Independent 10,820 by Serpent

Another Serpent for us to solve and blog. Our last one was back in April.

We always enjoy Serpent’s puzzles. Usually there is something else going on although we don’t always spot it. Thankfully we saw the NINA today which helped us solve a few clues more easily towards the end. We’d not heard of the phrase as such, but we guessed the three individual words and a quick check confirmed that it refers to the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species 65.5 million years ago.

There are two clues which we are are not totally happy with  (8ac and 19d) – maybe other people will not be so concerned.

Thanks Serpent

 picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8. Guilty child leaves home (6)
NOCENT

inNOCENT (child) with ‘in’ (home) leaving. The wording of the clue seems the wrong way round to us – ‘home’ is leaving ‘child’, rather than the other way round. We have seen similar clues before – it’s still not our favourite parsing though. Thankfully we enjoyed the rest of the puzzle.

9. Trusted friend to change and say nothing (5,3)
ALTER EGO

ALTER (to change) EG (say) O (nothing)

10. He hopes to dismiss bid involving partners in deal storing access code (3,7)
OFF SPINNER

OFFER (bid) around or ‘involving’ S N (partners in a card game or ‘deal’) around or ‘storing’ PIN (access code)

11. Trade union repeatedly provides cover for routine performer (4)
TUTU

TU TU (Trade Union) twice or ‘repeatedly’

12. Club‘s run preserved by 1-0 win at the death (4)
IRON

R (run) inside or ‘preserved by’ I O and N (last letter of win or ‘at the death’)

13. Tight dresses cut to reveal her body? (10)
SEDUCTRESS

An anagram (‘tight’) of DRESSES CUT

14. Kind, young volunteer nurse? (6)
TENDER

Quadruple definitions

16. Elected majority is closest to the centre (6)
INMOST

IN (elected) MOST (majority)

18. Colouring book containing words but no chapter by school (10)
COMPLEXION

LEXIcON (book containing words) without ‘c’ (chapter) after or ‘by’ COMP (school)

21. Well-known North American author (4)
NAME

N (north) A (American) ME (author)

23. Send-up exposed ludicrous naked figure (4)
NUDE

An anagram (ludicrous’) of sEND-Up – missing first and last letters or ‘exposed’

24. Model auditor’s more accurate report-writing mechanism? (10)
TYPEWRITER

TYPE (model) + a homophone (‘auditor’s’) of RIGHTER (more accurate)

26. Latin sign I assume contains symbols associated with office (8)
INSIGNIA

Hidden or ‘contained’ in latIN SIGN I Assume

27. Slight change isn’t limiting usage to begin with (6)
INSULT

An anagram (‘change’) of ISN’T, L and U (first letters or ‘beginnings’ of Limiting Usage)

DOWN
1. Person with ticklish throat picked up something chesty? (6)
COFFER

A homophone (‘picked up’) of COUGHER (person with ticklish throat). A coffer is a chest – hence ‘something chesty’

2. Revolutionary Guards like somebody logical (8)
REASONED

RED (revolutionary) around or ‘guarding’ AS (like) ONE (somebody)

3. Sewer’s storage facility regularly tests unit (4)
ETUI

Alternate or ‘regular’ letters in tEsT UnIt

4. Man boxing woman gets beaten (6)
TANNED

TED (man) around or ‘boxing’ ANN (woman)

5. Draw evacuated terrorist gunmen into fighting (10)
ATTRACTION

TerrorisT (first and last letters only or ‘evacuated’) RA (Royal Artillery – ‘gunmen’) in ACTION (fighting)

6. Credit checks estimate evidence of impact (6)
CRATER

CR (credit) around or ‘checking’ RATE (estimate)

7. Stuff goes tits up for people who care for themselves (8)
EGOTISTS

An anagram (‘stuff up’) of GOES TITS

13. Cryptic entries cracked by writer like me (10)
SERPENTINE

An anagram (‘cryptic’) of ENTRIES around or ‘cracked by’ PEN (writer)

15. Expressive line omitting one quote in translation (8)
ELOQUENT

An anagram (‘in translation’) of LiNE omitting ‘i’ (one) and QUOTE

17. Informant is safely conveying part of log (8)
MANTISSA

Hidden in or ‘conveyed by’ inforMANT IS SAfely – the log refers to mathematical logs or logarithms

19. What could lead whistleblower to share photos? (6)
PREFIX

REF (whistleblower) inside PIX (photos). We are not sure whether ‘share’ works well as an inclusion indicator.

20. Where company might be occupying legal position allowing further action (2,4)
IN PLAY

Double definition

22. Foreign character lies about fare from Europe (6)
MUESLI

MU (Greek character) + an anagram (‘about’) of LIES

25. Raise base of lead object containing flower (4)
WEIR

WIRE (lead) with the E (last letter or ‘base’) moving up or being ‘raised’

 

19 comments on “Independent 10,820 by Serpent”

  1. Another enjoyable crossword from Serpent – I agree with B&J about 8a being the wrong way round, but I thought ‘share’ was OK in 19d

    I saw two parts of the Nina fairly early on and Mr CS was able to provide the middle word which helped me finish off the SE corner

    Thanks to Serpent and B&J

  2. A couple of thoughts

    8A First meaning of “leave” in Chambers is “abandon”, so “child leaves home” works for INNOCENT abandons IN

    19D One of the meanings of “share” (as a transitive verb) in Chambers is “participate in”.

  3. Almost yet another case of “thank goodness for the Nina”, but no luck with NOCENT, which was new to me. I had to resort to an alphabet trawl to come up with ‘nonest’ for ‘leaves home’; a nonsense word but sort of works. I agree with your comments about the word order of the clue, but I can’t use that as an excuse.

