Independent 11,630 by Phi

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It’s the end of the week and once again, we have a Phi to solve. No complaints at all.

We completed the grid with a bit of checking in Chambers and then we stared at the grid. Was there a theme?

It’s Joyce blogging today – you will have Bert tomorrow. I noticed the possibility of DEATH and the MAIDEN. I was thinking of the play and Bert thought about the film although he did wonder whether he was getting it mixed up with another oil – Death on the Nile or Death in Venice perhaps. It wasn’t until I googled Death and the Maiden and a random choice of ‘SPINNING WHEEL’ that I came across the connection – Schubert.

I found NIGHT DREAMS, SWAN SONG, GRETCHEN and the SPINNING WHEEL, SERENADE as well. There may be more that I have missed – he did compose rather a lot.

Thanks Phi – the new words were deduced fairly easily from the wordplay which is what we appreciate.

We are out walking near Beacon Hill and Bradgate Park in Leicestershire today, so we may not be able to respond to any queries until later in the day.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Wild solution, with a degree of overlap, is something to have on hand (8)
MANICURE

MANIC (wild) CURE (solution) sharing ‘C” 0r ‘with a degree of overlap’

5. Part of hooter having indecisive sound after a month (6)
SEPTUM

UM (indistinctive sound) after SEPT (a month)

10. Very important article about married railway worker (9)
SIGNALMAN

SIGNAL (very important – listed as an adjective in Chambers – notable or remarkable) AN (article) about M (married)

11. Warrior tribe held back in reserve at first (5)
ICENI

IN reversed or ‘held back’ with ICE (reserve) first

12. What 14 will do: decay at end of use (6)
ROTATE

ROT (decay) ATE (last letter or ‘end’ of usE)

13. Evening music found in Sweden before enthralling another Scandinavian on the rebound (8)
SERENADE

S (Sweden) ERE (before) around or ‘enthralling’ DANE (another Scandinavian) reversed or ‘on the rebound’

14. Son fixing weak part of foot? This offers something to help with knitting (8-5)
SPINNING-WHEEL

S (son) PINNING (fixing) W (weak) HEEL (part of foot)

18. Lighthouse overseers, three working in British navy, standing beside tree (5,8)
ELDER BRETHREN

An anagram (‘working’) of THREE in B (British) N (navy) after or ‘standing beside’ ELDER (tree). The Elder Brethren are the governing members of Trinity House which oversees lighthouses.

22. Last performance – effectively as Desmond, N? (8)
SWANSONG

SWANSON G – Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond in the film Sunset Boulevard

23. Grand Dickensian character showing resentment (6)
GRUDGE

G (Grand) RUDGE (Dickensian character)

26. I start to loosen in time, becoming nimble (5)
AGILE

I L (first letter or ‘start’ to Loosen) in AGE (time)

27. A powerful car tails off? My trip needs something much more powerful (9)
ASTRONAUT

A STRONg (powerful) AUTo (car) both missing last letters or ‘tails off’

28. Imagines quantities of Scotch without English (6)
DREAMS

DRAMS (quantities of Scotch) around or ‘without’ E (English)

29. Irritation I overlooked in environmentally aware German girl (8)
GRETCHEN

iTCH (irritation) without or ‘overlooking’ I in GREEN (environmentally aware)

DOWN
1. Be uncertain about atmospheric dampness and what it may cause (8)
MISTRUST

MIST (atmospheric dampness) RUST (what may it may cause)

2. Most of the booze overturned in the dark (5)
NIGHT

THe missing last letter or ‘most of’ GIN (booze) all ‘overturned’

3. Conservative drive for discipline (7)
CHASTEN

C (Conservative) HASTEN (drive)

4. Uphill standard must accommodate motorway slope (4)
RAMP

PAR (standard) reversed or ‘uphill’ around or ‘accommodating’ M (motorway)

6. European historical article to be held up as a bad influence (4,3)
EVIL EYE

E (European) YE (historical article) LIVE (be) all reversed or ‘held up’

7. That letter, fourth time rejected, rubbished society magazine (3,6)
THE TATLER

An anagram (‘rubbished’) of THAT LETtER with the fourth T (time) missing or ‘rejected’

8. Help secured by knights, say, yet to win (6)
MAIDEN

AID (help) inside or ‘secured by’ MEN (knights say) – nothing to do with a cricketing term which is what Joyce thought it was – a maiden is a horse that has never won a race.

