Independent 10,869 by Phi

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As usual we have Phi providing our Friday entertainment – though he’s been popping up on other days lately.

Some slightly obscure words today; I suppose such a prolific setter as Phi must have used most of the common ones several times over by now. Plenty of old favourite abbreviations, though it’s a pity that the same one crops up in both 3d and 15d. Surprisingly few anagrams (1a, 27a, 1d) but ingenious ones with clever surfaces. 16a looks vaguely familiar, though it might have involved a secretary instead of Father the last time I saw it, but it’s another good surface.

Phi often includes some sort of theme or nina, but I can’t see an obvious one today. If I’ve missed it, I’m sure he or someone else will point it out. Thanks Phi for the challenge.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 IDIOSYNCRATIC
Peculiar dictionary is unreliable – head for Chambers (13)
Anagram (unreliable) of DICTIONARY IS, then the first letter (head) of C[hambers].
9 HALF-CROWN
Prince with severe expression covering front of curious old coin (4-5)
HAL (Shakespearean nickname for the young Prince Henry before he became Henry V) + FROWN (severe expression), covering the first letter (front) of C[urious].

For those not familiar with pre-1970s UK currency, a crown was five shillings (now 25p) and a half-crown was two and a half shillings.
10 FIRST
Hand round recipe that’s original (5)
FIST (a closed hand) round R (abbreviation for the Latin recipe = take, used in old medical drug formulations).
11 GREGORY
King, for one, blocking distasteful pope (7)
R (abbreviation for Latin rex = king) + EG (for example = for one), inserted into (blocking) GORY (distasteful?).

Name of sixteen Popes and two disputed claimants to the position.
12 ANGUISH
Article to say rather too much about one’s pain (7)
AN (form of the indefinite article) + GUSH (to talk over-enthusiastically = to say rather too much) around I (one in Roman numerals).
14 EXPATIATE
Person overseas, seeing abdication of Queen, is to say more (9)
EXPAT[r]IATE (a citizen of one country living in another, which for a UK native means overseas), without the R (from Latin regina = Queen).

To speak or write (on a specific theme) in great detail.
16 SPAM
Father engaging in kinky sex? I don’t want that in my inbox (4)
PA (father) in SM (sado-masochism = kinky sex).

Slang term for unwanted email or similar communications.
19 YORK
City prominent in history or knowledge (4)
Hidden answer (though “prominent” seems to be the opposite of “hidden”) in [histor]Y OR K[nowledge].
20 ONLOOKERS
People observing toilet in New York city not unknown (9)
LOO (toilet) in [y]ONKERS (city in the US state of New York), without the Y (mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity).
22 SADDEST
To say more in French is, after a touch of Spanish, most regrettable (7)
ADD (to say more) + EST (in French “is”), all after the first letter (a touch = a small amount) of S[panish].
23 BARISTA
Cheers after Pole is getting job in cafe (7)
TA (cheers = informal for thank you), after BAR (pole) + IS.

Italian word for a bartender (serving coffee as well as alcoholic drinks), which in English has come to mean a coffee-shop employee.
24 FORKS
Fellow shows agitation, losing women’s cutlery (5)
F (fellow) + [w]ORKS (shows agitation, as in “getting worked up about something”), without the W (women’s).
26 ON THE NOSE
To win only subsequently leads to optimism seen in an individual (2,3,4)
THEN (subsequently) + first letters (leads) of O[ptimism] S[een], all inserted into ONE (an individual).

Betting term for a wager that pays out only if a horse wins the race, and not if it comes second or third.
27 RECALCITRANTS
Awkward customers restrict canal, milling around (13)
Anagram (milling around) of RESTRICT CANAL.

People who stubbornly refuse to do what’s required. (For those who enjoy the etymology of long words: it means “kicking back”, from the Latin word calx = heel.)
DOWN
1 ILL-TEMPERED
Irritable idler wandering around ruined temple (3-8)
Anagram (wandering) of IDLER, around another anagram (ruined) of TEMPLE.
2 INCHOATE
Rudimentary measure of grain not complete (8)
INCH (a measure) + OATE[n] (made from oats = of grain), without the last letter (not complete).
3 STORY
Men in foul conditions in newspaper article (5)
OR (military abbreviation for “other ranks” = ordinary soldiers as distinct from officers = men) in STY (pigsty = foul conditions).
4 NONPAREIL
Navy getting new cut in fuel, greater than any previous? (9)
N (abbreviation for navy, as in RN = Royal Navy), then N (new) + PARE (cut) inserted into OIL (fuel).
5 REFUGE
Official replacing top of substantial shelter (6)
REF (short for referee = match official in football) replacing the first letter (top, in a down clue) of [h]UGE (substantial).
6 TOR
Three stripped – feature of Glastonbury? (3)
Three = reference to 3d [s]TOR[y]; stripped = outer letters removed.

Glastonbury Tor = a hill near Glastonbury, south-west England, which is a scheduled monument with historical and mythological associations.
7 CATCH
Disadvantage to hear a song (5)
Triple definition.

1: An unexpected disadvantage, as in “that sounds too good to be true – what’s the catch?”.

2: To hear, as in “I didn’t quite catch that”.

