Independent 8793 / Phi

by

Phi has given us a fairly standard crossword today

 

 

 

There is however a slight nod towards the season with entries including the words CHRISTMAS (3/8/20), SEASON (9 across), SWEET (17 across), ENJOYABLE (18 across), and MISTLETOE (24 across),

For me, this puzzle tended to the easier end of Phi’s spectrum of difficulty, but others may well disagree.

There was one clue where I feel I must have missed something.  This is 13 across leading to RUN TO SEED where I set out my thinking in the body of the blog.

There were many clues I did like, such as the one for VICAR (11 across), for it’s use of an anagram of letters taken from the middle of another word, the clue for TURN ON ONES HEEL (7 down) for its ability to clue the component parts in series as a bit of a story and the one for EURO-MPS (18 down) with it’s allusions to MPs misbehaviour.

I get a week off next week as I am scheduled for Thursday (Christmas Day) when the Independent doesn’t publish.  Back on Wednesday 31st January.  A Merry Christmas to you all!

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
1

 

 Return of hot blue style (4)

 

 (H [hot] + SAD [blue]) all reversed (return of)

(DAS H)<

 DASH (style)

 
3/8/20 10 19’s timely tale of nipper and nippers (3,1,4,3,9,2,2,3,5,5) This a cryptic definition with nipper referring to a child and nippers referring to incisors [teeth]. The tale tells of the child who WANTS TWO FRONT TEETH for CHRISTMAS ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH

The song ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH about a child [nipper] who wanted teeth [nippers] was a 1948 number one hit for SPIKE [10 down] JONES [19 down] and his City Slickers.
9

 

 Onshore and working when the tourists are away (3,6)

 

 OFF SEAS (on shore) + ON (working)

 

 OFF SEASON (the time of year when tourist numbers are low)

 
11

 

 Clergyman condemned heart of avarice (5)

 

 Anagram of (condemned) VARIC (middle letters of [heart of] AVARICE)

VICAR*

 VICAR (clergyman)

 
12

 

 Instrument ruined basic rondo, leading to fight (5,2,8)

 

 Anagram of (ruined) BASIC RONDO + SET TO (fight)

CORNO DI BAS* SET TO

 CORNO DI BASSETTO (basset horn; instrument)

 
13

 

 Go down to congratulate tennis champ? (3,2,4)

 

 RUN TO (I’m not sure whether ‘go down’ is doing double duty in this clue, firstly as the definition and secondly as meaning RUN TO) + SEED (Chambers and Collins effectively define SEED as ‘one of the best players in a tournament’   Tennis is a sport where the concept of SEEDing is common.  However, not all SEEDs are champions)

Alternatively the whole phrase RUN TO SEED could be interpreted as ‘Go down to congratulate tennis champ’  Does RUN TO mean ‘congratulate’?

 

You will deduce that I am struggling with the preciseness of this clue.  Possibly I’m missing something.

 

 RUN TO SEED (disappoint expectation of development; become unkempt or shabby; go down)
15

 

 Fantasy hero‘s life story involving recall of book with length (5)

 

 BIO (biography; life story) containing (involving) (B [book] + L [length]) reversed [recall of])

BI (L B)< O

 BILBO (reference BILBO Baggins, hero of J R R Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit)

 
17

 

 Student, losing heart, gaining little in later course (5)

 

 STUDENT excluding the middle letters of [losing heart) TUDEN and replacing them with [gaining] WEE [little]

S (WEE) T

 

 SWEET (the dessert course in  a meal; later course)

 
18

 

 Entertaining European baloney involved bringing in Judge (9)

 

 Anagram of (involved) (E [European] and BALONEY) containing (bringing in) J (judge)

EN (J) OYABLE*  or you could have it as E N (J) OYABLE* where the anagram fodder is simply BALONEY

 

 ENJOYABLE (entertaining)

 
23

 

 Black sheep returning, having consumed last of inheritance (5)

 

 RAMS (sheep) reversed (returning) containing (having consumed) E (last letter of [last of] INHERITANCE)

SM (E) AR<

 SMEAR (a mark, often black; black)  It could also relate to the definition of SMEAR as defame, but I am not sure that black can be used a s a verb in the sense that blacken can.  OK, Collins tells me that black is interchangeable with blacken, so I reckon my second alternative is the valid one here

 
24

 

 Fog and shelter restricting to parasite (9)

 

 MIST (fog) + (LEE [shelter] containing (restricting) TO)

MIST LE (TO) E

 MISTLETOE (a hemiparasitic evergreen shrubby plant)

 
25

 

 English poet mostly adopting American thriller genre (8)

 

 SPENSE (reference English poet Edmund SPENSER excluding the final letter [mostly] R) containing (adopting) US (American)

S (US) PENSE

 SUSPENSE (a genre of thrillers)

 
26 No opening for an extra responsibility (4)

 

 BONUS (extra) excluding the first letter [no opening for] B

 

 ONUS (responsibility)

 
Down
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
1

 

 Dictionary’s prime source of information – run off to show homage (9)

 

 D (first letter of [prime] DICTIONARY) + EFERENCE (REFERENCE [source of information] excluding [off] R [run, in cricket scoring notation)

