Independent 11,712 by Quince

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With apologies to RR and early commenters for our unscheduled blog yesterday, we have the pleasure of blogging Quince’s mid-week puzzle today.

We really enjoyed this puzzle, particularly for it’s great surfaces and some very imaginative definitions, especially 26ac, 2d and 4d.

Thanks Quince – here’s to the next one!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Go bang, finally dropping surprise! (8)
PEEKABOO

PEE (go – urinate) KABOOm (bang) missing the last letter or ‘finally dropping’

6. Dump man beginning to make a mark (6)
STIGMA

STIG (‘dump man, as in ‘Stig of the Dump’, the children’s book by Clive King) + M (first letter or ‘beginning’ of make) + A

9. My posse occasionally laugh uncontrollably (6)
CORPSE

COR (my – as an exclamation) + PoSsE (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters)

10. “Dog, second-rate individual” (that’s a bit below the belt) (8)
TAILBONE

TAIL (dog) B (second-rate) ONE (individual)

11. I cooked with Grace Dent’s scale (10)
CENTIGRADE

An anagram (‘cooked’) of I and GRACE DENT

12. One tends to worship single mother (4)
IMAM

I (single) MAM (mother)

13. Dog smelt better after scrubbing sides — it takes some beating (8)
OMELETTE

dOg sMELt bETTEr, each word missing the first and last letters or ‘scrubbing sides’

16. Provincial politicians to admit fighting over draft (4,2)
DRAW UP

DUP (Democratic Unionist Party – ‘provincial politicians’) round or ‘admitting’ a reversal (‘over’) of WAR (fighting)

17. Coat mostly held firm (6)
STUCCO

STUCk (held) missing the last letter or ‘mostly’ + CO (company – ‘firm’)

19. Criminal crows about coming back (8)
MURDERER

MURDER (collective noun for crows) + a reversal (‘coming back’) of RE (about)

21. Some persevered, turning back days before (4)
EVES

Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘turning back’) in perSEVEred

22. Keep going with the flow (10)
SANDCASTLE

Cryptic definition: the ‘keep’ being a CASTLE, made of SAND which would disappear when the tide comes in (‘go with the flow’)

25. I’m grateful petitions for audience exist (6,2)
PRAISE BE

A homophone (‘for audience’) of PRAYS (petitions) + BE (exist)

26. Passing report, Brussels takes file back from Germany (6)
EULOGY

EU (‘Brussels’ – HQ of the European Union) LOG (file) Y (last letter or ‘back’ of Germany)

27. Bug expert breaking the ice (6)
TECHIE

An anagram (‘breaking’) of THE ICE

28. Dip in case you start to stress out (3,5)
SOY SAUCE

An anagram (‘out’) of CASE YOU and S (first letter or ‘start’ of stress)

DOWN
2. Have secret service overthrown Eastern European? (5)
ELOPE

A reversal (‘overthrown’) of E (eastern) POLE (European)

3. Article follows king getting stick for not working (5)
KAPUT

A (article) following K (king) + PUT (stick) – we had to check this as a reasonable synonym

4. Spooner’s drugs still leading to boozy hangover (4,3)
BEER GUT

A Spoonerism of GEAR (drugs) BUT (still)

5. Scandal is not in Vogue (7)
OUTRAGE

OUT (not in) RAGE (vogue)

6. Certain wages remain unsettled after private complaint (7)
STIPEND

PEND (remain unsettled) after STI (sexually transmitted infection – ‘private complaint’)

7. Lie over crime a bit cunningly (9)
IMBRICATE

An anagram (‘cunningly’) of CRIME A BIT – a new word for us

8. Old pens in one pocket (9)
MINIATURE

MATURE (old) round or ‘penning’ IN I (one)

14. Opposed to police in London? That’s virtually everywhere (9)
METAVERSE

If you are opposed to police in London you might be described as MET (Metropolitan Police) AVERSE

