Independent 11,325 by Grecian

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hello all.  Many thanks to Grecian for an enjoyable puzzle with some lovely surfaces and a theme which will be appreciated by bird-lovers.  While searching for “just a couple” of pictures to include, I twigged that the 18a theme was rather more extensive than I had first realised!

Late edit: thank you to the commenters alerting me to the existence of the penduline 18a, who has now joined the flock below.

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

9a    Wary of fish counter with rusty edges (5)
LEERY
EEL (fish) reversed (counter) + the outer letters (edges) of RustY

10a   Dune adaptation filled with international cast in costume (9)
UNIFORMED
An anagram (adaptation) of DUNE filled with I (international) and FORM (cast)

11a   Questionable Parisian who’s interrupting English oral (9)
EQUIVOCAL
QUI (Parisian who)‘s interrupting E (English) and VOCAL (oral)

12a   Celebrated with jar by the sound of it (5)
GREAT
GRATE (jar), homophone (by the sound of it)

13a   Novel read in bed gives the appearance of Charles Dickens? (7)
BEARDED
An anagram of (novel) READ in BED

15a   Unidentified item in wash with 18’s pants (7)
WHATSIT
An anagram of (… pants) WASH with TIT (18 – 18a)

17a   Rob Key’s stuffing in last pie (5)
STEAL
kEy’s middle letter (stuffing) is found in an anagram of (… pie) LAST

18a   See 6 Down
TIT

20a   Friend recalled home counties trip (5)
LAPSE
PAL (friend) reversed (recalled) + SE (home counties)

22a   Charlie relaxed and reached the top (7)
CRESTED
C (Charlie) + RESTED (relaxed)

25a   They give direction back to under 18s (7)
RUDDERS
The last letter of (back to) undeR + UDDERS (18s – again, referring to 18a)

26a   Committee business with 18’s support (5)
COBRA
CO (business) + BRA (18’s support – 18a again)

27a   Hanging Picasso’s first abstract nude with string (9)
PENDULINE
Picasso’s first + an anagram of (abstract) NUDE + LINE (string)

30a   Galahad’s heart melted Lancelot suddenly (3,2,4)
ALL AT ONCE
GalAhad’s middle letter (heart) + an anagram of (melted) LANCELOT

31a   Planet Hollywood’s opening in Slough (5)
MARSH
MARS (planet) + Hollywood’s first letter (opening)

 

Down

1d    Adult is fed up (4)
BLUE
Two definitions

2d    Cracked up at Dundee’s strip (8)
DENUDATE
An anagram of (cracked up) AT DUNDEE

3d    Kompany vacated no. 4 for City (4)
KYIV
Without the inner letters (… vacated), KompanY + IV (no. 4)

4d    White City hosting Derby (8)
MUSCADET
MUSCAT (city) containing (hosting) DE (Derby, postal code)

5d    Bowl over restricting out of sorts bat (6)
WILLOW
WOW (bowl over) around (restricting) ILL (out of sorts)

6d & 18.    Winger doing little at ground (4-6,3)
LONG-TAILED TIT
DOING LITTLE AT anagrammed (ground)

7d    Demon golfer gets urges (6)
IMPELS
IMP (demon) + ELS (golfer)

8d    Polish duke in twisted relationship (4)
EDIT
D (duke) in the reversal of (twisted) TIE (relationship)

13d   Radical writer taking arsenic (5)
BASIC
BIC (writer) around (taking) AS (arsenic)

14d   Amateur poet penning unusual title (10)
DILETTANTE
DANTE (poet) surrounding (penning) an anagram of (unusual) TITLE

16d   Force unopened lock (5)
TRESS
sTRESS (force) without the first letter (unopened)

19d   Packed Romeo inside wearing skimpy underwear? (8)
THRONGED
R (Romeo) inside THONGED (wearing skimpy underwear?)

