Independent 9,534 by Maize

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By chance poor old Maize has got me again. I was very enthusiastic about his/her previous offering; this one is less obviously outstanding, simply very good. There are a whole lot of excellent sound clues.

I can’t find any reference to tax-collecting that involves levity (19dn) but no doubt the link is somewhere.

No, I can’t see any Nina. Which of course means little.

Across
1/9 COMMEDIA DELLARTE Deeply odd characters in improvised, melodramatic, European theatre (8,8)
d{e}e{p}l{y} in (melodramatic)* E — the anagram indicated by ‘improvised’
5 PHOBOS Satellite broadcast of enemy leader (6)
“foe boss” — a moon of Mars
9   See 1
10 KERALA State created by mapmaker, adjoining Alabama (6)
if ‘mapmaker’ adjoins ‘Alabama’ we have ‘mapmaker Alabama’ and hidden in this is Kerala, the Indian state
12 EVENT Do 70 keeping just within the limits (5)
{s}event{y}
13 RANSACKED With loot missing was the manager fired? (9)
ran [= was the manager] sacked [= fired]
14 DEEP FAT FRYER Tuck’s description as stated by main producer of fast food (4,3,5)
deep [= main] “fat friar”
18 TREASURE HUNT It’s a challenging quest to love the health secretary (8,4)
treasure [= love] Hunt [as in Jeremy Hunt, the Health S]
21 AD NAUSEAM A code for life: manipulate a male until bored (2,7)
a DNA use [= manipulate] a m
23 NIECE Relative peace at last in Mediterranean resort (5)
Ni({relativ}e)ce
24 TIGHTS Clothing for dance contests in which tango replaces foxtrot (6)
fights [= contests] with the f [= foxtrot, NATO alphabet] replaced by t [= tango, similarly]
25 OBLIVION Limbo dancing boy with violin – bar wobbly at the end (8)
(boy violin – {wobbl}y)* — bar = except for
26 SATURN God’s a performer of tricks, perhaps? (6)
‘s a turn — turn a noun, as in ‘star turn’
27 BETRAYER Shopper‘s item for carrying booze outside (8)
be(tray)er
Down
1 CUDGEL Club member served up half-eaten food for starters (6)
(leg)rev. with cud at the start
2 MOLTEN Runny centres of famous salted lozenges (6)
{fa}mo{us} {sa}lt{ed} {loz}en{ges}
3 EXACTNESS Old thespian with name for introduction of rigour and accuracy (9)
ex-actress with its r [= introduction of rigour] replaced by n [= name]
4 INTERSPERSED Bury drug around mid-Dorset, scattered here and there (12)
inter spe({Do}rs{et})ed
6 HYENA Spotted killer, finally, through blurry image on camera (5)
{throug}h {blurr}y {imag}e {o}n {camer}a
7 BLACK EYE Barrister’s opening material contains crucial evidence of fight? (5,3)
B{arrister} lac(key)e
8 STANDARD Ordinary way and a different way (8)
st and a rd
11 UNFATHOMABLE An album of The Kinks that’s impossible to get (12)
(An album of the)* — evidently The Kinks didn’t produce an album called ‘Unfathomable’, which would have been too good to be true
15 FINANCIER Gnome home acquired by enthusiast (9)
f(in)ancier — as in ‘the Gnomes of Zurich‘
16 ATLANTIS Lost civilisation identified by books I found in mountains (8)
Atla(NT I)s
17 HEN NIGHT A good time for ladies of stature to absorb news (3,5)
he(n n)ight
19 LEVITY Tax collecting – it could show lack of seriousness (6)
2 defs — or so I thought, but I can find no definition of levity as tax collecting (lots of people have pointed out that it’s lev(it)y, ‘tax’ collecting ‘it’)
20 TENNER Money obtained by cheesy setter on the up (6)
(rennet)rev.
22 UTTER Speak softly leaving club (5)
{p}utter

*anagram

19 comments on “Independent 9,534 by Maize”

  2. I didn’t have time to solve this puzzle this morning but I it looks like a good one.

    Of course Andrew’s right but it amused me to think of LEVI the tax collector in the New Testament. 😉

  5. I thought this was an amaizing crossword.
    True, there’s no laddishness a la Hoskins, there’s hardly any Dac- or Vigo-like lightness but it’s all so well-clued!

