Independent 11,871 by Tyrus

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Tyrus provides today’s brainteaser.

We really enjoyed this themed puzzle. The theme gradually became apparent as we worked through the clues – just the way we like it….and when we figured out the nina (with a few clues still to be solved) it raised a really big smile, helped complete the last few clues and confirmed the nuts in the grid.

We’re at the S&B in York today, so won’t be able to respond to any comments until later in the day.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7. Fights over one bill where alcohol’s served (4,4)
WINE BARS

WARS (fights) round or ‘over’ I (one) NEB (bill)

8. Goes off round India with maiden being selfish (6)
EGOISM

An anagram (‘off’) of GOES round I (India in the phonetic alphabet) + M (maiden)

10. Gershwin back in Paris (3)
IRA

Hidden and reversed (‘back’) in pARIs

11. Fly to Sweden, get confused and disappear (9)
SKEDADDLE

KED (fly) after S (Sweden) + ADDLE (confused)

12. Kind drunkard takes in Loomer finally (4)
SORT

SOT (drunkard) round or ‘taking in’ R (last or ‘final’ letter of Loomer) – we wondered about the relevance of ‘Loomer’ – a quick google revealed that Laura Loomer is an American far-right conspiracy theorist, who would presumably be at home with 16acs and 15/13ds and definitely qualifies for the puzzle theme.

13. Made up by performing fleas (5)
FALSE

An anagram (‘performing’) of FLEAS – a reference to fake news?

15/13D. Female figure on horseback acquires a following – patriot? (4,3)
MAGA FAN

MA (‘female figure’) + a reversal (‘back’) of NAG (horse) round or ‘acquiring’ A F (following) – a very big question mark for the definition

16. Question One all for now maybe: who is extremely credulous? (5,8)
QANON FOLLOWER

Q (question) + an anagram (‘maybe’) of ONE FOR ALL NOW

19. Child grasps right and wrong (4)
TORT

TOT (child) round or ‘grasping’ R (right)

21. Thought of euphemism finally: ‘pre-loved’ (5)
MUSED

M (‘final’ letter of euphemism) USED (‘pre-loved’)

22. Overtake swimmer (4)
GOBY

GO BY (overtake) – we had never come across this fish before

24. Former presenter, one nominally clever, trapped in channel (5,4)
DAVID ICKE

I (one) DICK (‘nominally clever’ – ‘clever Dick’) ‘trapped’ in DAVE (TV channel) – the conspiracy theorist and former sports broadcaster

27. Drug agent – it’s very fishy looking back (4)
NARC

A reversal (‘looking back’) of CRAN (a measure of fish landed in port)

28. I think Bari’s wrong – it’s somewhere else in Italy (6)
UMBRIA

UM (‘I think’) + an anagram (‘wrong’) of BARI

29. How to dispose of rubbish janitor regularly collects from scratch (2,6)
AB INITIO

BIN IT (‘how to dispose of rubbish’) in or ‘collected by’ jAnItOr (alternate or ‘regular’ letters)

DOWN
1. Fit youngster has nothing for self-defence (6)
AIKIDO

AI (fit) KID (youngster) O (nothing)

2. On building a nest, start to feel secure again (8)
REFASTEN

RE (on) + an anagram (‘building’) of A NEST and F (first letter or ‘start’ of feel)

3. Stretch over, has a rest (4)
NAPS

A reversal (‘over’) of SPAN (stretch)

4. Man maybe seduced with no protection from doctor (4)
ISLE

mISLEd (‘seduced’) – missing ‘md’ (doctor) which are the first and last letters or ‘protection’

5. Cancel out Tyneside scandal? (6)
NEGATE

A Tyneside scandal might be referred to as NE (north-east) GATE – scandal as in Watergate, Partygate etc

6. Blasted creature that might get shot on reflection (6)
GODDAM

A reversal (‘on reflection’) of MAD DOG (‘creature that might get shot’)

9. Kidnap victim, female wearing old clothes, turned up (7)
SHERGAR

HER (female) in or ‘wearing’ a reversal (‘turned up’) of RAGS (old clothes) – the racehorse famously stolen in 1983 and put up for ransom

13. See 15 Across
14. Silly birds? (5)
LOONS

A sort of double definition, LOONS being silly people as well as diving birds

16. Former queen and working mother (7)
QUONDAM

QU (queen) ON (working) DAM (mother)

