It wouldn’t be a proper Friday without an Independent cryptic crossword from Phi
I wondered why Olympic was included in the clue for ARCHER at 9. It seems that Olympic archery is slightly different from routine archery competitions but I think there must still be something that I am missing.
I thought that there might be a beer or wine theme to the puzzle as there is a vague connection to beer for some of the entries in addition to the obvious STELLA and CARAFE.
Just before posting the blog, I noticed PISCES (class of fishes) formed by the unchecked letter in column 1 and realised that there were ten fish placed symmetrically in the grid as shown in the graphic below.
We have PARADISE, ARCHER, DAMSEL, NETTLE, SLEEVE, SERGEANT, PARROT, BELLOWS, CUTLASS and FLYING. I wouldn’t have spotted the theme without the nudge from PISCES.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 8 |
A day in European city (Spain) – bliss (8) PARADISE (any place or state of bliss) (A + D [day]) contained in (in) PARIS (European city) + E (International Vehicle Registration for Spain) PAR (A D) IS E |
| 9 |
Support about to be withdrawn for Olympic sportsperson (6) ARCHER (sportsperson who competes at the Olympics. A bit of research shows that the Olympic Archery competition is slightly different from regular competitions as only the recurve bow is used) ARCH (supportive structure; support) + RE (with reference to [about] reversed (to be withdrawn) ARCH ER< |
| 10 |
Determined club gets passed on to descendants (4-6) IRON WILLED (firmly determined) IRON ([golf] club) + WILLED (bequeathed; gets passed on to descendants) IRON WILLED |
| 11 |
Serious passion seen in pursuit of daughter (4) DIRE (grave; serious) D (daughter) + IRE (passion) D IRE |
| 12 |
Star girl recalled dance performances (not debut) (6) STELLA (girl’s name meaning star) BALLETS (dance performances) excluding the first letter (not debut) B and then reversed (recalled) STELLA< |
| 14 |
Craftsmanlike film director all but crazy inside (4-4) WELL-MADE (cleverly and competently made; craftsmanlike) MAD (crazy) contained in (inside) WELLES (reference Orson WELLES [1915 – 1985], American film director) excluding the final letter (all but) S WELL (MAD) E |
| 15 |
Young female star backed accepting woman’s title (6) DAMSEL (young female) LEAD (star performer) reversed (backed) containing MS [a title for a woman as an alternative to Miss or Mrs) DA (MS) EL< |
| 16 |
Web story not about to annoy (6) NETTLE (annoy) NET (interNET; web) + TALE (story) excluding (not) A (about) NET TLE |
| 19 |
Nothing observed in outrageous clue, USA detective having no competence (8) CLOUSEAU (reference Inspector CLOUSEAU, farcical detective in the Pink Panther series of films) O (character representing zero or nothing) contained in (observed in) an anagram of (outrageous) CLUE USA CL (O) USEAU* |
| 21 |
Ace, 22, seen around air aces with quantity of drink (6) CARAFE (the amount of liquid contained a wine flask of the same name) Anagram of (FLYING [entry at 22 down]) ACE containing (around) RAF (air aces) CA (RAF) E* |
| 23 |
Quite complex, without question, but not much of a case (4) ETUI (small [not much of] case for holding sewing articles) Anagram of (complex) QUITE excluding (without) Q (question) ETUI* |
| 24 |
College cat lady unfortunately missing one with extra toes (10) POLYDACTYL (having more than the normal number of fingers or toes) POLY (POLYtechnic college of old) + an anagram of (unfortunately) CAT LADY excluding (missing) an A (one) POLY DACTYL* |
| 26 |
Record keeper rubbed out cut by day before feast (6) SLEEVE (cover [keeper] of a vinyl record) SLEW (killed; ‘rubbed out’ in slang terms) excluding the last letter (cut) W + EVE (the night or day before a festival or feast) SLE EVE |
| 27 |
Irishman accepting quantity of work required by tense officer (8) SERGEANT ([non-commissioned] officer) (SEAN [name of an Irishman] containing [accepting] ERG [a unit or quantity of work]) + T (tense) S (ERG) EAN T |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Repeat reasonable score? Nonsense (6) PARROT (repeat by rote) PAR (standard or reasonable score) + ROT (nonsense) PAR ROT |
| 2 |
I engaged in sleep after upturn in discomfort (4) PAIN (discomfort) I contained in (in) NAP (sleep) reversed (in upturn; down entry) PA (I) N< |
| 3 |
Temper one shows amongst American university crowd (8) MITIGATE (moderate; temper) I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (shows amongst) (MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, American university] + GATE [crowd at concert or sports event for example]) MIT (I) GATE |
| 4 |
Makes a loud sound – a good pair of lungs? (7) BELLOWS (makes a loud sound) BELLOWS (lungs) double definition BELLOWS |
| 5 |
