Independent 9774 / Phi

by

Phi. on Friday – no surprises there

 

 

 

All but one of the entries were words that I have come across.  RECREANTS at 18 across was new to me but the wordplay became obvious once I had all the crossing letters.

For me this was a puzzle that gradually built up in bits and pieces.  It wasn’t a smooth spread from one of the corners.

I liked the clue for ABORTIVE at 25 across with its intricate wordplay built with two nested container & content devices.

I was slightly surprised to see O for old used in two successive clues at 19 and 20 across

I was held up on SEE TO at 19 a cross for much longer than I should have been as I was thinking of mythological [old] rivers where I could change S to N or some other similar change of direction. SEE TO was obviously the entry but it wasn’t until I was well into the blog that the penny dropped in respect of the wordplay.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry

1

 

Radical diet saving me when ailing (8)

 

Anagram of (when ailing) SAVING ME

VEGANISM*

VEGANISM (adherent to a diet containing no animal product at all; radical diet)

 

5

 

Hunting dog to risk going round equine (6)

 

BET (risk) containing (going round) ASS (an equine creature)

B (ASS) ET

BASSET (low-set, smooth-coated hound with long ears)

 

9

 

Facilities observed by day – an unsettled issue (5,3)

 

LOO (toilet; facilities) + SEEN (observed) + D (day)

LOO SE EN D

LOOSE END (unfinished, unsettled or unexplained matter)

 

10

 

Transfix the French, after millions invested in beer (6)

 

(M [millions] contained in [invested in] IPA India Pale Ale; [beer]) + LE (one of the French forms of ‘the’)

I (M) PA LE

IMPALE (transfix)

 

12

 

Meal?  Wanted, first to last, to participate in bash (6,5)

 

LACKED (needed; wanted) with the first letter L moved to the end [first to last] contained in (to participate in) PUNCH (bash)

P (ACKEDL) UNCH

PACKED LUNCH (a form of meal)

 

15

 

Finish off American power with invasion by group of nations (3,2)

 

(US [United States; American] + P [power]) containing (with invasion by) EU (European Union; group of nations)

US (E U) P

USE UP (finish off)

 

17

 

Exploratory process Curie deployed with this (9)

 

Anagram of (deployed with) CURIE and THIS

HEURISTIC*

HEURISTIC (the art of discovery in logic; in plural, [HEURISTICs], the method in education by which the pupil is set to find out things for himself; exploratory process)

 

18

 

Denies accommodating some of the army cowards (9)

 

RECANTS (revokes a former declaration; denies) containing (accommodating) RE (Royal Engineers [corps [some] of the British army)

REC (RE) ANTS

RECREANTS (cowards)

 

19

 

Sort out old river, taking new direction (3,2)

 

(O [old] + TEES [river in the north east of England) all reversed (taking new direction)

(SEE T O)<

SEE TO (sort out)

 

20

 

Speculative article?  Old article revamped (11)

 

THE (definite article) + O [old] an anagram of (revamped) ARTICLE

THE O RETICAL*

THEORETICAL (speculative)

 

24

 

Aimless dispute in marketing industry? (6)

AD (advertising, a fundamental tool of the marketing industry) + RIFT (dispute)

AD RIFT

ADRIFT (aimless)

 

25

 

Vain American, dull person, set to detain one inside (8)

 

A (American) + (BORE [dull person] containing [to detain] [I {Roman numeral for one} contained in {inside}TV {television set}])

A BOR (T (I) V) E

ABORTIVE (unsuccessful; futile; vain)

 

26

 

Mythical monster – namely, the reverse of a friend (6)

 

SC (scilicet; namely) + ALLY (friend) reversed (the reverse of)

SC YLLA<

SCYLLA (six-headed monster in Greek mythology who sat over a dangerous rock on the Italian side of the Straits of Messina, opposite Charybdis, and seized or drowned sailors from passing ships)

 

27

 

 I follow sheep round middle of field in symbolic representation (8)

I + ([DOG {follow} + RAM {sheep}] containing [round] E [central letter of {middle of} FIELD])

I D (E) OG RAM

IDEOGRAM (character or symbol in writing that stands not for a word or sound but for a concept, idea or the thing itself; any sign or symbol used to represent a word)

 

Down

1

 

Pleasure-seeker by choice, put out over conservation body (10)

 

VOLUNTARY (by choice) with an anagram of (out) PUT replacing (over) NT (National Trust [conservation body])

VOLU (PTU*) ARY

VOLUPTUARY (person excessively fond of or devoted to bodily enjoyments or luxury, a sensualist; pleasure seeker)

 

2

 

Siege once broken, involving cold study of rock structures? (10)

 

Anagram of (broken) SIEGE ONCE containing (involving) C (cold)

GEOS (C) IENCE*

GEOSCIENCE (any of the scientific disciplines, such as geology or geomorphology, which deal with the earth, or all of these collectively; this definition covers the study of rock structures)

 

3

 

Preceding answer half upset relative (5)

 

Anagram of (upset) IENCE (the second half of the previous entry / answer GEOSCIENCE)

NIECE*

NIECE (relative)

 

4

 

Disarming description of solo performance? (6-6)

 

