Independent 11,222 by Phi

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It’s Phi-day again.

As we expect from Phi, some smooth surfaces and a good mixture of clues, some of which seemed to us to be a little trickier than average, but all good fun. We hadn’t come across the opera heroine at 27ac before, but the clue was clear and with the crossing letters we were able to make an educated guess at the answer before checking it online.

We’re sure there must be a theme in there somewhere, but if there is, we can’t find it. Perhaps someone out there will spot it, or maybe Phi will drop by later to enlighten us.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Herdsmen heading off for sources of water (6)
RIVERS

dRIVERS (herdsmen) without the first letter or ‘heading off’

4. City not good for verbose academic (6)
LONDON

LONg (verbose) without the ‘g’ (good) DON (academic)

10. Almost too iron-plated? Wrong (5)
FALSE

ALSo (too) without the last letter or ‘almost’ ‘plated’ in FE (iron)

11. Ordinary match involving minimum of verve? Inclined to peeve (9)
PLAINTIVE

PLAIN (ordinary) TIE (match) round or ‘involving’ V (first letter or ‘minimum’ of verve)

12. An apparently agreeable place to be out? (4,2,3)
LAND OF NOD

A cryptic definition – a nod signifies agreement – Phi wants us to think of the LAND OF NOD as being an ‘agreeable place’ and of ‘being out’ meaning being asleep

13. Usefulness seen in university during Depression (5)
VALUE

U (university) in VALE (depression)

14. Notices positive responses on radio broadcast (4)
EYES

A homophone (‘on radio broadcast’) of AYES (positive responses)

15. Minor passage dismissing love, with wild alarm about sex – in such instances? (10)
PREMARITAL

PoRE (‘minor passage’) without the ‘o’ (love) + an anagram (‘wild’) of ALARM round IT (sex)

19. Specially prepared do with material that’s incredible (6-4)
TAILOR-MADE

An anagram (‘incredible’) of DO and MATERIAL

23. Something caught, marked by X? (4)
PREY

PRE-Y: Y comes before X  X comes before Y in the alphabet  Thanks Hovis

26. Having a rest – going abroad, perhaps, though not France (5)
LYING

fLYING (going abroad, perhaps) without F (France)

27. Operatic heroine exciting ladies’ men (9)
MELISANDE

An anagram (‘exciting’) of LADIES’ MEN – not being opera fans, we had to resort to electronic assistance to check this character from Pelleas et Melisande, by Debussy

28. Medical practice, cross and not too good about overdose (9)
CHIROPODY

CHI (‘cross’ – the Greek letter X) ROPY (not too good) round OD (overdose)

29. Contents of housing estate giving no latitude for detective (5)
HOMES

HOlMES (Sherlock Holmes – ‘detective’) without the ‘l’ (latitude)

30. Almost certain to embrace Frenchwoman in period of warmer weather? (6)
SUMMER

SURe (certain) without the last letter or ‘almost’ round or ’embracing’ MME (madame – ‘Frenchwoman’)

31. Agreed to probe machine-gun requiring repair (6)
BROKEN

OK (agreed) in or ‘probing’ BREN (machine-gun)

DOWN
1. Beaming ruler keeping strong, mostly (9)
REFULGENT

REGENT (ruler) round or ‘keeping’ FULl (strong) without the last letter or ‘mostly’

2. Very expert about computer network – one’s used to screen (7)
VALANCE

V (very) ACE (expert) round LAN (computer network)

3. Upturn in something to drink acceptable for antelope (6)
REEBOK

A reversal (‘upturn’) of BEER (something to drink) + OK (acceptable)

5. Drunk in Rome, swallowing extremes of vino? One’d swallow everything (8)
OMNIVORE

An anagram (‘drunk’) of IN ROME round or ‘swallowing’ V O (first and last or ‘extreme’ letters of vino)

6. Small amount of drink allowed after prison sentence is over (7)
DRIBLET

LET (allowed) after a reversal (‘over’) of BIRD (prison sentence)

7. French resort announcing appearance of this relative? (5)
NIECE

A homophone (‘announcing’) of NICE (French resort, as pronounced in French)

8. Batsman, old, appearing before new in match (6)
OPENER

O (old) + N (new) in PEER (match)

9. Both genders sustaining love, a great love for someone? (6)
FANDOM

F (female) AND M (male) – ‘both genders’ – round or ‘sustaining’ O (love)