 

 DEFERENCE (homage)

 
2

 

 Sort out rise in old river (3,2)

 

 (O [old] + TEES [river in North of England]) all reversed (rise; down clue)

(SEE T O)<

 SEE TO (sort out)

 
4

 

 Beam erected in ground, on which hangs a whistle? (7)

 

 (RAY [beam] reversed [erected; down clue]) contained in (in) LAND (ground)

LAN (YAR)< D

 LANYARD (a cord for hanging a knife, whistle etc around the neck)

 
5

 

 One book bound in vinyl is bent without perceptible effect? (9)

 

 (I [one] + B [book]) contained in (bound in) an anagram of (bent)  VINYL IS

INVIS (I B) LY*

 INVISIBLY (without perceptible effect)

 
6

 

 United leaving a talent spotter in Berkshire town (5)

 

 A + (SCOUT [talent spotter] excluding [leaving] U [united])

 

 ASCOT (a town in Berkshire)

 
7

 

 Make single woman feel sexy on railway and walk smartly away (4,2,4,4) TURN ON (make … feel sexy) + ONE (single) + SHE (woman) + EL (elevated railroad; railway)

 

 TURN ON ONES HEEL (walk smartly away)

 
10

 

 Peak location for office documents? (5) SPIKE (a very brief, potentially damaging surge of power on an electronic circuit; peak in power; alternatively to form a peak)

 

 SPIKE (a sharp-pointed metal rod set upright on a base, on which to impale documents requiring attention, etc)  Do office workers still use a SPIKE for this purpose?  Double definition

 
14

 

 Find someone else to handle expenses getting on top of our church (9)

 

 OUTS (outgoings; expenses) + OUR + CE (Church of England)

 

 OUTSOURCE (find someone else to handle certain aspects of the company’s work)

 
16

 

 Trios belt out words from operas (9)

 

 Anagram of (out) TRIOS BELT

LIBRETTOS*

 LIBRETTOS (books of words of an opera)

 
18

 

 Parliamentarians go to court, upset about risqué behaviour? (4-3)

 

 (SUE [prosecute at law; go to court] reversed [upset]) containing (about) ROMP (vigorous frolic, especially one of a sexual nature; risqué behaviour)

EU (RO MP) S<

 EURO-MPS (parliamentarians)

 
19

 

 Common name displayed by individuals supporting Japan (5)

 

 J (International Vehicle Registration for Japan) + ONES (individuals)  As this is a down entry the letters of ONES are supporting the J

 

 JONES (common surname in Britain)

 
21

 

 Emotional torment not initially a contribution to shock? (5)

 

 STRESS (emotional torment) excluding the first letter (not initially) S

 

 TRESS (part of [a contribution] to a shock of hair)

 
22

 

 Peacock feature, not one on claw (5)

 

 (TAIL [a particular feature of a peacock] excluding [not] I [one]) + ON

 

 TALON (claw)

 

`

 

7 comments on “Independent 8793 / Phi”

  1. Thanks Duncan, and Merry Christmas Phi.

    Thanks for the nudge. It’ll be Cocktails for Two a little later, then.

  2. 13a at first conjured up the image of the traditional jump over the net at the end of a tennis match, but of course it was the winner jumping. (Nowadays they seem to collapse in a heap and flail about instead.) I don’t think the loser has ever been expected to run to the winner, but I don’t think the clue was meant to conjure up anything so specific. I think it works well enough if you just take “run to” as what one might do to congratulate someone, and “seed?” as someone who might be a champ.

    I agree that this was at the easier end of Phi’s spectrum (which runs the gamut from easy to ridiculously easy — but always well constucted and enjoyable).

    Happy Christmas, Duncan et omnes. I look forward to your Hogmanay blog.

  3. A very elegant and well-clued puzzled. The ‘Spike Jones’ reference was my only quibble, as to refer to the (well-known) song via that avenue requires some seriously arcane knowledge!

    Thanks, and Merry Xmas.

  4. Thanks, Duncan (and indeed thanks for all your blogs this year).

    Vanilla Phi. My kind of puzzle. Not sure I’d agree that this setter is ‘easy to ridiculously easy’, though. When he’s in theme mode, then he can be tricky, I find.

    GO TO SEED put a nice picture in my head, so that works for me.

  5. Forgot my manners. Thanks to Phi also, of course, for all his offerings during 2014 (perhaps we’ll have one more …)

  6. This was meant to be my last puzzle before Christmas but a little rejigging next week means that’s no longer the case. Merry Christmas to any who only look in on Fridays.

    I understand Beelzebub will be feeling mildly seasonal come Sunday as well.

  7. Having hit a brick wall half-way through yesterday’s puzzle, I thought the same was happening today, but I went off to do something else and when I came back the rest went in without much difficulty.

    Although I knew the song title and I’d heard of Spike Jones, I had no idea he’d recorded it. 17ac is more usually referred to as a basset horn today, I think, but Corno di Bassetto was George Bernard Shaw’s pseudonym when writing music criticism. I don’t know if he ever reviewed anything by Spike Jones.

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