    I missed the parsing of COMPLEXION which went in from the def. Really liked the SEDUCTRESS anagram and the ‘provides cover for routine performer’ for TUTU.

    Thanks to Serpent (after the dried up Mediterranean Sea and this week’s dinosaur extinction, goodness knows what you have in store for your next puzzle) and to B&J

  4. I wasn’t sure about SEDUCTRESS. Is it a cad as well as the anagram? I suppose a seductress might wear revealing dresses but not necessarily. Still, a very enjoyable crossword. Thanks to both setter and bloggers.

  5. Petert @4. I took it as a CAD (but not an &lit). Some would say “with extended wordplay”. As for 8a, although I’m not keen it has been mentioned before that if a child leaves home then, not only is the home losing the child, but the child is losing the home (along the same lines as Richard @2).

  6. Like WordPlodder @3, I have noticed Serpent’s geologically-themed ninas, so will be looking out for another in his next puzzle. Like RichardCV22 @2, I was happy with 8A, i.e ‘innocent’ leaves, or let’s go of, ‘in’ = home), though had to check the existence of ‘nocent’. I thought perhaps 14A could have been stretched to a quintuple definition, including the tender that follows a steam locomotive, though admittedly I’m struggling to think of how to do so. Thanks Serpent and B&J.

  7. Thanks Serpent, B&J
    Chambers has for share ‘vt. divide into shares’ which I assume was what was meant, rather than that the ref being ‘in’ the pix, would be more likely to share them. But the dictionary definitions of words often have physical connotations that the defined words don’t themselves have; it’s the word in the clue that’s the indicator, not the dictionary definition. For example, pathetic was used recently as an anagram indicator and someone suggested that it was ok because it can mean ‘moving’. It doesn’t follow (and in that case I am sure it was not the setter’s intention). If X divides Y, like say, the Thames divides Kent and Essex, then X is in the middle of Y. But the divide in the dictionary definition of share doesn’t mean divide in that sense, so I don’t think share is a good indicator for inserting X into Y.
    OTOH, stuff up .. goes tits was very good

  8. ‘Leave’ is one of those verbs that can work either way as an indicator – I was totally happy with it.
    Less so with ‘share’ though, mainly for the reason James @8 gives.
    Feels like a case of: “if A = B and B = C then A doesn’t necessarily have to be equal to C”.
    My first one in was LASHED for 4dn (‘she’ inside ‘lad’), only to find out that it was wrong (because of 10ac and the (very helpful) nina).
    But, all in all, once again a fine crossword – I quite liked the self-referential 13dn.
    Many thanks to Bertandjoyce & Serpent.

  9. I will share a cake by cutting it into pieces with a knife. I am dividing the cake into shares. The knife also divides the cake into shares. But in no sense does the knife share the cake, nor do I ever end up sandwiched between two slices.

  10. Thanks Serpent and BnJ

    re 19, Chambers Thesaurus gives ‘divide’ and ‘share’ as equivalents in both directions, so whether one likes it or not I think Serpent is on safe ground (as one would expect from this setter).

  11. Thanks both. Personally comfortable with 8 in the sense of leaving behind or leaving out, rather than strictly ‘abandon’ which I still see in the contrary direction e.g. abandon ship (I have left, but the ship remains)

  12. Enjoyed this one: the Nina was very helpful! Not sure about “share”. I suppose the Thames divides two parts of London, and in a sense shares them too. I’m not so happy with the syllogistic cut = divide, divide = share => cut = share. Of course, as nouns cut = share.

  13. Tbh… I’ve given up trying to double guess what words can or can’t be used as indicators for anagrams or inclusions.. seems that almost any word can be pressed into use… maybe that’s the joy of language.. be that as it may, not much joy here for me n obviously failed to spot the Nina..
    Thanks Serpent n Bertandjoyce

  14. Found that quite hard. I don’t like clues that require you to know who the setter is (13d), especially as that is something you have to actively search for in the online paper – not as bad as a clue earlier this week that required knowledge of several setters!

  15. Ericw@17 – if you are referencing them Hoskins clues on Tuesday, I don’t believe the solver needed to have any knowledge of the setters to get the answers. Furthermore, the surfaces – due to capitalization or just being a snake or seeing Dutch as the adjective it was – made sense without any knowledge of who the setters where.

    My feeling is that if one does crosswords which are bespoke and under a name, then the setter is an integral part of that and it adds to a deeper experience with more interesting possibilities as the setters are able to use themselves as part of the game of solving, misdirection, surface statements, self-mockery and fun.

    For me, the above enables a much more intimate experience which can help solvers become more engaged if they know who they are tackling – ah, I love a Serpent (and I also love Serpent of the Indy) etc. – and also will help them become better at solving that particular setter by becoming more used to their style and more on their wavelength.

    Having said all that, I do understand that it is a dangerous thing to get on some setters’ wavelengths, but at the very least knowing who you are going to solve before you solve is especially helpful for Tristrams and the like in knowing who to avoid.

    The first thing I do before solving is see who I am solving – and, considering that the setter using their setting name is standard in bespoke-puzzle cluing, it would be shooting my solving self in the foot not to do that even if I have no interest in all the rest of the stuff wot I rambled about in my earlier paragraphs. 🙂

  16. When left with three to get, all near the bottom of the grid, I only then looked for the nina round the perimeter, which of course helped me finish it.

    I had PUCK IN 23a for a while, which stopped me solving 19d.

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