Independent 11666 / Phi

20 comments on “Independent 11666 / Phi”

1. PHONETICS
   looks like it’s just
   PHONE TICS
   Tics are oddities

2. 8d
   Tiddle childs to urinate and last letter of sleepy y

3. Also had PHONE TICS. For TIDDLEY, I had TIDDLE meaning “youngster’s to go”.
   Didn’t spot a theme (as usual) but couldn’t help but notice that the initial letters of the first 7 across answers spell the answer to 1d.

4. Duncan, I meant to mention you are missing the setter’s name in the heading.

5. I found this pretty tough going. But Phi’s puzzles always end up with my acceptance that any failing was mine not the Setter’s.

   Thanks Phi and Duncan

6. I had PHONEMICS for 16d which I agree isn’t as good as PHONETICS but is a close to valid alternative answer. I’d never heard of the relevant sense of CROTCHET but noticed the initial letters of the across clues = 1d as identified by Hovis @3; I couldn’t take it further but suspect it’s not coincidental. We’ve had “pace bowler” for “quick” elsewhere recently so this helped with SEAM which I otherwise may have had trouble parsing.

   Overall, quite hard going and CUDGELLED (v. good) and SERPENT GOD were slow to yield as my last two in. It was satisfying to fill the grid but disappointing to be met by the “close but no cigar” message rather than the expected confetti at the end.

   Thanks to Duncan and Phi

7. I’m with I_feel_your pain and Hovis re TIDDLEY – though I suspect I might have spelled it without the E had I been free writing – and I note the inbuilt spellchecker here does not recognise the E. The WP was clear and saved me from the potential error. I didn’t find this a write in but it was a pleasure to only spend about half the time I spent wrestling with the G earlier.

   RAREBIT, ANCESTRAL, HARP and PICTURE RESTORER were my favourites with the outstanding clue for EUROTUNNEL being COTD.

   Thanks Phi and duncan

8. I also spent less time on this than the Guardian.

   Missed dries for DRESSER but didn’t have the problems others did with crotchets as Mr Woodhouse in Emma is full of odd notions and crotchets (Jane Austen).

   Thank you to Phi and Duncan.

9. Let me add my respects for the EUROTUNNEL clue. An absolute belter.

10. Had forgotten it was Friday, which can happen at a certain stage in life, but became more evident as time went on.. I seemed to be in denial in general today.. 13ac for quite a while, despite Epidaurus creating a big impression during a childhood visit.. 25ac was expecting either Green or a really obscure vegetable, until it wasn’t.. 3dn seemed too obvious until it also wasn’t.. however fully enjoyed my first encounter of Paderewski… and Phonetics. Roll on Friday..
    Thanks Phi n Duncan

11. I too parsed TIDDLEY as ‘child’s urinate plus Y’. Liked PADEREWSKI which reminded me of La-di-dah Gunner Graham (his nickname by the Sergeant Major in ‘It ain’t ‘arf ‘ot mum!’) played by John Clegg. Much enjoyed, so thanks Phi and Duncan.

12. EUROTUNNEL is superb, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it was my FOI, so nothing else was quite going to live up to that high standard. PADEREWSKI was clear enough that I was able to pretty much construct the solution despite no previous knowledge of the gentleman in question, and ANCESTRAL was very nice. Embarrassed to say that I deduced SEAM and then spent a fair while trying to understand how it meant “bowling”. More coffee clearly required!

    SERPENT-GOD for me was a LOI “it must be, but why?” case. Once I had the solution, the parsing wasn’t actually that complex, but I don’t think there was any way I was going to construct it from the ground up.

    Thanks to Phi and Duncan.

13. I found this a little tougher than the Guardian today, mostly thanks to the crossing odd spelling of TIDDLEY and the eyebrow-raising CUDGELLED (I had ‘cud’, but the rest took a while…).

    EUROTUNNEL was marvellous, as others have said.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan.

14. Hovis

    Thanks – sorted now – Phi’s name is in the title.. I was away overnight watching Fairport Convention in their 57th year of touring playing a gig in Sunderland. Just back home now and am table to update the blog.

    Thanks also everyone who pointed out the correct parsing for TIDDLEY. I haven’t used TIDDLE for a while – my go tos have been WIDDLE and PIDDLE

15. Thanks both. Tougher than a typical Phi for me., example being CUDGELLED – works when you see it, but I needed a guiding hand. In TROCADERO – ‘by’ seems to obstruct the anagrind; would ‘….decorator retouched’ be fairer?: Re COP SHOP – it being for policemen doesn’t feel very diverse!

16. I saw the anagram for the pianist but couldn’t come up with a name, not helped by being defeated by the pagan deity. I’ve never read, seen or heard any of the Tolkien thing, but the solution was clearly clued. I shall promptly forget it now before it inevitably turns up in the Saturday General Knowledge at some point.
    Thanks Phi and Duncan.

17. Not the theme, Hovis @3, boyo, but next time I think to do something like that, I’ll remember I’ve already done it by accident…

18. All went in smoothly.

    I always like the story about Padereweski meeting with Clemenceau at the Versailles peace conference. Clemenceau said to him, “I saw you playing in Paris before the war. And now you are prime minister of Poland. What a come down.!”

19. St Davids Day

20. Raquel

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