Independent 9,826 by Silvanus

by

An enjoyable crossword from Silvanus today. If I was being really picky I’d say that rather a lot of the clues require you to leave out bits of, or the majority of, words. But really this doesn’t matter. I can just about understand it all (except for 1ac) and so far as I’m concerned that’s what matters.

Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.

For some reason it never occurred to me to look for a Nina. No. Although that doesn’t mean “No, there isn’t one”.

Across
1 APPALACHIANS State names mountain range (12)
This looks like Appalachia n’s, but so far as I can see Appalachia isn’t in any sense a state; it certainly isn’t one of the US States, and it seems to be a general area. And it isn’t apparently possible to break the word down into sensible pieces. [Ignore all that rubbish.  Perfectly simple: “appellations”, the homophone indicated by ‘state’]
10 QUINTET Group of horses unprotected prior to theft oddly (7)
{e}quin{e} t{h}e{f}t
11 TYPHOON Storm in hospital over cutting form of diabetes without drugs (7)
Typ{e} (h o) on(e)
12 AXIAL Forming a line, team advanced to block Arsenal’s wingers (5)
(XI a) in A{rsena}l
13 ALTER EGO Close friend‘s misshapen large toe (5,3)
(large toe)*
15 HIGH PRIEST Head of cult on a trip snoops on travellers initially (4,6)
high [= on a trip] pries t{ravellers} — Silvanus uses the convention that seems sensible to me, of allowing A on B to be AB in an across clue, not BA as The Times evidently insists
16 JEST Joke May has lost grandeur? On the contrary (4)
The contrary would be grandeur losing May, i.e. {ma}jest{y}
18 ARCH Principal piece of music that needs no introduction (4)
{m}arch
20 FIREBRANDS Sack Russell and Jo possibly – they provoke unrest (10)
fire Brands — Russell Brand and Jo Brand are two examples of Brands
22 KING-SIZE Greater than average standard, like Elvis’s “Blue Suede Shoes”? (4-4)
This I think refers to the fact that Elvis was ‘The King’, but I’m a bit bewildered by the word ‘standard’, which doesn’t seem to need to be there: surely it means much the same as ‘average’? [As Andrew@4 points out, it’s there for the surface and referring to Elvis’s songs as standards]
24 CONGA Dance about, keeping close to girlfriend at first (5)
c(on g{irlfriend})a
26 THICKEN Set temperature for cold meat starter (7)
chicken with its c [= cold] replaced by t [= temperature]
27 EVANGEL Reflect on part of church gospel (7)
(leg nave)rev. — cricket reference: on = leg
28 MISTREATMENT Workforce captured by artist met extraordinary abuse (12)
men in (artist met)*
Down
2 PAIRING One involved in peeling away Parliamentary convention (7)
pa(1)ring — referring to the convention of pairing when a vote is taken in Parliament
3 ANTELOPE Springbok perhaps demanded latest centres run with long strides (8)
{dem}an{ded} {la}te{st} lope
4 ALTO Singer‘s excerpt from national tour (4)
Hidden in nationAL TOur
5 HOT FLUSHES Hugh’s felt so terrible, missing golf and getting menopausal symptoms (3,7)
(Hugh’s felt so – g)*
6 AMPLE Extensive experience going topless (5)
{s}ample
7 SLOVENE Poles acquiring fondness and enthusiasm primarily for foreign language (7)
S(love)N e{nthusiasm}
8 SQUASH RACKETS Crowd noises contributing to sport (6,7)
squash [= crowd] rackets [= noises]
9 INCONTESTABLE Fit after popular competition? It’s undeniable (13)
(in contest) able
14 LIPIZZANER Horse evident in fast food aboard ship (10)
li(pizza)ner
17 PROCLAIM Announce Scottish singers, ignoring signs of hesitation (8)
Proclaim{ers}— this duo
19 CONFIRM Establish company in the wake of deception (7)
con [= deception] firm [= company]
21 NONAGON Canon agonises somewhat to reveal figure (7)
Hidden in CaNON AGONises
23 SIKHS Pronouncement of courts for followers of religion (5)
“seeks”
25 BETA Second grade airline defends regularly vacant seats (4)
B({s}e{a}t{s})A

*anagram

17 comments on “Independent 9,826 by Silvanus”

  1. Thanks Silvanus and John

    In 1A I have the wordplay as state = say, names = appellations, punningly sounding like Appalachians = mountain range.

