Independent on Sunday 1,506 by Peter

by

The puzzle can be found here.

Hi everyone.  I hope your year has got off to a good start.  Peter seems to be in a party mood this January, bringing us sexy fun, a large bottle of wine, a turned-on bird and an oversexed fellow … and that’s before we’ve even left the acrosses.  While early in the downs a cold boy gets dressed, there’s still time to see a heavenly body and … well, I found plenty more to amuse me, but maybe I’ll stop there.

I’ve only quoted from the clues, by the way, not the answers, so if for some reason you’ve landed here without having done the puzzle there’s still time for that too.  Just don’t look down.  (You looked down then, didn’t you?)  It’s a puzzle which I found gentle but enjoyable, perfect for an Indy Sunday morning after the Saturday before.  Thanks Peter!

In the clues below, definitions are underlined.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.

 

Across

1a   Religious leader muffles anguished cries of overseer (9)
PERISCOPE
POPE (religious leader) contains (muffles) an anagram of (anguished) CRIES

6a   Gemstone and silver put away (5)
AGATE
AG (chemical symbol of silver) + ATE (put away, informal term for ate or drank)

10a   Setter finally meeting old politician for sexy fun (4)
ROMP
The last letter of (… finally) setteR plus O (old) and MP (politician).  I didn’t think I’d be underlining “sexy fun” today …

11a   Encountered silence about beer rejected for large bottle of wine (10)
METHUSELAH
MET (encountered) then HUSH (silence) around (about) ALE (beer) reversed (rejected)

12a   Price paid by Trotsky’s first supporters? (4)
FEET
FEE (price paid) next to (by) the initial letter of Trotsky (Trotsky’s first)

13a   Turned-on bird badly disrupted date (10)
TITILLATED
TIT (bird), ILL (badly), and an anagram of (disrupted) DATE

16a   Commune dismissing Tory’s literary offering (5)
VERSE
[con]VERSE (commune) minus (dismissing) CON (Conservative, Tory)

18a   Communist leader adopting finest revised set of political proposals (9)
MANIFESTO
MAO (communist leader) containing (adopting) an anagram of (… revised) FINEST

20a   Concern about texture of ornamental tablet (9)
CARTOUCHE
CARE (concern) around (about) TOUCH (texture)

22a   South American worker leaving despot for oversexed fellow (5)
SATYR
S (south) and A (American), then ANT (worker insect) removed from (leaving) TYR[ant] (despot)

24a   Used part of watch (6,4)
SECOND HAND
A double definition

26a   Cold boy gets dressed (4)
CLAD
C (cold) + LAD (boy)

28a   Upset as noose traps swan when hunting rules are relaxed (4,6)
OPEN SEASON
An anagram of (upset) AS NOOSE contains (traps) PEN (female swan)

31a See 29d

32a   Expensive pickle (5)
STEEP
A double definition

33a   Spoil hybrid seed container (9)
DESECRATE
An anagram of (hybrid) SEED followed by CRATE (container)

 

Down

2d   Gradually destroy heartless expensive nursing staff (5)
ERODE
The outer letters of (… heartless) ExpensivE containing (nursing) ROD (staff)

3d   Motivation provided by setter’s favourite American (7)
IMPETUS
A charade of I’M (setter’s, the setter is), PET (favourite), and US (American)

4d   Arrive on time to see heavenly body (5)
COMET
COME (arrive) before (on) T (time)

5d See 8d

7d   Missile thrown by German soldiers destroyed Dane (7)
GRENADE
G (German) RE (soldiers) and an anagram of (destroyed) DANE

8d & 5d   Old penny turned up in channel for milk in drinks dispenser (6)
TEAPOT
The combination of O (old) and P (penny) is reversed (turned up) inside TEAT (channel for milk)

9d   Nick has almost clean cut of meat (7)
PURLOIN
Most of (almost) PURe (clean) plus LOIN (cut of meat)

14d   Sign outside hospital found by a body part (7)
TRACHEA
TRACE (sign) around (outside) H (hospital), then A from the clue

15d   Guard ignoring Southern door (5)
ENTRY
[s]ENTRY without (ignoring) S (Southern)

17d   Steer clear of notorious fruit picker eating apple dishes for starters (5)
EVADE
EVE (notorious fruit picker) around (eating) the first letters of (… for starters) Apple Dishes

19d   Mates pass away surrounded by flowers (7)
BUDDIES
DIE (pass away) inside (surrounded by) BUDS

21d   Slaughter big cat beneath walls of tower (7)
TROUNCE
OUNCE (big cat) following (beneath) the outer letters of (walls of) ToweR

23d   One pointing the finger with a chapter about addict (7)
ACCUSER
A charade of A (form the clue), C (chapter), C (circa, about), and USER (addict)

25d   Dull chap in dull church (5)
DUNCE
DUN (dull) + CE (Church of England)

27d See 30d

29d & 31a   Handy suggestion about small and very good place where car can be serviced (3,4)
PIT STOP
TIP (handy suggestion) reversed (about), then S (small) and TOP (very good)

30d & 27d   Look into bishop’s office before a match (3,5)
SEE ABOUT
SEE (the office of bishop of a particular diocese) before A BOUT (a match)

 

6 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,506 by Peter”

  1. I’m starting to warm to her style of cryptic. Most of it went in very quickly, but there were still a few left to give the old noggin a workout. PURLOIN took some work to tease out. This led to getting TITILLATED, then TRACHEA and then CARTOUCHE, a word I remembered but, in all honesty, couldn’t remember what it was. LOI was VERSE, which I could only get by going through the alphabet for the initial letter. It would be towards the end! Up to then, I hadn’t even thought of ‘commune’ as a verb. A play on words – who’d o’ thunk it? 🙂

    Thanks to Peter and another wonderful Kitty blog.

  2. Another joyous puzzle from this setter, further enhanced by an excellent blog from Kitty.

    I particularly liked ‘overseer’ for PERISCOPE, the only one I wasn’t too happy with was ‘place’ for PIT STOP.   Surely the place itself is a PIT and one stops there to have servicing carried out?

    Thanks to Peter for the fun and Kitty for the review.

  3. Yes, a pleasant Sunday diversion.  Too many lovely clues to name a favourite, and no niggles at all.

    Thanks, Peter and Kitty.

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