Independent 11,589 by Serpent

by

Serpent making his regular ~6 weekly appearance in the Saturday slot.  And that’s all right by me.

A crossword up to the usual excellent standard and tricky while not being excessively difficult.

I took my time over this one, not least because I was making notes for the blog as I solved.  I um’d and ah’d over quite a few clues, and there were many I left till some crossing letters made things clearer.   Of the 4 long answers only “Animal Magnetism” was solved on first attempt.  I thought of “Carnal Knowledge” almost immediately but wasn’t sure enough to put it in.  For “Tatterdemalions” crossing letters near the beginning plus the TREATED* anagram helped suggest the word but for spelling the second half of the word the wordplay came to save me.
Quite a few homophones in this puzzle, a clue form that often misleads me.  Here, I was confused about “Raise”. I only understood the significance of “attending” when writing this blog

Nina alert!  The unches down the middle column and across the middle row spell out “Hidden Talent”.
Totally inappropriate.   Serpent’s talents are all too obvious in his crosswords.

Help with 1A please,
and I wouldn’t be surprised if others like 14A are not what I thought.

Across
1 AFLAME Adult female briefly aroused and consumed with emotion (6)
A[dult] F[emale] LAME (aroused?), or is it A[dult] FLAME (aroused), if so where does “female” come in?  There is also a F[emale] construct in 16D so it would be odd to use it twice in one puzzle
Edit:  KVa explains:  A[dult] (FEMAL[e] (female, briefly))* AInd: aroused
5 ACCORD Instrument failing to maintain charged particle’s congruent state (6)
ACCORD[ion]
ACCORDION (Instrument) without (Failing to maintain) ION (charged particle)  First one in.
10 OMANI National borders ignored by EU country (5)
[r]OMANI[a]
11 CHAIRLIFT Champion rescue mission and support for people in Peak District? (9)
CH[ampion] AIR LIFT (rescue mission)
Slightly cryptic definition.  Are there any ski-lifts in the Peak District?  I think we are being referred to some other district with peaks, such as those in Switzerland.  Not the kind of chairlift my old mum had up her stairs, it didn’t leave room to come down the stairs on a tea-tray anymore.
I didn’t know “champion” can be shortened to ch. It can.  I checked.
12 COMPASSIONATELY Rage at pretty nurses with pity (15)
PASSION AT (Rage at) inside (nurses) COMELY (pretty)
13 DYNAMO Mover and shaker upset many in party (6)
(MANY)* AInd: upset, inside DO (party)
Edit:  FrankieG points out this might also be interpreted as a reversal (“upset”) of MANY inside DO, which I hadn’t noticed.  Though some might insist “upset” is only valid as a reversal indicator in a down light.
14 DUCKWEED Keep off the grass and other plants (8)
DUCK (keep off) WEED (grass).  I did wonder if there is a plant called PEEKWEED.  I have stuck with “duck” as in dodge, and because the “U” fits, but it is not a close synonym for “keep off”
17 POSTGRAD Student class finishing early following picket (8)
POST (picket) GRAD[e] (class, finishing early)  Picket as in fence.  Class as a verb.
18 MOTHER Behave protectively towards different male leads (6)
M[ale] OTHER (different)
21 TATTERDEMALIONS Scruffy people treated badly by African country in large number (15)
(TREATED)* AInd: badly, MALI (African country) in EONS (large numbers).
I am unsure whether “eons” can properly be used for scalar quantities besides being used for time
Edit:  I mis-counted the Ts and Es in the anagram.  No need to imagine EON can be a large number
Wordplay is properly
(TREATED)* AInd: badly, MALI (African country) all inside TONS (large numbers).
23 OUTLIVING Lasting longer than Open University tutor’s primary source of income (9)
OU (Open University) T[utor] LIVING (source of income)
24 DRILL Training exercise is not well introduced by doctor (5)
DR (doctor)  ILL (not well)
25 PRIMAL Border controlled by China is most important (6)
RIM (Border) in (controlled by) PAL (China, as in CRS :”China plate”= mate)
26 EXEUNT Leave like Britain, not without heart (6)
EX-EU (like Britain) N[o]T.
Sob.  I want our star back
Down
2 FRAGMENTS Breaks FBI agents implicated by fellow informers (9)
G-MEN (FBI agents) in F[ellow] RATS (informers).  G-Men from Government Men
3 ANIMAL MAGNETISM Iron horse’s pulling power? (6,9)
A lovely cryptic definition
4 EXCUSE Former Chancellor of the Exchequer accepting America’s apology (6)
US (America) in EX-CE (Former C of the E)
I did wonder if CE is a valid abbreviation for the Chancellor.  I checked. It is, along with CoE and CotE.  But I suspect it is rarely used.
5 ANALOGUE Oral record supporting two articles in parallel (8)
AN A (two articles) “LOG” (record) homophone for LOGUE, HInd: Oral.
6 CARNAL KNOWLEDGE Relations based on physical chemistry? (6,9)
Another long answer with cryptic definition.  I immediately thought of this answer but didn’t write it in till a few crossing letters made it most likely.
7 RAISE Upgrade level for those attending (5)
Homophone of “raze”, level to the ground, HInd: for those attending, i.e. listening
Before twigging that I wondered if a “raise” is a term for, say, a seating area in a theatre?
8 VOICED Talked about limits of convergence in empty space (6)
CE (limits of convergence, C[onvergenc]E) inside VOID (empty space)
9 STAYED Delayed dates rearranged around start of year (6)
(DATES)* AInd: rearranged, around Y[ear]
15 ETHIOPIAN Foreigner making a point he and I misconstrued (9)
(A POINT HE I)* AInd: misconstrued.
16 LANDFILL Win female author will refuse (8)
LAND (Win) F[emale] I’LL (author will)
17 PETROL Bird recorded Kind of Blue (6)
Homophone (HInd: recorded) of “Petrel” (a seabird that walks on water).  Last one in.  I thought the definition referring to “petrol blue” a bit obscure.
19 RESULT Engineers offend, leaving in consequence (6)
RE ([Royal] Engineers) [in]SULT (offend, leave the “in”)
20 EMIGRE He may have fled corrupt regime? (6)
(REGIME)* AInd: corrupt.
22 TUTOR Part of statutory role for academic staff (5)
Hidden in staTUTORy

