Independent 11450 / Phi

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Friday wouldn’t be normal in the Independent crossword world if we didn’t have a puzzle from Phi.  The world remains normal this week.

 

 

 

One entry in the puzzle, ASYMMETRY at 4 down, is applicable to the grid.  I didn’t notice until I started to construct the grid for the screenshot.  I think that is the only entry that has a special meaning, but with Phi you never know.

SKINNY at 28 across makes a second appearance in an Independent grid this week, with a completely different clue.

LUGSAIL was one of my last ones in as I was convinced for a long time that it would end in T [leading to TROUBLE] and probably was some kind of ___MAST.  In turn that held up solving DELUDE, but eventually the penny dropped and I was able to complete the puzzle.

A pleasant end to the Monday to Friday Independent series.

No Detail
Across  
1

Troop meantime demolished Eastern power (7,6) 

OTTOMAN EMPIRE (historically and colloquially the Turkish Empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries; Eastern power)

Anagram of (demolished) TROOP MEANTIME

OTTOMAN EMPIRE*
9

Long party held after college (5) 

CRAVE (long or yearn for)

C (college) + RAVE (wild uninhibited party)

C RAVE
10

Nothing in Times, reflected hoodlum (3) 

YOB (lout, hoodlum can be defined as a ‘rowdy street bully’ as well as a ‘gangster’)

(O [character representing zero or nothing] contained in [in] BY [multiplied by; times]) all reversed (reflected)

(Y (O) B)<
11

Run off, right? (5) 

LEGIT (LEGITimate; right)

LEG IT (run away; run off)  double definition

LEGIT
13

Crowd, taken aback about defeat, show signs of progress (7) 

BLOSSOM (develop; flourish; show signs of progress)

MOB (crowd) reversed (taken aback) containing (about) LOSS (defeat)

B (LOSS) OM<
14

Went round area? Declined to cover that (7) 

ROTATED (turned; went round)

ROTTED (deteriorated; declined) containing (to cover that) A (area)

ROT (A) TED
15

Bishop will appear in a trial if all goes well (2,4) 

AT BEST (assuming the most favourable conditions; if all goes well)

B (bishop) contained in (will appear in) A TEST (a trial)

A T (B) EST
16

Extravagant lecturer, getting university cross, beginning to avoid panel (6) 

LUXURY (extravagance; is ‘extravagant’ the right part of speech?)

L (lecturer) + U (university) + X (character in the shape of a cross) + JURY (panel) excluding the first letter (‘beginning’ to avoid) J

L U X URY
18

No, though I might risk mine? (3,2,4,4) 

NOT ON YOUR LIFE (No!)

NOT ON YOUR LIFE, but, literally, the possibility remains it might be on MY life, i.e. I might risk MY life;  cryptic definition

NOT ON YOUR LIFE
22

Waste material, deteriorating almost entirely (5) 

OFFAL (waste or rejected parts, especially of a carcase)

OFF (rotten; deteriorating) + ALL (entirely) excluding the final letter (almost) L

OFF AL
24

Flash cut off, but revealing sudden movement (3) 

TIC (involuntary habitual response; sudden movement or twitching of certain muscles)

TICK (quick moment; flash) excluding the final letter (cut off) K

TIC
25

Flash publication held back including article from Paris (5) 

GLEAM (shine very brightly; flash)

MAG (magazine; publication) reversed (held back) and containing LE (one of the French forms of the definite article)

G (LE) AM<
27

Treatment for wound unable to progress beyond emergency room after student’s brought in (8-7) 

STICKING PLASTER (treatment for wound)

L (learner; student) contained in (brought in) (STICKING [unable to progress] + PAST [beyond] + ER [Emergency Room])

STICKING P (L) AST ER
28

Family name, during second year, carrying little weight (6) 

SKINNY (thin; having no weight)

(KIN [family] + N [name]) contained in (during) (S [second] + Y [year])

S (KIN N) Y
29

Daughter beginning to reject Prince? Fool (6) 

DELUDE (deceive; fool)

D (daughter) + PRELUDE (introduction; beginning) excluding (to reject) PR (Prince)

