Independent 12183 by Dalibor

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With autumn in full swing and the clocks about to change Dalibor brings some Saturday fun. Quite a rare appearance as a setter for a fellow blogger on this site, I believe.

I did enjoy 2dn (a double Genesis reference in there) and 4dn (very odd one but very fair too). Several other fine clues too.

We’re also almost in pangram territory too though no hidden messages that I can find anyway.

Thanks Dalibor – a fun solve

Key * anagram; DD double definition; rev. reverse; underline definition

Across
8 Italian musician at last eating a filling local sandwich (or two?) (8)
Panini (local sandwixh) around g (last eating) + a = PAGANINI

9 Daily Star (3,3)
DD THE SUN

10 Palestinians backed by Oxbridge academic make very slow progress (4,2)
PLO (Palestinians) + don (oxford academic) = PLOD ON

11 French tennis icon heading for Channel island in lifeboat? (5,3)
Noah (French tennis player) + Sark (Channel Island) = NOAH’S ARK

12 Parcel company, mostly growing in reputation, causes a revolution (8)
UPS (parcel company) -s + rising (growing in reputation) = UPRISING

13 This bendy motorway’s narrow passages (6)
(This)* + Mi (motorway) = ISTHMI

14 Takeaway at lunchtime? (8,7)
Cryptic definition DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

18 Fuddy-duddy Spurs wingers admitting defeat? On the contrary (6)
ss(spurs wingers) in foil (defeat) = FOSSIL

20 Fans around India excited after king returned the country’s old money (8)
(fans)* around I(india) after Rev. Rex (king) = XERAFINA

23 Bodyguard following group of engineers – this in case you forgot (8)
minder(bodyguard) after re (group of engineers) = REMINDER

24 Dell is put inside suitcase (6)
vale(dell) around is = VALISE

25 Diva half-heartedly drinks one port (6)
Callas (Diva as in Maria) – l (half heartedly) around I(one) = CALAIS

26 Looking fixedly, wasting little time when producing chemical weapon (5,3)
staring(looking fixedly) – t(time) + as(when) = SARIN GAS

Down
1 One captured by the enemy about to invite everyone in for a beer (6)
Rev POW (one captured by the enemy) around all (everyone) = WALLOP

2 Ultimately, Gabriel with Collins, for the listener a load of rubbish (8)
l(ultimately Gabriel) + and(with) + Homonym of Phil (Collins) = LANDFILL

3 Wagner opera: nul points in Paris, almost the same in New York (6)
rien (null points in Paris) + zip(same in New York) – p = RIENZI

4 1978 film generates clue for g, say (8,7)
g is Mid niGht + express(say) = MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

5 Piccolo is one overwhelmed by far too much wine, commonly (8)
a(one) after OTT (far too much) + vino(wine commonly) = OTTAVINO

6 Debt is problematic, finding a place to live (6)
(debt is)* = BEDSIT

7 Students’ Union: first I must leave for it to become more sovereign (8)
su(student’s union) + premier(first) – i = SUPREMER

15 Boy adopted by a rising celebrity in full agreement (2,3,3)
a + Rev. name(celebrity) around son(boy) = AS ONE MAN

16 Former democrat, American, seen in sports car, something difficult to obtain (4,4)
old(former) + d(democrat) + us(american) in GT (sports car) = GOLD DUST

17 Awesome skyward throw that’s perplexing (8)
Rev. fab (awesome) + fling (throw) = BAFFLING

19 Red army invading quiet zone (6)
ira(army) in sh(quiet) + z (zone) = SHIRAZ

21 Right ascending note’s creating sound effect (6)
r(right) + rev. breve (note) = REVERB

22 We hear people waiting by new supermarket for a place to buy and sell securities (6)
q(we hear people waiting) after n (new) +N asda (supermarket) = NASDAQ

15 comments on “Independent 12183 by Dalibor”

  1. Liked DAYLIGHT ROBBERY, LANDFILL and MIGNIGHT EXPRESS.

    REMINDER
    I think ‘this’ should be part of the def.
    SUPREMER
    Def: more sovereign

    Thanks Dalibor and twencelas.

