Independent 9,893 by Anglio

by

This excellent offering from Anglio gave me much trouble, although there are not really any clues that now are incomprehensible. Which is not to say that my explanations will be the correct ones.

Definitions underlined, in maroon I hope. Anagram indicators in italics.

Is there some connection with that football event which is going on at the moment? Possibly not, but there are one or two football connections and there may be more.

Across
1 TROUSER PRESS Superstores essentially scrap plastic bags – it makes them smart (7,5)
(Superstores {sc}r{ap})* — bags as in Oxford bags — brilliant clue
9 ON THE GO Doing things differently, Ghent in goalless affair (2,3,2)
(Ghent)* in 0-0, a goalless draw
10 D-LISTER Character of Red Dwarf, a minor star? (1-6)
I didn’t know this, but Dave Lister is a character in the sitcom Red Dwarf
11 BASKETBALL Takes rum into bachelor party for game (10)
(takes)* in (B ball)
12 ULNA Bashful naturist covers up part of anatomy (4)
Hidden in BashfUL NAturist
14 EXCITE Move‘s going to restrict carbon emissions at first (6)
ex(C)it e{missions}— somehow an exit is a going, I suppose in the sense of an act of leaving
16 ENCROACH Nut caught fish in trench (8)
en c. roach — an en is a nut in printing (I remember being held up for a while by an Azed clue that used this, which I didn’t know, so for it to appear in a daily cryptic is indeed at the limit of difficulty?) — Collins and Chambers both give encroach = trench,  but I entered it from wordplay with a shrug
18 HOME PAGE Tribute bands record feature on website (4,4)
hom(EP)age, bands in the sense of going round
19 UNISON Marriage vows ultimately kept – we’re in it together (6)
uni({vow}s)on
21 OXEN One gets changed, grabbing wrong drawers (4)
(One)* round X [= wrong] — drawers as in drawers of ploughs
22 ETHIOPIANS The piano is entertaining for some people (10)
(The piano is)* — the anagram indicator is not given in my trusty Chambers Crossword Dictionary despite almost every other word in existence being there.  But it does suggest some sort of jiggling around I suppose.
25 EXCLAIM Request for alimony maybe makes one cry (7)
Fancifully, a request for alimony could be a claim from one’s ex
26 OCARINA Zero carbs? 60% in a sweet potato (7)
0 car{bs} in a — but I always thought that an ocarina was a musical instrument, so as with 16ac I did this simply from wordplay; now I see in Collins that an ocarina is shaped like a sweet potato — does this make it an adequate definition, or is there some colloquial meaning that hasn’t reached Collins?
27 SECRET POLICE Moment helicopter loses height, affected by unseen force (6,6)
sec (helicopter – h)* — ‘by’ is evidently a link-word, which doesn’t convince me
Down
1 TROUBLESHOOTER Repairman gets up one’s nose (14)
troubles hooter
2 OATHS Loyalty has frequently produced solemn promises (5)
{L}o{y}a{l}t{y} h{a}s
3 STEREOTYPE Cliché seen in What Hi-Fi? (10)
The magazine ‘What Hi-Fi’ might direct you to the type of stereo that you’re looking for
4 RHOMBS Hotel originally overestimates mistake in bank’s figures (6)
R(H o{verestimates} m{istake})BS — Royal Bank of Scotland
5 REDOLENT Fragrant flower comes up some days before Easter (8)
(Oder)rev. Lent — this flower is that crossword staple, a flow-er
6 SKIT Burlesque model holds back at the end (4)
s({bac}k)it
7 ITALIANS Europeans pick up a little bit of French food at lunchtime, maybe? (8)
(snail at 1)rev.
8 BREATHING SPACE Be inches apart, somehow maintaining good elbow room (9,5)
(Be inches apart)* round g
13 GRAND PIANO GP that’s highly-strung? (5,5)
CD, misdirecting us to the more common General Practitioner — although GP doesn’t seem to be an abbreviation for grand piano, this is all right because G = grand and P = piano
15 COMMERCE Millions invested in railroad business (8)
MM in coerce, a clue whose answer I got long before it was clear, having failed to realise that millions = MM not M
17 EGG TIMER Soldiers at the ready … wait for it! (3,5)
CD so far as I can see referring to the slivers of toast that are called soldiers, and to the fact that you wait for an egg timer to ring
20 PIG OUT Stuff I leave in place (3,3)
p(I go)ut
23 ALIBI Boxer, one possessing second-rate defence (5)
(Ali (B) 1)
24 KANE England man left out having tweaked ankle (4)
(ankle)* – l, referring to Harry Kane, who will become Sir Harry Kane when England win the World Cup

*anagram

6 comments on “Independent 9,893 by Anglio”

  1. Found this just as hard as today’s FT but much more enjoyable. My Collins says an ocarina is also called a sweet potato (US informal). Not keen on the anagram indicator in 22a but, apart from that, loved it. I saw nut for en in one of the GiFT crosswords not too long ago, so not a problem. I do like Red Dwarf, so Craig Charles’s character was well known to me.

    Thanks to Anglio and John.

  2. There’s a song in The Road to Singapore called The Sweet Potato Piper so knowing that helped.

    FWIW I still own an ocarina.

     

  3. A real challenge and much more difficult than I remember Anglio’s previous offering a few months ago as having been. Maybe not quite as hard for me as Io in the FT today, but getting there. Had to guess a few including ENCROACH (just remembered the EN for ‘nut’), OCARINA (thanks to Conrad Cork @2 for the reference to the song) and D-LISTER, though the wordplay was helpful for each, and plenty of others such as ‘GP’ needed more than a bit of thought.

    I liked ‘drawers’ in 21a, ‘a little bit of French food at lunchtime, maybe’ in 7d and best of all, the great def. for 1a.

    Thanks to Anglio and John

  4. Late comment to say surprised at how few comments so far, thought this an excellent puzzle, liked all the long anagrams, TROUSER PRESS brilliant, a number of other gems, including 1D, 5D and others, all with excellent wordplay so that the clues read sensibly and were not distorted in any way.

    Thanks to Alchemi and John.

  5. When I first looked at this yesterday morning I didn’t get very far.  Nearly decided not to bother, but ended up coming back to it in the evening, and am glad I did.  Thought it very nice indeed.

    Highlights for me were TROUSERPRESS, D-LISTER, UNISON, TROUBLESHOOTER, and ITALIANS.  Oh, and I’ll add PIG OUT, something I like to do.

    I only knew EN[croach] from a previous appearance in, I think, an Indy crossword.  I remember that it was a joint solve, and the clue flummoxed the whole table except one person who was able to enlighten the rest of us.

    Ocarina being called a sweet potato was new to me, but had to be.

    Many thanks to Anglio and John.

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