SINGLE-HANDED (if you take someone’s arm away [disarming] they have only one hand and are therefore SINGLE-HANDED)

SINGLE-HANDED

SINGLE-HANDED (descriptive of a solo performance)

 

6

 

Prime locks, securing foremost of Chippendale furniture (9)

 

(ARM [prime, as in prime or ARM a nuclear warhead] + HAIRS [locks] containing [securing] C [first letter of {foremost} CHIPPENDALE])

ARM (C) HAIRS

ARMCHAIRS (furniture)

 

7 / 8

 

TV show to begin with loss of ship in radio message (4,4)

 

START (begin) + REK (sounds like [in radio message] like WRECK [loss of ship])

STAR T REK

STAR TREK (TV programme)

 

11

 

Abandoned magazine – junior editor’s copy framed by nude dancing (12)

 

(SUB’S [sub-editor’s; junior editor’s] + CRIB [copy]) contained in (framed by) an anagram of (dancing) NUDE

UN (SUB’S CRIB) ED*

UNSUBSCRIBED (if a magazine is UNSUBSCRIBED there are no readers, so the magazine will be abandoned by its publishers)

 

13

 

Straightline maker limiting one more inclined to spread out (10)

 

STRETCHER (a brick, stone, sod, sandbag, etc laid horizontally with others in the forming of a wall; a straight line maker) containing (limiting) I (Roman numeral for one)

STRETCH (I) ER

STRETCHIER (more inclined to spread out)

 

14

 

Fish satisfied, rising around river for part of the year? (6,4)

 

SCHOOL (collective noun for a group of fish) + (MET [satisfied] reversed [rising; down clue] containing [around] R [river])

SCHOOL TE (R) M<

SCHOOL TERM (part of the year)

 

16

 

Fell in, and put to work in large numbers (9)

 

Anagram of (put to work) FELL IN and PUT

PLENTIFUL*

PLENTIFUL (in large numbers)

 

21

 

Temperature roughly observed in part of body (5)

 

T (temperature) + OR SO (roughly)

T OR SO

TORSO (part of the body)

 

22 / 23

 

TV show with daughter and son gaining power in time (4,4)

 

(D [daughter] + S [son] + ARM [power]) contained in (in) DAY {period of time)

D A (D S ARM) Y

DAD’S ARMY (television program)

 

 

10 comments on “Independent 9774 / Phi”

  1. Thanks Phi and duncanshiell

    Hard (much harder than today’s Guardian). I can’t really claim a finish as I had lots of “red letters” in the SW before finally getting DADS ARMY, ADRIFT and SCYLLA.

  2. Thanks Duncan, Phi

    Quite tricky today, both clues and solutions.  I had trouble spotting the anagrams, particularly VEGANISM and PLENTIFUL.  DAD’S ARMY last in.  I took UNSUBSCRIBED to be what the subscriber did, rather than descriptive of the magazine.  I liked THEORETICAL, ADRIFT, HEURISTIC, SCYLLA.  I didn’t get to the bottom of STRETCHIER, but find stretcher as a straight line maker very odd, if it’s just a brick.  Headers make straight lines just as well.  Maybe it refers to something that stretches a line (e.g. a builder’s chalked line for marking straight lines) and so makes it straight.  Dunno.

  3. Agree that it was a harder Phi than usual, an empty SE corner for a long time. Favourite clue 12ac for NOT invoking the spirit of the good Rev Spooner. No idea what the theme might be. Thanks to S & B.

  4. Managed to finish but didn’t know RECREANT or VOLUPTUARY. Like James@2, I feel I don’t really understand the definition of the stretcher part of 13d.

  6. @baerchen(wherever you are)-bravo for BOTTLED ALE yesterday-only saw it when I woke up (LATTE &BLONDE)

    Absolute ripper from Phi.

    Thanks Duncansheill and Phi.

  8. Yes Duncan, a nice Russian doll clue for ABORTIVE.

    Tough puzzle, enjoyed in the early part of the afternoon.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan.

  9. I was held up at the end by VOLUPTUARY and RECREANT, neither of which I had previously encountered. I was unable to get RECREANT as I’d entered VULUPUANT at 1d, and was only able to finish by revealing the R at the start to 18a which gave me 1d immediately as the penny dropped. It was a bit longer before I managed to construct 18a. I was quite pleased to solve the rest of the puzzle unaided, apart from not seeing the parsing of my local old river! Doh! Quite a challenge. Thanks Phi and Duncan

  10. Another one towards the trickier end of the Phi spectrum, but we solved it without help.  LOI was RECREANTS – all we could think of for ages was ‘recusants’ which we knew wasn’t right even if ‘us’ could be equated to part of the army.  We put SINGLE-HANDED for 4dn but wondered afterwards if it might be SINGLE-HANDER; doing the puzzle from a printout we weren’t able to check.  We’re with James@2 about UNSUBSCRIBED altough we’ve only encountered ‘unsubscribe’ before in terms of ‘unsubscribing’ from some on-line services.

    We liked SCHOOL TERM for its use of the collective noun – which we only tumbled to after thinking of various species of fish including the ide, commonly encountered in crosswordland.  Others we liked were the two TV programmes.

    Thanks, Phi and Duncan.

     

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