Independent 11,889 by Coot

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An entertaining puzzle from Coot who has not appeared in the Saturday slot very often …

… and this is the first time I’ve had the pleasire of blogging one.

I thought this puzzle was on my wavelength from the start, I spotted the answer for 1a within 47 nanoseconds. (It is a well-known fact time stretches and contracts while solving crosswords.)
Unfortunately after solving a few more in the top left corner I got interrupted by Real Life and didn’t get back to this puzzle till a long time later.

There were a few pretty clues, beside the one that still baffles me (below).  One of which I make my favourite of the puzzle for the precise and specific wordplay and making a super surface read: 29a. The image of Biden wandering around a shopping centre is priceless.

Help needed:
I cannot fathom the wordplay for 5d.  I cannot see anything else fitting the crossers so I presume the answer is correct.

Across
1 EX-WIVES Old lovers view sex differently (2-5)
(VIEW SEX)* AInd: Differently.
5 PIE SHOP It’s Spooner’s dad who’s reserved takeaway? (3,4)
Spoonerism of “Shy Pop”.
My LOI after struggling with 5d.  Which just shows how weak I am spotting Spoonerisms
9 PETER Sellers gaze across the far side of market (5)
Ref. Peter Sellers. PEER (gaze) around (across) [marke]T
10 SUPPOSING How about drink before setting? (9)
SUP (drink) POSING (setting)
11 AIRY-FAIRY Insubstantial brownies? First piece dispatched (4-5)
Fairy (brownie) twice (plural, brownies) first letter removed
12 METRE Rhythmic use of words shows man in Paris to be French (5)
M (Man in Paris, Monsieur shortens to M. in French) ETRE (to be, in French)
13 IRIS Retiring personal assistant gets colourful ring (4)
SIRI< Siri is the AI PA for one of the pieces of new tech I do not have
14 ELECTRIC Vote Little Richard ‘exhilarating‘ (8)
ELECT (vote) RIC (Little Richard)
18 DETAILED Comprehensive contract covers termination (8)
DEED (contract) around (covers) TAIL (termination)
19 OPAL Stone wall’s bare, needing work on face (4)
OP (work) [w]AL[l]
22 WELSH Why, for the most part, entertaining fellas regularly fail to pay (5)
[f]E[l]L[a]S inside WH[y]
24 BESPATTER Slander cricketer possessing unnatural ability? (9)
ESP (unnatural ability) inside (possessed by) BATTER (cricketer)
26 IMMERSION Perhaps baptisms slammed in memoirs (9)
(IN MEMOIRS)* AInd: slammed.
27 HINDU One who follows march in dull clothes (5)
Hidden (clothed by) in marcH IN DUll
28 GO TO POT Decline brought surgical procedure and occupational therapy (2,2,3)
GOT (brought) OP (surgical procedure) O[ccupational] T[herapy]
29 WEST END Time for Biden to wander around shopping centre? (4,3)
EST (Time, Eastern Standard Time, the timezone for Washington DC) inside WEND (wander). Tricky
Down
1 EMPHATIC Forceful politician, hard one to quote without getting upset (8)
MP (politician) H[ard] A (one) all inside (without) CITE< (to quote, upset)
2 WATER PIPE Devious wiretap traps Panama’s top ecstasy/marijuana transporter (5,4)
(WIRETAP)* AInd: Devious, then P[anama] E[cstacy]
3 VERIFY Precise guards provided evidence (6)
IF (provided) inside (guarded by) VERY (precise)
4 SUSHI American brought up his poorly prepared food (5)
US< HIS* AInd: poorly prepared.
5 POPPY SEED Heroin supplier went soft inside, letting head drop (5,4)
?? P (soft) D[rop]
6 ENORMITY Greatness can emerge from Harpenden (or MIT/Yale) (8)
Hidden in harpendEN OR MIT Yale
7 HEIST Rob Holding expects Ipswich to start with speediest wingers (5)
Starters from H[olding] E[xpects] I[pswich], then left and right “wingers” from S[peedies]T
8 PIGPEN Sanctimonious German writer’s filthy accommodation (6)
PI (Sanctimonious) G[erman] PEN (writer)
14 EX-LIBRIST Former politician maybe reading first books: he likes the ones with stickers! (2-7)
EX-LIB (former politician) R[eading] IST (first).
While being sure from the wordplay, I did to check this in the dictionary later:  “a collector of bookplates”
15 IMPOTENCE Inept old minister initially shaken, church members not being up for service (9)
(INEPTO[ld] M[inister])* AInd: shaken, CE (church)
16 CASH CROP Bent cop’s car carries heroin, a reliable money-maker (4,4)
(COP’S CAR + H[eroin])* AInd: bent.
17 ALL-ROUND Wheels are so versatile (3-5)
Double Def.
20 AWNING Shade diminishing as wife moves south (6)
WANING (diminishing) with W[ife] moving down a bit.
21 BATHOS Mapmakers following city descent (6)
BATH (city) OS (mapmakers, Ordnance Survey)
23 LIMIT Put a brake on Coot’s drunken arrests (5)
I’M (Coot’s) inside (arrested by) LIT (drunken)
25 SINEW Fibrous tissue is held up, previously unseen (5)
IS< NEW (previously unseen)

