Independent 10,979 by Dill

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Welcome back to Dill, whose puzzles don’t seem to have come up very often recently.

Mostly straightforward and nothing too obscure; I found a few clues somewhat rough around the edges, as noted below, but perhaps I’m just being a pedant as usual. The amusing surfaces seem to feature several authority figures engaged in dubious activities – I can’t think where our setter got that idea from. And we have a pangram, for those who like spotting such things. Thanks Dill.

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

ACROSS
1 NUMBER
More insensitive cardinal? (6)
Double definition. More numb = less sensitive; or a cardinal number = natural number = 1, 2, 3 . . . .
5 CHAMBER
Ms Rudd, maybe, chases companion in the bedroom (7)
AMBER (Ms Amber Rudd, former Conservative MP and Government minister), after (chasing) CH (abbreviation for Companion of Honour).
10 OLIVE
Poetic evocation to be green? (5)
O LIVE! = a poetic way of evoking (calling into existence) someone or something.
11 SQUAD CARS
Pandas possibly put marks around enclosure (5,4)
SCARS (marks) around QUAD (short for quadrangle = an enclosure surrounded by buildings, especially in a school or college).

Panda car = squad car = a police vehicle. (Originally they were black cars with some panels painted white for visibility, hence “panda” colouring.)
12 INTO
Keen on opening piece right away (4)
INT[r]O (short for introduction = an opening section of music, film, dialogue etc as part of a larger whole), taking away the R (right).

As in “She’s really into crosswords”.
13 FLAT
Folk art regularly is dull (4)
Alternate letters (regularly) of F[o]L[k] A[r]T.

Flat = dull = uninteresting.
14 TASER
Once more taken aback for 1 say (5)
RESAT (of an examination = taken once more), reversed (aback).

Reference to 1a NUMBER = a thing that numbs. But a Taser doesn’t actually render the target unconscious or numb, it just disrupts their muscle function; in fact I gather it can be quite painful.
16 MUSCLE
Sea creature acoustically generates power (6)
Homophone (acoustically = in hearing) of MUSSEL (a sea creature).

Muscle = slang for physical strength = power.
17 YARDAGE
Period after court measure (7)
AGE (a period of time) after YARD (court = outside area, especially one for sports).
20 OUTSIZE
Overly large, unfashionable dimensions (7)
OUT (unfashionable) + SIZE (dimensions). Not my favourite clue because “size” is doing basically the same thing in both definition and wordplay.
22 CHUNKY
Beefcake covered with celery tips in big pieces (6)
HUNK (beefcake = slang for a fit and attractive man), covered by the outer letters (tips) of C[eler]Y.
24 ATONE
Redeem a forged note (5)
A + anagram (forged) of NOTE.

The definition has the right sense but isn’t quite grammatically equivalent. You can redeem someone or something from a bad situation, or you can atone for a misdeed; but I can’t think of a sentence where the two words would be interchangeable.
26 PLAY
It could be dramatic when Liberal interferes in wages (4)
L (abbreviation for Liberal) inserted into (interfering in) PAY (wages).
27 JEER
Boo when lord ditches Penny for Juliet (4)
[p]EER (lord = member of the nobility), with P (short for penny) ditched in favour of J (Juliet in the radio alphabet; in fact it’s officially spelled Juliett with two Ts, to make the pronunciation unambiguous).
29 TIGHTNESS
Hardy character admits funny thing in intoxication (9)
TESS (character in Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles), containing (admitting) an anagram (funny) of THING.

Tight = slang for drunk = intoxicated; but I’m not sure “tightness” is a generally-used word for intoxication.
30 VIOLA
Italian way encapsulates essence of role for Shakespearean heroine (5)
VIA (Italian for “way”, from Latin, used in the name of Roman roads such as Via Appia) containing (encapsulating) the middle letters (essence) of [r]OL[e].

Character in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night.
31 CANDLES
19 evening may require these wicked lights (7)
Definition and cryptic definition. Reference to 19d ROMANTIC, suggesting a candlelit dinner; candles are lights with a wick.
32 CARMEN
Opera produced by Top Gear buffs? (6)
Top Gear is a TV programme featuring blokes who like driving cars, mainly aimed at blokes who like driving cars and might call themselves CAR MEN.
DOWN
2 UNIT TRUST
Investment fund segment to rely on (4,5)
UNIT (segment = a self-contained part of a larger whole) + TRUST (rely on).
3 BREW
British declared regret for cuppa (4)
B (abbreviation for British) + homophone (declared) of RUE (regret).

