Independent 11,566 by Tees

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I found this a slightly mixed bag, with a lot of nice clues but one or two where I struggled to justify the parsing. The breadth of Tees's vocabulary is, as ever, impressive.

I liked 11 and 12 for the excellent surfaces. 12 in particular had me convinced that it was house something for ages because of the river Ouse (York's "flower").

ACROSS
9 CIVIL LIST
No inclination from military to make allowance for sovereign? (5,4)

DD/CD. List here is used in the sense of tilt, so non-military tilt might be a civil list. The civil list was a previous mechanism for giving money to the monarchy – it has since been replaced by the sovereign grant.
10
See 23 Down

11 SNAFU
United supporters making return journey in chaos? (5)

(U Fans)*. Snafu is an acronym of military origin meaning "Situation Normal: all fouled/f*cked up".
12 HELLEBORE
Agony and ecstasy surrounding York’s flower (9)

(Hell(=agony) + e{stasy}(abbrev from the drug)) around Ebor(=old name for York, still used in things like the "Ebor Meeting")
13 KEYED UP
Kelvin assessed lasciviously becomes agitated (5-2)

K{elvin} + eyed up(=assessed lasciviously)
14 TOPLESS
A Durbeyfield round the old place not fully dressed? (7)

Tess(as in Tess Durbeyfield aka Tess of the D'Urbervilles) around (o{ld} pl{ace})
16 NIL
Where Neagh is, lough: duck found therein? (3)

NI(=Northern Island, location of Lough Neagh) + l{ough}. I'm not sure if l is an official abbrev for lough in the same way as it is for lake. You could also interpret it as l{ake}, a lough being a lake where Neagh is, although that does mean using the first part of the clue twice.
18 RIPCORD
Is it pulled to preserve neck of jumper? (7)

Not sure about this, but possibly rip(=preserve, as in the term for making electronic copies of something on a tape, CD etc) + cord(=neck of jumper, which would be a sort of cord). Could be considered an &lit but "Is it pulled" wouldn't really fit as part of the secondary clue, so I've just gone for that as the def.
20 EGO
Swollen head? Say nothing! (3)

E.G.(=say) + O(=nothing)
21 ARIADNE
Song complete about Minoan daughter (7)

(End(=complete) + aria(=song))<
22 SKYJACK
Sailor on island shortly having to take the plane? (7)

Jack on Sky[e].
24 TOSCANINI
Conductor contains transformed current (9)

Contains* + i(=symbol for current in physics equations)
26 AFFIX
Join force in a predicament (5)

F{orce} in (a fix)
28 USE UP
Exhaust American power restraining Brussels? (3,2)

(US P{ower}) around EU
29 ROCK OPERA
Presentation by The Who perhaps better suited to The Stones? (4,5)

CD
DOWN
1 ACES
Superb pilot with Spitfire initially breezes through? (4)

Ace(=slang term for a good pilot) + S[pitfire]. Def is used in the sense of "acing something".
2 AVIARY
Area to change enclosing one zoo feature (6)

A{rea} + vary(=change) around I
3 FLOUNDERED
Flailed about having sunk going round lake (10)

Foundered(=sunk) around l{ake}
4 MISHAP
Unlucky incident where Mike in Russia given Putin’s head (6)

Misha(=a Russian form of Michael) + P[utin]
5 STILETTO
This — invariably lethal — used for starters in fight? (8)

&lit. Initial letters of "this invariably lethal" in set-to. My only problem with the clue is that a stiletto, whilst lethal, wouldn't be invariably lethal. Maybe the question mark covers both dubious assertions (that it is always lethal and that it is used at the start of a fight).
6 ANTE
Stake — not post? (4)

CD/DD. Ante means before, so "not post".
7 OBSOLETE
Antiquated shoe’s undersurface in to be repaired (8)

Sole(=shoe's undersurface) in (to be)*
8 ALPENSTOCK
Covered dock in Alabama with store and staff (10)

Not sure on this. Seems to be Al(=Alabama) + pen(=dock, possibly in the sense of the dock in a courtroom) + store(=stock).

13 KING ARTHUR
Legendary ruler‘s blood on courtyard by ancient city (4,6)

Kin(=blood in the sense of family) + garth(=old word for a courtyard) + Ur(=ancient Mesopotamian city)
15 PADDY WAGON
Prisoners into this, a good pandowdy prepared on the outside? (5,5)

(A g{ood} pandowdy)*
17 LEINSTER
Midlands city having name for church in Dublin location? (8)

Leicester with CE(=Church of England) replaced by n{ame}. Leinster is a province of Ireland which contains Dublin.
19 PREMIERE
Two notes put in played softly before first performance (8)

(Re + mi)(=two notes) in (p(=piano, softly) + ere(=before))
22 SNITCH
Skin irritation appearing after tin found in grass (6)

Itch(=skin irritation) after Sn(=chemical symbol for tin)
23/10 ALFRED NOBEL
Explosive inventor‘s rewritten fable with Elrond (6,5)

(Fable Elrond)*. Nobel famously invented dynamite.
25 ALPS
Record to break when finding mountains (4)

LP in as(=when)
27 X RAY
Whiskey chaser? It’s a revealing image (1-3)

DD, referring to the phonetic alphabet where X-Ray follows Whiskey

16 comments on “Independent 11,566 by Tees”

  1. Thanks Tees and NealH

    I took 18 as a simple CD – if a parachutist (jumper) doesn’t pull the ripcord they’ll probably break their neck, or worse, on hitting the ground.