 

18 comments on “Independent 11,889 by Coot”

  1. 5d – Went is ‘peed’ with soppy inside, then drop the ‘s’. Apologies for not using the familiar capitalisations.

  3. Coot going all Hoskins on us today? Heroin (twice) with insight into its manufacture, ecstasy and marihuana with insight into its delivery, drink and drunkenness, sex and ex-wives (no insight into them, it appears). A lot of debauchery for this time of day and it’s not even Sunday!

    Thanks Coot and beer magnet

  4. Top faves: PIE SHOP, AIRY-FAIRY, BESPATTER, WEST END, POPPY SEED, ALL-ROUND (simple and elegant) and AWNING.

    EX-LIBRIST (I think)
    maybe reading=R

    Enjoyed the puzzle. Good blog.
    Thanks Coot and beermagnet.

  6. As I often say, I do like setters who put in the effort to make nice surfaces and this was a prime example. Lots and lots of lovely clues. I was pleased to get WEST END at first reading. The EST came to mind immediately and the rest followed. I suspect I won’t be the only one to get EX-LIBRIST from the wordplay and then look it up (a ‘jorum’ as they say here).
    I was also pleased that Coot didn’t resort to a second, somewhat inferior, Spoonerism for 5d.

  7. As Hovis says, some nicely constructed surfaces. POPPY-SEED was my favourite, because I love the cake. [There is a possibly apocryphal story of someone who failed a drug test after over-indulgence in the cake]

  8. Many thanks to beermagnet for a super blog and to everyone who has solved and/or commented. I pointed out to Eimi that 29a wouldn’t age well (appropriately enough) so I am grateful to him for publishing this puzzle while it is still within its sell-by date.

  9. Thanks Coot for a great set of clues. My favourites were PIE SHOP, PETER, BESPATTER, EMPHATIC (LOI), WATER PIPE, SUSHI, and IMPOTENCE. I needed the blog to parse POPPY SEED, AIRY-FAIRY, and WEST END. Thanks beermagnet for the help.

  10. This was a solid puzzle and and a fun solve. Favourites were EX-WIVES, WEST END, POPPY SEED, EX-LIBRIST (another on here who derived it first then looked it up), and IMPOTENCE (took a while for the PDM!).

    I got held up a little in the NE due to buffing “sundowner” instead of SUPPOSING for “drink before setting”, but HEIST eventually put me right on that, which unlocked the rest of that corner.

    Why is WELSH “fail to pay”? I guess it’s some slang that I’m missing.

    Thanks both!

  11. AP: Nobody knows. It apparently originally meant leaving a racecourse without settling debts but if it is a slur on Welsh people, no-one is sure. Dates from the mid-nineteenth century in the OED.

  13. Beaten fair and square by this, having had to reveal IMPOTENCE and BESPATTER in the SE. Hadn’t parsed WEST END properly either, I see, so am grateful for the blog.

    “Welsh” is even a bit derogatory when referring to Wales, aside from the meaning of reneging on an agreement, with its meaning derived from “foreigner” or “stranger”, as opposed to the Welsh word for Wales, which means “fellow man”.

  14. An interesting point of which I wasn’t aware, PJ. As an Englishman who lives in another country with complex make-up (Spain), I feel that I’m now more sensitive to such cultural issues than I was when in the UK.

  15. An interesting point of which I wasn’t aware, PJ. As an Englishman who lives in another country with complex make-up (Spain), I feel that I’m now more sensitive to such cultural aggravations than I was when I lived in England.

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