Independent 9,648 by Serpent

by

Due to a veritable comedy of errors Bert and Joyce are not able to blog the puzzle today so I’m standing in.

Gosh I’ve not done the Thursday blog for ages and this was not easy by any means, but this was a joy with some absolute belters of clues and some right old head scratchers with one or two maybe pushing it a bit but it is the Thursday “toughie”.

Now the nerdy-Nina bit. If you look at the grid there’s 4 big H shapes of black squares and all the down answers contain the letter H.

 

Thanks Serpent.

completed grid

Across

1 Unreasonably scared by fairy in photo (6)
PHOBIC
HOB (a mischievous fairy and Indy settter) inside PIC for photo

5 Impropriety only happens when wearing condom on vacation (8)
SOLECISM
SOLE for ONLY & IS inside a vacated C(ondo)M. I rather suspect that the surface reading is utterly and fundamentally wrong in many, many ways.

9 Hair a man permed for prince’s wife (8)
MAHARANI
A permed [HAIR A MAN]* Perm as an anagram indicator, hmm maybe, PERM is short for permutation I suspect here.

10 Almost close this location to impose some order (6)
NEATEN
Most of (almost) NEA(r) for close & TEN – this is clue ten …

11 Must I request ripe bananas? (12)
PREREQUISITE
[I REQUEST RIPE]* bananas

13 Circumstances covering investigation (4)
CASE
Initially I was misled thinking that covering indicated a hidden word, but it’s a triple definition clue.

14 Gathered together and broadcast seeds (8)
MUSTERED
Broadcast as a homophone indicator for MUSTARD for seeds. Well mustard can come as seeds but so do lots of other things, bit of a grump here from me.

17 Called in a panic for cider recipe? (5,3)
CRIED OUT
In crosswordese a recipe for CIDER could well be CRIED OUT

18 Dictator’s saying something tender (4)
SORE
Dictator indicates a homophone so it sounds like SAW – a saying

20 Encrypt cipher manual using letters and digits (12)
ALPHANUMERIC
[CIPHER MANUAL]* encrypted. A serious round of applause for this, this is a very clever clue.

23 Setter leaving explosive material in Kindle (6)
IGNITE
GEL sets so it’s GEL removed from (gel)IGNITE

24 One rivalling Greek character spelt out for the audience afterwards (8)
EMULATOR
The Greek character MU spelt out would sound like EM & U & for the audience a homophone of LATER – afterwards

25 Laws ultimately restrict anyone standing around (8)
STATUTES
The ultimate in (restric)T inside STATUES [Edit see Simon S @ 11 who spotted this week’s deliberate mistake 🙂 ]

26 Tough guys losing money and temper (6)
HARDEN
M for money removed from HARD (m)EN

Down

2 Chief messenger doesn’t take either side (4)
HEAD
You have to take R(ight) and L(eft) – either side from HE(R)A(L)D

3 Curse sheep getting mixed up with lamb (9)
BLASPHEME
A mixed up [SHEEP LAMB]*

4 Guy almost rented holiday home (6)
CHALET
Most of CHA(p) – guy & LET for rented

5 Sailor’s outburst traumatised miss by the River Medway’s mouth (6,2,7)
SHIVER MY TIMBERS
A traumatised  [MISS BY THE RIVER M(edway)]* Was lead down many a garden path before spotting this one.

6 Lover’s beginning to cause pain and get depressed (8)
LANGUISH
Beginning of L(over) & ANGUISH

7 Bottomless pit conceals origin of our universe’s initial state (5)
CHAOS
The origin of O(ur) inside a bottomless CHAS(m) – pit

8 Try a little tea after dessert, dear (10)
SWEETHEART
SWEET – dessert & HEAR – try & a little bit of T(ea)

12 What could alleviate the gloom caused by Spooner’s vulgar dispute? (5,5)
FAIRY LIGHT
A spoonerism of Lairy Fight

15 Lazy reader’s aim presumably is somewhere to sit (4,5)
EASY CHAIR
Cryptic cum double defintion, you’ve also got the CHAIR is where the professor is and the reader is a more junior academic who presumably aims for the chair…

16 More aroused than any others failing to win back home (8)
HORNIEST
IN (home) reversed (back) inside a failing OTHERS*

19 Busker’s last to occupy sofa in squat (6)
CROUCH
Last letter of (buske)R inside COUCH for sofa

21 Jack‘s first person to be recruited by army (5)
HOIST
I – the “first person” inside HOST for army

22 Better start for Hartlepool United (4)
HONE
Start of H(artlepool) & ONE for united

17 comments on “Independent 9,648 by Serpent”

  1. What he said. Excellent puzzle, and a Lesser Spotted Nina too (or at least I’d never have spotted it, well done, Flashy.
    Coupla things… JACK I’ve heard is the word with the most definitions in English and ‘temper’ can mean both ‘harden’ and ‘soften’. Bet Serpent knows these things.
    Thanks to both.

