Independent 8314 / Phi

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For the first time in three weeks I get to blog a puzzle without a classical or modern music theme.  This puzzle by Phi is simply a good example of what a national daily puzzle is generally all about.

 

 

 

There were a number of very good clues, but there were only 24 clues in total, a number which is below the average for an Independent puzzle.  The low number of clues was balanced by longer entries.

My favourite clue today was the &Lit clue for REITH LECTURES at 23 across.  Other clues I enjoyed were those for SOME LIKE IT HOT where the entry formed a clue for KEITH, IDIOLECT where I had to return to read the clue after first writing in RHETORIC without reading the clue properly, MOSS, FLEECE and RARITY.

I found the across clues more challenging the down clues, but overall the puzzle formed a good start to the day.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
5

 

 Film for Keith (4,4,2,3)

 

 KEITH is a hidden word in LIKE IT HOT.  So SOME LIKE IT HOT could be a clue for KEITH

 

 SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis)

 
8

 

 Ponder vaguely about Holy Rolling – regular form? (10)

 

 Anagram of (vaguely) PONDER containing (about) an anagram of (rolling) HOLY

Alternatively, ‘rolling’ may be telling us to cycle the letters of HOLY one place to form OLYH

P (OLYH*) EDRON*

 POLYHEDRON ( a solid figure or body bounded by plane faces [especially more than six].  I’m not sure that POLYHEDRA are regular in form.

Alternatively ‘regular’ may be part of the instruction to ‘roll’ HOLY in a ‘regular’ fashion.

I will be interested in other solvers views of the parsing of POLYHEDRON
9

 

 Timid? Head of mouse leads to startled response (4)

 

 M (first letter of [head of] MOUSE) + EEK ((interjection denoting fright; startled response; often the word used in comics when people spy a mouse, so there is a hint of &Lit here)

 

 MEEK (timid)

 
10

 

 Speech I used to interrupt hero etc when excited (8)

 

 (I contained in [used to interrupt] IDOL [hero]) + an anagram of (when excited) ETC

ID (I) OL ECT*

 IDIOLECT (an individual’s own distinctive form of speech)

 
12

 

 I’ve some nails here?  Definitely not (2,4)

 

 There are nails on the toes of MY FOOT

 

 MY FOOT (contemptuous expression of disbelief; definitely not)

 
13

 

 Understand fellow’s not entirely wanting visitors (6)

 

 F (fellow) + AT HOME (in one’s own house; ready to receive visitors) excluding the final letter (not entirely) E

 

 FATHOM (understand)

 
15

 

 Blessed people taking over God’s heart (6)

 

 RACE (people) replacing (taking over) the middle letter (heart) O of GOD

G (RACE) D

 GRACED (blessed)

 
17

 

 Old woman penetrating castle layout (6)

 

 MA (mother; old woman) contained in (penetrating) FORT (castle)

FOR (MA) T

 FORMAT (layout)

 
18

 

 Dog needing drink after broadcast (8)

 

 AIRED (broadcast) + ALE (example of a drink)

 

 AIREDALE (breed of dog)

 
20

 

 Peat bog pushing out core of other bog(4)

 

 MORASS (soft ground; marsh, bog) excluding the middle two letters (pushing out core) RA

 

 MOSS (a peat bog is primarily formed from bog MOSS)

 
21

 

 Police force making switch with hesitation to get intruder (10)

 

 INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Commission) with two letters P and L switched + ER (hesitation)

 

 INTERLOPER (intruder)

 
23

 

 These recur, broadcast, involving attractive personality and hint of learning? (5,8)

 

 Anagram of (broadcast) THESE RECUR containing (involving) (IT [sex appeal; attractive personality] and L [first letter of [hint of] LEARNING])

RE (IT) H (L) ECTURES*

 REITH LECTURES (an annual series of lectures given by a leading figure of the day [probably an individual with an attractive personality].   Usually broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and The BBC World Service.  The LECTURES are named in honour of Lord John REITH, the first Director General of the BBC)  &Lit clue

 
Down
1

 

 The writer picked up the writer’s award (4)

 

 ME (the writer) reversed (picked up; down clue) + MY (the writer’s)

EM< MY

 EMMY (American award for excellence in the television industry

 
2

 

 Covering escape, I will avoid murder (6)

 

 FLEE (escape) + ICE (kill or murder in American criminal slang) excluding (will avoid) I

 

 FLEECE (covering)

 
3

 

 No money held by stingy sort’.  That’s a wrong description (8)

 

 (NO + M [money]) contained in (held by) MISER (a tight-fisted or niggardly person;.stingy sort)

MIS (NO M) ER

 MISNOMER (wrong or unsuitable name or term; that’s a wrong description)

 
4

 

 Bogus expert interrupted working of Fed (looking humiliated) (10) SHAM (bogus) + (ACE [expert] contained in [interrupted] an anagram of [working of] FED)

SHAM EF (ACE) D*

 SHAMEFACED (looking humiliated)

 
5

 

 Asimov’s second promise to provide trilogy (5,2,6)

 

 S (second letter of [second] ASIMOV) + WORD OF HONOUR (promise that cannot be broken without disgrace)

 

 SWORD OF HONOUR (trilogy of novels by Evelyn Waugh)

 
6

 

 Knight, one taking fee for combat system (6)

 

 K (knight) + A + RATE (fee)

 

