Independent 11,044 by Skinny

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This was quite enjoyable and generally at the easier end of the spectrum.

There was a sort of theme, which the solution to 9 across hints at, although there is no direct link.

ACROSS
9 ANAGRAM
Old skeptic is one of six (7)

"Old skeptic" is an anagram of Clue 6 (stockpiled). There are also six words with identical letters in the puzzle (decimal, declaim, camelid, maliced, claimed and medical), although that doesn't appear to have any obvious connection with this clue.

10 ANTENNA
A new note delivered for receiver (7)

A n{ew} + hom of tenner(=note)
11 CLAIMED
I’m beginning to enjoy getting dressed outside, it’s alleged (7)

(I'm + e[njoy]) in clad
12 DECIMAL
Transfer around one thousand, counted in tens (7)

Deal with c(=around) I M "counted in"(=included). Tens seems a bit weak as a definition of decimal. "Counted in tens" would be better but the "counted in" really seems to be needed for the subsidiary clue.
13 DOOLITTLE
Old toilet-trained literary parvenu (9)

(Old toilet)*. I think it's referring to Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion who is a parvenu in the sense that she hasn't yet acquired the right accent and social graces.
15 PENCE
Marks’s partner uncovered small change (5)

[S]pence[r] (as in M&S)
16 CAMELID
Start to consider problem about losing 1,000 alpaca? (7)

C[onsider] + dilem[m]a<
19 MALICED
In the past, resented lunatic eating insects (7)

Mad around lice. Chambers gives malice as an obsolete verb meaning to wish harm to someone.
20 IDLER
Layabout led astray in centre of Beirut (5)

Led* in [Be]ir[ut]
21 SOUNDLESS
Mum‘s three sons touring public school (9)

S{on} thrice around Oundle, a public school in Northants.
25 DECLAIM
Leader of council ushered back outside with plan to make a passionate speech (7)

C[ouncil] in led< + aim
26 MEDICAL
Examination of tart, turned over and covered in honey (7)

Acid<(=tart in a taste sense) in mel, a type of pure honey used medicinally.
28 SOLVENT
Having enough money for alcohol? (7)

DD, alcohol used here in a chemical sense
29 SEVERAL
Quite a few leavers on a spree (7)

Leavers*
DOWN
1 RANCID
Presided over police department that’s rotten (6)

Ran + CID
2 NAVAJO
Native American‘s refusal to drink coffee from the south (6)

No around Java<
3 CRAM
Clear out, getting rid of small stuff (4)

[S]cram i.e. clear out = go away.
4 AMIDST
Surrounded by a fog enveloping first bit of descent (6)

A mist around d[escent]
5 DAYDREAM
Imagine old man stealing unknown quantity of paper (8)

Dad(=old man) around Y(=mathematical unknown) + ream
6 STOCKPILED
Put aside large building designed primarily to support farm animals (10)

(Pile(as in ancestral pile) + d[esigned]) on stock(=farm animals).
7 MNEMONIC
Piece of music in ‘Omen’ maybe brought up as a reminder (8)

Hidden, rev in "music in omen maybe".
8 GABLE END
Part of house finally being fit on completion (5,3)

[Bein]g + able + end
14 ILL TREATED
Damaged condition of patients before and after a doctor has seen them? (3-7)

Ill(+state before seeing the doctor) + treated(=state after seeing the doctor, hopefully).
16 CHILDISH
It’s naive to refrigerate unfinished food (8)

Chil[l] + dish
17 MOLECULE
Spy enigmatic clue? Just a bit (8)

Mole + clue*
18 DUST MITE
Bug in the house – it’s muted, curiously (4,4)

(It's muted)*
22 UNMASK
Reveal sources of new material in University Challenge (6)

(N[ew] M[aterial]) in U{niversity} + ask(=challenge)
23 ENCORE
Regularly re-enact our rep performance again (6)

Even letters of "re-enact our rep"
24 SOLELY
It’s shrewd to stifle a triumphant cry on one’s own (6)

Sly around olé
27 DOVE
Winger went to ground easily in the US (4)

DD with dove as the past tense of dive, which seems to be mainly an American usage. I'm not sure why the "easily" is necessary.

13 comments on “Independent 11,044 by Skinny”

  1. I reckon DECIMAL is DECAL (a transfer) around IM with “counted in tens” as definition.

    I thought OUNDLE was very obscure. Liked the anagram theme. Perhaps, Skinny is expecting us to think there are 5 anagrams of CLAIMED and the one mentioned in 9a is then one of six, giving the surface that extra bit of meaning.

    I also didn’t understand why 27d has “easily”.

  2. I recognised ANAGRAM from the crossers and came here for the parsing. It’s consummate and clever but oh how limited my own skill is. Very enjoyable nonetheless. I liked MOLECULE and MNEMONIC. Thanks blogger and setter.

  3. Very good. I liked the clue for anagram to start with, more so at the end, also being able to bung in camelid and maliced without hesitation.
    Hovis@1, I think the easily is connected with football diving; going to ground when you could have stayed up.

  4. Thanks Skinny and NealH

    I parsed DECIMAL in the same way as Hovis.

    I don’t follow football, but I took ‘went to ground easily’ as a reference to their habit of collapsing in apparent agony when they’ve been brushed by a feather-light tackle.

  5. I liked the ANAGRAM(s), including the linking ‘Old skeptic’ / STOCKPILED one. OUNDLE had to go in from the def and crossers; I’d only just heard of the ‘public school’ (I think!).

    I missed the ‘easily’ bit of 27d when solving, but the football explanation makes sense. Thanks for pointing out how DOOLITTLE and ‘literary parvenu’ are related.

    Thanks to Skinny and NealH

  6. What a refreshing change to see a public school other than Eton getting a mention!
    Enjoyable puzzle with or without the ‘theme’ and my top two were RANCID & GABLE END.

    Thanks to Skinny for the fun and to Neal for the review.

  7. This was great fun with clever use of the six anagrams with the same fodder.

    Many thanks to Skinny and to NealH.

  8. Hello all, thanks so much to NealH for the splendid blog and all who took the time to comment.

    This was a fun puzzle to put together, and went through a couple of iterations before the final version. I made sure the linked 6 were symmetrically placed, as it felt right to do so.

    Best wishes to all, and have a peaceful time in these unpeaceful times

  9. I was wondering whether there was an ancient Chinese philosopher XIS for 1ac. I would guess the footballing sense of dive is not widely used in America, but I got the point. I had TAMP for CRAM for a while. [I always wonder whether the advertising company JC Decaux was originally a plural of DECAL???] Thanks to Skinny and NealH

  10. Haven’t finished this yet but really enjoying. MNEMONIC great. Will read blog later. (Puff, puff)

  12. We got the 9ac/6dn connection easily enough bur failed to spot that six answers were anagrams of each other (and had to check MALICED in Chambers). One minor grumble in that the grid was not very solver-friendly being basically four mini-puzzles with only one link between each – happily, though, we found the puzzle quite easy so it wasn’t too much of a problem.
    Thanks, Skinny and NealH.

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