Independent 9202 / Radian

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It’s been almost six months since we last blogged a Radian puzzle – and this was worth waiting for.

We found there were one or two rather unusual words to cause some head-scratching, but all was clear from the wordplay. We hadn’t come across the lyricist at 21d before, so that needed a bit of research for confirmation, but it was a very straightforward clue and had we not had access to google, we would have been happy to write it in regardless.

Across
9   Keen writer’s clear about source of inspiration (9)
IMPATIENT I’M (writer is) PATENT (clear) around I (first letter or ‘source’ of ‘inspiration’)
10   Character from Tel Aviv could be a help (5)
ALEPH An anagram of A HELP – anagrind is ‘could be’
11   Obscure pawnbroker meets Arab (7)
UNCLEAR UNCLE (pawnbroker) AR (Arab)
12   Lead chokes dog? More haste less speed, perhaps (7)
PROVERB PB (lead, as in the element) round or ‘choking’ ROVER (dog)
13   Love fragrant flower close to nose (4)
EROS ROSE (fragrant flower) with the last letter or ‘close’ moved to the front or ‘nose’
14   Former jazz fan heard playing with authority (2,8)
EX CATHEDRA EX (former) CAT (jazz fan) + an anagram of HEARD – anagrind is ‘playing’
16   Summarise Twickenham formation back to front (7)
OUTLINE LINE-OUT (‘Twickenham formation’ – a formation in Rugby) with the two parts reversed or ‘back to front’
17   Stars welcome at snooty address (7)
ORATION ORION (stars) round or ‘welcoming’ AT
19   Only men record ballads and dramas maybe (5,5)
STAGE PLAYS STAG (only men) EP (record) LAYS (ballads)
22   Second judge discharged suspect (4)
IFFY jIFFY (second) with the ‘j’ (judge) ‘discharged’
24   Pastry cases, note, not coded (2,5)
EN CLAIR ÉCLAIR (pastry) round or ‘casing’ N (note)
25   Ham‘s old and green – there are even bits of sauce in it (7)
OVERACT O (old) VERT (green) round sAuCe (‘even’ letters only)
26   Cutting tin and what it’s made of? (5)
CANAL CAN (tin) AL (aluminium – what a tin might be made of)
27   European term that’s taught in RADA (9)
ELOCUTION E (European) LOCUTION (term)
Down
1   Osborne’s budget numbers? They don’t mean what they say (7,2,6)
FIGURES OF SPEECH Osborne, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, has to give a budget SPEECH to explain his FIGURES or numbers
2   In Egypt, choose abridged author, Homer for one (4,4)
EPIC POET ET (Egypt – international registration letters) round PICk (choose) with the last letter omitted or ‘abridged’ POE (author)
3   State without territory? That’s a bit much (5)
UTTER Part of (‘that’s a bit much’) ‘withoUT TERritory’
4   It gives power back by cutting drink (4,4)
REAR AXLE REAR (back) + X (by, as in ‘times’ in arithmetic) in or ‘cutting’ ALE (drink)
5   More work? Union gets best expert over (6)
UTOPIA U (Union) TOP (best) + AI (expert) reversed
6   Provincial chum tackles a choir out of tune (9)
PAROCHIAL PAL (chum) round or ‘tackling’ an anagram of A CHOIR – anagrind is ‘out of tune’
7   Cover blown, Rushdie nearly upset 2’s work (6)
AENEID Hidden (‘cover blown’) and reversed (‘upset’) in ‘RushDIE NEArly’
8   Article by e.g. Jagger about NI port, origin of eloquence (3,7,5)
THE BLARNEY STONE THE (article) BY STONE (e.g. Mick Jagger) round LARNE (Northern Ireland port)
15   Genuinely drunk, really hammered (9)
LITERALLY LIT (drunk) + an anagram of REALLY – anagrind is ‘hammered’
17   Old idiot grabs axes, 1 of 1 (8)
OXYMORON O (old) MORON (idiot) round or ‘grabbing’ X and Y (axes – of a graph) – a figure of speech (1d)
18   Brother wears dark blue mostly? It’s demeaning (5,3)
INFRA DIG FRA (brother) in or ‘wearing’ INDIGo (dark blue) with the last letter omitted or ‘mostly’
20   I’d left crash showing sign of stress (6)
ACCENT ACCidENT (crash) with I’d omitted or ‘left’
21   Student ignoring a lyricist (6)
LERNER LEaRNER (student) without or ‘ignoring’ ‘a’
23   Sketch show always pops up around university (5)
REVUE EVER (always) reversed or ‘popping up’ around U (university)

 

7 comments on “Independent 9202 / Radian”

  1. Thanks B&J – and to Radian who is in the i today as well.

    As you say, worth waiting for. 21d (a monstrous egotist IMHO) was lyricist to My Fair Lady. And 4d doesn’t give power to any car I have had for 50 years – but hey, I’m a pedant as any of my acquaintance will tell you.

    We could start a substring of oxymorons – if we don’t get moderated out. 🙂

    Military Intelligence anyone?

  3. Nothing too difficult – possibly a good crossword for an improving solver. A few answers were write-ins that then needed some thought to work out the parsing, e.g. 8dn. Difficult to nominate a CoD but I particularly liked ALEPH, PROVERB and UTOPIA.

    Thanks, Radian and B&J.

  4. Thanks, both.

    Enjoyed this one – bit tricky to finish for this solver, but all fair and some fun along the way. Faves today were EX CATHEDRA and FIGURES OF SPEECH. Referencing the latter, my contribution to the oxymoron substring would be ‘caring conservatism’.

    Good puzzle – thank you to Radian. Is there a bit of a ghost theme? (Said he, who is the most rubbish in the universe at spotting them.) FIGURES OF SPEECH: OXYMORON, PROVERB, ORATION … No, thought not.

  5. You could be on to something Kathryn’s Dad @4. There’s also ACCENT, ELOCUTION, UTTER and maybe THE BLARNEY STONE which are (sort of) ‘speech’ related.

    Enjoyable puzzle with IMPATIENT, EX CATHEDRA and the def. for UTOPIA being my favourites.

    Thanks to Radian and B&J.

  6. Excellent puzzle. Late here obviously but I just did both this and the same setter’s FT puzzle (Redshank) – both very good but I find I like the stuff done under the Radian brand better than the others – maybe even slightly better than the Crucible ones. Maybe it’s because I always get there – but only just.

    No obscurities here for me. Lerner wrote the lyrics for the stage musicals Gigi and My Fair Lady. Great stuff – but nothing much really creative to follow. After that he was rarely out of the news. He carried on like a bit of an attention-seeking nutter – but he was an amphetamine addict – encouraged at the time by the US medical profession – so not entirely all his fault.

    My vote always goes to the real songwriter – ie the one who writes the music. The working words for Yesterday (by the Beatles) was (we are told) “Scrambled Eggs”. Would it not have done just as well – maybe even better – like that – hummable every breakfast time – who knows.

    Moon June croon love schmuv – they’re just arbitrary syllables to accompany the music. If words matter at all what we need is more songs singing the praises of breakfasts – proper breakfasts – full English ones – none of yer continental muesli rolls of bread nonsense.

    Anyway – that’s who Lerner is (was).

    Many thanks to setter and blogger(s).

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