Independent on Sunday 1,755 by Twin

by

My second battle with Twin here, and in my mind equally bruising

I found bits of this very hard and indeed I don’t really get 10a so elucidation is welcome. Thanks, I think, Twin.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Stone perhaps thrown across island (8)
SAPPHIRE

I(sland) inside a thrown PERHAPS* Nicely disguised perhaps I thought

5. Musicians appeal for Desperado (6)
BANDIT

BAND – musicians & IT – (sex) appeal

10. Spur on to enter movement, against one’s will (5)
TONIC

Well I can see it’s ON in TIC – movement, sure you could argue SPUR=TONIC but what is “against one’s will” doing?

11. Near Truss, where balance can be tricky (9)
TIGHTROPE

TIGHT – close, near & TRUSS – a rope. Not sure I needed reminding about an ex PM.

12. Future partner accepting pitch for setter to work on assignment (9)
FREELANCE

REEL – to pitch replacing the I – the setter in F(i)ANCE – future partner

13. Good to abandon crests for teacups etc. (5)
RIDES

Think kiddies rides at fairgrounds, G(ood) removed from RID(g)ES – crests

14. Cross covering medic’s grave (6)
SOMBRE

MB – doctor inside SORE – cross

15. One who helps in theatre, being right next to doctor (7)
DRESSER

ESSE – being, ones nature or essence & R(ight) after DR – doctor

18. Quite articulate lady losing heart (7)
UTTERLY

UTTER – to speak, articulate & a heartless L(ad)Y

20. Something from Farrow & Ball’s ultimately put in tip, e.g. recycled (6)
PIGLET

End of (bal)L inside a recycled [TIP EG]*

22. Fetching food trolley at last (5)
DISHY

DISH – food & end of (trolle)Y

24. Part of Africa still shortly to receive independence (9)
SERENGETI

Most of SEREN(e) – still & GET – receive & I(ndependence)

25. Tramlines done here? (9)
TERMINALS

TRAMLINES* done &litish certainly

26. Horn played by head of early riser in the Alps (5)
RHONE

HORN* played & head of E(arly)

27. Want to tour Middle East with one who’s local? (6)
YEMENI

Somewhat extended def here. ME – Middle East in YEN – want & I – one

28. Upset at rudely breaking marriage vows (8)
ADULTERY

[AT RUDELY]* upset

DOWN
1. Trigger: upper class Londoner? (3,3)
SET OFF

You could separate this as SE (London area of the UK) TOFF

2. Festival restricted Green Street (9)
PENTECOST

PENT – restricted & ECO – green & ST(reet)

3. Rock and roll star losing head about the French/Scandinavian boy from Missouri (11,4)
HUCKLEBERRY FINN

LE – the French – inside a decapitated (c)HUCK BERRY & FINN – a Scandinavian

4. Train engineers welcoming northern link (7)
RETINUE

UNITE – link – reversed – heading North in a down clue in RE – engineers

6. Lawyer for government agent nearly tore free (8,7)
ATTORNEY GENERAL

[AGENT NEARLY TORE]* set free

7. Robot designer died in uprising (5)
DROID

Designer DIOR & D(ied) all reversed – uprising

8. Regularly target a positive value (8)
TREASURE

Alternate letters of TaRgEt A & SURE – positive

9. Yes, it’s a sin (6)
AGREED

A & GREED – deadly sin. Lovely compact clue that.

16. I‘ll get loads round to destroy screens (9)
STEVEDORE

ERODE – destroy * VETS – screens all reversed – around

17. Fiddling in DUP tax analysis (8)
PUNDITRY

[IN DUP]* fiddled & TRY – to tax, bother

19. Goodbyes manage to include poodle (3-3)
YES-MAN

Hidden in goodbYES MANage. Don’t be a Yes-Man, if the boss says no, you say no.

20. A second-hand read (7)
PERUSED

PER – a & USED – second hand

21. Best punishment: lines (6)
FINERY

FINE – punishment & RY – railway, lines

23. Move to trick outside right (5)
SCRAM

R(ight) inside SCAM – trick

 

13 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,755 by Twin”

  3. Thanks, Twin and flashling for the lovely puzzle and the excellent blog!
    YES-MAN
    Liked your comment. LOL.

    Top faves: SET OFF, STEVEDORE.

  4. I really enjoyed this with SET OFF my favourite of many excellent clues.

    My page looked a mess as one of my first entries was ATTORNEY GENERAL which I stupidly wrote in with only one T. I only realised when I had an empty light at the bottom. Oops.

    Many thanks to Twin and to flashling.

  5. I parsed TONIC as KVa – but, regrettably, I didn’t parse STEVEDORE as did they. I didn’t clock ’round’ as the reversal indicator. Otherwise, this was a clean sweep but it did take a couple of passes to achieve. Very tightly clued and, as flashling says, quite tough. Favourites for me included SOMBRE, DRESSER, TERMINALS (COTD), ADULTERY, PENTECOST, RETINUE (the irony!), DROID, TREASURE, AGREED and YES MAN.

    Thanks Twin and flashling

  8. Tricky in parts but managed in the end, though needed the blog for the full explanation of RETINUE and STEVEDORE.

    HUCKLEBERRY FINN was my favourite.

    Thanks to Twin and Flashing

  9. Quite a lot of thinking involved… took a while. interestingly Finns don’t think of themselves as Scandinavians..
    Thanks Flashling n Twin

  10. We took ages to decide that teacups might be RIDES; eventually Google directed us to all things Disney which (with the honourable exception of Fantasia) we detest. Otherwise a satisfying solve – we particu;ar;y liked PIGLET and HUCKLEBERRY FINN.
    Thanks, Twin and flashling.

  11. Thanks Twin, that was great. I needed several sessions to complete this and I enjoyed the challenge. My favourites were SAPPHIRE, TERMINALS, YEMENI, ADULTERY (nice surface), HUCKLEBERRY FINN, and the well hidden YES-MAN. I don’t believe many people in the Nordic countries see the Finns as Scandinavians but many in the rest of the world do so I won’t object. I couldn’t parse STEVEDORE. Thanks flashling for the blog.

  13. Bit (well very) late to this so I hope the setter will see my complimentary comment.
    Very enjoyable with clever and imaginative wordplay throughout, I particularly appreciated TONIC, PIGLET and HUCKLEBERRY FINN but could have mentioned several more.
    Thanks Twin and flashing

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