Independent 9,299 by Daedalus

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This is the first time that it has fallen to me to blog a crossword by Daedalus. The crossword Who’s Who says that his or her debut puzzle appeared only recently in the Independent. I looked back at what people had said and the reception seemed to be less than totally enthusiastic, but either Daedalus is learning or my standards are low (surely not!) because I found this to be a very pleasant solve with nothing there to encourage my Zoilist tendencies. Not totally easy — I see that I took rather a long time to solve it, but that’s just me I think.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

Look as hard as I can, no theme or Nina stikes me. Perhaps Daedalus is continuing the tradition of Dac in having a break from these things in the middle of the week.

Across
1 INDECISIVE At Christmas perhaps, is present with missing head changeable? (10)
in Dec [= in December = at Christmas perhaps] is {g}ive — present a verb
6 BUMF I’m not sure that boyfriend’s holding inane documents (4)
b(um)f — bf = boyfriend presumably, although I can’t see it in Chambers or Collins
10 GENTLEMAN Glen met an awfully decent chap (9)
(Glen met an)*
11 TIBIA Prime cuts of tenderloin in butter, including a shankbone (5)
t{enderloin} i{n} b{utter} i{ncluding} a
12 THREE-CARD MONTE Find the lady – her mentor acted disreputably (5-4,5)
(her mentor acted)* — this is another name for it
14 LIGHT Land without a lot of luggage (5)
2 defs — the second one as in “travelling light”
16 REBELLION Rising wind traps black beast (9)
re(b)el lion — wind rhyming with mind
17 COLERIDGE He wrote poems about revolting greed and oil (9)
c (greed oil)*
18 NIGHT Man on the radio when most of us are asleep (5)
“knight” — a man in chess
19 THE VICAR OF BRAY Craftily fetch Arab ivory for man of flexible principles (3,5,2,4)
(fetch Arab ivory)* — the Vicar of Bray, apart from being a song that we used to sing at school, is a man of flexible principles
23 HEAVE The man waved naked to get lift (5)
he {w}ave{d}
24 PRECOCITY Genius plugs sustainable urban development? (9)
PR [= plugs] eco-city — which latter is a whimsical way of describing sustainable urban development
25 REEF Bank customer’s last payment is returned (4)
{custome}r (fee)rev.
26 STEAK KNIFE By chance overheard king smash fine piece of tableware (5,5)
“stake” k (fine)*
Down
1 IAGO Restrained by Portia: gold-digging Shakespearean villain (4)
Hidden in PortIA: GOld-digging
2 DINAH Someone’s in the kitchen with me making noise, I see (5)
din ah — apparently there is a song called “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah“, which seems to have been around for a while but had missed me
3 COLLECTOR’S ITEM Perhaps antique cleric smelt too ghastly (10,4)
(cleric smelt too)*
4 SUMAC Novelist climbing a tree (5)
(Camus)rev.
5 VENERABLE Verbena struck the French as worthy of respect (9)
(Verbena)* le — the anagram indicated by ‘struck’
7 UNBENDING Resolute peacekeepers start to bring closure (9)
UN b{ring} ending
8 FRATERNITY Club‘s cook stuffing a bird with it (10)
fr(a tern it)y
9 STUMBLING BLOCK Doing acrobatics with empty barrel in footwear that’s an impediment (9,5)
s(tumbling b{arre}l)ock
13 FLYCATCHER Smart puss caught the female bird (10)
fly cat c her
15 GOLDEN AGE Joke about bygone English period before everything went to pot (6,3)
g(olden)ag E
16 RED CARPET Where Queen might walk in Yorkshire town with corgi? (3,6)
Redcar pet
20 OMEGA How to address Margaret with a letter in Greek (5)
“O, Meg” a
21 ALIBI Boxer once swinging both ways in defence (5)
Ali bi — ‘swinging both ways’ = bi is verging on the cliché, we see it so often nowadays”. Since ‘bi’ is such a common set of two letters I fear this will continue.
22 BYRE Told customer where to find Angus (4)
“buyer” — ref Aberdeen Angus cattle

*anagram

5 comments on “Independent 9,299 by Daedalus”

  1. No probs with the puzzle – (it was rather good in fact – easily the best today) but I had to google zoilist – useful word – rather too much of it around.

    I’ll look forward to more like this.

    Dinah was in the kitchen with the apple of her eye when she should have been making apple pie – that’s all I can remember of it. It seems to get dovetailed into other songs rather than stand on its own very often.

    That was my LOI BTW.

    Was “playing on the old banjo” supposed to suggest something else back in those pseudo-innocent days?

    Many thanks S&B

  3. Nothing too difficult here, but a lesson in looking before you leap – I confidently entered THREE-CARD TRICK at 12ac till 7,8 and 9 down sent me back to look at the anagram fodder again. Never heard of the song referenced in 2dn, I took the answer to be a homophone of ‘diner’ on the basis that a diner might be found in the kitchen with you if you have a dining kitchen. 16ac was reminiscent of the classic “Pretty girl in crimson rose (8)”

    Thanks, Daedalus and John.

  4. In the end, I made a wild guess for 2dn and it was correct, despite never having heard of the song nor being able to parse the answer. It was either that or DENCH (which is in Chambers) and was wondering if it was a homophone for diner.

    Apart from that, no real problems.

  5. Thanks John and all – glad you enjoyed it.

    ‘Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah’ is an old folk song. I thought it was fairly well known, but perhaps I’ve introduced a few people to it!

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