 KARATE (a traditional Japanese form of unarmed self-defence using blows and kicks, now a popular combative sport; combat system)

 
7

 

 Operetta – Lido song there, possibly (3,10)

 

 Anagram of (possibly) LIDO SONG THERE

 

 THE GONDOLIERS (operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan; it may well have a scene with a song sung by a Lido)

 
11

 

 Hopeful eye will circumvvent one amount of blurriness (10)

 

 OPTIC (eye [now mainly facetious in this definition, according to Chambers]) containing (I [one] + MIST [amount of blurriness])

OPT (I MIST) IC

 OPTIMISTIC (hopeful)

 
14

 

 Clear university’s under financial restriction round end of year (8)

 

 (OU [Open Univeristy] + TIGHT [financial restriction]; taken together we have OU TIGHT [university’s under financial restriction]) containing (round) R (final letter of [end of] YEAR)

OU T (R) IGHT

 OUTRIGHT (clear)

 
16

 

 

 Climbing tree secures insect cover (6)

 

 

 ELM (example of a tree) reversed (climbing; down clue) containing (secures) ANT (example of an insect)

M (ANT) LE<

 MANTLE (cover)

 
19

 

 Rector and church out of alms?  Unlikely event (6)

 

 R (rector) + (CHARITY (alms) excluding (out of) CH [church])

 

 RARITY (unlikely event)

 
22

 

 Cook rarely incorporates vegetable dish (4)

 

 OKRA (hidden word in [incorporates] COOK RARELY)

 

 OKRA (a vegetable dish prepared with the pods a of the plant of the same name)

 

14 comments on “Independent 8314 / Phi”

  1. Thanks for the blog, Duncan. I needed your help to parse 2d, 1d & 15a.

    I liked 7d, 11d, 5a, 23a, 10a, and my favourites were INTERLOPER, MISNOMER & RARITY (last in).

    New word for me today was IDIOLECT.

  2. Thanks Duncan

    I did exactly the same with RHETORIC! Only after some time spent trying and failing to think of the trilogy S.O.H/../……, did I decipher OPTIMISTIC (which I had starting with a T) and realise there weren’t actually two Rs available in the anagram.

    Maybe Phi intended it..

  3. Yes, I fell into the RHETORIC trap too; fortunately doing it on Crossword Solver the check button came to my rescue.

    I liked the neat misdirection in 5dn, associating Asimov with a different author’s trilogy.

    I needed the blog to parse SOME LIKE IT HOT and REITH LECTURES (among others) but they must be joint favourites for my CoD.

    Thanks, Phi and Duncan

  4. On ly one iI did notr like is KEITH. That is insuifficiemt indication. In trerospect you GET iT! BUt not before unl ess you yave al l the crossing letters .IN 15 it coulsd just havbe been “yaking ovetr for God’, but very goood pizzle, as usual from Pih.

    Cheers
    Rowly.

  5. Rowland
    I certainly didn’t need all the crossing letters for 5a and I shouldn’t think you did either. I had two when I got it. Re 15, your “People taking over for god” doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t convey the idea of replacing o with race. A perverse suggestion from someone who complains so often about inaccuracy. The clue as it stands works perfectly.

  6. Sorryy Thomas, my bad, but dot’n be angry: ‘taking oevr from God’ woulsd be my recommendatoin. The KEITH is a nice idea, but I thik n it unfair!!

  7. At 10ac I also entered rhetoric without looking at the clue properly, and then I realised that 6dn had to be KARATE so went back to the drawing board. IDIOLECT was my next to last in, followed by FLEECE, which should have been easy but I hadn’t understood the wordplay properly. I had no problem with the KEITH clue and only had a couple of checkers before I saw it.

  8. Thanks, Duncan. You’re right, an excellent daily cryptic, with plenty of variety and ingenuity.

    I couldn’t see how SOME LIKE IT HOT worked, but now you’ve explained it, I think it’s okay. I might have fancied a question mark, though.

    IDEOLECT I remembered from an eimi puzzle a while back.

  9. Thanks Phi for an enjoyable puzzle and Duncan for your excellent blog.

    My take on 8ac is that “regular form?” is a perfectly valid definition by example. The question mark indicates that a polyhedron need not be regular, but in practice if you ask anyone who knows the word to picture an octahedron, I reckon they are most likely to think of a regular one.

  10. Interesting I got the keith clue straight off with no crossers right at the start. Then struggled to finish lhs. Donk yesterday I found quite easy really despite not spotting the grid play til post solve. Horses courses guess. Thanks duncan and phi.

  11. Me too, but I had done it previously as a hidden word in ‘like it hot’.

    (Probably not the only one, either, so Phi’s is a nice angle.)

  12. I think the KEITH clue type works as long as it’s only essayed once or twice a year! There are a limited number of such titles anyway, so trotting something like this out once in a while isn’t a bad idea. The actual intent here was to have four cultural items of different types forming the long answers, and to give myself a puzzle with fewer clues for once.

    RHETORIC – it would be nice to think I was subtle enough to give you garden paths like this to be led up, but no.

  13. Well……. we were very pleased to hear that we weren’t the only ones to enter RHETORIC without checking the anagram properly!

    We needed some help with 10ac which we hadn’t come across before. We only finished this one this morning and as soon as we saw the half empty grid we both saw 5ac which we quite liked.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan.

  14. I thought 5 was the best of a very good lot. Can’t see what’s wrong with it: it seems to be perfectly fair and sufficient indication.

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