Independent 11,260 by Vernon

by

I've not seen Vernon on a Monday before, although there have been previous puzzles by the compiler.

This was tricky in places with a few that had difficult word associations and parsing that required some work. Initially I thought there was no Nina or theme but, as a few of the previous Vernon puzzles seem to have had one, I looked again and realized that there is a Nina along the perimeter (but you have to go against convention when reading it).

ACROSS
8 EINSTEIN
A German mug? Definitely not! (8)

&lit. Ein Stein= a German beer mug.
9 HEROIC
Daring fellow Republic caught (6)

He(=fellow) + R{epublic) O{f} I{reland} + c{aught}
10 WINTER
Land with recurrent wet season (6)

Win(=land, in the sense of "land a prize") + ret<, ret being a word meaning "to soak".
11 WELL TO DO
Prosperous container business (4-2-2)

Well(=container) + to do(=business, as in "there was a to-do going on there").
12 HAIR
Starts to have an interest researching old musical (4)

Initial letters of "have an interest researching".
13 BLISTERING
Minor celebrity in Gulf, very hot (10)

B-Lister + in G{ulf}
15 YEWS
Use announced for trees (4)

Hom of use
17 EXAMS
Cut back document for orals? (5)

Axe< + MS (short for manuscript).
19 OAFS
As of blundering clumsy people (4)

(As of)*
21 MAINSPRING
Extravagantly praising man, lacking a motive (10)

(Pr[a]ising man)*. Mainspring can be used to mean the mean reason for something.
24 JURY
The side needs changing in a month – this group decides (4)

July with l{eft} becoming r{ight}
25 UPLIFTED
After university paid, inside I felt strangely happy (8)

U{niversity} + p{aid}d around (I felt)*
27 ACACIA
A group of spies hide a camera at first in a shrub (6)

(A CIA) around (a c[amera])
28 SCENES
Prospects of play? (6)

CD
29 CHAINSAW
Spooner’s sensible boring task for tool (8)

Spoonerism of "sane chore".
DOWN
1 SILICATE
Salt I whisked with ice to make compound (8)

(Salt I ice)*
2 ISHTAR
Love goddess in Scottish tartan (6)

Hidden in "Scottish tartan"
3 WEARABLE
Largely wet and fertile, suitable for sporting? (8)

We[t] + arable. Sporting here refers to "sporting a hat etc".
4 KNOW
Bring up obsessive to understand (4)

Wonk< (as in "policy wonk")
5 CHALET
Talk about the French ski lodge? (6)

Chat around le(=French "the")
6 ORATORIO
Singer or instrumentalist initially loves getting to grips with this music (8)

(Rat(=singer, as in someone who betrays others) + or i[nstrumentalist]) in OO(=loves, zero in tennis)
7 LINDEN
North Dakota’s right about tree (6)

(N{orth} D{akota}) in lien(=right)
14 IMARI
Part of Antrim, a rich source of ceramic (5)

Hidden in "Antim a rich"
16 SENTIENT
Feeling excited – new couple moving in (8)

Sent(=transported, excited) around (n{ew} tie). I suppose tie is used in the sense of to tie or couple something together.
18 SIGN AWAY
Surrender the right to indicate short method (4,4)

Sign(=indicate) + a way(=short method?)
20 FARCICAL
Silly fellow officer commanding sea crossing (8)

F{ellow} + (C{ommander} I{n} C{hief}) in Aral (Sea)
22 ASPECT
Facial expression as muscle tightens to begin with (6)

As + Pec{toral} + t[ightens]. Aspect can mean a facial expression in phrases such as "he wore an aspect of gloom".
23 POTASH
In spring, laid up fertiliser (6)

I think this is (sat in hop) with the whole reversed.
24 JOANNA
Two girls sharing an instrument (6)

Jo + Anna. Joanna is Cockney Rhyming Slang for piano, although Joanna itself is also a name, so it may as well be just "one girl".
26 DICE
No this is ineffective: cut into small pieces (4)

I think the subsidiary def refers to the phrase "no dice", meaning something isn't going to work.

9 comments on “Independent 11,260 by Vernon”

  2. Quite right, Vernon; why not go the other way round for once.

    V. enjoyable but not easy and I realised I’d bunged in WINTER without bothering to try to parse it; I probably wouldn’t have been able to anyway. I also missed how DICE worked, but your explanation sounds right. I agree with Hovis @1 about JOANNA.

    Yes, I suppose HAIR is an ‘old musical’ now.

    Thanks to Vernon and NealH

  3. At first there seemed to be a collection of unconnected words going clockwise, which I thought might develop into a theme (col, cogs, yawl, aye), then the penny dropped. Excellent. Thanks Vernon and Neal.

  4. Thanks both. Very clever but I struggled with a number of unknowns including Aral Sea, and ‘ret’ in WINTER where I did not appreciate recurrent can indicate reversal instead of repetition….talking of repetition, I commented yesterday on what I considered a Yoda inspired insertion indicator, which I note today in LINDEN especially with the misleading apostrophe ‘s’

  5. I have to go back to find the NINA, but I just wanted to point out that at 18d it’s SIGNA(l) + WAY. Thanks for the blog NealH

  6. Finished but needed help parsing. Haven’t seen ret other than in Azed crosswords where it appears frequently, and we’re on the lookout for it….
    StellaHeath@5 that sounds a convincing explanation for 18d.
    Missed the Nina of course, but it was amusing when we had the indication from the blog
    Thanks Vernon and NealH

  9. We have only just got around to finishing the puzzle – thanks to Vernon for the smile when we noticed the ANiN!

    Thanks also to NealH

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