Independent 8541 – Phi

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We cannot believe that four weeks have passed by and we are blogging a Phi puzzle again. Not that we are complaining ……

We enjoyed the solve and think we have everything sorted out apart from 11ac. We hope someone will be able to explain things for us!

As far as hidden messages or ninas are concerned – regular solvers will hopefully remember last week’s amusing acrostic – we cannot find anything in this puzzle but perhaps someone else will find something that we missed.

Across
1   Horseman heading off round lake? One won’t break into a gallop!
IDLER rIDER (horseman) without the first letter, or ‘heading off’ round L (lake)
4   Supposed place resident initially abandoned
PUTATIVE PUT (place) + nATIVE (resident) without the first letter, or ‘initially abandoned’
8   Transmits Hardy novel…or someone else’s?
TRISTRAM SHANDY An anagram of TRANSMITS HARDY – anagrind is ‘novel’. Thanks Gwep – all now correct!
10   US city not entirely thwarted in sport
LACROSSE LA (US city) + CROSSEd (thwarted) without the last letter, or ‘not entirely’
11   Remember American comedy star’s about to take leading part
RECALL We’re not 100% sure about this one – we think it is BACALL (Lauren Bacall – US film star) with RE (about) in place of the first two letters, or ‘leading part’. However, we don’t think of Lauren Bacall as a ‘comedy’ star, but perhaps we haven’t seen enough of her movies – or maybe we’re barking up the wrong tree? Thanks to Herb for pointing us in the right direction. RE (about) moves to the front or ‘takes leading part’ from CARELL (American comedy actor). We weren’t familiar with the name but after googling we saw him in Little Miss Sunshine. If you want to know more click on Steve Carell.
12   Puritan flattens fish
IRONSIDES IRONS (flattens) + IDES (fish)
15   Gangster dismissing excellent means of strangulation?
SCARF SCARFace (gangster) without ‘ace’ (excellent)
17   Reduction of this in church recalled moral standpoint
ETHIC THIs (without the last letter or ‘reduced’) in CE (church) reversed or ‘recalled’
18   Extract from whales: a mass – cold mass – is about right
AMBERGRIS A + M (mass) + BERG (cold mass) + IS around R (right)
19   Corpse’s beginning decaying contained by _____?
COFFIN A cryptic definition – C (first letter or beginning of ‘corpse’) + OFF (decaying) + IN (contained by)
21   Mate getting nasty colic from vegetable
BROCCOLI BRO (mate) + an anagram of COLIC – anagrind is ‘nasty’
24   Run to rocks after attacked sailor drowned
GONE FOR A BURTON An anagram of RUN TO (anagrind is ‘rocks’) after GONE FOR (attacked) AB (sailor)
25   Kissed, losing head, chasing sex, wearing finery
BEDECKED Kissed as in pECKED (Bert’s first thought when he wrote up the blog) or nECKED (what Joyce had been thinking when she checked the blog!) without the first letter, or ’losing head’ after or ‘chasing’ BED (sex) – our first thought was that this was a rather odd synonym for sex until we checked with Chambers. Neither of us had thought of ‘bed’ as a verb!
26   Nymph that’s unlikely to make you buy?
DRYAD A DRY AD would be unlikely to make you buy whatever was being advertised
Down
1/5   Agitated clientele setting a series of questions
INTELLIGENCE TEST An anagram of CLIENTELE SETTING – anagrind is ‘agitated’
2   Reluctant to accept Colin jiggling in such a garment
LOINCLOTH LOTH (reluctant) around, or ‘accepting’ an anagram of COLIN – anagrind is ‘jiggling’ – interesting imagery!!
3   Olde-worlde beer served up – head of pint missing
RETRO pORTER (beer) reversed, or ‘served up’ without the P – the first letter, or ‘head’ of ‘pint’
4   Ruling groups I encountered in ‘Paradise Lost’
PRAESIDIA I in an anagram of PARADISE – anagrind is ‘lost’
5   See 1d
See 1d
6   One coming across partygoers in terrace
TRAVERSER RAVERS (partygoers) in TER (terrace)
7   Favourite of Mussorgsky (Dvorak not right, quite wrong)
VODKA An anagram of DVOrAK without the R (not right) anagrind is ‘quite wrong’
9/23   Cocktail can lead to keen quizzical glance
OLD-FASHIONED LOOK OLD-FASHIONED (cocktail) + LOO (can, as in toilet) + K (first letter or ‘lead’ to keen)
13   Mostly dismiss anger about – say – attack on religion
SACRILEGE SACk (dismiss) without the last letter, or ‘mostly + RILE (anger) around EG (say)
14   Mountain rescue provider, pre-eminent, had to involve Swiss city
ST BERNARD STAR (pre-eminent) around, or ‘involving’ BERN (Swiss city) + D (contraction of ‘had’, as in ‘you’d’)
16   What Roy piloted round Iran should be this
AIRWORTHY A sort of cryptic definition – an anagram of WHAT ROY (anagrind is ‘piloted’ – to make the connection with the solution) round IR (Iran)
20   Somerset town following much larger place
FROME F (following) ROME (a much larger place than Frome!)
22   Given a suggestion, enjoyed music not books
CLUED CLUbbED (enjoyed music) without ‘bb’ (books)
23   See 9d
See 9d

 

15 comments on “Independent 8541 – Phi”

  1. Thank you to bloggers and setter,

    I couldn’t parse 11 either. The only name I could think of for an ‘American comedy star’ which might fit was Lucille Ball, but this doesn’t work as there would then be two ‘abouts’ (RE and C) to replace the ‘leading part’ B.

