Independent on Sunday 1,751 by Tees

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My first Tees blog for a while, tricky at times but all sorted now

Over to you for your thoughts, thanks Teeser

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9/6/18D. Nasty to weedy Roger? Ooh matron! But it’s 19 27 (4,5,4,8)
HERE TODAY GONE TOMORROW

A nasty [TO WEEDY ROGER OOH MATRON]* 19/27 is SHORT LIVED

10. Plant‘s extra large one in Skopje’s centre (5)
OXLIP

XL – extra large & 1 – I all inside centre of (sk)OP(je)

11. Woman about to enter river backwards (5)
ERICA

C – circa, about inside a reversed river AIRE

12. Trinity doctor and prophet turned in article (9)
THREESOME

MO – doctor & SEER – prophet all reversed inside THE – article

13. Crooner missing intro holds note for number (7)
INTEGER

Start of (s)INGER – crooner – removed with TE – musical note inserted

14. Microbe, source of misery not initially relevant (7)
GERMANE

GERM – microbe & (b)ANE – source of misery without first letter

16. Owned Biblical documents hiding content in Panama? (5)
HADST

Without its contents D(ocument)S inside HAT – panama say

18. Sunbathing’s end in Punta Negra? (3)
TAN

Hidden in punTA Negra

19/27. Ephemeral spirit, as it happens, died (5-5)
SHORT-LIVED

SHORT – spirit as in a small shot of Whiskey say & LIVE – as it happens & D(ied)

21. Run out, suspicious about stone platform (7)
ROSTRUM

R(un) O(ut) & ST(one) & RUM – suspicious

22. Fuss involves spare royal losing horse in scam (5-2)
CARRY-ON

Harry – The Spare as the second in line is known without the H(orse) inside CON – scam

24. Wrong ‘un lures Don — caught by slips (9)
SCOUNDREL

A slipping [LURES DON C(aught)]*

26. Old Peruvian jailed (5)
INCAN

IN CAN – jailed

27. See 19

 

28. Skilled players dart endlessly round outside box (9)
ORCHESTRA

CHEST – box inside ARRO(w) – dart without final letter reversed

DOWN
1. Timid, like you, do we hear? (8)
SHEEPISH

Like a EWE – you say

2. Creative a right fool investing shillings (6)
ARTIST

A & R(ight) & S(hillings) in TIT – fool

3. Great shirt fashioned with fewer kinks? (10)
STRAIGHTER

A fashioned [GREAT SHIRT]*

4. Water level reversed by old king in cutter? (6)
EDITOR

TIDE – water level reversed & O(ld) & R – Rex, king

5. Table-topper, or Rushden in the middle? (8)
HYDROGEN

H chemical symbol for Hydrogen appears in the middle of rusHden

6. See 9 Across

 

7. Drunken ordeal and party in fabulous place (8)
ELDORADO

A drunken ORDEAL* & DO – a party

8. Latest information — take this for class (6)
SPHERE

SP – latest betting odds & HERE (you go) – take this

15. Came down with others, inhibited (10)
RESTRAINED

REST – others & RAINED – came down

17. Underworld supplied with crack that’s become liquid (8)
DISSOLVE

DIS – underworld & SOLVE – crack, hopefully what you did to this clue

18. See 9 Across

 

20. Tool one wants repaired (5,3)
TENON SAW

A repaired [ONE WANTS]*

21. Take stock of others changing Ulster? (6)
RUSTLE

Stock as in cattle. A changed ULSTER*

22. Always disregarding temperature, virago ignited bed cloth (6)
CALICO

With added T(emperature) CALICO would be CAT – virago LIT – ignited COT – bed

23. Companion in control coming north in boats (6)
YACHTS

CH – companion of honour in STAY reversed, coming North – in a down clue with the convention that the top of the grid is North

25. To be jogger’s no good without kit (4)
NUDE

No G(ood) in NUD(g)E – jog

 

13 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,751 by Tees”

  1. Thanks Tees and flashling.
    Good one. Needed help with some parsing, thanks.

    Long anagram
    THREESOME
    HYDROGEN, are favs.

