Independent 9079 by Morph

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A tour de force from Morph today: many of the clues have clever wordplay and cunningly-disguised definitions. I found it all on the hard side, but absolutely worth it. And Morph’s clues have become pleasantly pithy, something that at one time it was not always possible to say.

No Nina strikes me. Perhaps there is further brilliance to be found, but I can’t see it. The straight crossword is enough for me.

Across
1 SEA TROUT
Constituency defeat for relative of Salmond (almost – or, more distantly, Sturgeon) (3,5)

seat rout — a sea trout is ‘related’ to the salmon{d} and the sturgeon
5 BLEEDS
Runs from British city (6)

B Leeds
10 RIGHT AWAY
What’ll get you cash from crash immediately (5,4)

If you take the r out of ‘crash’ you’ll get ‘cash’
11 MURAL
What’s drawn up Russian river by mule at first (5)

m{ule} Ural — it’s drawn, or painted, up on the wall
12 TREADER
Dawn one’s come across in Lewis as one’s walking (7)

The Dawn Treader is in Narnia by CS Lewis
13 TENDONS
Injuries to these might see faculty XI reduced? (7)

The faculty XI will have eleven dons in it, and if there are injuries to tendons this XI will be reduced to ten dons
14 GOSPELLER
Preacher‘s words of encouragement for one involved with bees? (9)

“Go, speller!” — spelling bees
16 ARÊTE
Ridge etc – find what’s missing on the way back (5)

etc is etcetera, from which you subtract etc before reversing — at least this is I think what’s happening: I can’t quite explain the word ‘find’
18 MOOED
Did low feelings with little energy set in? (5)

moo(E)d — did low = lowed
20 MESOMORPH
Muscular type‘s yours truly – emphatically yours truly! (9)

me [= yours truly] so [= emphatically] Morph [yours truly]
22 MAGHREB
Arab region where hamburger’s cooked, not with pure meat (7)

(hamb{ur}ger)* — the ur coming from {p}ur{e}
23 OPOSSUM
Marsupial‘s drunk some unfinished soup (7)

(som{e} soup)*
25 GUANO
Dropping of wingers may improve performance on field (5)

CD — guano is bird droppings, a powerful manure
26 LIP READER

I see what you’re saying – boss controls Independent public relations (3,6)

l(i PR)eader
27 CODING
Programming company’s sound as a bell (6)

co ding
28 PROPOSAL
Suggestion for partner in which love is involved (8)

pro p(o’s)al — is there a slight blemish here? ‘is’ needs to be part of the wordplay and also part of the correct English — or is it OK to say ‘in which A involved’ when one means ‘in which A is involved’?
Down
1 STRATAGEM

Trick to get large bakery products to rise (9)

(mega tarts)rev. — a slightly chestnutty feel to this wordplay
2 AGGRESS
Extremely awe-inspiring, terrifying woman blowing top in attack (7)

a{we-inspirin}g {o}gress — not a word that is often used although obvious enough from ‘aggression’ or ‘aggressor’
3 RATED
Estimated speed: 500 (5)

rate: D
4 UPWARDLY MOBILE
With a lifting of phone, changing social network status for the better (8,6)

upwardly [= with a lifting of] mobile [= phone]
6 LEMON BALM
Men involved with mob, all producing herb (5,4)

(Men mob all)*
7 EARLOBE
Peer’s decoration that may hang by his sideboard (7)

earl OBE — his sideboard refers to the sideboard on his face
8 SULKS

Mounting sexual desire, unconsummated, ends in kiss and display of resentment (5)

(lus{t})rev. k{is}s
9 MYSTERY SHOPPER
One’s power to infiltrate hyperstores deviously (7,7)

my [= one’s] p in (hyperstores)* &lit.
15 EIDERDOWN
Cover Muslim festival with wonder, shaken (9)

Eid (wonder)*
17 EPHEMERAL

A helper flapping when taking care of me will be short-lived (9)

me in (A helper)*
19 ON GUARD
Monitoring substance picked up when American comes in after performing (2,5)

on [= performing] A in (drug)rev.
21 RESIDES
Lives on the margins (7)

re sides
22 MAGIC
Excellent spelling! (5)

2 defs — magic spells
24 ONE UP
United in revolt and having advantage (3,2)

one [= united] up [= in revolt]
*anagram

18 comments on “Independent 9079 by Morph”

  1. Re 28a PROPSAL: I think this may simply be a straight (ish) whole clue definition, with non-existent wordplay leading us gently up the garden path…

  3. Funny where mistakes can lead you. I’d confidently entered SULKY for 8d (‘ends in Kiss and displaY’ for the last 2 letters, ‘of resentment’ as definition, bit thin, but heigh-ho) which left me with T-N-O-Y for 13a, my last clue. You will be fascinated to learn that a TANTONY – the only possible non-proper noun – is, inter alia, the runt of the litter or an over-zealous supporter. This slowed me down until I saw sense.

  4. Thanks, John, for a great blog.

    I agree with your parsing of 28ac: “…or is it OK to say ‘in which A involved’ when one means ‘in which A is involved’?” – yes, I think it is.

    Superb cluing throughout. I suppose someone must have seen the link between Salmon[d] and Sturgeon before but I don’t remember coming across it. MESOMORPH was a brilliant find! – with GUANO, my top favourite, I think.

    Many thanks, Morph, for a super puzzle.

  6. A really superb puzzle to go with my morning coffee! Some excellent surfaces and great misdirections. So many front runners it’s impossible to nominate a CoD, but SULKS, EARLOBE, GUANO and MAGIC are among them.

    Thanks, Morph and John.

  10. I agree with everyone else that this was an excellent and fair puzzle without too much arcane GK being required, though I did miss the significance of the ‘Lewis’ reference in 12. I particularly liked SEA TROUT, TENDONS, MESOMORPH and GUANO, with ARÊTE being my LOI – I parsed this as scchua@2 did.

    Thank you to Morph and John.

  11. Morph’s a new setter to me – is he always so entertaining? SEA TROUT, STRATAGEM, `pure meat`, the lovely TREADER, GUANO, all ticked and relished. I thought ARETE was wonderful, and TENDONS has me grinning still. Thanks Morph, for the MAGIC. And thank you, John.

  13. That one may be a classic but do not forget Morph’s stunning limerick puzzle from May 12, 2014.
    Unfortunately this puzzle cannot be retrieved by Crossword Solver anymore (using the old link).

    The Indy’s website is also not a friendly place to find that one (not an attractive place anyway) – although, it might well be that it’s there somehow.

  15. To Sil: as it happens, I enjoyed the Morph ‘Limerick’ puzzle so much that I’ve kept the hard copy in my Miscellanies file, if anyone’s bothered: can’t think how to reproduce the blank without a lot of plucky work with the Tipp-ex blobber but it’s here anyway. Or maybe Morph has it somewhere. Possibly my favourite crozzy ever…

  16. Thanks for the crossword Morph and it was great to be reminded of your other puzzles which we also enjoyed solving, so thanks are due to Sil and Eileen as well.

    ………. and thanks to John for the blog!

  18. Delicious. A delight from start to finish. GUANO must be one challenging for a top place in the Premiership of CDs.
    I’ve said it before and hope (and expect) to say it again – a truly heartfelt thanks to Morph.
    And, as ever, nicely done, John.
    Still buzzing…… Wx

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