Independent 11570 / Phi

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Phi is in his usual place this week.

 

 

 

There were some interesting clues today.  I liked the one for SEVEN at 22 across where the definition seemed to be spread in separate words throughout the clue.  It also ended ‘yes and no’, a phrase that generated some discussion on a Guardian crossword last week, set by Phi in his alter ego as Pangakupu.

I didn’t fully understand the clue for ANIMADVERT at 3 down, but I have attempted to explain it in the detailed table below.

With a Q, V, X and Z, the grid looked et for a pangram, but I don’t see a J or a K.

I’m with the PITT-RIVERS anthropological museum, so I needed a bit of internet help for that entry.

There are quite a few proper nouns (people, places and things) in the grid but I can’t detect a link between them.

No Detail
Across  
9

Profligate expansion’s ending French city (5) 

ROUEN (city in France)

ROUÉ (profligate) + N (last letter of [ending] EXPANSION)

ROUE N
10

He’d returned in court to exploit comic author (9) 

WODEHOUSE (reference P G WODEHOUSE [1881 – 1975], English writer and humorist)

(HE’D reversed [returned] contained in [in] WOO [to court]) + USE (exploit)

WO (D’EH<) O USE
11

How anaesthetists recall operations, perhaps, without complexity (2,7) 

BY NUMBERS (one definition of NUMBERS is anaesthetics, so anaesthetists may recall their operation BY remembering the NUMBERS used)

BY NUMBERS (performed in simple stages with foolproof guidance provided; without complexity)  double definition

BY NUMBERS
12

Subject of opera: new Irish saint (5) 

AIDAN (reference St AIDAN of Lindisfarne [born 651], Irish monk and missionary)

AIDA (reference AIDA [opera]) + N (new)

AIDA N
13

Tropical fruit juice – all I provide, on reflection (9) 

SAPODILLA (large evergreen sapotaceous tree of the West Indies, and its edible fruit)

SAP (juice) + (ALL I DO [all I provide] reversed [on reflection])

SAP (OD I LLA)<
16

Neverending excursion? (5)

FORAY (raid; excursion)

FOR + AY [always] – forever; neverending

FOR AY
17

Take heed of US lawyer’s intent (6) 

ATTEND (listen to and take heed of)

ATT (ATTorney, US lawyer) + END (aim; goal; intent)

ATT END
18

Concern after study’s expanding outwards? (6)

CONVEX (rising into a round form on the outside; expanding outwards)

CON (study) + VEX (disturb; concern)

CON VEX
19

Support retreating for protecting gross wading bird (5) 

EGRET (white heron of several species; a wading bird)

TEE (support for a golf ball) reversed (retreating) containing (protecting) GR (gross)

E (GR) ET<
20

Interceded to capture tense thought (9) 

MEDITATED (considered deeply; thought)

MEDIATED (interceded) containing (to capture) T (tense)

MEDI (T) ATED
22

Something primarily divisible by two? Yes and no! (5) 

SEVEN (an odd number which is not divisible by two – no)

S (first letter of [primarily] SOMETHING) + EVEN (an EVEN number is divisible by two – yes)

S EVEN
24

Key part of nervous system damaged in tribesman (9) 

BRAINSTEM (part of the brain connecting the spinal cord with the cerebral hemispheres, and controlling certain major functions)

Anagram of (damaged in) TRIBESMAN

BRAINSTEM*
26

Film director into misbehaving, including a tirade (9) 

TARANTINO (reference Quentin TARANTINO [born 1963], American film director)

Anagram of (misbehaving) INTO containing (including) (A + RANT [tirade])

T (A RANT) INO*
27

No network for film director (5) 

NOLAN (reference Christopher NOLAN [born 1970], British and American film director)

NO + LAN (Local Area Network)

NO LAN
Down  
1

Supporting a good deal of top-rated inquiries (6) 

PROBES (searching examinations; inquiries)

PRO (in favour of; supporting) + BEST (top-rated) excluding the final letter (a good deal of)

PRO BES
2

Question that’s popular for one with many siblings (4) 

QUIN (an individual QUINtuplet will have four [many] siblings)

QU (question) + IN (popular)

QU IN
3

Criticise coinage for promotional cartoon? (10) 

ANIMADVERT (express censure; criticise)

ANIME (style of animated film or television programme, originating in Japan, featuring futuristic stories with explicit content; cartoon) + ADVERT  (promotion) – I guess if you stick these together and ignore the E you can ‘coin’ a new word that cryptically means a ‘promotional cartoon’

ANIM ADVERT
4

Weak character had top job in corporation, one of a pair (10) 

TWEEDLEDUM (fictional character associated with Tweedledee [i.e. one of pair ], – he appears first in a poem by John Byrom, as well as the book ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’ by Lewis Carroll)

(WEED [weak character] + LED [had a leading {top} job]) contained in (in) TUM (stomach; corporation)

T (WEED LED) UM
5

Poems – writings hard to understand, in need of introduction (4) 

ODES (poems)

CODES (writing that is hard to understand without a key to the method of encypherment) excluding the first letter (in need of introduction) C

ODES
6

Source of butter and a lot of wheat? (4) 

SHEA (African tree whose seeds yield SHEA butter, used as a food and in soap manufacture.)

