Independent 10,679/Italicus

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Happy New Year! There we go, my one and only use of the exclamation mark over with for 2021. On with the puzzle from Italicus.

He has been setting for the Indy for a couple of years now, but has not appeared so often in recent times. This was a soundly constructed offering which I enjoyed solving – just right for a weekday quality cryptic. One niggle, but I stand to be corrected on that if I haven’t understood his intentions properly.

 

 

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

 

 

Across

1 Welshman wrapping one leg around head of travelling preacher
EVANGELIST
A charade of l and LEG reversed in EVANS for the archetypal ‘Welshman’, and T for the first letter of ‘travelling’. The reversal indicator is ‘around’.

6 German behind bar in South Africa is party animal
STAG
An insertion of T in SA followed by G. Referencing a T-bar, used to pull folk up ski slopes.

9 Making comeback in cartoon? A Tasmanian devil!
SATAN
Hidden reversed in cartooN A TASmanian.

10 A London vagrant sheltering in church portico
COLONNADE
An insertion of (A LONDON)* in CE.

12 Further evidence Robert is replacing Penny in council
CORROBORATION
Italicus is indicating that you should substitute ROB for the P in CORPORATION, a now rather old-fashioned word for ‘council’. Corporation Buses, for those that remember them.

14 Old version of The Mirror put on electronic viewing device
EYEGLASS
A charade of E, YE and GLASS. YE, pronounced with a hard ‘y’ sound, is not really an old version of ‘the’ (you need a thorn for that), but owners of establishments like Ye Olde Cheese Shoppe think it is.

15 Mountain trail twisting round historic Indian province
BENGAL
A charade of BEN and LAG reversed.

17 Former love meets American aboard Delta flight
EXODUS
I think the setter is intending ‘aboard’ to be read as ‘on’, for which read ‘next to’. In which case it’s a charade of EX, O, D and US.

19 Haul crone before cardinal – an enemy of Rome
CARTHAGE
A charade of CART, HAG and E. The final element is one of the four ‘cardinal’ or compass directions – East.

21 Barnier’s art is misconstrued as inconsistency
ARBITRARINESS
(BARNIERS ART IS)* His art was misconstrued as many things by the Eurosceptic UK press.

24 Worry about taking expert on in meeting
INTERFACE
Another use of ‘on’ to mean ‘next to’, as in Stoke-on-Trent or similar. So a charade of IN, FRET reversed and ACE.

25 Divine creature felt naked beside knight clad in silver
ANGEL
An insertion of N for the chess ‘knight’ in AG, followed by EL for the middle letters of ‘felt’.

26 Flower girl regularly seen in Tyneside
NILE
An insertion of IL for the even letters of ‘girl’ in NE.

27 Attack Great Britain about importing Ritz-like crackers
BLITZKRIEG
An insertion of (RITZ LIKE)* in GB reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘about’ and the insertion indicator is ‘importing’.

Down

1 Reduce rent (20% off, initially)
EASE
[L]EASE

2 E.g. the skill independent learner retained in modern times
ARTICLE
A charade of ART, I and L inserted into CE. CE here stands for Common Era, an alternative to AD for Anno Domini. ‘The’ is an example of a definite ARTICLE.

3 Strange clue about queen’s cavalryman
GENERAL CUSTER
A charade of (STRANGE CLUE)* and ER for Elizabeth Regina or ‘queen’.

4 City worked up energy for game
LACROSSE
A charade of LA, CROSS and E.

5 Portuguese saint riddled with 55 shots
SALVO
An insertion of LV in SAO, seen in places like Sao Paulo.

7 Start of terrible hullabaloo in newspaper business
TRADING
A charade of T and DIN inserted into RAG.

8 Parasites manipulated feelings about religion
GREENFLIES
An insertion of RE in (FEELINGS)* I think. But for me it doesn’t work: you can’t really have RE, the school subject, as ‘religion’. RE, Religious Education, replaced RI, Religious Instruction, a long time ago and it’s compulsory, but not part of the National Curriculum, in England. But teachers, children and parents would never refer to it as ‘religion’.