15. Key worker or hairdresser? (9)
LOCKSMITH

A double definition – both slightly cryptic

18. Bawdy old book set (7)
OBSCENE

O (old) B (book) SCENE (set – as in a theatre or film)

19. They coin terms? (7)
MINTERS

‘Terms’ is cryptically M IN TERS

20. Film wrapped by Gervais perhaps is likely to fall flat (7)
RICKETY

ET (film) in or ‘wrapped by’ RICKY (Ricky Gervais, of ‘Office ‘ fame)

23. It needs hint of lime when served up (5)
SALSA

A clue-as-definition: SA (sex appeal – ‘it’) L (first letter or ‘hint’ of lime) + a reversal (‘served up’) of AS (when) – Joyce is keen to stress that salsa does not need a hint of lime when served up! The acidity you need can come from adding lemon or vinegar.

24. Look good in charge, showing sound reasoning (5)
LOGIC

LO (look) G (good) IC (in charge)

 

11 comments on “Independent 11,712 by Quince”

  1. I’m sure no apologies are needed from our bloggers for the pleasure of two blogs from them in two days; indeed, we are fortunate that they are in the country for two days running 🤣! And a very clear blog it is, which I needed for MINTERS, the construction of which escaped me. Loads of lovely clues – it’s another of those ‘too many to name’ moments. But I will try. CENTIGRADE – what a spot with Grace Dent; SANDCASTLE – a lovely pdm when the cryptic meaning dropped, OMELETTE – a very amusing surface which both my dogs will appreciate when I share it with them later, MURDERER – a nice way of signalling the ‘murder’, LOCKSMITH – another satisfying pdm, SALSA works for me as CAD, even though we never seem to have lime in the house and COTD, MINIATURE for its mixture of brevity, misdirection and smooth surface.

    Thanks Quince and B&J

  2. Loved omelette and sandcastle!
    Ps – every time I finish the puzzle the screen goes blank and I have to reload to post – does anyone know how to fix this?
    Thanks
    Alan

  3. Loved MURDERER, SANDCASTLE, IMBRICATE and SALSA.
    COTD: MINTERS

    METAVERSE
    Shouldn’t the def be ‘That’s virtually everywhere’?

    Thanks Quince and B&J

  5. I really enjoyed this crossword. Lots of good definitions. My particular favourites were the dump man in 6a and the lovely 22a

    Thanks to Quince and B&J

  7. Delightful throughout, thanks Quince & Bertandjoyce
    There is a version of the SANDCASTLE clue offered as a model in some crossword book though I can’t find the reference, no wonder that was enjoyed. Nearly all the clues were equally good, my favourite being the last one in, MINIATURE.

  8. Particularly liked ELOPE, LOCKSMITH and SANDCASTLE.

    Thanks to Quince and to B&J for unravelling MINTERS.

    Alan@2. I can’t help with your tech issue, but let me add some of my own. Word puzzles work on Chrome but not Firefox. Number puzzles work on Firefox but not Chrome. Everything was ok on Samsung browser but now all I get is a “!” and “sorry”. I think the internet is falling apart.

  9. Allow me to echo PostMark@1 – too many lovely clues to do justice to them by offering a list. A lot of that comes from the clever wordplay, but I do like an oblique definition, and the defs for (in particular) TAILBONE, EULOGY, ELOPE, BEER GUT and METAVERSE all tickled me. For once, I came here not to check parsing (I got MINTERS), but simply to admire a very nice puzzle.

    Thanks Quince and B&J

  10. Really enjoyable puzzle with the exception of the lavatorial reference and the private complaint. Top of my pops was SANDCASTLE, followed by STIGMA, ELOPE and BEER GUT.

    Many thanks to Quince and to B&J for their double duty.

  11. For me, this was difficult.
    But some very interesting diverse clueing.
    examples
    STIGMA
    ELOPE
    PEEKABOO
    CORPSE
    STIPEND
    MINIATURE
    METAVERSE (made me smile)
    Thanks to both

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