Independent 11,971 by Raider

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Raider makes a rare appearance in the Indy today – his last puzzle was in April last year!

We found this fairly tricky to start with, but as we got onto Raider’s wavelength, we speeded up a bit.

We had to check quite a few synonyms in definitions and wordplay, but that was all part of the challenge. There are great surfaces – and it’s a pangram! Our favourite clues were 6ac for its brevity and 16d for the surface and construction.

Looking forward to the next Raider – we hope we don’t have to wait another 10 months!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
4. Rat chewed part way through Hobnob producing mould (6)
MATRIX

An anagram (‘chewed’) of RAT in or ‘part way through’ MIX (hobnob). Joyce only remembered MATRICES from her time spent studying Maths at college.

6. Maverick fellow, no? (4,4)
LONE WOLF

A clue-as-definition: an anagram (‘maverick’) of FELLOW NO

9. Smack person sticking his oar in (6)
STROKE

Double definition

10. Reading‘s boss on the way out, their director shared (8)
STUDYING

STUD (boss) DYING (on the way out) ‘sharing’ the ‘d’ (director) – last letter of ‘stud’ and first letter of ‘dying’

11. Ben blocks busy bus lane – shocking! (11)
UNSPEAKABLE

PEAK (Ben – as in a Scottish mountain) in or ‘blocking’ an anagram (‘busy’) of BUS LANE

15. Gymnast that can be found on a bar? (7)
TUMBLER

Double definition

17. Bad, bad sign for corporation (7)
ABDOMEN

An anagram (‘bad’) of BAD + OMEN (sign)

18. Where offensive Greek waiters were tweaking Jon’s hot rear (6,5)
TROJAN HORSE

An anagram (‘tweaking’) of JON’S HOT REAR

22. Ram squeezing through cages? (8)
AVIARIES

ARIES (ram – as in the zodiac sign) round or ‘squeezing’ VIA (through)

23. She fires revolting Piers Morgan at last (6)
SNIPER

An anagram (‘revolting’) of PIERS and N (last letter of Morgan)

24. Island famous for its bars? (8)
ALCATRAZ

Cryptic definition – the ‘bars’ being prison bars

25. Favourite character cut in Beetlejuice! (6)
PETROL

PET (favourite) ROLe (character) missing the last letter or ‘cut’ – PETROL being the ‘juice’ for a VW Beetle

DOWN
1. Jam and cream going on last bits of traditional scone (6)
PICKLE

PICK (cream) L E (last letters or ‘bits’ of traditional scone)

2. Miss Gardner supporting British actors performing in Spanish location (5,5)
COSTA BRAVA

AVA (Ava Gardner, the actress) after or ‘supporting’ an anagram (‘performing’) of B (British) ACTORS

3. Slice bloomer loaf after brown bread (8)
DEADHEAD

HEAD (loaf) after DEAD (brown bread – in Cockney rhyming slang)

4. Fly low around edge of Sahara Desert (8)
MOSQUITO

MOO (low) round S (first letter or ‘edge’ of Sahara) QUIT (desert)

5. Trying Morse code finally, struggling with it (8)
TIRESOME

An anagram (‘struggling’) of MORSE, E (last or ‘final’ letter of code) and IT

7. Godfather‘s over in Benidorm (4)
ODIN

Hidden (‘in’) and reversed (‘over’) in BeNIDOrm

8. Fruit from diagram 19? (4)
FIGS

FIG. S would be the 19th ‘figure’ (diagram) if the first is Fig. A, the second Fig. B etc.

12. Great numbers have been massacred here? (7,3)
KARAOKE BAR

Cryptic definition: the ‘numbers’ being songs

13. Setter’s in favour of exercise, right? Wrong (8)
IMPROPER

I’M (‘the setter is’) PRO (in favour of) PE (exercise) R (right)

14. Basic shape: triangle (8)
INTEGRAL

An anagram (‘shape’) of TRIANGLE

16. Well-read story entertains time after time after time (8)
LITERATE

LIE (story) round or ‘entertaining’ T (time) ERA (time) T (time)

19. Appetite‘s greater around noon (6)
HUNGER

HUGER (greater) round N (noon)

20. Zip on handbag regularly splits (4)
NADA

Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of oN hAnDbAg

21. Part of brass section from Berlioz in concert (4)
ZINC

Hidden (‘section from’) in BerlioZ IN Concert

 

18 comments on “Independent 11,971 by Raider”

  1. If it takes 10 months to produce a puzzle this good, the wait is worthwhile. Pretty much faultless, but more to the point, original, entertaining, and beautiful surfaces.
    “Godfather”, KARAOKE BAR, “Beetlejuice”…and the list goes on.
    Superb stuff.
    Ta, Raider , & BJ

  2. Agree with the blog entirely. LONE WOLF for the anagrind and perhaps AVIARIES my favourites. Some old tricks with the 19th letter(for which I needed the blog), corporation and TUMBLER, but smooth surfaces, entertaining definitions and cryptic definitions. Thanks B&J and Raider.