    I wish I had written 11d – what a gem.
    And the DEEP FAT FRYER of 14d, raised a lot of smiles.

    I’m afraid that just like copmus @4, I couldn’t come up with anything else than NEVADA.
    So, Maize won.
    Gloriously!

  6. Thanks Maize, John
    Fresh and inventive without trying to tear up the rule book – lovely puzzle. Favourites 12, 11, 20

  7. Very enjoyable stuff. Not too tricky, but enough to make me think, and with some lovely touches. Agree with Sil on 11D. That was a ‘damn, that’s good’ moment. 20D also a doozy.

    My only ? would be on 10A. I’ve never seen that kind of construction before and assumed it wasn’t allowed. Nothing wrong with it though!

    Thanks to S & B

  8. Quite hard I thought with a few unparsed including KERALA and SATURN and some unknowns only gettable from the wordplay eg PHOBOS. Satisfying to eventually finish with favourites being the surface for AD NAUSEAM and the DEEP FAT FRYER.

    Thanks to Maize and John.

  9. After only four puzzles, Maize has become my favourite setter. I put ticks by ten clues. Perhaps the best was for Ad Nauseum but I also loved the use of Kinks as an anagram indicator for Unfathomable

  11. Maize on good form, and quite challenging too. 1/9 I got with a little help from Google, and 10ac I’m guessing like many solvers I wanted to be Nevada. 14ac raised a smile, worth the price of admission alone. More please. 🙂

  12. I thought I’d completed this but when I came here I realised I hadn’t entered an answer for 10ac.

    Got stuck on the top left corner and ended up having to do an anagram search on 1/9 to open it up.

  13. Brilliant puzzle. Thought I was going to come unstuck on a few in the top, but I carried them around with me and caught them in the end. It’s been a long day, but this improved it no end – so thanks to Maize for that. Thanks also to John for the blog.

    P.S. Hope you had a good Star Wars Day. To my shame, I nearly remained oblivious.

  14. Quite tough, but got there in the end without help, though there were several I couldn’t parse. I did get and parse KERALA, though. LOI was DEEP FAT FRYER – held up by initially misreading ‘fight’ as ‘flight’ in 7dn and putting in BLACK BOX (flight recorder) – no wonder I couldn’t parse it!

    What made 1/9 difficult was that the answer is normally written as COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE – but of course apostrophes are not indicated in enumeration as they would make things too obvious.

    Thanks, Maize and John

  15. Very good I thought.

    With new(ish) setters who hit the ground running you always wonder whether it’s beginners luck or an extra special kick-off effort – and whether they can keep it up in the long run. Maize seems to be doing exactly that (ie the latter).

    No complaints from me. Too many good clues to note – I would have run out of ink ticking them.

    Many thanks S&B.

    Now I have to work out: four ? 4. Wait – I think I’ve got it.

  17. I just got around to this one – brilliant Maize! every clue a delight. Beautifully smooth with a wonderful variety of clueing. I started ticking (18a, 23a, 24a, 11d, 17d, 19d, 22d,…) but gave up, basically it’s full of excellent clues.

    By ignorance I missed 1a, 5a, and 10a, but to my shame I also missed 6d – well done, and thanks John for sorting it all out for me.

    Top stuff

  18. Had to do this a day and a half late – absolutely brilliant crossword, surprised by John’s comparatively faint praise.

    Clues all commented on. Not so typos in 25A which should be (bo{y} violin)*, anagrind wobbly and 23A which which is ni({peac})ece.

    Thanks Maize.

  19. I’m never quite sure whether or not it’s the done thing for setters to comment on their own puzzles, but I did want to pop in to say thank you to John and for all the gratifying words above.
    gwep @18, John’s parsing of 25a was as I had intended, with ‘dancing’ as the anagram indicator. It’s interesting to see another take on it though!

    If anyone ever gets an opportunity to watch (or even better to do) Commedia Dell’Arte, it’s highly recommended.

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