Independent 11,286 by Wire

Wednesday entertainment from Wire.

A few challenges here with somewhat unusual constructions (10a) and slightly vague indicators (21a and 7d), but it all makes sense when you see it. I enjoyed the “stable adolescent” in 16a, the extended definition in 24a, the “other tap” device in 1a, and the surface image of 12a which turns out to be a completely different “attempt to impress”. Thanks Wire for the fun.

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

ACROSS
1	SCRIMP	Save money by having the other tap in pink (6)
		S[h]RIMP (a shade of pink), with the H (shown on a hot water tap) replaced by C (the other tap).
4	STOOGE	Casting goes to one of three old comedians (6)
		Anagram (casting = scattering) of GOES TO. The Three Stooges
9	BLOC	Writer abandoned by the Spanish coalition (4)
		B[el]LOC (the writer Hilaire Belloc) without EL (a form of “the” in Spanish).
10	NEVER-NEVER	Payment plan author enters himself when in pieces (5-5)
		VERNE (the author Jules Verne, author of Around the World in Eighty Days), inserted into another VERNE which is broken into two pieces and re-ordered as NE VER. Slang term for hire-purchase or payment in instalments: “they got it on the never-never”.
11	UTOPIA	10 land best in the even parts of Surinam (6)
		TOP (best) inserted into the even-numbered letters of [s]U[r]I[n]A[m]. Reference to 10a, hence “never-never land”. Utopia is a fictional land created by Thomas More, with a Greek-derived name that could be translated as either “good place” or “not-place”, suggesting that such a perfect place doesn’t actually exist.
12	NAME-DROP	Attempt to impress typified by conversion of barn to bar (4-4)
		Reverse wordplay: to convert BARN to BAR, you would DROP the letter N which stands for NAME. Name-drop = a casual mention of someone famous or influential, implying that you know them well, in order to impress others.
13	KNOWLEDGE	Learning from hunter following different knights by border (9)
		OWL (a bird that hunts its prey) after K + N (two different abbreviations for knight, one for the title and the other used in chess notation), then EDGE (border).
15/25	BASELINE	Crude comment is what marks the end of court (8)
		BASE (crude = dishonourable) + LINE (a spoken comment). Line marking the back edge of a tennis court.
16	COLT	Arm stable adolescent? (4)
		Double definition. Brand name for a handgun = arm = weapon; or a young horse = adolescent in a stable.
17	DRUGSTORE	LA chemist‘s wig put away when cycling back (9)
		RUG (slang for a wig or hairpiece) + STORED (put away), with the last letter D “cycling” back round to the front. US term (so for example in Los Angeles = LA) for a chemist’s shop.
21	HELSINKI	Brothels in Kidderminster pooling capital (8)
		Hidden answer in [brot]HELS IN KI[dderminster], though “pooling” is a rather unusual indicator for that; perhaps it’s “pooling” in the sense that we have three words sharing (pooling) their resources to create the answer, but I’m not sure the grammar quite works. Capital city of Finland.
22	MOHAVE	Desert people relocate across central Sahara (6)
		MOVE (relocate) around the central letters of [sa]HA[ra]. Alternative spelling of MOJAVE, for the Native American people indigenous to the desert of that name.
24	SCRAP METAL	Car lamps etc mostly represented as junk (5,5)
		Anagram (re-presented) of CAR LAMPS ET[c] (mostly = all but the last letter), with an extended definition because scrap metal may indeed consist of broken car parts among other things.
25		See 15

26	THEIST	Well-planned robbery is on time, I believe (6)
		HEIST (a well-planned robbery) added on to T (time).
27	ARGYLE	Weird glare around yard made of diamonds? (6)
		Anagram (weird) of GLARE around Y (abbreviation for yard). A pattern of diamond shapes (or diagonally-placed checks), often seen on sweaters or socks.
DOWN
1	SELF-TAN	Some extra lotion for trip abroad needed initially (4-3)
		First letters (initially) of S[ome] E[xtra] L[otion] N[eeded] F[or] T[rip] A[broad]. Clue-as-definition: an artificial substance that mimics the effects of suntan, so you can look like you’ve already been lying on a beach for a week as soon as you get there.
2	RECAP	Summary page hung from tree upside down (5)
		ACER (botanical name for a maple tree), reversed (upside down, in a down clue), with P (page) “hung” from the bottom of it. Short for recapitulation = a summary of what’s already been said.
3	MANDATE	Order that’s from Grindr? (7)
		Grindr is an online dating app used by (among others) gay men who want to set up a MAN DATE.
5	THRUMS	Flyer briefly intercepted by first of many drones (6)
		THRUS[h] (a bird = flyer), without the last letter (briefly = shortened), with the first letter of M[any] inserted. Drone, as a verb = thrum = make a low-pitched humming sound.
6	OVERDRAFT	It keeps some afloat above deserted platform (9)
		OVER (above) + D (abbreviation for deserted, for example in records of military service) + RAFT (platform). A facility for borrowing money from the bank; a sadly topical definition in these difficult times.
7	EYESORE	Donkey shifted a bit going round small carbuncle (7)
		EEYORE (donkey in the Winnie the Pooh books by A A Milne), with a couple of letters swapped (shifted a bit), around S (small). Carbuncle = originally an abscess or group of boils, but after Prince Charles (as he was then) used the word to describe a proposed architectural development he didn’t like, it came to be used for an unsightly building.
8	AVANT-GARDISTS	Early adopters dig satnav star reviewed (5-8)
		Anagram (reviewed) of DIG SATNAV STAR. Avant-gardists = people who try to be at the forefront of artistic or literary trends.
14	WOLFSBANE	Killer plant devours outlaw close to cave (9)
		WOLFS (devours = eats greedily) + BAN (outlaw, as a verb) + closing letter of [cav]E. Poisonous plant also known as aconite.
16	CREW CUT	Style team reduced in numbers (4,3)
		CREW (a team, especially in rowing) + CUT (reduced in numbers, though just “reduced” would do). A short hairstyle.
18	GAMBLER	Good walker who’s rather slow gets better (7)
		G (good) + AMBLER (one who walks without any great urgency).
19	REVENUE	9 together with half of 10 raised income (7)
		EU (a bloc = reference to 9a) + NEVER (half of 10a), all reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue).
20	GNOMES	Air maybe lifting around hollow marble statues (6)
		SONG (air maybe; air = a simple memorable song or tune), reversed (lifting = upwards in a down clue), around M[arbl]E (hollow = inner letters removed). Not the mythological creatures, but the colourful garden statues representing them.
23	HOLLY	Shrub completely pruned from above (5)
		[w]HOLLY (completely), with the first letter (top, in a down clue) cut off (pruned from above).

