Independent 8290 / Phi

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Phi has a theme running through today’s puzzle.

 

 

 

Literature is not my strong point, but I managed to dredge up all the relevant Shakespeare CHARACTERs [9 across] from The TEMPEST (29 across] without having to look at the play.  The wordplay helped once I grasped what was going on.

I got TEMPEST early on but couldn’t think of a an obvious two word phrase beginning TEMPEST.  However, once I got PROSPERO at 8 down it all fell into place and I could see that 9 across was going to be CHARACTER

COCHIN-CHINA (11 across) was a new word to me, but the wordplay was very fair.

My favourite clues today were those for NULLIFIED (27 across; I like that type of wordplay where the entry is built up from many constituent parts), ROCOCO (clever use of the same idea twice and because it conjured up an interesting picture) and CALIBAN (7 down for the use of imprisoned in a couple of ways)

For Shakespeare scholars I suspect this puzzle was a bit of a write-in once the theme was established, but for the less knowledgeable on Shakespeare characters it would be a good test of wrodplay understanding.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
1

 

 Disease: problem with chap losing head (7)

 

 RUB (difficulty; problem) + FELLA (man; chap) excluding the first letter (losing head) F

 

 RUBELLA (German measles; disease)

 
5

 

 Spooner’s pet accessory’s lid (4,3)

 

 CAT FLAP (pet accessory) as said by the Reverend Spooner (who transposed initial sounds of spoken words) would be uttered as FLAT CAP

 

 FLAT CAP (hat; lid)

 
9

 

 Quality Bill incorporated into royal document? (9)

 

 AC (account; bill) contained in (incorporated into) CHARTER (the formal deed by which a sovereign guarantees the rights and privileges of his or her subjects; royal document)

CHAR (AC) TER

 CHARACTER (quality)

 
10

 

 White edifice? One dark surprised expression released (5)

 

 I + GLOOMY (dark) excluding (released) MY (gosh; surprised expression) IGLOO (house made of snow and ice; white building)
11

 

 Company served with toast and a chicken (6-5)

 

 CO (company) + CHIN-CHIN (good health; toast) + A

 

 COCHIN-CHINA (a large feathery-legged domestic chicken)

 
12

 

 A bit of bread, apparently (3)

 

 B (first letter of [a bit of] BREAD) + AP (apparently)

 

 BAP (a large, flat, elliptical breakfast roll) &Lit clue

 
13

 

 Trip distance measured? (6) This clue is referencing the phrase MEASURE ONE’S LENGTH (to fall [trip] or be thrown down at full LENGTH)

 

 LENGTH (a distance measure)

 
15

 

 A solitary fellow, embracing married social worker(7)

 

 (A + LONER [solitary fellow]) containing (embracing) M (married)

A L (M) ONER

 ALMONER (a medical social worker attached to a hospital [no longer an official title]; a distributor or giver of relief for the poor)

 
17

 

 Individual undergoing shift in energy in time (3)

 

 EON (ONE (individual) with E (energy) moving to the front (undergoing shift)

 

 EON (a very large division of geological time;)

 
18

 

 Getting near, drunk snatches tie back (7)

 

 (SOT [a drunk] containing (snatches) DRAW [tie]) all reversed (back)

(TO (WARD) S)<

 TOWARDS (near)

 
20

 

 To understand French is the result of abstraction (6)

 

 DIG (understand) + EST (‘is’ in French)

 

 DIGEST (an abstract)

 
23

 

 One not in recreation has to work? (3)

 

 PLAY (recreation) excluding (not in) A (one)

 

 PLY (work at steadily)

 
24

 

 New regime taking turn possibly – after this? (11)

 

 Anagram of (possibly)  (N [new] and REGIME and TURN)

 

 INTERREGNUM (the time between the cessation of one and the establishment of another government; any breach of continuity in order, etc- a new regime will take up office after an INTERREGNUM) &Lit clue

 
26

 

 29 9 – zodiac sign, second to last in roll-call (5)

 

 ARIES (one of the signs of the zodiac)  with S (second) changed to (to)  L (final letter of [last in] ROLL_CALL)

