Independent 11,386 by Wire

by

An excellent and challenging puzzle.

4D was the pick of the clues for me but everything was very good.

ACROSS
1 SCORSESE
Director succeeded in 20s with Coolidge’s backing (8)

S{ucceeded} in scores(=twenties) + [Coolidg]e
5 RAFFIA
Half of rubbish outside of Ikea is natural fibre (6)

[Riff]raff + I[ke]a
10 AWKWARD
Clumsy husband leaving bird with dependant (7)

[H]awk + ward
11 NEONATE
Gas mantles oddly missing in recent delivery (7)

Neon(=an inert gas) + even letters of mantles
12 PIECE
Audibly quiet object that can be discharged (5)

Hom of peace (the discharged refers to the gun definition of piece)
13 UNUTTERED
Not spoken with university editor about crank (9)

(U{niversity} ed{itor}) around nutter(=crank)
14 INCOHERENCE
Rambling officer in this spot by noon amid rocks (11)

I think this is NCO(=non-commissioned officer) + here(=in this spot) with n{oon} after it and ice(=rocks) around the whole thing. I did initially think CO for the officer but that wouldn't account for the second N.
18 BRUCELLOSIS
Fever distressing ill boss cured for the most part (11)

(Ill boss cure[d])*
21 CATAMARAN
Animal primarily ate mice and rats aboard new vessel (9)

Cat(=animal) + initial letters of ate mice and rats aboard new
23 SEINE
French runner seconds in front of a German (5)

S{econds} before eine, feminine form of the indefinite article.
24 STEROID
Drug Ceres and Vesta maybe unveiled (7)

[A]steroiod[s] (Ceres and Vesta are examples thereof)
25 URANIUM
Element essential for young carbon-deficient bones (7)

[Yo]u[ng] + [c]ranium. Interestingly, since U is the chemical symbol for Uranium, this clue would have worked without the "carbon deficient bones".
26 SEESAW
Clocks at watchmakers initially go back-and-forth (6)

Sees(=clocks, as in "I've just clocked him") + a[t] w[atchmakers]
27 WHATNOTS
Broadcast that’s won various things (8)

(That's won)*
DOWN
1 SNAPPY
Photograph priest on base of Holy Cross (6)

Snap(=photograph) + p{riest} + [hol]y
2 ORKNEY
Archipelago (or island) welcomes navy (6)

(Or key(=island, as in Florida keys)) around n{avy}
3 SPACE TIME
Einstein’s model church features in Spring magazine (5-4)

CE(=Church of England) in (spa + Time(=US magazine))
4 SODIUM CHLORIDE
Fish covered with some our child sprinkled? (6,8)

&lit. Id in (some our child)*. Id is one of these words that I only ever see in crosswords but it's a variant spelling of ide, a freshwater fish also called the orfe. Sodium chloride is of course the chemical formula of common salt.
6 ABORT
Stop sample of nitrobacteria spinning (5)

Hidden, rev in nitrobacteria
7 FLAGRANT
Outrageous tirade regarding paving stones? (8)

CD/DD – tirade about paving stones would be a "flag rant".
8 ABERDEEN
American flower planted in European capital city (8)

A{merican} + (Dee(=river Dee, something which flows) in Bern)
9 ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
E(0-T) = E(0-T): this cannot be tolerated (6,2,6)

Assertion that E + nough[t] = E + nough[t]
15 RESISTANT
Breeds pigs at main sty regularly to be immune (9)

Even letters of "breeds pigs at main sty"
16 ABACUSES
Scuba worked in sea over more than one summer (8)

Scuba* in sea*. Abacuses can be used to sum things.
17 OUT THERE
Unconventional? Not in here from where I’m sitting (3,5)

DD
19 LIBIDO
Desire for the other bikini on vacation in pool (6)

B[ikin]i in lido
20 DERMIS
Bladder mistakenly grafted with layer of skin (6)

Hidden in "bladder mistakenly".
22 MOOLA
Mega-potato in Mumbai raised money (5)

M{ega} + aloo<(=Indian word for potato)

10 comments on “Independent 11,386 by Wire”

  1. Tough in places but all very doable. BRUCELLOSIS was new to me. Always like clues such as that for 9d.

    Minor change to blog for 16d. The clue suggests an anagram of ‘scuba’ in a reversal of ‘sea’.

  2. Took ages to get a look-in and then slow but steady progress. Didn’t get the equation but agree re 14a. URANIUM takes summa cum laude although it could have been ABACUSES. A real treat, I thought. Thanks

  3. All very enjoyable and, yes, quite touch for a Monday but no complaints here. All parsed bar STEROID as I only knew of Ceres and Vesta as goddesses, not asteroids. I’m in violent agreement with the various suggestions for COTD: NealH’s SODIUM CHLORIDE and Sofamore’s URANIUM and ABACUSES. To which I’d add RESISTANT for the remarkable combo of alternate and surface. And ENOUGH IS ENOUGH certainly deserves to be mentioned in despatches.

    Thanks Wire and NealH

  4. Enjoyably difficult. Stared at the first few clues devoid of inspiration, but eventually the answers started going in. I thought I had parsed everything but you’re quite right about NCO rather than CO (my parsing) in INCOHERENCE. The surface for ENOUGH IS ENOUGH looked daunting at first sight but ended up not being too bad with crossers and enumeration. SODIUM CHLORIDE however remained daunting until the very end when it materialised from the crossers; the variant spelling of our fishy friend the ID(E) was particularly tricky.

    Thanks to NealH and Wire

  7. I enjoyed deducing that Ceres and Vesta are asteroids. In fact, I enjoyed the whole puzzle. Thanks to both setter and blogger.

  8. Hello all, thanks for checking in to comment and thanks NealH for the thorough blog. 4D was inspired by my mum who, in a cunningly successful attempt to get me interested in chemistry, always asked me to ‘pass the sodium chloride’ at meal times when I was a lad. But that was the 70s. I subsequently learnt the term ‘essential hypertension’ and so no NaCl gets sprinkled on anything by anyone.

  9. Like ENOUGH IS ENOUGH which I solved relatively early – this has been solved in bits on the tube as I travelled around. Top left corner waa the last in.

    Thank you to NealH and Wire.

  10. Very tough for me, but entertaining. Needed some help and explanations on the blog (thanks). Why do I always miss the hidden-in-plain-view ?

    If you’re interested, I’m one of those who needs to keep up the NaCl intake to avoid bad cramps and low BP. Strange.

    Thanks both

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