Independent 11,680 by Vigo

by

Vigo starts our week

Mostly pretty straightforward stuff today, don’t think I had to pause much for any of them. No obvious themes or Ninas.

Thanks Vigo and over to you

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Bachelor getting hot drink (6)
BRANDY

B(achelor) & RANDY – hot sexually

4. Ran around rubbish to be discarded (8)
SCRAPPED

CRAP – rubbish inside SPED – ran

10. Liars busy travelling to Cathedral city (9)
SALISBURY

[LIARS BUSY]* travelling, A few years ago now, some Russians did indeed travel there and mislaid some Novichok …

11. Letter covered in skin and bone (5)
FEMUR

EM – the letter M in FUR – skin

12. Fortunate and brave having lost head (5)
LUCKY

A beheaded (p)LUCKY

13. A rook sang about marsupials (9)
KANGAROOS

[A ROOK SANG]* about

14. Dog crossing line is pioneer (7)
SETTLER

L(ine) inside SETTER a dog breed

16. Speak fondly about carbon plant (4)
COCO

C(arbon) inside COO – speak fondly

19. Judge going to posh party for sport (4)
JUDO

J(udge) & U – upper class, posh & DO for party

21. Male assistant returning note to intervene (7)
MEDIATE

M(ale) & AIDE reversed & TE musical note

24. Teacher’s vehicle with fine accessory (9)
HEADSCARF

HEAD teacher & CAR & F(ine)

25. Reject try in game (5)
BINGO

BIN – reject & GO for have a try

26. Female name changing daily (5)
LYDIA

Change DAILY*

27. One point harangue is rootless (9)
ITINERANT

I – one & TINE – point of a fork say & RANT – harangue

28. Company network independent entrant reworked (8)
INTRANET

INTRANET is the term for an internal computer network. I(ndependent) & a reworked ENTRANT*

29. Lively day with broadcaster (6)
FRISKY

FRI(day) & SKY – a TV channel

DOWN
1. Herb lives with King Serpent (8)
BASILISK

BASIL a herb & IS meaning lives & K(ing)

2. Place everything over pet enclosure initially (8)
ALLOCATE

ALL – everything & O(ver) & CAT a pet say & start of E(nclosure)

3. Dull chore taking seconds (5)
DUSTY

DUTY – a chore – with S(econds) inserted

5. Shout about international change initially relating to freezing (7)
CRYONIC

CRY – shout & ON – about & I(nternational) & C(harge) initially

6. Engaged a fun, flirty individual as new corporate entertainment director first of all (9)
AFFIANCED

An initial letters clue

7. Repeatedly clean up fluffy ball (6)
POMPOM

MOP – clean reversed twice

8. Pressure bandage placed across middle of thumb (6)
DURESS

Middle of (th)U(mb) in DRESS to bandage

9. Underground venue changing poles for street performer (6)
BUSKER

S not N in BUNKER

15. French and Spanish agreements on article in LA state (9)
LOUISIANA

OUI and SI – agreement in French and Spanish & AN – article all in LA

17. Contradicts remark in profits (8)
GAINSAYS

SAY – remark in GAINS – profits

18. Sincerely love duty being amended (8)
DEVOUTLY

An amended [LOVE DUTY]*

20. Give an opinion about a lake like a gemstone (7)
OPALINE

OPINE with A & L(ake) inserted

21. Miss popular baked good (6)
MUFFIN

MUFF – miss as in say making a mess of a golf shot & IN – popular

22. Dish is part of lunch I’ll ignore (6)
CHILLI

Hidden in lunCH I’LL Ignore

23. Outlaw group on appeal (6)
BANDIT

BAND – group & IT – sex appeal

25. Dim carnivore eating head of lettuce (5)
BLEAR

No sniggling about Liz Truss at the back. BEAR for carnivore & lead letter of L(ettuce)

 

17 comments on “Independent 11,680 by Vigo”

  2. Nice Monday puzzle. As our blogger says, nothing too demanding but clearly clued throughout. Some slightly strange surfaces – KANGAROOS, BASILISK, CRYONIC – but the WP is fine. AFFIANCED was fun.

    Thanks Vigo and flashling

  3. My only hold up was because I entered bunker, not BUSKER so didn’t get the confetti until I went through looking for spelling/typing mistakes.

    Thank you to flashling and Vigo.

  4. A gentle start to the week, so thanks Vigo for that and Flashling for the blog. One cavil: at 20D the ‘opine’ element of the answer might have been more disguised, since ‘opinion’ was in the clue.

  6. Always a pleasure to get a puzzle from Vigo and I had to smile at 1&4a – neither of which she would have been likely to use when her boys were younger!
    I rather enjoyed the liars in Salisbury who no doubt had the backing of their president who has apparently won another ‘landslide’ victory – there’s a surprise……….

    Many thanks Vigo and thanks to flashling for the review.

  8. SALISBURY
    Saw the BBC series ‘The Salisbury Poisonings’ on Netflix a year or so ago. Able to relate to the surface.
    LUCKY
    What a funny surface!
    Top fave: BUSKER
    Thanks Vigo and flashling!

  9. Liked SALISBURY once I stopped trying to fit ELY in to the solution.

    I now have a mental image of a group of roos sitting around being entertained by a singing crow. I’ll settle for that.

    Thanks Vigo and flashling

  10. Thanks Vigo, that was fun with my top picks being ITINERANT, AFFIANCED, DURESS, and BANDIT. Thanks flashling for the blog.

  12. Panthera@7 thank you for spotting the theme!

    Thank you to all for taking the time to solve and comment.

    Thank you to flashing for the blog. Excellent as always…

    V

  13. As people have already said, a pleasant and gentle start to the week. However, we are now wondering what we are missing as we cannot spot a theme in the grid.

    Thanks flashling and Vigo.

  14. B&J: I don’t fully understand it, either, but I’m guessing that things like BRANDY, BINGO and POMPOM are names of cats, but whether real or fictional, I can’t tell.

  15. Brandy, Lucky, Coco, Judo, Bingo, Frisky, Dusty, Pompom, Busker, Muffin, Chilli and Bandit are all characters from the excellent Australian children’s show Bluey. (Dogs rather than cats). Highly recommended.

Comments are closed.