Independent 10,932 by Tees

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It’s Teesday again – my second Tees blog in a week. Not that I’m complaining, far from it.

There’s a mini-theme in the form of a few linked entries: 22d is due to be launched next year, under the control of 8d/21a (who might be called a media 19a) and featuring 26a/21d. I can’t say I’ll be in any hurry to watch it. There may be other related entries, but this is not at all my area of expertise and I can’t see any obvious candidates.

I enjoyed the college fools at 13a, the ingenious 1d, the delightfully misleading 7d and the appropriately final 25d. Thanks Tees for the challenge.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
9 RED CARPET
Special welcome Yorkshire town cherished (3,6)
REDCAR (seaside town in North Yorkshire) + PET (as an adjective = cherished).

Traditionally used at the entrance to a venue when welcoming special guests.
10 ADIEU
We’re going to pass on gold rings (5)
DIE (to pass on), surrounded by (. . . rings) AU (Au = chemical symbol for gold, from Latin aurum).

Word meaning “goodbye”, imported from French.
11 SHIVA
Victor on one has moved around destroyer (5)
V (Victor in the radio alphabet) + I (one in Roman numerals), with an anagram (moved) of HAS around the outside.

Hindu deity known as the Destroyer.
12 SOUTH POLE
Banned brown sauce in fish where seas freeze (5,4)
OUT (banned) + HP (brand name for brown sauce, named after the Houses of Parliament), all in SOLE (a flatfish).
13 OUTWITS
Proves smarter than fools at Brasenose? (7)
Brasenose is a college of Oxford University (abbreviated to OU in the names of university societies and institutions), so fools there might be called OU TWITS.
14 PAGEANT
Display struggle for breath over time (7)
PANT (struggle for breath), over AGE (time).
16 TABLE
Board to suggest schedule (5)
Triple definition. Board = table = food set out for a meal; as in “table a motion” = make a suggestion to be discussed and voted on; or as in timetable = schedule of events.
18 CAT
Maybe Lion King not shown in Barrow? (3)
CA[r]T (barrow), without the R (abbreviation for King, from the Latin Rex). For the surface, Barrow is short for Barrow-in-Furness, a town in Cumbria, though I don’t know why it would have a problem with Disney musicals.
19 BARON
Nobleman not producing results in speech (5)
Homophone (in speech) of BARREN = not producing results.
21
See 8 Down
22 TITANIA
Atlantic liner docked, located by a satellite (7)
TITANI[c] (Atlantic liner), with the last letter dropped (docked), then A.

Largest moon of the planet Uranus.
24 REHEARSAL
Tries to stop serious practice session (9)
HEARS (tries, applied to a case in court) inserted into (stopping) REAL (serious).
26/21D PIERS MORGAN
Sacked tabloid editor supports newspaper, investing millions (5,6)
PIERS (supports, for a bridge or arch) + ORGAN (a newspaper, especially when seen as the voice of a government or political party), containing (investing) M (abbreviation for millions).

Sacked as editor of the Daily Mirror in 2004. A lot has happened since then.
27 AGREE
Be at one match (5)
Double definition: to be of the same opinion, or to be consistent (for example when checking cash totals). But I think these are just two shades of the same meaning, rather than separate meanings.
28 ON THE MEND
Improving new image recurring in Bond, initially discarded (2,3,4)
N (new) + THEME (image recurring), in [b]OND with the initial letter discarded.
DOWN
1 PRESCOTT
Might we thus describe Amundsen’s arrival at 12 for a 19? (8)
The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen arrived at the South Pole (12a) a few weeks before Scott’s British expedition – so PRE-SCOTT.

Reference to 19a BARON: the Labour politician John Prescott, now Baron Prescott.
2 ADRIFT
Commercial break without purpose (6)
AD (short for advertisement = commercial) + RIFT (break).
3 CARABINERO
Vehicle with excellent emperor carrying British cop abroad (10)
CAR (vehicle) + AI (A1 = excellent) + NERO (Roman emperor), containing (carrying) B (British).

A police officer (or border guard, customs officer etc) in Spanish-speaking countries. I’m more familiar with the Italian equivalent, but that’s spelt with an extra I before the E.
4 OPUSES
Works harnessing power in river succeeded (6)
P (power) inserted into (harnessed by?) OUSE (a river) + S (abbreviation for succeeded).

Opus = a work of music, literature or other art form. The Latin plural is opera, but “opuses” can also be used in English.
5 STRUMPET
Ready to embrace better harlot (8)
SET (ready), embracing TRUMP (as a verb, in card-playing = better = outrank).
6 BASH
Blackwood’s Batter! (4)
We need to split the first word into “Black Wood”: it’s B (abbreviation for black, for example in 2B pencils) and ASH (a type of wood). For the surface, there is indeed a cricketer called Jermaine Blackwood who bats for the West Indies.
7 DINOSAUR
Shape is round, involving a square (8)
Anagram (shape, as a verb = change the shape of) IS ROUND + A.

Dinosaur = square = slang for someone not keeping up with current fashions or opinions.
8/21A RUPERT MURDOCH
News boss taking fresh drink round sacked dour companion (6,7)
PERT (fresh = cheeky), with RUM (a drink) round it, then an anagram (sacked = ransacked) of DOUR, then CH (abbreviation for Companion of Honour).

