Independent on Sunday 1,783 by Vigo

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I blogged the Everyman last time out which was set by Vigo in disguise

Well this was quite Everyman like to me, single word anagram & primary letter clues and pretty gentle, not a criticism at all. I’ll actually be away in Sardinia when this gets published so you’ll have to chat amongst yourselves. I’ll be away still tomorrow and won’t get to solve so B&J will be back once more. Hopefully on the right day.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 AFRICA
A day char regularly spent going to continent (6)
A & FRI(day) & alternate letters of ChAr
4 SHIITAKE
Quietly steal around two mushrooms (8)
SH – quietly & TAKE – steal around II Roman numerals for two
10 REDUNDANT
Unemployed 23 unfortunately losing seconds (9)
23 is UNDERSTAND so S removed from UNDER(s)TAND* unfortunately
11 FRIAR
Religious man is distant hiding heart of purist (5)
Centre of puRIst in FAR – distant
12 DARK
Front of deserted vessel is gloomy (4)
D(eserted) & ARK – vessel
13 TEMPTATION
Office worker by terminus perhaps lacking initial appeal (10)
TEMP – office worker & (s)TATION
15 LEATHER
Thrash king hiding article (7)
THE inside king LEAR
16 TETCHY
Irritable heads of TV entertainment taking care hiring youths (6)
Primary letter clue
19 UTOPIA
Uniform patio rebuilt in ideal situation (6)
U(niform) & a rebuilt PATIO*
21 COOKIES
Caught turf accountants removing first of biscuits (7)
C(aught) & (b)OOKIES with first letter removed, at first sight it looks like biscuits is doing double duty, but it isn’t
23 UNDERSTAND
Get beneath part of stadium (10)
Well if you were underneath you could well be UNDER STAND
25 BODE
Predict unpleasant aroma by outskirts of Dundee (4)
B(ody) O(dour) & outsides of D(unde)E
27 GOING
Leaving medal hanging around middle of stick (5)
Middle of stIck in GONG – medal
28 AMARYLLIS
A foolish sheep rejected plant (9)
A & SILLY RAM reversed, seen something very similar in a recent blog of mine
29 EDENTATE
Toothless attendee moving about (8)
ATTENDEE* moving about
30 EXCITE
Arouse old jerk returning by Eurostar at first (6)
EX – old & TIC – jerk reversed & E(urostar)
DOWN
1 AIREDALE
Freshened beer for dog (8)
AIRED – freshened & ALE – beer, not convinced beer is too good for dogs, see Mark Menzies…
2 REDBREAST
Batman initially held by wrongly arrested Robin (9)
B(atman) in ARRESTED* wrongly
3 CANE
Scrawnier, oddly deficient stick (4)
Alternate letters of sCrAwNiEr
5 HOT SPOT
Son in stew going to fashionable night club (3,4)
S(on) in HOTPOT – stew
6 INFRACTION
Breach popular group around end of dinner (10)
IN – popular & end of (dinne)R in FACTION – group
7 ALIBI
Excuse from Crystal, “I bilked” (5)
Hidden in crystAL I BIlked
8 ERRANT
Quixotic former queen going to rave (6)
ER – the late queen & RANT – rave
9 CAREER
Calling race (6)
Double def
14 SHIPWRIGHT
Whips around meeting genuine craft person (10)
WHIPS* around & RIGHT – genuine
17 HOI POLLOI
Hot oil pool flowing by island riff-raff (3,6)
H(ot) & [OIL POOL}* flowing & I(sland)
18 ASSESSEE
Idiots notice person being evaluated (8)
ASSES – idiots & SEE – notice
20 ATTRACT
Draw a tense region (7)
A & T(ense) & TRACT – region
21 CONGAS
Dances about on air? (6)
C – about & ON & GAS for air
22 JUNGLE
Starts to go loopy during month in rainforest (6)
G(o) L(oopy) in JUNE
24 DRIVE
Steer right into seedy bar (5)
R(ight) in DIVE – bar
26 LYNX
Cat couples audibly (4)
Sounds like LINKS – couples

10 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,783 by Vigo”

  1. Thanks flashling and Vigo.
    Entertaining!
    Needed 28a to fix the unparsed Manx in 26d. Easy doesn’t mean one can take something for granted.

  3. This was fun, clear, unambiguous, entertaining clues with a few points where I waited for crossers to check LYNX, for example.

    [Not sure Vigo/Carpathian did set that Everyman, I think it was Alan Connor.]

    [This was a lovely crossword, which incidentally I solved in around half the time today’s (and last week’s) Everyman took me, the same sort of time Everyman used to take.]

    Thank you flashling and Vigo.

  4. This was light and fun. Just the job to brighten a dull wet morning.

    Just one slight niggle. In my book (and Chambers!), 21a is American.

    JUNGLE was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Vigo and to flashling.

  5. Great fun, much enjoyed. If I were pedantic (which I am), at 21A I’d say that, if the b in biscuits isn’t doing double duty, the text seems to make ‘of biscuits’ the definition, in which case an adjective should be expected as the answer. Thanks Vigo and Flashling.

  6. Thanks both. This was light relief after yesterday’s ordeal – I hesitated only over SHIITAKE which was an unknown, and looks implausible as a word until Mr Google shines a light.

  7. Premium Oxford Dictionaries (as used by Susie Dent on Countdown) has COOKIE in British & World English dictionary: ‘
    1 – British English – A sweet biscuit having a fairly soft, chewy texture and typically containing pieces of chocolate or fruit: ‘chocolate chip cookies‘
    1.1 – North American English – Any sweet biscuit.
    2 – INFORMAL – A person of a specified kind: ‘she’s a tough cookie‘
    3 – Computing – A packet of data sent by a web server to a browser, which is returned by the browser each time it subsequently accesses the same server…
    4 – Scottish English – A plain bun.’

  8. …whereas In US English dictionary, a COOKIE is ‘
    1 – North American English – A small sweet cake, typically round and flat and having a crisp or chewy texture: ‘freshly baked cookies‘
    2 – INFORMAL – A person of a specified kind: ‘a tough cookie with one eye on her bank account‘
    3 – Computing‘ – as above
    Loi SHIITAKE
    Thanks V&F

  9. Great fun as expected from this setter, particularly after I remembered the seemingly odd double letter in 4a.
    Top marks here went to TEMPTATION, with AMARYLLIS and HOT SPOT hard on its heels.

    Thanks to Vigo for the puzzle and to flashling for the review – enjoy your holiday.

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