Independent crossword 9518 by Jambazi

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Easter weekend and a puzzle from Jambazi.

Whilst I don’t usually look up meanings of setters’ names, for some reason I did today and Jambazi appears to mean bandit in Swahili.

I found this quite tough – some very good clues though. 13ac amused me as did 22ac. And some pushing the boundaries in my opinion 26ac, 23dn and 27dn were such examples.

Many thanks for giving me an intense workout Jambazi. Certainly some cruciverbal banditry.

Key * anagram; Rev. reverse; DD double definition; underline = definition

Across

9 Extremely trendy one wearing good jumper and something underneath? (9)

G (good) + roo (jumper) + vest (something underneath) around I (one) = GROOVIEST

10 Plant’s part, without mike, volume adjusted (5)

(volume – m (mike))* = OVULE

11 Completely take in film — Pixar film to entertain adult (3,2)

ET (film) + Up (Pixar film) around a (adult) = EAT UP

12 Live-in partners turning over TV in the morning getting fix (9)

Rev. set (TV) + am (in the morning) + moor (fix) = ROOMMATES

13 Tweeter to argue repeatedly (7)

Spar + row (argue repeatedly) = SPARROW

14 Club player is a superhero (4,3)

Iron (club) + man (player) = IRON MAN

17 One eating food at the start that’s not healthy (5)

Unit (one) around f (food at the start) = UNFIT

19 Arse kisser (3)

DD MUG

20 On which one might play with bow and arrows pointing the wrong way? (5)

Rev. darts (arrows) = STRAD

21 Cyclist on way for pedestrian (7)

Rider (cyclist) after st (way) = STRIDER

22 Sybil so mad: how she talks to Basil? (7)

(Sybil so)* = BOSSILY  (Fawlty towers reference )

24 They argue with European girl about Brexit, ultimately (9)

Pole (European) + miss (girl) around t (Brexit ultimately) = POLEMISTS

26 Cream cakes round with four lines (5)

O(round) cakes?? IV (four) + ry (lines) = IVORY

28 Waste comes from river (5)

Of Fal (river) = OFFAL

29 Going up, like conservative spending (latest information hidden) (9)

As (like) + c (conservative) + spending – sp (latest information) = ASCENDING

Down

1 Look, turn off website (4)

Google (website) – go (turn off) = OGLE

2 Against conservative tax cut to look after rich, primarily (6)

Con (conservative) + tax – x (cut) around r (rich primarily) = CONTRA

3/25 Me, with a triple vodka shot getting another drink (10,4)

(Me + a triple vodka)* = EVAPORATED MILK

4 Pull out once more: very sore (6)

DD red raw  = REDRAW

5 Touching line? Sure to get clamped (8)

String (line) around ok (sure) = STROKING

6 Conceive? Option of sex (on this)? (4)

F (female) or m (male) = FORM

7 One pays male escort off; you must go inside (8)

(m + escort)* around u(you) = CUSTOMER

8 Female escort raised charges (4)

F (female) + Rev. see (escort) = FEES

13 Encourages team (5)

DD SPURS

15 Clinics supporting old boy with fetishes (10)

Ob (old boy) + sessions (clinics) = OBSESSIONS

16 Old simpleton remaining in New York (5)

Odd (remaining) in NY (New York) = NODDY

18 Truck to pull up after junction (8)

Lift (pull up) after fork (junction) = FORKLIFT

19 Shooter picks up piece (8)

Marks (picks up) + man (piece) = MARKSMAN

22 Split second to enter coin (6)

Sec (second) in bit (coin) = BISECT

23 Very famous do two lines (cocaine) (6)

Con (do) lines II (two) + c (cocaine) = ICONIC

24 Poor person and working class in school at the top (4)

Pe (class in school) + on (at the top) = PEON

25 See 3

27 Bear Grylls’ first in the middle with old soldier (4)

Y (first in the middle of Grylls’) + o (old) + gi (soldier) = YOGI

15 comments on “Independent crossword 9518 by Jambazi”

  1. In 26a ‘cakes’ is the same as ‘covers’ as a containment indicator, but it took me a while to see it. I laughed at the Sybil clue.

    Thanks to Jambazi and to twencelas. In case you didn’t know, ‘Jambazi’ also means Tramp, which is the setter’s better known Guardian moniker. (And he’s ‘Skitnica’ at the FT, Croatian for Tramp!)