 

 ARIEL (Character[9 across]  in The Tempest [29 across])

 
27

 

 I satisfy university in study, though rejected and revoked (9)

 

 ([I + FILL {satisfy} + U {university}] contained in [in] DEN [study]) all reversed (though rejected)

(N (U LLIF I) ED)<

 NULLIFIED (revoked)

 
28

 

 Supervise curtailment of foreign trade finally (7)

 

 OVERSEA (overseas; foreign) excluding the last letter (curtailment) A + E (last letter of [finally] TRADE)

 

 OVERSEE (supervise)

 
29

 

 English politician in exam storm (7)

 

 (E [English] + MP [Member of Parliament {politician}]) contained in (in) TEST (exam)

T (E MP) EST

 TEMPEST (storm)

 
Down
1

 

 Bird without tail seizing bird without tail – that’s grotesque (6)

 

 ROOK (bird) excluding the final letter (without tail) K containing (seizing) (COCK [bird] excluding the final letter [without tail] K)

RO (COC) O

 ROCOCO (grotesque)

 
2

 

 Woman went pale, seeing daughter fall off (7)

 

 BLANCHED (went pale) excluding (fall off) D (daughter)

 

 BLANCHE (woman’s name)

 
3

 

 Prominent agreement getting press comment? (7,8)

 

 LEADING (prominent) + ARTICLES (agreement made up of distinct points)

 

 LEADING ARTICLES (editorial [press]comment)

 
4

 

 Very cold – no starting for chilled lorry (5)

 

 ARCTIC (very cold) excluding (no) C (the first letter of [starting] CHILLED)

 

 ARTIC (articulated lorry)

 
5

 

 29 9 with agitated friend up above (9)

 

 Anagram of (agitated) FRIEND + AND (with)

FERDIN* AND

 FERDINAND (Character[9 across]  in The Tempest [29 across])

 
6

 

 Sexual atraction offering strange mammalian tinges? (6,9)

 

 Anagram of (strange) MAMMALIAN TINGES ANIMAL MAGNETISM (sexual power of attraction due entirely to physical attributes.)

 
7

 

 29 9‘s excuse falling short – imprisoned? (7)

 

 (ALIBI excluding the final letter [falling short] I)  contained in Iimprisoned] CAN [prison]  ‘imprisoned’ is doing a bit of double duty indicating containment in a prison [CAN]) I note that the majority who have commented feel that ‘imprisonment’ is not doing double duty, so I’ll gracefully withdraw my view that it might be

C (ALIB) AN

 CALIBAN (Character[9 across]  in The Tempest [29 across])

 
8

 

 29 9 to do well with nothing (8)

 

 PROSPER (do well) + O (nothing)

 

 PROSPERO (Character[9 across]  in The Tempest [29 across])

 
14

 

 Delay in the case may be disastrous (9)

 

 Anagram of (may be disastrous) IN THE CASE

 

 HESITANCE (delay)

 
16

 

 29 9 has not worked to secure record (8)

 

 Anagram of (worked) HAS NOT containing (to secure) EP (Extended Play record)

ST (EP) HANO*

 STEPHANO (Character[9 across]  in The Tempest [29 across])

 
19

 

 Part of road, broad, accommodating – say – running (7)

 

 WIDE (broad) containing (accommodating) an anagram of (running) SAY

W (AYS*) IDE

 WAYSIDE (the border of a highway; part of road)

 
21

 

 Shock with priest leaving ushering in new dawn (7)

 

 (SURPRISE [shock] excluding (leaving) PR [priest])  containing (ushering in) N (new) Edited after comment at 1 below – thanks

SU (N) RISE

 SUNRISE (dawn)

 
22

 

 Embraced by daughter in a fog (6)

 

 D (daughter) contained in (in) (A + MIST [fog])

A MI (D) ST

 AMIDST (embraced by)

 
25

 

 Roof-worker, climbing, get on again (5)

 

 TILER (roof-worker) reversed (climbing; down clue|)

 

 RELIT (on again)

 

 

18 comments on “Independent 8290 / Phi”

  1. The mini-theme of characters from ‘The Tempest’ made this puzzle slightly easier to finish as the answers were spread arund the grid, which assisted me in solving other clues. My favourites in this puzzle were 15a, 27a, 18a, 11a.