  4. Thanks, Tees and NealH

    NIL
    L is given as an abbreviation for lough in Chambers.

    ALPENSTOCK
    Collins-PEN
    a dock for servicing submarines, esp one having a bombproof roof
    Covered dock could be taken as PEN.

  6. A delightful puzzle from Tees.

    I was pleased to see I was not the only one to be bamboozled by ‘York’s flower’, until the penny dropped – I do know the Roman name for York! (The Archbishop of York signs himself EBOR.)

    I do admire the range of Tees’ clues and was glad to see two of my heroines,(both ill-used), ARIADNE and TESS.

    I have to like 17dn LEINSTER, for the use of my home town. (I remember Bannsider, years ago, using a very similar device in a prompt comment on the blog of a puzzle in which he had clued ‘Leicester’ as ‘fifteen’!
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2011/05/21/independent-7668-bannsider-sat-14-may-2011/ )

    Other favourites were 11ac SNAFU, 13ac KEYED-UP, 22ac SKYJACK, 24ac TOSCANINI, 7dn OBSOLETE, 13dn KING ARTHUR, 19dn PREMIERE and 23/10 ALFRED NOBEL.

    Many thanks to Tees for the fun and to NealH for a great blog.

  7. For once, I am able to utilise the time-honoured tradition of typing ‘What Eileen said’ wrt favourite clues though, not having the same classical education (and rarely enjoying written correspondence with the Archbishop), EBOR for York was unknown and HELLEBORE and fail. I parsed RIPCORD as a CD, same as the others, having spent far too long trying to parse the wordplay.

    Thanks Tees and NealH

  8. I went down a blind alley at 17D, getting Linfield with N replacing Ch from Lichfield, until I realised it’s in Belfast not Dublin. Otherwise all very nice so thanks Tees and Neal

  9. We also spent too long trying to fit something around ‘Ouse’ before the pdm, and although we didn’t need it to solve 15dn we had to find out what a pandowdy is (according to Collins it’s “a deep-dish pie made from fruit, esp apples , with a cake topping”).
    Plenty to enjoy, and difficult to pick a favourite, it was all good.
    Thanks, Tees and NealH.

  10. The standout clue was 12a HELLEBORE – lift-and-separate “York’s flower” to get EBORacum and the not-a-river definition.
    I also like 17d LEINSTER, for the use of my home province and city.
    Thanks T&NH

  11. Not sure I concur with all the parsings given here! But still.

    Good puzzle. Liked NIL, where lake, loch and lough are all in the lists the compilers use as far as I know, and Neagh is a Northern Ireland lough. I think Tees could have made that one a lot harder with his evil hat on. Pick of the bunch HELLEBORE.

    Thanks N and T.

  12. Quite a bit of tricky stuff! I just about knew EBOR – it lives on in horse-racing. But like NealH, I spent a lot of time trying to get HOUSE to work. Didn’t really parse NIL (my Chambers gives L as a valid abbreviation for lough) or STILETTO, but no matter. NHO either that sense of PEN nor ALPENSTOCK, but I guessed right. Good fun all round.

    Thanks Tees & NealH.

  13. NIL was ‘a lot harder’, being something like ‘Is there nothing in Neagh?’, but I got the big ‘too indirect’ from Mrs Hilda, the cleaner at Hutchinson Towers. I might have to try it on that Bannsider at The Times.

    Thanks to NealH and all commenters.

    Tees.

  14. Thanks both. Liked the variety here, although some of it had the upper hand over me. Same issues with Ouse looking like house…. would form the answer for previously unknown HELLEBORE, and though I did know Ebor, we are clearly expected to be familiar with Latin and Russian names i.e. in MISHAP though unclear why we were given Mike not Michael as the translation

  15. Thanks Tees for a challenging crossword. I missed a few and failed to parse a few more but overall I liked this due to clues like KEYED-UP, EGO, ARIADNE, TOSCANINI, OBSOLETE, PREMIERE, and SNITCH. Thanks NealH for the blog.

  16. It was because Russian Misha is to Mikhail as English Mike is to Michael. Mrs Hilda changed that one as well 😀

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