Independent 9,433 by Phi

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A very unusual grid in that there are only 22 answers, the fewest I’ve ever seen in a daily cryptic. I’m running a bit late today and wondered why I seem to have caught up: obvious why, with so little for me to do.

Enjoyable and utterly satisfactory as always. So many answers that initially gave difficulty proved to be very simple in hindsight.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

When I started blogging it seemed that all the definitions were at the ends of the clues and perhaps this was the Nina today, I thought. But this was soon shown to be wrong. Several of the words seem to be specific to something or other but I can’t find a pattern. Maybe you can…

Across
8 DETAIL Told stories about a time – recalled specific point (6)
(li(a t)ed)rev.
9 GERMANIC Good American sadly ignoring leader of European group (8)
g ({A}merican)*
10 CUCKOO IN THE NEST Screwball I then sent abroad as an invader (6,2,3,4)
cuckoo [= screwball] (I then sent)*, the anagram indicator ‘abroad’
11 MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD A source of extra heft a long time ago – before the Christian Era? (6-3,6)
Middles Ages pre-AD
12 TEAPOT Each packet’s opening contributing to drink – from this? (6)
t(ea. p{acket})ot
14 REPACK Escapade brought back King – prepare to move on? (6)
(caper)rev. K
16 BUSINESS AS USUAL A US lab sues us wrongly about crime – it’s what you’d expect (8,2,5)
(A US lab sues us)* round sin
20 CAPILLARY ACTION Grant, say, to import a medicine ahead of case identifying blood behaviour? (9,6)
C(a pill)ary action [= case] — Cary Grant
21 CLERICAL Men embraced by call reconsidered becoming a minister? (8)
(call)* round Eric — I think there’s a mistake here and it’s meant to be ‘Man’, since otherwise it doesn’t work so far as I can see, but perhaps there’s some equivalence of men and Eric that I can’t see — and I think there are two senses of ‘becoming’ here: the sense ‘becoming to a minister; what is appropriate to a minister’ and the usual wordplay sense
22 LENTIL Vegetable in church observance not entirely bad (6)
Lent il{l}
Down
1 DELUSIVE Deceiving daughter not easily tracked down (8)
d. elusive
2 SACKED Failed to work? Line taken: dismissed (6)
s{l}acked
3 ALL OVER THE PLACE Confused boyfriend heading for town chapel, fuddled, in drink (3,4,3,5)
al(lover t{own} (chapel)*)e
4 EGGNOG Drink for one before picking up summons to dine? (6)
e.g. (gong)rev.
5 ORCHESTRA STALLS Arts set moving into monster auditoria – occupying these? (9,6)
orc h(arts set)*alls
6 RAINDROP Element of weather, one interrupting American leisure and work (8)
R a(1)nd R op. — I Googled r and r to see if it was specifically American; it seems to be more military, but Chambers says that it is originally US
7 FIESTA Celebration that is involved in breaking fast (6)
i.e. in (fast)*
13 POITIERS Less-than-complete balance about row in French city (8)
poi(tier)s{e}
15 CHAMONIX Company importing meat having nothing for French resort (8)
c(ham)o. nix
17 USABLE Upper-class fur ready-to-wear? (6)
U sable
18 SHRILL Quiet running water becoming piercingly loud (6)
sh rill
19 SATINY Soft and smooth, perhaps, though containing metal (6)
sa(tin)y — I think ‘perhaps’ gives the ‘say’, but there may be some equivalence of ‘though’ and ‘say’ of which I’m unaware

*anagram

12 comments on “Independent 9,433 by Phi”

  1. Yes, noticeably small number of clues. Some good long anagrams and other devices.

    One can say “it becomes him” and “it becomes a minister”, so I think that clerical, say behaviour or demeanour, is becoming a minister, “to” not needed.

    Thanks to Phi (whose themes I never see) and John.

  2. Thought it might be Ben Travers with 10ac, but no other works fitted, and the edges of the grid gave nothing away.
    Thanks as always to S & B

  3. Yes, I think ‘men’ must be a typo for ‘man’. That clue held me up for ages trying to fit in OR (= other ranks).

    Paul A@2 mentions 10ac. 11ac and 16ac also sound vaguely as if they are titles, but of what? The other long answers don’t really suggest anything in the way of a theme.

    Enjoyable crossword, though. Thanks, Phi and John.

  4. I thought for a while there was a ‘drink’ theme as it was explicitly mentioned in several clues but that soon dried up.

    In 19dn ‘though’ doesn’t seem to have any function other than contributing to the surface reading. It threw me for a while.

  5. Tough solve for a drunken me so blog much appreciated, John.

    I couldn’t see a theme either and boggled my noggin trying to work out if the grid’s middle block had a relevance (alas with no joy).

    Anyhoo, thanks to Phi for the work-out and to he or any bright spark who thematically enlightens us or reveals it was all an enjoyable thematic wild goose chase. 🙂

  6. I guess the ‘theme’ was that there are just 22 clues. Phi likes to challenge himself when filling a grid and it’s hard to imagine how a grid could ever be filled with fewer lights!

  9. I’m going to go out on a limb and say its a LOTR theme. Why do I think this? Well, most of all its coz I gots nothing else, but here goes: nine squares in the middle representing nine rings and fellows rung by all the answers, Germanic [runes] (maybe a runic nina somehow?], Middle Earth (almost in there) from 11a and part of 3d, 5d Orc[hestra stalls], er, well, that’s it. Wasiclose?

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