Independent 11,356 by Gila

by

After a few bruising Filberts a gentle Monday crossword from Gila today

Thanks Gila, needed a relatively easy blog after a week or two of cold symptoms making my brain a bit foggy.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Criticise Kane, possibly, for showboating spot kick (7)
PANENKA

PAN – criticise & KANE* possibly. A cheeky penalty kick technique see some here

5. We are nearly about to reject an online meeting (7)
WEBINAR

BIN to reject inside most of WE AR(e)

9. Nasty person, say, steals the last part of our show (11)
DEMONSTRATE

DEMON – nasty person & end of (ou)R inside STATE – say

10. After only a half of Skol, I go downhill (3)
SKI

half of SK(ol) & I

11. New bus-driver occasionally not decent? (5)
NUDIE

N(ew) & alternate letters of bUs DrIvEr

13. Judge taking possession of a place in Scotland with large grounds (9)
RATIONALE

IONA – Scottish isle & L(arge) all in RATE – judge

14. Chips perhaps made by two guys? Pretty much! (4,4)
SIDE DISH

SID & ED two men & ISH – pretty much

16. Was an instructor wrong when speaking? (6)
TAUGHT

Sounds like TORT – legal wrong

18. Rules primarily protected by county’s elected officials (6)
MAYORS

R(ule) inside county MAYO & the ‘S

19. Dull players going after a number of balls (8)
OVERCAST

OVER – some balls & CAST – players

22. Group of teen lads swimming round end of jetty (6,3)
STEELY DAN

End of (jett)Y inside [TEEN LADS]* swimming

23. Protest is about money (3-2)
SIT-IN

IS reversed & TIN – money

25. Invest from time to time and make a score? (3)
NET

Alternate letters in iNvEsT

26. A field scattered with worms? I can’t believe it! (5,4,2)
WORDS FAIL ME

[A FIELD WORMS]* scattered

28. Cocaine dealer somehow not convicted? (7)
CLEARED

C(ocaine) & DEALER* somehow

29. Difficult achievement always takes energy and, ultimately, excess time (7)
EVEREST

EVER – always & E(nergy) & end of (exces)S & T(ime)

DOWN
1. Particular types of briefs probed by leading journo (7)
PEDANTS

PANTS – briefs/underwear with the ED(itor) inserted

2. No obstruction set up for traveller (5)
NOMAD

NO & DAM reversed

3. Older relative is silly, having no boundaries (3)
NAN

A borderless (i)NAN(e)

4. Podcaster is keen to host a star (8)
ASTERISK

Hidden – hosted by podcASTER IS Keen

5. You and I had essentially left with almost all of the cash (6)
WEALTH

WE – you and I & (h)A(d) essentially & L(eft) & most of TH(e)

6. Airbuses flying around one elevated capital city (6,5)
BUENOS AIRES

ONE reversed – elevated inside a flying AIRBUSES*

7. Losing at running is followed by a feeling of sadness (9)
NOSTALGIA

It’s not what it used to be. [LOSING AT]* running & A

8. Mark wears torn clothing (7)
RAIMENT

AIM for mark inside RENT – torn

12. Church leader initially favouring inferior sort of wine (11)
ELDERFLOWER

ELDER – church leader & start of F(avouring) & LOWER – inferior

15. Venture to secure unknown amount of money for social enterprise (3,6)
DAY CENTRE

Y – unknown & CENT – some money – all in DARE – venture

17. At any point, fabled monster’s home is said to disappear (8)
EVANESCE

Sounds like EVER NESS – Nessie’s home

18. Parent and child in charge of a secret group (7)
MASONIC

MA – parent & SON & IC – in charge

20. Touching, explosive letters full of endless outrage (7)
TANGENT

MOST of ANGE(r) inside T.N.T.

21. Darling socialist providing support for a party (6)
ADORED

A & DO – party & RED – socialist

24. Feature of señorita’s hat incorporating diamonds (5)
TILDE

D(iamonds) in TILE – hat. Well there’s one in the definition

27. Awesome slice of chocolate cake served up (3)
ACE

Hidden reversed in chocolatE CAke

 

18 comments on “Independent 11,356 by Gila”

  1. Lots of amusement, starting with the clever 1a. Kane’s a regular penalty taker, but I doubt he’s ever tried a panenka.

  2. I always enjoy this setter’s puzzles and this one was no exception, although I would have preferred not to have had the two vague guys in 14a.

    PANENKA was my favourite with EVANESCE runner-up.

    Many thanks to GIla for the fun start to the week and to flashling.

  3. Had to look up PANENKA to check it existed when I’d worked it out from the wordplay, showing my lack of interest in that ball game, and entered EVANESCE, my LOI, from the crossers and definition, without parsing it.