 

13 comments on “Independent 11,589 by Serpent”

  1. I cannot do this crossword as it does not open in a full window. It opens in the advertising window and I cannot use all the keys on the keyboard. Could you please forward this to any techy guy who knows how to fix this. I’m using my tablet to do these crossword puzzles. It has only started doing this from the first of this month.
    Thank you
    Allan Jones
    Edinburgh

  6. 21 TATTERDEMALIONS Scruffy people treated badly by African country in large number (15)
    (TREATED)* AInd: badly, MALI (African country) in EONS (large numbers).
    I am unsure whether “eons” can properly be used for scalar quantities besides being used for time

    You are 1 T short explaining it that way. The ‘ in large number ‘ means TONS.

  8. Allan at #1. All I can suggest is you send these details to Arkadium who supply the Games mechanism for the Independent.
    On the page with the puzzle there is a “?” button labelled “Player support” and that pops up a “Contact Arkadium” form where you can describe the issue.
    All I can say is “Have you turned it off and on again?”

    KVa and Sofamore: Thanks for explaining AFLAME (it seems so obvious when it’s explained) and pointing out the letter mis-counting in 21A – the “large number” is much more suitably TONS

    FrankieG. I never noticed MANY is “anagrammed” to an exact reversal in DYNAMO. “Upset” can also be used as a reversal indicator though more appropriately in a down light as you say. So I think we can describe it as either – there doesn’t need to be a single interpretation it comes to the same thing. Worth noticing though.

  10. Another fine crossword from Serpent – the Nina was fairly easy to spot too

    Many thanks to him and beermagnet

  11. Thanks Serpent and beermagnet.

    Beautiful, as always,
    HIDDEN TALENT? Hardly!

    Likes
    COMPASSIONATELY
    CHAIRLIFT
    POSTGRAD
    MOTHER
    EXEUNT

  12. Thanks Serpent for an excellent crossword. I failed with PETROL, not knowing it as a “kind of blue,” and I could not parse AFLAME, something I should have seen. I did see HIDDEN TALENT but I wondered if that was a clue to search for other bits buried in the grid. Favourites included COMPASSIONATELY, DYNAMO (I anagrammed “many” and didn’t notice the reversal), EXEUENT, FRAGMENTS, RAISE (I liked “attending” as a homophone indicator), and VOICED. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.

  13. Liked 17d PETROL – “Bird recorded Kind of Blue” – No he didn’t, Miles did. Two jazz greats in one clue, highlighting a common spelling mistake: ‘petrel blue’.
    Also liked [BR]EXEUNT, the plural of Brexit.
    Thanks S&b

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