Independent 10,322 / Radian

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Radian has compiled today’s puzzle for our stimulation and entertainment.

It is Tuesday today, but I haven’t spotted a theme of any description and there appears to be no Nina, but I could be missing something blindingly obvious to other solvers. For me, this was pitched at the right-level for a mid-week puzzle, in that there was enough to get one’s teeth into, but without it proving too time-consuming.

I think that, for the first time in weeks, I have parsed everything to my satisfaction. 26 took me a long time to parse, as I wasn’t sure where the definition lay, and I was wrong-footed by 8, where I expected the “game to do with passing” to refer to rugby. Furthermore, the entries at 18 and 23 were essentially (still) new to me, although I had stumbled across the latter in a previous puzzle and promptly forgotten it again.

My favourite clues today were 1, for smoothness of surface; 12, for making me smirk; and 27, for the misdirection around “coop”, which I wrongly read as “co-op”.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 BEWITCH Partner skirts college entrance

C (=college) in [BE WITH (=partner, accompany)]; to entrance, as a verb, is to charm, enthral
     
05 ISOBARS Iceland stops installing zero pressure indicators

O (=zero) in [IS (=Iceland, in IVR) in BARS (=stops, blocks)]
     
10 THOU Second person getting some teeth out

Hidden (“some”) in “teeTH OUt”; thou is a largely obsolete second person pronoun in English grammar
     
11 OBITUARIES Old sign about black stuff men ignored, passing remarks

BITU<men> (=black stuff; “men ignored” means letters “men” are dropped) in [O (=old) + ARIES (=sign, of Zodiac)]; the “passing” of the definition refers to death
     
12 GLUTEI Instrument prodding trooper’s cheeks

LUTE (=instrument) in GI (=trooper, in US); the glutei are muscles in the hip and buttock
     
13 ADVANCED A theologian maintains vehicle Anglicans lent

[VAN (=vehicle) + CE (=Anglicans, i.e. Church of England)] in [A + DD (=theologian, i.e. Doctor of Divinity)]; monies advanced are lent/loaned to borrowers
     
14 SNOWDROPS Soprano instantly discards bloomers in winter

S (=soprano) + NOW (=instantly, as in “do it now!”) + DROPS (=discards, sheds)
     
16 USURP Appropriate American insurers withdraw

US (=American) + URP (PRU=insurers, i.e. the Prudential, colloquially; “withdraw” indicates reversal)
     
17 CABIN Cape mariner occupying his quarters

C (=cape, on map) + AB (=mariner, i.e. able-bodied seaman) + IN (=occupying)
     
19 NAVIGATOR Note flyer describing good helmsman

N (=note) + [G (=good) in AVIATOR (=flyer)]
     
23 SCHEMATA Outlines scene on border at start of act

SC (=scene) + HEM (=border, on garment) + AT + A<ct> (“start of” means first letter only); a schema is a diagrammatic outline or synopsis
     
24 EREBUS Darkness before navy’s boat return

ERE (=before) + BUS (SUB=navy’s boat; “return” is anagram indicator); Erebus is the lower world or hell, hence “darkness”
     
26 SEMICIRCLE House seductress clutching large ring? Not half!

SEMI (=house, i.e. semi-detached) + [L (=large) in CIRCE (=seductress, in Greek mythology)]; a semi-circle is only half a ring, of course!
     
27 CREW What coop boss did // for ship’s company

Double definition: CREW is made the sound of a cock (=(hen) coop boss), as in The cock crowed AND a ship’s company!
     