Composer giving you a lot of help? (6) HANDEL (reference George Frideric HANDEL [1685 – 1759] German-British baroque composer) H AND EL (the letters H AND EL which together form three quarters of [a lot of] the word HELP) H AND EL |
| 6 |
One measuring concentration disturbed irate medic (10) ACIDIMETER (an instrument that measures the concentration of acids by titration with a standard solution of alkali) Anagram of (disturbed) IRATE MEDIC ACIDIMETER* |
| 7 |
Resent move coming about for one Republican (8) BEGRUDGE (resent) BUDGE (move) containing (coming about) (EG (for example; for one] + R (Republican]) B (EG R) UDGE |
| 13 |
Smart cars, large? Use Minis when travelling round Ohio (10) LIMOUSINES ([large] smart cars) L (large) + (an anagram of [when travelling] USE MINIS containing (round) O [Ohio]) L IM (O) USINES* |
| 15 |
Idle hero of children’s books? (8) DOLITTLE (reference Dr DOLITTLE, central character of a series of children’s books by Hugh Lofting, starting with the 1920 The Story of Doctor DOLITTLE) DO LITTLE ([be] idle) DO LITTLE |
| 17 |
Writers in wartime possibly being censored badly (8) ENCODERS (people who transform messages from plain text into a form only intelligible to recipients with the required decoding instructions. ENCODERS are important staff during wartime) Anagram of (badly) CENSORED ENCODERS* |
| 18 |
No good in upperclass blade (7) CUTLASS (short broad sword; blade) CUTGLASS (upper class or refined) excluding (no) G (good) CUTLASS |
| 20 |
Noticed energy peaked, with a thousand running out (6) ESPIED (noticed) E (energy) + SPIKED (peaked) excluding (running out) K (symbol for 1000) E SPIED |
| 22 |
Very brief affair around end of February (6) FLYING (very brief) FLING (affair) containing (around) Y (last letter of [end of] FEBRUARY) FL (Y) ING |
| 25 |
Champion bridge team to ruminate? (4) CHEW (ruminate [CHEW over and over again]) CH (champion) + EW (East and West together form a bridge team) CH EW |
Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks, Phi!
The blog is quite neat. Looks flawless to me. Thanks, duncanshiell!
Liked WELL-MADE, HANDEL, CUTLASS and ESPIED.
A nice workout. Likes as KVa, plus CHEW & my loi BEGRUDGE.
Knew there was a theme. PISCES was staring at me. Found ARCHER = Sagittarius & DAMSEL = Virgo, then… Nothing.
No. It’s fish. Again. After Wednesday’s G.
Thanks Phi & duncanshiell
Thanks to setter and blogger. Not sure about nettle and sleeve as pisceans, but Polydactylus is a genus of threadfin
Not well up on such fish and I missed PISCES
But an enjoyable solve nevertheless
Thanks all
New to the Independent this week so learning the tricks and missing the themes (I do that with the Guardian that I’ve been solving for a while.)
I found this a slower solve than yesterday. Thank you to Phi and duncanshiels.
I was vaguely aware that we were due another Phi zodiac theme, so PISCES jumped out, but I didn’t know many of the other fish. I think the ARCHER and DAMSEL must also be intentional. The CARAFE could be a water-carrier, but I can’t see any others.
Petert@6:
I’d forgotten about Phi’s zodiac themes and gave up before spotting CARAFE.
TAURUS the bull BELLOWS…
And Leo the lion appears erratically in LIMOUSINE?????
Saw PISCES, and like FrankieG @2 and Petert @6, thought about a Zodiac theme with ARCHER, but completely missed our other fishy friends, few of which I’d heard of anyway.
I liked POLYDACTYL and my last in DOLITTLE.
Thanks to Phi and thanks (and well spotted) to Duncan
I wondered whether STELLA was intended as a triple definition. And it is slightly related to the theme. For those believing such rubbish, we are currently in PISCES! So watch out for an Aries-related theme in a few weeks’ time. Thanks Phi and Duncan.
CoD 5d. Hadn’t spotted the parsing before coming here so thanks.
One could be “as stubborn (IRON WILLED) as a goat” – Capricorn – Or am I clutching at straws?
Nick@11: Yes, HANDEL is very clever.
I had it parsed as (HAND = help) + (EL = half a help) giving 1,5 help (i.e. a lot of help)
But I can see that I overestimated the help by a factor of 2. 🙂
Thanks both. Delighted to inform that I knew precisely none of the ten fish constituting the theme, so a day of multiple or no regrets depending on your viewpoint
When we solved ARCHER we thought about Phi’s Zodiac puzzles but it wasn’t the right Zodiac Sign for this time of year. We then spotted PISCES but completely missed all the fish. Thanks Duncan for sorting it all out.
Thanks Phi – always look forward to Phi-days.
As Bert has just said – So long and thanks for all the fish!
Just one constellation per puzzle! Pisces, of course, is symbolised by two fish, so the five pairs are all symmetrically placed. There are many XXXXX-FISH entries in Chambers, thankfully.
Aries will be the twelfth in the series, some of you may be pleased to hear. It will also not be on the first Friday of April (which is Good Friday).