Independent 9,792 by Phi

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This was probably on the slightly easier end of the Phi spectrum of difficulty, not that it fell all that comfortably. Apart from one or two slight doubts, indicated below, I found this as usual to be pleasant and accessible.

Definitions underlined, in maroon.  Anagram indicators in italics.

Goodness knows if anything is going on here. I can see nothing.

Across
1 ASTHMA Chronic disorder remains to beset tense old woman (6)
as(T)h ma
5 TYPECAST Petty cash running short unfortunately? Always in the same position (8)
(Petty cas{h})* — position? I expected that in Collins I’d find something about other senses, but it’s all about actors being cast in the same part and I can’t see anything in Chambers, although perhaps I didn’t look hard enough
9 OVERFULL End of war captured in four outrageous lines? That’s excessive (8)
VE in (four)* ll — as in VE day
10 RETORT Apart from one time, Del Boy, say, returned a bit of repartee (6)
(Trot{t}er)rev. — Del Boy was one of the Trotter family in Only Fools and Horses
11 ROSY Over-optimistic, wordy, lacking power (4)
{p}rosy
12 ITALIANATE Independent gallery accepting a means of hanging picture back from European country (10)
I T(a lian)ate, the lian being (nail)rev.
13 CROSSBOW Weapon‘s thwarted greeting? (8)
cross [= thwarted] bow — cross and thwarted surely aren’t quite the same, but in Phi’s defence there is a question mark
15 GOETHE Good article about Old English writer (6)
g (OE) the
16 SHOVEL Southern resort, beside Lake, has something to shift sand, perhaps (6)
S Hove L — OK Hove is a Southern resort, but here it’s just a resort
18 NOONTIDE Sadly not done around one – or an hour earlier (8)
(not done)* round 1
20 ENGLISHMAN Some European he maligns misguidedly? Little new in that (10)
n in (he maligns)* — nice to see ‘some’ without it being the hackneyed hidden indicator it so often is
22 DUCT Channel avoided on the radio (4)
“ducked”
23 SORROW Regret a lot of vexed argument (6)
sor{e} row
24 LEISURED This is certain to be encompassed by interpretation of ‘idle’ (8)
sure in (idle)*, &lit.
25 SKYWARDS Broadcaster with lots of cash keeping source of revenue up (8)
Sky wa(r{evenue})ds
26 GREASY Being ingratiating is not difficult with old king (6)
GR easy — I was a little unsure of the equivalence, but one of Collins’s definitions is ‘unctuous or oily in manner’
Down
2 SAVIOUR Relish receiving current bringer of delivery (7)
sav(I)our
3 HARRY Badger runs repeatedly into grass (5)
ha(r r)y
4 ABU SIMBEL Blame I dismissed, having taken vehicle in historic African site (3,6)
bus in (blame I)*
5 TILT AT WINDMILLS Fight pointless battles, having inclination to take on flour suppliers? (4,2,9)
tilt at [= on] windmills [= flour suppliers] — but this could be wrong — I’m not at all sure that a flour supplier is a windmill rather than just a mill, and also I’m not comfortable with at = on
6 PARSI Indian believer is turning up in European capital (5)
Paris — the European capital — with its ‘is’ reversed — a bit easy to get this the wrong way round if you don’t take care, as was my initial failing
7 COTANGENT Little thanks received by study on male function (9)
co(ta)n gent — a cotangent is a function, not just the ratio of some sides in a right-angled triangle
8 SCRATCH Get out of money (7)
2 defs
14 SAVILE ROW Source of habits? Observed adopting nastier ones at first (6,3)
sa(viler o{nes})w — habits in the clothes sense
15 GROUNDING Giving basics to Shakespearean theatregoer missing line (9)
ground{l}ing — I wasn’t sure what a groundling was, knowing only that Tolkien and CS Lewis and others called themselves the Groundlings when they met at a pub in Oxford (rot: it was the Inklings, thanks Dicho@2), but 2a justifies this
17 HANCOCK Comedian, one writing dully about sergeant? (7)
ha(NCO)ck
19 DICKENS Author‘s daughter becomes ill, not son (7)
d {s}ickens
21 SEWER Urban amenity visionary put in place around capital of Wales (5)
se(W{ales})er — why urban? Do people who live in the country not have sewers?
22 DEUCE End of one was indication to set up two (5)
({on}e cued)rev.

*anagram

12 comments on “Independent 9,792 by Phi”

  1. Phi always a pleasure. TILT AT WINDMILLS, GOETHE ands DICKENS made me think we were on a liiterary eout, then ENGLISHMAN and SAVILE ROW and HANCOCK sort of made a detour

    Thanks to John and Phi.

  4. Another sound Indy puzzle to end the week.

    I didn’t have a problem with any of your quibbles, John: TYPECAST with ‘position’ works fine for me; similarly WINDMILLS for ‘flour producers’; and I live in the country and don’t have a SEWER, so the ‘urban’ description is an acceptable indicator, I think.

    Favourite clue today was HARRY for its well-constructed surface.

    Thanks to S&B and good weekend to all.

  6. John, to answer your question on 21 down, a lot of isolated properties indeed don’t have mains sewerage. They have septic tanks. I won’t go into the details as this is a family-friendly site.

  8. A nice straightforward puzzle from Phi that gave us no problems.  LOI was ROSY – we spent too long trying to think of a synonym for ‘wordy’ but as soon as we looked for one for ‘over-optimistic’ the penny dropped.

    Like K’sD we had no issues with 5dn and other quibbles – we saw ‘windmills’ as a definition by example – as was ‘sergeant’ in 17dn.

    Thanks, Phi and John

  9. I found this one quite difficult – perhaps I don’t tackle enough Phi puzzles!

    Had to look up the African site and didn’t know either the Shakespearean theatregoer or the ‘money’ definition of scratch.

    Tried for a long time to fit a stork into 2d – nothing doing.

    Favourite was the pointless battles.

    Thanks to Phi and to John for the blog.   Definitely rural here but we do have connection to the main sewer – first time for me in many years and I’m so grateful!

  10. I suspect that NZ has far more septic tanks per unit area than the UK so the idea of a sewer being urban certainly has a greater resonance these days.

    The devil that started it all is less obvious than those mentioned. I was probably desperately hoping a new definition for “italics” had mysteriously appeared when ITALIANATE ENGLISHMAN swam into view on the screen. (10,10) with obvious options for symmetry, and there was another ghost theme.

  12. Nice puzzle but is ‘dismissed‘ (4d) a good anagram indicator?

    And if so, how should I look at it?

    [apart from the fact that nowadays almost anything seems to do the trick]

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