Independent 11,080 by Tees

An entertaining puzzle with a few that were tricky to parse.

There's often a theme or Nina with Tees but I haven't noticed it here. 25 was my favourite – a nice surface with an unusual and cunning secondary definition.

ACROSS
1	ALPHA CENTAURI	Nuclear path beaten in space endlessly for star system (5,8)
		(Nuclear path)* in ai[r]
8	ACNE	Belle won’t want this expert covering north (4)
		Ace around N{orth}
9	SPECTACLES	What might help us see better shows? (10)
		DD
10	LIFEBOAT	Rescuer — albeit of strays (8)
		(Albeit of)*
11	SEE RED	Become enraged, but realise you must stop? (3,3)
		DD
13	BEWILDERED	Created issue about English wit appearing clueless (10)
		Bred(=created issue, issue meaning offspring here) around E{nglish} Wilde. Wilde was of course Irish, so the English is not part of his definition.
16	KITE	Bird Christopher brought to Spain (4)
		Kit(=Christopher) + E(=Espana)
17	TARN	Mormon’s back next to Salt Lake (4)
		[Mormo]n after tar, used here to mean a sailor, for which salt is another familiar term.
18	DROWNED RAT	Doctor admitted double-crosser, one wet and miserable (7,3)
		Dr(=doctor) + owned(=admitted) + rat(=double-crosser)
20	BORROW	Top walls in gold showing deviation (6)
		Brow(=top) around or(=in gold, used heraldically). Borrow is mainly used in golf to indicate the deviation of a putt away from a straight line.
22	AVERSION	Dislike a particular account (8)
		A + version
24	DOWNSTAIRS	Swallow, one seen in sun perhaps, at last finds lower level (10)
		Down(=swallow) + i in star + [find]s
26	ROAM	Mentioning Italian capital, use phone when abroad (4)
		Hom of Rome
27	DRESSING TABLE	Does one have a glass on top preparing food? (8,5)
		DD. I think the glass refers to the fact that many dressing tables have a mirror on top.
DOWN
1	ARCHIPELAGO	Geographical disaster leaving capital in Azores? (11)
		[G]eographical*
2	PIECE	Some cake for king or queen? (5)
		DD, piece used in a Chess sense.
3	ABSCONDED	Did runner drain energy from supporter, sleeping around? (9)
		Abed around s[e]cond
4	EVENTER	Jumper always having hole in it? (7)
		The parsing of this stumped me until I eventually realized it isn't something in ever. It's vent in e'er. Jumper is maybe a slightly questionable definition, which might be the reason for the question mark. The sport does involve some jumping but also other disciplines such as dressage.
5	TITUS	No-account Roman historian’s Greek disciple (5)
		T[ac]itus. Tacitus was an important Roman historian and I think the Titus was St Titus, who was the recipient of the Epistle to Titus.
6	UNCHECKED	One abroad investigated without any restraints (9)
		Un(=one in French) + checked
7	IRE	Anger seen in Emerald Isle — get away (3)
		Ire[land] (get=land removed, used in sentences like "I've landed a new job").
12	EXTRAPOLATE	More courteous when one goes for a project (11)
		Extra(=more) + polite with A replacing I. Project here is a used as a verb (project the future etc).
14	IGNORANCE	Composition using organ in church — is it Bliss? (9)
		(Organ in)* + CE. Ref to the expression "ignorance is bliss".
15	DINNER SET	Democrat joining secret society gives service (6,3)
		D{emocrat} + inner set
19	OVATION	Zero put on tax? One working gives sustained applause (7)
		O + VAT + i + on
21	WATTS	More than one unit teetotaller was consuming? (5)
		Was around TT
23	SCRUB	London prison almost clean (5)
		Scrub[s] (as in Wormwood Scrubs)
25	ODD	These characters in shop are so strange (3)
		The odd numbered characters of shop make "so".

8 comments on “Independent 11,080 by Tees”

I’d agree with ‘entertaining’ with some tricky parsing. 25d was very clever and so becomes my favourite clue

Thanks to Tees and NealH

Not too difficult to fill the grid correctly but, as pointed out, the parsing for a few wasn’t obvious. I spent some time in vain trying to see how ABSCONDED and the simple looking IRE worked.

I don’t remember having seen BORROW for ‘deviation’ before and agree that ODD was a beauty, for both surface and wordplay.

Thanks to Tees and NealH

Thanks both. Some parsings evaded me – for me, as an example, ‘poet’ or ‘playwright’ would have helped for WILDE in 13 rather than the vague and subjective ‘wit’

How interesting – solving on phone on train I couldn’t see who the setter was but thought it felt Tees-like, particularly 25d. Thanks to both for the entertainment and explanations.

Enjoyable, but with some parsings that escaped us, suchn as BEWILDERED. We liked the double definition for SPECTACLES; it brought a smile as we recalled an amusing example of ambiguity quoted in the 1973 revision of Gowers’ The Complete Plain Words: “It was here that the Emperor liked to put on his grand alfresco spectacles.”
Thanks, Tees and NealH

NB Wilde was born in Dublin to Anglo-Irish parents, and famed principally for his epigrams, plays, the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and being gay. But he was known generally as a wit, surely, and I haven’t a problem with him being so defined, as ‘poet’ or ‘playwright’ wouldn’t really have been enough. For comparison, I would think Noel Coward, famed also for his multiple talents, could be described very well as a wit.

I’m with NealH on 25 down, an excellent and different clue.

Hello. Thanks all. Thanks NealH. Happy Easter!

Thanks Tees, I always like your crosswords. I guessed ODD but missed the cleverness and I failed at BORROW and WATTS, both of which were mystifying to me. LIFEBOAT, BEWILDERED, EXTRAPOLATE, and IGNORANCE all received ticks. Thanks NealH for parsing.

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