Independent 8,858 by Phi – Fifteensquared

The usual from Phi: a very pleasant and sound crossword that maintains the high standard. And as usual I am a bit lost on one or two, but these will I’m sure be explained.

As I say below, I had thought there might be an astronomical theme, but failing that, and this theory does I think fail, I can’t see anything else.

Definitions underlined.

Across
9	VIOLA	Shakespeare heroine not dead, not entirely, and back to claim love (5) (aliv{e})rev. round o
10	INAMORATA	Loved one turned at a European country, abandoning American (9) (at a Romani{a})rev.
11	RAGTIME	Music covered by newspaper (particular example not so much) (7) rag Time{s} — ‘covered by’ is just a link
12	TONSURE	Hairstyle sported by the fashionable, certainly (7) ton [= the fashionable] sure
13	PROFESSOR	Reporters engaged in besetting of alternative academic (9) pr(of)ess or — ‘engaged in besetting’ is a rather long containment indicator
14	BINGO	Get rid of game of skill for game of chance (5) bin Go — Go, or should it be go, is an oriental game of skill
15	THE OAKS	Sports event similar to (yet preceding?) The Ashes? (3,4) The Oaks is similar to the Ashes in that both oaks and ashes are trees, yet precedes The Ashes usually since The Oaks is a horse race run at Epsom in June and The Ashes (series of cricket matches between England and Australia, in case you weren’t aware) usually come later in the summer.
17	LOOK-SEE	Gander free to nip tail of duck and tail of goose (4-3) loo({duc}k)se {goos}e
19	HOSED	Washed and accommodated, having abandoned university (5) ho{u}sed
21	SELF-DOUBT	Active but folds, pierced by me, ultimately? (4-5) (but folds)* round {m}e is the wordplay and I suppose this is an &lit., but I can’t see the connection with self-doubt at all
23	LAMBADA	Dance: attack inadequate one (7) lam [= attack] bad a
25	NEWNESS	Novelty point about alcohol I ignored (7) ne(w{i}ne)ss
27	CRESCENDO	Soccer game about to finish – more roars from the crowd? (9) (soccer)* round end — Phi is using the word crescendo in the correct sense: it’s not, as you so often see, an equivalent to climax, but an increase in sound
28	REACH	Get to spread the word after priest decamps (5) {p}reach
Down
1	OVER	Finished port once top’s removed (4) {D}over
2	FOXGLOVE	Sly character liking to restrict good source of drug (8) fox [= sly character] love round g — the foxglove is a source of digitalis
3	NATIVE LAND	Home territory unhappily coming to valiant end (6,4) (valiant end)* — ‘native land’ is not a term I was that familiar with, but it’s there
4	RIVERS	Waters run, heading off aquatic experts? (6) r {d}ivers
5	PASTORAL	Early female MP embraced by friend in the country (8) p(Astor)al — Lady Astor
6	MOON	Source of light activated after an instant (4) mo [= an instant] on [= activated] — some would say that the moon isn’t really a source of light and only reflects light, but that’s being a bit fussy: it doesn’t matter how the moon emits light — it does
7	SATURN	Ring-bearer positioned in front of vase (6) sat urn — Saturn has rings — when I saw this answer and the preceding one and knowing that Phi was interested in astronomy I suspected a Nina connected with this, but I can see nothing else
8	MALEVOLENT	Nasty digger swallowing beer – very Northern Territory (10) m(ale v)ole NT
13	PITCH-BLACK	Promotional stuff covering book’s shortcoming in obscurity (5-5) pitch b lack —I think the definition has to be this, not just ‘obscurity’, to make them compatible parts of speech — it still looks a bit of a stretch to me, but I suppose that ‘in obscurity’ is just about adjectival
14	BROADSWORD	US woman’s agreement? It might be double-edged (10) broad’s word
16	SUSTAINS	Upholds crimes involving American soldiers? (8) s(US TA)ins — why has Phi put an question mark at the end of this clue? I can’t see any doubt about any of the definitions.
18	SAUCEPAN	Kitchen utensil, brass, not entirely long (8) sauce [= brass] pan{g}
20	SUMMER	Caller’s dismissed just after heated period (6) summ{on}er
22	LONDON	US author not enough for single academic (6) lon{e} don
24	ARCH	Stone not needed for formal monumental structure (4) {st}arch — Chambers does indeed give starch as an adjective, but I can’t imagine the appropriate sentence
26	SOHO	Responses to revelation raised in this part of 22 (4) (oho’s)rev. — since 22 is London this is part of London

*anagram

17 comments on “Independent 8,858 by Phi”

Thanks, John. Sound as always from Phi, and like you I was looking for something astronomical once MOON and SATURN had gone in.

I failed on THE OAKS – just couldn’t see it at all (I’m even less into horse racing than I am into golf …) Not sure that I understand the clue anyway, since The Ashes (in England, anyway) usually start before June, if memory serves. The international cricket schedule is so crazy these days that anything can happen.

Thanks John and Phi. I think oaks precede ashes when burnt.
Can anyone explain “long” => “pang” for me? I can only find “pang” as a “noun” and long as anything but a noun.

16D possibly the question mark is there because the insertion is not “American soldiers” but “American” + “soldiers” – ie the British Territorial Army, for which there is, I assume, no American equivalent.

Thanks to Phi and John.

Hi Cyborg @2
I think John’s finger slipped down one row on his keyboard, it should read PAN[t] for the ‘not entirely long’ in 18dn.

The way the Test calendar in this country is now set up it is possible that The Oaks can be run before The Ashes starts, but I didn’t read the clue that way. I think it could be referring to the fact that oaks can become ashes if they are burned.

Thanks Gaufrid @ 4, I completely missed that option.

Thanks to S & B,

A bit gentler than Phi’s last few offerings. I see a few musical references – VIOLA, RAGTIME, PASTORAL and CRESCENDO for example, but doubt that makes a theme.

Sorry, I’m being thick, but ‘on’ for ‘just after’ in 20d? ‘Sauce’ for ‘brass’ in 18 d is also a new one to me.

WordPlodder @ 8, I read “on” in the sense of “cash on delivery”.

Thanks, Phi and John

Re 15ac there’s an old saying about the weather. Whether (sorry, couldn’t resist!) oak or ash trees come into leaf first is supposed to predict the sort of summer to follow:

“Oak before ash, only a splash; ash before oak, we’re in for a soak.”

Does anyone know of any evidence to back it up?

Thanks Phi and John

15ac: I wondered if this might be a reference to the old song “The Oak and The Ash”.

Yes, it’s the burning of the oak that produces the ash.

Genre fiction Nine warning (and you won’t have to go far down the alphabet).

Defeated by the Nina, as ever; thanks to Phi for the pointer to Ben Aaronovitch (Foxglove Summer, Moon [over] Soho)

Very kind of you, Gaufrid @4, to suggest that my finger slipped when writing pan{g} rather than pan{t}. I simply saw ‘pang’ as a verb (which is, perhaps surprisingly, justified by Chambers) but your suggestion is obviously correct.