    Thank you to Gila and flashling.

  4. Had zero idea about PANENKA which I entered as the most likely parsing of the the most likely def and wordplay; even so I was surprised to see the confetti appear after the grid was filled. Apart from that, not too many problems though EVANESCENCE took a bit of working out. Favourite was the nice TILDE def.

    BTW, maybe just my browser (Safari on an iPad) but the “here” link at 1a isn’t working as intended for me.

    Thanks to Gila and flashling

  5. @WordPlodder, oops yes – well it goes somewhere now, not where I meant first time but you’ll get the idea.

  6. I didn’t quite get the evanesce. The Ness was pretty obvious but the “at any point” made me think of a location rather than time. I’d never heard of panenka either and kept thinking the first bit was tan rather than pan, so I had to get 1D before I could finally work that out.

  7. FOI: PEDANTS – Do they mean us?
    Cue for objections to TAUGHT & EVANESCE as homophones. And WEBINAR – is that a real word? – WORDS FAIL ME.
    SID Little & EDdie Large appearing as a SIDE DISH, causing NOSTALGIA.
    As did my favourite band STEELY DAN. That could have been clued obscenely by Rod Liddle.
    LOI, with all the crossers PANENKA (it couldn’t be PANKNEA) so a jorum for me. I only found it in the wiktionary. Is it in Chambers?
    Brilliant stuff!
    Thanks G&f

  8. Today I finally completed the independent cryptic without any help or using the autochecker!

    Must have been on the friendlier side if I was able to do it!
    I would like to say thank you to everyone who contributes to this blog as I use it everyday to see how the clues are constructed and get a bit better every day.

  9. Congratulations Gimli. First of many I hope!

    Thanks flashling and Gila. Knowing little, and caring less, about football meant 1a was a punt (every pun intended)

  10. FrankieG @7 Webinars are definitely a thing, a large proportion of my Guide leader training is currently Webinars.

  11. I always enjoy solving (and blogging) this setter’s Toughies elsewhere so it was no surprise that I really liked this too.
    I loved the smile inducing PANENKA, SKI and WORDS FAIL ME but for purely “nostalgic” reasons my favourite has to be STEELY DAN, the only band I know to achieve huge success singing almost exclusively about losers, weirdos, geeks, druggies and sexual deviants.
    Many thanks Gila and flashling.

  12. Lovely puzzle by Gila, many thanks. Gimli’s post @8 perfectly encapsulates Gaufrid’s idea for the site, I’d say. Thanks too for the blog flashling

  13. Not a monster of a puzzle from Gila; simple but fun.

    I remember watching the PANENKA penalty in 1976. The end of the shoot-out; if he scored then Czechoslovakia were European champions. Cheering for the underdogs against mighty West Germany, I shrieked at the TV screen, thinking he’d miskicked, then saw the ball nestling in the net. I still marvel at his courage in taking such a vital kick so audaciously.

  14. Put me on the list of those to whom PANENKA meant nothing, I wasn’t very keen on NUDIE or EVANESCE either but overall I certainly enjoyed the puzzle.
    Tops for me were OVERCAST & SIT IN

    Thanks to Gila and to flashling for the review.

  15. Shanne@10: My post was meant to be humorous. That pedants might object to the homophones and neologisms and say “Words fail me!”.
    I knew webinars existed, though I’ve never been on one. I checked Merriam-Webster which often gives citations and first use – 1998, so it’s celebrating its jubilee.
    It’s older than I thought, but then most things are, because I’m old. There’s also a Time Traveler function which lists new coinages that year – these for 1998:
    camgirl, cosplayer, coulrophobia, cyberbullying, dark energy, dark web, deplatform,
    distributed denial of service, ?flexitarian, neurodiversity, open-source, perfect storm, and social networking.
    I welcome new words as I welcome immigrants and refugees – with open arms. And I’m all for keeping all the old words like nudie (noun 1934, adjective 1942).
    Of late people objected to the word ew meaning yuck, but Merriam-Webster says it’s from 1969, and accepted in Scrabble since 2018.
    I also welcome homophones, if they’re fun, apart from the lately ubiquitous “Island of Ireland”. I was amused to find that Panenka’s Bohemians Prague play in green, whereas Dublin’s Bohemians don’t. And Skol lager is old too, born in 1959.
    And finally, bravo Gimli@8: It’s fun, isn’t it?

  16. Not quite a walk-through but we got it all. We’d echo Shanne’s comments @4, plus NUDIE was new to us (but easily checked in Chambers). Favourites were PEDANTS and ASTERISK.
    Thanks, Gila and flashling.

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