Independent 11,620 by Filbert

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This was a thoroughly entertaining puzzle with some tough clues.

I nearly gave up on 28, being completely stumped by the parsing. Fortunately, I noticed there is a NINA on the vertical sides of the puzzle, a playful reference to it being a pangram. From that, I was able to deduce that the only missing letter was an X, which helped enormously in solving the clue. There were loads of other great clues, such as the humorous 12 and the technically excellent 13.

ACROSS
1 COZENS
Children at your aunt’s said to be cheats (6)

Hom of cousins(=children at your aunt's)
5 UPCYCLE
Make better use of manic phase? (7)

CD/DD. "Up cycle" might refer to the manic phase of someone suffering from bipolar disorder.
9 ALTHOUGH
Even if struggling a lot, hug husband (8)

(A lot hug)* + h{usband}
10 ADDLES
Goes off using oars without power (6)

[P]addles. I'm not sure if the p{ower} is being removed from "using oars" (which would would seem to have the wrong conjugation for paddles) or "goes off using oars", which would leave the "goes off" as both the definition and part of the subsidiary clue.
11 NATO
D’Artagnan at once embraces group that’s all for one (4)

Hidden in D'Artagnan at once
12 DANGER ZONE
Nasty graze on Ned’s hairy region (6,4)

(Graze on Ned)*. Hairy here is used in the sense of dangerous.
13 PINKIE
King breaks security code that is one digit (6)

K{ing} in (PIN(=personal identification number used in bank transactions, often tautologically called a PIN number) + i.e.(=that is))
15 JOCOSE
Merry GI keeps company with sergeant at the front (6)

Joe(=GI Joe) around (co{mpany} + s[ergeant])
18 YAWNER
Weary nightwatchman’s last shifts, one obviously tired (6)

(Weary + [nightwatchma]n)*
19 BIGAMY
Solution requiring large and little woman? (6)

&lit, Big(=large) + Amy(=example of a woman). I'm not sure why the "little" is required – perhaps it just indicates that Amy is a short woman's name.
21 OBJETS DART
Old baronet collects planes and diamonds, lovely things (6,4)

(O{ld} bart(=short for baronet)) around (jets + d{iamonds})
24 IKEA
American next to old US general store serving meatballs (4)

A{merican} after Ike(=Ike Eisenhower, WW2 general and later president)
25 USED TO
Familiar with duets, played by heart for proof (4,2)

Duets* + [pr]o[of]
26 AVERSION
Dislike state pension having pound deducted (8)

Aver(=state) + [pen]sion, pen being pound in the sense of an enclosure.
27 SURFEIT
Swell couple coming over too much (7)

Surf(=swell) + tie<(=couple in the sense of "coupling things together")
28 SURTAX
Budget measure reversed by a disastrous Tory cut (6)

(X(=by as in 4×4) + a + Trus[s])<. The disastrous Tory would be the short-lived PM Liz Truss.
DOWN
2 OILMAN
Well-trained employee Bill regularly enters Arab country (6)

Odd letters of bill in Oman. Well in this sense refers to oil wells.
3 ETHIOPIAN
Haiti open to trade from landlocked country (9)

(Haiti open)*
4 SQUAD
Players back from gents on court (5)

[Gent]s + quad(=court)
5 UNHINGE
Make deranged Parisian a gin he ordered (7)

Un(="a" in Paris) + (gin he)*
6 CLARET JUG
Blood on prison’s silverware (6,3)

Claret(=slang term for blood) + jug(=slang for prison). The Claret Jug is an award given to the winner of the Open Golf tournament.
7 CADIZ
Port of Spain coastguard’s first one on board US cutter (5)

C[oastguard] + (adz around i). Adz is a US spelling of adze, an axe-like tool.
8 EVENNESS
The day before, new head’s calm (8)

Eve(=the day before) + n{ew} + ness(=head in the sense of a headland). Calm here is used as a noun.
14 KERBSTONE
Note berk swerving around second roadblock (9)

(Note berk)* around s{econd}
16 COMMISSAR
Soviet minister married Miss Arkansas (formerly Colorado) (9)

