Independent on Sunday 1,391 by Kairos

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Good stuff from Kairos once again this week.

This one didn’t put up too much of a fight, but it was enjoyable and I learned a thing or two along the way. In fact there were quite a few unfamiliar terms involved, but it was all clued fairly enough that that did not prove problematic.

Thanks again to Kairos, then.

Across
1 TRIPLE SEC Spelt and rice brewed for alcoholic drink (6,3)
Anagram of (SPELT + RICE).
6 NERO About about about about an emperor (4)
Blimey. It’s (RE in ON)* all reversed. If you count the “abouts” it does work, too.
9 PROCYON Star in favour of working around Cyprus (7)
CY in (PRO + ON). A star, also known as Alpha Canis Minoris. Entirely unfamiliar to your blogger, but it could hardly have been much else once a few crossers were in.
10 ASTRIDE A way to travel up (7)
A + ST + RIDE &lit. “Up” in the sense of “on a horse”, which seems to show up a great deal more frequently in crosswords than in daily life.
11 CROWNED Hit opponents in gang (7)
(N + E) in CROWD. North and East are opponents in bridge, a card game that remains utterly bewildering to me.
12 PROTECT Defend time for judge in work (7)
From PROJECT, with T replacing J.
13 HOT POTATO Try and see alliance without leaders in difficult situation (3,6)
[s]HOT + [s]POT + [n]ATO.
15 SISAL Hemp brought back from Douglas Island (5)
Hidden and reversed in [doug]LAS IS[land]. Apparently sisal isn’t actually anything to do with hemp, but the term “sisal hemp” has been used in the past, and is in Chambers.
16 LODES Reports of many ore deposits (5)
Sounds like “loads”.
19 CONTRACTS Abridges right wing manifestos (9)
CON + TRACTS.
22 MEMENTO Norway involved in cultural movement against remembrance (7)
N in (MEME + TO).
23 TABLOID Covering on cigarette contains old paper (7)
O in (TAB + LID).
25 REGALIA Algeria revised royal privileges (7)
Anagram of ALGERIA. I thought “regalia” was just the shiny bits and bobs that the royals carry around with them on special occasions, but Chambers has “royal privileges” as definition number one.
26 BRISTOL Shakespearean character heading off for British city (7)
BR + Ancient [p]ISTOL. It had to be Bristol from the checking letters, but I’ll admit that I had to google to find Pistol. My knowledge of Shakespeare characters is mainly limited to those that have a Fylde guitar named after them.
27 ADIT Opening of a key appeal (4)
A + D (a musical key) + IT (sex appeal). The opening to a mine, and another word I know only from crosswords.
28 EVERGREEN Maybe Holly has enduring appeal (9)
Two definitions, though I’m not certain the second quite works, grammatically speaking. Perhaps I’ve parsed it incorrectly.
Down
1 TOPIC Matter of circle without radius (5)
T[r]OPIC.
2 IRON OUT Firm on strike in Settle (4,3)
IRON + OUT.
3 LAY INTO Lyric poem’s hot on beat (3,4)
LAY + IN + TO.
4 SYNOD Outwardly shy acknowledgement in assembly (5)
S[h]Y + NOD.
5 CLAMPDOWN Spooner’s wet fool in Blitz (9)
Spoonerism of “damp clown”. Is a “blitz” really a “clampdown”? I guess it must be.
6 NATIONS New suits Charlie leaves for groups of people (7)
N + A[c]TIONS.
7 RAIDERS Additional conditions limit American asset strippers (7)
A in RIDERS.
8 PEP TALKS How Man City manager gives inspiration to his players? (3,5)
Cryptic definition, I think. You’d need to know that Pep Guardiola is the manager of Manchester City, and I can almost hear the mutterings of dissent as I type this. Probably a clue that won’t lend itself to reprinting in the “i” in a few years’ time.
13 HALLMARK Sign of saint buried under lobby (8)
HALL + St. MARK.
14 ANCHORAGE Criminal on a charge in Alaskan port (9)
Anagram of (ON A CHARGE). Anchorage is the most populous city in Alaska.
17 DAMAGED Artist crazy for soprano is upset and hurt (7)
(Edgar DEGA[s] + MAD), all reversed.
18 SINGLET Characteristic of shirt and pants and vest (7)
Nicely done: the words “shirt”, “pants” and “vest” all have a SINGLE T.
20 RIBBING Making fun of knitwear design … (7)
Two definitions.
21 CHORTLE … laugh about direction taken by pocket (7)
C + (RT in HOLE).
23 TABLE Propose removing roof from farm building (5)
[s]TABLE.
24 DYLAN Singer involved in Normandy landings (5)
Hidden in [norman]DY LAN[dings]. Bob of that ilk, no doubt.

 

* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations

 

3 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,391 by Kairos”

  1. I found this a bit of a slog as some parsings took far longer than they should have to click. I’ll blame it on lack of blood flow to the brain this early in the day.

    I liked NERO once I’d figured out which versions of ‘about’ to use. Like Simon, I didn’t know about Ancient Pistol, but figured the city had to be BRISTOL. Nor do I know anything about football managers but I do know how to look them up, so PEP TALKS wasn’t a problem. ADIT was also a new term for me.

    When I saw DYLAN, I thought we might be in for a Bob/Nobel theme, but it seems not.

    Thanks Simon and Kairos.

  2. A satisfying Sunday solve, and after my ignorance of Poins as a Shakespeare character the other week I did actually know Pistol this week. There were some parsings I didn’t get, though, e.g. HOT POTATO, and I didn’t know ‘tab’ for a cigarette. PEP TALK was clever but I fear it might become something of a cliché before long.

    Thanks, Kairos and Simon.

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