Independent 11474 / Phi

by

Phi is in his usual Independent slot this Friday

 

 

 

This seems to be a gimmick- and theme-free crossword with a good mix of reasonably well-known words and phrases.  For me, COLUMBA and COLUMBIA were new with the meanings of ‘dove’ and ‘female personification of America’.  The spelling of EMMENTHAL was non-standard but the wordplay clearly indicated the presence of an H.

I liked the clue for DISASSEMBLE with its use of ‘take apart’ and ‘take a part’

Years ago, CURLING might have been just a winter sport, but I think the prevalence of ice rinks now makes it an all year sport.

Thanks to Phi for rounding off the weekday Independent puzzles.

No Detail
Across
1 Benevolent Government in African country (6)

BENIGN (benevolent)

G (Government) contained in (in) BENIN (country in West Africa)

BENI (G) N
4 Councillor meeting journalist, one expecting payment (8)

CREDITOR (person or business to whom a debt is due; one expecting payment)

CR (Councillor) + EDITOR (journalist, if EDITOR of a newspaper or magazine)

CR EDITOR.
10 Personification of America, not one offering a symbol of peace (7)

COLUMBA (Latin for ‘dove’ [symbol of peace])

COLUMBIA (the female national personification of the United States) excluding (not) I (Roman numeral for one)

COLUMBA
11 Getting better about line in winter sport (7)

CURLING (game played on ice; winter sport)

CURING (getting better) containing (about) L (line)

CUR (L) ING
12 Fine atmosphere implying good weather (4)

FAIR (a word that implies good weather)

F (fine) + AIR (atmosphere)

F AIR
13 X-ray lamp so involved regarding fits (10)

PAROXYSMAL (descriptive of fits of passion, laughter, coughing, acute pain etc)

Anagram of (involved) X-RAY LAMP SO

PAROXYSMAL*
15 No opening in battle for torpedo, say (3)

RAY (skate, thornback, torpedo, or any similar flat-bodied fish).

FRAY (conflict; battle) excluding the first letter (no opening) F

RAY
16 I am working with the Web ID for a hymn (5,4,2)

ABIDE WITH ME (Christian hymn)

Anagram of (… working with …) I AM and THE WEB ID

ABIDE WITH ME*
18 Take apart or take a part – that’s about it (11)

DISASSEMBLE (take apart)

DISSEMBLE (assume a false appearance; play or take a part) containing (that’s about) SA (sex appeal; it)

DI (SA) SSEMBLE
20 Very masculine, retaining current energy (3)

VIM (energy)

(V [very] + M [male; masculine]) containing (retaining) I (symbol for electric current)

V (I) M
21 Arrangement of topsail involves one working regarding placement (10)

POSITIONAL (regarding placement)

Anagram of (arrangement of) TOPSAIL (containing) involves (I [Roman numeral for one] + ON [working])

POSIT (I ON) AL*
22 Household item, popular, used around 40% of rooms (4)

IRON (a household item)

IN (popular) containing (used around) RO (2 of the 5 [40%] letters in ROOMS)

I (RO) N
24 Wasting time, overlook securing European capital for operations on paper (7) 

ORIGAMI (the Japanese art of folding paper; operations on paper)

OMIT (overlook) excluding (wasting) T (time) containing (securing) RIGA (capital city of Latvia [European country])

O (RIGA) MI
25 Name for us ruined his support (7)

NOURISH (support)

N (name) + OUR (for us) + an anagram of (ruined) HIS

N OUR ISH*
26 Young fellow with articles about brass chamber piece (8)

SONATINA (short instrumental composition designed chiefly for a solo instrument or small group usually played in a room [chamber] rather than a large hall or theatre; chamber piece)

SON (young fellow) + (A [indefinite article] + A [indefinite article]; -articles) containing (about) TIN (money; brass)

SON A (TIN) A
27 Shrink wrapping of rare electrical part (6)

RECOIL (back away; shrink)

RE (outer letters of [wrapping of] RA) + COIL (electrical part)

RE COIL
Down
1 Defender, excited, had a negative impact (9)

BACKFIRED (had a negative impact)

BACK (part of one of the common names for the position of a defender in a sports team, e.g. right BACK) + FIRED (excited)

BACK FIRED
2 Variable work a Parisian picked up? There’s nothing here (7)

NULLITY (the state of being void; there’s nothing there)

(Y [letter frequently used for a variable value in equations] + TILL [work the land] + UN [one of the French forms of ‘a’]) all reversed (picked up; down entry)

