Independent 8,914 by Crosophile

Crosophile appears for our Monday delights.

Crosophile seems to add more superflous padding to the surface than most setters, which I know annoys some here. He usually has has some theme, Nina both or more, but I can’t spot it yet today.

Across

1 Two thirds of the capital’s invested in British energy to be fair (6)

BLONDE

2/3 of LOND(on) in B(ritish) & E(nergy). British Energy no longer exist, they were bought by EDF

4 ‘Vote Reagan’: Is this a little bit negative? (8)

ELECTRON

ELECT (vote) & RON (Reagan). For a while I was toying with something like against whose letters appear tantalisingly like a angram in the clue

10 Term one used for what’s above a bishop in the Church? (5)

MITRE

Well I guess the “in the church” bit is just surface padding, [TERM 1]* used. Whimsical del for a bishop’s hat

11 One manages to get by or finally turn profit on almost nothing (9)

ORGANIZER

OR & GANI (gain with ending turned) & ZER(o)

12 Best deal on the street? (5)

FIRST

FIR (deal, a type of softwood, usually fir) & ST(reet)

13 Farewell from a former revolutionary beginning to enjoy his river (7)

CHEERIO

CHÉ & E(njoy) & RIO (Spanish for river)

15 Garden pest seeing poles to go down (5)

SNAIL

S & N (poles) & AIL

17 Recipe cooked with last of ham is not nice (9)

IMPRECISE

Nice meaning exact here. [RECIPE (ha)M IS]* cooked

20 I dash around West in big big pictures (9)

OVERVIEWS

I in VERVE (dash) & W(est) all in O.S. (big)

21 Formal clothes – they’re seen in court (5)

SUITS

Double def, although I’d have thought that they were heard in court rather than seen

22 Islands featured in this month’s presses (7)

INSISTS

IS (islands) in INST’S (this month, a term rarely seen outside of legal documents)

25 Guarantee to eliminate right to succeed (5)

ENSUE

R(ight) removed from ENSU(r)E

28 So it’s time county town finally moves a step forward (9)

THEREFORE

T(ime) & HEREFOR(d)E. The last letter moves a step forward so d becomes E

29 Bomber’s final explosion (5)

BLAST

B(omber) & LAST (final)

30 Famously religious place, e.g. The Dead Sea (4,4)

SALT LAKE

Double def, the Dead Sea is indeed a salt lake

31 Section of circle that’s over on rain-free terrain (the moon perhaps?) (6)

CRATER

Difficult to pin down the def exactly, ARC reversed & TER(rain) (rain free)

Down

1 British crowd rises up to move very quickly (4)

BOMB

B(ritish) & MOB all reversed

2 Old-fashioned fellow goes in for a bit of naughtiness in courting (3-2-4)

OUT-OF-DATE

The phrase is “out on a date” but with F(ellow) for [A & N(aughtiness)], however the order of the A & N in the clue for removal seems to be the wrong way round.

3 Depressing dead end (5)

DREAR

D(ead) & REAR.

5 Reason soldier in jam finally freed (5)

LOGIC

G.I. in LOC(k)

6 They communicate ideas and do verse, with people looking on perhaps? (9)

CONVEYERS

CON (do) & V(erse) & EYERS (people looking – ish)

7 The last character to shout up about it is pretty sharp (5)

RAZOR

Z (last character) & ROAR reversed around it.

8 Wound scar openly dropping off suddenly (10)

NARCOLEPSY

[SCAR OPENLY]* is wound

9 Wrong river in France to find reptile (8)

TORTOISE

TORT (wrong) & OISE (french river, a tributary of the Seine)

14 Sea-coast is crumbling according to friends (10)

ASSOCIATES

[SEA COAST IS]* crumbled

16 One might go off immoral uprising and she will (4,5)

LIVE SHELL

EVIL (immoral) reversed & contraction of SHE (wi)LL

18 Ran out around school’s head and went on and on (8)

PESTERED

S(chool)’s head inside PETERED (ran out)

19 Traveller in the train’s not hard working (9)

ITINERANT

H(ard) removed from [IN T(h)E TRAIN]* working

23 Prepare last of wine when drinking time’s up (5)

STEEL

T(ime) drunk by LEES (last of wine) reversed

24 It’s very hairy, an unpleasant surprise (5)

SHOCK

Double def

26 Drunk bores if one’s this (5)

SOBER

BORES* is drunk

27 Newspaper‘s award for merit (4)

STAR

Double def

9 comments on “Independent 8,914 by Crosophile”

I completed all but three clues in half an hour, with no guesswork at all. I then spent half an hour on 23D steel and 30A salt lake. And then, for the first time in ages, hit the reveal button for 6D conveyers, my frustration overtaking my patience. Perhaps my engineering-focussed mind too easily dismisses “conveyer” as a misprint for the industrial machine.

Anyway, thanks very much to Crosophile for a very precisely-clued, if ultimately frustrating, puzzle. And well done to flashling for such a clear elucidation.

Yes; I enjoyed it although I was stuck in more places than Emrys. I did get 30a which is good because I’ve done the ‘float in it’ thing! Thanks to both.

Heather, I’ve floated in the Dead Sea too, but the experience didn’t seem to help with solving the crossword! In fact I recall uttering some distinctly cross words when I accidentally ingested it instead of floating in it. It tastes scarily vile.

I’ve never been to Utah, though. Perhaps that’s my problem.

Found this pretty straightforward, but enjoyable.
I agree that there seems to be a lack of definition in 31a. “on the moon” might have been better.
On the subject of Ninas, I can see Blonde Bombshell in there, but cannot link it to anniversaries of Harlow, Monroe, Dors etc.
Thanks to s & b.

2D A bit of naughtiness is “n” – it’s just “f” substituting for “n”.

Thanks to Crosophile and flashling for a relatively gentle Monday, though with a couple that made me pause, last in STEEL and CONVEYERS.

I thought this was a pleasant enough Monday puzzle, and STEEL was also my LOI.

@Rullytully – My nina spotting skills seem to have bombed certainly… bomb blast crater, Salt Lake where Enola Gay was based, probably more, although I hope CHEERIO doesn’t mean no more Crosophiles…

Thanks flashling
I think there are two themes in this puzzle, the one you have identified @7 revolving around bombs etc (there are some more entries that could be associated with this theme) and another related to the second part of 16dn, to wit:

BLONDE BOMBSHELL
ELECTRON SHELL
MITRE SHELL
SNAIL-SHELL
BOMBSHELL
RAZOR SHELL
TORTOISESHELL
LIVE SHELL
STAR SHELL
SHELL SUITS
SHELL-CRATER
SHELLSHOCK
SHELL STAR

Thanks for the blog, Flashling, and thanks for the other comments. And Gaufrid gets the nina detection award 🙂

Comments are closed.