  2. thanks to Jambazi for a proper Saturday challenge (for my abilities) and to twencelas for the blog.
    In 26a, I took “cakes” to be used in the sense of “covers” (as in cakes in make-up) so IV and RY cover O(round).
    In 23d, I assumed “lines” to be a containment indicator (eg lines one’s pockets).
    In 27d, I saw the Y of Grylls as being the first letter of the middle, assuming YL to be “the middle” of Grylls, but I’m not 100% sure. Not 50% either, really.

  3. Thanks, twenceslas.

    Great puzzle, thanks, Jambazi – and good to see you back here!

    I’m with baerchen on the parsing of 26ac and 23dn – I took his explanation of 23dn as being what twenceslas said.

    I parsed 24dn as PE [class in school] + ON [working] with the definition simply ‘poor person’.

  4. Running the risk of sounding like a general election debate – does anyone still agree with Nick?

    Eileen – I agree with you on 24dn – it was the last one I parsed
    Baerchen – I agree with you on 27dn
    I think I finally see 26ac

  5. Most enjoyable. Some lovely surfaces – liked BOSSILY, REDRAW, EVAPORATED MILK, FORKLIFT and ICONIC especially.

  6. Many thanks for the blog, twencelas, and thanks to others for their comments.

    I wrote this in February 2017. As for parsings: baerchen is correct and Eileen is right about 24d.

    Thanks

    Neil

  7. Thanks Jambazi and twencelas

    To be honest I only did this because the Guardian’s Easter prize puzzle was unavailable earlier this morning, but I’m glad I did. I found it pretty tough going but got there eventually and enjoyed most it – including two of the clues (26 & 27) that twencelas cites as ‘pushing the boundaries’, which I parsed as the others here did. I’m still not happy with 23 ICONIC, though, as ‘lining’ suggests ‘inside’ to me, in which case the envelope is surely the wrong way around?

    I also thought 1 down’s ‘website’ for GOOGLE was a stretch, to say the least. They are a tech industry giant with many websites and countless other interests, so they can no more be defined as a ‘website’ to me than, say, the BBC can be defined as a ‘programme’. Moreover, there are now over 1 billion websites, so even if Google was just a website, why should that description lead one to think only of them?

  8. Very enjoyable tussle that ultimately bested me by three (28a, 22d & 24d). Loads of amusing and clever clues make it too tough to choose a fave so I’ll just say thanks to Jambazi for the fun and the torture and thanks to twencelas for the enlightenment.

  10. Solved this without too much trouble but didn’t really enjoy it, mainly because I got the impression the setter was trying too hard to imitate a certain someone at the Guardian who is notorious for including puerile smut in his clues. Further reasons for my lack of enthusiasm are several clunky surfaces and too many single-letter indicators. Nor is the grid fill particularly inspiring with its four regular plurals, along with numerous other boring suffixes and prefixes.

  11. Couldn’t fathom 24dn and eventually thought it might be ‘prol’ short for ‘prole(tarian)’ as a slang term at a top public school. Ho hum…

    That apart I quite enjoyed this one, though I found it a bit slow going in the NW corner. CoD was STRAD.

    Thanks, Jambazi and Twencelas

  12. @10 “… didn’t really enjoy it, mainly because I got the impression the setter was trying too hard to imitate a certain someone at the Guardian who is notorious for including puerile smut in his clues.” Bit rich coming from someone who had this clue in the Indy:

    I wouldn’t laugh at leg-over when taken inside (7)

    What say you, Rowland Hedgehoggy Paul B whatever the f**k you’re calling yourself now?

  13. Good challenge though not as hard as some of this setter’s offerings in other guises. Couldn’t parse OGLE for the life of me and spent ages trying to work out in vain where I’d heard of ‘biect’ as a ‘coin’ for 22d. Particularly enjoyed BOSSILY, PEON and the surface for FORM.

    Thank you to Jambazi and twencelas.

  14. babbabs @12
    Your insinuation is totally erroneous. I considered editing/removing your comment, because I see it as being inflammatory, but I have left it so that I could add this reply. Please desist from posting such comments in the future.

    Please also stop using multiple identities on this site, in contravention of the Site Policy, otherwise you will be placed under moderation.

  15. The following comment was lost during the server migration:

    jmac says:
    April 16th, 2017 at 2:01 pm

    Admin @14, thank you for your intervention.

    Good puzzle, bit hard, thanks S & B.

Comments are closed.