Independent 10,104 by Dalibor

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Another Dalibor this Saturday

We found this rather easier than Dalibor’s previous offerings, but none the worse for that.
We had to resort to electronic help for the mineral at 14d, and then we had some difficulty with the parsing (see below)  – but otherwise, all fair and above board and an enjoyable Saturday solve.

completed grid

Across

1 Ambassador, unfortunately born somewhere in the Middle East (6)
HEBRON
HE (his excellency – ambassador) + an anagram of BORN – anagrind is ‘unfortunately‘

4 Chemical weapon in the end located next to a tree (6)
NAPALM
N (last or ‘end’ letter of ‘weapon‘) ‘next to’ A PALM (tree)

9 List of prime numbers (4)
MENU
Hidden in ‘priME NUmbers’

10 Group of nations gave permission to describe Hungary as profane (10)
UNHALLOWED
UN (group of nations) ALLOWED (gave permission) round or ‘describing’ H (Hungary)

11 Song by Dutch rock band featured in Love Island (2-2-2)
DO-RE-MI
D (Dutch) + REM (rock band) in O (love) I (island)

12 Prisoners perhaps people with specific knowledge? (8)
INSIDERS
Double definition

13 Oddly, some seen around rocky peak after today’s bad weather (9)
SNOWSTORM
SoMe (odd letters only) round TOR (rocky peak) after NOW’S (‘today’s’)

15 For classicists, sea horse (4)
MARE
MARE is Latin for ’sea’

16 Jealousy when diplomat says goodbye to Ohio (4)
ENVY
ENVoY (diplomat) without ‘O’ (Ohio)

17 Within three years, Kate developed a knack – finally! – for stupid talk (6-3)
YAKETY-YAK
An anagram of KATE (anagrind is ‘developed’) in YYY (three years) + A K (‘final’ letter of ‘knack’)

21 Lake to be tricky for yacht (8)
KEELBOAT
An anagram of LAKE TO BE – anagrind is ‘tricky’

22 People opposing us having died as criminals (3,3)
THE MOB
THEM (people opposing us) OB (died)

24 Graduate at Cambridge college having trouble all round finding possible antacid (6,4)
BAKING SODA
BA (graduate) KINGS (Cambridge college) + ADO (trouble) reversed or ‘round’. We’re not sure about the inclusion of ‘all’ in the clue, as only ‘ado’ is reversed – it is only there for the surface.

25 Greedy king beheaded (4)
AVID
dAVID (king) without the first letter or ‘beheaded’

26 Tesla quits inner part of Amsterdam: misplaced ambitions (6)
DREAMS
An anagram of aMStERDAm without the first and last letters (‘inner part’) and without the ’t’ (Tesla) – anagrind is ‘misplaced’

27 Pain caused by former Wimbledon champion grabbing first of titles (6)
STITCH
STICH (Michael Stich – former Wimbledon champion) round or ‘grabbing’ T (first letter of ‘titles’)

Down

1 How to save energy? Party ‘n’ dance! (7)
HOEDOWN
HOW round or ‘saving’ E (energy) DO (party) + ‘N’

2 Bishop down under said to have sex with animal (5)
BRUTE
B (bishop) + a homophone (‘said’) of ROOT (Australian / New Zealand slang for ‘have sex with’)

3 Poor soul struggling with ICT, an old medic (7)
OCULIST
An anagram of SOUL and ICT – anagrind is ‘poor’

5 Ultimately, it may show you where China is: north of Thailand (2,4)
AT LAST
ATLAS (which ‘may show you where China is’) + T (Thailand)

6 American ‘King of Swing’ unknown to quite a few (1,4,4)
A GOOD MANY
A (American) + GOODMAN (Benny Goodman – ‘King of Swing’) Y (unknown)

7 Cameron’s wrong, missing a point – he’s noted for being controversial (7)
MCENROE
An anagram of CaMERON without or ‘missing’ ‘a’ (anagrind is ‘wrong’) + E (east – ‘point’). A reference to John McEnroe, the ‘controversial’ tennis champion and commentator

8 A-Ha in concert, surprisingly, including one Diana Ross song (5,8)
CHAIN REACTION
An anagram of A-HA IN CONCERT (anagrind is ‘surprisingly‘) round I (one)

14 Mineral water at first welcome, liquid low in calories (9)
WAVELLITE
We’re slightly baffled by this one – for a start we had to use a word-checker to confirm the entry as we’d never heard of this mineral. Then we tried to sort out the wordplay: it looks like W (first letter of ‘water’) AVE (welcome?) L (liquid?) LITE (low in calories) … but we can’t find L=liquid in any available references – the nearest we can get is in LPG, but this is ‘liquefied petroleum gas’. We’re also not 100% sure about AVE = ‘welcome’ either – Chambers has it as ‘hail’ or ‘be well and happy’- have we got the wrong end of the stick?

