Independent 8,739 by Phi

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[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Back to normality it seems: Phi has appeared for the last two Fridays.

There are two strange things about this typically pleasant crossword: the grid is strange and (yes I know he doesn’t always have them, but today surely he does) cries out that there is a Nina, but of course I can’t see it; and for the first time that I can remember Phi has departed from the Ximenean norm by having two answers (8dn and 13ac) with less than 50% checking. Not much less than 50% mind you, but still less.

Actually there is a third: Phi doesn’t so far as I can see have any recourse to an anagram in his clueing.

So come on Nina hunters, plenty of material there to work with.

I found this rather hard for a Phi, perhaps because there were no comparatively easy openers with anagrams. My excuse is the less than 50% checking on the two long answers, but that’s no good really.

Across

5 Stock beer after college restricts not drinking? (6)
CATTLE
(C a(TT)le)
6 Seafood trick that’s very good (6)
SCAMPI
scam pi
9 Words about to be found in books? (6)
VOCALS
vo(ca)ls
10 Turns missing opening will involve performers becoming pariahs (8)
OUTCASTS
{b}out(cast)s — at least I think it’s turns = bouts, as in ‘bad turn’
11 Careful boyfriend about to bring up going without sex (8)
DELICATE
d(elic{it})ate — this was so obviously celibate that I took ages trying to make it work, but eventually I realised that it was this, although careful = delicate seems to be a bit of a stretch and I can’t think of a sentence where they are interchangeable — elicit = bring up (not bring up = cat, as I had when struggling to parse delicate), it = sex
12 Pictorial, faithfully reproduced, capturing church, note (6)
SCENIC
s(CE n)ic
13 Past charge lout is accepting, initially? It’ll keep one inside (11)
AGORAPHOBIA
ago rap hob i{s} a{ccepting} — I had never heard of hob = lout, but it’s there
17 I’m not serious about fighting! (6)
COWARD
co(war)d — &lit. — cod = ‘not serious’, not ‘I’m not serious’; I is the answer ‘speaking’, as sometimes happens
19 A fish, stuffed with a lot of bean-curd beginning to generate sudden emergency, perhaps (3,2,3)
ACT OF GOD
a c(tof{u} g{enerate})od — is the fact that both this and the last clue use cod something to do with a Nina?
20 Providing milk? Lake operation provided one with a bit of cream (8)
LACTIFIC
l act if 1 c{ream}
22 Comes back with edits Director dismissed (6)
REACTS
re{D}acts
23 Fancy taking in joke scorning Prince? It’ll have you cracking up (6)
LUNACY
l({p}un)acy
24 Waterproof cover for an Independent ? That’s crazy (6)
MANIAC
m(an I)c — crazy as an adjective, since maniac has an adjectival sense, or possibly crazy as a noun: no doubt some dictionary supports the sense used by Roberto de Vicenzo after a major golf tournament in the 1960s: he had committed some minor technical error and was disqualified: ‘I am a crazy’ — at least if my memory is correct

Down

1 Angry group interrupting crime – good (8)
STEAMING
s(team)in g
2 Unfortunate medicine blackened, after phosphorus is extracted (3-7)
ILL-STARRED
{p}ills tarred
3 Northerner in hurry, missing one round (4)
SCOT
sco{o}t or sc{o}ot, one of the o’s anyway
4 Stick one mile before boundary (6)
IMPALE
1 m pale
5 Second son emerging from nearest cupboard (6)
CLOSET
close{s}t
7 Perceive it follows successively, after sailors put out (6)
INTUIT
(in tu{RN}) it
8 Punishment to present itself – criminal’s head pushed through window? (11)
COMEUPPANCE
come up pan(c{riminal})e
12 Underfunded, needing money for food item (10)
SHORTBREAD
short bread
14 I note a good deal of rumpus covering excavation beneath one (5,3)
INFRA DIG
I n fra{y} dig
15 Aristocrat completely spoiled delivery (2-4)
NO-BALL
nob all — cricket, a ball that has something wrong with it and results in an extra run to the batting side
16 Quote work that’s revolutionary in terms of verse (6)
POETIC
(cite op)rev.
18 Introduction of copper money amongst silver is temporary (6)
ACTING
A(c{opper} tin)g
21 Conservative engaged in whopping … truth? (4)
FACT
fa(C)t
*anagram

15 comments on “Independent 8,739 by Phi”

  1. I took 15d to be a pun on ‘noble’; it worked anyhow. But, I really enjoyed the fun in the clues for 19a & 14d. Thanks to both.

  2. An enjoyable Phi puzzle as always. Although the grid seems ideal for a nina I can’t see one either, nor a theme for that matter. I got through this one fairly quickly until I got to my LOI (11ac), and it was only when I finally saw ELIC(IT) that I knew it was DELICATE rather than “celibate”.

  3. Sadly my Java is jiggered so I can’t solve the puzzle, but ACT appears several times; indeed every solution has at least A, C or T in it.

  4. The first five across solutions all have “ca” in them, and the last five all have “ac” in them. This can’t be coincidence, but I can’t see what Phi is up to.

  9. Thanks Geebs. I don’t think I’d ever have spotted the pattern, but it doesn’t surprise me at all that Phi has hidden something like that in a puzzle.

  10. The CA / AC sequence continues through the centre of the puzzle. For scenic you have to use the first a of agoraphobia as well and for coward the last a of agoraphobia.

  13. I did wonder whether anyone would spot my bit of fun with CA and AC. it’s just something I put in to get over the ever-recurring dread of having to fill a new grid. In this case it was something purely mechanical that came to mind and CA seemed a useful digraph to do it with.

    If you look back through the blogs you will find an earlier comment about a first puzzles in which Phi has had lights with more unchecked than checked letters. That one was wrong as well, though I concede it’s a rare event. The absence of anagrams is even rarer, and generally unconscious though I did once spot I had a single anagram in a puzzle – so went back and took it out.

  14. Now that’s what I call a proper Nina (rather than a mini-theme or such that others insist on describing as Ninas, wrongly in my view) And that’s what makes this the kind of Phuzzle I love! After some very fine examples last winter/early this year I had grown to really look forward to Fridays; I shall return to saving them for weekend enjoyment!

  15. We have only just finished tbe puzzle – our solving times this weekhave been somewhat erratic.

    We were hoping for a nina around the perimeter as we were struggling early on. We completely missed the CA and AC sequence – extraordinary, the sequence that is not our missing it!

    Respect!

    Thanks Phi, John and the other commenters who spotted it.

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