Independent 9,148 / Vigo

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I think this may well be my first blog of a Vigo puzzle, although I have solved and enjoyed some of his/her previous submissions.

For me, this was a medium-difficulty puzzle, with a handful of write-ins but many more clues that had to be teased out, but not with undue effort. I solved it in one sitting, with the exception of 11, where I guessed the answer from the definition but couldn’t parse it; as if often the case, coming back with a fresh pair of eyes half an hour later revealed the parsing.

I wonder if Vigo compiled this puzzle during the Christmas holiday period, when so much of Britain was struggling to cope with heavy rain and flooding. You could almost pick this puzzle up and wring it out, since many of its entries can also be forms of rain (shower, storm, drop, deluge …) or adjectives to describe it (soft, coursing, light, torrential, spitting, gentle … ). Indeed, it was spotting this theme that helped me to confirm 20, which combines symmetrically with 14 to form “(raining) cats (and) dogs”.

As for favourite clues, I rather liked 2, 6A and 24, all for surface; but above all 10, for making me smile and reminding me of the joys of “unclehood” if not parenthood.

(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 REFOCUSED Judge employed after Officer in Charge changed objective

REF (=judge, i.e. referee) + OC (=Officer in Charge) + USED (=employed)
     
06 CRAWL Fawn caught by crude line

C (=caught) + RAW (=crude) + L (=line)
     
09 CALL OFF Scrub everything from top of cabinet to start with

C<abinet> (“top of” means first letter only) + ALL (=everything) + OFF (=from)
     
10 POURING Endless excrement and wee – start of glamorous job of being mother

PO<o> (=excrement; “endless” means last letter dropped) + URIN<e> (=wee; “endless” means last letter dropped) + G<lamorous> (“start of” means first letter only); “to be mother” is to pour the tea from the pot
     
11 SHOWER Room where mule possibly hides with last of fodder

[W (=with) in SHOE (=mule possibly)] + <fodde>R (“last of” means last letter only)
     
12 CONSTANT Uniform of heartless senior physician

CONS<ul>TANT (=senior physician); “heartless” means middle two letters are dropped
     
14 CATS Regularly chastise gossips

C<h>A<s>T<i>S<e>; “regularly” means alternate letters only are used; a cat is a spiteful, malicious woman, hence “gossip”
     
15 COMMON COLD Conservative worn out following public complaint

COMMON (=public, of e.g. land) + C (=conservative) + OLD (=worn out)
     
18 SPATTERING Naked milliner getting in spa and flinging mud around

<h>ATTE<r> (=milliner; “naked” means outer letters are dropped) in SPRING (=spa)
     
20 DOGS Tracks // rogues

Double definition: to “track” is to dog, follow AND a dog is a “rogue”, scoundrel
     
23 SPITTING Meeting involves pastor speaking with vitriol

P (=pastor) in SITTING (=meeting, formal session)
     
24 GENTLE Kind of horrendous neglect leader of council ignored

*(NEGLE<c>T); “leader of council (=C) ignored” means letter “c” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “horrendous”
     
26 ORIGAMI Social security payment returned with a note on folded paper

ORIG (GIRO=social security payment; “returned” indicates reversal) + A + MI (=note, in music)
     
27 RHUBARB Republican centre gets support backing cobblers

R (=Republican) + HUB (=centre) + ARB (BRA=support; “backing” indicates reversal); rhubarb is nonsense, hence “cobblers”
     
28 MISTY Dim male gets first with final piece of philosophy

M (=male) + 1ST (=first) + <philosoph>Y (“final piece of” means last letter only)
     
29 LIP-READER She can see what you’re saying

Cryptic definition: a lip-reader can, of course, literally “see” the words on the speaker’s lips; I am not sure why Vigo has said “she” rather than “he”, so perhaps I am missing something
     
Down    
     
01 RUCKSACKS Fight fires with campers’ equipment

RUCK (=fight, in prison) + SACKS (=fires, from work)
     
02 FALLOUT Repercussion of holding almost everything in disregard

AL<l> (=everything; “almost” means last letter dropped) in FLOUT (=disregard, neglect)
     
