The puzzle is available here.
Hello from hot and sunny Dorset, where I am enjoying a holiday with friends (cat Willow and his humans) by the sea. Bertandjoyce are unavailable again, but you will be happy to know that they will be back next time.
I found some of this very tricky, particularly a few bits of parsing, and was just pleased to finish without aids (although I did have my fingers crossed for 17a). I did very much enjoy the challenge, and appreciated some very nifty stuff along the way. Thanks Wiglaf!
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
1a Lecturer accommodated in sizeable accommodation (4)
FLAT
L (lecturer) accommodated in FAT (sizeable)
3a Bloomer made when removing small mass from semiconductor (8)
GERANIUM
This flower appears when removing M, the abbreviation for (small) mass, from GER[m]ANIUM (semiconductor)
10a Rippling 15 titan from Cartland’s work? (8,7)
ROMANTIC FICTION
An anagram of (rippling) ICONIC TITAN FROM, where “iconic” is the answer to 15a
11a After abuse, dames nail womaniser (6,3)
LADIES MAN
After anagramming, (after abuse), DAMES NAIL
12a Woeful cry from a girl snubbed (4)
ALAS
A + LASs (girl) without the last letter (snubbed)
13a Female model about to gatecrash state do (7)
SATISFY
F (female) and SIT (model) reversed (about) inserted into (to gatecrash) SAY (state)
15a Leader of inner circle, say, is venerated (6)
ICONIC
The first letter of (leader of) Inner + CONIC (circle, say). A conic section, or just conic, is a mathematical class of curves which includes the circle
17a Female American composer (6)
LASSUS
LASS (female) + US (American) gives us Orlande de Lassus, a late Renaissance composer. This was a put in from wordplay and hope!
19a Bachelor heading off to get treatment for disease (7)
CHOLERA
Without the first letter (… heading off), bACHELOR needs to be anagrammed (to get treatment)
20a Bits and pieces written about wine (4)
ASTI
The answer is formed of parts of (… pieces) bITS And written in reverse (written about)
21a Welsh skating venue features in articles in French press (9)
UNWRINKLE
W (Welsh) plus RINK (skating venue) features in UN and LE (articles in French)
24a SE Asian politics transformed the provinces (15)
SPECIALISATIONS
SE ASIAN POLITICS anagrammed (transformed)
25a Gold coin discovered by unknown pedestrian (8)
ORDINARY
OR (gold) + DINAR (coin) found next to (discovered by) Y (unknown). Nope, no outer letters to be removed in this one!
26a She may provide feedback after break-up (4)
ENID
Feedback after break up is feed back; the answer might then give DINE (feed) in reverse (BACK)
Down
1d Bar work in Bonn for one in European university (3,5)
FÜR ELISE
FÜR (In Bonn, for) + I (one) in E (European) and LSE (university)
2d Heated? Take top off and get ready to fight (5)
ARMED
We start with wARMED (heated) and remove the first letter (take top off) to get the answer
4d After very poor grades in English final, I master Turkish (7)
EFFENDI
After F F (very poor grades) in E (English) and END (final), is I. He is popular in crosswords because of that final I, but it has been a while since I have met effendi
5d They dig up old stone relics and go “aha” excitedly (14)
ARCHAEOLOGISTS
An anagram of (… excitedly) O (old), ST (stone), RELICS and GO AHA. I must admit, I didn’t sort out the anagram fodder too precisely until writing up the blog
6d Current musical by Rice folded? It’s unoriginal (9)
IMITATIVE
I (current) + EVITA (musical) and TIM (Rice) reversed (folded?)