  2. Tricky at times but very enjoyable. I had CA (about) on IRE (river near Waterford) reversed for ERICA. So many rivers. Couldn’t parse HYDROGEN either. Can now. Thanks flashling. Liked the missing T’s in CALICO. Reminded me of the three degrees yesterday and the goal posts on Friday. Such visual hints in the clues have immense appeal. Also enjoyed ‘ewe’ in SHEEPISH, HADST, NUDE and SHORT-LIVED which I had as &littish but maybe it’s just that the surface is so apt. Thanks Bluth.

  4. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ooh,_matron
    ‘A catchphrase of Kenneth Williams’ characters in the CARRY ON film series, said in response to comments from Hattie Jacques’ hospital matron characters.
    OOH, MATRON – (UK, slang) – Highlights a statement which contains a double entendre or appears sexually forward.
    Synonyms – (Highlighting a double entendre): fnar, oo-er, as the actress said to the bishop, NUD(g)E NUD(g)E, wink wink, that’s what she said’
    https://openplaques.org/plaques/4952
    Thanks T&f

  5. Very smooth as usual from Tees with some fun constructions – esp CALICO. HYDROGEN was quite evil – maybe that’s because it beat me. ‘Centre of RusHden’ – phew. I’m not sure I’m convinced by ‘by slips’ as anagrind but that’s the smallest of quibbles.

    Thanks Tees and flashling

  6. PostMark @5. I parsed the C in scoundrel as ‘caught by’ and had ‘slips’ as the anagrind. I don’t follow cricket, so I’m only assuming that’s correct.

  7. Thanks Hovis – yes, that works. TBH, thing earned today is that c, correctly, means ‘caught by’.
    I’m no cricketer either and have been happily using caught = C for ages without ever realising. Quiblet entirely retracted – to be replaced by hats off to Tees for using it with its dictionary def. A bit like G being used loosely for ‘group’ but correctly for ‘group of’.

  8. The dictionary entry for c is ‘caught (by)’. My take on the bracketed by is that it is an explanation of the sense in which caught is meant, rather than part of the thing which is abbreviated to c. Perhaps the brackets mean that it’s an optional extra. If you were reading the scorecard entry Smith c Bairstow b Anderson you would normally say Smith caught Bairstow bowled Anderson.
    I have no problem with the clue either way. I took ‘by slips’ to mean ‘using shifts’.
    I didn’t get HYDROGEN, (partly because of also failing on THREESOME and GERMANE, a slow-witted morning) because I fail on those hidden symbol type of clues every time. There is a little problem with it in that the h in Rushden is not the H that means hydrogen but that’s my only excuse.
    Thanks S&B

  9. Enjoyed this one. Especially the follow-the-instructions type clues eg ROSTRUM and THREESOME.
    Was I the only one to enter GERMAIN ? (from pain not bane). Oh dear.
    Thanks F and T

  10. Re the nice cricket-related clue under discussion, featuring Bradman and a googly, or for any clue that deploys single-letter indication, I’m always minded to keep to the usage as per crosswords. Yes, the dictionaries are the feeder channels for these things, but if, as with the cricketing C, both options are in use in crosswords, then that’s where to look first.

    On that score however, and let’s say you were being rude to Roy Brown and wanted to clue CHUBBY, under the circumstances I see no reason why the C and BY elements could not adequately be covered by ‘caught by’. Who knows or cares what that clue might turn out to be, but it’s the game the compilers are playing, and we hope constantly developing, isn’t it.

  11. Enjoyed this one, particularly the tie-up of the answer to the 9/6/18 anagram and the 19/27 combo. Also had something of a penchant for HADST and laughed over SHEEPISH although I don’t doubt it’s been done before!
    Got into something of a quandary with the parsing of 8d so thanks to our blogger for advising on that one.

    Thanks to Tees for the teaser and to flashling for the review.

  12. Thanks both. I just couldn’t see HYDROGEN as a fit even with the crossers, and at best vaguely knew it was number 1 in the atomic table – I also assume there is some relevance to Rushden other than its central letter, but would require a grown-up to guide me

  13. Only in that Rushden (and Diamonds, now AFC R&D) was/ is a football team, and therefore could top a table. On the C debate, I use either form depending on what best fits the surface. My Times list has ‘caught (by)’, whilst my Telegraph one has ‘caught’ and ‘caught by’ as separate entries. I only ever (well, pretty much) use single-letter inds from these two lists, unless I’m doing a ‘first of’ or a ‘close to’.

    Thanks Flash and all.

    Tees.

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