  2. Together with last Tuesday’s Arachne (at the ‘other’ place) my clear favourite of the week.
    What these two setters have in common are a lack of iffiness (read: precision), care for the surface readings and a good variety of (at times, original) devices.
    Arachne’s crosswords may perhaps be more playful (whatever that is) but Serpent’s gradually closing the gap.

    It’s Serpent, so there had to be a Nina.
    Wasted on me, though.

    My first one in was the lovely 11ac (PREREQUISITE).
    Simple and elegant.
    And my last one, the last one of the acrosses.
    In between a lot to enjoy!

    While I had to think about the anagram indicator in 9ac (‘permed’), the solution went in straightaway.
    MAHARANI is the name of an Indian takeaway restaurant I every day pass on my way to the city centre.

    Thanks Flashling for stepping in (or up).
    And thanks to the setter, of course.

  3. Super puzzle as usual from Serpent. Super blog too from flashling.After the last Serpent with all the across clues containing F (the effing Serpent puzzle)
    I once again missed all the H’s. Not to mention the black nina, Simone?

  4. Superb puzzle. Same grid as the Nutmeg puzzle in the G by the way.
    I knew there’d be a Nina or some such but missed it, annoyingly, so thanks @flashling

  5. I spotted the black H’s before even starting this, so was expecting the Nina from the outset. What a great anagram at 20a. Failed to get CASE and didn’t parse EASY CHAIR. Lots to love here from one of the better setters. Thanks to Serpent and flashling.

  6. Got EMULATOR and HORNIEST from definitions but couldn’t parse them properly, otherwise all fairly straightforward although some headscratching required, particularly with 12, 13 and 17 as we initially had (a very tentative and unconvincing) ‘flood light’ from ‘lewd fight’ for 12 until the penny dropped for 13. 5dn was one of those clues where it’s best (we think so anyway) not to bother trying to find and unscramble the anagram fodder but just wait till crossing letters suggest the answer – saves going up too many garden paths.

    Liked 22, the homophones in 14 and 24, and the surface of 5ac.

    The nina passed us by, again!

    Thanks, Serpent and flashling

  7. Enjoyable stuff and nicely pitched to give some ins to the solver. Of course, the ins weren’t enough for me too complete as is my wont – but I did pretty well until being done by the NE. Honours today go to 5a, which raised a smile and was very cunningly put together so thanks to The Snake for the puzzle and to The Flash for the nice blog.

  8. Very good puzzle. I echo what Sil said about precision of clueing and impeccable surfaces.

    Thanks to Serpent and flash.

  10. Missed the Nina but satisfied to have solved this after running out of inspiration a couple of times before eventually being able to get going again. Couldn’t see what the TEN was doing in NEATEN (yes, too obvious) and EASY CHAIR was too clever but not so obvious. Agree with others about the surface for SOLECISM and I also liked the HONE and HARDEN crossers.

    Thanks to Serpent and the visuo-spatially aware flashing

  11. Thanks Serpent and flashling.

    Very enjoyable puzzle, I thought. I did have a slightly different parse for 25, though:

    Def = LAWS, wordplay = “ultimately restricT anyonE’ with STATUS (“standing”) “around’ them.

    Any takers?

  14. Well, much to my surprise, I not only completed this, but I got everything right. Something like the last half dozen answers I entered I wasn’t sure of.

    I remember a discussion the last time the answer at 5dn appeared. It’s only the most genteel of sailors who say that and not “shiver me timbers”.

    I agree that 20ac is a brilliant clue.

  15. Well must confess I was tipped off about the Nina by an unnamed setter, who knows he is who told me serpent always does this sort of thing. Mind you I was told that about monk who subsequently didn’t…

  16. Thanks flashling for helping out – as it turned out our wifi reception has been somewhat iffy this week so it was fortunate that you were available given the earlier comedy of errors!

    We would also have missed the nina and we struggled with 13ac and 12d.

    As others have already said an enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks Serpent!

  17. Many thanks to flashling for the wonderful blog, particularly in view of “the comedy of errors”. And thanks to everyone that has commented. I’m delighted everyone seems to have enjoyed the puzzle.

    Jason

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