D ELUDE
Down  
2

Old pop song often called for in cafés? (3,3,3) 

TEA FOR TWO (a song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette)

TEA FOR TWO (an order frequently placed in cafés)  double definition

TEA FOR TWO
3

Supervise parts of Test by middle of week (7) 

OVERSEE (supervise)

OVERS (OVERS are bowled in a cricket Test match) + EE (central letters of [middle of] WEEK)

OVERS EE
4

Irregular feature showing my mastery, possibly (9)

ASYMMETRY (irregularity of form or arrangement, just like the grid for this crossword)

Anagram of (possibly) MY MASTERY

ASYMMETRY*
5

Limb, after decapitation, remains? (5) 

EMBER (part of the smouldering remains of a fire)

MEMBER (arm; leg; limb) excluding  the first letter (after decapitation) M

EMBER
6

Passengers accepting adjustment of toll it’s the same for everyone (4,3) 

POLL TAX (a tax of so much a head, i.e. the same for everyone)

PAX (persons, often used when giving a total of passengers on board) containing (accepting) an anagram of (adjustment of) TOLL

P (OLL T*) AX
7

Lexicographer mostly heard and understood tense (5) 

ROGET (reference the scientist Peter Mark ROGET [1779-1869] who published his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852)

ROGER (a word used in signalling and radio-communication for R, in the sense of received and understood) excluding the final letter (mostly)  R+ T (tense)

ROGE T

8/21

Curative plant has a life in South Carolina, America (8) 

SCAB[IOUS] (any plant of the genus Scabiosa of the teasel family, long thought efficacious in treating skin diseases; curative plant)

(A + BIO [biography; {history of} life]) contained in (in) (SC [South Carolina] + US [United States of America])

SC (A BIO) US with just SCAB entered
12/26

Coastal measure, new, abandoned by country after it flipped over (8) 

TIDE [MARK] (a MARKer [measure] indicating the highest or lowest point reached by the movement of the TIDE)

IT reversed (flipped over) + DENMARK (country) excluding (abandoned by) N (new)

TI< DE MARK with just TIDE entered
16

Where one’s placed to start meal, having secured a place to live? (6,3) 

LAUNCH PAD (a place, event, etc which gives a good start to a career, etc, or at which a project or campaign is started)

(LUNCH [meal] containing [having secured] A) + PAD (place to live)

L (A) UNCH PAD
17

Official, reprimanded after old city wiped out, thought again (9) 

REFLECTED (meditated; thought about again)

REF (REFeree; official) + LECTURED (reprimanded) excluding (after … wiped out) UR [city in ancient Mesoptamia)

REF LECTED
19

Work, having no money, time after time denied protective gear (7) 

OILSKIN (protective gear)

TOIL (work) excluding (denied) T + SKINT (having no money) excluding (denied) T (time), so we have T after T excluded

OIL SKIN
20

Part of vessel drags, leading to trouble (7) 

LUGSAIL (square SAIL bent upon a yard that hangs obliquely to the mast; part of vessel)

LUGS (drags) + AIL (trouble)

LUGS AIL
21

See 8

[SCAB]IOUS

23

Fine pace shown in film (5) 

FLICK (a cinema film)

F (fine) + LICK (full speed or pace)

F LICK
24

Fish associated with a barrel, as it were (5) 

TUNNY (tuna; fish)

TUNNY (like [associated with] a TUN [large cask or barrel])

TUNNY
26

See 12 

[TIDE] MARK

20 comments on “Independent 11450 / Phi”

  1. Thanks, Phi and duncanshiell!
    Liked ROTATED, STICKING PLASTER, ROGET and OILSKIN.

    TUNNY is whimsically ‘associated with barrel’. Right?
    As if it were…

  2. LEGIT
    Another take:
    LEG IT =Run (‘run off’ seems to imply something different)
    LEG IT=Off (interjection)
    LEGIT=Right.

  3. I would never have classed Tea for Two as a ‘pop song’ but can’t deny it was ‘popular’ back in the day. Quite easy for a Phi, I thought, although SCABIOUS was new to me. I’m guessing it was used as a curative for scabs. OTTOMAN EMPIRE & OILSKIN were favourites.

