Independent 11,649 by Quince

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Some interesting wordplay in this puzzle.

I particularly appreciated use of the ellipsis as a part of a cryptic definition itself in 9A, and the “undressing” of AGENT twice in 18D which had me fooled enough to have that answer  solved last.

Solving lasted about an hour (more, probably) and went without too many delays or hitches, except I made a boo boo by slapping “Above Water” in 12D which gave me a little trouble in the bottom left corner before resolution.

Just one last query:  I’m not sure how “Using” gives “VIA” in 17A.

Across
1 PARTIED Divorce, beheaded, died, or lived it up (7)
PART (Divorce) [d]IED
5 POLEMIC Controversial Italian banker joins mile high clubs (7)
PO (Italian banker, River Po) (MILE)* AInd: high, C[lub]
9 MORSE CODE Where head of state is …? (5,4)
Cryptic Def. where the Def. is the ellipsis “…” which is S in Morse
10 NOKIA Tech giant rolling back AI after new fine (5)
N[ew] OK (fine) then AI<
11 QUESTION MARK Hunt one playing victim, showing sign of uncertainty (8,4)
QUEST (hunt) I ON (playing) MARK (victim, in the sense of a scam victim)
14 BUMPER CAR Electric vehicle behind a 50% reduction in carbon (6,3)
BUM (behind) PER (a) CAR (50% of CARBON )
16 SATAN One tempting polar resident to move north (5)
SANTA (polar resident) shift N (move north)
17 VIALS Using last drops of original Guinness bottles (5)
VIA (using(?)) [origina]L [guinnes]S
19 MASSACRES Butchers service lots of land (9)
MASS (service) ACRES (lots of land)
21 BOUNCY CASTLE Keep risking one’s balance as a result of inflation (6,6)
Cryptic Def.  KEEP is a Castle
25 AMAZE Torquemada’s last puzzle wow! (5)
[torquemad]A MAZE (puzzle)
26 AGAMEMNON Old war hero is a criminal among men (9)
A (a), (AMONG MEN)* AInd: criminal.
27 DEEPENS In studies, returning leak gets trickier to plumb (7)
PEE< (leak, returning) inside DENS (studies)
Edit: Def. corrected to include “gets”
28 ENTREAT Request space to get nipple pierced by hand (7)
EN (space), TEAT (nipple) inside (pierced by) R (hand, as in either R[ight] or L[eft])
Down
1 PUMA Rising out of bed, old woman’s a cougar (4)
UP< (out of bed, reversed (rising)), MA (old woman)
2 RARE Making a comeback, Alexander Armstrong wraps special (4)
Hidden Rev. in AlexandER ARmstrong
3 ICE CUBE Cool part of an oldfashioned kitchen crumble, taking seconds (3,4)
Alternate letters of kitchen crumble kItChEn CrUmBlE
Edit: Amended definition underlining to include up to “oldfashioned”
4 DROPS Cracking doctor’s surgery is in decline (5)
OP (surgery) inside (cracking) DRS (Doctor’s)
5 PREMIERES Piano notes before special red carpet affairs (9)
P[iano] RE MI (notes, from the solfa scale) ERE (before) S[pecial]
6 LININGS Some moving through Berlin in G-strings and extra layers (7)
Hidden in BerLIN IN G-strings
7 MAKE A U-TURN Rotate in order to find n (4,1,1-4)
Cryptic Def: Turn a U upside down and it looks like N
8 CHALKINESS Condition of white cliffs leaves family drilling less (10)
CHA (leaves) KIN (family) inside (drilling) LESS
12 ABOVE BOARD Where a surfer stands straight? (5,5)
Cryptic Def. I firstly put in ABOVE WATER
Edit:  Agree this is better parsed as a Double Def. so underlining added
13 IMMACULATE One masters a cryptic clue, catching a bit of trickery that’s neat (10)
I (one) MM (masters) A (CLUE)* AInd: cryptic, around (catching) A T[rickery]
15 COMIC SANS Childish type in moccasins, for a change (5,4)
(MOCCASINS)* AInd: for a change.
18 SECRETE Conceal undercover agent that’s been discovered twice (7)
SECRET (undercover) [[a]g]E[n[t]]
AGENT has outside letters removed, twice!
Last one in
20 AILMENT I regret raising a complaint (7)
I LAMENT (I regret) shifting the A up
22 STATE Utter chaos! (5)
Double Def. and possibly the whole clue as a def. too!
23 KNEE Sunak on the offensive ultimately gets support for proposal (4)
Last letters of [suna]K [o]N [th]E [offensiv]E
24 KNIT Can king returning create cohesion? (4)
TIN (can) K[ing] all reversed (returning)

