Independent 9097 / Vigo

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This is our first blog of a Vigo puzzle, and we’re already looking forward to the next!

 

There are some great clues here, with a good range of difficulty – just what we look for in a Thursday puzzle.

As we were working through the clues, we suspected that it might be a pangram, but we were wrong – it’s a double pangram!

Across
1   Bishop puts on jumper and twitches showing street dance style (8)
ROBOTICS B (bishop) in or ‘putting on’ ROO (kangaroo – ‘jumper’) + TICS (twitches)
5   Find innocent Parisian who gets caught in act (6)
ACQUIT QUI (French or ‘Parisian’ for ‘who’) ‘caught’ in ACT
9   Almost detect unpleasant aroma returning after publicist exposes difficulties (8)
PROBLEMS SMELl BO (detect unpleasant aroma, with the last letter of ‘smell’ omitted or ‘almost’) reversed or ‘returning’ after PR (publicist)
10   Pitcher, taking time, flustered non-entity (6)
CIPHER An anagram of PItCHER without or ‘taking’ ‘t’ (time) – anagrind is ‘flustered’
12   Pale blue jet to glide on water? (9)
AQUAPLANE AQUA (pale blue) PLANE (jet)
13   British eggs – flipping good for you! (5)
BRAVO BR (British) + OVA (eggs) reversed or ‘flipping’
14   Coffee shop’s hidden charges (4)
FEES Hidden in cofFEE Shop
16   Lying about Greg Dyke’s body is obscene (7)
PROFANE PRONE (lying) around FA (Football Association – Greg Dyke’s ‘body’)
19   Group with trouble worshipping (7)
ADORING RING (group) after or ‘with’ ADO (trouble)
21   Curse Juliet with kiss containing one last bit of poison (4)
JINX J (Juliet in the phonetic alphabet) X (kiss) around or ‘containing’ I (one) N (last letter or ‘bit’ of ‘poison’)
24   Dismiss leaders of empanelled jury ending criminal trial (5)
EJECT First letters or ‘leaders’ of Empanelled Jury Ending Criminal Trial
25   Key worker dreads that man coming back around end of August (9)
LOCKSMITH LOCKS (‘dreads’, as in ‘dreadlocks’) + HIM (that man) reversed or ‘coming back’ around T (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘August’)
27   Shape of longbow almost entirely bent (6)
OBLONG An anagram of LONGBOw with the last letter omitted, or ‘almost entirely’ – anagrind is ‘bent’
28   Goblin squeezes Beelzebub’s heart getting drop of red to drink (8)
SPRITZER SPRITE (goblin) round or ‘squeezing’ Z (middle letter or ‘heart’ of ‘Beelzebub’) + R (first letter or ‘drop’ of ‘red’)
29   Home secretary confronts border chaos (6)
MAYHEM MAY (Theresa May, Home Secretary) ‘confronting’ HEM (border) – lovely clue!!!
30   Pace setter misses two starts misbehaving and so forth (2,6)
ET CETERA An anagram of pACE sETTER (with the initial letters omitted, or ‘missing two starts’ – anagrind is ‘misbehaving’
Down
1   Set aside article carried by upset outcast (6)
REPEAL A (article) in or ‘carried by’ LEPER (outcast) reversed or ‘upset’
2   Cork sound in top of bottle diverging from the norm (6)
BROGUE B (first letter or ‘top’ of ‘bottle’) ROGUE (diverging from the norm)
3   Flower found in the middle of unctuous sauce (5)
TULIP TU (‘middle’ letters of ‘unctuous’) LIP (sauce)
4   Scope of Commissioner’s licence (7)
COMPASS COM (Commissioner) PASS (licence)
6   Conservative member’s miserable retreat (5-4)
CLIMB-DOWN C (Conservative) LIMB (member) DOWN (miserable)
7   Volcanic material rises after mounted man causes disturbance (8)
UPHEAVAL LAVA (volcanic material) reversed or ‘rising’ after UP (mounted) HE (man)
8   Chance to get on top of business (8)
TURNOVER TURN (chance) OVER (on top of)
11   Topple yew over concealing bark (4)
YELP Hidden or ‘concealed’ and reversed or ‘over’ in ‘topPLE Yew’
15   European statement about Roman numerals impacts church life (9)
EXISTENCE E (European) X IS TEN (‘statement about Roman numerals’ – brilliant!!) CE (church)
17   Parasite contaminated mop water (8)
TAPEWORM An anagram of MOP WATER – anagrind is ‘contaminated’
18   Warning: Drama portrays scenes of a sexual nature (8)
FOREPLAY FORE (warning) PLAY (drama)
20   Pull back before beginning to fall into abyss (4)
GULF LUG (pull) reversed or ‘back’ before F (first letter or ‘beginning’ of ‘fall’)
21   Lift lid up revealing big prize (7)
JACKPOT JACK (lift) TOP (lid) reversed or ‘up’
22   Champagne the French prove a failure (6)
FIZZLE FIZZ (champagne) LE (French for ‘the’)
23   Nepali phrase misread (6)
SHERPA An anagram of PHRASE – anagirnd is ‘misread’
26   Pierce head of saltwater fish (5)
SPIKE S (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘saltwater’) PIKE (fish)

