Independent 10,458 by Raich

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I don’t think I’ve blogged a Raich puzzle before. Pleased to meet you.

A good level of difficulty for a Monday, though the days of the week are currently somewhat blurred into one while regular routines are suspended. Some fairly easy clues to get started, ranging through to a few more tricky ones. I particularly liked the slightly misdirected definitions in 22a, 27a (even if it’s an idea I’ve seen before) and 2d. Thanks Raich.

Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
6 NORWICH On returning, well off, embracing wife in city (7)
ON reversed (returning), then RICH (well off) embracing W (wife).
7 AIRFLOW Wind, fair, beginning to end, near ground (7)
FAIR, with the beginning letter moved to the end to give AIRF, then LOW (near ground).
10 RETICENCE Reserve surprisingly nice tree, cheap initially (9)
Anagram (surprisingly) of NICE TREE + initial letter of C[heap].
Reserve = reticence = shyness.
11 ADELE Some serenade leading singer (5)
Hidden answer (some . . .) in [seren]ADE LE[ading].
The singer is Adele.
12 ERRONEOUSLY At work use one lorry in wrong way (11)
Anagram (at work) of USE ONE LORRY.
14 ALI Son leaving girl to become fighter (3)
ALISON (girl’s name), with SON leaving it.
Muhammad Ali – “The Greatest” boxer, well liked by crossword compilers for his conveniently short name.
15 YAK Chatter ox (3)
Double definition: the first is slang for talk (as a verb) in a persistent or annoying way, and the second is a big hairy animal.
17 ASP Potential killer when provoked at first (3)
AS (when = at the same time that) + first letter of P[rovoked].
Venomous snake that may or may not have killed Cleopatra.
18 OFF Away from France (3)
OF (from) + F (abbreviation for France).
20 EGO Morale for example comes to nothing (3)
EG (e.g. = for example) + O (zero = nothing).
The definition is slightly loose, but roughly morale = ego = self-confidence. Harsh criticism may injure one’s morale or one’s ego.
21 LEI Garland’s free time? Not sure (3)
LEISURE (free time), without SURE.
Hawaiian garland, usually of flowers.
22 TRENT BRIDGE Better grid after review involving new tests here (5,6)
Anagram (after review) of BETTER GRID + N (new).
The Nottinghamshire cricket ground used for Test Matches.
24 PUKKA Genuine Dad crossing this country park finally (5)
PA (Dad = father), containing (crossing) UK (this country) + final letter of [par]K.
Slang for “genuine” or “very good”, derived from Hindi / Urdu.
25 SET FIRE TO Ignite dispute about female anger (3,4,2)
SET-TO (dispute / argument), around F (female) + IRE (anger).
27 SURGEON Scottish politician sets aside time for theatre worker (7)
Nicola STURGEON, First Minister of Scotland, setting aside the T (time).
“Theatre” in this case is an operating theatre, where a surgeon works.
28 RELEASE Demob contract soldiers found earlier (7)
LEASE (contract = agreement), with RE (Royal Engineers = soldiers) before it.
DOWN
1 WRITER Author, one making correction, by sound of it (6)
Homophone (by sound of it) of RIGHTER = one who rights wrongs.
2 GIOCONDA One painted a god, icon, in new way (8)
Anagram (in new way) of A GOD ICON.
La Gioconda = alternative name for the painting Mona Lisa or its subject = one painted. It’s Italian for “the cheerful lady”, or “the Giocondo lady” (her surname).
3 SHUN Avoid clipped military command (4)
The military command “Atten-TION!”, often barked brusquely as ‘SHUN.
4 WATER SPORT Period, yet to finish, in aroused post-war amusement – dry it’s not! (5,5)
TER[m] (period, without the finishing letter) in an anagram (aroused) of POST-WAR.
5 ALIENATE Antagonise using a story in canteen regularly (8)
A LIE (a story), then alternate letters (regularly) of [i]N [c]A[n]T[e]E[n].
6 NURSERY SLOPES Beginners go down these (7,6)
Cryptic definition: easy ski slopes for beginners.
8 READY Money study, ultimately dreary (5)
READ (study, as a verb) + last letter (ultimately) of [drear]Y.
Ready / readies = slang for money, short for ready cash.
9 WHEN I COME HOME Initially ignored some chow mein he prepared for my return? (4,1,4,4)
Anagram (prepared) of [s]OME CHOW MEIN HE, with the initial letter of SOME ignored.
13 OPPRESSING Overbearing pop singers must reform (10)
Anagram (must reform) of POP SINGERS.
16 KNICKERS Hear thieves? Nonsense! (8)
Homophone (hear) of NICKERS = people who nick / steal things.
“Knickers!” = a relatively polite expletive expressing disagreement.
19 FORCIBLE Convincing Catholic to cut minor weakness (8)
RC (Roman Catholic), inserted into (cutting) FOIBLE (minor weakness).
Convincing = forcible as in a forcible argument.
22 TEASE Mock pronunciation of river (5)
Homophone (pronunciation) of the river TEES in north-eastern England.
23 DEEJAY Radio presenter’s shortened act getting the bird (6)
DEE[d] (act, shortened) + JAY (a bird).
DJ = disc jockey, sometimes written out phonetically as DEEJAY.
26 TORY Change of heart in Helen’s place for politician (4)
TROY (Helen’s place: Helen of Troy, “the face that launched a thousand ships” and all that), with the heart (middle letters) swapped.

 

12 comments on “Independent 10,458 by Raich”

  2. Andrew @1: sorry, you’ll have to enlighten me, I can’t see it. (I generally don’t spot themes unless they’re really obvious.)

  4. Many thanks for the excellent blog, Quirister.    The theme was a WWII acronym used by Forces writing home, explained on Wikipedia.    Was not aware of the item referred to a #3.

  5. Raich @4: thanks, I’d forgotten that expansion of 6a as an acronym, but it’s obvious now you mention it. I can see a few references in the surfaces too.

    (For anyone who hasn’t seen it: the expansion of the acronym is 16d, 18a, 8d, 9d.)

  6. A pleasant solve over coffee, about typical Monday level of difficulty.  NORWICH was our first one in and we thought of it as the acronym when we got 9dn.  As soon as we got 16dn that clinched it.  A bit of a facepalm moment when we got TRENT BRIDGE, but FORCIBLE and WATER SPORT were our last ones in.

    We liked RETICENCE and GIOCONDA.

    Is it just us or are clues getting ‘surgeon’ from ‘Sturgeon’ and vice-versa becoming something of a cliché?

    Thanks, Raich and Quirister.

  7. Nicely amusing idea for a ghost theme.

    Is there something I’m missing with YAK? It doesn’t seem to make sense as a surface.

  8. allan_c @6: I wouldn’t say it’s a cliche yet, but I’ve definitely seen surgeon / sturgeon before. Curiously her predecessor Salmond also had a surname that lent itself to fish-related clues.

    Nila @7: I agree, it doesn’t obviously work. Perhaps in the sense of “talk annoyingly in ox language”? – but the sounds an ox makes don’t really correspond to something one could call chatter.

  10. Quirister and Simon, I did think along both those lines but couldn’t really justify it. “Chatter(b)ox” would have made more sense if a pun was the idea.

  11. Re 15ac: Collins (2006) has two entries for YAK.  The first is for the animal, the second has “(slang) noisy, continuous, and trivial talk or conversation” or, as a verb, “to chatter or talk in this way”.

  12. YAK  It’s intended as double definition clue as blog says.

    While Chatter ox does not mean very much, ran with it because of similarity to chatterbox.

    Re comment #11, Collins dict is available free on-line with the advantage of being constantly updated.

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