  2. Many thanks to John for his decryptions.

    1A is actually a homophone (“state”) of APPELLATIONS (“names”).

    Silvanus

     

     

  3. Yes as usual there is a perfectly simple explanation of a clue that I couldn’t see, in this case 1ac. And very nice too.  Thanks and apologies.  Blog amended in a moment.

  4. In 22a “standard” is there for the surface reading, referring to the song: “a song or piece of music that has remained popular over the years, as in “jazz standard”.

  5. Well yes Andrew@4 this did occur to me, but what then is the definition? I suppose it’s just the first three words.  Blog amended.

  6. Back again just to clarify the intention behind 23a.

    “Standard” is meant as a noun (i.e. model, etc.), so the definition was indeed meant to be the first four words and John’s original interpretation was correct, except “average” and “standard” weren’t tautologous.

    Andrew is spot on in assuming that “standard” was also meant to lead the solver to think of it in the musical context he defined.

    Silvanus

  7. Thanks Silvanus for this entertaining crossword.

    I slowed down in the bottom half.

    wasn’t sure why chicken was a meat starter, but perhaps that is a reference to the first of the two C’s.

    I keep forgetting the sport is also called Squash rackets!

    I was hoping Carl Perkins would get credit for Blue Suede Shoes, but that wouldn’t work would it, and of course Elvis did bring further fame to the song.

    I liked JEST EVANGEL FIREBRANDS

    Thanks very much John for the blog

  8. Glad I’m not the only one who has trouble with ‘state’ sometimes though I (eventually) worked out this one. Thanks to Silvanus for popping in and to Andrew for clarifying KING-SIZE which I couldn’t parse satisfactorily.

    EVANGEL looked lonely without the ‘ist’ and LIPIZZANER was an original ‘horse’. Interesting to see PAIRING. The convention was broken in the local legislature here only a week or so ago, causing great consternation.

    Thanks again to Silvanus and to John.

  9. How nice to get two of our lesser-spotted Indy setters in one week – Vigo AND Silvanus.   Thank you, Eimi.

    Once I’d got the ‘names’ stuck in my mind, it took for ever to remember the correct spelling for the 1a mountain range – only sorted when I couldn’t come up with a Springbok starting with an ‘E’.

    Top of the shop here were PAIRING and FIREBRANDS with a mention for PROCLAIM if only because I will now be merrily humming along to ‘500 miles’ all afternoon.

    Many thanks to Silvanus (hope we don’t have to wait as long for the next one!) and to John for the blog.

     

  10. Great puzzle which had me hopping all over the grid to get a start. I suspected the APPALACHIANS straight away but didn’t put it in due to not being sure how to spell it. Once HOT FLUSHES succumbed I saw it clearly. I didn’t see the parsing for JEST, so thanks for that. The vaguely heard of horse was one of my last entries after MISTREATMENT disabused me of the ship being SS. My final entry was then PROCLAIM with the huge clang of a penny dropping behind me! Thanks Silvanus and John.

  11. I always like Silvanus puzzles, but had a few difficulties with this one.  The horse was unfamiliar to me, as was the parliamentary convention, and I didn’t understand 1a either.  Other than that, all good!

    Thanks Silvanus and John.

    (I’m not left with the same earworm as Jane, but do have one which she has given me over on another blog …)

  12. The Lipizzaners I knew from a novel set in Hamburg – where I used to go a lot for work (DESY). I think it was “a most wanted man” by John le carre

  14. I found this very much on the tough side, resorting to using the check facility to confirm my guesses.  Thanks for all the explanations.  I just couldn’t see why for 1ac and 16ac.

  15. Thanks to everyone for their comments, they are always much appreciated.

    Thanks again to John for the explanations.

     

  16. Silvanus puzzles are something I always like, I tried to practice a lot but but had  difficulties with this one.  1a even bring a lot of trouble to me. But still thanks a lot for giving some work to my mind. Cheers

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