Independent 11,133 by Mev

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A puzzle from Mev – a new setter for me to blog, but ‘they’ have previous…… published crosswords

Good fun

I liked 14ac – though I suspect you have to be of an age to appreciate it fully. I also learned a little more than I probably ever wanted to about Trip hop. Squee was also new to me.

My other selections would be 24ac and 3dn for their novelty.

I can’t see anything hidden but then I never new Tricky was a Trip hop artist.

Thanks Mev – I look forward to crossing pens again

Key: Rev. Reversed; * anagram; DD double definition; underline defintion

Across
1 Refreshment outlet’s prohibition of stimulant? (6,3)
DD COFFEE BAR

6 Plane totally emptied landing stage (5)
jet (plane) + ty (totally emptied) = JETTY

9 Band I’m really excited with: “Zep”, briefly (7)
Squee (I’m really excited – new word for me) + ze (zep briefly) = SQUEEZE

10 Overeat last of the new Cheddar? (7)
e (last of the) + n (new) + gorge (cheddar) = ENGORGE

11 They make several tips on hoofed animals (7)
Oblique DD ANTLERS

12 Rains sounded like some hammers (6)
Homonym of Claude (Rains) = CLAWED

14 What came before Daley’s doors in Ireland once (4)
‘er in/doors (Arthur Daley’s wife) = ERIN

15 Grasping talent agency stripped down to essentials, causing bad temper (6)
graSPing taLEnt agENcy = SPLEEN

17 Bit heads off three ancient deities (3)
Starts of three ancient deities = TAD

19 Function of clubs: Love shacks, ultimately! (3)
c(clubs) + o(love) + s (shacks ultimately)

20 Stop developing sailor’s independent force before the end of January (6)
Os’s (sailor’s) + i (independent) + f (force) + y (the end of January) = OSSIFY

21 Secret I stumbled over – piece of plot (4)
Rev. Hidden = secrET I Stumbled = SITE

24 It could be the result of taking these from inquest (6)
It are LIMITS of InquesT

26 Decode the French’s rapid series of sharp noises (7)
crack (decode) + le (the French) = CRACKLE

28 She had cones of nuts on top of Nutella at midday (7)
mad (nuts) + on + n (to of Nutella) + a (mid of day) = MADONNA

29 Deliriously sat around this place in May (7)
(sat)* around her (this place) = THERESA

30 Substitutes best two SAS spies occasionally (5)
beSt tWo sAs sPieS = SWAPS

31 Emptied old German house they’d regularly ignored (9)
ex 9old) + haus (German house) + ThEyD = EXHAUSTED

Down
1 Untrustworthy fellow wearing suit falls (7)
case (suit) around cad (Untrustworthy fellow) = CASCADE

2 They pump up fast – union gets agitated (9)
(fast union)* = FOUNTAINS

3 Combination of two strokes in team (6)
Oblique DD ELEVEN

4 Live on alien’s plants (5)
be (live) + ET’s (alien’s) = BEETS

5 Bird goddess raises king (4)
Hera (goddess) raising R (king) = RHEA

6 “Clink” – Good on Heather for multitasking! (8)
jug (clink) + g (good) + ling (heather) = JUGGLING

7 Intentionally lose argument, following temperature getting hot (5)
row(argument) after t (temperature) + h (hot) = THROW

8 Produced lie: Eddy reeled (7)
(lie eddy)* = YIELDED

13 Identity of small fairy (4)
s (small) + elf (fairy) = SELF

16 I don’t know secretary’s son (4)
pa’s (secretary) + s (son) = PASS

17 Most complex broadcast of trip hop pioneer is in Latin (9)
Homonym of TRICKY(trip hop pioneer) + est (is in Latin) = TRICKIEST

18 Performances set in our dance (8)
(set in our)* = ROUTINES

19 They classically have three styles of newspaper articles (7)
DD COLUMNS

22 Stone age blocks meld amorphously (7)
era (age) in (meld)* = EMERALD

23 Morag finally consumed gold cake (6)
g(Morag finally) + ate(consumed) + au (gold) = GATEAU

25 The press only partially blame Diana (5)
Hidden blaME DIAna = MEDIA

26 Surprise creature on church (5)
cat(creature) + ch (church) = CATCH

27 Copy religious ascetic on ecstasy, dropping one with rector (4)
Fakir (religious ascetic) – i (one) – r(rector) + e (ecstasy) = FAKE

14 comments on “Independent 11,133 by Mev”

  1. A pangram. Lots to like but a few I didn’t care for. SQUEE isn’t in Chambers but at least I remembered the band. Couldn’t parse ERIN and don’t think the clue really works. Parsed LIMITS ok but think the clue needs a proper definition. Whether or not an ‘elf’ is a fairy I leave to others but ok by me.
    In 28a, definition is ‘She had cones’ (I think), as in the famous video (vogue?).