  5. I also wondered about extravagant and LUXURY. I assume it will be adjectival. Perhaps ’he could not afford the luxury/extravagant items she desired’. Gentle and appreciated for a Friday. Thanks Duncan and Phi. Liked ROGET. Over and out.

  6. KVa @ 4

    One of the definitions of TIDE MARK in Chambers is: a marker indicating the highest point reached by the tide

    I reckon ‘run off’ and’ run away’ are synonymous, but I accept that the phrase could also be used as an interjection

  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword
    ‘Another tradition in puzzle design (in North America, India, and Britain particularly) is that the grid should have 180-degree rotational (also known as “radial”) symmetry, so that its pattern appears the same if the paper is turned upside down. Most puzzle designs also require that all white cells be orthogonally contiguous (that is, connected in one mass through shared sides, to form a single polyomino).”
    This grid breaks the rule by displaying ASYMMETRY when ROTATED – naughty Phi.

  10. The link keeps failing, so here’s the text:
    “THE MODERN crossword evolved from a puzzle by Arthur Wynne, a Liverpool immigrant, in The New York Sunday World, December 21, 1913, described as a Word-Cross. Although Wynne thought it ‘just another puzzle’ it attracted great enthusiasm from the readers, becoming a regular feature immediately. The basic rules were formulated from suggestions from readers refined to popular taste. A symmetrical grid became a convention within months. There is a certain pleasing elegance about the cryptic ‘half-light’ symmetrical grid (where about half the letters in a word are shared with other words). Most newspapers have a number of sets, usually about 30 grids, available to their compilers who choose which one to use. Some syndicated puzzles in evening papers have 12 grids used in sequence so that alternate Mondays, say, will use the same grid. All these grids are symmetrical.
    Roger F Squires (listed in the Guinness Book of Records as ‘The World’s Most Prolific Crossword Compiler’), Telford, Shropshire.’

  11. Every entry in the grid has a symmetric position: the across entries obey mirror symmetry, while the down entries have rotational symmetry.

    Just wait for the IQ…the conjunction was not planned by me.

  13. FrankieG @ 12

    The IQ is the Inquisitor crossword. Phi is the setter for tomorrow’s Inquisitor. I have an advance copy because I am blogging it. When the puzzle get published in the i newspaper tomorrow, you will see the relevance of Phi’s comment.

  14. I thought the i just reprinted 4-year-old Indy puzzles. I do them occasionally when the site allows me to. If I’ve left the last one I did open, it counts as my one a day.
    So the Saturday i has a new crossword – I suppose that’s not available free online.

  16. Hovis @ 3 – Scabiouses are common wild flowers in the Sussex chalk downlands around where I live. I had not known they were (supposedly) curative, but I just checked in Mrs Grieves’s A Modern Herbal (about 90 years old now, so not that modern!). Culpepper had lots of uses for Field Scabious, but there is not thought to be any evidence to support its use. Herbalists prefer Devil’s Bit Scabious, which is considered to induce sweating, reduce fevers, act as a diuretic, bring on periods, and make a useful cough medicine. It is or was used in an ointment or ticture for eczema and skin lesions. Again, I can find no evidence (clincial trials, for instance) to support its use.

  18. duncanshiell@15
    By “new” I meant as opposed to a 4-year-old rerun. I’m quite old, but fairly “new” to 15². I was wondering what those Inquisitor blogs were on about. Didn’t know that IQ was the abbreviation. It’s been running since 1988, I gather. I must have attempted a few in the past, whenever the Guardian was unavailable. 🙂

  19. The odd shaped grid was aesthetically off-putting but did not detract from the cluing which was as good as always. Favourites today include OTTOMAN EMPIRE, AT BEST, SKINNY, ROGET, LAUNCH PAD, REFLECTED and OILSKIN.

    Thanks Phi and Duncan

  20. Thanks both. This all answers a question I have mused but never asked regarding the need for grid symmetry. I did not question LUXURY as an adjective….of course, I can’t afford one but would like to book one of the luxury holidays referenced in about 38 separate messages in my inbox just today

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