03 COOLER Some ensure loo cleanliness on the rise in jail

Vertically reversed (“on the rise”) and hidden (“some”) in “ensuRE LOO Cleanliness”
     
04 SOFT Well-cushioned and very overweight but not American

SO (=very) + F<a>T (=overweight; “but not American (=A)” means letter “a” dropped)
     
05 DEPLOYMENT Date enemy plot organised movement of troops

D (=date) + *(ENEMY PLOT); “organised” is anagram indicator
     
06 COURSING Swearing to bag duck when hunting

O (=duck, i.e. zero score in cricket) in CURSING (=swearing); hare-coursing, for example, is a form of hunting
     
07 AGITATO Restless and wild past involving sex with a tenor

[IT (=sex, as in to do it) + A + T (=tenor)] in AGO (=past)
     
08 LIGHT Endless journeys by plane bring insight

<f>LIGHT<s> (=journeys by plane); “endless” means first and last letters are dropped
     
13 TORRENTIAL Driving rotten liar out

*(ROTTEN LIAR); “out” is anagram indicator
     
16 DISMEMBER Mutilate detective society representative

DI (=detective, i.e. Detective Inspector) + S (=society) + MEMBER (=representative)
     
17 STATUARY Art works at university are nearly put in filthy place

[AT + U (=university) + AR<e> (“nearly” means last letter dropped] in STY (=filthy place); statuary means statues, seen collectively
     
19 AMITIES Friendships absent with times changing around one?

A (=absent) + [I (=one) in *(TIMES)]; “changing” is anagram indicator
     
21 OUTWARD Dismissed rising attraction as superficial

OUT (=dismissed, e.g. of cricketer) + WARD (DRAW=attraction; “rising” indicates vertical reversal)
     
22 DELUGE Bear engulfed by river flood

LUG (=bear, carry, as verb) in DEE (=river)
     
23 STORM Way men master storm

ST (=way, i.e. street) + OR (=men, i.e. Other Ranks) + M (=master)
     
25 DROP Dismiss doctor before operation

DR (=doctor) + OP (=operation)
     
     

 

11 comments on “Independent 9,148 / Vigo”

  2. Thanks, RR, for blogging.

    I really liked this one. I’m not mad about themed crosswords, but here was one where once a few answers had gone in, you knew there was something cracking off. And the weather, unlike ghost themes where some obscure author is involved, is pretty much accessible to everyone. Brava, Vigo.

    My favourite was POURING, for its surface and the referencing of a common, if old-fashioned, phrase.

  3. I too had probs with 11. I was convinced that ‘mule possibly’ wd give me a ‘hybrid’ HORSE, to include W (for ‘with’) and there’s your SHOWER but what on earth is all that fodder doing in there? In the end I put in SMOKER, which I’m prepared to defend as an alternative even if it’s outside the theme.
    Lovely puzzle anyway. Thanks to Vigo & RatkojaRiku.

  6. Thanks to Vigo & RatkojaRiku.

    Very good crossword with lots to like, apart from the POURING and TORRENTIAL rain. At least it’s stopped here for the moment.

    The clue for POURING was an absolute classic!

    You can see the picture with Skipjack/Jack/Serpent here.

  7. POURING, CATS, DOGS… Aha! I thought, we’ve got a theme here. Nice to spot it early on, although some of the other answers were then
    almost write-ins which made it less of a challenge. Having said that, SHOWER was my LOI after I too thought of SMOKER (at first, with an almost blank grid I wondered about LUMBER, with ‘possibly’ as an anagrind, though I couldn’t see where the B would come from.)

    Maybe we should have had this puzzle yesterday. It’s fine and sunny (in the Midlands, at any rate) today!

    Thanks, Vigo and RatkojaRiku.

  10. Thank you RatkojaRiku for blogging. The grid was, indeed, filled whilst I sat at home with a cold watching the rain pour down outside. The reason the lip reader is a she is that I was thinking of Sue Thomas F.B.Eye (I believe one can still view this on the alibi channel). Thank you also to all who took time to comment.

    V

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