This is only Gila’s second outing in the Indie this year.
I found this a very neat and tidy puzzle to start the week, albeit with a tricky grid. There were highly polished surfaces throughout, and I particularly enjoyed the anagrams in PAINT THE TOWN RED, NEUTRALISE and PUBLIC RELATIONS, as well as BACK-SEAT DRIVERS. Thanks to Gila.
Moh’s utterly subjective hardness-scale rating: Fluorite
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | PAINT THE TOWN RED |
Doctor in Perth wanted to have a wild celebration (5,3,4,3)
|
| Anagram (doctor, as a verb) of IN PERTH WANTED TO | ||
| 9 | DOWNFALL |
Ultimately had to show determination following total collapse (8)
|
| 10 | STOOGE |
Butt of jokes seems too generic in part (6)
|
| Hidden (in part) in seemS TOO GEneric | ||
| 11 | NEUTRALISE |
Counteract a spread of stale urine (10)
|
| Anagram (a spread of) STALE URINE | ||
| 13 | IDEA |
Creative output is almost perfect (4)
|
| IDEA[l] (almost perfect) | ||
| 14 | PUBLIC RELATIONS |
Corporate communication efforts somehow capture billions (6,9)
|
| Anagram (somehow) of CAPTURE BILLIONS | ||
| 17 | ODES |
Fondness periodically produces laudatory works (4)
|
| Alternate letters (periodically) of fOnDnEsS | ||
| 18 | OUT OF SIGHT |
Wearing camouflage, say, is marvellous! (3,2,5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | CRUISE |
Rowing teams picked up for boat trip (6)
|
| Sounds like (picked up) “crews” | ||
| 23 | MANITOBA |
Fan frenzy carrying to Britain and somewhere in Canada (8)
|
| MANIA (fan frenzy) around (carrying) TO B | ||
| 24 | BACK-SEAT DRIVERS |
Ones offering unsolicited advice to support new advertisers (4-4,7)
|
| BACK (support) + anagram (new) of ADVERTISERS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GALORE |
Good authors initially shared stories in abundance (6)
|
| G + A (authors initially) + LORE (shared stories) | ||
| 2 | UNINSTALLS |
Removes an insult (possibly extremely libellous) (10)
|
| Anagram (possibly) of AN INSULT + L S (outer letters of LibellouS) | ||
| 3 | STRATA |
A fruity pastry’s inverted layers (6)
|
| Reversal (inverted, in a down clue) of A TARTS | ||
| 4 | REAL |
Frame of roadhouse underpinned by aluminium and concrete (4)
|
| RE (frame of RoadhousE) above (underpinned by, in a down clue) AL | ||
| 5 | MONSTERA |
Plant area headed by horrible person (8)
|
A (area) after (headed by, in a down clue) MONSTER for the genus of plants that includes the Swiss cheese plant |
||
| 6 | INFO |
Awaiting endless details (4)
|
| IN FO[r] (awaiting, endless) | ||
| 7 | PEA GREEN |
Colour match with an outline of felt tip, perhaps (3,5)
|
| AGREE (match) inside (with an outline of) PEN (felt tip, perhaps) | ||
| 12 | INERT |
Part of karabiner that’s not moving (5)
|
| Hidden (part of) in karabINER That’s | ||
| 13 | INITIATIVE |
Gift Aid regularly accepted by one home-grown scheme (10)
|
| IT I (gIfT aId regularly) inside (accepted by) I (one) NATIVE (home-grown) | ||
| 15 | UNDERPAY |
What bad companies may do is trivialise losing pounds (8)
|
| UNDERP[l]AY (trivialise) without L | ||
| 16 | CLOSE-SET |
Compact cupboard containing empty suitcase (5-3)
|
| CLOSET around SE (outer letters of SuitcasE) | ||
| 19 | FINERY |
Likely to get riled about new, expensive clothes? (6)
|
| FIERY (likely to get riled) about N | ||
| 20 | HOBART |
Drinking establishment in chic port city (6)
|
| BAR inside HOT (chic) for the capital of Tasmania | ||
| 22 | ICKY |
Repulsive king, very unfriendly on the outside (4)
|
| ICY (very unfriendly) around K | ||
| 23 | MOTE |
Small part of vehicle check close to engine (4)
|
| MOT (vehicle check, the UK’s annual roadworthiness test) + E (close to enginE) |
In 9a, I think OWN comes from tO shoW determinatioN.
You’re right, Hovis, thank you – I was thinking of ‘own’ in the sense of taking control or responsibility, but your parsing is much better. Blog amendment coming up!
Liked DOWNFALL (particularly liked the surface), INFO (crisp!) and UNDERPAY.
Thanks Gila and MOH.
Very good, really liked the long anagrams.
Also liked MANITOBA and UNINSTALLS but neat surfaces throughout. ICKY is one of those words I detest mostly as a result of my son’s generation overusing it.
Had to trust MONSTERA was a plant otherwise a fun solve with few troubles.
Thanks MOH and GILA
Disappointed to discover that Tossers is not a plant, but impressed by the anagrams.