Independent 10,642 / Phi

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In familiar fashion, Phi brings this week’s suite of mid-week puzzles to a close.

I found this crossword harder than a standard Phi, in part due to the grid and that fact that the first letters of so many entries were unchecked, and in part due to the presence of quite a few more obscure words, e.g. at 1, 16A, 17A, 24, 25, 26 … In the end, I needed to resort to Chambers to break the impasse in the SE quadrant.

Since the grid lends itself to a Nina, and Phi likes his themes, I have scoured the completed grid for a theme, all to no avail. Perhaps others have spotted something? Indeed they have! Some Maori words hidden in the grid with their English equivalents as entries: HARAREI=HOLIDAY, AKONGA=STUDENT and TANIWHA=MONSTER(S).

My favourite clues today were 7 and 14, for smoothness of surface, and 9, for perhaps unintended topicality. I would appreciate confirmation of my parsing at 4.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

ACROSS  
   
06 HOLIDAY Leave off perhaps to participate in country dance

OLID (=off perhaps, i.e. giving off a bad smell) in HAY (=country dance)
   
07 STUDENT Trainee in hospital department following boss

STUD (=boss, e.g. on shield) + ENT (=hospital department, i.e. Ear, Nose and Throat)
   
09 ATELIERS Studios swallowed stories about Republican

R (=Republican) in [ATE (=swallowed) + LIES (=stories)
   
11 AURORA Queen in two types of gold: a wondrous sight at night

{[R (=Queen, i.e. regina)] in [AU (=gold, i.e. chemical formula) + OR (=gold, in heraldry)]} + A; the reference is to e.g. aurora borealis
   
12 REMISSLY Young lady entering bank carelessly

MISS (=young lady) in RELY (=bank (on))
   
13 DOES IN Female wrong to bring about murders

DOE (=female, of e.g. deer) + SIN (=(a) wrong)
   
14 ASHY Retiring after one becomes grey

A (=one) + SHY (=retiring)
   
16 MY BAD Admission of guilt recalled in respect of cracking weir

BY (=in respect of) in DAM (=weir); “recalled” indicates reversal
   
17 NISI Statement of conditionality is accepted by province

IS in NI (=province, i.e. Northern Ireland)
   
18 REGAIN Get back? American in African country must get back

A (=American) in NIGER (=African country); “must get back” indicates reversal
   
20 AIRSCREW Attitude presented by flight attendants identifying part of plane

AIRS (=attitude, as in airs and graces) + CREW (=flight attendants); the airscrew is an aircraft propeller
   
23 ERRANT Wandering about, retreating before storm

ER (RE=about, regarding; “retreating” indicates reversal) + RANT (=storm, tirade)
   
24 SEA HEATH Cliff plant: each should be protected by covering

EA (=each) in SHEATH (=covering, for sword); a sea heath is a wiry, pink-flowered ericaceous plant
   
25 IRISHRY Flower, hardy at odd times, product of Eire

IRIS (=flower) + H<a>R<d>Y (“at odd times” means odd letters only are used); Irishry are the people of Ireland viewed collectively, cf. citizenry
   
26 TANTARA What may herald soldier infiltrating plantation in film?

ANT (=soldier) in TARA (=plantation in film, in Gone with the Wind); a tantara is a blast on a trumpet or horn prior to an announcement
   
Down  
   
01 COSTAE Company distributed a lot of steak ribs

CO (=company) + *(STEA<k>); “a lot of” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “distributed”; a costa is a rib or rib-like structure
   
02 VILLAINY Criminal behaviour in breaking into house and yard

IN in [VILLA (=house) + Y (=yard)]
   
03 DALEKS King entering valleys to do for alien invaders?

K (=king, in cards) in DALES (=valleys); the Daleks appeared in the BBC series Doctor Who
   
04 STRANDED Exhibiting various lines without support?

The references to “lines” refers to threads, strands
   
05 ENTRAILS Redesign of latrines revealing internal material

*(LATRINES); “redesign of” is anagram indicator
   
08 DIRGE Lament overthrow of energy network

E (=energy) + GRID (=network); “overthrow of” indicates reversal
   
10 SOYA BEANS Tree coming up in season possibly producing protein-rich food

YAB (BAY=tree; “coming up” indicates vertical reversal) in *(SEASON); “possibly” is anagram indicator
   
15 SHEARERS They fleece audience after start of show

S<how> (“start of” means first letter only is used) + HEARERS (=audience, i.e. those hearing); here “fleece” refers not to cheating, but to removing a sheep’s fleece
   
16 MONSTERS Cruel people endlessly severe in scene of battle

STER<n> (=severe; “endlessly” means last letter is dropped) in MONS (=scene of battle, i.e. in WWI)
   
17 NUCLEATE Nathaniel will pen cryptic clue with a distinct core

*(CLUE) in NATE (=Nathaniel, colloquially); “cryptic” is anagram indicator
   
19 AMASS Gather Welsh politician’s a fool

AM (=Welsh politician, i.e. Assembly Member) + ASS (=a fool)
   
21 REAGAN Ungrateful daughter throttling a former president

A in REGAN (=ungrateful daughter, in Shakespeare’s King Lear); the reference is to former US President Ronald Reagan
   
22 EXTORT Child no longer consuming right milk

R (=right) in EX-TOT (=child no longer, cryptically); to milk is to exploit, extort
   
   

 

 

15 comments on “Independent 10,642 / Phi”

  1. A few unknowns. Didn’t know SEA HEATH and had to check IRISHRY was a word. Also had to google TARA PLANTATION (not Mara as mistyped in blog) to get the Gone With The Wind reference. At the end, I failed to get the relatively straightforward HOLIDAY. Couldn’t find a theme. Did note that the first 3 down solutions COstae VIllainy Daleks hide the current nasty. Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.