Brew = cuppa = slang for a cup of tea, as in “Let’s have a brew”.
4 RESOLVE
Determination to tackle puzzle again (7)
Double definition. Strong will; or to make a second attempt at solving a puzzle = “re-solve”.
5 COUNTRY
Spain, for example, where vacuous royalty supports nobleman (7)
R[oyalt]Y (vacuous = middle letters emptied out), after (below, in a down clue = supporting) COUNT (nobleman).
6 AUDITORIUM
He checks out leaders of ill-repute using mayor’s public hall (10)
AUDITOR (someone who “checks out” financial accounts or processes) + leading letters of I[ll-repute] U[sing] M[ayor’s].
7 BRASS
Fish bit angler’s bottom – what cheek! (5)
BASS (a fish), containing (biting) the last letter (bottom, in a down clue) of [angle]R.

Brass = cheek = disrespectful boldness.
8 RESERVED
Saved some wine to pour inside (8)
RED (some wine), with SERVE (to pour) inside.
9 TONIC
Philip allegedly put gin with it (5)
Tonic = pick-me-up = fillip, which is a homophone (allegedly) of PHILIP.

Short for tonic water = carbonated drink often served with gin.
15 ACCIDENTAL
Unplanned citadel can get disorganised (10)
Anagram (disorganised) of CITADEL CAN.
18 ANKLE-BONE
Bloke Anne groomed for bodily connection (5-4)
Anagram (groomed = tidied up) of BLOKE ANNE.
19 ROMANTIC
Minor act possibly becoming sentimental (8)
Anagram (possibly) of MINOR ACT.
21 EXPRESS
Train retired journalists (7)
EX (prefix meaning “formerly”, for example “retired”) + PRESS (journalists).
22 CLASSIC
Traditional military leader initially takes in young girl (7)
CIC (“initials” for Commander-In-Chief = military leader initially), taking in LASS (young girl).
23 TRIAD
Shoot up frames international mafia (5)
DART (shoot = move quickly), reversed (up, in a down clue), framing I (abbreviation for international).

Triad = organised crime syndicate in East Asia; “Mafia” originally referred to similar groups in Italy but can be a generic term for such groups anywhere.
25 ORGAN
Senior gangster hiding newspaper (5)
Hidden answer (. . . hiding) in [seni]OR GAN[gster].

Figurative term for a newspaper, originally in the sense that it presents the voice and opinions of a particular political party or group.
28 AVER
Swear to avoid losing time (4)
AVER[t] (avoid) without the T (time). Avert and avoid aren’t quite the same thing: avert = turn something away from you, avoid = move yourself away from its path. But “avert disaster” and “avoid disaster” could be used interchangeably, I suppose.

11 comments on “Independent 10,979 by Dill”

  1. Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid but that’s just a personal view. Having said that, I did prefer this to today’s Guardian crossword. Fortunately, today’s FT more than made up for this.

  2. Sorry. I appreciate it’s a pangram but I rely on The Indy to give the brain a more rigorous workout when the G serves up its Monday gentle version and this didn’t do the job this morning. [Hovis @1: looks like I’ll be following your lead. Third time lucky, hopefully.]

  4. I thought this pangram was light and pleasant. A nice but brief diversion on a Monday morning.

    Thanks to Dill and Quirister.

  5. Not sure what the collective noun is for pangrams, but spread amongst the various papers there seem to have been an awful lot of them recently…

  8. Re: 24a is it not as in redeem a voucher (cash in?).

    I quite liked it overall but will also head to the FT.

    Thanks all

  10. Mostly straightforward but there were a few clues that were a bit chewier. And we just couldn’t think of TRIAD – we guessed it was I in a reversal of something meaning shoot, but neither the shoot nor the answer occurred to us but both were obvious once we saw the answer here. On the other hand we saw CANDLES at once and without even looking at the clue for 19dn guessed correctly that it was ROMANTIC.
    Thanks, Dill and Quirister.

  11. Late in due to internet failure for much of the day. I quite enjoyed this one, despite the points picked up on by our blogger, and particularly liked NUMBER & CHAMBER which both made me smile although the former may well be something of a chestnut.

    Thanks to Dill and to Quirister for the review.

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