Independent 11,972 by Phi

by

Phi in his usual Friday slot.

Some of today’s definitions seem a little loose – particularly 10a (though the wordplay made me laugh), 27a, and the rather obscure reference in 25d. All gettable from the wordplay and a crosser or two, though. I liked the surface images in 18a (hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?) and 7d. Thanks Phi as always.

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

ACROSS
1 LUDICROUS
Left us blocked by our CID, bumbling, absurd (9)
L (abbreviation for left) + US, containing (blocked by) an anagram (bumbling) of OUR CID.
6 BIBLE
Anger about book, an authoritative text (5)
BILE (anger) around B (abbreviation for book).
9 NAVEL
Unprofitable bottling bit of vodka, on reflection, producing depression (5)
LEAN (not yielding much of a harvest = unprofitable), containing (bottling) the first letter (a bit) of V[odka], all reversed (on reflection).
10 DEAD-LIFTS
Skyscraper maintenance issues? Jerks may apply elsewhere (4-5)
If maintenance in a skyscraper is neglected, the result may be DEAD (not working) LIFTS.

Somewhat cryptic definition: dead-lift and jerk are techniques used in different forms of weightlifting.
11 TALE
Not entirely remarkable English story (4)
I think this is TAL[l] (as in a tall story = one that’s hard to believe and probably not true = remarkable) without the last letter (not entirely), then E (abbreviation for English).
12 COLORATURA
Pass time surrounded by swirling aurora – lots of decorative stuff here (10)
COL (a mountain pass between two peaks), then T (abbreviation for time) surrounded by an anagram (swirling) of AURORA.

Musical term for a melody sung by a soloist (usually soprano) with lots of ornamentation: trills, runs of fast notes, and/or generally showing off.
14 CLAVICLE
Part of skeleton in cupboard looks originally a crime involving lake (8)
Initial letters (originally) of C[upboard] L[ooks], then A VICE (a crime) containing L (abbreviation for lake).

Otherwise known as the collarbone.
16 HOMILY
I’m taken aback during religious sermon (6)
I’M reversed (taken aback), inserted into HOLY (religious).
18 RATHER
Woman’s pursuing scoundrel? You bet! (6)
HER (belonging to a specific woman = woman’s) after RAT (slang for a scoundrel).

Rather! = You bet! = colloquial expressions meaning “yes, definitely”.
19 MIDNIGHT
Poor and indistinct, going round and round front of garage at the end of the day (8)
THIN (poor = insubstantial) + DIM (indistinct), all reversed (going round), containing (round) the first letter (front) of G[arage].
22 NOVITIATES
Disciple turned to welcome corrupt neophytes (10)
SON (disciple = a follower of a particular teacher) reversed (turned), containing (to welcome) VITIATE (to corrupt or spoil).

Novitiate = a novice (neophyte), or the state of being one.
23 BLUE
Dismal nonsense dismissing a Government (4)
BL[ag]UE (pretentious talk without any real content = nonsense), without A + G (abbreviation for government).

Dismal = blue = unhappy.
26 LANDOWNER
Person of property’s path runs around upland (9)
LANE (path) + R (abbreviation for runs, in cricket scoring), around DOWN (old word for a hill, as in the South Downs in south-eastern England = upland).
27 AT PAR
A sailor keeping power right on standard setting (2,3)
A TAR (slang for a sailor) containing P (abbreviation for power).
28 TIMES
Obligations to hold on to money in contemporary conditions (5)
TIES (obligations, perhaps as in “family ties”) containing M (abbreviation for money).
29 SHEIKHDOM
His home, with King and Duke, possibly a hereditary state (9)
Anagram (possibly) of HIS HOME + K + D (abbreviations for King and Duke).
DOWN
1 LUNATIC
Nautical (at sea) skipping an area that’s crazy (7)
Anagram (at sea = shaken up) of NAUTIC[a]L with one A (abbreviation for area) removed.
2 DEVIL
Dust storm was rising (5)
LIVED (existed in the past = was) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue).

Otherwise known as a dust devil: a small whirlwind in a hot dry region.
3 COLD
Line brought in fish from the Arctic? (4)
L (abbreviation for line) inserted into COD (a fish).
4 OLD-WORLD
Charmingly fogyish over argument turning up between Lords (3-5)
O (abbreviation for over, in cricket scoring), then ROW (an argument) reversed (turning up, in a down clue) between LD + LD (abbreviation for lord, twice).
5 SHADOW
Companion consumed, swallowed by pig (6)
HAD (as in “I had fish for dinner” = consumed) contained in SOW (a female pig).

Someone who continually stays close to another person.
6 BELLADONNA
One that may ring pop star, extracting money, implying poison (10)
BELL (something that may ring) + [m]ADONNA (US pop star) without the M (abbreviation for money).

Poison from the plant commonly known as deadly nightshade.
7 BEFOULING
Polluting modified biofuel? No good (9)
Anagram (modified) of BIOFUEL, then NG (abbreviation for no good).
8 ECSTASY
City to suspend importing sulphur drug (7)
EC (abbreviation for the financial district of London known as “The City”, from its East Central postcode) + STAY (suspend = temporarily halt), containing S (chemical symbol for sulphur).

The drug otherwise known as E or MDMA.
13 LICENTIOUS
Having debauched line with coitus? (10)
Anagram (debauched) of LINE + COITUS.