 

22 comments on “Independent 11,649 by Quince”

  2. I went to Bristol VIA the M4 is synonymous with I went to Bristol USING the M4, I reckon.

    Loved MORSE CODE and COMIC SANS – have been flicking through my old “Private Eyes” but the bubble speech there is more usually in non COMIC SANS fonts

    Thank you Quince and Beermagnet.

  3. Great puzzle. Appreciated the variety and creativeness. 9a as mentioned in the blog but also 11a, 14a, 15d and 20d. I think KNEE is my favorite today. Had no problem with ‘via’ for using but a little dubious about surfers standing above not on their boards. Thanks for the blog and thanks Quince for a splendid crossword.

  4. Struggled in the NW corner by putting an unparsed ‘three dots’ at 9A, until eventually the penny dropped. 5D had to be ‘premieres’ but I couldn’t parse it so thanks to Beermagnet for that and of course to Quince for a great puzzle.

  5. Cracking puzzle from Quince today. A real buzzy feel to this. Lots of unexpected twists and turns. MORSE CODE, BUMPER CAR, AGAMEMNON, MAKE A U-TURN, COMIC SANS, IMMACULATE and KNEE get my votes today.

    Beermagnet – I think the def for ICE CUBE includes ‘…in an old fashioned’ which I took to refer to the cocktail.

    Thanks Quince and beermagnet

  6. Thank Quince and Beermagnet!
    Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog!
    Liked MORSE CODE & MAKE A U-TURN.
    ABOVE BOARD
    Isn’t it DD?
    1. Where the surfer stands
    2. Straight

  7. Great crossword with some lovely surfaces, reminiscent of the wonderful Philistine.
    Via=using the weakest bit, but I’ve seen much worse!
    Agree with KVa about the DD.
    Fav 5A
    Thanks to beermagnet & young Quince

  9. BOUNCY CASTLE was brilliant as was MORSE CODE. It’s a bit churlish to say so, but AGAMEMNON was hardly heroic and a surfer stands on the board rather than above it. These minor quibbles aside, I enjoyed this. Thanks, both.

  10. PostMark: I agree, for ICE CUBE I insufficiently underlined the definition – now fixed.

    KVa: I agree with you too about ABOVE BOARD. I find I’m often too ready to class clues as “CD” when I cannot see it as a more precise reading. Also editted.

  13. I do like ICE CUBE – but should the Old Fashioned be capitalised? I fear the name of a cocktail might count as a proper noun?

  14. @PostMark: yes, in written English, but not in crossword clues; it’s all part of the deception, along with elision and toying with punctuation

  16. Found this a tricky offering from our setter and it took quite a while to fall.
    Ones that I really liked were MORSE CODE, SATAN, BOUNCY CASTLE, MAKE A U-TURN and ABOVE BOARD.

    Thanks to Quince for the mauling and to beermagnet for the review.

  17. A fun crossword. There were a couple of parsings I didn’t like – but using blog, comments, and fresh perspective I realise fault was mine. Thanks Setter and Blogger

  21. Morten: I’m sure that would be fine for 11A, indeed Quince may have considered it and decided against because the clue for Morse Code at 9A nearby is also largely using punctuation for a definition.

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