  2. I can’t see anything hidden but it does seem to be a pangram. I think 17d should be TRICKIEST due to “broadcast”.
    I agree with Hovis @1 re LIMITS
    Nice puzzle. Thanks to MeV and twencelas.

  4. Meant to mention TRICKIEST as well. Looking at the clue for ERIN again, I take back my criticism. I had stupidly taken the IN as coming from the ‘in’ in the clue.

  5. Hovis/ Salad – have corrected the blog re. Madonna definition and homonym of Tricky. As to the limits clue – I think the clue is 100% good and novel and includes a definition “It could be the result of taking these from inquest” i.e. “It could be the result of taking LIMITS from inquest”. As elves are from fiction not sure who would rule otherwise, as to whether they qualify in the fictional fairy genus

  6. Hi all,
    Thanks twencelas for the blog, and all commenters so far. I’ll take “Good fun” any day of the week. 🙂
    Yes, “She had cones” was the def in 28a (re her stage costume, but I expect it was in a video or two as well), and “plot” in 21a, with “piece of” as the (Yoda-esque, sorry) partial indicator.

    Working title: Airscape
    Happy World Juggling Day, everyone. (The Saturday nearest to June 17th, yearly.)

    In JUGGLING: PASS, SELF and FAKE are types of THROW; SQUEEZE and CLAW(ED) are types of catch; CASCADE, FOUNTAIN and COLUMNS are different patterns you can juggle objects in. Any given TRICK[iest] can be described (at least to some extent) by SITE SWAPS (a notation system – 64514 and 3 are two of my favourites, what are yours?). Put them all together and you’ll have yourself a ROUTINE.

    (Hi to my juggling friends Erin and Alix, who managed to hitch a ride in the grid when I wasn’t looking. One other entry is there as a gag for the jugglers.)

    Thanks to eimi for letting me drop (ahem) my 3rd Indy puzzle on a day “that won’t be on most people’s calendars”. 🙂

    CATCH ya later, folks!

  7. Thanks Mev. Didn’t see that coming! My limit is 333333…

    A good workout and a stretch for me. And thanks twencelas

  8. Mev @6. Thanks for the extra info. Not a juggler so this was all new info for me. To get all those with a pangram to boot is some achievement. Congrats.

  9. Solved in that the grid was filled correctly but the parsing of SQUEEZE and TRICKIEST were way beyond me. I found the NW corner very tough with ANTLERS and ELEVEN taking a long time to work out. No hope with the theme of course.

    Loved the Arthur Daley ERIN reference and ‘She had cones’ def.

    Thanks to Mev for number three and to twencelas

  10. Generally good stuff, but two failed the accessibility test for me.
    A cryptic ref to a catchphrase uttered last nearly 30 years ago, linked by character surname only? Hmmm..
    Mr Rains died 55 years ago.

  11. Ah, a brilliant niche theme plus pangram and a hidden nod to chums. Very impressive! Dying to know what the juggling in-joke is…but not yet!

    I could see how to parse LIMITS just too dim to see how one could be sure it was the right solution without any form of indicator or crossers. Not a big issue though in such a clever puzzle.

  12. Thanks both. Spent plenty of time thinking about famous Daley’s but would have needed Arthur included to have stood any chance of parsing. I guess the ‘strokes’ in ELEVEN are of the pen?…if so, do we need ‘combination’ and ‘two’ in the clue?

  13. Thanks Mev for an entertaining crossword and dropping by to explain what I never would have seen. MADONNA (amusing surface), CLAWED, and TAD were my top clues. My parsing had many gaps — I appreciate twencelas helping with ELEVEN, ERIN, and TRICKIEST in particular.

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