    I couldn’t parse 13a.

    New words for me today were ‘Cochin China chicken’ and ARTIC.

    Thanks for the blog, Duncan. I think you have a typo in 21d as it should be SURPRISE excluding PR = priest and containing N = new.

  2. I enjoyed this too. I remember the play well and part of the fun was seeing which characters would appear; I agree the clues were clear enough to get there without such knowledge, with a judicious bit of googling to check.

    I didn’t know COCHIN CHIN either, but I refer the Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen to the comment I made a few moments ago…

    Terrific blog, as usual. One small question, from a relative newbie: in 7D is imprisoned necessarily doing double duty? I read it as meaning, cryptically “in (the) can”, in which case the clue seems fine as it is. What do people think?

  3. PJ – I don’t see how 7dn would work without ‘imprisoned’.

    I made heavy weather of this one for a while but speeded up once I got a few answers and then saw what the theme was, and I managed to finish it without aids. Another very good Phi puzzle.

  4. Hi, AndyB. I agree “imprisoned” is required; I only suggest it not doing double duty.

    Perhaps I don’t understand what double duty means. It looks like a nice cryptic clue to me.

  5. Thanks Duncanshiell, I certainly needed you for COCHIN CHINA. New one on me. I don’t think the ‘imprisoned’ is doing double-duty – it’s simply not that industrious — I think if anything it’s a wink from the setter — a sort of ‘ghost-ping’ on the radar to throw the sub-hunters. The Tempest is well within my skill-set, so once 9 was cracked the mopping up took no time. I did wonder whether 9 and 29 needed spelling out but I suppose CHARACTER was a pretty obvious trailer to TEMPEST wheras it’s not too obvious if you got them in reverse order.

    Many thanks to the setter, too.

  6. Michelle @ 1 – Thanks for pointing out the typo – corrected now.

    Everyone else – I was thinking that ‘imprisonment’ was a acting as a containment indicator (imprisoning) and a definition of the container (prison; CAN) but I’m not going to go to the barricades over it and am happy to accept the view of the majority.

  7. I got the two gateway clues straight away, and half-remembered most of the characters, so this one didn’t prove too tricky. COCHIN CHINA was new to me, so was pleased to get it from the wordplay.

    Good puzzle – thanks to Phi, and to Duncan for the blog.

  12. Once I got the gateway clues the themed answers were write-ins, having studied The Tempest for O-Level eng. lit. (yes, it was that long ago!). On the other hand COCHIN-CHINA was new to me – at least as a chicken; I only knew of it as a country (now part of Vietnam), presumably where the breed originated.

    Thanks, Phi and Duncan

  13. As often happens for me with Phi I get off to a slow start but suddenly clues, always satisfying, begin dropping in sprightlily.
    Personally I’m in the double duty camp, but more important to me are those clues like 25dn which leave me having to guess whether it’s tiler or relit. Is there a crosword convention, maybe the order, which tell you which is the right answer?

  14. PJ@2&4 – apologies. I should have read Duncan’s blog properly (sorry Duncan), because if I had I would have realised you were querying his use of double duty. Wrong end the stick and all that ……………..

  15. Re pennes’ query at #13, I think, as the clue set out in Duncan’s blog shows, ‘get’ is the link between wordplay and definition. This gives the answer unambiguously IMHO.

  16. Just to note that The Tempest was a means to an end and the real theme will be explained after next week’s puzzle.

  17. What a lovely chicken – IanJ@8! Like K’sD we’d never heard of it but deduced it from the wordplay and crossing letters.

    Thanks for explaining 13ac Duncan.

    We’d better save the paper until next week given Phi’s comment @16.

  18. Surely “imprisoned” in 7D is a “backwards clue”? “ALIB” is “in (the) CAN”, i.e.”imprisoned”.

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