Independent 11,933 by Deri

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It’s Tuesday and we have another Deri to solve and blog.

Regulars will know that Tuesday is theme day. We blogged Deri’s first puzzle last January and were pleased to see that we had another one to start 2025.

We didn’t notice any of the thematic entries until we came to write up the blog. Gerald Durrell came to mind when we realised that we had MY FAMILY and JERSEY before noticing OTHER ANIMALS and ZOO. Durrell is reputed to have lived a very BOHEMIAN life style, and he makes an appearance in the clues for 19ac and 23d. We really couldn’t have asked for more hints!

Joyce had coloured the grid and posted it before realising that we also had ARK – Durrell wrote an account of his trip to the Cameroons entitled – ‘The Overloaded ARK’ – as well as a documentary – ‘ARK on the move’. ‘MY FAMILY and OTHER ANIMALS’ is an ‘autobiographical’ account of his 5 years (LUSTRUM 31ac) on Corfu (which appears in the clue for 28ac). It was written in Bournemouth when he was ILL (27ac) with jaundice.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Australian turning over journal, Year in Science (7)
ZOOLOGY

OZ (Australian) reversed or ‘turning over’ + LOG (journal) Y (year)

5. Clear throat after foul smell starts to infiltrate awful old country (7)
BOHEMIA

HEM (clear throat) after BO (foul smell) I A (first letters or ‘starts’ to Infiltrate Awful)

9. Beset by donkey, last of Welsh sheep retreats (7)
ASHRAMS

ASS (donkey) around or ‘besetting’ H (last letter of Welsh) and RAM (sheep)

10. Note tip from naturalist for boy (3)
SON

SO (note) N (first letter or ‘tip’ of Naturalist)

11. Noise that might accompany eructation here in Pompeii (3)
HIC

Double definition – HIC is ‘here’ in Italian

12. Propelled boat and floated, heading off (5)
OARED

sOARED (floated) missing first letter or ‘heading off’

14. Strange collection of blokes get on cruises now and then (9)
MENAGERIE

MEN (blokes) AGE (get on) R I E (alternate letters in cRuIsEs or ‘now and then’)

15. Partner on board succeeded in China (8)
SHIPMATE

S (succeeded) HIP (in) MATE (china – Cockney rhyming slang)

17. Top island (6)
JERSEY

Double definition

19. Exact payment for haven Gerald conserves (6)
AVENGE

Hidden (‘conserved by’) in hAVEN GErald

20. Brother with line in BBC sitcom (2,6)
MY FAMILY

MY (‘brother’ used as an exclamation) FAMILY (line)

22. Getting used to REM’s cracking popular tune, Strange (9)
INUREMENT

REM inside or ‘cracking’ IN (popular) and an anagram (‘strange’) of TUNE

24. Cornwall tourist? Those people commonly bumped into (5)
EMMET

‘EM (‘common’ form of them – ‘those people’) MET (bumped into)

26. Cold, bare chest (3)
ARK

pARKy (cold) missing first and last letter or ‘bare’

27. Rough decision: head of Whipsnade must leave (3)
ILL

wILL (decision) with W (head of Whipsnade) ‘leaving’

28. Character from Corfu, a nationalist knocking back vermouth and wine (7)
CHIANTI

CHI (Greek letter – ‘character from Corfu’) A N (nationalist) + IT (vermouth) reversed or ‘knocked back’

30. Simple shots of models (7)
SITTERS

Double definition

31. Craving alcoholic drink for five years (7)
LUSTRUM

LUST (craving) RUM (alcoholic drink)

DOWN
1. Way cool cadenza regularly uplifts fanatics (7)
ZEALOTS

A reversal (‘uplift’) of ST (street – ‘way’) O L E A Z (alternate or ‘regular’ letters in cOoL cAdEnZa)

2. Different dam, miles away (5)
OTHER

mOTHER (dam) without (‘away’) M (miles)

3. Eggs on Vijay Amritraj first of all (3)
OVA

First letters (‘first of all’) in On Vijay Amritraj

4. Old house on Tennessee’s banks, south of Yankee park (8)
YOSEMITE

O (old) SEMI (house) TE (first and last letters or ‘banks’ of Tennessee) under or ‘south of’ Y (Yankee)

5. Wild ox is protected by good Parisian (5)
BISON

IS inside or ‘protected by’ BON (French for good)

6. Pineapple and some bananas — green bananas — chopped by a date (4,7)
HAND GRENADE

HAND (some bananas) and an anagram (‘bananas’) of GREEN round or ‘chopped by’ A D (date)

7. Old lady presidential candidate half-heartedly greeting sage (9)
MAHARISHI

MA (old lady) HARrIS (presidential candidate – Kamala Harris) with only one ‘r’ or ‘half-heartedly’ HI (greeting)

8. Playful line about drug in Olympic sport (7)
ARCHERY

ARCH (playful) RY (railway – ‘line’) round E (drug)

13. Make unattractive date seem otherwise with gin! (11)
DEMAGNETISE

An anagram (‘otherwise’) of DATE SEEM and GIN

16. Male antelope in reserve eats only occasionally, a challenge for charity (3,6)
ICE BUCKET

BUCK (male antelope) inside ICE (reserve) and EaTs (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters)

18. Cryptic setter’s long-suffering without love (8)
MYSTICAL

MY (setter’s) SToICAL (long-suffering) without O (love)

19. Article, one tipping hit album for Pink Floyd (7)
ANIMALS

AN (article) I (one) + SLAM (hit) reversed or ‘tipping’

21. Maturity worked when ejecting leader of anarchic element (7)
YTTRIUM

An anagram (‘worked’) of MaTURITY without or ‘ejecting’ ‘a’ (first letter or ‘leader’ of anarchic)

23. Durrell isolated somewhat in island (5)
ELLIS

Hidden (‘somewhat’) in DurELL ISland

25. On mobile phone, approach house (5)
MANOR

A homophone (‘on mobile phone’) of MANNER (approach)

29. Independent and strong at the outset, spurning objections (3)
IFS

I (independent) F (strong) S (first letter or ‘outset’ of spurning)

17 comments on “Independent 11,933 by Deri”

  1. I started off wondering why my Australian brickie (of Welsh origin) was setting crosswords in the Indie these days but I guess they are different people. 😉
    I ended up failing a bit at the end of this, but I have to say that HAND GRENADE was a gem with a great surface.