Executive chairman of News Corp.
15 GOBSTOPPER
Sweet shot with son in black hat? (10)
GOB (most meanings of this word are unpleasant, and I’m not sure how it corresponds to “shot”, but perhaps both could be a mouthful of drink?) + S (abbreviation for son) + TOPPER (top hat, usually black).

CORRECTION: thanks to Kurukveera @1. It’s GO (shot = attempt), then S (abbreviation for son) inserted into B (black) + TOPPER (top hat).
17 BAR CHART
Conversation in pub about radius in diagram (3,5)
BAR CHAT (conversation in a pub), around R (radius).
18 COHESION
Getting together in Soho: nice to get wasted (8)
Anagram (wasted = drunk or destroyed) of SOHO NICE.
20 NEARSIDE
Approach faction in British Left (8)
NEAR (as a verb = draw near to = approach) + SIDE (faction, as in “choosing the wrong side”).

Nearside = the side of a motor vehicle nearest the kerb, which in Britain is the left.
21
See 26 Across
22 TALKTV
Dialogue tense on very right-wing channel (6)
TALK (dialogue) + T (abbreviation for tense) + V (very).

talkTV (one word with capitalization as shown) is a proposed British TV channel, due to launch next year. It’s operated by News UK which is part of the empire of 8d/21a, and will feature 26a/21d as a presenter. I think “right-wing” is a reasonable assumption.
23 NEEDED
Required Scots hooligan to cross rising river (6)
DEE (a river) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue), with NED (Scots slang for a hooligan) around it (crossing it).
25 AMEN
Final word not entirely correct (4)
AMEN[d] (correct, as a verb), with the last letter dropped (not entirely).

Expression of agreement, often used as the last word in a prayer.

19 comments on “Independent 10,932 by Tees”

  3. Thanks, Tees and Quirister!

    I don’t remember seeing sacked as an anagrind elsewhere. Didn’t pose any challenge tho’.

  4. I parsed gobstopper as Kurukveera@1, GO from shot, as in have a shot, the B coming from black, although it feels a little clunky to me.

    I did find some of this a little over convoluted but that’s probably just me

    PRE SCOTT & OU TWITS raised hearty chuckles today.

    Thanks Tees and Quirister.

  5. TALKTV is a nho for me – maybe some vague chatter but, as I’m not far right and have little interest in anything done by Piers Morgan (let alone in cahoots with Rupert Murdoch), the concept has not stuck. No matter which way I tried to parse the wordplay – even with the word ‘talk’ in mind, I didn’t come up with a solution. The only fail in an otherwise reasonably approachable Tees. I share with our blogger and with Blah a like for both PRESCOTT and OUTWITS plus a smile at the outrageous surface in SOUTH POLE.

    Thanks Tees and Quirister

  6. Thanks to Tees for the crossword and Quirister for the blog

    [I agree with PostMark’s first sentence @5 above]

  8. I had to enter TALKTV from wordplay and won’t be in a hurry to watch the almost inevitable S. hemisphere equivalent when it arrives here (that is if it’s not already here of course). I didn’t see the double meaning for the ‘Batter’ in 6d which was v. good.

    I liked GOBSTOPPER (descriptive word), the OU TWITS and especially PRE SCOTT.

    Thanks to Tees and Quirister

  9. This was light and fun, although I’m not convinced that 22d is a fair answer even taking the theme into account.

    The definition for PRESCOTT was brilliant.

    Many thanks to Tees and to Quirister.

  10. A DNF for me – I’ll forgive myself for TALKTV which I hadn’t heard of but am hanging my head in shame over the mess I managed to make of the NW corner.
    Once the light dawned I think OUTWITS became my favourite.

    Thanks to Tees and to Quirister for sorting out my errors!

  11. I have the same favourites as others. I feel sure that there may be other themed clues but I am reluctant to Google Piers Morgan + gobstopper as I fear it would adversel affect my news feed.

  12. Another pinko leftie who had never heard of talktv, though I should have got it from the very clear and fair clueing. 1d took far too long as well, but was my favourite once I got the joke, and it helped with the rest of the top left corner, which was pretty uninhabited before then. Thanks to Tees and Quirister. Nice job.

  13. talkTV kept us guessing for a while but eventually we remembered we’d heard of it – and that’s how we’ll leave it. And we were a bit puzzled by the definition for SOUTH POLE since it’s on the land mass of Antarctica; it’s the N Pole where the sea is frozen.
    Apart from that an enjoyable puzzle; we particularly liked OUTWITS, PRESCOTT and BAR CHART.
    Thanks, Tees and Quirister.

  14. There were half a dozen I just couldn’t see. And I’d never heard of TalkTV, either.

    I also agree with allan c about the south pole. I worked out it was something POLE but wasn’t sure if Tees thought Amundsen went to the north pole, or that he thought there was a sea at the south pole.

  16. It’s about 500km from the south pole to the Ross Ice shelf, the nearest bit of frozen ocean. It was a long walk for Scott and Amundsen.

  17. Lovely puzzle. 2 shy of an unaided finish (TALKTV & SHIVA) but otherwise reasonably straightforward. As someone who applied & failed to get into Brasenose to read history in 1979 OUTWITS was bound to be my favourite though PRESCOTT pushed it close.
    Many thanks to T&aquino

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