Independent 11,595 by Dutch

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi everyone.  I am a big fan of Dutch … and his puzzles aren’t bad either.  This one made me think a bit, but didn’t require more BRAINPOWER (12d) than I had available and generated plenty of smiles in the process.

Nothing LIMP (23d) or FLOPPY (11a) about these clues.  Although we have AMERICANISMS in 17a Rabbit Dave shouldn’t have cause to object!  I enjoyed SECLUDED (16d) and, fittingly, also liked the hidden clues.  On rare occasions a clue’s surface alone will almost guarantee that it will be my favourite, and reading 5d (ACHY) elicited instant heartfelt agreement!  Plenty more I could single out, but time is getting on. Thanks Dutch!

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

1a    Heartless swine provides rude awakening (4,3)
COLD PIG
COLD (heartless) + PIG (swine).  A new term for me, Chambers puts it nicely: “To wake someone up by the application of cold water to rouse a sleeper” – brr!  No demonstration needed, thank you!

5a    Criticise a change of direction in hearing (6)
ATTACK
Sounds like (… in hearing) A TACK (a change of direction)

9a    Such oral abuse makes a mortifying rebuff (1,4,2,3,5)
A KICK IN THE TEETH
Taken literally, the answer would be “oral abuse”

10a   Prat in army is most grating (8)
HOARSEST
ARSE (prat) in HOST (army)

11a   Drooping occasionally, fellow heads for potency problem years (6)
FLOPPY
Regular letters of (occasionally) FeLlOw + the first letters of (heads for) Potency Problem Years

13a   With millions in the way of support, I text inappropriate words (12)
MALAPROPISMS
A charade of M (millions), À LA (in the way of), PROP (support), I and SMS (text)

17a   College seminar aims to unravel potential crossword idioms (12)
AMERICANISMS
An anagram of (… to unravel) C (College) SEMINAR AIMS

20a   Dog and wolf look possessed when rejected (6)
FOLLOW
WOLF with LO (look) inside (possessed)  all reversed (rejected)

22a   Party can become pear-shaped with sloppy kiss (5-3)
APRES-SKI
PEAR anagrammed (shaped) + an anagram of (sloppy) KISS

24a   Women at home in line for help (6-2-7)
LADIES-IN-WAITING
LADIES (women) + IN (at home) + WAITING (in line)

25a   Promotion gets date to drink tots (4,2)
ADDS UP
AD (promotion) + D (date) + SUP (to drink)

26a   Flippantly changing sides at the start according to the rules (7)
RIGHTLY
[l]IGHTLY (flippantly) changing sides – L (left) to R (right) – at the start

 

Down

1d    Steps to curtail daily gossip (3-3)
CHA-CHA
We are to take the last letters off (to curtail) CHAr(daily) and CHAt (gossip)

2d    One stands between a city and its state of unprofessionalism (6)
LAICAL
I (one) stands between LA (city) and CAL (its state)

3d    “Another pint?”, I ask a person from abroad (9)
PAKISTANI
An anagram of (another) PINT I ASK A

4d    End of battling fear with soldier returning to make music? (7,3)
GANGSTA RAP
The last letter (end) of battlinG + ANGST (fear) + PARA (soldier) backwards (returning)

5d    Going through each year is painful (4)
ACHY
Inside (going through) eACH Year is the answer.
Yup, life can be like that.  In the meantime there are crosswords and clues like this to make us smile

6d    Dished up dollop of gelato to all (5)
TOTAL
Another hidden, but this one’s in reverse (dished up) – a dollop of geLATO To

7d    Breast implant mimic to be most affordable (8)
CHEAPEST
CHEST (breast); insert (implant) APE (mimic)

8d    Like some cheesy spin-off, craving to admit a call for attention (7)
WHEYISH
WISH (craving) taking in (to admit) HEY (a call for attention).  Nice definition!