(NU LLIT Y)<
3 One on board, perhaps, or willing to participate (4)

GAME (an activity or amusement often played on a board)

GAME (willing)  double definition

GAME
5 Search for a solution once Sark’s wrecked with British downpours (4,4,6)

RACK ONES BRAINS (use one’s memory or reasoning powers to search for a solution)

Anagram of (wrecked) ONCE SARK + B (British) + RAINS (downpours)

RACK ONES* B RAINS
6 Obscene part for actor provided by new Stoppard play (5,5)

DIRTY LINEN (play written by Tom Stoppard [born 1937], Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter)

DIRTY LINE (obscene part for actor to speak) + N (new)

DIRTY LINE N
7 Former president securing one initially historic victory (7)

TRIUMPH (complete or notable victory or achievement)

(TRUMP [reference Donald TRUMP [born 1946], 45th President of the United States] containing [securing] I [Roman numeral for one]) + H (first letter of [initially] HISTORIC)

TR (I) UMP H
8 Mostly entertain, describing the King (5)

REGAL (descriptive of the King)

REGALE (entertain) excluding the final letter (mostly) E

REGAL
9 Soothing stuff in new cello animation (8,6)

CALAMINE LOTION (soothing liquid)

Anagram of (new) CELLO ANIMATION

CALAMINE LOTION*
14 String player with second feature for Australian channel (4,6)

BASS STRAIT (channel separating the Australian state of Tasmania from the mainland)

BASS (player of a particular stringed instrument) + S (second) + TRAIT (characteristic or distinguishing feature)

BASS S TRAIT
17 Players appearing in revised version of Hamlet – it’s cheesy stuff (9)

EMMENTHAL (alternative spelling of EMMENTAL, a type of cheese)

MEN (players in a team) contained in (appearing in) an anagram of (revised version of) HAMLET

EM (MEN) THAL*
19 Elevated rumours about start of sex or congress? (7)

SESSION (assembly; conference; congress)

(NOISES [rumours] containing [about] S [first letter of {start of} SEX]) all reversed (elevated; down entry)

(SE (S) SION)< – either of the middle Ss could be the one contained
20 Dizziness extremely reduced – it’s spinning with energy (7)

VERTIGO (dizziness)

VERY (extremely) excluding the last letter (reduced) + IT reversed (spinning) + GO (energy)

VER TI< GO
21 Very good, very generous, but not firm (5)

PIOUS (dutiful; very good)

COPIOUS (plentiful; abounding; very generous) excluding (but not) CO (company; firm)

PIOUS
23 Nobleman expected to throttle king (4)

DUKE (nobleman)

DUE (expected) containing (to throttle) K (king)

DU (K) E

 

15 comments on “Independent 11474 / Phi”

  4. Sorry about the typos. Hopefully all corrcted now.

    When running the spell checker, I managed to change every capital N in the blog into a capital B. I thought I had corrected all of them, but obviously not.

    I have also now corrected the clue that had a capital B by mistake.

  8. Seeing ‘Editor’ as part of 4a reminded me of Susie Dent’s bit in Countdown yesterday on unusual back formations, which I found quite fascinating. Apparently, the verb ‘edit’ comes from the noun ‘editor’ and not the other way around, as you would expect. Another example is that the verb ‘escalate’ comes from ‘escalator’. Who knew? Maybe lots of people, but not me.

  11. Thanks Duncan for the blog.

    Phi – thanks for ending the week again. Hopefully the link between some of the answers is just a coincidence. We hope that you are fit and well. Joyce had bouts of vertigo for a while and it wasn’t good.

  12. Managed this on a train going from Nuremberg to Vienna, fairly quickly.

    Fans of the medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen will know her piece Columba aspexit – which is about a dove. Fans of the American composer Charles Ives will know his repeated use of the patriotic song Columbia the Gem of the Ocean.

  13. This took a bit of sorting out but we got there in the end; needless to say we didn’t spot the link between words for bppv.
    We knew Columbia from the Columbia Pictures logo.
    Favourites were ORIGAMI, SONATINA and BASS STRAIT.
    Thanks, Phi and Duncan.

  14. I wondered for a while if we were going to get a number of full forms of common crossword abbreviations, but just editor and pious.

  15. I didn’t think anyone would spot BPPV.

    Not me, the other half, and it isn’t very serious (hence the B, even if P1 makes it a bit oxymoronic), just requiring some yoga-like exercises. But what an interesting set of words, I thought.

Comments are closed.