Independent 11,582 by Phi

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It’s Phiday again!

Another great puzzle from Phi, although we found it a bit trickier than we had expected with two new words for us – the entry at 13ac and ‘materiel’ in the clue for 24ac – we thought this might be a misprint on first reading.

Not being great classical music fans, we had not heard of the composer at 6d, but having checked online, we were surprised to find that he was well respected by other contemporary composers of whom we definitely have heard.

We are totally stumped by the parsing for 22d (assuming that the solution is correct!). Any suggestions very welcome.

As usual, we cannot find a theme today, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one!

We are out of the country at present, so may not be able to respond quickly to any comments.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1/28. Passed time, we hear, with eccentric, unexpected participant (8)
WILDCARD

A homophone (‘we hear’) of WHILED (passed time) + CARD (eccentric)

4. Duke to appear backing exciting political arrangement (9)
DEMOCRACY

D (duke) + a reversal (‘backing’) of COME (appear) + RACY (exciting)

9. Playing soccer, losing lead, one’s subject to pressure (8)
COERCION

An anagram (‘playing’) of sOCCER without the first letter or ‘losing head’ + I (one) ON (subject to)

10. Surrey town: French are almost here (5)
ESHER

ES (French for ‘are’) HERe missing the last letter or ‘almost’

12. Risqué photo retained by sexy former lover departing (5)
SPICY

PIC (photo) in or ‘retained by’ SexY with ‘ex’ (former lover) missing or ‘departing’

13. Cough upsets Sir at work (9)
PERTUSSIS

An anagram (‘at work’) of UPSETS SIR – a new word for us, the medical term for whooping cough

14. First person picked up petrol, say, wasting energy? It’s a lot to take in (6)
EYEFUL

EYE (a homophone – ‘picked up’ of I – ‘first person’) + FUeL (petrol, say) missing or ‘wasting’ ‘e’ (energy)

16. Japanese dish is rejected around European country, with gossip ascribed to Italy (8)
SUKIYAKI

A reversal (‘rejected’) of IS around UK (European country) + YAK (gossip) I (Italy)

18. Work in the military force not initially involving too many officers? (3-5)
TOP-HEAVY

OP (work) in THE nAVY (military force) missing the first or ‘initial’ letter

20. India interrupting British finish – good performance, of course (6)
BIRDIE

I (India) in or ‘interrupting’ BR (British) DIE (finish) – a reference to a good score on the golf course

23. Very hard to cut into oral adornment for oral problem (9)
TOOTHACHE

TOO (very) + H (hard) ‘cut’ in TACHE (‘oral adornment’) – not the best clue for Joyce who has had two extractions recently after a cracked wisdom tooth. Tooth first and then roots followed by infections on both occasions!

24. Point about returning materiel? (5)
COMMA

C (circa – ‘about’) + a reversal (‘returning’) of AMMO (materiel? – another new word for us, meaning army munitions)

25. Like oil, filling hole I constructed (5)
OLEIC

Hidden (‘filling’) in hOLE I Constructed

26. Produce something new? Instinctive to retain old version (8)
INNOVATE

INNATE (instinctive) round or ‘retaining’ O (old) V (version) – we can’t find V = ‘version’ in Chambers, but AV is there for ‘Authorised Version’ so we think it’s okay.

27. Kindle vision encompassing return of dead (3,6)
SET ALIGHT

SIGHT (vision) round or ‘encompassing’ a reversal (‘return’) of LATE (dead)

28. See 1
DOWN
2. You can’t trust me about second love (7)
IDOLISE

I DO LIE (‘you can’t trust me’) round S (second)

3. Dishonest to free up openings for this year (5)
DIRTY

A reversal (‘up’) of RID (free) + T Y (first letters or ‘openings’ of this year)

4. Feeble, uninteresting? i’s pages cutting through that (6)
DRIPPY

DRY (uninteresting) round or ‘cut through by’ I (‘i’) PP (pages)

5. ‘Swiss city not vacantly blocking additional university’ – Times (8)
MONTREUX

NoT (without the middle letter or ‘vacantly’) in or ‘blocking’ MORE (additional) U (university) X (times)

6. Composer’s offspring embracing her in capital of Ireland (9)
CHERUBINI

CUB (offspring) round or ’embracing’ HER + IN I (first letter or ‘capital’ of Ireland) – we’d never heard of this Italian composer who was apparently held in high regard by Beethoven and Rossini among others

7. Difficulty with words apparently possesses one acting (7)
APHASIA

AP (apparently) HAS (possesses) I (one) A (acting)

8. Heading away from Thirsk one may ultimately encounter different – person like me? (12)
YORKSHIREMAN

An anagram (‘different’) of tHIRSK (missing the first letter or ‘heading away’) ONE MAY and R (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of encounter) – Phi now lives in New Zealand but apparently originally hails from Darlington (not Yorkshire!) – the clue presumably refers to someone from Thirsk.

