Independent 11090 / Phi

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As is the case most Fridays, Phi is the setter of the Independent puzzle

 

 

 

Phi often has a theme within the entries, but I can’t see one today.

I liked the intricate wordplay in the clue for SPEAKERS CORNER.

For 1 across I nearly wrote in BACKLASH rather than BACKWASH but realised that BACKLASH didn’t fit the wordplay

The answer to 11 across is clearly QUOTIENT, but I’m not clear what the purpose of the word ‘say’ is in the clue.  I don’t think that I have come across the definition of ‘intelligence quotient’ that I found in Chambers before.  If one’s IQ is a ratio of mental age to physical age that implies it becomes virtually impossible to score higher than 100 as one gets older.  Surely that can’t apply to everyone?

Flowers and plants always cause me trouble.  I didn’t know before today that OLD MAN’S BEARD and traveller’s joy were names describing the same plant.  That’s the joy of crosswords – there is always something new to learn.

No Detail
Across  
1

Defender was hard, leading to repercussion (8) 

BACKWASH (reaction, repercussion or aftermath)

BACK (defender in a sports team) + WAS + H (hard, on lead pencils)

BACK WAS H
6

Method to limit volume of the sea, perhaps (4) 

WAVY (with waves; like the sea)

WAY (method) containing (to limit) V (volume)

WA (V) Y
9

Small crease? Don’t be too expansive (6)

SCRIMP (be sparing; don’t be too expansive)

S (small) + CRIMP (crease)

S CRIMP
10

Old paper: Wage demand cut after intervention by Prince (7) 

PAPYRUS  (writing material of ancient times; old paper)

(PAY [wage] + RUSH [demand] excluding the final letter [cut] H) containing (after intervention by) P (prince)

PA (P) Y RUS
11

Measure of intelligence, say, not quite sorted out (8) 

QUOTIENT (reference intelligence QUOTIENT [ratio, commonly expressed as a percentage, of a person’s mental age to his or her chronological age])

Anagram of (sorted out) NOT QUITE  I’m not sure what the word ‘say’ is doing in the wordplay.

QUOTIENT*
12

Some light obtained after a very loud brawl (6) 

AFFRAY (brawl)

A + FF (fortissimo; as loud as possible; very loud) + RAY (beam; some light)

A FF RAY
13

Obvious uproar at callers being abused (7-5)

CRYSTAL-CLEAR (obvious)

CRY (uproar) + an anagram of (being abused) AT CALLERS

CRY STAL–CLEAR*
16

Traveller’s joy: bar, and models cavorting (3,4,5) 

OLD MAN’S BEARD (name for several plants including traveller’s joy)

Anagram of (cavorting) BAR AND MODELS

OLD MAN‘S BEARD*
19

Fellow returned, concealed by extra sobriquet (6) 

BYNAME (nickname; sobriquet)

MAN (fellow) reversed (returned) contained in (concealed by) BYE (example of an extra run in cricket)

BY (NAM<) E
20

Instrumentalist’s time in Paris good, moving into another city (8) 

TROMBONE (instrumentalist – in an orchestra a player can be referred to as his/her instrument – e.g. he/she is first or second TROMBONE)

T (time) + (BON [good in French {Paris}] contained in [moving into] ROME [another city])

T ROM (BON) E
22

Bring down our hens for treatment (7) 

UNHORSE (dislodge or throw from a HORSE; bring down)

Anagram of (for treatment) OUR HENS

UNHORSE*
23

Subtlety in article penned by religious figure going to church (6) 

NUANCE (subtlety)

(A [indefinite article] contained in [penned by] NUN [female member of a religious order; religious figure]) + CE (Church of England)

NU (A) N CE
24

Colour specialist: ultimately every colour of the rainbow is seen round about (4) 

DYER (person whose specialism is to colour cloth with DYE)

RED (one of the colours of the rainbow) reversed (about or is seen round) containing (is seen round or about) Y (last letter of [ultimately] EVERY)

D (Y) ER<
25

Chaucerian pilgrim finished interrupting Father and Bishop (8) 

PARDONER (one of the pilgrims described in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales)

DONE (finished) contained in (interrupting) (PA [father] + RR [Right Reverend [form of address for a bishop])

PA R (DONE) R
Down  
2

Equip expert to limit error in court (8) 

ACCOUTRE (equip)

ACE (expert) containing (to limit) a mispelling of (error in) COURT to from COUTR

AC (COUTR) E
3

Tense exploit held up by Austrian artist (5)

KLIMT (reference Gustav KLIMT [1862 – 1019], Austrian artist)

(T [tense] + MILK [exploit]) all reversed (held up;down entry)

(KLIM T)<
4

Fruitful aspects of flight, some say (6,3,5) 

APPLES AND PEARS (rhyming slang [some say] for a flight of stairs)

APPLES AND PEARS (two different fruits; fruitful aspects)

APPLES AND PEARS 
5

Dispersed the endless pain around and about the liver (7) 

HEPATIC (relating to the liver)

Anagram of (dispersed) THE and PAIN excluding the final letter N (endless) + C (circa; about)

HEPATI* C 
6

Piece dedicated to Council of Europe and staff (9) 

