Independent 11,050 by Silvanus

by

Silvanus returns after a few months away as do I to my old Monday slot,

He’s good though, some nice surfaces and well chosen anagram and other indicators, I note there’s only one double definition and one straight anagram.

This appears to be a 6D puzzle but if anyone can see something please speak up.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 BUCKLE
Resist getting extremely legitimate catch (6)
BUCK for resist as in buck the trend and the extremes of L(egitimat)E
4 PARVENUS
Morning Star backs strike over nouveau riche types (8)
RAP reversed & VENUS the morning star. Not meant to make you think of the Morning Star paper at all.
9 GAMING
Street urchin, good playing with an Xbox? (6)
GAMIN is the street urchin & G(ood)
10 DOWNPOUR
Individual awfully proud to install terrific shower (8)
OWN for individual installed in an awful PROUD*
12 MAL DE MER
Travel sickness cure nearly required preceding American flight westwards (3,2,3)
Most of REMED(y) & LAM (American for running from the law) all reversed – westward
13 FLEECE
Attending church, take off warm garment (6)
FLEE to take off & CE
15 CONFRONTATION
Encounter Tory female of note oddly overwhelmed by Budget (13)
CON(servative) & F(email) & odd letters of “Of NoTe” inside RATION for budget
18 ESTABLISHMENT
Business bash entitles rogue male to enter (13)
M(ale) inside a rogue [BASH ENTITLES]*
22 OFFEND
Cricket side, target for insult (6)
OFF a side on the pitch in Cricket & END for target
24 CAREFREE
Like pedestrianised town centre that keeps people ultimately happy (8)
(peopl)E ultimately inside CAR FREE as a pedestrian area usually is.
26 PLATINUM
Metal lamp unit is wobbly (8)
A wobbly {LAMP UNIT]*
27 STRING
One replacing hero finally in powerful series (6)
i not (her)O in STRONG
28 DELEGATE
Not entirely lament breaking appointment to become representative (8)
Most of ELEG(y) inside DATE
29 GROWTH
Couple ranting vacuously about hospital expansion (6)
TWO – couple & R(antin)G vacuously all reversed & H(ospital)
DOWN
1 BIGAMY
Disheartened boy admits in retrospect virtually brilliant crime (6)
It’s most of MAGI(c) reversed inside a disheartened B(o)Y
2 COMPLICIT
Sharing guilt of politician stopping firm meeting legal requirements (9)
MP inside CO & LICIT
3 LANTERN
Light article probing origin of little-known seabird (7)
The article AN inside L(ittle-known) and & TERN
5 AMOK
Spurning Independent, this setter’s certainly in a frenzy (4)
I(ndependent) removed from I AM OK. I think I’m ok with this.
6 VANILLA
Ordinary Russian chap, cycling before everyone rises (7)
A cycled IVAN with the I moving to the end & ALL reversed
7 NOOSE
Absence of lovemaking mostly restricts old marriage? (5)
A tad unusual def here to my mind – still it’s O(ld) inside most of NO SE(x) and a whimsical def.
8 SERGEANT
Police officer gets near criminal (8)
A criminal [GETS NEAR]* nice choice of anagrind I thought
11 DETROIT
City Editor disturbed over leader in Times (7)
A disturbed EDITOR* & leading letter of T(imes). Nice but surely the paper is The Times which would break the clue alas.
14 ENTHRAL
Fascinate English student, describing books he read regularly (7)
E(mglish) & NT for books & alternate letters of He ReAd & L for student
16 INTERVIEW
Playwright, powerless to compete with audience asking questions (9)
A P(owerless) (p)INTER & VIE – compete & W(ith)
17 RECOUPED
Got back produce somehow, having arrested European (8)
E(uropean) in PRODUCE* somehow
19 BANKING
Injunction imposed on top man in financial sector (7)
BAN – injunction & KING – top man
20 EVENTER
Horse-rider beset by uneven terrain (7)
hidden inside unEVEN TERrain
21 LENGTH
Distance from line that a gunner periodically moved up (6)
L(ine) & alternate letters of tHaT a GuNnEr reversed – up in a down clue. There been several of this device today,
23 FRAIL
Slight trouble following loud celebration essentially (5)
F(ollowing) & (celeb)R(ation) essentially & AIL for trouble
25 BUST
Broken sculpture (4)
Double definition

15 comments on “Independent 11,050 by Silvanus”

  3. KVa @1: same here. I think flashling’s current parsing doesn’t account for the ‘loud’. I saw it the same way to begin with.