16 “Me? In real trouble?” (D. Green) (7)
EMERALD
ME in an anagram of REAL (anagrind is ‘trouble’) + D

18 Introduction of Cavani in added time should make you concentrate (7)
EXTRACT
C (first letter or ‘introduction’ of ‘Cavani) in EXTRA (added) T (time)

19 Get rid of Member of Congress, leaving shambolic mess (7)
ABOLISH
An anagram of SHAmBOLIc without ‘m’ & ‘c’ (Member of Congress) – anagrind is ‘mess’

20 Car to avoid on motorway (6)
DODGEM
DODGE (avoid) M (motorway)

23 Highly praise English tax reforms being blocked by Left (5)
EXALT
E (English) + an anagram of TAX (anagrind is ‘reforms’) round or ‘blocked by’ L (left)

15 comments on “Independent 10,104 by Dalibor”

  1. When I saw who the setter was my heart missed a beat, as in the past I’ve found Dalibor almost as hard as Nimrod; I’m still in therapy after last Saturday.

    Thankfully this was a bit gentler without too many hold-ups and only the ‘Mineral’ (which I parsed as you did, also unsure about L for ‘liquid’) unknown. Still, very enjoyable and I particularly liked the reminder of the tennis players in 27a and 7d and the ‘King of Swing’ in 6d.

    If you look at the across clues, you’ll see that the last letter of each clue is the same as the first letter of the next clue, including the last letter of the final across clue and the first letter of the first across clue, all tied together by 8d. V. clever.

    On a more serious note, the first part of the surface of 2d was perhaps unfortunate (I realise unintentionally with the puzzle having been set some time ago) after the events of the last few days.

    Thanks to Dalibor and B&J.

  3. Like Wordplodder, I also noted the ‘nina’ (if it counts as such).

    I also searched in vain for L = liquid.

    Didn’t know KEELBOAT but guessed it from the anagram fodder. Not sure it can refer to a yacht or not. From Chambers, it can refer to a barge.

    Over all found this entertaining but below average. Thanks to Dalibor and Bertandjoyce.

  7. Wow, I missed the CHAIN REACTION, very clever! That’s the reason for the WAVELLITE. I must say I don’t recall l=liquid in Chemistry but Gaufrid @2 is of course correct that it’s listed in the ODE.

    Entertaining Saturday solve; I liked the very simple MENU and also ticked AT LAST, MCENROE, EXTRACT and ABOLISH.

    Thanks Dalibor and BJ.

     

  8. A pleasant Saturday afternoon solve.  We weren’t sure of the spelling of YAKETY-YAK (Chambers gives a few variants) and didn’t know WAVELLITE but worked it out and confirmed it in Chambers.  One of us having been a chemist, the abbreviation ‘L’ wasn’t a problem.  Liked BAKING SODA (chemical name sodium hydrogen carbonate) for the use of Kings rather than the MIT often clued as ‘Cambridge college/university’.  MCENROE was clever, too.

    Thanks, Dalibor and B&J.

  9. Great puzzle with a twist which I missed completely so thanks for pointing that out @Dicho. Feels like Dalibor has been here forever (which, in a way, I suppose he has) and is already a name to look forward to. Must mug up on a few more tennis players.

    many thanks to S&B

  10. McEnroe & Stich were the 1992 Wimbledon doubles champions, defeating Grabb and Reneburg in the final 19-17 in the fifth set.  I’m still not convinced there aren’t other pairings hiding in there.  Anyway, didn’t spot the chain reaction, a nice trick.

    List of prime numbers, small but perfectly formed, made me smile, also do-re-mi and A-ha.

    Thanks Dalibor, Bert&Joyce

  11. Super stuff.  Having a co-solver for this helped the STITCH to parse painlessly, but did need to check the mineral actually existed.

    Completely missed the CHAIN REACTION – beautifully done.  Thanks to WordPlodder @1 for spelling it out.

    As for favourites, I could just pinch those of James @10.  Loved DO-RE-MI in particular.

    Many thanks Dalibor and Bertandjoyce.

  12. @me @9…sorry I meant to have thanked WordPlodder in my message well done to everyone who spotted D’s devilry

  13. Well done Dalibur, a most enjoyable puzzle with a nice twist. The Diana Ross song was my first one in but i didn’t attach any further significance until coming here. I missed 7d and hence 15a but i should have seen them. I liked NAPALM and i though DODGEM was cute. And thanks of course for the namecheck.

     

    Many thanks B&J

  15. Many thanks to all those who commented, much appreciated whether you found it ‘gentler than expected’, ‘below average’, ‘pleasant’ or whatever.

    There are a couple of things I would like to say. Robi @7 is right when he says WAVELLITE entered the grid because of the ‘gimmick’. I had not much choice, unfortunately. And to WordPlodder @1 I would like to say: yes, the clue at 2d was written a long time ago. But, actually, the bishop came in just recently after I had to tweak the clue. I was fully aware of the non-PC surface but I thought it would at least give me opportunity to earn myself a place in Hell …. (next to)

    One of the other clues that I re-wrote (before submission) was 16’s EMERALD. Probably my favourite of the set if I were a solver (unless you aren’t interested in UK politics).

    And, of course, many thanks to B&J for the blog.

     

     

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