Independent 11,188 by Italicus

A nice entertaining puzzle with very good surface definitions.

Apart from the word foils appearing in one line, I can't see an obvious Nina or theme. 21D and 22 were my favourites – both so descriptive it was like reading a miniature story.

ACROSS
1	BRAZEN	Shameless Etonian deserted by two-thirds of country (6)
		E[tonia]n next to Braz[il]
4	HELPMEET	He constructed temple for spouse (8)
		He + temple*
10	GUILLEMOT	Bird from lake ambushed by cunning, circling cat (9)
		(Guile around l{ake}) + tom<
11	RIPER	More mature US State Representative retiring (5)
		RI(=Rhode Island) + rep<
12	MACE	Expert on initiation of ministerial staff (4)
		Ace on m[inisterial]
13	TARANTELLA	Sailor, soldier and jazz singer dance (10)
		Tar + ant (soldier ant) + Ella (Fitzgerald)
15	SHUFFLE	Rearrange fight, replacing Charlie with Henry (7)
		Scuffle with C{harlie} replaced by H{enry}. Charlie is from the phonetic alphabet and H is short for the Henry, the SI unit of inductance (may also be used in initialisations relating to the various King Henries).
16	SPOOFS	Ridicules fellow trailing manure aboard ship (6)
		(F{ellow} after poo(=manure)) in SS
19	STORKS	Reportedly hunts in waders (6)
		Hom of stalks
21	SUPREME	Backing singer taking drink with engineers (7)
		Sup + REME (=Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers). I'm not sure in what way the Supremes were backing singers, although the group was eventually renamed "Diana Ross and the Supremes", so I suppose the other members could be considered backing singers to her at that point.
23	ADMINISTER	Obstructed by Knight, maid tries desperately to run (10)
		N(=knight in chess notation) in (maid tries)*
25	SHOT	The antithesis of large cold drink (4)
		S{mall}(=antithesis of large) + hot(=antithesis of cold)
27	WINCE	Display of pain stifled by widow in cemetery (5)
		Hidden in widow in cemetery
28	IN THE KNOW	Informed, we think, on revolutionary (2,3,4)
		(We think on)*
29	HEAVYSET	Burly gent regularly seen on Goon Show, originally (8)
		Even letters of gent on (heavy(=goon)) s[how])
30	CHAPEL	Fellow novice ultimately left church (6)
		Chap(=fellow) + [novic]e + l{eft}
DOWN
1	BIGAMIST	Someone who has one too many after wedding (8)
		CD referring to the fact that a bigamist would have one too many spouses after their latest wedding.
2	AGINCOURT	A Beefeater, say, leading king’s attendants in battle (9)
		A gin(=Beefeater, a brand of gin) + court
3	EELS	Endless rain and snow upset swimmers (4)
		Slee[t]<
5	ENTRAPS	Catches movie about conclusion of sit-down strikes (7)
		(ET around [sit dow]n) + raps
6	PARATROOPS	Soldiers tormented OAP’s parrot (10)
		(OAPs parrot)*
7	EXPEL	Drive out the Spanish supporting former power (5)
		El after ex p{ower}
8	TURBAN	Model metropolitan headgear (6)
		T (as in Model T Ford) + urban
9	IMPALE	Spear antelope, eradicating last on earth (6)
		Impal[a] + E{arth}
14	EFFRONTERY	Audacity of English cook enthralling foremost European (10)
		(E{nglish} fry(=cook as a verb)) around (front E{uropean})
17	FRESHEN UP	Female sheep run wild in shower, perhaps (7,2)
		F{emale} + (sheep run)*
18	BESTOWAL	Award peerless hunter holding in Austria (8)
		Best(=peerless) + owl around(=holding in) A{ustria}
20	SISTINE	Young person without gender issues, say, is 30? (7)
		Hom of "cis teen". Cis here is short for cisgender, which refers to someone whose gender has remained constant.
21	SLEUTH	Cardinal framed by floozy and hotel detective (6)
		(E{ast}(=cardinal point) in slut) + h{otel}
22	FATWAH	Stout wife beginning to accept husband’s religious ruling (6)
		Fat(=stout) + w{ife} + a[ccept] + h{usband} – interesting to see both spousal abbrevs in one clue.
24	MANGA	Comic Trump slogan initially entertains Nationalist (5)
		MAGA(=Make America Great Again, which isn't even an original slogan – it had already been used by Ronald Raegan) around n{ationalist). Manga is a Japanese type of comic.
26	TECH	Old educational establishment disheartened tutor (4)
		Te[a]ch. Tech is short for technical college.

13 comments on “Independent 11,188 by Italicus”

KVa

#1 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 08:53

BESTOWAL:

I think you meant ‘…owl(=hunter) holding in A(=Australia).’

KVa

#2 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 08:57

Sorry. Austria. 🙂

WordPlodder

#3 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 10:26

I wondered how “cof” could be made to mean ‘manure’ at 16a, with the obvious answer that it couldn’t. I also managed to think of “scorns” but the now “what else could it be” SPOOFS just didn’t come to mind.

Held up in the NW corner and needed a break before being able to get BRAZEN and then IMPALE which opened up the rest. I liked HELPMEET for ‘spouse’ – could only be in crosswords!

Thanks to Italicus and Neal H

Petert

#4 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 12:21

As NealH says, some terrific surfaces. I spent too long trying to take some of the letters of “country” from a definition of Etonian, which ended up with some rude words for Etonian but no solution.

Bertandjoyce

#5 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 12:52

We were very disappointed when we couldn’t fit our present PM into 1A but then it is a cryptic crossword not a General Knowledge one. Raised a smile though so thank you Italicus.

Overall a good puzzle with some great surfaces. We couldn’t parse SISTINE so thanks to NealH for the blog.

TFO

#6 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 13:02

Thanks both. The last four or five took as long as the others combined, as there were a number of unknowns, including the cis element of SISTENE and HELPMEET which I suspect has been unused for centuries (excepting the observation of WordPlodder@3) as well as MANGA wherein I had perhaps voluntarily forgotten the Trump slogan

ilippu

#7 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 15:05

Thanks Italicus and NealH.
Elegant, I thought.
Could not parse SISTINE not having heard of cis teen.

Tony Santucci

#8 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 20:49

Thanks Italicus, I enjoyed many clues including SHUFFLE, ADMINISTER, TURBAN, and SLEUTH. I guessed SISTINE from the crossers but don’t see how it relates to 30. I missed SPOOFS and bunged in scoffs. Thanks Neal for the blog; I too enjoy surfaces that tell little stories.

Simon S

#9 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 22:04

TS @ 8 Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, so the clue is a sort of dbe.

Tony Santucci

#10 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 22:41

Thanks Simon but what does dbe mean?

Alliacol

#11 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 22:41

Have to comment on the wonderful surfaces in this. Bravo, Italicus, and thanks to NealH for the blog. Spent as long on 25A/18D as all the rest, and then some.

Simon S

#12 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 22:45

TS @ 10 Definition By Example

The definition is 30 (chapel), and the Sistine is an example of one.

Tony Santucci

#13 - Mon 22nd Aug 22, 23:49

Thanks Simon. Of course “30” was a reference to clue #30. I can’t believe how dense I can be sometimes. Anyway, I’ve been to the Sistine Chapel and it’s worth a visit as you probably know.

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