Independent 11,179 by Serpent

by

Serpent provides today’s challenge.

As we have come to expect from Serpent, an excellent puzzle with great surfaces, a certain amount of head-scratching and some good penny-drop moments.

There is usually something going on in Serpent’s puzzles, but we hadn’t noticed anything during the solve. However, a quick check of the completed grid revealed his trademark Nina running round the perimeter unchecked letters, starting with the A in 25ac. Having never come across the phrase before, we googled it and discovered that it is the title of a novel by John Kennedy Toole published in 1980, but we would like to think that Serpent may be referring to the current government.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Simplistic account contained in dossier (6)
FACILE

AC (account) ‘contained’ in FILE (dossier)

4. Aggressive speech managed to stop Major’s replacement (8)
HARANGUE

RAN (managed) in or ‘stopping’ HAGUE (William Hague – who replaced John Major as leader of the Conservative party)

9. Half-fat jams spoilt rice cake (6)
ECLAIR

LArd (fat) with the latter half missing in an anagram (‘spoilt’) of RICE

10. Authentic report of sizeable Scottish settlement (8)
STERLING

A homophone (‘report’) of STIRLING (‘sizeable Scottish settlement’)

11. Who would prohibit the use of colour? (6)
BANNER

Double definition

12. Skill provided that routine result of human endeavour (8)
ARTIFACT

ART (skill) IF (provided that) ACT (routine)

14. Qualification perhaps revised article containing loose end (10)
CREDENTIAL

An anagram (‘revised’) of ARTICLE round or ‘containing’ an anagram (‘loose’) of END

18. Sportsman unlikely to run against British member of parliament and head of state (4,6)
FAST BOWLER

FAST (‘unlikely to run’ – as in colour-fast) B (British) OWL (member of parliament – the collective noun for owls) ER (Queen Elizabeth – head of state)

22. Flaring up again having lost it in power (8)
REIGNING

REIGNitING (flaring up again) without or ‘losing’ ‘it’

23. Love of cruelty in the modern era is encapsulated by Stalin and Mao primarily (6)
SADISM

AD (anno domini – ‘in the modern era’) IS in or ‘encapsulated by’ the initial or ‘primary’ letters of Stalin & Mao

24. New cadet due to be trained (8)
EDUCATED

An anagram (‘new’) of CADET DUE

25. Remarkable apparatus for conveying information (6)
SIGNAL

Double definition

26. Urgent request to have access controls (8)
ENTREATY

EAT (have, as in ‘have a meal’) in or ‘controlled by’ ENTRY (access)

27. Quite popular and moving record? (6)
INDEED

IN (popular) DEED (‘moving record’ – as in the record of the transfer of property)

DOWN
1. Supply vital input to support informative response (8)
FEEDBACK

FEED (‘supply vital input’) BACK (support)

2. What could be nicely defined, top or bottom, by radius (8)
CYLINDER

A clue-as-definition: an anagram (‘what could be’) of NICELY and D (first or last letter or ‘top or bottom’ of defined) + R (radius)

3. Mooched about, stopping to idle aimlessly (8)
LOITERED

RE (about) in or ‘stopping’ an anagram (‘aimlessly’) of TO IDLE

5. Lingering symptom of consumption? (10)
AFTERTASTE

Cryptic definition

6. Expert in origin of transistor radio’s development (6)
ADROIT

An anagram (‘development’) of T (first letter or ‘origin’ of transistor) and RADIO

7. Instrument starts to generate useful information through automated reasoning (6)
GUITAR

First letters or ‘starts’ of Generate Useful Information Through Automated Reasoning

8. Wagner’s first to abandon important scores (6)
EIGHTY

wEIGHTY (important) without or ‘abandoning’ the ‘w’ (first letter of Wagner)

13. Acquisition by staff involved in corruption (10)
ATTAINMENT

AT (by) + MEN (staff) ‘involved’ in TAINT (corruption)

15. Revolution helping to suppress religious work (8)
ROTATION

RATION (helping) round or ‘suppressing’ OT (Old Testament – ‘religious work’)

16. Everyone intended to ignore first serious relationship (8)
ALLIANCE

ALL (everyone) fIANCE (‘intended’) without or ‘ignoring’ the first letter

17. Low frequency noise in recording decayed (8)
CRUMBLED

RUMBLE (low frequency noise) in CD (compact disc – ‘recording’)

19. Broadcast removes restrictions on moratorium (6)
FREEZE

A homophone (‘broadcast’) of FREES (removes restrictions)

20. Raise last of very small steps partners could take (6)
MINUET

MINUTE (very small) with the last letter moved forward or ‘raised’ (in a down clue)

21. Relief as nutritionist recalled sandwiches likely to cause harm (6)
UNSAFE

Hidden (‘sandwiched’) and reversed (‘recalled’) in ReliEF AS NUtritionist

 

9 comments on “Independent 11,179 by Serpent”

  1. ADROIT. I liked the sound of FREEZE and CRUMBLED but FAST BOWLER was my favorite. Member of parliament indeed. Didn’t understand the ‘la’ in ÉCLAIR and missed ‘report’ as an indicator so thanks very much Serpent and Bertandjoyce.

  2. I raised an eyebrow on that spelling of ‘artefact’ but was surprised to find it as an alternative in Chambers. Live and learn. Usual wonderful stuff from Serpent. I’ll nominate CYLINDER as my favourite.

  3. I think the author would be delighted with this
    Maybe we could ax him. But he’d say something about communiss and dropping a nucular bum
    Jones would say “Wo”
    I say bravo Serpent and thanks B&J

  4. Forgot to look for the Nina. A shame, as it’s another great book and we could almost be stumbling round New Orleans in the heat today. CYLINDER, FAST BOWLER, EIGHTY were all good, though 1 across was the only one that was easy.

  5. Enjoyable, but I found this hard going, particularly in the SW corner. Good to be able to spot the Nina, even if I knew little about the book. Unfortunately I put in “Stirling” for 10a. Looking at it now, I agree STERLING is more plausible but I’m still not a fan of clues with the homophone indicator in the middle of the clue.

    More than made up for though by the excellent CYLINDER, with SADISM not far behind.

    Thanks to Serpent and B&J

  6. Quite a challenge needing a bit of help as the apprentice was elsewhere today. But I spotted ‘confederacy’ in the unches Serpent often uses for a nina and a spot of googling soon turned up the full title which helped me finish.
    I did know nthe spelling ARTIFACT but had it only pencilled in for ages as I didn’t think of ‘act’ for ‘routine’.
    ÉCLAIR and FAST BOWLER were my favourites.
    Thanks, Serpent and B&J

  8. Thanks Bertandjoyce and Serpent.
    Looked for and found nina, though I did not know the book; helpful.
    FAST BOWLER top fav.

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