 

17 comments on “Independent 9097 / Vigo”

  2. Wasnt going to do this at first until I read the preamble to blog- anyone achieving a double pangram deserves a go. Well done that man.

  3. After getting ACQUIT and JINX I started looking for a pangram, and with the NW corner still mostly blank realised it was already pangrammatic. Then I got AQUAPLANE and wow! – a double pangram. And nothing too stretched or obscure to achieve it. Too many good clues to name a CoD. Well done, Vigo (that woman, actually, copmus @2).

    Thanks, Vigo and B&J.

  4. Enjoyable – even if I did miss the double pangram – and not too difficult for a Thursday, although challenging enough and I was held up at the end by a few clues. LOI was CIPHER which I’d never heard of in the sense of being a ‘non-entity’. BROGUE stood out for me among a number of good clues.

    Thank you to B & J and Vigo.

  6. Couldn’t parse 15 – thought the Roman numerals must be XIs and statement must somehow be ten. Other than that, very enjoyable and a little easier than some Thursday puzzles.

  7. It’s impressive to have constructed that without resorting to any obscure words, though it did seem easier than usual for a Thursday. I think the double pangram required fairly limited connectivity in the grid, and the clues needed to be gentle to give entry to all four corners. All very considerate to the solvers. Thanks, Vigo and B&J.

  8. I was struck by the strange grid – four puzzles for the price of one – but evidently that was needed for the double pangram (which of course I didn’t spot).

    Fine puzzle from our new(ish) setter, which I enjoyed. More like this, please.

  9. I thought the same way as NealH #6 .
    Could have spent hours failing to parse 15d, but very sporting that 15d and 9a could both be solved without getting all of the parsing. Got the smel but missed the BO.
    Very enjoyable.

  10. Thanks Vigo and B&J.

    I thought this was going to be very easy at the start but slowed down considerably by the end. Of course I missed the double pangram and the hidden bark.

    Some lovely surfaces; I particularly liked PROFANE, FOREPLAY and the Home Secretary’s chaos.

  11. P.S. Does anyone else have the problem of the online Indy puzzle freezing and sometimes crashing? Seems to be due to the flashing adverts.

  12. I haven’t had the problem Robi but you might profitably search for ublock origin if you use Chrome Firefox or Opera, if you use an other try Adblock Plus

    Nice puzzle, pangrams must be nice to produce, a double more than doubly so. I only spot them in barred puzzles if they add to the deviousness of the setter.

    I still enjoyed it a lot though.

  13. Thanks to Bertandjoyce for the blog and to all who took the time to comment. Thank you also for spotting the double pangram – I have to admit it did take quite a lot longer to put this grid together than usual so it’s nice to know the effort was appreciated!

    Victoria

  14. Thanks for dropping in V. I’ve enjoyed your previous puzzles but this sets a new standard. Double pangrams probably excite setters more than solvers but this was notable for its more than 50% checking and its lack of obscure words. I loved the clues for Foreplay and Mayhem and I also loved the clue for Existence after Bert and Joyce had explained it.

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