Independent on Sunday 1,554 by Silvanus

The puzzle can be found here.

 

Hi everyone. 

Thanks to Silvanus for today’s entertainment, and apologies for this blog being a little later than usual.  I slept in after a very long and very enjoyable day of socialising yesterday at The George yesterday, while far better solvers than me were competing in the Times Crossword Championship.

 

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

 

Across

1a    Half-cut state on wine that adds flavour when cooking (8)
ROSEMARY
MARYland (state) with half removed (half-cut …) after (on) ROSÉ (wine)

5a    Seller of very little scrap gold (6)
VENDOR
V (very), abbreviated (little), END (scrap), and OR (gold).  (Alternatively, I think little scrap could clue END)

9a    Read an MP’s novel, it’s set in Bosnia & Herzegovina, for instance (9)
AMPERSAND
READ AN MP’S, anagrammed (novel), giving us a symbol of which there is an example in the clue

11a   Crime clerics uncovered (5)
ARSON
pARSONs (clerics) without outer letters (uncovered)

12a   Character inclined to be kept within hospital ICU (6)
ITALIC
The answer is contained in (to be kept within) hospITAL ICu

13a   Foreign father receiving taunt against European parentage (8)
PEDIGREE
PÈRE (Foreign father) containing (receiving) DIG (taunt); this all goes next to (against) E (European)

14a   Grand estate is designed for West Sussex town (4,9)
EAST GRINSTEAD
GRAND ESTATE IS, anagrammed (designed)

18a   Duty of conservationist at heart (5-5,3)
VALUE-ADDED TAX
The required duty is found in the centre of (… at heart) conserVATionist.  We then need to expand the abbreviation ourselves

22a   Chanteuse originally modelling a daring article of clothing (8)
CARDIGAN
The first letter of (… originally) Chanteuse, then an anagram of (modelling) A DARING

23a   Broken coffee beans, say, occasionally man is extremely reluctant to send back (6)
TRIAGE
EG (say), regular letters of (occasionally) mAn Is, and outer letters of (extremely) ReluctanT, all of which is to be reversed (to send back).  I was very surprised on assembling from wordplay and checkers a word that I had no idea could mean broken coffee beans!

26a   Distance raced needs good energy (5)
RANGE
RAN (raced) goes next to (needs) G (good) + E (energy)

27a   “Idiot,” Iranian once declared to be slander (9)
ASPERSION
ASS (idiot) + PERSIAN (Iranian once), sound-alike (declared)

28a   Quits job, taking away tips nevertheless (4,2)
EVEN SO
EVENS (quits), then jOb without the outer letters (taking away tips)

29a   Credit setter’s given in Alabama is deplorable (8)
CRIMINAL
A charade of CR (credit), I’M (setter’s, setter is), IN (from the clue), and AL (Alabama)

 

Down

1d    Leader is poorly understood (8)
REALISED
LEADER IS, anagrammed (poorly)

2d    Faces of Spanish expats possess intensely attractive colour (5)
SEPIA
The first letters of (faces of) Spanish Expats Possess Intensely Attractive

3d    Strike over individual ruling? Something schoolteachers must do (7)
MARKING
RAM (strike), reversed (over), followed by KING (individual ruling?)

4d    Contracts essentially null and void for motorway, perhaps (4)
ROAD
The middle letter of (… centrally) contRacts, O (null, 0), and AnD without the central letter (void).  I didn’t manage to parse this until writing the blog, when it all suddenly became clear

6d    Second person carrying rejected travel permit becomes shifty (7)
EVASIVE
EVE (second person, the second person named in the Bible) containing (carrying) the reversal of (… rejected) VISA (travel permit)

7d    Reputational damage in party, mostly concerning Democrat appeal (9)
DISCREDIT
The answer is found by joining together all but the last letter of (… mostly) DISCo (party), RE (concerning), D (Democrat), and IT (appeal, sex appeal)

8d    Note round variety of apple (6)
RENNET
TENNER (note) reversed (round).  My last in, and only a guess at the time to boot.  Not only did I not know the apple, I also failed to spot the note, seeing only RE, but not having much hope of understanding the remaining NNET … a more appropriate note might be DOH!

10d   Got up without notice to speak directly to journalist (7)
DRESSED
Without AD (notice), [ad]DRESS (speak directly to), then ED (journalist)

15d   Sort of pay hard for African politicians to accept? On the contrary (9)
SEVERANCE
SEVERE (hard) containing (for … to accept? On the contrary) ANC (African politicians)

16d   Arranging flowers in Tokyo store to welcome group shortly (7)
IKEBANA
IKEA (store) containing (to welcome) BANd (group) without the last letter (shortly)

17d   Enduring restricted times for lying outside (8)
EXTERNAL
ETERNAL (enduring) containing (restricted) X (times)

19d   Hangs around spreading rotten lies putting cardinal down (7)
LOITERS
An anagram of (spreading) ROT[ten] LIES without (putting … down) TEN (cardinal)

20d   This one overheard rumour Extra Time isn’t available? (7)
EARDRUM
[overh]EARD RUM[our], in which the combination of OVER (extra) and HOUR (time) is not included (isn’t available)

21d   Build up a company, reportedly (6)
ACCRUE
A + CREW, homophone (reportedly)

24d   Agree flying regularly stops American being discontented (5)
ALIGN
Alternate letters of (… regularly) fLyInG goes inside (stops) AmericaN with its contents removed (being discontented)

25d   Box southpaw, finally switching to right (4)
SPAR
S (south)+PA[w] with the last letter changed to (finally switching to) R (right)