11 Meerkat ran her ragged, to be more precise
NEARER THE MARK
(MEERKAT RAN HER)*

13 Surprising fact about Victor and Joy
REVELATION
A charade of RE, V for the phonetic alphabet ‘Victor’ and ELATION.

16 Show fellow setter heartless editorials in newspaper
MANIFEST
A charade of MAN, I and ES for the outside letters of ‘editorials’ in FT, the ‘newspaper’.

18 Circular part of drill used in test
ORBITAL
An insertion of BIT in ORAL.

20 Fool English soldier, concealing a weapon
ASSEGAI
A charade of ASS, E, and A inserted into GI.

22 Use a mask, we are told
AVAIL
A homophone of A VEIL.

23 Beat fellow with lump of wood
FLOG
A charade of F and LOG.

Many thanks to Italicus for this morning’s puzzle.

16 comments on “Independent 10,679/Italicus”

  1. Very nice start to the week. Thanks to Italicus and Pierre.

    We agree with the quibble about RE = religion, but it didn’t cause us any problems in solving, and didn’t take the shine off the puzzle at all.

    Favourite here was EXODUS, with its nice “lift and separate” to disguise the definition.

  2. What a joy to have a crossword of this quality to start the week. Lovely surfaces and some tricky clues.

    I also had a question mark against the RE in 8d and would prefer “elliptical” to “circular” in 18d.

    In the blog for 1a, the word “preacher” is missing and this should be underlined.

    Thanks to Italicus and Pierre.

  3. I agree with the previous two comments although we did call RE “Religion” in my schooldays. However, I’m so old I’ve forgotten how long ago that was.

    I’m never quite sure about the validity of nouns as anagram indicators. Is “vagrant” considered OK?

    Lovely stuff, Italicus, many thanks. Thanks too to Pierre.

  4. Hovis @2: I took ORBITAL as meaning circular in the sense of a road/expressway that runs around a city. The M25 is also referred to as the London Orbital Motorway.

    Add me to the list of raised eyebrows at RE but with no other complaints about a puzzle that solved steadily. I haven’t seen an ASSEGAI for quite some time; they used to appear regularly. RD @3: I think “vagrant”is being used as an adjective here in the sense of ‘wandering’.

    Favourites today include COLONNADE – for its use of vagrant (!), ARBITRARINESS for the lovely topical anagram, BENGAL which is very smooth, BLITZKRIEG – ludicrous surface but what a way to arrive at the solution, GENERAL CUSTER and LACROSSE again for their smooth surfaces and my LOI – TRADING which misdirected me for ages.

    Thanks Italicus and Pierre

  5. Ah yes, the infamous M25 elliptical 😉 Memories of driving on this in the heaviest rain ever seen in Britain still brings the collywobbles.

  8. How lovely to see our old crossword friend ‘assegai’ again after so long. We called religious education ‘Divinity’ at my school in the 50s – I have never come across that use elsewhere. And it included sex education (maybe the only place they could slot it in). Excellent puzzle, so thanks Italicus and Pierre.

  10. must admit I was just grateful to find any way to add R n E to the anagram.. slow start but once “in” reasonably swift (for me) solve..
    thanks Italicus and Pierre

  11. Another satisfying but not too difficult offering from Tees, ideal for a Monday. No quibbles here – we took ‘religion’ and ‘orbital’ as meant. We did wonder if there was a theological theme, with EVANGELIST, SATAN, EXODUS, ANGEL and REVELATION, but maybe that was just coincidence.
    Did ‘fellow setter’ in 16dn have anyone trying to remember the names of other Indy setters? Perhaps that was a bit of a tease (pun intentional).
    Favourites were COLONNADE, CARTHAGE, SALVO and the aforesaid 16dn, MANIFEST.
    Thanks, Tees and Pierre.

  12. No problem here with RE for religion, my school obviously operated along the same lines as the one RD attended!
    Favourite was COLONNADE with a mention for FLOG because the surface read made me laugh.

    Thanks to Italicus (nice to see you back) and to Pierre for the review.

  14. I had a very slow start with this one, but eventually made progress with a good few “of course!” moments when the pennies dropped.
    Allan_C @11, I did indeed wonder if Phi or Tees were being referenced in 16d.
    Favourites today SALVO and BLITZKREIG.

  16. Many thanks to Pierre for the review, and to everyone else for their kind comments.
    Allan_c @15, no need to apologise. I take it as a compliment for one of my puzzles to be mistaken for one of Tees!

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