Independent 10,432 by Phi

by

In these very strange, surreal times it is reassuring to find Phi appearing on Phiday.

No real problems today although the Biblical character in 19D was solved by the wordplay before we realised we did know the name after all.

We cannot see any theme today but that isn’t to say there isn’t one.

Thanks Phi – hope things are OK with you in New Zealand.

image of grid

ACROSS
9 English abruptly claiming it, showing a degree of culture (9)
ERUDITELY

E (English) RUDELY (abruptly) around or ‘claiming’ IT

10 Footballing group crushing my plants (5)
FLORA

FA (footballing group – Football Association) around or ‘crushing’ LOR (my)

11 Have light go off? Then this may not be present! (4,7)
HIGH VOLTAGE

An anagram of HAVE LIGHT GO – anagrind is ‘off’

12 Endless staying-power reflected in boat (3)
TUG

A reversal or ‘reflection’ of GUTs (staying power) missing last letter or ‘endless’

13 Son to pick up clipping (5)
SHEAR

S (son) HEAR (to pick up)

14 Heaven beginning to tremble after decisive end of prayer (9)
FIRMAMENT

T (first letter or ‘beginning’ to tremble) after FIRM (decisive) AMEN (end of prayer)

16 Military commander to be given leadership of regiment in just over four weeks (7)
OCTOBER

OC (Officer Commander – a military commander) TO BE and R (first letter or ‘leadership’ of regiment)

18 Car’s attraction? Principal one overlooked (7)
PULLMAN

PULL (attraction) MAiN (principal) missing or ‘overlooking’ I (one)

20 Hung over, embracing second American to a large extent (9)
HUMONGOUS

HUNG O (over) around or ’embracing’ MO (second) + US (American)

22 Strange feeling about capital of Italy – it’s an Italian city (5)
TURIN

TURN (strange feeling) about I (first letter or ‘capital’ of Italy)

23 Biblical refugee’s fate (3)
LOT

Double definition

24 Very athletic blokes brought into part of hospital area (11)
ENVIRONMENT

V (very) IRON MEN (athletic blokes) inside or ‘brought into’ ENT (part of hospital as in Ear, Nose and Throat)

26 One looking to oust leader, one from Asian republic (5)
AZERI

gAZER (one looking) missing first letter or ‘ousting leader’ + I (one)

27 Good litre in a tea-urn, needing stirring – like some sugar? (9)
GRANULATE

G (good) L (litre) in an anagram of A TEA URN – anagrind is ‘needing stirring’

DOWN
1 Setter, this setter, to pause – he needs rest following Beelzebub (15)
MEPHISTOPHELEAN

ME (setter) PHI (the setter again) STOP (pause) HE and LEAN (rest)

2 Hardy hero, reduced fellow, receiving money for opinion (8)
JUDGMENT

JUDe (Hardy hero as in Jude the Obscure) missing last letter or ‘reduced’ + GENT (fellow) around or ‘receiving’ M (money)

3 Metal shard I placed higher up (6)
SILVER

SLIVER (shard) with the I moving forward or up, as it is a down clue

4 Distant energy sources to the fore for US investment company (5,5)
WELLS FARGO

FAR (distant) GO (energy) with WELLS (sources) at the front or ‘to the fore’

5 Stars turning up in ordinary locations (4)
LYRA

Hidden and reversed or ‘turning up’ in ordinARY Locations

6 Describing most of the dictionary in spite of everything (5,3)
AFTER ALL

A play on the fact that most of the dictionary comes AFTER the word ALL

7 Detest first couple of lowbrow articles (6)
LOATHE

LO (first couple of letters in lowbrow) A THE (two articles)

8 Decadent period: ingenuity has ten kinks (7,8)
NAUGHTY NINETIES

An anagram of INGENUITY HAS TEN – anagrind is ‘kinks’

15 Sport unexciting after Ed departs, as one sees with rock-climbing? (10)
RUPESTRIAN

RU (sport as in Rugby Union) PedESTRIAN (unexciting) with ‘ed’ missing or ‘departing’

17 Most of literary family is seen around very significant peak (3,5)
BEN NEVIS

BENNEt (literary family in Pride and Prejudice) missing last letter or ‘most of’ IS around V (very)

19 Biblical character: “I am upset about men serving over Christmas period?” (8)
MORDECAI

A reversal or ‘upset’ of I AM around or ‘about’ OR (men) DEC (Christmas period? as in December)

21 Calling one to probe measuring device (6)
METIER

I (one) inside or ‘probing’ METER (measuring device)

22 Gun, shot in extremity, giving voice (6)
TONGUE

An anagram of GUN (anagrind is ‘shot’) in TOE (extremity)

25 Very long time looking heavenward – to see me in 5? (4)
VEGA

V (very) and a reversal or ‘looking heavenward’ of AGE (long time) – a star in the LYRA constellation

9 comments on “Independent 10,432 by Phi”

  1. Thanks to phi – enjoyed this.

    Worked out ‘flora’ from definition but couldn’t parse it – took a long time for the penny to drop and get LOR = MY even after googling.

  2. A DNF for me today as I was completely defeated by Rupestrian, which isn’t in any of my wordsearch apps.  Also I stupidly entered Humungous and Mephistophelian so they were wrong and improperly parsed too.  I got Azeri but couldn’t parse it.  Much enjoyed though, so thanks Phi and B&J.

  3. RUPESTRIAN was a new word to us, but we did get it from a wordfinder and it confirmed PULLMAN for 18ac.  Otherwise it was fairly straightforward if challenging in places.

    We liked OCTOBER, SILVER and the LYRA/VEGA connection.

    Thanks, Phi and B&J

  4. We have the Chambers app on our devices which we ended up using to search for possible words. We then had to parse it!

  5. Had to trust to the wordplay for RUPESTRIAN and was another to have missed LOR (instead of the more usual ‘cor’) for ‘my’ at 10a.  A good challenge with some tricky clues.  Favourites were the ‘Most of literary family’ at 17d and the surface for HIGH VOLTAGE.

    Thanks to Phi and B&J

  6. I spotted the Philip Pullman theme – can anyone give a full breakdown of it? I got Lyra Silvertongue.

  7. We noticed Pullman and Lyra. We looked for further references from His Dark Materials but missed Silvertongue. We couldn’t find any other but we only watched the TV version.

  8. Anyone fancy anagramming LOATHE and METIER to get another thematic word? One certainly not in Chambers.

    Quite busy down here as I found myself acting manager of my team in the week things started to hit the fan. But all OK chez nous at present. Just aware that our normal shop for cat food is going to look like hoarding.

Comments are closed.