Independent 10,965 by Phi

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Our regular Phiday challenge.

Some tricky moments here: Phi has given us a few rather tenuous definitions, vague indicators, and a couple of superfluous words. All close enough to be reasonable, though.

Phi usually has a theme of some sort, and for once I remembered to look for it. The puzzle is a tribute to ANNE BRADFORD, creator of the CROSSWORD SOLVER’S DICTIONARY, who died recently at the age of 90. From what I’ve read about her, CAREER GIRL would appear to be a fair description (she seems to have had several careers); no doubt Phi will let us know if I’ve missed anything else relevant. Thanks Phi, and RIP a remarkable woman.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 MUSTARD
Measure of keenness to offer unflattering comments about big name (7)
MUD (unflattering comments, as in “throw mud at” = to slander) around STAR (as in film star = big name).

As in “keen as mustard” = very eager or enthusiastic.
5 PABULUM
Sailor’s first of us tucking into fruit and rare food (7)
AB (short for able-bodied seaman = sailor) + first letter of U[s], inserted in (tucking into) PLUM (a fruit).

Not so much “rare food” as “a rare word for food”.
9 REGAL
Genuine about Government, like many a ruler (5)
REAL (genuine) around G (abbreviation for Government).

The definition could just be “like a ruler” = like a king or queen; I’m not sure why we need “many”.
10 CROSSWORD
Interrupt discussion, and here we are? (9)
CROSS (interrupt, as in crossing someone’s path perhaps?) + WORD (discussion, as in “could I have a word with you?”).
11 MAYHEM
Just over four weeks border uproar (6)
MAY (a month of 31 days, so four weeks and a bit) + HEM (border of a garment).
12 SO-AND-SOS
Beach alarm blocked by old unspecified people (2-3-3)
SAND (beach) + SOS (alarm signal), containing (blocked by) O (old).
14 ANNE
Historic Queen, one from Scotland with a second name (4)
ANE (Scottish word for “one”), with an extra N (name).
16 DICTIONARY
Reference work: it’s recalled in study probing personal record (10)
IT reversed (recalled), inserted into CON (to study in depth), all inserted into (probing) DIARY (personal record).
18 CAREER GIRL
Aspiring woman to move quickly, reversing large lorry (6,4)
CAREER (to move quickly in an uncontrolled way), then L (large) + RIG (mainly US term for what Brits would call an articulated lorry), both of these reversed.
19 SPOT
Small drug advertisement (4)
S (small) + POT (slang for cannabis smoked as a drug).

An advertisement break between TV or radio programmes.
22 BRADFORD
Yorkshire city supporter with no change in degree? (8)
BRA (supporter) + D FOR D (d = abbreviation for degree; d for d = replacing it with itself = degree unchanged, I suppose).
23 BONSAI
Pretentious person rejected excellent small plant (6)
SNOB (pretentious person) reversed (rejected), then AI (A1 = excellent).

A Japanese miniature tree.
26 ASIA MINOR
Romania is misplaced in this part of the world (4,5)
Anagram (misplaced) of ROMANIA IS.

Old name for the peninsula that contains most of Turkey. Extended definition: Romania is on the opposite side of the Black Sea, so you’d be misplacing it if you said it was in Asia Minor.
27 THROE
Soldiers, on reflection, will be found among the fit (5)
OR (other ranks = common soldiers) reversed (on reflection), inserted into THE.

Throe = a spasm (a fit) or a sharp pain. More common in the plural “throes”; I don’t think I’ve ever seen the singular before.
28 EYE-DROP
Facial application: variety of dye injected into skin opening – revolutionary (3-4)
Anagram (variety) of DYE, injected into PORE (skin opening) reversed (revolutionary).
29 SOLVERS
Very good fans, nothing less – fans of 10? (7)
SO (very good = an expression of assent) + L[o]VERS (fans = people enthusiastic about someone or something) without the O (zero = nothing).

Reference to 10a CROSSWORD.
DOWN
1 MARIMBA
Musical instrument degrees – about the limit? (7)
MA + BA (abbreviations for two university degrees) around RIM (edge = limit).

Like a xylophone, but larger.
2 SOGGY
Rather moist sauce included amongst goods? On the contrary (5)
GG (two G = good) inserted into SOY (Asian sauce). “On the contrary” tells us to put GG inside SOY, rather than the other way round as the clue initially suggests.
3 ASLEEP
Hibernating snake securing shelter (6)
ASP (a snake), containing (securing) LEE (the side of a structure sheltered from the wind).
4 DECK
Lay out odd parts of diet: odd bits of cake (4)
Odd-numbered letters of D[i]E[t] + odd-numbered letters of C[a]K[e].

Deck = lay out = to knock someone to the ground with a punch.
5 PROMONTORY
Right-winger supporting professional male working in coastal area (10)
PRO (short for professional) + M (male) + ON (working), with TORY (political right-winger) at the end (at the bottom, in a down clue = supporting the rest of the wordplay).

A cliff stretching into the sea.
6 BESANCON
Vegetable convention, perhaps, held around Southern French city (8)
BEAN (a vegetable) + CON (short for convention, in the sense of a gathering of enthusiasts), around S (Southern).