12d   Wit coming from British weather authority (10)
BRAINPOWER
B (British) + RAIN (weather) + POWER (authority)

14d   Spoiling plan for setting up exercise group (9)
PAMPERING
MAP (plan) reversed (for setting up) + PE (exercise) + RING (group)

15d   Time-wasting sobbing soprano giving bollockings (7)
EARFULS
Removing T (time-wasting), [t]EARFUL (sobbing) + S (soprano)

16d   Hidden clues revised by Dutch with support from editor (8)
SECLUDED
An anagram of (… revised) CLUES + D (Dutch) on top of (with support from) ED (editor)

18d   Support offered by Serena’s sister (6)
ASSIST
The answer is inside (offered by) SerenA‘S SISTer

19d   Likely to laugh during performance, German luvvy cleared out (6)
GIGGLY
GIG (performance) + G (German) + LuvvY without its inner letters (cleared out)

21d   Write entering very large competitions (5)
OPENS
PEN (write) going inside (entering) OS (outsize: very large)

23d   Endlessly glib politician in No 11? (4)
LIMP
Without outer letters (endlessly) gLIb + MP (politician).  No 11 = 11a, FLOPPY

 

16 comments on “Independent 11,595 by Dutch”

  1. Nice to see a fellow-blogger from the Big Dave site here with a fun and friendly puzzle with smiles throughout the grid.
    I liked lots but I’ll mention APRES-SKI, MALAPROPISMS (great word) FLOPPY/LIMP, LAICAL, GANGSTA RAP and the &litish LADIES-IN-WAITING.
    Thanks Dutch and Kitty

  2. I was pleased with myself for completing this without recourse to a word list – which is usually the case with Dutch for me. The only one that caused difficulty was 23D, where the penny eventually dropped – I assume the intention of ‘No 11’ was to provide a red herring for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Great stuff, so thanks Dutch and Kitty.

  3. Thanks both. On my version, the blog doesn’t show the missing ‘r’ from char in CHA CHA. Really liked APRES SKI for its surface. Didn’t know the expression COLD PIG but impressed that it exists.

  5. Like others, I enjoyed this. Particularly liked getting my last two without recourse to any cheating: FOLLOW & EARFULS.
    There were some clues I wasn’t particularly fond of. I’m not a fan of clues like 17a where you have to shorten college to C and then have it as part of the anagram fodder. The clue, as it is, suggests it begins with C. 26a could clue LIGHTLY or RIGHTLY and I always feel that such clues should be reworded to stop this ambiguity. Apart from those 2, I think WHEYISH is a clumsy looking word, but it is in Chambers.

  8. This was good fun from a setter that we see far too infrequently. 1a was a new phrase for me, and I thought it was a nice touch to put a question mark after music in 4d. My top picks were MALAPROPISMS, FOLLOW, APRES-SKI and LIMP.

    Yes, Kitty, 17a gets a big thumbs up from me! I see that you were doing the hokey cokey with your Rs today.

    Many thanks to Dutch and to Kitty.

  10. Another fine puzzle from Dutch, after his last outing, where this clue appeared just days after Bozo’s resignation:
    ‘One with tousled blond mop sees openings for Tory’s ousted wannabe leader (7)’
    ‘A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.’
    I dnk COLD PIG either – OED.com has ‘1870 “You deserve ‘cold pig’ for your laziness.” – M(ary) Bridgman, Robert Lynne
    Thanks D&K

  11. Kitty @9 that is what it is all about..
    Good puzzle altho failed entirely to find either ARSE or HOST hence LOI..
    Thanks Dutch n Kitty

  12. Oh joy, kitty blogged my puzzle. I doubt many will know how much that means to me. I thank each and every one of you. More coming. Xx

  13. I Echo SL comments this was a fine puzzle, 1a was new to me and I liked the Apres Ski too
    Thanks, Dutch and Kitty

  16. Far too late to comment now, my excuse being that No.2 daughter arrived from IOW with my two young grandchildren on Saturday (haven’t seen them for 12 months) and life has been rather a roller-coaster since then! On the upside, I can report that I can still beat the 3-year old at Only Connect but not her 6-year old brother………….
    Great puzzle from my old friend Dutch and my plethora of ticks went to A KICK IN THE TEETH, LAICAL, ACHY,CHEAPEST,WHEYISH & BRAINPOWER.

    Many thanks to Dutch – pleased to here that there will be more to come from you – and also to Miss Kitty for the review.

Comments are closed.