Independent on Sunday 1,654 by Tees

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi all.  This is my first Tees blog for a while, although half way through the year exactly half of my Indy blogs for 2021 had been for his puzzles.  I didn’t complain then, and I’m certainly not complaining now!

I thought 1d (SILVERWARE) was a neat anagram and also liked 5d (BACKGAMMON).  My favourite clue was for the PEEPING TOM in 14d; I resisted the urge to reuse my favourite illustration for it (last seen here – same answer, same setter, different clue).  Many 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.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

9a    Among other things at airline mishandled (5,4)
INTER ALIA
AT AIRLINE anagrammed (mishandled)

10a   Yank in paradise not initially expelled (5)
HEAVE
The answer is found in HEAVE[n] (paradise) with the first letter of (… initially) Not removed (expelled)

11a   Success where corruption reduced by politician (7)
VICTORY
VICe (corruption) without the last letter (reduced) next to (by) TORY (politician)

12a   Family bereavement in Moray village (7)
KINLOSS
KIN (family) + LOSS (bereavement)

13a   Monarch likely to establish a line? (5)
RULER
You could very likely establish a line with a RULER

14a   Recordings to broadcast fun tips (9)
PLAYLISTS
PLAY (fun) + LISTS (tips)

16a   First on display to arrange big noise in RAF (3,5,7)
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL
CHIEF (first) next to (on) AIR (display) + MARSHAL (to arrange)

19a   Copper back on a diet cooked without guidance (9)
EDUCATION
CU (copper) reversed (back), with ON A DIET anagrammed (cooked) outside (without)

21a   Council crime not even mentioned (5)
SYNOD
SIN (crime) and ODD (not even), homophone (mentioned)

22a   Economic recovery ahead: seat suspended? (7)
UPSWING
UP (ahead) + SWING (seat suspended)

23a   Kangaroo eating large flower (7)
BLOOMER
BOOMER (kangaroo) around (eating) L (large)

24a   Expert from A-section? (5)
ADEPT
A– and DEPT (section)

25a   Had to care after manipulating figures (9)
OCTAHEDRA
HAD TO CARE once anagrammed (after manipulating)

 

Down

1d    We’re rivals fighting for trophies (10)
SILVERWARE
WE’RE RIVALS anagrammed (fighting)

2d    Knife that stabs left cuts in pedant (8)
STICKLER
STICKER (knife that stabs); L (left) is inserted (cuts in)

3d    Mail perhaps from Romeo in love affair (6)
ARMOUR
R (Romeo) in AMOUR (love affair)

4d    Genuinely not about to join forces (4)
ALLY
[re]ALLY (genuinely) without (not) RE (about)

5d    Game defender having loaded empty gun? (10)
BACKGAMMON
BACK (defender) + the outer letters of (empty) GuN loaded with AMMO

6d    Dealer caught by dogged police officer? (8)
CHANDLER
C (caught) + HANDLER (dogged – with dogs! – police officer), the question mark marking the whimsicality

7d    It’s not about you in French dialect (6)
PATOIS
PAS (not) around (about) TOI (you) in French

8d    Olympian in Egyptian port coming north (4)
ZEUS
SUEZ (Egyptian port) reversed (coming north, in a down entry)

14d   Spy doing tweets to his boss? (7,3)
PEEPING TOM
PEEPING (doing tweets) TO  M (his boss? – M is the MI6 head in the world of James Bond)

15d   Dressing an immature man, having laugh about it (5,5)
SALAD CREAM
A LAD (an immature man) inside (having … about it) SCREAM (laugh)

17d   23 Across to rent Moog instrument that’s heard? (8)
HYACINTH
A sound-alike of (… that’s heard) HIRE (to rent) plus SYNTH (Moog instrument).  23 across = BLOOMER

18d   Individually produced in hotel with servant called (8)
HANDMADE
H (hotel) + AND (with) + MADE, a homophone of (… called) MAID (servant)

20d   Bad result for Leinster neighbour (6)
ULSTER
An anagram of (bad) RESULT

21d   In Tromso others give comfort (6)
SOOTHE
The answer is hidden in TromSO OTHErs

22d   You travel around to state: Mormon one? (4)
UTAH
I didn’t get the wordplay for this at all and had to seek help: it’s another sound-alike (… to state), of YOU and TOUR (travel around)

23d   Vampire for one beginning to explode in rage (4)
BATE
BAT (vampire for one) + the first letter of (beginning to) Explode

 

16 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,654 by Tees”

  1. Many thanks to Tees for a typically madcap offering. It was great fun to solve with nice brief clueing which I always enjoy.