(M{arried} + Miss + Ar{kansas}) with Co{lorado} in front. The abbrevs are US postal.
17 LAMBASTS
Meat sheds giving away cold roasts (8)

Lamb(=meat) + [c]asts(=sheds losing c{old})
19 BLATANT
Glaring white robe over brown tee (7)

Alb< (an alb is a white vestment worn by a priest) + tan(=brown) + t(=phonetically rendered as tee)
20 VERONA
Romeo on avenue cycles to Juliet’s home (6)

(R{omeo} on ave{nue}) with the VE cycling to the front
22 EIDER
English papers close to exclusive run down source (5)

E{nglish} + ID(=papers) + [exclusiv]e + r{un}. Refers to ducks as a source of down i.e. feathers.
23 TEENS
Years when temperature’s 8, oddly (5)

T{emperature} + odd letters of clue 8 (evenness).

18 comments on “Independent 11,620 by Filbert”

  1. Thanks Filbert and NealH!
    Loved this puzzle. Great surfaces and tricky definitions.
    BIGAMY
    AMY: I agree with the blog that the ‘little’ is there to indicate it’s a short name.
    Top fave: SURTAX.

  2. I was very much on Filbert’s wavelength today, although not to the extent that I saw the pangram. Liked the well-trained oilman and the general store serving meatballs. Lovely stuff.

    Aren’t ‘oars’ just ‘paddles’? So ‘goes off’ is using {p}addles. And AMY was one of Louisa May Alcott’s little women (not JO, for once!).

    Thanks Filbert and Neal.

  5. ADDLES
    Considered ‘oars’ as ‘paddles’ (either as a verb or a noun).
    Def: Goes off as underlined in the blog.
    The ‘using’ seems to be just a link word.
    Amoeba@2 is saying the same, I guess.

  6. UPCYCLE
    Though the explanation in the blog is a plausible one, I was thinking slightly differently:
    Manic=UP in the sense of being in an excited state (often used as an anagrind in this sense?).
    Phase=CYCLE (technically ‘phase’ is a part of a ‘CYCLE’ but I can’t think of any other alternative).

  7. Alcott’s Little Women all had short names, being Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, so all potentially useful to crossword setters.
    Very enjoyable crossword, so thanks to Filbert (whose name used to strike terror, but I’m getting on the wavelength)
    Couldn’t parse a couple, so thanks too to NealH

  9. The other two Little Women are Meg and Beth – so Amy, the littlest, is the only one without a diminutive name.

  10. Same experience as our blogger; seeing the Nina helped with that final X which I hadn’t registered until then was the one letter absent to make up the pangram. I saw the ‘little woman’ reference to AMY in BIGAMY but thought the clue a bit odd with no mention of what BIGAMY is. I parsed UPCYCLE like KVa @6, but agree that either works and makes the clue even better.

    Thanks to Filbert and NealH

  12. What a great puzzle! SURTAX, my favourite, in spite of the difficulty of identifying just one of the many disastrous Tories.

  13. Thanks both. The Nina was both useful and mind-reading, as SURTAX was holding out for a long time. The ‘solution’ element in the clue for BIGAMY still has me confused – I’ve only ever regarded it as a hideously unwise and expensive undertaking.

  14. Thoroughly entertaining indeed. I got SURTAX without the Nina which is just as well because I didn’t spot the Nina, or that it’s a pangram.

    Thanks, Filbert and NealH.

  15. Failed on 28, but for me, on a Filbert, only missing one is nothing short of miraculous.

    Some I couldn’t parse, so many thanks to Neal for the blog.

    Probably too late for anyone to see this now, but why does bigamy = solution? I did guess that must be the answer, but still don’t understand why!

  16. DiBosco, the clue for BIGAMY is an &lit – the entire clue can be read as a whimsical definition of the answer. BIGAMY could be described as the solution (perhaps to one’s particular desire for varied companionship) that would require two women, in this case one large and one little.

    BIGAMY was probably my favourite clue here actually. I agree with the blogger’s assessment of this puzzle – quite tough but very entertaining, as I’ve come to expect from this wonderful setter.

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