<

12 comments on “Independent 10,883 by Mev”

  1. Quite a tough mental workout, with a few definitions I hadn’t heard of before this; elite as a font size, Japan as a varnish.

    Excellent anagrams indeed!

    SPONSORED and JUST IN TIME both raised a laugh.

    Thanks Mev and NealH

  2. I found this quite tricky in places but generally good fun.

    As a cricket nut, the two names in 1d were very familiar to me, but I would have thought they might be very obscure for many – not that not knowing them prevents the solving of the clue.

    I’m not convinced that the B is “promoted” in 22a.

    My favourite was ELITE, a nice TD.

    Many thanks to Mev and Neal.

  3. I think our blogger is being overly harsh in his assessment of ELITE. Doesn’t seem like tripe to me 😉

    RD @2: I did look up both names after solving the clue and was surprised to see both exist! But it did make for a nice, if slightly obscure, surface with hindsight.

    I didn’t parse NUDIST and didn’t know either of the components/solution in IGBO.

    Thanks Mev and NealH

  4. Yes, a humorous typo in blog for ELITE. I did parse NUDIST but couldn’t parse IGBO. I agree with Rabbit Dave’s criticism of this clue. “Promoted” is normally used to mean “move towards the front (or top in a down clue)”. Here the B has been demoted.

  5. Yes, pretty challenging and even though the computer said I’d solved it correctly, I still had four or five unparsed, including the two other meanings for ELITE and the every fourth letter NUDIST. A new word too in IGBO though at least this was one I could parse, with the reservation raised by Rabbit Dave @2 and Hovis @4 about whether the B is ‘promoted’ or demoted.

    Thanks to Mev (number 2 and look forward to more) and to NealH

  6. Hi everyone. (Not sure where my name’s got to. It’s on the pdf, just not in the interface. Hopefully that’ll get tweaked soon.)

    Thank you Neal for the blog, and for the comments so far.

    I’ve really enjoyed following the Paralympics, ever since the first appearance of The Last Leg on Channel 4 in 2012, so I was pleased to spot the opportunity to get that theme into a puzzle during the current games (Thx Ed!):

    Currently, many ELITE ATHLETES with SUPERHUMAN ABILITIES are striving to use their SPEED, strength and endurance to end up IN THE FIRST PLACE in their respective disciplines in the (better-LATE-than never) PARALYMPIC GAMES in JAPAN. I think they’re all heroes and HEROINES, and their endeavours and SUCCESSES should be CELEBRATED. (I believe there is some official mandate that SPONSORED athletes should refrain from plugging their sponsors on social media for the extent of the games.)

    Mark @3: Ha, everyone’s a critic! 🙂
    RD @2: While Rangana may be retired now, Steven is in action today. For the uninitiated, the former is the most successful left-armer in Test history, and the latter is in the form of his life with the bat right now (although not this morning, alas. #UpTheMiddle).
    Several: I felt “promoted” worked as “moved forwards”. I take your point though.

    Thanks all, glad to have another puzzle in.
    Cheers,
    Mev

  7. Thanks for the puzzle Mev – saw the theme early, but didn’t recognise all the themed clues – impressive that you managed to fit so many in.
    I found it a mixed bag on level of difficulty, in part down to general knowledge (e.g. I had no idea starfish could be an asteroid, and although I’d heard of Gilbert and George, but didn’t manage to translate it into ARTMEN) but have others have said, some good anagramming here.

  8. Too many unparsed clues for this to be fun for us. Small quibble that surely elite is a font not a size (you can have any size of Elite font).

  10. The font is indeed the size. The characters themselves are the typeface, but that seems to have been superseded by ‘font’ as all-inclusive of typeface and size.

  11. The theme and the cricketers sailed over my head and I hadn’t heard of the computer game but I did manage to catch up elsewhere.
    Think this is the first Mev puzzle I’ve tackled, perhaps there will be more to come?

    Thanks Mev and thanks to Neal for untangling the ‘every fourth letter’ clue!

  12. Belated thanks NealH for the middle meaning of ELITE and for untangling NUDIST – I think “regularly” would be a bit more helpful than “frequently” there but that’s probably just me. I have been confused/educated elsewhere by letters moving forwards to the end of a word and vice-versa so enjoyed putting this counter-intuitive technicque into practice with IGBO. I thought this was a curious mix with some quite obscure knowledge required/helpful – thank goodness for Lovejoy else I would never have got JAPAN – but lots of very clever constructions and a fine theme which I missed entirely, unlike the wheelchair rugby final which I recommend to anyone who did. Thanks Mev!

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