Independent on Sunday 1,718 by Skinny

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The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi again.  It’s great to see Skinny back with another puzzle as he warned us in December that he may not be around for a while, with work getting in the way of things.

A few clues gave me pause for thought today, but overall I found the level of difficulty to be par for a Sunday.  The enjoyment level was high as expected too.  Thanks Skinny!

 

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    Married without honour, wife leaves to get hammered? (8)
EMBEDDED
[w]EDDED (married) around (without) MBE (honour) in which W (wife) is removed (leaves)

5a    Sample of zinc has tested ‘pure’ (6)
CHASTE
A sample of zinC HAS TEsted

9a    Photograph of famous designer a hack returned (8)
POLAROID
DIOR (famous designer), A and LOP, all reversed (returned)

10a   Condition nursed by fantastic beast (6)
AGOUTI
GOUT (condition) inside (nursed by) AI (A1, fantastic)

12a   Willing to study finale of play (5)
READY
READ (to study) + the last letter of (finale to) plaY

13a   Make sweet rolls to go with a spring vegetable (9)
ASPARAGUS
SUGAR (make sweet) reverses (rolls); this is next to (to go with) A and SPA (spring)

14a   Change one’s mind about green energy (6)
RENEGE
An anagram of (about) GREEN + E (energy)

16a   In this way, a band is flying high (7)
SOARING
SO (in this way) + A + RING (band)

19a   By the sound of it, gentleman supplies current pathway (7)
CIRCUIT
A sound-alike of (by the sound of it) SIR (gentleman) and KIT (supplies)

21a   Company takes a wrong gamble here (6)
CASINO
CO (company) contains (takes) A and SIN (wrong)

23a   Unoriginal musical chicken almost making a comeback (9)
IMITATIVE
EVITA (musical) and TIMId (chicken) without the last letter (almost) is reversed (makes a comeback)

Musical chickens!

25a   Film second contest (5)
MOVIE
MO (second) + VIE (contest)

26a   Doesn’t get up to misrepresent evil (4,2)
LIES IN
LIE (to misrepresent) + SIN (evil)

27a   Herb or spice scattered in car lot (8)
CILANTRO
An anagram of (scattered) IN CAR LOT.  Also known as coriander

28a   Special wound dressing gives support (6)
SPLINT
SP (special) + LINT (wound dressing)

29a   What’s left if there isn’t a hint? (8)
REMINDER
REM[a]INDER (what’s left) if there isn’t A

 

Down

1d    Domain of politician in Ireland (6)
EMPIRE
MP (politician) in EIRE (Ireland)

2d    Singer in a stag party goes first (9)
BALLADEER
A + DEER (stag); BALL (party) goes first

3d    Embarrassed about recently cleared out city (5)
DERRY
RED (embarrassed) reversed (about) + RecentlY with its inner letters removed (cleared out)

4d    Finally persuade Roman governor to remove hair (7)
EPILATE
The last letter of (finally) persuadE + PILATE (Roman governor)

6d    Main ways one enters bars after being intoxicated (9)
HIGHROADS
A (one) goes inside (enters) RODS after HIGH (being intoxicated)

7d    Beginning to go mad, upset and hurt (5)
STUNG
The first letter of (beginning to) Go and NUTS (mad) reversed (upset)

8d    One could be on the way out (4,4)
EXIT SIGN
A cryptic definition

11d   Soup runs regularly provide work (4)
OPUS
sOuP rUnS regularly

15d   Auctioned off the means to acquire knowledge (9)
EDUCATION
AUCTIONED anagrammed (off)

17d   Created popular new egg-shaped food at last (9)
INNOVATED
IN (popular) + N (new) + OVATE (egg-shaped) + the last letter of (… at last) fooD

18d   One with a fatal vulnerability longs to take sick (8)
ACHILLES
ACHES (longs) containing (to take) ILL (sick)

20d   Darkness arising when there’s no good light (4)
THIN
NI[g]HT (darkness) reversed (arising) without (when there’s no) G (good)

21d   Fashion scheme – I admitted making garment (7)
CHEMISE
Make an anagram of (fashion) SCHEME, with I inserted (admitted)

22d   I invested in capital markets, initially withdrawing personal account (6)
MEMOIR
I inside (invested in) the reversal of (… withdrawing) ROME (capital) and Markets initially

24d   A lot of ladies failing to be perfect (5)
IDEAL
All but the last letter of (a lot of) LADIEs anagrammed (failing)

25d   A couple of notes about a US city (5)
MIAMI
MI MI (a couple of notes) around (about) A

 

14 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,718 by Skinny”

  1. The green on the app is better. IMO. Bold type is back too. The confetti remains. You have to wait until it has all fallen before you can move on, or else it locks up.

