Independent 11,332 by Vigo

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A mostly easy puzzle with a couple of clues that required some thought.

24D was my LOI with the "pin into" construction causing a certain amount of confusion. 12A and 6D had nice surface readings.

ACROSS
1 FLAPJACK
Wave flag for cake (8)

Flap(=wave) + jack(=flag, as in Union Jack)
5 BLIGHT
Curse in middle of rubbish day (6)

[Rub]b[bish] + light(=day)
9 CAPTAINS
Controls unexpected panic at start of skirmish (8)

(Panic at)* + s[kirmish]
10 ABLAZE
A British lounge is brightly lit (6)

A B{ritish} + laze(=lounge use as a verb to mean lounge around).
12 TROUSSEAU
Hole in strap met with audible expression of surprise in bridal store (9)

O(=hole) in truss + eau(=hom of "oh")
13 RIDER
Invader taking out a horseman (5)

R[a]ider
14 BILL
Poster beginning to blog badly (4)

B[log] + ill(=badly, as in ill-timed)
16 PEN NAME
Alias of northern bloke returning to be embraced by number one (3,4)

(N{orthern} + man<) in pee(=number one)
19 HENPECK
Female to kiss nag (7)

Hen(=female) + peck(=kiss)
21 BAHT
Hard to get into club in foreign capital (4)

H{ard} in bat. The Baht is the Thai currency (=capital in a financial sense).
24 SNAIL
Start to stick pin into dawdler (5)

S[tick] + nail(=pin into)
25 NARRATORS
Roar and rant about sons – they tell tales (9)

(Roar rant)* + s{ons}
27 ELFISH
Tricky angle on outside of easel (6)

Fish(=angle as a verb) on e[ase]l
28 SINISTER
Sibling holding in evil (8)

Sister around in
29 SALADS
Meals made by Salvation Army youths (6)

S{alvation} A{rmy} + lads(=youths)
30 POLYGLOT
Log typo misprinted including line written in many languages (8)

(Log typo)* around l{ine}
DOWN
1 FACETS
Data about Eastern aspects (6)

Facts around E{astern}
2 APPROX
A disease found around outskirts of Peshawar is roughly reduced (6)

A pox(=disease) around P[eshawa]r
3 JEANS
Trousers Juliet intends to take top off (5)

J(=Juliet in phonetic alphabet) + [m]eans(=intends)
4 CONGEAL
Clot, prisoner and American lass taking drug (7)

Con(=prisoner) + gal(=American lass) around E(=Ecstasy)
6 LABYRINTH
Number taking part in strange trial by entrance to Hampton maze (9)

N{umber} in (trial by)* + H[ampton]
7 GUARDIAN
Help artist upset in piece for newspaper (8)

(Aid + RA)< in gun(=piece in American slang)
8 THEORIES
Politicians adopting male opinions (8)

Tories(=politicians) around he(=male)
11 BUMP
Knock worthless piano (4)

Bum(=worthless) + p{iano}(=musical abbrev for softly)
15 IDEALISED
Considered perfect agreement is initially exposed in papers (9)

(Deal(=agreement) + is + e[xposed]) in ID(=papers)
17 WHISPERS
Rumours of about 20 lost in terrible shipwrecks (8)

Shipwre[ck]s*. Deleted letters are c(=about) + k(=king, answer to 20).
18 UNLAWFUL
A Parisian left dreadful criminal (8)

Un(=A in French) + l{eft} + awful(=dreadful)
20 KING
Family joined by good man (4)

Kin + g{ood}, Man for king is probably used here in the chess sense.
21 BURRITO
Most of earth consuming Italian food (7)

Burro[w] around it{alian}
22 PORTAL
Opening left wall exposed (6)

Port + [w]al[l]
23 ESPRIT
Wit of lively priest (6)

Priest*
26 AMITY
Goodwill from alternative military institution towards young leaders (5)

Initial letters of alternative military institution towards young

11 comments on “Independent 11,332 by Vigo”

  1. A DNF for me. All went in very smoothly apart from 2D, which I just couldn’t see for some reason, though it’s obvious now. My normally trusty wordlist app didn’t come up with APPROX, but gave ‘appros’ and ‘aspros’, and although there are diseases abbreviated to POS and SOS neither made sense in this connection. Otherwise much enjoyed, so thanks Vigo and Neal.

  2. Found this somewhat trickier than our blogger seems to have done but I always persevere when Vigo is our compiler. As expected, this was well worth the effort despite my loathing of that particular ‘number one’.
    Long tick list comprising 1,19&27a plus 1,11&18d.

    Many thanks to Vigo and to Neal for the review.

  4. I failed to parse BLIGHT, though it’s clear now. I too liked WHISPERS, TROUSSEAU and also ELFISH among a nice set of clues. Thanks, both.

  5. I found this light and good fun with ticks aplenty. About halfway through, I suspected that a pangram might be on the cards but in the end there were a couple of missing letters.

    My top few were FLAPJACK, TROUSSEAU, HENPECK & LABYRINTH.

    Re: 25a, isn’t “s” the abbreviation for son and not sons?

    Many thanks to Vigo and to Neal.

  7. Under an hour which is quick for me. Only one I didn’t parse fully was the “number one” clue. Bloomin’ obvious when you read the excellent blog.

    Thanks to Setter and Blogger as usual.

  8. All done and dusted fairly quickly and with no problems. Favourites were TROUSSEAU, POLYGLOT and WHISPERS.
    Thanks, Vigo and NealH.

  9. I found this quite gentle but very entertaining indeed, a perfect way to ease oneself into the crossword week. Stiffer challenges lie ahead.
    Top three for me were the lol SNAIL, along with APPROX and the equally lol PEN NAME, though it was nice to see the setter going for cake rather than biscuit in FLAPJACK.
    Many thanks to Vigo and NealH.

  10. Hovis @6. I tend to use Collins for Indy puzzles and Chambers for the Telegraph as my understanding is that is what the respective puzzle editors specify. S = sons is not in Collins.

  11. Late to this but I’m always happy to find time for Vigo. Very enjoyable.

    Thanks for the blog, NealH. Interesting that you had trouble with 24a. Having done Carpathian’s Quiptic this morning, I had a slightly different parse. I’ll say no more here.

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