Independent 9,131 by Dac

by

Whatever else?

Definitions underlined and in red; not sure I like this but it’ll have to do. I’m not going to go through it all and change them by hand.

Across
1 WAGE Money earned with time (4)
w age
3 BEAR GARDEN Area between hill and forest, scene of tumult (4,6)
be(a)rg Arden
9 REEL Some angling equipment about to be removed from fisherman’s basket (4)
{c}reel
10 BALLOONIST Street on island in which you’ll see bird, one flying high (10)
Bal(loon)i st
11 WINDCHEATER In cold season, daughter gets short inexpensive jacket (11)
win(d chea{p})ter
15 LEARNT Memorised several books on Shakespearian king (6)
Lear NT
16 CORSICAN Frenchman distributed narcotics, losing tons (8)
(narco{t}ics)* — I hadn’t realised that Corsica was part of France; whatever, this is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of ones in France
18 ENTIRELY Completely new drain installed in cathedral city (8)
E(n tire)ly — drain in the sense of tire out
19 IN TRIM At home, after taking remedy for starters, I am fit (2,4)
in t{aking} r{emedy} I’m
21 SAUSAGE MEAT Custom in South America to wolf down chorizo ingredient? (7,4)
S A(usage)m eat
24 HOME AND DRY Out of danger, with demon and hydra overthrown (4,3,3)
(demon hydra)*
25 CHAD Publicity for church in part of Africa (4)
Ch. ad — a church ad can be regarded as publicity for a church
26 MITTERRAND Old French statesman having little time during US college trip (10)
MIT (t) errand — I had a little trouble with this because of my failure to know how to spell him
27 STAY Guy is into pasta – yummy! (4)
Hidden in paSTA Yummy
Down
1 WEREWOLVES Beastly types used to be on Midlands team (10)
were Wolves — Wolverhampton Wanderers
2 GREEN PARTY Political group, inexperienced, somewhat ignored by Liberal (5,5)
green part{l}y
4 ERASER King, aces and queen: enough for the rubber (6)
ER A’s ER — the king is Edward, the queen is Elizabeth
5 RELATION Account about Ostrogoth leader in classical language (8)
re Lati(o)n, the o coming from O{strogoth}
6 A VOTRE SANTÉ Various oven treats including a sort of toast (1,5,5)
a in (oven treats)*
7 DAIL Democrat has trouble in parliament (4)
D ail
8 NUTS Fruitcakes, or ingredients for them (4)
2 defs
12 CENTRE STAGE English male brought in recent reforms, main focus of attention (6,5)
(E stag) in (recent)* — the central e is the one that is English, not one of the e’s in recent
13 SCARLET HAT Later chats about what cardinal might be wearing (7,3)
(Later chats)*
14 ANIMATEDLY Lady in pants cuddles friend in vivacious fashion (10)
(Lady in)* round mate — the anagram is indicated by ‘pants’, something that seems to be becoming increasingly common in crosswords nowadays despite the misgivings expressed by some
17 FLOUNDER Swimmers in shallow water struggle to move (8)
2 defs I think: the plural of flounder is flounder perhaps and if you flounder in water you struggle to move
20 PATRON Customer contributes little money to a pool of tips, mostly (6)
p[enny] a tron{c}
22 WHIM Fancy wife getting together with that man (4)
w him
23 SMUT Small amount of pollution corporation’s reversed (4)
(tum’s)rev.

*anagram

4 comments on “Independent 9,131 by Dac”

  1. Pretty straightforward, but with nice, natural-sounding surfaces. Like John, I just KNEW that Mitterrand had only one ‘r’, and unfortunately TALLEYRAND fitted the lights I had, which rather slowed me gallop. But good fun, respect to Dac & John.

  2. Thanks John and Dac. I had IN FORM for 19a, which sort of fitted, until 14d showed me the error of my ways! Usual good puzzle from Dac.

  3. Very nice puzzle, completed steadily enough. Couldn’t fully parse PATRON as didn’t know tronc, so the blog was very helpful in explaining the answer.

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