Independent 11,214 by Tees

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Always good to meet Tees for our daily brain exercise.

As usual Tees introduces a few lesser-known words, but the clear clues help to sort them out. Favourites include 14a for the sly definition, 17a because it’s a phrase that makes me smile (and a clever anagram), 2d for the misdirection of “party animal”, 15d for the recent exploits of the England Test cricketers, and 16d just because it’s a local reference for me. Thanks Tees for the fun.

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

ACROSS
9 EDITORIAL
Change test for covering Independent leader (9)
EDIT (change) + ORAL (a spoken examination = test), covering I (abbreviation for Independent).

Leader = editorial = an “opinion piece” by the leading editors or publishers of a newspaper.
10 FETOR
Safe Tory seats stink (5)
Hidden answer (. . . seats = provides room for) in [sa]FE TOR[y].

An offensive smell; not a very common word, but the adjective form “fetid” is perhaps better known.
11 EARLDOM
Me about to restrain a drunken Lord Onslow? (7)
ME reversed (about), containing (to restrain) A + anagram (drunken) of LORD.

Definition by example, indicated by the question-mark: there’s an Earl of Onslow, so the place he’s Earl of (it’s in Surrey) is an earldom.
12 MAWKISH
Mushy Murphy beaten with one holding ketamine inside? (7)
W (with) + I (one in Roman numerals), containing (holding) K (slang abbreviation for the drug ketamine), all inside MASH (short for mashed potatoes = “murphy beaten”; Murphy, from the Irish surname, is slang for potato).

Mushy = mawkish = annoyingly sentimental.
13 TITHE
Two birds at the outset naturally avoided tax (5)
TIT + HE[n] (two birds), avoiding the N which is the first letter (at the outset) of N[aturally].

In Old Testament times, a tenth of agricultural output given to God; later an equivalent amount, in goods or money, paid to the church.
14 CONGER EEL
One long in the water? Leave rock (6,3)
CONGE (leave = permission to depart or to be absent; I only knew this as a French word congé but the dictionaries seem to accept it as English too) + REEL (rock, as a verb = wobble or move unsteadily).

A very long thin fish.
17 I COULD EAT A HORSE
Hot sauce ordeal in mess on island: Tees hardly sated? (1,5,3,1,5)
Anagram (in mess) of HOT SAUCE ORDEAL, added to (on) I (abbreviation for island).

Slang expression for “I’m very hungry”, as Tees (the setter of this crossword) might say.
19 NORTH STAR
Prime Minister once great leader? (5,4)
NORTH (Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford and former British PM) + STAR (as an adjective = great = excellent, as in “the team’s star player”).

The star Polaris; “leader” = used for navigation, because it’s close to the celestial north pole and easily visible with the naked eye.
21 LOG ON
Scots lad drinking gallon to establish connection (3,2)
LOON (Scots dialect for a lad = boy or young man), containing (drinking) G (abbreviation for gallon).
22 MORDANT
Member for Portsmouth North, non-U, sarcastic (7)
MORDA[u]NT (Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North and now also Leader of the House of Commons), without the U.
24 A PRIORI
Leading monk in excellent surroundings in theory (1,6)
PRIOR (leading monk = one responsible for a priory or monastery) in AI (A1 = excellent).

A priori = knowledge or reasoning derived from first principles (theory) rather than from empirical evidence.
25 CONDO
Trick follows trick in American apartment (5)
DO after CON (both slang words for trick, as a verb = deceive or defraud).

Short for condominium = American word for an apartment building or an individual apartment within it.
26 CHEST WALL
Ribs in this lively stew kept in cold room (5,4)
Anagram (lively) of STEW, in C (cold) + HALL (room).
DOWN
1 PEDESTRIAN
Andi Peters can be dull (10)
Anagram (. . . can be) of ANDI PETERS. (If you need to know, he’s a TV presenter, but I can’t comment on how interesting or uninteresting he might be.)
2 LIBRETTO
Opera text party animal’s written up (8)
LIB (abbreviation for Liberal = political party), then OTTER (animal) reversed (written up = upwards in a down clue).

Italian for “little book” = term for the words of an opera or other sung musical work.
3 GOOD HEALTH
Toast secures treat successfully in collapsing hot-dog (4,6)
HEAL (treat successfully), secured in an anagram (collapsing) of HOT-DOG.

As in drinking a toast = offering good wishes to someone while drinking.
4 FILM
Shoot scene in mist (4)
Double definition; the second refers to a thin layer of liquid droplets on a surface.
5 ELIMINATOR
Priest making threats endlessly comes to hitman (10)
ELI (Old Testament priest) + MINATOR[y] (threatening) without the last letter (endlessly).
6 A FEW
First for Adam West consuming iron in some drinks? (1,3)
First letter of A[dam] + W (west), containing (consuming) FE (Fe = chemical symbol for iron, from Latin ferrum).