9. Writer with an oddball description of peaceful times? (8)
INTERWAR

An anagram (‘oddball’) of WRITER and AN

15. Writerly folk failing to start vote to discard books again and again (9)
ITERATIVE

lITERATI (writerly folk) missing first letter or ‘failing to start’ VotE without or ‘discarding’ OT (books)

16. Like an emperor, note, one Iran scrapped (8)
NERONIAN

N (note) and an anagram (‘scrapped’) of ONE IRAN

17. Left after meal to pen book still topping the lists? (8)
UNBEATEN

UNEATEN (left after meal) around or ‘penning’ B (book)

19. Remove top from bowl made of wood (7)
DISHELM

It had to be DISH (bowl) ELM (wood) but we needed to check it in Chambers. It means ‘to divest of a helmet’. In other words – ‘remove top from’.

20. Evict number of people (7)
TURNOUT

Double definition

21. Papers about type of speech not entirely found in Cyprus? (6)
ISLAND

ID (papers) SLANg (type of speech)

24/25. Head start in rebuilding planet destroyer (5,4)
DEATH STAR

An anagram (‘rebuilding’) of HEAD START

 

11 comments on “Independent 11,630 by Phi”

  1. Thanks Setter and Blogger.

    I missed the theme as per usual

    I assumed dishelm meant to remove the guiding influence but it’s a bit more prosaic than that. Spent too long trying to parse night watchmen into 18A.

    Agree with yr comment on very fair cluing

    Enjoy your walk; it will be brrr out there.

  3. Well, there you go. Despite my plea a while ago for a classical music theme, and despite knowing the piece referred to, I failed to see this, probably because I was very late starting and in too much of a hurry to look. I used to do some work for Trinity House so ‘elder brethren’ was a shoe-in. Oh, and surely the Iceni wasn’t a warrior tribe, they only went to war under extreme provocation. Thanks anyway to Phi and B&J.

  4. Didn’t parse ICENI, I couldn’t let go of the E being the end of reversE so it didn’t make any sense. Good job I’m from the area of the tribe or it may not have clicked for me. Also didn’t parse SWANSONG having never seen the film and not knowing the character or actress.

    Obviously didn’t spot the theme. I see maybe 1 in 20 so no surprise there.

    First Phi I’ve completed without cheating in some form for a number of weeks, wonder if I had a good day or if Phi went slightly easier on us than of late.

    Thanks to him and to Joyce for the blog.

  7. Thanks both. DISHELM defeated me, as an unknown wherein the ‘made of’ part of the clue distracted me. Theme and Sunset Boulevard detail both fall under the ‘before my time’ heading; culturally, I explored the Beatles back catalogue but nothing earlier.

  8. I’ve used SWANSON, G often enough myself but it’s always new to someone. Sunset Boulevard (film) is before my time too, though it’s arguable that it has transitioned into the ‘timeless’ category now (much like Schubert). It has more recently been a West End musical, of course, though without the Gloria Swanson element.

  9. Thanks Joyce for explaining SWANSONG (New to me and very clever too!) and the brethren as well as the theme, lots of clever tricks here and especially liked the change of ‘join’ in MISTRUST and DISHELM, thanks Phi.

  10. I made a mistake in 15dn, which stopped me getting 28ac.

    I’m a great fan of Schubert but totally missed the theme. I bought the boxed set of the complete songs some years ago – 37 CDs plus four extras – and the first time I visited Vienna I went to the Schubert birth house where you could hear recordings of his works. Erlkonig was very moving.

  11. Lovely puzzle. I couldn’t parse SWANSONG but thought it fair enough and there were so many other things to really enjoy, as usual from Phi.

    Thanks, both.

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