Atrica is a regular but infrequent contributor of Indy puzzles. I enjoyed this one: it was all fairly clued, but there were some chewy bits to hold you up in places.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 In picture in picture
IMAGINE
An insertion of IN in IMAGE. The insertion indicator is the first ‘in’.
10 Fool given temporary accommodation is happy
CONTENT
A charade of CON and TENT.
11 Working for nothing, penniless journalist is alone
UNAIDED
A charade of UN[P]AID and ED.
12 Dark red clothing staff put on
PRODUCE
An insertion of ROD in PUCE. The insertion indicator is ‘clothing’. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
13 Mistakenly copies friend of the bishop
EPISCOPAL
A charade of (COPIES)* and PAL.
15 Seemed upset with underpowered bike
MOPED
A dd.
16 Waste receptacle failing to open reportedly reason for anger
INCENSE
A charade of [B]IN and a homophone (‘reportedly’) of SENSE.
19 Looking the worse for wear after snorting drug, changed colour again?
RED-EYED
An insertion of E for the ‘drug’ in RE-DYED. The insertion indicator is ‘after snorting’.
20 Wrote about locomotive, for example
TOWER
(WROTE)* You need to rhyme the solution with ‘rower’ rather than ‘bower’.
21 Energy held by two tons made a tremendous noise
THUNDERED
An insertion of E in T and HUNDRED. The insertion indicator is ‘held by’.
25 Sounds like a greater number are travelling through Eastern European region
MORAVIA
A charade of a homophone (‘sounds like’) of MORE, A and VIA. The A for ‘are’ is the unit of measurement: it’s a hundred square metres, and a hectare is a hundred ares.
26 Agrees with proposal for more to eat
SECONDS
A dd.
28 Tract in works of Hindu scripture
TANTRIC
(TRACT IN)*
29 Continues to provide biographies?
RESUMES
A dd. You’d need an acute accent on the second E for the second definition.
Down
1 Very small piece of cloth turns into fruitcake in illusion
MINUTE
Atrica is inviting you to change the RAG in MIRAGE into NUT.
2 Is about to host a remote expedition
SAFARI
An insertion of A and FAR in IS reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘to host’.
3 What a twister is and what it does
WIND
A dd, with two different pronunciations.
4 Writings finally turn out to be parody
SEND-UP
A charade of S for the final letter of ‘writings’ and END UP.
5 Casual partner extremely upset, seeing what sister sometimes wears
SCAPULAR
(CASUAL P[ARTNE]R)* The ‘sister’ is of the convent variety.
6 Where one might go with degree, given a difficult time
INCOMMODED
In days gone by, you might have had a wee IN [A] COMMODE. Add a D to that and you’ve got an adjective with the definition here.
7 Replenish drink quietly held by bank
RESUPPLY
An insertion of SUP and P in RELY. The insertion indicator is ‘held by’.
8 Was there when the news is on and occasionally expressed dread
ATTENDED
The news is on AT TEN; DED is formed from the odd letters of DrEaD.
14 Not entirely against public dispute
CONTROVERT
A charade of CONTR[A] and OVERT.
16 Thick prisoner accepting only first half of stretch
INTIMATE
An insertion of TI[ME] in INMATE. ‘Atrica and the editor are as thick as thieves.’
17 Cringe, struggling to suppress a cry of pain, showing fear
COWERING
An insertion of OW in (CRINGE)* The insertion indicator is ‘to suppress’.
18 Somewhat abstracted, president ran ceremony in doorway
ENTRANCE
Hidden in presidENT RAN CEremony.
22 Hesitant nurse clumsily collecting a trace of urine
UNSURE
An insertion of U for the initial letter of ‘urine’ in (NURSE)* The insertion indicator is ‘collecting’.
23 Men are prepared to change handle
RENAME
(MEN ARE)*
24 Stop commuting north and south in side street
DESIST
Since it’s a down clue, ‘commuting north and south’ is inviting you to change SIDE into DESI by rearranging the pairs of letters. Then you need to add ST to give you your solution.
