We had an excellent night out in London last night with bloggers from here and Pete Biddlecombe’s Times for the Times blog, Tony Sever (RTC2) and a few setters too. A possible side-effect is that this puzzle took me over half an hour this morning! Or maybe it’s quite tough, I can’t really tell.

Across
10 TAI(l),PAN - The taipan is a large Australian snake, and the most venomous land animal in the world.

11 UNDER(TA)KINGS - “men in suits” = kings (i.e. in a pack of cards) is good.

14 DOGS,BODY - not keen on the definition here. Servant maybe, but surely not slave…

17 MY,O=round,SO,’TIS [last six letters not a jumble of "so it is" as I first thought; see comments] - I didn’t know this but the wordplay’s easy enough (or not!).  I looked it up afterwards - it’s the name of the forget-me-not genus.

20 BRIDGE,TR(ILE)Y - an artist I was familiar with as we had a lesson about her in Art at school, and an exercise to produce our own works of op art.

24 NI(HI)L,IS,(sal)T - ought (alternative spelling of aught) = nought = nil.

26 TIP OFF - got this from the definition (alert), but don’t understand the wordplay. [TIP=crown, OFF=high, as in rotten meat. See comments.]

Down
3 SADDUCEES (”sad, you seize”) - the homophone bit only works if you make it the whole word, otherwise the second D isn’t accounted for. Anyway, the Sadducees were the rivals of the better-known Pharisees.

5 COLORADO,SPRINGS - American city located close to Pikes Peak, at the eastern edge of the Rockies.

6 L,ETH(the*),ARGY - L = Lambert is OK, as a lambert is unit of illumination with that abbreviation.

7 (go)BLIN,I - what the Russians spread caviar on.

15 BELLY,FLOP - I really liked this clue, don’t know why.

16 S,T,G(E)ORGE

21 DEFOE - wordplay seems to indicate DEFEO (E,F inside OED, all rev). Am I missing something? [Yes, I was. See comments]

22 A,SIF(t) - last one I got (but only because the second last was 26a so I didn’t have the F, and was thinking of the other sort of riddle.

Last night’s gathering was thoroughly enjoyable. We had a few drinks at a pub in Charlotte Street before heading off to the world’s most crowded tapas restaurant, also in Charlotte Street. We were given a sneak preview of a puzzle that will appear in the Independent next month and I think some people had a RTC Times2 contest - I was at the other end of the table so I can’t be sure what exactly was going on. Prizes were awarded to the two bloggers that had travelled the furthest to be there - Ilan Caron  (Seattle!) won, nmsindy (Ireland) came second. Some photos of the evening will appear here soon, once I’ve negotiated image rights with the various subjects.

 Thanks to all that came and to Peter B for organising the whole thing.

I usually find Monk quite difficult but this wasn’t too tricky. I guessed the phrase that appears in the unchecked letters on the sides of the grid fairly early on so I filled in all the missing letters, which then helped me get 13A, 17A, 27A and 28A. Odd choice of phrase though; maybe it’s one of Monk’s favourite films…? Anyway, what’s so impressive about the Independent crossword, and this setter in particular, is the willingness to try out new ideas (like that in 1A) which are instantly accessible to new and experienced solvers alike.

Solving time: 18 mins 

 (Apologies for the late posting, a misunderstanding in an email to blame!)

Wednesday is always a good Indy day, as Dac is a reliable source of a safe, sound puzzle, today’s teaser turned out to be no exception.

I was making really good progress and got held up on two answers:  1 ac which I had never heard of, but guessed and 18 down likewise.  Both had pretty straightforward clues which helped with solving.

 Thank you Dac, for a pleasant Wednesday.  

ACROSS

1  TANGAS  -  Smell - TANG   like = AS  “items of underwear” =  TANGAS.  Had to check Chambers for the word. Never heard of it.

5 CHANGE   -  Straight double def.

9  EXILE  - Former = EX  Priest -  ELI (Good stock Crossword entry) reverse.

10  BILLBOARD  -  Charge =  BILL  Committee =  Board

12  OVERTIRED  -  An object lesson in reading a clue properly to get the full meaning.  Although I saw the answer quickly, parsing it was a problem -  I saw OVERT = it’s CLEAR and then tried to make IRED -  Ruddy in a sense of an expletive.  Much simpler  “One will get ruddy” =  I  +  RED.  D’oh!

13 TYSON  -  I am always wary of homophones in crosswords,  what someone says in London is completely different at times to what someone in Newcastle or Swansea may say.  And then what about solvers overseas?  However with this clue, it works for everyone   TIE =  match - sounds like TY, plus SON = lad.

14  DEPARTMENT STORE  -  Anag of  “Remonstrated” and “Pet”  Nice surface reading in the clue with running wild as the anag. indicator

17  THE LADY VANISHES -  My favourite clue in today’s challenge.  A double definition “Thriller” being one half and everything else being the other.  Refers to Dame Agatha’s mysterious disappearance in Harrogate in the 1920’s.  Clever.

20  IRENA  -  Straightforward enough  IRE + NA. butwhere most setters would leave the definition as ”girl”, Dac qualifies it into telling you to look for a name used in Poland. 

21 RECOMPOSE -  Anagram of “more scope”.

24  GRAVESEND  -  Nice cryptic indication - the last of wine -  GRAVES’ END.  Again, a precise definition with Kentish town telling you exactly where it’s located.

25  REBAR  -  Hidden  secuRE BARn

27  EVELYN  -  Extremely = the extremes of “lonely” (similar to debate on crossword.org at the mo.)  LY inside EVEN

DOWN

2  ALIKE  -  Gangster =  AL (Capone)  President =  IKE (Eisenhower)  Two useful names if you haven’t got them in your crossword armoury.

3  GREETER If I was to have a quibble with this puzzle, this clue would probably be it.  Basically  another homophone  GRETA =  MARGARET.  No-one I know of called Margaret (six people) confessed to ever being called GRETA.  Ms Garbo was  MARGARETA, I think.  It’s OK but it  niggles at me.

4  SOBER  -  OBE =Order  in  SR =  Sister

5  CALEDONIA  - C = Cycle  + ALED =  Welshman + ON  +  IA  (A1 The Great North Rd reversed)

6  ARBUTUS -  Tree =  definition   Roman statesman =  BRUTUS  with R =  right at top.   A + RBUTUS

8  SECOND STRING  -  Double def, but I think “a bit of a fiddle” is weak for SECOND STRING.

11  DONKEY’S YEARS  -  Michael Frayn’s veritable show.  Like the Agatha Christie clue -  a nice double def.

16  MEYERBEER   -  EYE in  MR BEER (Mr PORTER, as in “stout” - if you have never heard of it, pop it in the memory bank). 

18  ALAMEDA -  Nice clue   ME in A LADA (OLD CAR!).

19  IMMERSE  -  Again, see debate on “Some” on crossword.org.uk  Hidden answer indicated by Group of…   Works OK for me, but poss not for some!

20 CADRE  -   D = daughter in CARE - worry.

A pleasant way to spend a Wednesday.  Thanks Dac!