Independent 11,842 by Wire

by

Wire gets our week going

Quite chewy in places and some involved wordplay, thanks Wire

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Drug cut by an individual at end of counter (9)
BARBITONE

BAR – counter & BIT – cut & ONE – individual

6. Parcel up music in auditorium (4)
WRAP

Sounds like RAP "music"

10. Calls sailor back when one American’s left (5)
NAMES

One A(merican) taken from a reversed SE(a)MAN

11. Cleaner energy embraced by bankrupt capital (9)
BUCHAREST

CHAR – cleaner & E(nergy) all in BUST – bankrupt

12. Dance in red on Trump’s number one news channel? (7)
FOXTROT

Donald's favourite channel FOX & TROT, communist, red

13. Surface defect ruined the Polo (7)
POTHOLE

[THE POLO]* ruined

14. Officer’s trial around 22.00 sapping the spirits (13)
DISHEARTENING

DI'S – officers & TEN – 22:00 in HEARING – trial

17. Niece isn’t struggling with Gran’s stubbornness (13)
INTRANSIGENCE

[NIECE ISNT GRAN]* struggling

21. 4s perhaps jammed by core of Martians’ signals (7)
MOTIONS

4s could be MOONS with middle of (mar)TI(ans) inserted

22. Prosthesis setter’s placed at front of factory (7)
IMPLANT

I'M – setter is & PLANT – factory

24. Distinguish between archer and old man in craft (4,5)
TELL APART

(william) TELL – archer & PA – old man in ART – craft

25. One serving in the military holds Mass for city (5)
PARMA

M(ass) inside PARA – soldier

26. Bit of China my mum Anne regularly avoided (4)
YUAN

Chinese currency – alternate letters of mY mUm AnNe

27. Head hosting English gathering without taking sides (9)
NEUTRALLY

E(nglish) in NUT – head & RALLY – gathering

DOWN
1. Genuine Jedi fan obsesses somewhat in retirement (4,4)
BONA FIDE

Hidden reversed in jEDI FAN OBsesses

2. New version of note welcomed by timeless band (5)
REMIX

MI – musical note in (t)-REX

3. Home County mostly moved coal and tin given to rebellion (14)
INSURRECTIONAL

IN – home & most of SURRE(y) & [COAL TIN]* moved

4. Sequence essentially replaced by binary digit for Telstar? (7)
ORBITER

BIT is shorthand for binary digit, so BIT replacing the middle of OR(d)ER – sequence, def by example

5. Fugitive starts to seek cover after breaking weapon (7)
ESCAPEE

S(eek) C(over) A(fter) inside EPEE – weapon

7. Two climbing ungulates carrying gold instrument (4,5)
REED ORGAN

OR – heraldic gold in DEER & NAG both reversed

8. Bird safe lifting tail perched on line (6)
PETREL

A safe or safe breaker is known as a "Peter" so twist the tail to get PETRE & L(ine)

9. Spooner’s game escapade is material for artists (9,5)
CARTRIDGE PAPER

Spoonerism of PARTRIDGE CAPER

15. Calls in IT to organise trace (9)
SCINTILLA

[CALLS IN IT]* organised

16. Top journal dismissing duke’s Animal Studies (8)
BESTIARY

BEST – top & D(uke) removed from (d)IARY

18. Contractors on island wearing brown stay dry (7)
ABSTAIN

ABS – muscles, "contractors" & I(sland) in TAN – brown

19. Muslim oddly upset over hands-on therapy (7)
SHIATSU

SHIA – muslim variant & alternate letters of UpSeT reversed

20. Dog occupying empty pen not at all clean (6)
SMUTTY

MUTT – dog inside an empty S(t)Y – pen

23. Currency raised saves pence a month (5)
APRIL

P(ence) inside a reversed LIRA

12 comments on “Independent 11,842 by Wire”

  1. I found this quite chewy also… mostly with thinking CENTRALLY for 27a n METEORS for 21a with no actual thought involved.. I thought YUAN def might be the actual pottery?
    Thanks Wire n flashling

  3. Liked this Monday morning puzzle a lot. Bucharest and Cartridge Paper both excellent

    Thanks Wire and Flashling

  4. Very nice puzzle from one of my favourite setters.

    I particularly liked BUCHAREST, INTRANSIGENCE, TELL APART, BONA FIDE, REMIX, BESTIARY, ABSTAIN and CARTRIDGE PAPER – hurrah for a Spoonerism that makes sense.

    (Wire is, of course, completely exonerated but I can’t see me ever being reconciled to ESCAPEE as a word.)

    Many thanks to Wire and flashling.

  5. As often happens, Eileen has picked out my favourites. I think -ee words fall into three categories: those that are right, like employee, those that can just about be justified by a similarity to French, like escapee, and truly awful ones like attendee.

  6. Wire on good form with this one. Certainly the fizziest of this morning’s offerings. As Eileen observes, it is nice to have a sensible Spoonerism for CARTRIDGE PAPER and what a fun one it is. POTHOLE, INTRANSIGENCE, TELL APART, NEUTRALLY, BONA FIDE (COTD), PETREL and BESTIARY were my other favourites.

    I read an article recently bemoaning the loss to setters of the pre-Euro European currencies which gave such useful letter combos. It was nice to see LIRA in 23d – and I wondered if it should be indicated as ‘old’. But then I remembered the Turkish currency which is, of course, still current. Are there actually any currencies to which setters no longer have access apart from the peseta?

    Thanks Wire and flashling

  7. PostMark@6: Not sure, but its derivative the peso is used in the Americas and is presumably more useful still to setters. Mark turns up a fair bit still, though I’m equally in the dark about whether it’s current somewhere.

    I enjoyed this puzzle and made smoother progress with it than with today’s Guardian which everyone else seemed to find trivial. Funny how that often happens to me!

    CARTRIDGE PAPER, INSURRECTIONAL and PETREL were my favourites. Nho SHIATSU.

    Thanks both

  9. Good point, AP. I did think of mark and had a feeling it was used somewhere still but it does not appear to be. That said, fortunately there are completely separate alternatives available for that word. I had expected guilder to have gone but it’s still the currency in Surinam. Drachma is the, perhaps obvious, one I overlooked.

  10. Thanks both. Not too chewy for me, though I was slow to spot the Yoda-style anagrind in SCINTILLA and had no real chance with the unknown SHIATSU. Incidentally, ref Simon S@7 Finland replaced its Markka with the Euro in 2002.

  11. Certainly, Finland was using the euro when I was there a few years ago, and it still is, as far as I can see. Hope to go there again next year, so I can check. 🙂

  12. … and they still have the Schweizer Franken, the Franc Suisse, some Franchi Svizzeri, and the Franc Svizzer in the Confœderatio Helvetica. [L’esprit de l’escalier.]

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