Independent 7447 Nestor 28-August-2010

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I can’t spell Tiananmen. I had it as Tiannamen for ages which held me up on the SW corner and 15D in particular of course. In fact, I would’ve spelt it Tianamen except for the letter count and extra N in the fodder but didn’t doubt it was just a doubling of the N.
Anyway, I completed the right hand side of the grid with now great trouble, but struggled with the left.
Help please to parse 19D.

Across
1 SCRUFF R[ight] inside SCUFF (mark on shoe) Def: ragamuffin. But shouldn’t it be “Right worn by mark on shoe”? This was ne of the last I got and only because it couldn’t be much else:
Mark on show possibly worn by right ragamuffin (6)
5 THICKSET S inside THICKET
10 WORSEN SE[a] inside WORN
11 AU REVOIR U OVER< inside AIR
12 ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED (mingled) PRESS (crowd) Normally known just as AP
14 MERENGUE ENG[lish] U inside MERE (simple) A Caribbean dance – I had to look this up to check
16 MILES DD Ref. Miles Davis and “Very much” as in “Miles away”
18 MOURN MO (How one operates – Modus Operandi) URN (vessel)
20 BY DESIGN YD (yard) inside (BEINGS)* AInd: strange
24 TIANANMEN SQUARE Not Tiannamen (QUARANTINE MEANS)* AInd: shifting. Second answer entered – wrongly. Infamous place.
26 POITIERS OP< I (one) TIERS (levels) Nice town – worth a visit and surrounding area
27 ARTHUR ART (cunning) HUR[l] Def. refers to the Dudley Moore film made after he hit the bigtime in “10”. I suppose he was happy with the fortune and world-wide fame, but I couldn’t help feeling it was a waste of his considerable comedic and musical talents
28 PANCETTA TT in PAN[a]CEA
29 TUREEN E[ndiv]E inside TURN (sour)
Down
2 CROSSBEAM (BOSS)* AInd:wrought, inside CREAM (off-white)
3 UPSLOPE P[eak] in US (American), LOPE (bound)
4 FUNDING FUN (enjoyable) DING (little bash). My car’s bumper has a few dings
6 HOUSE [w]HO (which people), USE (apply)
7 CHEAPSIDE HEAPS (Miles, ref answer 16A) inside CID,E Runs from St Pauls to Bank
8 STONE ME (NOT SEEM)* AInd: cultured
9 THRUSH THRUS[t] (nearly shoved) H[ard]
13 TREMBLE M[ass] inside TREBLE (DESCANT, ref answer 21D)
15 NARRATIVE ARR[ives] inside NATIVE (indigenous).
17 SUGAR-CUBE C[ocaine] inside ([d]RUG ABUSE)* AInd: foiled
19 OVATION Can some help with this. Last answer entered. I can see the Def is “Warm reception” but the rest escapes me:
Warm reception after pub that would be new (7)
21 DESCANT DES (Ref. Des O’Connor) CAN’T. No, he probably can’t now.
22 SHUTTER SH (Wrap up) UTTER (total). I found it difficult to see this wordplay for some reason.
Wrap up total protection for Windows (7)
23 STEP UP U[ranium] inside STEPP[e] First answer entered.
25 MARAT MAR[ch] A[oû]T The chap most noted now for his death in the bath at the hands of Charlotte Corday, possibly because of the painting by David (no, not the footballer)

7 comments on “Independent 7447 Nestor 28-August-2010”

  2. Phi beat me to it for 19d, I also had the ssme trouble with that Chinese square! This was an enjoyable little solve over a couple of pints for me anyway.

  3. As I observed earlier this week, Indy crosswords aren’t just for pleasure and relaxation – they’re educational! MERENGUE was new to me, and I would have spelt 24a ‘Tianenmen’. But spelling vaiations are always likely when transliterating from Mandarin, Russian, Arabic or whatever. A certain other newspaper (not blogged on this site) tends to be quirky in this respect.
    Guessed 11a straightaway, but took ages to understand the clue.

  4. re scruff, if you wear a sock then your foot is in the sock.

    “Right worn by mark on shoe” would give RscuffT, imho.

    Some nicely constructed clues. Dud film, excellent misdirection, possibly a double definition.

  5. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.

    Quite pleased as this appears to be first time in many weeks that the Saturday puzzle appears and appears error-free. Thanks to the people at the Indy, if they read this blog.

    Also, one of the rare times I’ve got a prize crossword all correct.
    The spelling thing didn’t get me on 24A, but it did hold me up a bit where I’m more used to the alternative “meringue”.

    Re 22D, my reading is “SHUTTER” as a verb in the sense of closing down, ie. to wrap up (eg. a business). And thus it’s a double definition. (I may be wrong.)

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