Clue-as-definition: sexually indulgent and unrestrained.
15 ANTIVENOM
Treatment for poison never used in Vietnam, sadly (9)
NO (no! = never! = an emphatic denial) in an anagram (sadly) of VIETNAM.
17 PINE TREE
Confusion about web and about conifer (4,4)
PIE (a mess = confusion, especially in old-style printing where it means a jumble of unsorted movable-type letters), around NET (web) + RE (about = on the subject of).
18 RINGLET
Jewellery item allowed in decorative hair (7)
RING (jewellery item) + LET (allowed).

Hair styled into a coil.
20 THEOREM
Proposition those people to accept output of quarry (7)
THEM (those people) containing ORE (rock dug out of a quarry, from which metals can be extracted).

A mathematical or scientific statement that is to be proved.
21 SAINTS
Team from Southampton isn’t seen aboard ship (6)
AIN’T (colloquial form of “isn’t”) inserted into SS (abbreviation for steamship).

Nickname for Southampton Football Club (from their origins as a team associated with St Mary’s Church in the city; the club’s ground is called St Mary’s Stadium).
24 LIPID
Body chemical, with iodine and phosphorus, found in part of eye (5)
I + P (chemical symbols for iodine and phosphorus) in LID (eyelid = part of the eye).

Part of the structure of cell membranes.
25 DARK
Depth vessel, as in the hadal zone? (4)
D (abbreviation for depth) + ARK (Noah’s boat in the Old Testament = vessel).

Hadal zone = the deepest part of the ocean, in trenches on the ocean floor, well beyond the reach of sunlight.

13 comments on “Independent 11,972 by Phi”

  1. Happy PhiDay. Half an hour of the usual high quality fun from Phi. Agree with you on tale and dead lifts

    No theme spotted as yet.

    Thanks Phi and Quirister

  2. Sorry to say, I found this puzzle a bit uninspired.
    Some rather clumsy surfaces, and loose definitions.
    11(ac), I could only see, TALL for “remarkable”, which ( if it is) is weak.
    Ditto, 22(ac), equating disciple to SON.
    DARK from Hadal Zone….hmm; well, it is dark down there, I suppose.
    LAND appearing in both clue and definition (26ac), is not great.
    COLORATURA goes into my WHYLIST.
    Apologies for the grumpiness…….

    Ta, P + Q

  3. Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels:
    Saints of the Shadow Bible (2013)
    Rather Be the Devil (2016)
    A Song for the Dark Times (2020)
    Midnight & Blue (2024)

  6. I found this very straightforward right up until the extreme SE corner.

    I thought of BLUE but couldn’t parse it, having nho blague, so I dismissed it. I wanted it to be BILE, for bilge (nonsense) minus ‘g’, but I couldn’t account for the ‘a in the surface, and it’d already been used for BIBLE! The checkers made blue inevitable, however.

    Then I just couldn’t see SHEIKDOM, though some sort of dom it certainly was. I don’t think I’ve seem “possibly” as an anagrid before, not that that’s much of an excuse since the ‘k’ was very likely anyway. And had I got that ‘k’ in the right place, I would have got DARK no doubt; but as it was, that one remained out of reach. Like E.N.Boll&@2 I found it little too oblique… there are lots of things that might describe the hadal zone; bloody cold, for one, I imagine. (BTW what is this “WHYLIST” to which you often refer?) That clue in particular seemed a bit weird, but I presume hadal or Hades fits the theme, looking that the titles that FrankieG has listed.

    On the other hand, I wasn’t bothered by SON for disciple nor TALL for remarkable (the latter alluding to the set phrase “tall tale” of course); in fact I thought they were good. And I liked DEAD LIFTS.

    My personal quibble was eyelid for “part of the eye”, but it won’t keep me from shutting them tonight.

    Thanks both

  7. Thanks both. Not entirely gettable for me – I shall single out NOVITIATES wherein I did not recognise ‘son’ as ‘disciple’ nor remember the definition, synonym or ‘vitiate’, for which I have no complete excuse as Phi clued the same word similarly in December.

  8. Satisfied customer here. No chance with the theme, but that didn’t matter. DEAD-LIFTS made me smile and, really, why not COLORATURA? Fairly standard musical term. Thanks to Phi and Quirister

  9. I’m with @Jayjay – Phi being his wonderful self. Just the right amount of difficulty for me, of course ymmv. Thanks to Phi as always and to Quirister for teaching me the nho (and likely to be forgotten) BLagUE.

  10. Tall = remarkable and son = disciple both verbatim from Chambers. ‘Possibly’ has been an anagrind ever since I started solving, with its acceptability over ‘perhaps’ a regular issue on the Azed slip.

    Definitely the later Rebus novels – I did the earlier ones some time ago and realised Rankin had accumulated enough more to have another selection.

  11. Thanks Phi & Quirister. Looking at RINGLET, I recall a similar device in the clue for RUSSIAN ROULETTE in a recent Guardian cryptic. In that blog there was discussion — initiated by one AP — of whether “permitted” (here, “allowed”) can justifiably clue “let”, since the former takes the full form of the infinitive (allowed to stand), and the latter the bare form (let stand). But I think a perfect equivalence does exist, via the replacement test, if the verb is followed by an “adverb of place” rather than an infinitive: “I knocked on the door, but was not let/permitted/allowed inside.”

  12. Coloradan@11, haha yes I smiled at the “allowed” here, thinking back to precisely that earlier puzzle! But yours is a good example though; “I wasn’t permitted inside” isn”t something I would personally say but I wouldn’t care to argue against it either.

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