    More importantly, thanks to Skinny for a gentle-ish crossword. EMBEDDED stumped me in parsing. Thanks to Kitty. Favourite is REMINDER. Droll. Laconic.

  2. I thought this was great fun with accurate clueing and smooth surfaces throughout. A great accompaniment to breakfast.

    REMINDER was my favourite too.

    Many thanks to Skinny and Kitty.

  3. I am aligned with Sofamore this morning: the new colour scheme, if there has to be one, is better than the purple experiment and I struggled with HAMMERED which was LOI and came from the crossers. Not a difficult puzzle but a nice accurately clued stroll which is what you want on a Sunday morning. (Talking of which, I would certainly commend to other solvers the new FT Sunday puzzle – blogged by our very own Widdersbel. It’s easily reachable from the link in the special note put up by Kenmac on the Home page).

    Favourites today include AGOUTI, ASPARAGUS, IMITATIVE (lol), REMINDER, EMPIRE, BALLADEER, EPILATED, INNOVATED, THIN and MEMOIR.

    Thanks Skinny and the unchastised and hardworking Kitty. What a ludicrous chicken clip – for which, many thanks!

  4. I would add ACHILLES to the roll of honour. I am not totally sure why EMBEDDED is “hammered”. I love the cage of asparagus. Thanks, both.

  5. PostMark@3 – I nearly clicked off the video straight away because the opening did not seem promising, but I’m glad I didn’t. It was reassuring to see that the chickens are happy and well cared for, and I laughed out loud at “few chickens have the type of focus it takes to play an entire song without reward”!

  6. I worked steadily around the puzzle clockwise, like others foxed by EMBEDDED, which is a struggle to equate with ‘hammered’, but that’s what it had to be. At 6D, does anyone write ‘high roads’ as one word, and would it have hurt to show it as two? I’m sure Kitty’s pictorial inclusions are enjoyable, but for some reason neither these not other recent ones have loaded on my PC. Thanks Skinny and Kitty.

  7. Thanks both. Like others, perhaps reflecting my DIY ability, if I hammered something it would become more destroyed than EMBEDDED, otherwise was delayed by the Yoda style word order for RENEGE and ACHILLES wherein I was foxed by expecting a plural (great clue though)

  8. This proved quite tricky in places but we managed to finish. The NW quadrant was slow to fill up till we got BALLADEER, but it was the SE coner that proved trickiest. We eventually got CILANTRO from looking up likely words in Chambers; it did sound vaguely familar and we see it came up in a Serpent puzzle back in 2018 when we had the same trouble with it. LOI was then MEMOIR.
    Thanks, Skinny and Kitty.

  9. CILANTRO seems to have escaped Rabbit Dave’s notice as an Americanism. American herb and spice names are apparently hilarious to teenagers who watch Americans cooking online. Just repeating erb over and over has a startling effect. Arugula likewise. But not, strangely, tumeric, which they have adopted as preferable.
    Enjoyed REMINDER and ASPARAGUS (clue + illustration)
    Thanks Skinny, Kitty

  10. Hi all.

    Thanks so much for the comments and Kitty’s review and links.

    Yes, it’s been a very busy time work-wise, rushed off my feet. I discovered a couple of puzzles ready to go (almost) and a clue book full of ideas, so I’ll make an effort to be back soon.

    Been on a bit of a Half Man Half Biscuit binge recently, and so to celebrate one of the best-received clues, here’s one of their very best…

    Love and best wishes from a combination of East-Cambridgeshire and West Yorkshire,

    Skinny

  11. Late in today but I did enjoy this offering from Skinny – pleased to see that he isn’t letting ‘real world’ matters get completely in the way of compiling!
    EMPIRE & EXIT SIGN made me smile and my favourite was ASPARAGUS – I can just imagine our blogger having written that sign!

    Many thanks to both Skinny and Kitty for a fun Sunday puzzle and review.

  12. Thanks, Skinny, both for a very enjoyable puzzle and the HMHB (with the mention of Cambridgeshire, I half expected it to be For what is Chatteris).

    And thanks, Kitty, both for the blog and the ridiculous musical chicken!

  13. A very pleasant post-supper solve, very enjoyable indeed, as I find most of this setter’s puzzles.
    My only problem was parsing MEMOIR, where the reversal indicator had me foxed for a while.
    Top three for me were THIN, BALLADEER and the super smart REMINDER.
    Thanks Skinny and Kitty

  14. Thanks Skinny for great clues like CIRCUIT, REMINDER, STUNG, THIN, and IMITATIVE, the latter for its seemingly absurd surface until Kitty shed light on the matter with her video link.

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