    Thanks too to Kitty for her review, and to her helper for the parsing of 22d, which eluded me but I’m not surprised that it did as it comes close to being the worst homophone of the year in my book.

  2. RD@1 Since homophone clues nearly always work perfectly for me, I feel I can’t complain. I could have suggested YOU TAR as an alternative, for example – if I wanted to annoy all the rhotic speakers, that is!

  3. Well, if there’s an accent where UTAH sounds even vaguely like YOU TOUR, I don’t know it, so failed to parse that one.

  4. Thanks Kitty. I agree with pretty much everything RD@1 said. I’m still hoping there’s another parsing for 22d – based on word-play alone the clue is unsolvable to me. U-TAR is still pretty bad, but would at least have been good enough to serve as confirmation of the solution.
    But that’s my only gripe, some great clues – BACKGAMMON the standout for me.

  6. Another to be puzzled by UTAH and I still don’t see how it works. Maybe Tees will pop in to enlighten us. Apart from this, everything made sense. I liked the ‘loaded empty gun’ at 5d, the ‘dogged police officer?’ at 6d and “hire synth” at 17d, which is exactly what a good homophone should be – iffy, but at least (vaguely!) a sound-alike.

    Thanks to Tees and Kitty

  8. Lovely puzzle. An enjoyable solve from start to finish & spoilt only by my inability to see PATOIS until I revealed the first letter & then couldn’t parse it – should have paid more attention in French classes at school. Add me to those unable to parse UTAH.
    PEEPING TOM, BACKGAMMON & HYACINTH my top 3.
    Thanks to Tees & Kitty

  9. The link works, and the way that guy pronounces it does sound a lot like you tour, so fair enough, and thanks to Tees for a spot+on Sunday treat of a crossword. Loved backgammon, chandler and patois but all good. Thanks also to Kitty for entertaining blog.

  10. An enjoyable Sunday puzzle from Tees but please put me down as another who didn’t ‘get’ the homophone in 22d although, in fairness, the link posted by our setter could almost persuade me.
    A good friend and neighbour of mine was an Air Vice Marshall so 16a came quite readily and my favourite was definitely CHANDLER – loved it!

    Thanks to Tees and to our lovely feline for the review.

  11. TBF I think you-tar is also pretty good. I’m being truthful however when I say that I really do use you-tour.

  12. We fairly rattled through this, our only problem being slow to realise ‘list’ = ‘tip’ as verbs. 22dn was no problem as we’ve heard it pronounced something like ‘u-tor’ and there are worse homophones around.
    SILVERWARE, CHANDLER and PATOIS were our picks of the day.
    Thanks, Tees and Kitty.

  13. I don’t think I have seen a device like in BACKGAMMON before, where the material to be inserted is not clued because it’s the natural thing to insert. Very clever. Like Kitty, I’m usually lucky with homophones, so UTOUR is fine, even though it’s not how I would say it. Thanks, both.

  14. We parsed it as “you tore” which I think is closer than “tour” but evidently not what Tees intended. Not sure what a couple of you are hearing on the YouTube link where he clearly says you-tar! Is this like those optical illusions where some see one colour and some another? Anyway we enjoyed a nice quick Sunday solve.

  16. Anotherwho struggled with the homophone at 22d, but enjoyed the rest of the puzzle. As Kitty mentioned SILVERWARE is a fine anagram. ALLY was my FOI and ADEPT brought up the rear, with PEEPING TOM a highlight near the end. Thanks Tees and Kitty.

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