21d   Byzantine Empire’s concerning debut (8)
PREMIERE
An anagram of (Byzantine) EMPIRE + RE (concerning)

23d   Clots smashed mobile (6)
EMBOLI
An anagram of (smashed) MOBILE

24d   Cheating snooker player frames up (6)
DUPING
DING (snooker player) goes round (frames) UP

26d   Dictator’s chancellor reveals source of power (4)
COAL
Sounds like (dictator’s) KOHL (chancellor)

28d   Believers in drum majorettes (4)
UMMA
The answer, also spelled ummah, is found in drUM MAjorettes

29d   Ruth’s bottom pinched by green parrot (4)
ECHO
RutH‘s last letter (bottom) enclosed in (pinched by) ECO (green)

 

21 comments on “Independent 11,325 by Grecian”

  1. @kitty – your extensive intro paragraph spoilt the theme for me. I had not done the puzzle when I came here and shal now give it a miss Thanks.

  2. Very clever. There are also penduline tits. I couldn’t see the parsing of Muscadet. I got hung up on hats. Thanks both.

  3. Morello @1 – my apologies.

    I have split the opening paragraph in two so the main part is not visible on the homepage.

    I do know spoilers are annoying, and the apology for not checking the preview length is genuine, but the tone of your comment has quite spoiled my day.

  4. What a delightful theme to incorporate and well done Grecian for hiding it so cleverly in plain sight. Pleased to say I did not spot it so coming here was a lovely revelation – and, of course, you wonder how on earth you managed to miss it! I needed a bit of help to get over the line – BLUE held out, irritatingly, as I got fixed on adult = A and didn’t connect fed up with the more usual sad/depressed. My bad. I also failed to spot MUSCADET (Muscat is a perfectly fair city but not the first to come to mind and Derby = DE is tough: I was trying to fit in hat, cheese, boot, race, cup … and, finally – yep, beaten by three, DENUDATE is a nho and I didn’t move beyond ‘cracked’ as the anagrind so was attempting to incorporate ‘up’ in the fodder. Silly me.

    Favourites today include UNIFORMED, GREAT, WHATSIT, RUDDERS, PENDULINE, MARSH, IMPELS, DILETTANTE and PREMIERE with COTD being the central cog, LONG-TAILED TIT.

    Thanks Grecian and Kitty

  5. Despite spotting the theme, for some reason (too early rising?) I couldn’t see 12A or 8D. so a DNF for me. I was pleased with myself for connecting penduline though. Thanks Grecian and Kitty.

  6. I’m sorry you had your puzzle spoiled Morello @1 but there are gentler ways of asking the blogger to be more circumspect in their opening sentence. On the 225 home page, Kitty does not give away the theme; it’s only when you come here you can read the full thing. And, with the greatest of respect, if you know the blog is going to explain the puzzle and give the answers and parses, why on earth would you come here and open up the detailed page before you’ve done it? And then complain? Bad form!

  8. PostMark @6, Tatrasman @7 – In fairness to Morello, the nature of the theme was originally visible on the home page – I should probably have said @3 “I have now split …”

    In the past I didn’t have to worry about what I said in the introduction as I used to include a link to the puzzle at the top, and that was all that would show on the home page. I’m not sure at what point I neglected to do that, but now I’ve remembered I’ll restore the practice (and probably reunite the two parts of my original intro). That will have to wait until this evening though, as I’m on my way to the Listener gathering in London.

    For the same reason I’m unlikely to be back here again until later, unless something pressing causes me to abandon the important business of socialising and drowning my sorrows. Here’s hoping nothing else goes 18a’s up today!

  9. Loved the theme, loved Kitty’s review (even though the lovely Penduline variety didn’t get his chance to shine!) and have no time at all for folk who pop in before solving a puzzle and then complain about having spotted the theme.

    Thanks to Grecian from this birder and many thanks to Kitty for the beautifully illustrated blog.