17. Top student with papers (3)
LID

L (learner – ‘student’) ID (identity papers)

18. Female companion and drunk carrying on in sleeper (5-3)
WAGON-LIT

WAG (wife or girlfriend of a sportsman – ‘female companion’) LIT (drunk) round or ‘carrying’ ON

20. Pub in Cheers against online service (6)
TAVERN

TA (thanks – ‘cheers’) V (against) E (online) RN (Royal Navy – ‘service’)

21. Crazy promotion in two thousand and one (6)
MADMAN

AD (advert -‘promotion’) in MM (two thousand) + AN (one)

23. Left one capital to go round another (6)
BERLIN

L (left) I (one) with BERN (capital of Switzerland) outside or ‘going round’

25. Tea dance (a third one) (4)
CHAI

CHA (a third of cha-cha-cha – ‘dance’) I (one)

26. Lamb Smith cooking doesn’t require starter (4)
ELIA

dELIA (Delia Smith – chef) missing the first letter or ‘starter’ – a reference to Charles Lamb, the essayist also known as Elia

 

14 comments on “Independent 11,871 by Tyrus”

  2. Especially liked 16d QUONDAM< and 6d GODDAM<
    [Earworm (a different Nina) Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam (1964, a 60th (Diamond) anniversary. It’s “a show tune, but the show hasn’t been written for it yet.”]
    Excellent puzzle! Thanks T & B&J

  5. Afraid the only fun I got from this was SHERGAR. Nina very good, but on my tablet the whole grid never displays at once so I never see them. Oh well.

    Thanks Tyrus – and B&J for explaining the “patriot”.

  6. Done in by the 16’s. Never thought to enter Q without a U in the across and nho QUONDAM or indeed DAM for mother, so not too disappointed.

    Plenty to like elsewhere.

    Thanks to Tyrus and to B&J for the excellent blog.

  8. I enjoyed this and learnt quite a bit from it. I managed to get about a third in via the more straightforward clues, and then to avoid getting bogged down I checked-and-changed to reveal QUONDAM which to me was an unlikely jorum. That immediately gave me Q-N-N from which it became obvious that this puzzle would contain acronyms or other non-words, which helped me (after some thought) to get the MAGA for my FAN. The latter was a tough clue since MAGA FAN isn’t a set phrase – but that in turn led me to QANON FOLLOWER. By this time I’d twigged that this was probably an American setter, which helped me get SKEDADDLE, NARC (as opposed to narco which would be the lord not the agent) and GODDAM, and led me to overlook some parsing blanks such as NEB = bill/beak and LOONS = the ducks known in the UK as divers.

    As well as QUONDAM, I was also defeated by AB INITIO (both victims of my ignorance of latin), NEGATE (unhelpful checkers) and ISLE (toughest clue of the bunch I thought, and a great one; I had twigged the MD envelope conceit but was looking for a man’s name for the middle, and wouldn’t personally have associated seduce with mislead though it’s fine I think).

    It was parse-and-hope-for-the-best with the nho LOONS, ELIA (the Smith cooking; cheeky syntax!), WAGON-LIT and GOBY but all was well – and offered yet more proof that basically anything is plausible as the name of a fish.

    Apart from ISLE, favourites were SHERGAR, TAVERN and CHAI.

    So all in all, a varied and interesting workout. Thanks Tyrus et al.

  9. … Alas I didn’t spot the lovely nina, though I did sense the theme (and I’d add GODDAM to it, for the mad dog).

    Oh by the way, can anyone help me on why the “to” in “fly to Sweden” can be interpreted as “after” (leading to SKED…)?

    I’m imagining something along the lines of “on = by” which setters use all the time (and which I assume comes from place names such as Clacton-on-Sea).

  12. Great puzzle. Took a while. Finally made a boob entering MEGA FAN rather than the correct answer thinking of the rapper Megan Thee Stallion who does horse laughs on Tik Tok among other things. Was on the lookout for a nina however and I found it and it helped so I’m stoked about that. Thanks B&J and Tyrus.

  13. Many thanks to Bertandjoyce for the blog and to others who commented.

    Let’s hope the pro-Trump nuts have nothing to celebrate next month.

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