Independent 11,116 by Angel

by

This was mostly on the easy side, but a few required some thinking to work out the correct parsing.

There was a nice conciseness and originality in a lot of the clues. 2D was probably my favourite – although the answer was easy, it was a challenge to work out what to remove from what to arrive at it.

ACROSS
1 REINFECT
Spread illness again, if recent variant (8)

(If recent)*
5 CALVES
Bears or baby elephants? (6)

DD. I think the first is maybe in the sense of to "bear children" or "calve".
9 MASTODON
Old fellow goes after support for big beast (8)

O{ld} don after mast. A mastodon was a large prehistoric creature similar to a mammoth.
10/3 PELVIC FLOOR
Liverpool FC developing muscular foundations (6,5)

(Liverpool FC)*
12 DECORATOR
Disasters Emergency Committee speaker is one who chooses papers (9)

DEC(=Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group of charities) + orator. The def refers to wallpapers but maybe should have had a question mark, as a decorator doesn't just apply wallpaper.
13 SEVEN
Figure skating initially smooth (5)

S[kating] + even
14 ICED
Rubbed out cryptic editor’s selection (4)

Hidden in cryptic editor. I think these are both slang terms for assassinated.
16 GNOCCHI
Dumplings in green organic wrappers with traditional Chinese energy (7)

G[ree]n o[rgani]c + chi
19 HANDLER
Dealer working with animal fat taking tip off animal trainer (7)

[C]handler. A chandler was a maker and seller of candles, which were originally made from animal fats.
21 CASK
Quantity of booze: about one small cocktail? (4)

C(=about) A(=1) s{mall} + last letter of [coc]k
24 KEBAB
Stick half of cake on half of 22 (5)

[Ca]ke + [bao]bab
25 NAMEPLATE
Sign of ownership is apt when crafted with enamel (9)

(Apt + enamel)*
27 UPLOAD
High pressure addition to cloud, maybe (6)

Up(=high) + load(=pressure)
28 VARIABLE
System for reviewing goals: independent, competent, flexible (8)

VAR, which stands for Video Assistant Referees and is used in football to validate goals, + i{ndependent} + able
29 SACRED
Devoted leftist getting behind conservation area (6)

Red after SAC, which stands for Special Area of Conservation.
30 ADORABLE
Brad and Leo transformed after introduction to agent, darling! (8)

A[gent] + (Brad + Leo)*
DOWN
1 REMEDY
Cure on sea at journey’s end (6)

Re(=on, about etc) + Med{iterranean} + [journe]y
2 INSECT
Note extracted from hidden bug (6)

Re (from do,re,mi) removed from "in sec[re]t"
3
See 10 Across

4 COOPTED
Elected, Heath possibly supports enclosure (2-5)

Ted (Heath, British PM) after coop.
6 AVERSIONS
Dislikes ravens, so I suspect (9)

(Ravens so I)*
7 VIVA VOCE
6515 over 100: English exam? (4,4)

VI(=six) + V(=five) + A(=1) + V(=5) o{ver} (cricket abbrev) E{nglish}
8/21 SECOND IN COMMAND
O, VP! (6,2,7)

DD, the first referring to O being the second letter in command, the other to the Vice President.
11 DRUG
1D derived from core properties of elder, horseradish, rue and fenugreek (4)

Middle letter of elder, horseradish, rue and fenugreek
15 CALIBRATE
Measure bacterial composition (9)

(Bacterial)*
17 SHAKE UPS
Small fish delivery business restructures (5-3)

S{mall} + hake + UPS
18 ANABOLIC
Building up anxious new actor brooding on luck in casting at first (8)

Initial letters of "anxious new actor brooding on luck in casting". Anabolic refers to the process of building up complex molecules from simpler ones.
20 RUNE
Romeo, a Parisian character (4)

R(=Romeo in phonetic alphabet) + une(=feminine form of indefinite article in French)
21
See 8

22 BAOBAB
ABBA remix featuring zero bass is a massive grower in Africa (6)

Abba* around 0 b{ass}. Baobab is a type of tree, sometimes called the "upside down tree".
23 DELETE
Key aide let exclusive houses (6)

Hidden in aide let exclusive – refers to the Delete key.
26 PRIOR
Former monk (5)

DD

18 comments on “Independent 11,116 by Angel”

  1. Anyone else having trouble with GNOCCHI? The check and reveal buttons insist that it is GCOCCHI.

  3. Yes Crossbar @1 & Undrell @2, another with the same problem doing this online. Obviously a mistake so I wasn’t fussed.