    I’d never heard of the expression in 24. I went to the intellectual effort of doing a Google search and found this interesting explanation from World Wide Words here.

  5. Count me as another who entered RECALL from the definition alone, although in retrospect I should have seen it because it isn’t like Steve Carell is a complete unknown. Apart from that I found this very straightforward, with LOOK my LOI (I had already entered OLD-FASHIONED but was stuck on the last word) after I finally unpicked the wordplay for GONE FOR A BURTON, which I usually associate with air crashes rather than drowning. No surprise that I can’t see a theme or a nina either.

  6. Thanks for the blog. I thought COFFIN was nicely devious, and I was held up in the SW corner as I put WENT FOR A BURTON (equally valid I reckon) which had me scratching my head on Somerset towns until I realised 13d had to be SACRILEGE. After that it all fell.
    I think Steve Carell is way too obscure an actor (hardly a star) to merit inclusion so I needed the blog for 11a; that one left me with a bad taste in the mouth despite completing the grid. I’d also question “clubbed” = “enjoyed music”; underwent rhythmic cacophony, pulsating lights, sweat, drugs and groping maybe, but music? Nah. Or maybe that only happens in rural Cumbria……

  7. The usual good stuff from Phi although I don’t think ‘drowned’ is a good enough definition for GONE FOR A BURTON. My dad, who joined the RAF in 1929 said the expression was in use before WWII and meant any inadvertent prolonged absence.

  8. Thanks both. Another fine Friday crossword from Phi, with my only niggle being RECALL. Never heard of the bloke, but I suppose our contributors from across the pond have to deal with all sorts of Anglocentric stuff (like FROME for example), so I’ll shut up. TRISTRAM SHANDY was a good spot for the anagram.

    Rural Derbyshire would only do clubbing if a colony of baby seals found themselves a long way from home. We don’t much like outsiders.

    Bravo, Phi, and a good weekend to all.

  9. I couldn’t parse 11ac either, so thanks for the explanation. Obvious now that it’s pointed out. Is it a coincidence that it is in the same place in the grid as “bake” yesterday, another one that had everyone scratching their heads?

    8ac was my LOI, despite knowing the book moderately well – I’ve read it a couple of times and rather enjoyed the film version about ten years ago.

  10. Thanks Phi for a very enjoyable puzzle (as usual) and B&J for the blog.

    One slight quibble at 4ac: I am not completely happy with “resident” = “native”. To me, these are quite different things: I am a resident of Birmingham but a native of Middlesex. I could not find a definition in Chambers 2011 that dispelled my doubts, but will be glad if someone can point me to an appropriate definition from a respectable source.

  11. As always, I enjoyed today’s offering from Phi (and thank you too, to Bert and Joyce). My LOI was AMBERGRIS, which I struggled with, in spite of having five of the letters – but a really natty clue (once someone had found it in the OED for me). IRONSIDES had to be right, though I’m resolved to request a crossword fish dictionary for my next birthday.

  12. Once again, the Independent’s espousal of pop culture themes seems to be slightly on the fritz (which is why I don’t venture there too often). Carell is scarcely obscure – his taking on the Ricky Gervais role in the US version of The Office seems to have got him quite a few column inches in UK media. I can’t say I’ve seen him in any films myself, though I’ve seen him in a lot of trailers for films where I’ve thought: “Nah, probably not”.

  13. Bert and Joyce –
    Many thanks as ever for your blogs.
    You mentioned the “amusing acrostic” which I conjured last week from SW diagonal. I do hope you realise that I wasn’t being serious (I simply saw a chance to link “initially” Phi with the rendering of beautiful Ninas, which afforded me the chance to obliquely remind Phi of my love for his literal conceits!)

  14. Thanks William F P@13

    We really enjoyed the fun last week and were hoping you would come up with another amusing one this week!

  15. Bert and Joyce –

    How could I have underestimated your perspicacity? I have enjoyed enough of your blogs to know better. Shame on me, and apologies!

    Little time to search this week; maybe next – unless Phi chooses to delight!

    Naturally, I did pick up on Phi’s (subconscious?) plans for his next holiday. Diagonally down from the D of ‘idler’ – very apt – we have it…… ‘Off to S Dorset, I.’

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