The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi everyone. I think this is Amoeba’s fifth crossword for the Independent since his debut in August 2024 with a theme I loved spotting. I don’t know if this one has a theme: I couldn’t identify anything specific but there seemed to be a fair few answers sharing a common thread. LOVE AFFAIR, CHEATING, SECRETS, A BIT ON THE SIDE … I DARE SAY the SITUATION AFTER could lead to a PURGE. Perhaps feeling like a DUNCE, one might then hit the APPLETINI while having a CRY and watching the RAIN.
I enjoyed working out A BIT ON THE SIDE (1d) and CHEATING (18d), but my favourite clue is Mary Berry’s baking near-disaster in 13a, OUR LADY.
Thanks Amoeba, and I sincerely hope you are ok!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 9a | Hare without basics of diet primarily eats undergrowth (9) |
| BRUSHWOOD — RUSH (hare, verb) and W/O (without), which Basics Of Diet primarily takes in (eats) | |
| 10a | Architectural feature’s rings captivating volunteer (5) |
| OVOLO — O O (rings) surrounding (captivating) VOL. (volunteer). A curved architectural moulding | |
| 11a | Sri Lankan’s last bit of investment capital withdrawn (5) |
| TAMIL — The last bit of investmenT + LIMA (capital) reversed (withdrawn) | |
| 12a | For a descendant of Jacob, could God be superior? (9) |
| ISRAELITE — IS RA ELITE (could God be superior?) | |
| 13a | Mary Berry’s last roulade almost collapsed (3,4) |
| OUR LADY — An anagram of (… collapsed) berrY’s last letter and ROULADe almost | |
| 14a | They might be kept dry on the outskirts of Totnes (7) |
| SECRETS — SEC (dry) + RE (on) + the outer letters of (the outskirts of) TotneS | |
| 17a | Understood historian’s thrown us out (5) |
| TACIT — TACIT[us] (historian) has removed (thrown … out) US | |
| 19a | Proclaim there’s more to be lost from Bitcoin and the like (3) |
| CRY — PTO (there’s more) to be lost from CRY[pto] (Bitcoin and the like) | |
| 20a | Clarify a bit of gossip urgently (5) |
| PURGE — Hidden in a bit of gossiP URGEntly | |
| 21a | Reportedly, I decline to provide relief for viewers (7) |
| EYEDROP — EYE, which sounds like (reportedly) I + DROP (decline) | |
| 22a | Card game’s somewhat American as taught (7) |
| CANASTA — Included in (somewhat) AmeriCAN AS TAught | |
| 24a | Is retiring accepted for one in teaching post? (9) |
| SITUATION — IS reversed (retiring) + A (accepted) replacing (for) I (one) in TU[i]TION (teaching) | |
| 26a | Subsequently, paper probes interest rate (5) |
| AFTER — FT (paper) inserts into (probes) AER (interest rate) | |
| 28a | One’s slow to learn about cracking fantasy novel (5) |
| DUNCE — C (about) going into (cracking) DUNE (fantasy novel, by Frank Herbert) | |
| 29a | After work, a tipple to take home and drink (9) |
| APPLETINI — When anagrammed (after work), A TIPPLE containing (to take) IN (home) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | & 13/24. Drunkenly bed, with hesitation, someone you shouldn’t? (1,3,2,3,4) |
| A BIT ON THE SIDE — An anagram of (drunkenly) BED with HESITATION, the definition needing the context from the rest of the clue to make sense | |
| 2d | Adder that’s seen after spring (6) |
| SUMMER — Two definitions | |
| 3d | Rickety old car hit entrance to college, leaving youngster in cast (5,5) |
| CHILD ACTOR — An anagram of (rickety) OLD CAR HIT with the first letter of (entrance to) College | |
| 4d | In the flesh, top worn by hooligan’s the wrong way round (6) |
| BODILY — LID (top) in (worn by) YOB (hooligan)’s reversed (the wrong way round) | |
| 5d | It’s quite possible Olympian’s put inside one day (1,4,3) |
| I DARE SAY — ARES (Olympian)’s put inside I (one) and DAY | |
| 6d | Very much like bird with clipped wings (4) |
| LOVE — pLOVEr (bird) having outer letters removed (with clipped wings) | |
| 7d | Go east by air, excited to see Ranger Smith’s adversary (4,4) |
| YOGI BEAR — An anagram of (… excited) GO E (east) BY AIR | |
| 8d | Considerable work for the setter (4) |
| TOME — TO ME (for the setter) | |
| 13d | See 1 |
| 15d | Expose witch infiltrating church close to nation’s capital (10) |
| COPENHAGEN — OPEN (expose) and HAG (witch) going into (infiltrating) CE (church) + the last letter of (close to) natioN | |
| 16d | Taken aback when guards allow tablet (5) |
| STELA — Reversed (taken aback) AS (when) surrounds (guards) LET (allow) | |
| 18d | Caught husband having affairs? (8) |
| CHEATING — C (caught) + H (husband) + EATING (having) | |
| 19d | Flu panic disrupted sporting event (3,5) |
| CUP FINAL — FLU PANIC anagrammed (disrupted) | |
| 22d | Cycling nut grabs a little bit of food (6) |
| CANAPE — Cycling the letters of PECAN (nut) a couple of times leads to CANPE; this contains (grabs) A | |
| 23d | Oddly, sleuth’s sign becomes established (4,2) |
| SETS IN — Odd letters of (oddly) SlEuTh’S sIgN | |
| 24d | See 1 |
| 25d | Experts run away from groups of people (4) |
| ACES — R (run) taken away from [r]ACES (groups of people) | |
| 27d | Talked about time in power shower (4) |
| RAIN — This sounds like (talked about) REIGN (time in power) | |
Slight alteration needed in 7d. E not EAST.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Great blog.