SHEAF (bundle [of wheat, for example] excluding the final letter (a lot of) F

SHEA
7

Mend unrest, possibly – implying separation? (10) 

SUNDERMENT (a word implying separation)

Anagram of (possibly) MEND UNREST

SUNDERMENT*
8

That chap with an observational power, but not enough to be a poet (6) 

HEANEY (reference Seamus HEANEY [1939 – 2013], Irish poet)

HE (that chap) + AN + EYE (organ of sight providing observational power) excluding the final letter (but not  enough) E

HE AN EY
14

Current time encountered first in excavations for anthropological museum (4,6)

PITT RIVERS (Name of an anthropological museum in Oxford)

(T [time] + RIVER [current]) contained in (in) PITS (excavations) – ‘time encountered first‘ puts the T before RIVER

PIT (T RIVER) S
15

Arcade game about church concerning clergyman (10) 

ARCHDEACON (clergyman)

Anagram of (game) ARCADE containing (about) CH [church) + ON (concerning)

AR (CH) DEAC* ON
16

Court penalty becoming bad without right adjustment (4-6) 

FINE-TUNING (delicate adjustment)

FINE (court penalty) + TURNING (becoming bad) excluding (without) R (tight)

FINE-TUNING
19

After some hesitation, placed high-scoring Scrabble tile as substitute (6) 

ERSATZ (substitute)

ER (expression of hesitation) + SAT (placed) + Z (in scrabble, the Z tile scores 10, a high score)

ER SAT Z
21

Evil spirits occupying more than half of show? (6) 

DEMONS (evil spirits)

DEMONS (first 6 letters [of 11, more than half] of DEMONSTRATE  [show])

DEMONS
23

Repeated upturn in working is something not on the cards (2-2) 

NO-NO (something that will not be done; something not on the cards)

ON (working) reversed (upturn; down entry) and again [repeated] to form NO-NO

NO<-NO<
24

King thrown into substantial naval prison (4) 

BRIG (place of detention on board ship; naval prison)

R (Rex; king) contained in (thrown into) BIG (substantial)

B (R) IG
25

Score falling short is not quite credible (4) 

TALL (hardly to be believed; not quite credible)

TALLY (score) excluding the final letter (falling short) Y

TALL

 

13 comments on “Independent 11570 / Phi”

  1. ANIMADVERT, HEANEY, SUNDERMENT, PITT RIVERS, SAPODILLA?? Sorry, but I found this far too heavy in obscurities. I did wonder what the blogger was going to underline for SEVEN. I think your choice is more than reasonable Duncan.

  2. One !rish first name AIDAN, and lots of !rish second names, one of them NON-O: O’SHEA – footballers, hurlers and Gaelic football players?

  4. That was a serious workout! After a slow start, I got most of the way there, but the intersection of ANIMADVERT, PITT RIVERS and SAPODILLA (with TWEEDLEDUM hardly a gimme either) gave me a lot of headaches before they finally fell.

    I parsed ANIMADVERT as a portmanteau of ANIMATION and ADVERT more than ANIME. I think it’s fair as a clue, but rather steep when combined with several nearby clues that really need all the crossers.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan

  5. In agreement with most others here. Plenty of obscure entries that made it an impossibility for me.

    Google & word completers needed for lots of answers today. And even then there were still 3 that I had no idea of the parsing.

    I agree with Bodger @4 on the ANIMATED ADVERT contraction.

    Lately it feels like Filbert and Phi have swapped the plaes in the difficulty rankings.

    Thanks to both setter and blogger for their efforts today.

  6. EGRETs we’ve had a few recently. I foolishly bunged in FERRY for FORAY on the spurious basis that a ferry keeps going back and forth.

  7. Thanks both. As soon as I saw the clue for HEANEY I assumed I would fail the test, but I dredged his name from a deep recess, only to find any relief or celebration was premature, as simply did not know so many of the solutions already listed here by other commenters. In combination, the setter was always going to defeat me

  8. At the risk of sounding smug we got all this without help. We did need a couple of crossing letters for SAPODILLA but PITT RIVERS was a write-in. We took a long time, though, to get FORAY as our LOI. Favourite was SEVEN.
    Thanks, Phi and Duncan

  9. Well this was hard. Is Phi getting more difficult or is it us?

    We needed to check some of the same words that others struggled with so well done allan_c. We are not totally convinced by either of the suggested parsings of ANIMADVERT.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan.

  10. Not sure what the coinage is doing in the clue for aminadvert even if we accept the contraction. Rest was ok except for the impossible sapodilla ( do = provide?).

  13. Well, the BBC was full of articles marking the 10th anniversary of Heaney’s death in August and September. Which means (if I want to be provocative) he must be more famous than Lou Reed (10th anniversary of death in October) who has been accorded no such honour.

    And go see the Pitt Rivers, one of the major UK museums. I used to pop in there quite frequently (the dodo even then wasn’t much of a sight and the shrunken heads were already removed).

    SEVEN is that rare thing where the wordplay yields an antonym of the answer – hence the yes (for the wordplay) and no (for the definition).

    Aidan Truhen (unchecked letters on one row) wrote Seven Demons, though I’d start with The Price You Pay. I find them an implausible mix of Wodehouse and Tarantino (and great fun, though the language is at the Tarantino end of the spectrum).

    Truhen is the pseudonym of Nick Harkaway, whose real name is Nick Cornwell, which he didn’t use because he didn’t want to ride on the coat-tails of his father David (who is better known as John Le Carre). And you think crossword setters have fun with fake names…

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