Wire gets us going for a new week
Tricky in places I felt and I’m not certain about 12A , thanks Wire
ACROSS
1. Wretched play entertains British setter in Caen (6)
ABJECT
ACT for play with B(ritish) & JE = I – the setter – in French all inserted
5. Old man in retirement with little desire (8)
APPETITE
PA – old man reversed & PETITE – little, small
9. Female bears worn-out in ceremonies at the end? (4,5)
LAST RITES
TRITE – worn out in LASS – female
10. Bonus and a fine Oscar rejected (4)
PERK
PER – a as in £1 per kilo & OK without the O – oscar
11. Unsettled agent on centre of driving range (8)
VAGABOND
Centre of driVing & AGA – cooker, range & BOND – (james) agent
12. Order from bank almost at the end of month (6)
DECREE
DEC – month & I think most of REE(f) for a bank but not quite convinced here
13. Shaving sides of composer’s tongue (4)
HOPI
Take off the edges of (c)HOPI(n)
15. Mines trapping last of ten decrepit river vessels (4,4)
PINT POTS
Ends of teN and decrepiT & river PO all in PITS for mines
18. Carving of grand ship English city returned (8)
GARGOYLE
G(rand) & old ship the ARGO & city ELY reversed
19. Standard response Mary and Joseph received? (4)
NORM
They were told there’s NO R(oo)M at the inn
21. Article 1.8 about reptile (6)
IGUANA
AN – article & 1.8 could be Aug(ust) the first so AUG 1 all reversed
23. Individual component houses key within clock (8)
SEPARATE
Key of A in PART – component – then put in SEE – to clock
25. Dig west half of island (4)
BARB
First half – the west side of BARBados
26. Fool exposed Italians in front of two Americans (9)
IGNORAMUS
Without the outer clothing or exposed sIGNORs & AM(erican) & US
27. Flowing water joins lake in state (8)
SEAMLESS
SEA – water & L(ake) in MESS – in a state
28. A lot of fabric pinned to leading footman? (6)
LACKEY
Most of LAC(e) & KEY – leading
DOWN
2. Wood from area below raised flag (5)
BALSA
SLAB – flag, paving stone – reversed & A(rea)
3. Poor Angles penning verse during subjugation (9)
ENSLAVING
V(erse) & IN – during – both in a poor ANGLES*
4. Somersaulting routine at top of program for swimmer (6)
TURBOT
RUT – routine – reversed & BOT – AI type program
5. Drugs colonists smuggling fish and iron south (15)
ANTIDEPRESSANTS
IDE – the fish you only see in crosswords & PRESS – to iron – both inside a pair of ANTs – colonists & S(outh)
6. City spa a Dane transformed (8)
PASADENA
A transformed [SPA A DANE]*
7. Piano used only once in best film theme (5)
TOPIC
Best film would be TOP PIC so remove one P(iano)
8. Recalled rubbish guide for one who interrogates? (9)
TORMENTOR
ROT – rubbish – reversed, recalled & MENTOR – guide
14. ‘Zero’ variety dandies periodically drink (9)
ORANGEADE
O – zero & RANGE – varieties & alternate letters of dAnDiEs
16. Wide slate I see beneath old stuff (9)
PANORAMIC
PAN – to slate & O(ld) & RAM – to stuff & I C
17. Luxury seeker enthralled by classy bar items (8)
SYBARITE
Hidden in clasSY BAR ITEms
20. Wind hammered pair invading isle needing cover (6)
SPIRAL
Hammered PAIR* in iSLe needing its covers
22. Note turned up behind Book of Memories (5)
ALBUM
LA – note reversed & BUM – backside, behind
24. Bit of refuse making wife tense (5)
TASTE
WASTE – refuse with W(ife) replaced by T(ense)
Nice puzzle and blog. Thanks Wire and flashling.
DECREE
I had the same parsing and I feel reef for bank is fine.
That was a bit of a wake up on a Monday morning. All very tightly clued as I’d expect from this setter with no small amount of trickiness. HOPI and PERK were my last two in, needing all the crossers. Particular faves: ABJECT for the setter in Caen; VAGABOND for the misleading use of the adjectival def; PINT POTS for the neat ‘river vessels’; NORM for the visual pun; SEAMLESS for the smooth surface; TURBOT, again for the surface; SYBARITE which is a lovely lurker in an apposite surface and ALBUM which made me laugh.
Thanks Wire and flashling
Tough and very much enjoyed working it out. Had to resort to a word fit for help in getting my loi SEAMLESS.
A nice surprise to see Wire today. I got a bit caught up in the SW corner, with ALBUM, SEAMLESS, and BARB providing a bit of resistance. SYBARITE was lovely, and I was pleased to spot HOPI quite quickly (once the crossers were in place).
I had REE{l} for ‘bank’ while solving 12a, but REEF fits better.
Thanks both.
Getting Hopi from Chopin, talk about different worlds! [We say, e.g., the world stood still, or, it seems like just yesterday. Hopi has a whole grammatical category for this, the relation between intensity and duration]. Sorry, just a thing of mine. Great crossie, thanks Wire and flashling.
A fine puzzle. [1a “i ABJECT!” (1933)].
Could you describe SEAMLESS as a meta&lit, where the answer describes the quality of the clue? Ginf@5 I seem to remember HOPI as a language much used to illustrate the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which suggests that your language influences the way you see the world.
[Indeed, Petert, it was in Whorf’s paper on Hopi that he makes the claim about the intensity/duration relation]
What a superb puzzle to start the week.
Thank you Wire and Flashling.
This was a bit too tough for me, as I wound up revealing three answers, and a couple of the parsings were a mystery until I came here. So an extra thank-you for that.
PERK: that “per=a” trick eludes me almost every time, never mind that I’ve probably seen it twenty times now. That one I really should have gotten.
I’m still fairly new to the Independent and FT puzzles–I started doing them (in addition to the Graun, which I’ve been doing for like 15 years now) on the first Wednesday in November, when the news around here started becoming too distressing. (No sign of that letting up.) Anyway, it seems that the Independent in no way honors the “gentle Monday” tradition observed usually by the Guardian (and invariably by the New York Times, my lone American daily crossword solve). Is that accurate?
mrpenny@10 I’ve been doing the Indy crossword off and on for many years and haven’t noticed a correlation between day and difficulty. Tuesday apparently often has a theme, I believe, and Friday is almost always Phiday.
One of those days where I got stuck with several clues to get, went off to do something else, came back and everything eventually came to me.