7d Illiam anxiously bites his tongue (4)
MANX
IlliaM ANXiously contains (bites) the answer. I have learned that Illiam is the Manx form of William, hence the “his” in the definition
8d American film’s blocked in the state of Israel? It’s thought to have offended (5,9)
UNDER SUSPICION
US (American) and PIC (film) is inside (blocked) UNDER SION (in the state of Israel)
9d Business lady, extremely tight (6)
FIRMLY
FIRM (business) + LadY, outer letters (extremely)
14d Go beyond answer college course accepts (9)
TRANSCEND
ANS (answer) and C (college), which TREND (course) goes around (accepts)
16d Eccentric character keeps being fondled affectionately (8)
CARESSED
CARD (eccentric character) contains (keeps) ESSE (being)
18d Look inside plaza, almost complete filth (7)
SQUALOR
LO (look) inside SQUARe (plaza) without the last letter (almost complete)
19d Business women’s groups call for peace, like Galloway? (6)
COWISH
CO (business) + WI (women’s groups) + SH (call for peace). Galloway is a breed of cattle
22d Kevin Banks only drinks these days in Kent (5)
KNOWN
KeviN, outer letter only (banks only) takes inside (drinks) NOW (these days). It took a while to spot the definition
23d Port and dog salmon served regularly (4)
OSLO
Regular letters of (… served regularly) dOg SaLmOn
Somehow I completed this, though exactly how is a mystery, much like many of the parsings, until I came here for Kitty’s explanations. For this reason, I found it all a little too challenging to be entirely enjoyable, but a challenge is what one should expect from the Indie crossword. Thanks anyway to Wiglaf and Kitty.
Thank you Kitty and Wiglaf. I enjoyed this, and had the similar experience of hoping LASSUS was right. Favourites: SATISFY, ASTI, UNWRINKLE, IMITATIVE. I think the parse for ASTI should be…
pieces of bITSAnd, reversed (written “about”).
Thanks Mev, the heat may have got to me! I have updated the blog to include the reversal.
As expected from Wiglaf, no easy stroll. After a struggle I was stuck on 17a and after a couple of alphabet trawls and trying to see the clue in different ways, I finally put in LASSUS only because it fitted the wordplay. Well, to my surprise it worked.
I didn’t know what was going on in ENID but managed to work out the rest of the parsing. Favourite undoubtedly was the misleading capitalisation of an uncommon word ‘Kent’; not SE for the first time in living memory!
Thanks to Wiglaf and Kitty
I’ll check out Lassus.He/she had better be good
But on second thoughts I’ll watch cricket highlights
Thanks to both.
Coincidentally, Under Suspicion is also an American film!
The sort of puzzle that makes you sorry you stood in for someone. Good lord that was tricky in several places but grudging respect to the compiler for the bewilderment and misdirection. Thanks kitty for the fine blog replacement service.
I didn’t do this puzzle but reading the comments surprised that Lassus is not better known. A sublime composer. Copmus@5, he reaches places that even Johnny Bairstow can’t!
I for one had heard of Orlando (de) Lassus but I did Music O Level back in the day and was thinking about doing A level for a while, and I have always been good at remembering names. Didn’t help as most of the bottom half was still blank when the top half was complete – found this very tough.
Thanks to Wiglaf and Kitty
Better make that I for 2
Thanks Kitty for standing in for us. Having arrived home from cold and windy Shetland, we tackled the puzzle and found it quite tricky. We entered KNOWN and LASSUS without parsing and were pleasantly surprised that they were correct. Thanks Kitty for the explanations.
Bert checked other words that would fit for ?A?S?S – there are quite a few possibly less obscure entries than LASSUS. Maybe Wiglaf also studied O Level Music with beery hiker.
Thanks again to Kitty and Wiglaf.
We found this rather slow going but then we were interrupted for an hour or so and when we came back to it everything fell into place quite nicely. We knew of LASSUS; when we played a piece of his to our music appreciation group one member commented it was like ten minutes at the gates of Paradise. We liked GERANIUM but our favourite was TRANSCEND; it was one of those where one’s first guess at a possible answer is followed quickly by realising that it will parse and a bit of self-satisfaction.
Thanks, Wiglaf and Kitty.
OK I’ll have a look at this composer and see if his batting average equals Pergolesi’s
Of course, a lot of the music once attributed to Pergolesi was actually by other composers, publishers getting in on the act, as he died at the age of 26. (Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella was said to be based on Pergolesi, it turned out later that it was based on works by other composers.)