    Very tight clueing, I thought; barely a wasted word throughout. Very succinct definitions nicely linked into the wordplay. NOOSE for marriage is an uncharitable definition but I’ve heard it before and the second entry in my online Chambers is A snare or bond generally, esp (joc) marriage. ESTABLISHMENT probably my favourite, closely followed by GAMING.

    Thanks Silvanus and flashling

  5. Quite a workout and I needed help with some of the parsing, but then some of it was borderline impenetrable for me – LENGTH and ENTHRAL for instance. And while I agree with PostMark@3 about the tightness of the cluing, I found some of it a tad over-wrought (DELEGATE, STRING, DOWNPOUR). On the other hand I liked many surfaces including those for EVENTER, OFFEND, NOOSE and the pick of the day for me GAMING.

    Thanks Silvanus for the entertainment and flashling for the illumination.

  6. As our reviewer comments – this setter is good, in fact I think he’s a master of his art.
    I did have to work for a few of the answers but always with the confidence that if I followed the instructions I’d eventually get there.
    So many clues worth mentioning but CAREFREE made me laugh the most so that goes to the top of the pile.

    Many thanks to Silvanus for the puzzle and to flashling for the review.

  7. I’m Ok with all of the above comments. Isn’t it strange how we use French loan words for nouveau riche and parvenu?

  8. Hi flashling. I just looked over this again; minor point but should the definition for AMOK include ‘in a’? I’m not certain ‘frenzy’ alone quite does it and ‘in a frenzy’ is precisely the definition for AMOK given in online Chambers. Silvanus has pretty much used no articles in any clue – one other ‘a’ which plays a role in an alternate sequence. Seems odd, therefore, to have a loose ‘in a’ floating around as a link?

  9. Not sure PM i can certainly see your point. Equally I concur that loud was probably intended. You know what it’s like you solve and then when writing up you just type the wrong thing.

  10. Hi, setter here, many thanks to flashling (welcome back to blogging on a Monday) and to all those kind enough to leave comments. PostMark is correct about AMOK, my intention was indeed for the definition to be “in a frenzy”.

    Coincidentally, a re-print of my Independent crossword from January 2018 is in the i today, I’m pretty sure that I’ve never had two of my Indy puzzles appearing on the same day before. Next week also marks the fifth anniversary of my very first crossword for the paper, it seems like only yesterday!

  12. Cheers Harry. I’m back here every third week I’m on call for bloggers holidays and every fourth week in the Everyman as Sil seems to have dropped off the 15sq radar. Was a bit strange getting back into the blogging thingummy stuff.

  13. Glad to hear it (well, not the disappearance of Sil – hope he is ok). As for getting back into things I know how you feel as I tried on a pair of gold lamé hot pants I hadn’t worn for 20 years the other day and it was a disquieting experience to say the least.

  14. Hoskins @ 13

    The image of you in a pair of gold lamé hotpants is one that I hope slides out of the memory banks fairly rapidly, sorry!

  15. Hehe, Simon – allow me to replace it then with a picture of yourself drinking Sangria as the sun goes down in warmer climes somewhere. In that place, the sound of waves lapping and the last of the songbirds tweeting blends harmoniously with cicadas. There, the gently satisfied rise and fall of your chest allows your mind to reach a state of bliss that isn’t even troubled by the sounds of of someone calling from afar: ‘get me some damned scissors, Mrs Jalopy, for these hot pants ain’t half shrunk over the years!”

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