WORKFORCE (total number of employees; staff)

WORK (e.g. a piece of music) + FOR (dedicated to) +  CE (Council of Europe)

WORK FOR CE
7

Subordinate against attack I abandoned (6) 

VASSAL (serf; slave; subordinate)

V (versus; against) + ASSAIL (attack) excluding (abandoned) I

V ASSAL
8

Second busy time with Queen repeatedly receiving disdain where pundits opine (8,6)

SPEAKERS CORNER (an area where open-air public speaking , debate, and discussion are allowed. The original and best known is in the northeast corner of Hyde Park in London)

S (second) + PEAK (busy time) + ([ER {Elizabeth Regina; Queen} + ER {Elizabeth Regina; Queen} – i.e. Queen repeatedly] containing [receiving] SCORN [disdain])

S PEAK ER (SCORN) ER
14

Chest covering for a chest, possibly (male not female) (9)

STOMACHER (covering or ornament for the chest, especially one worn under the lacing of a bodice)

Anagram of (possibly) FOR A CHEST with M (male) replacing (for) F (female)

STOMACHER*
15

Pain after one European abandons environmentally-sound grape variety (8)

GRENACHE (type of black grape, originally grown in Southern France and Spain)

GREEN (environmentally-sound) excluding (abandons) one of the Es (European) _ ACHE (pain)

GREN ACHE
17

Partner mostly upset about wife in European city (7) 

ANTWERP (city in Belgium)

Anagram of (upset) PARTNER excluding the final letter (mostly) R containing (about) W (wife)

ANT (W) ERP*
18

Spook seen around your university is rather sweet (6) 

SYRUPY (very sweet)

SPY (spook) containing (around) (YR [your] + U [university])

S (YR U) PY
21

British eggs seeing upturn? Excellent! (5) 

BRAVO (well done; excellent)

BR (British) + OVA (eggs) reversed (turning up; down entry)

BR AVO<

11 comments on “Independent 11090 / Phi”

  1. In 11a, I took “say” as part of the definition since QUOTIENT can refer to many other things. Not strictly necessary but seems ok to me.

  2. Hovis @1: has beaten me to it, as so often! (Maybe if I hadn’t commented on the G first … 😀 ) I took ‘say’ in the same way – QUOTIENT can measure all sorts of things – often as a ratio with reference to 100 but, strictly speaking, it doesn’t have to be. That said, I suspect it is rarely used outside of IQ – but don’t have the evidence either way.

    I didn’t find Phi to be at his most taxing today, not that I’m complaining. STOMACHER was both dnk and LOI and entered with somewhat of a shrug as a ‘it has to be’. Odd word suggesting a fundamental misunderstanding of anatomy on the part of those who coined it! Favourites include WAVY for the delightful surface, OLD MAN’S BEARD for the definition (even though it’s just the name) being worked so nicely into the surface, TROMBONE for the use of the two capitals, PARDONER – lovely image, WORKFORCE which is a very smooth simple charade and the cute BRAVO which i suspect may have been done before but it’s neat.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan

  3. PostMark @2 Quotient is used a lot in mathematics to refer to the result of a division. Division itself has non-obvious meanings, as in quotient rings and other such algebraic concepts.

  4. As noted by Hovis @1 & @3 and PM @2, I think the ‘say’ in 11a is part of the def and is there to indicate that QUOTIENT can be used more generally, especially in maths. As I understand it, an IQ score compares performance against the scores of others within the same age group and for adults doesn’t measure “mental v chronological age”.

    I opted for BACKWASH as instructed by wordplay though I’d never heard of its ‘repercussion’ sense before. I just remembered enough about STOMACHER to be not put off by the apparent anatomical contradiction. OLD MAN’S BEARD and ‘Traveller’s joy’ were both new.

    I’ve never read a word of “The Canterbury Tales” but a DYER sounds like someone who might make an appearance there. Anything else?

    Thanks to Duncan and Phi

  5. WordPlodder @4

    An habberdasher, and a carpenter,
    A webbe [weaver], a dyer, and a tapiser [tapestry-maker].
    Were with us eke, cloth’d in one livery,
    Of a solemn and great fraternity.

    THE PROLOGUE.

  6. Two aches and one pain today, but maybe slightly less torment than usual from Phi. I think the mistaken tendency to locate the stomach in the belly makes STOMACHER appear less anatomically correct than it is.

  8. Thanks Trenodia @5. I wondered if we could squeeze a Chaucerian theme out of this one, but despite the appearance of our friend the DYER, probably not.

  9. Thank you Duncan, I share your position on plants and the resulting happy expansion of knowledge, share PostMark’s view on the relative difficulty though STOMACHER and BYNAME held me up a good while (as I struggled to get away from a not-fully-parsed BYLINE), enjoyed the tussle, thanks Phi.

  10. Too tough for me (but am post-golf so in moronic mode). I enjoyed APPLES AND PEARS – but this was the easier end of the spectrum (on the subject of and in comparison to which DYER seemed so convoluted).

    Thanks Phi and thanks duncanshiell for the excellent blog.

  11. 4dn reminds me of my maternal grandmother – a Londoner – who would tell us it was time to go up the old APPLES AND PEARS to Bedfordshire.

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