  2. Nice, gentle puzzle with a theme that did not intrude. To my shame, I did not spot the Durrell connection, thinking the theme to be just animal related. And, as our bloggers note, he is explicitly referenced in the cluing. But then that is what happens with ghost themes and I’m not complaining. I enjoyed the treatment of crossword land’s favourite ‘retreat’ in ASHRAMS AS WELL AS THE SURFACES FOR HAND GRENADE and DEMAGNETISE.

    Thanks Deri and B&J

  3. Well spotted, B&J! I didn’t. Definitely a puzzle of two halves for me, as the top seemed to slip in very quickly, then I took an age over the bottom. I went on a wild antelope chase at 16D, where the first thing that came to mind for the second word was ‘duiker’ (a species of antelope), which fitted, and there’s an ‘ijsduiker’ in Dutch, but it’s what we call the great northern diver. Much enjoyed, so thanks Deri and B&J.

  4. Good crossword. The pedant in me is obliged to point out that the popular R.E.M. song “Strange” was actually a cover version of the Wire classic.

  5. HAND GRENADE was one of my favourite clues too.
    Other faves: MAHARISHI and DEMAGNETISE.

    ZOOLOGY
    (a minor observation)
    OZ turning+O (over)+…

    Thanks Deri and B&J.

  6. Spotted the theme – 20a MY FAMILY… (2000-11) – 6d supplies the …AND: HANDGRENADE.
    11a hīc is ‘here’ in Latin. ‘Here’ in Italian is qui (not to be confused with the Latin, French and Spanish for ‘who’).

  8. An absolutely lovely puzzle – many smiles and tips of the hat without it having to be a struggle made for one of the more enjoyable mornings here in New York. Many thanks to Deri, who is a welcome addition to our world, and to B&J for their typically thorough and enjoyable blog.

  9. Like Tatrasman @3, the top half fell almost more quickly than I could write them in, and the bottom took a bit more chewing over. Thanks to Deri and to B&J – I’d never have seen brother as an exclamation, however long I looked at it!

  10. Lovely stuff. I didn’t twig the theme, and then only barely, until 23d. I certainly didn’t clock them all. MENAGERIE, INUREMENT and DEMAGNETISE all made me smile. ICE BUCKET is quite the def! Many thanks to Deri and Bertandjoyce.

  11. Thanks Deri and BnJ

    Didn’t have a prayer of spotting the theme, but apparently today would have been Durrell’s 100th birthday.

  12. I think it was Clare Balding who titled her auto-biog, “My Animals and Other Family”, rather wittily.

    I’m afraid that I’m only lukewarm on this puzzle: some of the clues suffer from the need to get the Dull/Durrell theme into the grid….. BBC sitcom; Pink Floyd album; top island, etc.

    Compare with 13(d): a clever and humorous wordplay, and a lovely leftfield definition for [ DEMAGNETISE ].
    No Durrell required.
    I would like to see a “Deri Unchained”, because there’s some good stuff in there.

    Thanks to Deri, + B&J

  13. I’m another for whom the top half went much more smoothly than the bottom. I had never heard of the sitcom MY FAMILY–I don’t think it propagated over here much–and the wordplay on that one wasn’t that helpful for someone who hasn’t heard of it, so I wound up revealing that one. Elsewise, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

  14. Thanks both. A rarity, but I spotted the theme pretty early, which helped to yield the otherwise unknown sitcom MY FAMILY, which in turn assisted the ‘you can keep it’ YTTRIUM, though if ILL was intended as a part, that may be pushing it. Nice to see (p)ARK(y) get an airing, and I wonder if it is of Northern origin as it doesn’t feel right with any other accent.

  15. Thanks Deri. The theme was lost on me and I had to reveal MY FAMILY, also unknown to me. Nevertheless, I thought this was a very good crossword with my top picks being SHIPMATE, CHIANTI, OTHER, IFS, and my COTD, DEMAGNETISE. I couldn’t parse SITTERS or EMMET. Thanks B&J for the blog.

  16. Thank you to all commenters and solvers, and special thanks to Bert and Joyce for the review.

    I saw a preview last year of a collection of GD’s autobiographical writing and unpublished pieces to commemorate his 100th birthday (today) and thought the man David Attenborough described as “magic” was worth noting in a Tuesday puzzle.

    TFO@14, ILL wasn’t intended to be thematic, but the mention of Whipsnade in that clue refers to his being a student keeper there, his first proper job in 1945. (And one of his books was called Menagerie MANOR (25d)).
    KVa @5, your reading of over as O in 1a is correct.
    FrankieG @6, your reading of 11a HIC as Latin, not Italian, is correct. I was hoping that the two meanings of eructate (Chambers: to belch out wind from the stomach; (of a volcano) to emit fumes and ash or lava) would imply a link to ancient Pompeii, rather than Pompeii today.
    Andy @4, I did balk momentarily about REM’s Strange being a cover, but I couldn’t find anything else by them that worked as an anagram indicator!

    Thanks again.

  17. Small correction for 1A: OZ (Australian) turning + O (over) + LOG (journal) Y (year). I’m learning so many cricket abbreviations despite never having seen a match.

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