3: A canon or round, in which two or more singers sing the same music but starting one after the other. Sometimes used to mean one in which a sequence of words sung by different singers results in an unexpected phrase. (For example “The girl that I love”, in which the four singers sing “deliver”, “pools”, “treat” and “station” in quick succession to give “Liverpool Street Station”.)
8 THUGGERY
Take to court, involving one embracing mostly violent activity (8)
TRY (take to court as a legal case), including HUGGE[r] (one embracing) without its last letter (mostly).
13 IMPRESSIONS
One million continue accepting one saint’s beliefs (11)
I (one in Roman numerals) + M (million) + PRESS ON (continue), including another I (one), then S (saint).

Impression, as in “I got the impression that . . .” = something you believe from observation but don’t necessarily know to be true.
15 A FORTIORI
Excellent to beset castle I supplied with soldiers, having stronger reason (1,8)
FORT (castle) + I + OR (soldiers, as in 3d), with AI (A1 = excellent) around it (to beset . . .).

Latin for “from the stronger”: in logical argument, showing that a condition must be true because it’s a logical consequence of a stronger condition that is known to be true.
17 MUSCATEL
Wine, one inspiring line about tiger? (8)
MUSE (one inspiring = someone who provides inspiration for a poet or other artist) + L (line), around CAT (of which tiger is an example, indicated by the question mark).
18 FOURTEEN
Lines in sonnet? There’s support for us in folio note (8)
OUR TEE (support for us; tee = support for a golf ball), in F (abbreviation for folio) + N (note).

Sonnet = a verse form consisting of fourteen lines.
21 VESSEL
Being aboard very large boat (6)
ESSE (in philosophy, existence = being), inserted into (aboard) V (very) + L (large).
22 SO FAR
Designation of fighter plane brought in to fly until now (2,3)
F (used in aircraft model numbers to indicate a fighter plane, as in F-101) brought into SOAR (to fly).
23 BITER
Beer half-heartedly provided for nipper (5)
BIT[t]ER (a type of beer), with one of the two middle letters (heart) dropped (half-heartedly).
25 REC
Some theatre clearly is place for play (3)
Hidden answer (some . . .) in [theat]RE C[learly].

Short for recreation ground (a park, typically one including sports fields).

12 comments on “Independent 10,869 by Phi”

  3. Copmus@2 I suspect a good proportion of everybody may have taken some time to solve and/or parse – I started taking on Indy cryptics many years ago, with very little success at first, but I always looked out for Phi as I got most right when he was the setter – regrettably, that has barely changed; I am normally defeated by one or two, such was the case today (INCHOATE and MUSCATEL), but I always enjoy the challenge. Thanks both

  4. A little tricky in places but a few easy ones to provide a foothold and several d’oh! moments when we saw something that should have been obvious, such as FOURTEEN.
    2dn was interesting in that INCHOATE can mean both ‘rudimentary’ and ‘not complete’ – was Phi deliberately muddying ther waters here?
    Favourite was IDIOSYNCRATIC for the surface; we also liked NONPAREIL.
    Thanks, Phi and Quirister

  5. I, too, thought 1ac was brilliant. I wondered if there was going to be a bit of a Monty Python theme? A few “say no more s” SPAM, but I can’t see any others. The repetition of “say more” must be intentional. I wasn’t sure about “gory” = distasteful.

  6. Over too quickly (just a single beer). Particularly liked idiosyncratic and recalcitrant.

    Thanks Phi and Quirister

  7. Phi’s anagrams are nonpareil and 1a was a party piece. Enjoyed this very much – a bit of a tussle, but always worth the work. Last one in was 26a, which I got on the crossers, and could then parse, but had no idea what it meant, so thanks to Quirister for the explanation in an altogether excellent blog. I love a bit of etymology. Thanks again to Phi.

  8. Let me join in the praise for IDIOSYNCRATIC — that’s my clue of the week. I thought SPAM was amusing and I also ticked VESSEL, REFUGE, and FOURTEEN as favourites. Thanks Quirister for parsing — I knew TOR was correct but I never saw why until I read the blog. Thanks Phi for the Friday fun.

  9. The most famous thematic item here was CATCH FOURTEEN (an original title – it went through a few – that was eventually increased by eight). Elsewhere Austen settled on Pride and Prejudice only after toying with FIRST IMPRESSIONS, Ford started with The SADDEST STORY before publishing The Good Soldier, Meyer thought Twilight might have been called after its location FORKS, and would Jude, the Obscure have been quite as successful as The RECALCITRANTS?

    I did so want to get in one of Raymond Chandler’s rejects: ZOUNDS, HE SAID for a Philip Marlowe adventure seems almost exactly wrong.

  10. Phi @9: thanks for dropping in to enlighten us! It was a great puzzle even without the theme. (If you’d included The Last Man in Europe I might have got it: George Orwell writing in 1948, before he hit on the simple idea of messing with the digits of the year.)

  11. Indeed. Thanks for filling us in Phi, I’m not at all ashamed to admit that I don’t think I would ever have twigged the theme.

  12. Having read Phi’s theme reveal a couple of days ago something has been niggling at the back of my mind and I’ve just worked it out. Anthony Fortiori (A. FORTIORI the answer to 15D) was the name under which Yossarian was in hospital in Catch 22.

    Coincidence or deliberate?

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