As in saying someone “has had a few” to suggest that they’re drunk.
7 STRIPE
Band from Skegness ultimately rubbish (6)
Last letter (ultimately) of [skegnes]S + TRIPE (slang for rubbish = nonsense or something worthless).
8 ARCH
Cunning leader vanishing in demo (4)
[m]ARCH (a public protest = demo) without the first letter (leader).
14 CLEFT STICK
Caught by Corbynistas? Twig one faces dilemma in it (5,5)
C (caught, in cricket scoring) + LEFT (Corbynistas = followers of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn = left-wingers) + STICK (twig = small tree branch).

In a cleft stick = in a difficult position, with no obviously right course of action.
15 EXHILARATE
The XI bats with a real delight (10)
Anagram (bats = crazy) of THE XI + A REAL.
16 LEE ENFIELD
British gun even seen in the French conflict zone (3,7)
E’EN (archaic or poetic form of “even”), in LE (a form of “the” in French) + FIELD (battlefield = conflict zone).

Magazine-fed rifle, standard issue in the British Army for the first half of the 20th century. (Named after the factory on the River Lee in Enfield where it was made, a few miles from where I’m writing this.)
18 REGIONAL
Local I love — Nag’s Head — enjoys majestic setting (8)
I + O (zero = love, in tennis scoring) + first letter (head) of N[ag], contained in (enjoys . . . setting = set within) REGAL (majestic).
20 RARING
Enthusiastic artists’ clique? (6)
RA (Royal Academy = artists) + RING (clique = exclusive group of people).

As in “raring to go” = keen to get started.
22 MUCK
Decaying vegetable matter in Hebridean island (4)
Double definition. And there I was thinking “muck” just meant “dirt” or something even less pleasant; Wikipedia tells me it’s an official term for waterlogged soil consisting mainly of organic material. Or a small island in the Inner Hebrides.
23 ATOM
First thirteen letters? That’s very small amount (4)
The letters A TO M are the first thirteen in the alphabet.
24 AVER
Rant beginning to end? Say it’s true! (4)
RAVE (rant = shout angrily), with the beginning letter R moved to the end.

Aver = to assert as a fact.

12 comments on “Independent 11,214 by Tees”

  1. I was going to say I found this not too difficult, but looking at it now, I realise I didn’t understand the significance of ‘Onslow?’ at 11a, didn’t know the ‘Member for Portsmouth North’ at 22a and wasn’t aware of the ‘Decaying vegetable matter’ sense of MUCK. Not hard to work out, but the K “drug slang” abbreviation for ‘ketamine’ at 12a was also new. More than enough then to keep me interested and to keep the mind at work in an enjoyable way.

    I agree about the CONGER EEL def and liked the misleading surface and def for NORTH STAR.

    Thanks to Tees and Quirister

  2. Another fine crossword from Tees – I did know the ‘unknowns’ but they were fairly clued if you didn’t. 17a topped my list of favourites

    Thanks very much to Tees and Quirister

  3. Enjoyed this, many thanks to T and Q. Having read the Wiki page I think “Onslow” was a good choice for the dbe. I did wonder if “for” was necessary in 9a?

  4. Thanks both. This was a struggle, and perhaps an education, with many unknowns, including minatory, conge and others mentioned here, to the extent I didn’t consider field as battlefield or prior as leading monk (a cheat only offered me abbot!) until after the event. Back on my northern high horse, the specifics of Onslow and the member for at least not South Portsmouth escaped me also, but on balance glad I persevered to an almost unaided solve

  5. Beaten all ends up by e.g. Onslow and the honorable member for Portsmouth. Inter alia. But an online solve allows a (shrug and a) reveal so much enjoyment in defeat. And with Quirister to explain it all a very satisfying and illuminating crossword experience.

    Thanks both.

  6. I found this harder than usual for Tees, but satisfying to get there in the end. CONGER EEL was my favourite. I wondered if we would get bullets to go with MUCK, but we got a gun instead.

  7. Loved this, steady rather than a swift solve but with some nice PDMs along the way though I must confess to help with 24a.
    I particularly liked 14&17a along with 14d.
    Thanks Tees and Quirister.

  8. Thanks Q and all who posted.

    I was lucky the Stokeites continued to be successful for the time this one was in the queue!

    Cheers
    Ts

  9. A fairly steady solve; we got it all but we thought 22ac was unfair. Also, FETOR was new to us but having deduced it from the clue it waqs easily confirmed in Chambers.
    Thanks, Tees and Quirister.

  10. Thanks Tees, I always enjoy your crosswords. I seldom complete them without revealing a letter or two but I always pick up tidbits of British culture and language that I find interesting. I never would have known Onslow but EARLDOM was readily available from the rest of the clue. I liked CHEST WALL and the anagram in 17a. Thanks Quirister for explaining the parsing of MORDANT and MAWKISH as well as the meaning of CLEFT STICK.

  11. I got about half of this done this afternoon and then hit a brick wall Came back to it just now not expecting to get any further and to my surprise, it went straight in, although there were several I couldn’t parse.

    The only Onslow in Surrey is a suburb of Guildford and is about a kilometre from where I live. It has a very pleasant arboretum.

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