Independent on Sunday 1,203 by Commoner

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I believe Commoner to be a new name to the IoS, and if that’s the case, then welcome! This was very much in the style to which we’ve become accustomed: a good Sunday crossword with nice surface readings and nothing especially troublesome.

Having said that, 12dn got the better of me, not having heard of the plant in question, and failing to come up with anything convincing from the anagram. Apart from that, everything fell into place very smoothly.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 TRIPOD – TRIP + O + D.
5 LOSE HOPE – LO + S[ever]E + (OP in HE).
9 COUNTESS – COUNT[l]ESS.
10 ASTRAL – (ART’S in L.A.)<.
11 TROUBLE SPOT – (POUR BOTTLES)*.
13 SLOOP – S + POOL<.
14 STRUNG OUT – RUNG in STOUT.
17 SCARECROW – CARE in WORCS<. I’m not particularly well up on my comic book baddies, but this answer seemed likely, and here he is.
18 FAINT – F + AIN’T.
20 MALEVOLENCE – MALE + V[i]OLENCE.
23 PASS ON – PASS[i]ON. I thought “selflessly” was a nice indicator for “remove the I”, and not a device I remember seeing before.
24 ADELAIDE – AID in ADELE.
25 SEAT BELT – (LET BEAST)*.
26 SADIST – [marqui]S A DIST[inctly], and a reference to this chap.
Down
2 ROOF – O in FOR<.
3 PINOT NOIR – P.I. + NOT + NO I + R. The R is from “port? On the contrary”, meaning the opposite of port, or left. I spent some time trying to make RIO< work though.
4 DAEMON – MEAD< + [d]O[w]N.
5 LAST BUT NOT LEAST – L + A S + BUT + hom. of “not leased”.
6 STAKE OUT – S + TAKE OUT.
7 HET UP – THE* + UP.
8 PLAY TRUANT – PLAY + TRU[e] + A + NT.
12 ELECAMPANE – (PLANE CAME)*.
15 GRAVEYARD – I think just a cd., though I’m happy to hear other suggestions.
16 SCAVENGE – (CAVE in Sn) + E.G.<
19 ANGERS – [r]ANGERS.
21 LISZT – hom. of “list”.
22 ODES – OD + Es.

11 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,203 by Commoner”

  1. Isn’t STRUNG OUT just a play on words from *grunts? Or is the clue different for the paper versus my online version. This was my favourite clue.

    Thanks for the blog!

  3. I think 16 must have a different clue in your version too. The online one is:

    Cleanse serious cuts initially, then retaliate.

  6. At a guess, the online version is the .ccw file Commoner originally submitted, and the print version was what it got changed to once Eimi had had his way.

    Congrats to Commoner and welcome aboard! At least I’m no longer the baby of the bunch.

  8. Congratulations, Commoner on a fine debut puzzle.

    I was working on the online version and thought the ‘exhausted grunts’ was quite a neat clue for STRUNG OUT, although there is no ‘cryptic’ indicator. I thought this crossword was coming out last week, so perhaps there was a change at the last minute.

    Thanks Simon; I’m not sure I understand the parsing of PINOT NOIR. Could it be PI NOT N for ‘detective in no way, ‘the best’ [being superior to] RIO ‘on the contrary’ reversal at the end? I thought at the beginning there was some play on ‘Poirot,’ but I couldn’t get that to work as ‘port’ would then be superfluous. I, too, liked the ‘selflessly’ in 23. Perhaps Commoner will pop by to explain.

  9. Thanks for the welcome, and all the comments. And thanks, Simon for the explanations. It’s good to be reminded what the clues meant!

    Alchemi seems to have to answer to the discrepancy between those two clues – the originals appear on the web version, and the rewritten versions appeared in the paper. In the original clue for STRUNG OUT the ‘out’ acted as the anagram indicator for ‘strung’ (assisted by the question mark). But ‘exhausted’ wasn’t a specific enough definition, unfortunately.

    As for PINOT NOIR, detective=PI; in no way=NOT; the best=NOI (as in ‘number one’); and port=l(eft), but ‘on the contrary’ made it R(ight). Which looks to me what Simon got from it.

    Thanks again – it’s great to get the feedback!

  10. 15 across the answer is graveyard because graveyard shift is the last shift of the night,eg dead of the night.???????

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