    Pleasant puzzle. All present and accounted for except the ‘Dealer working with animal fat’ bit of 19a and the ‘System for reviewing goals’ at 28a so thanks for the explanations. Favourites were the ‘muscular foundations’ of ‘Liverpool FC’ and BAOBAB.

    Thanks to Angel and NealH

  4. This was light and fun, although spoilt slightly for me by the answer for 14a which is an Americanism. Note for Cryptic Sue – even Chambers agrees with me in this one!

    I don’t usually choose an anagram as my favourite, but PELVIC FLOOR takes the honours today.

    Many thanks to Angel and to NealH.

  5. RD@ 4 😀

    Thanks to Angel for an enjoyable Monday puzzle and also to NealH for the blog

  6. Thanks both. I note there are regular objections from commenters here to Americanisms, yet few to those words which are non-English e.g. French but in occasional use in English. Given the amount of US film and television broadcast here, I tend to fare better with the former

  7. Seems to be a bit of a gcocch-up with the interactive version. I can confirm that the version sent to them is correct and the app version works fine. As it’s currently 2:48 am in California where the puzzle is hosted I’m not expecting a quick fix. Apologies.

  8. Thanks Neal and all!

    Editor is now aware of error in interactive grid, which seems to have been introduced at the web hosting end – but it might not be fixed until the Americans are awake…

    … speaking of which! My own view is that common US English terms/slang don’t need to be avoided or flagged as American in crossword clues, unless they differ from the term or spelling *always* used in Br English.

  10. Thanks Angel & NealH (&eimi). Lovely fun crossword, many really delightful clues – agree with NealH’s comment about conciseness and originality (you really can’t get much more concise than “O, VP!”). PELVIC FLOOR is really fab – coincidentally, Matilda had the same anagram in reverse in a Guardian Quiptic not so long ago – great minds, as they say!

    I’m not going to lose any sleep over the technical glitch, nor the slang term that may be American, Dutch or Chinese for all I care.

  11. I enjoyed this very much, thanks to Angel and NealH for the blog. I failed with CASK, because lift-and-separate indicators like “cocktail” for k as in “tail of cock” are strictly forbidden in The Indy, amirite @Eimi? 🙂

  12. Had a bit of hesitation over some of the definitions but PELVIC FLOOR made up for any niggles.

    Thanks to Angel and to Neal for the review

  14. I’m here to toast the genius of spotting LIVERPOOL FC is an anagram of PELVIC FLOOR

    Triffic stuff, thanks to Angel and NealH

  15. I thought this was great imaginatively and wittily clued throughout.
    PELVIC FLOOR was my favourite though I had to laugh at the somewhat inappropriate surface read for at team that’s played in three finals this year and failed to score a goal ? Liked DELETE, UPLOAD and SECOND IN COMMAND too. Thanks Angel and NealH.

  16. I thought this was great imaginatively and wittily clued throughout.
    PELVIC FLOOR was my favourite though I had to laugh at the somewhat inappropriate surface read for at team that’s played in three finals this year and failed to score a goal ? Liked DELETE, UPLOAD and SECOND IN COMMAND too. Thanks Angel and NealH.

  17. Mainly an enjoyable workout. I’d question coopted for elected. The one thing you haven’t been when you are co-opted to a committee is elected!

  18. The technical glitch didn’t bother us as we solve on paper, but we do miss the cross-references in clues split over two or more lights, such as 10/3 here where there’s simply no entry for 3 instead of ‘3 See 10’. Mind you, it’s an improvement on the old system where the whole clue was repeated. As fror lift-and-separate, we occasionally venture into Graun territory so weren’t aware it was supposed to be taboo in the Indy.
    A super puzzle, though, if a bit on the easy side. PELVIC FLOOR was our favourite.
    Thanks, Angel and NealH.

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