16. Goddess sacrificing hearts in time (3)
ERA

hERA (goddess) without (‘sacrificing’) H (hearts)

17. Supplies accommodating a non-expert (9)
LAYPERSON

LAYS ON (supplies) round or ‘accommodating’ PER (a – as in ‘twice a year’)

18. Obscure object of affection receiving kiss and a flower (8)
FOXGLOVE

FOG (obscure) LOVE (object of affection) round or ‘receiving’ X (kiss)

20. Iodine: I’d iodine stored in curious metal (7)
IRIDIUM

I (iodine) + I’D I (iodine) ‘stored’ in RUM (curious)

21. Great wealth: chap gathering millions upon millions, nothing more (6)
MAMMON

MAN (chap) round or ‘gathering’ M M (millions upon millions) O (nothing)

22. Hold-ups, more than 24 hours, involving English line (6)
DELAYS

DAYS (more than 24 hours) round or ‘involving’ E (English) L (line)

24. Go wild? Sport has a monk going wild (3,4)
RUN AMOK

RU (rugby union – ‘sport’) + an anagram (‘going wild’) of A MONK

25. French are encountering singer, Dutch artist (6)
ESCHER

ES (French for ‘are’) CHER (singer)

26. Detailed insect’s line of travel (5)
LOCUS

LOCUSt (insect) without the last letter or ‘tail’ – ‘detailed’

 

16 comments on “Independent 11,222 by Phi”

  2. mw7000 @1: help! I can see the three words RIVERS OF LONDON at the top – and I know there are some but damned if I can find one in the grid. What have I failed to see?

    LONDON, VALUE, LYING, SUMMER, VALANCE, FOXGLOVE, RUN AMOK and ESCHER are my picks with the delightful surface and anagram for MELISANDE the COTD.

    Thanks Phi and B&J

  5. Thanks to Hovis – will amend the blog later when we are back home.

    Thanks also to PostMark and Sircrispin for explaining the theme.

  6. I see that RIVERS OF LONDON is a novel by Ben Aaronovitch, and others in the same series include FALSE VALUE, BROKEN HOMES and What Abigail Did That SUMMER. Maybe there’s more…

  9. Thanks Sircrispin – that’s a nho for me so it’s kind of you to put me out of my misery.

    B&J @5: the credit should surely go to mw7000@1 for the spot and to Sircrispin for expanding upon it. All I did was cry for help!

  10. There is something reassuring about starting Friday with a Phi puzzle.
    Still some normality in the world
    I had CRAY for 23 C(aught) and XRAY-didnt bother to check
    Thanks all.

  11. Well we are back home and can now respond properly. Apologies to mw7000@1 and thanks to PostMark for correcting us. Looking at a small screen on a phone when you are multi-tasking is Joyce’s excuse!

  12. No hope with the theme, but at least I didn’t miss something I was familiar with and like copmus @10, I bunged in an unparsed “cray” for 23a, probably as intended I suspect. I almost put in “(d)rovers” for ‘Herdsmen’ at 1a but it clearly didn’t fit the def.

    Needed to be on the ball to solve the rest, but as usual with Phi, everything made sense. I learnt a new sense of LOCUS at the end to cap off an enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks to Phi and B&J

  13. Another CRAY here. Pity, after a poor week solving I thought I’d finally managed to complete a puzzle.

    I didn’t spot the theme until mw7000 pointed me in the right direction. I’m a great fan of the Peter Grant books. Fun coincidence, I was reading Rivers of London whilst attending a Ring cycle at Covent Garden back in 2012. It actually opens in the market with the appearance of Mr Punch. There is a sign on the wall of St Paul’s church there that this was the site of the first reported Punch and Judy show in England and the Punch and Judy pub is opposite. Later in the book, Peter Grant chases the villain into the opera house and I was reading this whilst in my seat during the interval. (Aaronovich didn’t realise that there is a catwalk from the seats to the stage and has Grant climb through the orchestra pit.)

  14. An enjoyable puzzle solved over a pub lunch. We didn’t even look for a theme. LOI and CoD was PREY – we thought it had to be that but it took us ages to see the parsing – very clever.
    Thanks, Phi and B&J.

  15. The other novel is Foxglove Summer we think. We are huge fans of the Aaronovitch novels, and generally listen to them on audible while we’re travelling , resulting in many extra miles as we go round in circles not wanting to stop listening! The narrator, Kona Holbrook Smith, is brilliant as well, you can see an interview with both Aaronovitch and Holbrook Smith here

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