15 comments on “Independent 11,286 by Wire”

I had real problems in getting my first few answers in until I shifted to the lower half of the grid to get a foothold. I liked the original tricks in SCRIMP and NEVER-NEVER, both of which needed a second look and a few crossers to eventually crack.

I missed the def for SELF-TAN, which you’ve explained is the whole clue, and mistakenly thought ARGYLE referred to the type of pink ‘diamonds?’ mined in Western Australia. Both the spelling of MOHAVE and the fact that the name refers to a Native American people, as well as the desert, were also both new to me.

Good to see UTOPIA not clued as “More work”!

Thanks to Quirister for such a detailed and helpful blog and to Wire

WordPlodder @1: thanks, I wasn’t aware of the Australian Argyle diamond mine, but that’s a good extra layer of meaning to the clue. I’ll be interested to hear from Wire whether the clue was written to mean the knitwear pattern, the gemstones, or both.

An enjoyable workout. Held up by being too clever and dividing desert and people and killer and plant. Thanks, both.

Thanks both. Looked like a heavy defeat for a while, but got there steadily though not entirely unaided. Hopefully people don’t regard SCRAP METAL as junk, given its value in recycling terms. For me, MANDATE was a little clumsy, if not narrow-minded

Like WP @1, I missed – or, to be truthful, simply didn’t know – what SELF-TAN is so, at the time, it went in with a bit of a shrug. Otherwise, I enjoyed this a lot, complete with the unusual instructions. Was I able to solve and parse – yes – so they worked OK. As Kidderminster is not far from me – and a fairly unremarkable town on the whole – the image in 21a was very amusing. Other favourites include NAME DROP, MOHAVE, RECAP, EYESORE and the simple but delightful GAMBLER which was my COTD for its lovely surface.

Thanks Wire and Quirister

Thanks, Wire. Enjoyed this, and pretty much agree with your verdict, Quirister. Favourite for me was NAME DROP for the inventive reverse wordplay.

WordPlodder @1 – I also enjoyed the clever clue for SCRIMP, but by strange coincidence I’ve seen a very similar clue (ie using the same wordplay) elsewhere recently, though I can’t remember where. I’m sure Wire came up with it independently though. And yes, bonus originality points for not using “More work”!

Lovely puzzle. Prompted a lot of smiles. SCRIMP and NEVER NEVER, REVENUE and SELF TAN all got ticks.

Quirister@2 and WP@1 I confess I also had not heard of the Australian diamond mine. I was definitely referring to the socks not the rocks. Thanks for the excellent blog and thanks to all who have contributed.

Never heard of the Australian diamond mine, but well aware of the Argyle pattern, having been born and bred in Scotland.
Had to google Grindr to solve 3d. Even just the thought of it “gives me the willies”. You may have to google this to get the joke.

@NNI very good ?. Lovely puzzle just about right for midweek thanks Wire and Q even if I didn’t need you today.

That ? was meant to be a smile. You’d have thought I knew how this website worked by now.

Thanks Wire – we have only just had time to tackle the puzzle today. Up to your usual standard. We guessed ARGYLE but didn’t think of the diamond pattern – let alone the mine in Australia.

Thanks Quirister.

Got to this late but it was worth the wait — thanks Wire. My top picks were STOOGE (I’m a big fan), NEVER-NEVER (great wordplay), WOLFSBANE, GAMBLER, and HOLLY. I couldn’t parse SCRIMP so thanks Quirister for the blog.

I gave up on this yesterday as nothing much was clicking but managed to (almost) finish it off this morning. Two errors were CALF instead of COLT – is a calf an arm? – and GRAYLE (alternative spelling of grail, which seemed to me might have diamond adornment) instead of ARGYLE. Oh well, on to today’s…

Thanks Tony @13 for alerting me to this great puzzle which contained clever but ultimately solvable wordplay.
Only just got around to doing the grid today but defintely one to savour at leisure. Like Postmark, I liked 21a as an unlikely allusion to one of my favourite cities and ARGYLE posed no problem as I’m rather partial to diamond socks but the stand out for me was NEVER-NEVER.
Thanks Wire and Quirister.

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