Solving time: 12 minutes
After yesterday’s tough Nimrod, and a generally tricky week all round in most papers, this made a nice change with a straightforward Phi challenge. 4ac was a bit of a tease with either of two answers able to go in, and I went for the wrong one first!
Incidentally, there is a gathering of Guardian Crossword solvers meeeting for a cruciverbal natter on Sunday next from 1pm at The King’s Arms, Roupell Street, Waterloo. If you are in the area, go and join them.
ACROSS (*) = ANAGRAM (R) = REVERSAL (CD) = CRYPTIC DEF.
1 PUNCH Double def – a drink and the late lamented magazine, beloved of dental waiting rooms and school libraries (well, Prescot Grammar School’s for one!)
4 STRAGGLER Strangler with G for N. I had this the other way round and this held me up for a little while.
9 PUNJABI PUN + JAB + I
10 NOSEBAG First letters of Oats, Stuff, Every, Breakfast inside NAG
11 ROOM TEMPERATURE ROO (Bounder) + TEMPER inside MATURE .
12 HIP FLASK HIP (trendy) + FLAS(h) + K (last of “drink”)
14 MENIAL IN (R) inside MEAL
17 NISSEN Hidden answer – Nissen huts are prefab type shelters from WW2, I think.
18 CARYATID IT AY (It always) (R) inside CARD
20 QUEEN OF PUDDINGS OF (Old Fellow) + PUDDING (Fat fellow) inside QUEENS
22 INTRADA DA after TRAIN*
23 OCARINA Where would the crossword compiler be without the Ocarina? OCA (Middle of “vocal”) + R (range) + IN A
24 EASY TERMS (CD)
25 FIEND E inside FIND
DOWN
1 PAPER THIN PERTH inside PAIN
2 NON COMPOS MENTIS COMMENT, SPIN and SOON*
3 HEART R inside HEAT
4 SKIRMISH R inside SKIM + I + SH
6 GOSSAMERY A thoroughly weird-looking word! S + SAME inside GORY
7 LABOUR INTENSIVE URBAN TELEVISION*
8 ROGUE My favourite clue of the puzzle
15 LADY’S MAID DAY DISMAL*
19 OFF AIR O + (A)FFAIR
20 QUITE Change the last two letters of QUIET
21 DWARF WAR inside D (Germany / Deutschland) & F (France)
Thanks to Phi for an enjoyable puzzle.
Yes, completed all of this very quickly, apart from 5+6D, and 17A (if it had been ‘hut’ rather than ‘hut man’ I might have got it earlier…) which held me up for a while.
This one has also appeared a day early on the Independent site, which must be putting somewhat of a dent in the profits from the answer phone line, with all those Reveal buttons…
As Jon has spotted, there has been a change of policy at the Indy with the same day’s puzzles now available online. The Saturday puzzles remain a week behind, at least for now.
They should remove the “reveal” button from the day’s online crossword and publish the solution the next day.
You don’t have to press the reveal button! The Guardian’s system has always allowed solvers to ‘cheat’ with daily puzzles. I don’t think it’s a bad system for those who might give up altogether if the facility wasn’t there. Of course, the system has to disallow the ‘cheat’ facility for competition puzzles—not something the Guardian has always managed to do!
I just went through the Phi puzzle – still up at Indy Online – to check out the technique, using the reveal button all the way.
Despite this, the puzzle software still generated the message ‘congratulations, you have finished the puzzle’. Not bad, considering what it might have said.
Really liked the ‘easy terms’ one, too.
If the Indy has switched from beingaday behind to being up to date, does that mean that there is a day missing, i.e. the day before the change?
mohair_xw
Yes, there was a day missing. I think it was the 6654 Dac for 13-Feb.
I noticed that the Valentine’s Day Nimrod appeared on 14-Feb and assumed that someone (eimi?) had decreed that it appears on the correct day else the Nina wouldn’t work.
Anyway, does it matter? I can’t see how you can access earlier day’s crosswords online, though that would be very nice.
I wish I could decree. I think there was a little bit of confusion about what crossword should appear on Saturday, but I’m pleased to see that Nestor’s puzzle is now on the site.
On the subject of the actual puzzle, I thought this way a joy – the loveliest ideas incorporated into accessible clues. Terrific!
It’s a good service, reliable, free (that’s two up on The Times), and has opened my eyes to just how good and full of ideas the Independent setters are.
You can’t expect everything for free, so we accept the one-off, interactive format with gratitude, though why the serial number and compiler aren’t shown is a mystery. But we can track them down from this blog.
Thanks to Eimi for telling us what is going on.
mohair_xw
Thanks mohair
Glad you’re enjoying the puzzles. The system currently used means that crossword numbers and compiler names can’t be included, but I’m working on persuading the powers that be to make the system a bit more flexible.