Independent 10,438 by Phi

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The usual enjoyable and good Friday Phi offering.

Definitions underlined, in sienna. Anagram indicators in italics.

The theme is … (for you to complete).

ACROSS
1 CARPET Caught at rack initially taking favourite dress down (6)
c{aught} a{t} r{ack} pet — dress down as in giving a dressing down
4 FLASH MOB Vulgar book about second public gathering (5,3)
flash [vulgar] (mo) b
9 KNIGHT Black Prince, say, is reported as something black (6)
“night” — the Black Prince is an example of a knight (and there I was, looking for a five-letter prince)
10 INSIGNIA Official marks popular gain and is made to look daft (8)
in (gain is)*
12 HAILSTONE Ethanol is unexpectedly obtained in precipitate? (9)
(ethanol is)*
13 TWEED Source of Thames produced water for river (5)
T{hames} weed [produced water]
14 LEIPZIG The French, with one difficult problem: capturing zone in German city (7)
le [‘the’ in French] 1 p(z)ig
16 DULL Unexciting? Accordingly cut line (4)
dul{y} l
19 FORM Supporting entry of Minister in ceremony (4)
for M{inister}
21 AMATEUR A lot of the ambience around colleague comes from ham (7)
a(mate)ur{a}
24 LOTTO Drunk unable to open house (5)
{b}lotto
25 SANDBLAST Components of antimony finally used to engrave? (9)
Antimony is Sb, so its components are S and b. Finish with last [finally]
27 NAUTICAL A lunatic at sea on a ship? (8)
(A lunatic)*
28 NETHER Woman’s behind curtain material in the lower area (6)
net [curtain material] her
29 TAKE THAT Pop group try this punch? (4,4)
2 defs
30 STOCKS Keeps a device for punishment (6)
2 defs
DOWN
1 CAKEHOLE One speaking Mass, complete on the radio (8)
cake [mass] “whole” — to be pedantic it isn’t the mouth (for which cakehole is a slang equivalent) which speaks, it’s the person controlling the mouth
2 RHINITIS Nasal problem: factor in blood disorder is in it (8)
I’m a bit unsure about this one and perhaps you have something better: it seems to be factor into [ie put inside] (Rh is) (in it). But is Rh a blood disorder? Rh (rhesus factor, originally) just seems to be a type of classification; you can have a blood disorder, in which case you may have something awry with your rhesus factor [Some commenters suggest that it’s Rh [factor in blood] then *(is in it) and it may well be that they’re right]
3 ETHOS Moral approach seem in yonder people promoting energy (5)
those with its e promoted, ie moved to the top — it seems that there is a typo here and that it should be ‘seen’
5 LINSEED Flaxen stuff, looking old, covering ends of settee (7)
lin(s{ette}e)ed — flax is also known as common flax or linseed
6 SCINTILLA Science time in comprehensive – picked up a hint (9)
sci, t in (all-in)rev.
7 MONKEY Primate ready to receive king (6)
mon(k)ey
8 BOARDS Stage fellows carrying one end of banner … (6)
bo(a {banne}r)ds — treading the boards
11 SONG … left over from farewell performance? (4)
so {lo}ng
15 ZOOLOGIST Is to go wild about lecturer supporting rising Australian scientist (9)
(Oz)rev. (is to go)* round l
17 SERAPHIC Raised concerns about setter becoming divine? (8)
Phi in (cares)rev.
18 ARCTURUS Star turn finishing early after bow before our group (8)
arc tur{n} us
20 MASCARA Old woman covering a blemish in cosmetic (7)
m(a scar)a
21 AUNT Sally of timeless mockery? (4)
{t}aunt — but if taunt is timeless it becomes aun
22 PLANET Equipment orbiting Earth or Venus? (6)
plan(e)t
23 STRUCK Collided with small vehicle (6)
s truck
26 BREST British taking stand in French port (5)
B rest

 

8 comments on “Independent 10,438 by Phi”

  2. I couldn’t parse Scintilla as Sci for science didn’t occur to me. Is there a Nina in the central column?  It reads ‘Final T’ and indeed 8 answers (a quarter) have a final T.  Or just coincidence?  Perhaps Phi could drop by to confirm or deny.  Thanks anyway to him and John.

  3. The usual pleasant Phi Friday solve though I’ll leave the theme to someone else – maybe there is something to Tatrasman @2’s ‘final t’ Nina.

    This came together steadily, though with a few like AMATEUR and SCINTILLA only semi-parsed. Back to the schoolroom for the chemical symbol for antimony, and I didn’t know about FLASH MOB(s). I couldn’t get beyond the ‘foray’ sense of ‘Sally’ at the end until the (semi-) timeless ‘taunt’ eventually came to mind.

    Thanks to John and Phi

  4. Have only this week started doing the Indy every day in addition to my usual Guardian crossword. One of the upsides of having time on one’s hands!

    Every one this week has been challenging and enjoyable. Particularly liked 10a, 29a and 7d today.

    Thanks to John and Phi.

  5. We had a bit of a struggle with this, particularly the NW corner until we resorted to an anagram solver for 12ac.  And we needed a wordfinder for 8dn –  real facepalm moment when we saw it.

    We agree with NeilW’s parsing of 2dn – that was one we got without difficulty.

    Plenty to like today so no real CoD

    Thanks, Phi and John

  6. There is a Nina but it is one of those that helps me over the daunting prospect of a blank grid, rather than anything one could expect a casual solver to divine. There are four relatively obscure 12 letter words hiding as pairs of common 6 letter words – MONKEYBOARDS is an example as are its three symmetric partners.

    Now to see whether being confined to barracks for four weeks will produce new grids!

  7. Same as avichau @4, I’ve been doing these (and the FT’s) every day since self-isolating for the last 12 days. Enjoyed this, no obscure words, and it passed the time nicely. NE corner was last to fall for me.

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