11. Unduly vulgar to use station when travelling (12)
OSTENTATIOUS

An anagram (‘travelling’) of TO USE STATION

15. Improper until each reformed (9)
UNETHICAL

An anagram (‘reformed’) of UNTIL EACH

17. Turning out, say, to involve endless crime and money (8)
EVICTING

EG (‘say’) round or ‘involving’ VICe (crime) missing the last letter or ‘endless’ and TIN (money)

19. Supporting college investing in aircraft scheme (7)
PROJECT

PRO (in favour of – ‘supporting’) + C (college) in JET (aircraft)

21. Deity put off when given care of Middle East (7)
DEMETER

DETER (put off) round or ‘given care of’ ME (Middle East)

22. Fan covering latest from top seed (6)
PEANUT

We are stumped by this one – we think to answer must be PEANUT, but cannot parse it satisfactorily – could it possibly be PEA (a homophone – without an indicator) of P (last or ‘latest’ letter of top) after NUT (fan)? Does anyone out there have any other thoughts?

24. 207 in Rome looking bad for the citizens (5)
CIVIC

An anagram (‘looking bad’) of CCVII (207 in Roman numerals)

 

13 comments on “Independent 11,582 by Phi”

  2. The same new words for me, too: very tough to get a nho solution from an anagram so I’m afraid I did use an anagram solver for PERTUSSIS. CHERUBINI was a jorum moment – I confess to using the Check on entering the name: I couldn’t believe someone had to spend their life with a moniker suggesting small chubby winged beings. Materiel, I did know – though I learned today that a point can be any punctuation mark; I’d rather assumed it was a full stop, period!

    Faves today include COERCION, SPICY, INNOVATE, SET ALIGHT, APHASIA, OSTENTATIOUS and PROJECT.

    Thanks Phi and B&J

  3. This is the annual selection of odd burger names from the annual Wellington Food Festival, so you’re unlikely to note that YORKSHIREMAN, WILD CARD, SPICY PEANUT, DIRTY BIRDIE and the possibly less credible DEMOCRACY PROJECT were all featured this year. I toyed with SWIMMING SWINE, BELLY & JELLY and FICKLE PICKLE as well, but they didn’t make the grade. I forget the meat featured in ITALIAN STALLION.

    2024’s festival has just been confirmed…

  4. Oh, well done Phi. Always enjoy this particular inspiration – and always think I shall remember when to check for the festival so I can look out for the puzzle. But I never do. Once, I think, I spotted it a few years ago. But never since. You can always tell a YORKSHIREMAN burger; you just can’t tell it much …

  6. Well done PostMark! Presumably your parsing is correct as Phi hasn’t refuted it. That was the only one I had difficulty with but had to find ‘pertussis’ in a word list. Have heard of and like Cherubini – more classical music please (sorry B&J!). Thanks to setter and bloggers.

    Incidentally, I’ve been charged with cheating when consulting a word list. Perhaps, but I don’t see any difference between that and two minds working as one, as with many of our regular contributors! (smiley face)

  9. Thanks Phi – We know to look out for this theme but never know when. We will try and remember for next year.

  10. For potential timings…Festival is August 2024, programme out end June, so I will try to collate material in July, with puzzle around end Sept/early Oct given my lead-in time. Was on to it late this year, and also had to sneak in puzzles for films from both Nolan and Anderson.

  11. This was definitely on the tough side for Phi for us. Got there in the end though.

    Did the usual thing with Phi, starting off slowly, then they started tumbling out until the last six or seven. Needed a break and they eventually made themselves clear.

    Learnt some new words from some of the clues. Idolise and wildcard were both late entries, but liked them both.

    I now have a craving for pie…

    Thanks Phi and B&J

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