  10. Many thanks Kitty. Your lovely illustrated blog made my day and I’m so sorry yours has been a bit spoiled. Pay no heed – as others have said, it seems a bit strange to visit the blog before attempting the puzzle. Thanks for the nice comments folks and happy Big Garden Birdwatch. If anyone spots a penduline tit, I’ll be seriously impressed!

  11. Thanks, Grecian & Kitty. What a thoroughly entertaining solve this was, had a smile on my face throughout, especially once I spotted the theme. Loved the cheekiness of 25a and 26a, but the stand-out clue was the one for MARSH, which is superb.

    Re Morello’s complaint, I also noticed the reference to the theme in the preamble before I’d solved it – it was visible on the front page before Kitty amended the blog (I was visiting the site to read Eileen’s blog of last week’s Paul). But the theme was not explicitly revealed, so it wasn’t really much of a spoiler and it certainly didn’t affect my enjoyment of either the brilliant puzzle or the wonderful illustrated blog. I kind of understand Morello being peeved but the point could have been made a lot more graciously.

  12. Good fun, particularly with the avian theme. Thanks to Kitty for taking the trouble to include the pics which enhanced the pleasure for me; they’re very handsome looking creatures. Learnt a new word in PENDULINE along the way so couldn’t ask for more.

    Thanks again to Kitty and thanks to Grecian – always good when a setter pops in as well.

  13. Thanks both. Like others here have suggested the initial blog slip gave away nothing which wasn’t glaringly apparent as soon as one read the key clues – I fondly remember my first encounter with one of the answers when a doctor said my wife’s pregnancy test result was EQUIVOCAL and I was too embarrassed to ask its meaning….our son turned 24 earlier this month

  14. Thanks Grecian, Kitty
    Nice clues, the Rob Key one is funny, the cheating snooker player one perhaps a bit unfortunate given the recent news, with which Ding afaik is not associated.
    I looked up the wiki tit list; favourite has to be the ashy tit, surely the result of a fag afterwards?
    A few clues recently have used No. X (as in no.4 in 3d). It’s usually been No 10. Apart from the ‘no.’ being just padding, it also seems inappropriate. When you use no. or number before the numeral, it means that you are referring to a thing with that number, not the number itself.

  15. I must add my support for Kitty here and I am sorry to see that (at least) 14 comments and nearly 5 hours later Morello has not returned to the blog to see the reaction and perhaps make amends.
    On a positive note this was a wonderful puzzle and I must give the gold medal to the brilliant surface of 31 across and silver to the hilarious 25 across. Too many other superb clues to list.
    Thank you for a great blog Kitty and Grecian for today’s lovely entertainment.

  17. In contrast to other commenters, @kitty, your opening paragraph convinced me to do this puzzle and I enjoyed it immensely as I’m a sucker for a theme.

    Thanks to you and Grecian.

  18. Yes Ivan @16. Surely the result of someone’s clever planning. Having spent an hour counting the 18s in my garden this morning, I couldn’t believe I was finding them all over todays puzzle. Some novelty and a few chuckles. Thanks Grecian and Kitty.

  19. An enjoyable solve, particularly as the theme became apparent. We did get stuck in the NW corner till the penny dropped for BLUE to complete the themed answers.
    DE for Derby in the clue for MUSCADET was a bit surprising, but if solvers are expected to know US state abbreviations why not UK postcodes too?
    Thanks, Grecian and Kitty.

  20. Not seen them for a while, but we had Els today and Cher this week in the Guardian- the setters favourite golfer and singer. Balance is restored to the universe.

    Anyway, great puzzle- thanks Grecian, and Kitty for the blog.

  21. Always a bit dangerous to let a Kitty loose with all those birds around. Seriously though, Morello’s comment wasn’t ungracious or poor form, it was downright rude. Bloggers give up their time free of charge to offer elucidation, and in this case Kitty has gone the extra mile to provide photos as well, and don’t deserve to have their day ruined by comments like that. In a week when we’ve lost Gaufrid too. Grrr. Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, I’ll buy you a saucer of milk at the next sloggers and betters do.

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