Besançon = city in eastern France, near the Swiss border.
7 LOOK SHARP
Beautiful appearance given to instrument quickly! (4,5)
LOOKS (beautiful appearance) + HARP (instrument).

Look sharp! = quickly! = a command to do something fast.
8 MODESTY
Reticence of the writer penning poetry ending in neglect (7)
MY (of the writer), containing (penning) ODES (poetry) + end letter of [neglec]T
13 GINGERSNAP
Gag spinner reeling off spicy, crunchy stuff (10)
Anagram (reeling off, though either word would do as an anagram indicator by itself) of GAG SPINNER.

A crunchy biscuit flavoured with ginger and other spices.
15 NARRATIVE
Queen meeting scoundrel in uncomplicated story (9)
R (short for queen, as in ER = Elizabeth Regina) + RAT (scoundrel), in NAIVE (uncomplicated, as in “naive art” = without formal training or technique).
17 PERFUMER
Positive mistake inducing rage in man with a keen sense (8)
P (p = short for positive) + ERR (as a verb = mistake = to be wrong), with FUME (as a verb = rage = be angry) inserted. “Inducing” doesn’t quite seem right as the insertion indicator. It can mean “leading . . . in”, but you wouldn’t say that the container “leads in” its contents; or “creating . . . in”, but again the word order doesn’t really make that work.

UPDATE: As Hovis points out below, you could take “inducing” as “bringing in”, and then this is P + ERR “bringing in” FUME.
18 CABBAGE
Dull person getting a couple of books in prison (7)
A + BB (two B = a couple of books), in CAGE (prison).

The dictionaries say “cabbage” = a dull or unimaginative person. I think you’d get into a lot of trouble for using it that way, because it’s also an offensive term for someone with a catastrophic brain impairment.
20 TRICEPS
Muscle having instant power? Singular (7)
TRICE (instant = a very short time, as in “in a trice”) + P (power) + S (singular).
21 PORTAL
Access point or spot ultimately gaining entry to China (6)
OR + last letter (ultimately) of [spo]T, inserted into PAL (china = slang for friend, from Cockney rhyming slang china plate = mate).
24 SURGE
Agreed to accept $1000 increase (5)
SURE (agreed = certain), containing (to accept) G (slang for a thousand dollars).
25 PROS
No end of writing experts (4)
PROS[e] (writing that isn’t poetry), without the last letter (no end).

11 comments on “Independent 10,965 by Phi”

  1. Chambers has “bring in” as an obsolete meaning of “induce”, so maybe that’s what Phi meant? There’s a mistake in the blog for 8d. It is MY (of the writer) that is needed.

    Thanks for the info on Anne Bradford.

  2. Hovis @1: thanks, I’ve corrected 8d. And I think your “bringing in” just about makes 17d work, though the grammar of the sentence isn’t obvious.

  3. I got half the theme – but then which of us would miss CROSSWORD, SOLVERS and DICTIONARY??? However, to my shame, had never heard of the author.

    With regard to REGAL, a query never entered my mind as I simply took it to acknowledge that many other rulers are presidential. Like our blogger, I’d never encountered a singular THROE so it was nice to find my hesitant entry rewarded. And PABULUM was similarly satisfying when I discovered it actually existed. My two favourites today are GINGERSNAP for the anagram (having started off with CRACK… for the gag and then wondered if the whole thing might be a word for comedian) and MUSTARD for the absolutely delightful definition.

    Thanks Phi and Quirister

  4. I think that it’s not just a tribute to Anne Bradford, but that the twelfth edition was released this week. Hard to definitively track the different formats and their respective availability, but my pre-purchased Kindle version – Collins. 12th Ed – popped up on the phone on 02.12.21.

  5. Other than Eimi on Monday I’ve found this a very tough week, but today that was down to me missing several “obvious when you see it” clues.

    Although I had heard of Anne Bradford (she was featured in this episode of Radio 4’s obit programme Last Word https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011lpt ) I didn’t notice the theme till coming to the blog.

  6. Enjoyed this, though I missed the theme. Also, I’ve never seen “so” for “very good” before and was wondering what to do about the “good”. Could someone put me out of my misery and provide a sentence in which “so” is used in that way? Thanks to Phi and Quirister, as ever.

  7. Alliacol @ 6

    It’s just SO = VERY, as in “I was so / very pleased with the result”. The good refers to ‘good fans’ = LOVERS.

  8. Alliacol @6: I think one could respond to someone’s helpful suggestion by saying “so, let’s do that” or “very good, let’s do that”. In this context they both mean roughly “yes, I agree”.

  9. A nice tribute. Like PostMark I was pleased when THROE and PABULUM worked. In nit-picking mode I am not sure how the ‘s after Sailor works in 5ac and does anyone say CAREER GIRL?

  10. I work several weeks in advance with Independent puzzles – writing clues now for January, with grids prepared for February – but I produced a grid promptly after Anne died, and slotted it straight In to the production line. Even then it was slated for January but Mike turned on a dime, did the editing stuff and behold!

    As I noted on my blog, the new edition I’m aware of is that offered by the US version of Amazon. And that’s apparently the eighth edition due in February next year…

    Now to use Anne’s legacy in some solving…

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