  2. I wouldn’t say we’re in “pangram territory”. It did look like a possibility but a quick glance showed no J or K and I didn’t look further.
    I was happy to complete this and was particularly glad to think of midnight express at first reading. Not sure how my brain went straight to that.
    Guessed RIENZI from wordplay. XERAFINA was a jorum. OTTAVINO was almost a jorum, but I guessed OTTIVINO and had to be corrected.
    NOAH’S ARK was my loi, not knowing the tennis player.

  3. Good stuff. I failed on RIENZI although I could have looked it up of course; if I’d been looking for a potential pangram – which I should have been – I might have got it! D’oh. (Indeed there’s no J, although the K is in NOAH’S ARK.)

    I liked that the setter deftly avoided the panino/PANINI issue, and also particularly enjoyed LANDFILL, NASDAQ, THE SUN, ISTHMI for what was a jorumed plural for me, ditto XERAFINA, VALISE and the two long ones.

    Thanks both.

  4. Actually I’ve just twigged that we already had the Z in SHIRAZ (which I also liked) so I wouldn’t have been expecting to use it again. No doubt the pangram would have led me to RIENJI which I’m sure I’d have found a way to justify… 😅

  6. Lots of fun and clever clues, but too many nho words for us to find it satisfying (rienzi, ottavino, wallop, xerafina). Quite a long way outside our GK!

  7. Great to see another puzzle from Dalibor. The expected struggle but none the less enjoyable for that. RIENZI, OTTAVINO and XERAFINS not even remotely heard of and the wordplay was quite convoluted for all. A few musical references scattered throughout the clues and answers and the DAYLIGHT ROBBERY/ MIDNIGHT EXPRESS crossing central answers were a nice little goodie to add to the grid.

    Thanks to Dalibor and twencelas

  8. I looked up the Wagner opera. Not my strong suit. Great clue. I understood it was something francais but I had little idea about ‘nul points’ which I see is written in the blog as ‘null points’. I get that. The long entries were the last to drop once I had the ‘x’ in XEROFINA which is a nho but again very nicely clued. A puzzle that I enjoyed very much with a good laugh at DAYLIGHT ROBBERY. Thanks for the blog and, for the fun, thanks Dalibor.

  9. @hovis#2: I’ve seen it several times in blogs but what does jorum mean in this context? Hope I’m asking for others too ashamed to admit it has passed them by, apologies if everyone knows.

  12. Thanks both. Some really strong stuff here, personal favourite being LANDFILL partly as it better reflects my musical taste than a few others e.g REINZI which was well-clued but inevitably a nho for me, though I did recall PAGANINI and the CALAIS diva. The wordplay for SHIRAZ does work well, however I’d rather the army element was consigned to a ‘no go’ category.

  13. I remember the My Music bloke playing a bit of Rienzi and Denis Nordern going Noooh, that’s never Wagner! But it was.

  14. Well, I got RIENZI as a write-in, but I needed a bit of prompting from the dictionary for OTTAVINO and XERAFINS. I must admit, though that after trying several variations on ‘panini’ for 8ac I needed a wordfinder for PAGANINI – d’oh! Incidentally I guess the ‘or two’ in the clue for 8ac refers to ‘panini’ being actually, as Chambers informs me, the plural of ‘panino’. Crosswords can certainly be educational.

  15. Well. I’d not only heard of RIENZI, I’ve actually seen it. Still took me ages to get. It’s said that at the first performance, Wagner went around stopping all the clocks in the opera house so nobody would realise how late it was getting. The performance I saw in the eighties at English National Opera was a cur down version – only about three hours.

    Had to do a couple of word searches to finish.

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