  3. Wonderful crossword with clues reading so smoothly and wittily!
    Huge thanks to Raider, also B&J, especially for FIGS which I entered unparsed and then forgot about……..

  4. Wonderful crossword with clues reading so smoothly and wittily!
    Huge thanks to Raider, also B&J, especially for FIGS which I entered unparsed and then forgot about……..

  5. Loved this, especially the two Elisions (aka Playtexes, though Roz prefers them symmetrical): 25a PETROL = Beetle juice!, and 7d ODIN = God father.
    And 6a LONE WOLF, and 12d KARAOKE BAR 😀 were excellent, too. — [Edit: DP@3, You can say that again.]

  6. Very nice indeed; some smooth and fun surfaces and some very witty definitions as already identified by ENBoll&. Also some very neat anagrams – LONE WOLF, UNSPEAKABLE, TROJAN HORSE (combining fun, wit and anagram). Other faves include the cryptic def for ALCATRAZ, the very neat alternation in NADA, the use of Sahara Desert in MOSQUITO, the Cockney element in DEADHEAD …

    Definitely worth the wait and hope the next one comes along a bit sooner.

    Thanks Raider and B&J

  7. Excellent. Liked AVIARIES, DEADHEAD, MOSQUITO, KARAOKE BAR. Loved PETROL. Yes, hope to see Raider again soon. Thanks to B&J, too.

  8. Very nice Raider thank you, I do remember going into a pub a few years ago and with beautiful timing the “act” was murdering “The day the music died”.

  9. What great fun. Delighted to see this setter. As others have already said so many definitions to make us smile and lots of clever constructions too. My favourites were DEADHEAD, MOSQUITO, KARAOKE BAR, Godfather, Beetlejuice, figuring out UNSPEAKABLE and ALCATRAZ. Cheers Raider and B&J.

  11. Yes, agree with all the above. Challenging and entertaining but never impenetrable. Favourites were MOSQUITO and ABDOMEN
    I wondered for a moment if OMEN meant bad sign, in which case there could have been three ‘bad’s in the clue. But no, apparently omens can also be good.
    Thanks R, B and J.

  12. Nice puzzle. I got about half of it without assistance. Particularly liked godfather. But confused by Jam=Pickle? I guess the meaning is a difficult situation rather than literally preserves?

  14. So many great clues, my favourite today was 7d ODIN, both for the great use of Godfather, but more for the mental image of Al Pacino on the beach in Benidorm!

    Also beetle juice, KARAOKE BAR, and HUNGER such a great surface

  15. This was great. Seemed ‘a wavelength’ puzzle to me but seemed tuned in this afternoon.

    MOSQUITO was last in helped massively by expecting to see a Q.

    I think Raider is new to me (but may have completed one of his pseudonyms) but looking forward to the next one.

    Thanks Raider and blogger.

  16. Top-notch crossword, thanks Raider. Favourites included ABDOMEN, PETROL, TIRESOME, KARAOKE BAR, LITERATE, HUNGER, NADA, and ZINC. I don’t think fly=mosquito but since they’re both insect pests I won’t complain. I needed a word finder for DEADHEAD & the blog to understand both DEADHEAD & FIGS. Thanks B&J for the blog.

  17. Raider returns with a brilliant crossword. LONE WOLF, STUDYING, TROJAN HORSE, AVIARIES, MOSQUITO, ODIN and ZINC all great, but there were great touches throughout – and with real lightness of touch as well. Hopefully he’ll be back with another gem soon.

  18. Rowed in an eight at uni, so enjoyed stroke, tho smack is a bit hmm. I suppose it’s like With one mighty smack/stroke, he felled the giant … And yes, working thru. found my brain getting tickled and thinking Damn, this guy is good!

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