Independent 8565 / Phi

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Firstly, many thanks to Gaufrid for standing in for us while we have been away.

It’s Friday so it was no surprise when we saw it was Phi! Thankfully we didn’t find it too tricky although there were a few that caused a bit of head scratching.

Across
1   Get out stuff following start of season
SCRAM CRAM (stuff) after S (start of Season)
4   Lots of money in production of game?
MEGABUCKS A play on an anagram of GAME with BUCKS as the anagrind!
9   Exposes questions given to a French male
UNMASKS UN (French for a) + M (male) + ASKS (questions). We think ‘given to’ indicates that that ASKS comes at the end.
10   Busybody to notice after safety device’s cut
FUSSPOT SPOT (notice) after FUSe (safety device)  with last letter removed or ‘cut’
11   It’s excluded from limited penalty
FINE FINitE (limited) with IT ‘excluded’
12   Wrote music about pig – see the results here?
SCOREBOARD SCORED (wrote music) about BOAR (pig)
14   Technologist visiting Isle of Wight, it seems forgetting one name
INVENTOR A play on IN VENTnOR forgetting one N (name)
15   Godlike figure? I agree: swathed in sex-appeal from behind
ADONIS I NOD (I agree) inside SA (sex appeal) all reversed or ‘from behind’
18   Some concierge is hardly an entertaining woman
GEISHA Hidden in the clue concierGE IS HArdly
20   African growth worried China, investing in old European currency
DATE PALM ATE (worried) + PAL (China – mate as in Cockney rhyming slang) in DM (Deutschmark – old currency)
23   Day after day engaged in length of journey – one day more – feeling older?
MIDDLE-AGED DD (day after day) inside MILEAGE (length of journey) + D (one day more)
24   Justice that hurts Liberal? The cheek
JOWL J (justice) + OW (that hurts) + L (Liberal)
26   Good hit added to this team’s prestige
GLAMOUR G (good) + LAM (hit) + OUR (this team’s). We’re not entirely happy about OUR = this team’s but cannot see any other interpretation.
27   Gossip columnist’s spot that woman is after
BLATHER BLAT (paper – columnist spot) + HER (that woman)
28   Pace and place enshrining a good theatrical event
STAGE PLAY STEP (pace) + LAY (place) around or ‘enshrining’ A G (good)
29   Poet had yen to pen first of rhymes
HARDY HAD + Y (yen) around or ‘penning’ R (first of rhymes)
Down
1   Minor disturbance: evidence of injury concealing evidence of arrest
SCUFFLING SLING (evidence of injury) around CUFF (evidence of arrest)
2   Russian family’s Italian capital not so very little
ROMANOV ROMA (Italian capital) + NO (not so) + V (very)
3   Friends have disappeared at end of drinks, leaving chaos
MESS MatES (friends) with AT disappearing + S (end of drinks)
4   Simple sound system: microphone capturing American fight
MUSIC BOX MIC (microphone) around or ‘capturing’ A  US (American) + BOX (fight) Thanks gwep
5   They fetch sportsmen after line fails
GOFERS GOlFERS (sportsmen) after L disappears or ‘fails’
6   Vehicle conks out carrying naughty boy and meddlers
BUSYBODIES BUS (vehicle) + DIES (conks out) around an anagram of BOY (anagrind is ‘naughty’)
7   US policeman liable to bring in murderer? On the contrary
CAPTAIN APT (liable) inside rather than ‘bringing in’  CAIN (murderer) – hence the ‘on the contrary’
8   Put in place filled with mud, not lake
SITED SIlTED (filled with mud) without L (lake)
13   Unrestrained adapting to holes in one
ON THE LOOSE Anagram of TO HOLES  (anagrind is ‘adapting’ ) in ONE
16   Army is ill arrayed, not in a new way
SIMILARLY An anagram of ARMY IS ILL
17   A US guy popping in to give money to delivery guy
PAPERBOY PER (a) + BO (American guy) ‘popping in’ PAY (to give money to)
19   I note support raised North American state
INDIANA I + N (note) + AID (support) reversed + NA (North American)
21   One more article’s response to misidentifying woman
ANOTHER A (article) + NOT HER (response to misidentifying woman)
22   Flowering plant’s attraction drawing in one over Lake
LAUREL LURE (attraction) around or ‘drawing in’ A + L (Lake)
23   One bewitching publication’s about university
MAGUS MAG’S (publication’s) about U (university)
25   Way ahead hard, after being exactly right
PATH H (hard) after PAT (being exactly right)

 

18 comments on “Independent 8565 / Phi”

  1. Thanks for the early blog. Could you please expand a bit, though, on “BLAT (paper – columnist spot)”? Blather was the only thing that fit, but I could find no relevant meaning of “blat.”

  2. Hi Ian SW3 – We had to check this in Chambers – BLATT or BLAT is slang for newspaper – hence a place for a columnist.

  3. Thanks. It’s not in the online version of Chambers or any other dictionary I’ve checked. I find there is a Yiddish newspaper in New York called “Der Blatt,” but that’s the closest link I’ve found.

  10. Another enjoyable Phi puzzle that seemed, to me at least, to be round about the middle of his difficulty spectrum. My last two in were PAPERBOY and BLATHER, both from their definitions, so thanks for the parsing.

    As far as the L&H theme is concerned I didn’t spot it during the solve but there are enough references to them throughout the puzzle, including their names, that I probably should have done. 6dn and 13dn are both films of theirs, and of course 21dn, 11ac and 3dn is both another film and arguably their most famous catchphrase.

  11. Scram, I think, is a further title – can’t remember now, and my master copy is 12,000 miles away. The Music-Box is the one with the piano and the stairs.

    Must dash – currently in North Yorkshire.

  12. Thanks, both.

    Straightforward solve, really. The grid was friendly and the cluing precise. Didn’t spot the nina, but unless they’re screaming at me, I never go looking.

    Hope you are enjoying your time back in the motherland, Phi!

  13. Phi@11, you are right about 1ac and 4dn (as you should be, it is your puzzle), although if I was going to be picky I’d point out that the film at 1ac is actually “Scram!”, and as you said yourself the film at 4dn is “The Music Box”. Congrats on getting so many references into one puzzle.

    And while I’m being picky, it is a theme, not a nina.

  14. It’s a fair cop Andy@13. I’m not used to spotting themes/Ninas so entered the wrong term in my excitement when posting @5.

    Thanks Phi for the crossword and for reminding me of some great films.

  15. Lovely – very enjoyable level, and even more satisfying once the theme has been explained for people like me who never spot them. A crossword could be on fire and I probably wouldn’t notice!

    Thanks Phi for yet more pleasure, and nice to see B&J again.

  16. A little plea (with a nod to Andy B); a theme is a theme and a Nina is a Nina. They are not the same!!

  17. Good crossword as usual. I thought that to have ‘Busybody’ in the clue for 10ac and (almost) the answer to 6dn was a little odd, not that it matters I suppose.

  18. Andy@13 – yes it’s a theme not a Nina; and to be precise it’s a ghost theme, because it’s perfectly possible to solve th whole thing without even realising there is a theme.

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