27 Group encouraged to break a leg and what a member may need if successful
CAST
A dd. Luvvies don’t say ‘good luck’ before a performance, because it’s bad luck. The expression of choice is ‘break a leg’, and a CAST is what you’d need if you really did that.
Many thanks to Atrica for the start to our week of puzzles in the Independent.
MORAVIA, MINUTE and CAST were my favourites.
Thanks, Atrica and Pierre!
Wonderful! My favourite Atrica crossword ever. Full of clues that had me head-scratching for quite some time. Really enjoyed the challenge.
‘Commuting north and south’ in place of the more familiar ‘cycling’ was interesting.
Loved this. Off to a slow start (definite start on the Downs day) but with the aid of checkers romped home. INCOMMODED a new word for me and my LOI and DESIST was a bung-in.
I thought IMAGINE was err, imaginative, liked PRODUCE, RED-EYED, MORAVIA, SEND-UP, INTIMATE and the clever and amusing CAST.
Many thanks Atrica and Pierre
Very good, with a few bits of tricky parsing which were satisfying to work out, particularly MINUTE, THUNDERED and DESIST. I’d never heard of SCAPULAR as a noun, only as an adjective in relation to the shoulder blade and I was unsure if CONTROVERT was a verb or noun for ‘dispute’.
A COMMODE is still very much a thing. Forget about “days gone by”, some of us happen to be approaching an age when we may be needing one fairly soon!
Thanks to Atrica and Pierre
Very nice start to the day with plenty of crisp clean clues of which CAST, INTIMATE, RESUPPLY and THUNDERED were my favourites. Image and IMAGINE seem very closely linked but I did enjoy the clue.
Thanks Atrica and Pierre
My top clue was INTIMATE but I also liked others. EPISCOPAL and the clue for TOWER for example. Thanks Atricia and Pierre.
Well, I would pronounce 25A as ‘Morehvia’ not ‘Morahvia’ (maybe it depends on where one was brought up or educated) but the answer was clear enough. I enjoyed the blogger’s insinuation at 16D that there was close collaboration between the editor and setter, presumably not just Atrica! All very enjoyable anyway so thanks to Atrica and Pierre.
Tatrasman. Don’t know how it’s supposed to be pronounced but only the MOR “more” is a homophone, the rest is wordplay, as in the blog.
I agree with everyone else – nice puzzle. Thanks, Atrica & Pierre.
Tatrasman @8 – only the first syllable “MOR” needs to be treated as a homophone, the rest of it is A + VIA, regardless of pronunciation.
Thanks both. MINUTE was clever enough to partly defeat me in the parsing. For MORAVIA I wrongly entered ‘Morovia’ derived from ‘more rove via’ otherwise I wasn’t sure what ‘travelling’ was achieving in the clue
TFO I felt that VIA could be stretched to mean ‘travelling through’ as in ‘I’m going to Switzerland via France’ say.
An excellent crossword. Pleasantly “chewy” indeed.
Well done Pierre for parsing MORAVIA – which I assumed (as Tatrasman@8) was just another non-rhotic mispronunciation of ma-ray-vee-uh. Nice clue.
So many answers where the meaning could depend on the pronunciation:
CONTENT, PRODUCE, MOPED, INCENSE, TOWER, SECONDS, RESUMES, MINUTE, WIND, INTIMATE, ENTRANCE.
My LOI: MINUTE – very clever. Liked DESIST too – innovative.
Thanks A&P
Nice spot FrankieG. Wonder if this was intentional.
Thanks to all who have commented and to Pierre for the blog. Sorry there were no birds! Congratulations to FrankieG for spotting the homographs. Not sure whether they really constitute a theme, but it’s interesting how helpful they are in setting clues. I just noticed SUPPLY in there too, but that was unintentional!
A greaty puzzle, although we were held up in the NW corner by the UNAIDED/MINUTE crossing entries. The latter was our LOI and also our CoD.
Thanks. Atrica and Pierre.
“The thurifer incenses the priest and people”.
He certainly does – I’m livid.