Independent 7,691/Phi

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Smashing stuff as ever from Phi. Lovely surfaces and some great anagrams, particularly the &lit. at 6D. Clue of the day for me is 22A, which had one of those ‘ah, very good’ moments!

Across
1 IMPEL – 1 M(illion) + PEL[-t]
4 WAFER-THIN – (WHEN FAT I R(un))*
9 CLOWDER – C[-at] + [-brindle]D in LOWER
10 CHIPPER – Double def.
11 GOLDEN DELICIOUS OLDEN DELI in G[-erman] C[-ity] + IOUS
12 IBSENIAN – INES rev. in 1 BAN
14 POGROM – OGR[-e] in POM
17 ON EDGE – ONE + DOGE less [-silvi]O
18 MANDATES – MAN (staff) + DATES (appointments)
20 MOUNTAIN BICYCLE – L(ake) in (I + MY CAB CONTINUE)*
22 PILLAGE – 1 L(ength) in PLAGE (Nice beach!)
23 SHEBANG – SHE (woman) + BAN (put a stop to) + G(ood)
24 DECOLLETE – COL(onel) + LET in DEE
25 OTHER – [-b(ook)]OTHER
Down
1 INCOGNITO – In (fashionable) + CO. + (GOT IN)*
2 PEOPLES REBUBLIC – P(ower) + 1 in (POPULACE REBELS)*
3 LEDGE – Hidden in filLED, GEnerally
4 WORLD WAR – L(iberal) D(emocrat) in RAW ROW rev.
5 FACILE – CA rev in FILE
6 RAIN CLOUD – (I CAN LOUR)* over D(ay) – &lit.
7 HIPPOCRATIC OATH – Cryptic def.
8 NERYS – Hidden in wiNERY Sozzled
13 NIGHTFALL – NIGH + f(ine) in TALL
15 MESSENGER – MESS + [-w]ENGER
16 LAMBASTE – LAMB + (TEAS)*
19 BIREME – IRE over ME, supporting B(ritish)
20 MOPED – Double def.
21 CORED – CREDO with 0 (love) moved to the end

13 comments on “Independent 7,691/Phi”

  1. Thanks Phi for the crossword and Ali for the blog. In 21dn, I think you have the answer (CREDO) and the intermediate step (CORED) the wrong way round.

  2. Many thanks for the blog, Ali, and for a very enjoyable solve, Phi.

    I got a different answer for 5d, however: defn FICKLE = Unreliable (FI.. LE about CK (future rising barrister, KC, because there won’t be any of these until Britain has a king)).

    My new words of the day were CLOWDER and BIREME – not ones I’ve come across before, but they had to be thus on the wording of the clues and sure enough they could be googled later – which reminds me, I must now buy myself a Chambers!

  3. Yes, I’ve just spotted CREDO too, and agree with PB.

    Also, whilst I got HIPPOCRATIC OATH and can see it’s medical relevance and that it’s not for the patients to take, I forgot to ask about the significance of the word “quantity” here – what am I missing please in reading this clue?

  4. superkiwigirl @2: And I agree with you about 5dn. I cannot account for “quantity” in 7dn either.

  5. I enjoyed this too, favourite clues, WORLD WAR, MOPED, and, as you mention, RAIN-CLOUD. Thanks Phi and Ali. CLOWDER was new to me too, but, if memory serves, Phi is pretty expertly knowledgeable about cats for some reason.

  6. Thanks for blogging, Ali.

    A fine puzzle from Phi, which I completed reasonably easily but still needed to come here for some final explanations. I thought the reference to bunga bunga in 17ac was very contemporary – if only …

    CLOWDER and BIREME were also new to me, but clearly signposted, and I also liked WAFER-THIN. I too am struggling to understand HIPPOCRATIC OATH, although it was one of my first half-dozen or so entries because of the crossing letters.

  7. 5d is definitely FICKLE – firstly, that’s what they’ve told us in the online version; secondly, there is no sense I know of in which “CA” can mean barrister, or in which “facile” means unreliable, come to that. Just looks like a passing brainstorm on Ali’s part to me.

    7d – Glad everyone seems to have been as puzzled as me. I’m beginning to think it is just a CD – the modern version of the oath is effectively a list (of sentences beginning “I will…”) so it is in that sense a quantity, or rather a number, of similar things (analagous to the quantity of pills implied in the surface?). Also, clutching at straws a bit, I suppose everything is a quantity, unknown or otherwise.

  8. Agree with the conclusion about FICKLE and the puzzlement over ‘quantity’ in HIPPOCRATIC OATH; it was that word that kept me from putting in the solution for the longest time. I will add an infinitesimally tiny nit about Ali’s description of the solution to 9a: he meant to write that it’s LOWER in CD rather than the other way around. I thought it was a solid and straightforward puzzle from Phi with a lot of smooth surfaces. I really liked WAFER-THIN (and the memories of the wafer-thin mint from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life) and PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC. I think I may have encountered CLOWDER before, but I needed to confirm it after putting it in. Thanks, Phi, for the fun workout, and to Ali for the blog.

  9. Glad it’s not just me who didn’t really get 7d.. Thanks Ali + Phi, perhaps Phi might stop by to explain

  10. Medical quantity you wouldn’t expect *patients* to take?

    You’d expect this to be an exploitation of a double meaning on ‘quantity’, but I can’t seem to get a meaning for it as ‘code’, or ‘oath’ or anything like that. Perhaps it’s Collins 6, the ‘characteristic of a proposition’ etc, but in truth I am a-strugglin’.

  11. Agree with the comments about 7d – before I got crossing letters I thought 7d might be be something dose. Perhaps Phi will elucidate.

    Clowder was new to me – Oxford webpage says

    ‘The usual word that’s given as the collective term for a group of cats is clowder.’

    I think usual is stretching it a bit. 🙂

    I too got fickle at 5d – the ‘future barrister’ was very neat. Too many great clues to pick a favourite. Thanks Phi and Ali for the blog.

  12. Sorry to be so late stopping by.

    As usual in situations like this I fall back on checking the original hoping that the point causing comment is an editorial intervention (I don’t know why I do this, it never is). By the time a puzzle is published I’m usually several weeks further on, and it’s impossible to reconstruct my thought processes for every clue, and I now find ‘quantity’ as curious a choice as some of you do. ‘Item’ would have been far better, and all I can think is that unconsciously I wanted a trisyllable there. (I only suggest that because I have on occasion – not often – found myself editing a clue to improve its rhythm.)

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