Independent 11,518 by Nitsy

Well here’s a rare visitor to our shores. Nitsy has been an Indy setter for many years but somewhat infrequent. I’ve been blogging here for thirteen years and this is the first time we’ve crossed.

A fun, light puzzle with some cracking long anagrams, thanks Nitsy

 picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Huge tank guarding square (4)
VAST

S(quare) inside VAT – tank. Did struggle to see S meaning square might just be me, but did find RMS – root mean square

3. Shoots fan right after California police turn up in this? (5,3)
PANDA CAR

Well PANDAs certainly like bamboo shoots & CA(lifornia) & R(ight)

9. Rodin carved a lion without resting, initially – extraordinary artist (8,2,5)
LEONARDO DA VINCI

You need to remove R(esting) from say (r)ODIN then it’s an extraordinary [(r)ODIN CARVED A LION]*

11. What’s said in chess clubs teach me about trapping king (9)
CHECKMATE

C(lubs) & K(ing) trapped inside [TEACH ME]* about

12. Portion of bread: large lump (4)
LOAF

L(arge) & OAF, lump, fool

13. Tense before I almost mow your old grass (7)
TIMOTHY

T(ense) & I & most of MO(w) & THY – old English for your. Timothy Grass is common throughout most of Europe

15. Thin box with small base (6)
SPARSE

SPAR to box & S(mall) & E – the mathematical natural logarithm base

17. English queen cross with palace’s latest wing (6)
ANNEXE

ANNE – an English queen & X – cross & end of (palac)E

19. Upset about poetry (7)
REVERSE

RE- about & VERSE – poetry

20. Genesis on the radio? Turn over (4)
CEDE

Sounds like SEED or the genesis of something

21. Contribute money, backing virtually bankrupt writer (9)
SUBSCRIBE

Most of BUS(t) – bankrupt reversed & SCRIBE – writer

24. Leon regrets CV – it misrepresented what applicants should perhaps include (8,7)
COVERING LETTERS

A misrepresented [LEON REGRETS CV IT]*

25. Gun protecting three short brothers (8)
BRETHREN

Most of THRE(e) in a BREN gun

26. Sexy guy from work scratching bottom (4)
STUD

Most of STUD(y) – work

DOWN
1. Lick Bristol, perhaps, after wild love (8)
VELOCITY

A wild LOVE* & CITY e.g. Bristol, def by example. Surface implying something else …

2. Rock star’s top sound quality (5)
STONE

S – S(tar)’s top letter & TONE – sound quality

4. Daughter put on bandage following a talk (7)
ADDRESS

A & D(aughter) & DRESS – bandage

5. Rock vocalist evaded one who stokes division (6,8)
DEVILS ADVOCATE

A rocked [VOCALIST EVADED]*

6. Fabric looser with half cut off? One might ask for your opinion (9)
CANVASSER

CANVAS – a fabric & half of (loo)SER

7. Sally runs charity (4)
RAID

R(uns) & AID – charity

8. Corrupt racketeers harm what businesses do? (6,8)
MARKET RESEARCH

A corrupt [RACKETEERS HARM]* well some businesses anyway

10. Independent article found in dull journal (5)
DIARY

I(ndependent) & A – article all in DRY – dull

14. Chap before work getting exercise (9)
MANOEUVRE

MAN – chap & OEUVRE – one’s body of work

16. Deer oddly stopped dead (8)
DECEASED

Alternate letters of DeEr & CEASED – stopped

18. Ascetic Jew eating cold marrow (7)
ESSENCE

C(old) inside ESSENE – ascetic jew

19. Revolutionary piece of angling equipment catches bass (5)
REBEL

B(ass) inside a fishing REEL

22. Not up to the mark in record time (5)
INEPT

IN from the clue & EP – a record & T(ime)

23. Son caught a black rat (4)
SCAB

S(on) & C(aught) & A & B(lack)

 

10 comments on “Independent 11,518 by Nitsy”

  1. Very enjoyable accessible puzzle, I invariably enjoy this setter’s Tuesday puzzles elsewhere.
    My only beef is that for me the surface read in 11a isn’t grammatically correct. I liked DEVILS ADVOCATE, CEDE& TIMOTHY but my standout favourite was VELOCITY.

  2. A gentle and enjoyable start to the week, so thanks Nitsy and Flashling. Didn’t know TIMOTHY as a grass but may well have it in my garden, where I’m following advice to let it go wild: the grass is now hip high and clearly includes several varieties!

  3. nho TIMOTHY grass and wondered if there was a biblical rat other than Judas. Yes, a gentle Monday puzzle and I’d agree with StephenL’s nomination of VELOCITY as stand out clue.

    Thanks Nitsy and Flashling.

  4. Enjoyed this. Thanks, Nitsy and flashling. I was staring at 3a for ages before the penny dropped with a resounding clang. Very good!

  5. Most enjoyable. We had no problems with the long anagrams but we took ages to get CEDE as our LOI. Favourites were TIMOTHY, SUBSCRIBE, BRETHREN and VELOCITY.
    Thanks, Nitsy and flashling.

  6. Thanks Nitsy. I’m a first time solver of a Nitsy crossword and I thoroughly enjoyed this. I failed with PANDA CAR — I was not familiar with that term — but all else fell into place without problem. I particularly liked LEONARDO DA VINCI, DEVILS ADVOCATE, and INEPT. Thanks flashling for the blog.

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