28 REVENGE Tit for tat, say, not once backfired

E.G. (=say, for example) + NEVER (=not one); “backfired” indicates reversal
     
29 AGILITY Nimbleness and expertise good for bachelor

ABILITY (=expertise); “good (=G) for bachelor (=B)” means letter “b” is replaced by “g”
     
Down    
     
02 ECHELON English clubs look into female division

E (=English) + C (=clubs, in cards) + [LO (=look!) in HEN (=female)]
     
03 INUIT Nice night to pursue one husky driver

I (=one) + NUIT (=Nice night, i.e. the French word for night)
     
04 CROZIER Former announcer hosted Australian clerical staff

OZ (=Australian) in CRIER (=former announcer, i.e. town crier); a crozier is a bishop’s crook, hence “clerical staff”
     
06 SCURVY Sailor’s complaint, sick at first with waves

S<ick> (“at first” means first letter only) + CURVY (=with waves)
     
07 BERING SEA What separates the US and Russia leads to each saving energy

E (=energy) in [BRINGS (=leads to) + EA (=each)]
     
08 ROE DEER Game to do with passing round dictionary before finishing early

[OED (=dictionary, i.e. Oxford English Dictionary) in RE (=to do with, regarding)] + ER<e> (=before, poetically; “finishing early” means last letter is dropped
     
09 DISAPPEARANCE Police turn up expert to handle new loss

DIs (=police, i.e. Detective Inspectors) + APPEAR (=turn up, show up) + [N (=new) in ACE (=expert)]; the loss of e.g. species could be described as a disappearance
     
15 WHITE LINE Traffic controller with knotted rope traps European

E (=European) in [*(WHIT) + LINE (=rope)]; a white line is a road marking, hence “traffic controller”
     
18 ACCRETE Come together on entering empty crypt in a church

[RE (=on, regarding) in C<ryp>T (“empty” means all but first and last letters are dropped)] in [A + CE (=church, i.e. Church of England)]; to accrete is to grow together, become attached
     
20 ICEBERG One diver comes up holding cold chunk of glacier

C (=cold, on tap) in [I (=one) + EBERG (GREBE=diver, i.e. a diving bird; “coming up” indicates vertical reversal)]
     
21 OPULENT Loaded old boat containing large case

O (=old) + [L<arg>E (“case” means first and last letters only) in PUNT (=old boat)]
     
22 PALING Every year fish are getting lighter …

PA (=every year, i.e. per annum) + LING (=fish)
     
25 EXCEL … top catch? About 90

XC (=90, in Roman numerals) in EEL (=catch, i.e. fish caught); to excel is to surpass, top e.g. another’s performance
     
     

 

8 comments on “Independent 10,322 / Radian”

  2. Thanks, RatkojaRiku.

    This was an interesting challenge, with several cleverly concealed definitions and witty surfaces. There are too many good clues to list favourites.

    It’s Tuesday, it’s Radian and there’s a theme to be found. I was led right up the garden path today. ‘… speaks thunder and the chains of EREBUS to some of Saturn’s CREW’ [from our A Level book, Milton’s ‘Comus’, lines learned especially as an example of zeugma] leapt out at me immediately and then there was CIRCE in 26ac – but after that the trail went cold. I would never have got this theme, so many thanks to NeilW.

    RR, your remark re 27ac absolutely forces me [yet again] to give the link to this sketch [about three minutes in].

    Many thanks to Crucible [yet again] for a most enjoyable puzzle.

  6. I thoroughly enjoyed this despite having no idea about the theme. There were several points at which I thought that I was stuck and would need some aid to continue but managed to complete. Very satisfying. Thanks to Radian, RatkojaRiku and Neil.

  7. Almost completed – we were in the wrong part of the Arctic for 7dn and had ‘Barent Sea’ (should be ‘Barents’, anyway) which, of course, we couldn’t parse.  We guessed there had to be a theme but couldn’t see it although we thought at first it might be something to do with crews – ‘cabin crew’ and ‘scurvy crew’ came to mind but then the idea fizzled out.

    Some lovely clues, though.  We liked SNOWDROPS, SEMICIRCLE and CROZIER.

    Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku

  8. I really struggled with this to begin with and almost gave up with less than half completed, so I confess to then consulting a word list to get 9D and hey presto! everything else then fell into place.  The theme was totally lost on me, despite having watched a TV programme about the expedition recently.  Thanks anyway to Radian and RatkojaRiku.

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