Independent 7,045/Phi

by

Quick, early one from me today as I’m flying off to Denmark for the weekend. Phi back to his usual Friday slot after a couple of weeks elsewhere, and up to his usual excellent standard. Definitely at the easier end of the scale, though 22A took me a while to work out.

There’s a Nina here too, with perimeter unches spelling out AROUND THE EDGES clockwise from 1D.

Across
5 PUSH – US in PH
6 REEF KNOT – F in (ONE TREK)*
8 SQUAD CAR – QUAD In SCAR
10 ICE RUN – CE,RU in IN
11 EARLY ENGLISH – (HIS GENERALLY)*
13 CASHEW – CASH,E,W
15 GLORIA – (OIL[-y] RAG)*
16 CLEAR SIGHTED – (CHEATED GIRLS)*
20 GROUCH – GROUCH[-o] (Marx)
21 BOTANIST – IS in BOT,ANT
22 BIENNALE – BIEN,N,ALE
23 BALI – 1,LAB rev.
Down
1 ASSAIL – [-w]ASSAIL
2 RED RAG – RE: DRAG
3 OFFICIAL LIST – OFF,ICI,ALL IS,[-reboo]T
4 UNTETHER – THE in [-h]UNTER (a type of watch)
5 PIQUANCY – PIQU[-e],[-n]ANCY
7 TOUR – Double def.
9 CREPE DE CHINE – HI in (PRECEDENCE)*
12 WATER SKI – (RISK A WET)*, &lit.
14 SECLUDED – (CLUES)* + DE[-a]D
17 RABBLE – I’m guessing this is [-d]RABBLE
18 HANNAH – HAN[-d] + HAN[-d] rev.
19 GRUB – RUB after G

11 comments on “Independent 7,045/Phi”

  1. 22 across took me a while too, but I blame this on the fact that ‘bien’ is not ‘good French’. It means ‘well’.

  2. Have to disagree with you there, Conrad, bien = good is quite correct in French. BIENNALE was my last entry too and seeing the Nina (which I suspected from the start from the look of the grid) helped me finish. Bottom half really difficult, top half extremely easy, I found.

  3. My initial thought was the same as Conrad’s, thinking that BON was the correct translation, but having given it a bit more thought I agree with Nmsindy. BIEN has many subtly different meanings (including “well”) and many of them would translate as “good” (much like this puzzle).

    My only quibble (and I expect that there is a perfectly good reason why) was the use of “Nuts” (plural) to define CASHEW (which I would say is singular).

  4. Testy – in the printed version, 13A (CASHEW) has “Nut’s” (i.e “Nut is”) which is fine. Looks like an error in the on-line version.

  6. Ah! That’s right, I’ve remembered apostrophe’s (sic) causing problem’s (s’ic) before. Phi’s fully exonerated and this puzzle’s an unblemish’d paragon.

  9. The GROUCH clue was interesting because my immediate thought was the Marx brothers. But I tried to fit HARP[o]+ER (hoping it meant someone who harps (on)) in there. In my run through of their names none of the others made a sensible word with the O removed! It took a while of failing to fit HARPER before the very big obvious penny dropped.

Comments are closed.