Independent 7213/Phi

by

As usual a pleasing efficient crossword from Phi. Not much to say really — it all fits together very well.

Across
9 HER(M)ITAGE  — this museum
10 Y(E)ARN
11 ALGE(B)R{I}A
12 DATA SET — a in (stated)*
13 R {b}ATTY
14 SPE(AR(H)EA)D
16 CENTRE OF GRAVITY — v is the centre of “gravity”
19 LARCENIST — (clarinets)*
21 WI SER
22 FINE LEG — fine (gel)rev.
23 MA({camb}R{idge})IM BA
24 D(R)OWN
25 {s}UNDER MINE — “handbag” in this sense is a word that comes from Margaret Thatcher
 
Down
1 THEATRICAL — (trail cheat)*
2 F(RIGHT)EN
3 NIMB(L)Y
4 GAG A{muse}
5 DEAD W EIGHT
6 HYSTERIA — (I stay her)*
7 HA(SS)LE
8 KNOT — 2 defs
14 S(MO KING G{irls})UN
15 DAYDREAMER — (ready)* in dame r
17 {waite}R IE SLING
18 INSOMNIA — CD
20 RAN DO M
21 W(A RC)RY
22 FAD E — which is a fanciful way of saying “fifth fad”, so perhaps a question mark?
23 M{annerist} ODE

7 comments on “Independent 7213/Phi”

  2. I think it’s more likely what’s shown in the blog ie following dict abbreviations.
    Not a hard puzzle, esp liked the use of NIMBY in NIMBLY. Enjoyable.

  3. Yes, Nimby was nicely defined. I was less sure about UNDERMINE, which was the last one in for me. To define the Thatcher handbagging as ‘undermining’ is surely something of an understatement!

  4. Thank you, John. I got UNDERMINE but I’m still not sure having read the blog how this works. If someone could spare 60 seconds of their Friday evening to enlighten me I would appreciate it.

    Enjoyed the puzzle, for me it was a decent challenge.

  7. From Chambers definitions of handbag

    vt (inf) to attack, destroy, wreck, undermine (orig used of Margaret Thatcher).

    I suppose ‘undermine’ is a bit bathetic in that list, but a not unreasonable usage when one looks back at what actually happened.

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