  3. I had the same two unknowns mentioned by Hovis although both were solves and I’d spent ages thinking “what possible famous film plantation is there?” before tara eventually dropped.  I did get HOLIDAY but couldn’t parse it and have never encountered ‘OLID’.  That aside, I found this relatively straightforward today.  Particular ticks for VILLAINY with its relevant surface, DIRGE which was a neat misdirect, MONSTERS which is the first time I’ve seen reference to Mons in a crossword and STRANDED for the first definition.  Fewer ticks but some lovely surfaces amongst the remainder including REAGAN, EXTORT, SHEARERS, ERRANT, DOES IN and ASHY.  And nice to be reminded of DALEKS – still my favourite Dr Who bad guys.

    Thanks Phi and RR

  4. We had a few more struggles today for the same reasons RR. We just used the check button to see whether a few words were correct – IRISHRY was one of them.

    We thought there must be something going on in the grid too but couldn’t find anything. We came here to be enlightened – maybe later. Hopefully Phi will drop by and give us a clue if there is a theme.

    Thanks for the puzzle Phi and thanks RakojaRiku for the Phiday blog.

  5. I also failed with HOLIDAY (didn’t know OLID) and struggled in the SE corner – not sure why now I read the blog.

    otherwise it was a nice steady solve with some lovely clues.

    Thanks to Phi and RR.

     

  6. The words down the sides are both Maori – Hararei means, roughly, holiday, and Taniwha is a supernatural creature. Not sure what the connection could be but Phi’s in NZ isn’t he?

  9. Thanks to Phi for the Friday entertainment, and to RR for blogging.  Agree with others that this seemed harder than usual for a Phi, though all the unfamiliar words were clued in a user-friendly way that made them very solvable.

    We very often fail to spot Phi’s themes, but in this case the user-unfriendly grid made us think that something would be spelled out around the outside, and sure enough we had “what en….”, “set an”, and a couple of other plausible letter combinations taking shape.  It was quite disconcerting when they didn’t resolve into recognisable words!  Thanks to Herb @6 and James @7 for the explanation of these.  I see that HARAREI and HOLIDAY share the H in the grid (and HARAREI means HOLIDAY), but STUDENT and TANIWHA share the T (and TANIWHA doesn’t mean STUDENT), so I’m not sure I’ve fully understood the significance of these two particular Maori words here?

  10. Herb @6 & James @7: well there’s obscure and there’s obscure!  I’m not going to beat myself up for not spotting the Nina(s) on this occasion then.  And if, as happened last Friday, when Duncan identified a similarly obscure connection, it turns out it was no intention of Phi’s and mere coincidence I shall have to respond in? rawa.

    Funnily enough, I have no problem at all with pretty obscure Nina’s.  I’m happy to have them pointed out and I marvel at the setter’s ingenuity and left field knowledge – as well as that of the posters who spotted it.  Pretty obscure themes can irritate a little bit, especially if they end up affecting the composition of the puzzle in order to include them.  But I enjoyed Phi’s Alan Hovhannes puzzle whilst being totally unaware there was even a theme.  Real obscurity in individual clues/solutions is where I occasionally get a little grumpy which is why I draw the line well before reaching an Azed or similar.

  11. A bit trickier than some Phi puzzles but we got it with only a wee bit of help; we had to google the plantation, and used a wordfinder for 2dn – and could have kicked ourselves when we saw it.  But it did help us get HOLIDAY from definition and wordplay after checking in Chambers that ‘olid’ is a word.  And that has given me an idea for a clue in a crossword I’m compiling (as my alter ego).

    We thought there might be a nina as various sequences in the perimeter unches were tantalisingly like words but we couldn’t make sense of them.

    Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku – not forgetting Herb and James

  12. I see my copy and paste didn’t work: ina rawa with a horizontal bar above the a in the first word – which the translator tells me is Maori for “I’m amazed”.  I’ve seen Phi drop in occasionally on a Friday: I hope we’ll get some insight into the Ninas later…

  13. Must be quick, as we’re off to a craft fair to sell the other half’s jewellery.

    There’s a bit of a push here to promote te reo Maori (I can’t work out macrons on this site either) so I asked a more gifted speaker (thanks, Brad) for some seven letter Maori words.  Ideally, I’d wanted to set up four in the perimeter with the middle letter there being the first or last of the English meaning.  But it rapidly became clear that this wasn’t going to be the case so I settled for the three spotted going in where they would.  Obligingly there isn’t an s in Maori so TANIWHA can be MONSTER(S).

    Might try it again with a less specific restriction one day.

  15. Thanks to Hovis for pointing out the typo, now corrected. And well done to others for spotting the Maori words and making the connection with Phi in NZ. I’m glad that I personally didn’t spend too much time looking for this particular theme!

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