Thanks Amoeba and Kitty.
Liked TAMIL for a personal reason. 🙂
Top faves: ISRAELITE, CRY (novel WP), APPLETINI (beautiful surface), A BIT ON THE SIDE (my COTD) and CHEATING (another top-notch surface).
Slip up in 7d now corrected – thanks Hovis @1
Thanks both. I spent as long on the final two answers as the rest of the puzzle, having no real idea what was going on with BRUSHWOOD until I came here, and perhaps having too many options for TOME, so a word-checker was employed, at which point I realised the cleverness of the clue. Liked the topicality of CUP FINAL which will occupy my time being a Man City fan of many decades – it is not lost on me most of the rest of the country if they care about the game at all will want Palace to win, and they may well do so.
Very enjoyable and gentle puzzle – though I was beaten right at the end by LOVE where I could not think of a – – O – E – bird and was going down a totally different avenue of thought wrt the definition. TAMIL, OUR LADY, CRY, SITUATION, BODILY, CHEATING and the timely CUP FINAL were my faves.
One tiny tweak to your preamble, Kitty: 5 puzzles in nearly three years would be quite slow going. Amoeba’s debut was only last August
Thanks both
Oops, thanks PostMark. I never know what year it is these days! I’ll amend the preamble now.
Kitty, if that’s not a theme, then it darned well should be!
Well constructed by you, and enjoyably tongue-in-cheek.
I was going to add a couple of suggestions, but they might get me banned.
This is a lovely puzzle, and I was chuffed that A BIT ON THE SIDE, (1d), was actually, all of the bit on the left-hand side.
Great clue.
CUP FINAL is not to be mentioned, ( ‘Pool fan ), but topical to get it in. OVOLO is totally new to me, then I find it is a type of wooden profile beading that I have used countless times. It seems to derive from “egg”, and resembles the outline of “half an egg”. I won’t be quoting it in B+Q.
I totally enjoyed this crossword, it tickles all my fancies. Super blog to match. [……Ah…match. Come on , Palace!]
Big thanks, Amoeba & Kitty
Brilliant puzzle and brilliant blog!
With plenty of ticks on my page, A BIT ON THE SIDE takes first place closely followed by OUR LADY.
Many thanks to Amoeba and to Kitty.
Whip smart, as always. I particularly liked CRY, DUNCE, A BIT ON THE SIDE, I DARE SAY and LOVE. Etc. OUR LADY’s a super surface and CHILD ACTOR’S a cracking def, too. Sheer class. Best thanks to both.
I thought this was great. A BIT ON THE SIDE, ISRAELITE, SUMMER, LOVE, CUP FINAL and RAIN all very good. Thanks to the one-celled wonder and Kitty for the blog.
Chapeau Kitty – this beat me all ends up and while I could blame some nhos (OVOLO, STELA) it’s really just me being a DUNCE.
But I was grandly entertained sitting in a sunny garden nursing myself after a hip replacement (beatnik sub?) last Tuesday so thanks Amoeba. The online crossword community has provided welcome distraction during this (actually not so very) trying time so if any of you are wary of getting A BIT ‘OFF’ THE SIDE don’t delay (chop chop) – the SITUATION AFTER is to be welcomed.
I love OUR LADY ( a bit of Mariolatry on the side) Alphalpha@11 I agree about the hip replacement (Phi as well as beatnik sub) and I hope you recover as quickly as I did. Very nice puzzle and blog, thanks.
[Thanks Petert. ‘Phi’ is so good]
Thanks Kitty for the super blog, and to all those who’ve commented or lurked – I’m glad you found something to enjoy.
I can confirm I’m happily engaged, but there was a light theme here, related to the Irish master of the short story William Trevor. His books include AFTER RAIN, BODILY SECRETS, CHEATING [at] CANASTA, LOVE [and] SUMMER, and of course A BIT ON THE SIDE. Kitty’s extensions to the theme are excellent, not least because many of his stories feature troubled relationships!
I love the fact that A BIT ON THE SIDE is… the bit on the side.
Thanks Kitty and Amoeba. I was stumped by the parsing for CRY until online Collins gave me the intended sense of the acronym. FWIW Google AI confirms my notion that “please turn over” is more common in the UK than over here, where I DARE SAY “paid time off” and “parent-teacher organization” more readily come to mind 😁
A (very) late post, but what an enjoyable exchange between Alphalpha & Petert! “Phi” puzzled me for a bit ( he often does). Good health, both.
TFO@4, commiserations. My bookmaker is also upset.
Belated thanks to you all for really lovely comments, and especially Amoeba@14 for illumination of the light theme. Very glad to hear that congratulations rather than commiserations are the order of the day! 🥂
Echoing E.N.Boll& above, I was also impressed by the beatnik sub, Phi. Differing slightly, it was the former which puzzled me at first!