Independent 12,005 by Phi

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Now we really are confused –  Phi on a Tuesday? Is someone playing an April Fool on us?

As we steadily chipped away at the clues, we were on the look out for a theme but couldn’t see one. It wasn’t until we finished that we spotted MESPRINT along the bottom – a ‘misprint’ perhaps? Could this be what we were after? The trouble was that we had two letter misprints along the top. It wasn’t until we looked closer that we realised that Bert who had the pen had misheard me and had written CHERRY for 3D rather than SHERRY or maybe he heard me correctly and had ‘misprinted’ it.

Thanks Phi.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. A scoundrel keeping maiden quiet in charity home (9)
ALMSHOUSE

A LOUSE (scoundrel) around or ‘keeping’ M (maiden) SH (quiet)

10. Funereal music, say, in cathedral (5)
ELEGY

EG (say) in ELY (cathedral)

11. Prince affected manner that is plain (7)
PRAIRIE

PR (prince) AIR (affected manner) IE (that is)

12. I am critical of limiting old quarantine (7)
ISOLATE

I SLATE (am critical of) around or ‘limiting’ O (old)

13. Prosecute meat company finally regarding quantities of fat (5)
SUETY

SUE (prosecute) and last or ‘final’ letters of meaT companY

14. Unit’s soldiers holding position – ammunition here? (9)
BANDOLIER

BAND (unit) OR (soldiers) around or ‘holding’ LIE (position)

16. Pregnancy service, clean, intact, in Luxembourg area after moving (9,6)
ANTENATAL CLINIC

An anagram (‘after moving’) of CLEAN INTACT IN L (Luxembourg) and A (area)

19. Millions in the demo displaying heat? (9)
THERMALLY

M (millions) in THE RALLY (demo)

21. Party raver’s target of the munchies? (5)
DONUT

DO (party) NUT (raver)

22. Runs through periods without leadership involving China (7)
IMPALES

tIMES (periods) without first letter or ‘leadership’ around or ‘involving’ PAL (china)

23. Toss-up about arrangement for arts in remedial centre (7)
BORSTAL

LOB (toss-up) reversed or ‘about’ with an anagram (‘arrangement’) of ARTS inside or ‘in’. We first thought that this was parsed as LOB (toss) with up as the reversal indicator and ‘about’ as the inclusion indictor. However, it’s an across clue so it wouldn’t work.

24. Members of House of Lords: paragons losing power? (5)
EARLS

pEARLS (paragons) without or ‘losing’ ‘p’ (power)

25. Nine steps for remedying lack of ability (9)
INEPTNESS

An anagram (‘remedying’) of NINE STEPS

DOWN
1. Degree – university exam success – worker’s topic in French literature? (10)
MAUPASSANT

MA (degree) U (university) PASS (exam success) ANT (worker)

2. I intended to skip Australia after embracing bloke dwelling within (8)
IMMANENT

I MEaNT (intended) without or ‘skipping’ A (Australia) around or ’embracing’ MAN (bloke)

3. Alcoholic drink? Wary about sin (6)
SHERRY

SHY (wary) about ERR (sin)

4. Modest prize money denied entrant in fourth place (4)
PURE

PURsE (prize money) without or ‘denying’ ‘s’ (fourth letter or ‘entrant in fourth place’)

5. Unusual orange lily around the country (10)
REGIONALLY

An anagram (‘unusual’) of ORANGE LILY

6. A flier manoeuvring round ring twice showing source of lift? (8)
AEROFOIL

An anagram (‘manoeuvring’) of A FLIER around O and O (‘ring twice’)

7. Writer’s taken up line penned by outstanding mountain dweller (6)
NEPALI

Reversal (‘taken up’) of PEN (writer) + L (line) inside or ‘penned by’ A1 (outstanding)

8. Kind charity people will show it (4)
TYPE

Hidden (‘will show it’) in chariTY PEople

14. It’s no freighter – but it has quantities of cotton, dry inside, with it (10)
BATTLESHIP

BALES (quantities of cotton) with TT (teetotal – ‘dry’) inside + HIP (with it)

15. Performer elicits art when playing (10)
RECITALIST

An anagram (‘playing’) of ELICITS ARTS

17. Note: idiot seen around endless affray is unidentified (8)
NAMELESS

N (note) ASS (idiot) around MELEe (affray) missing last letter or ‘endless’

18. Square support in golf: heading for nice, slightly-reduced score? (8)
NINETEEN

NINE (square) TEE (support in golf) N (first letter or ‘heading’ for nice). The score referred to here is 20.

20. Recording anger about money in big business (6)
EMPIRE

EP (recording) IRE (anger) about M (money)

21. Hungarian-born conductor held in adoration (6)
DORATI

Hidden (‘held’) in aDORATIon – we had to check this person

22. Putting second half first, issue newspaper article (4)
ITEM

EMIT (issue) with second half placed first

23. Gathering round initially for a drink (4)
BEER

BEE (gathering) R (first or ‘initial’ letter of round)

 

17 comments on “Independent 12,005 by Phi”

  1. Potentially one or two more misprints…?
    Had wondered whether I’d just not heard of the words PLEGY and ISILATE before…!

  3. Did anyone else consider PUSE (maybe somehow linked to pusillanimous?), as PURSE without entRant’s fourth letter? Thankfully I came to my senses.

  4. Somewhat of a relief to turn to this puzzle after getting halfway through the Guardian and finding it rather frustrating. April Fool high jinks here but not quite so distracting for the solve. I’m not sure whether Hallow Brink is suggesting there are other tricks in here: I did wonder why we had words like MAUPASSANT and SUETY in the grid and was surprised the ninas had forced those words. DORATI is certainly unusual – the sign of a setter in a bit of a tight spot? But very kindly clued. NINETEEN is easily COTD for me with that neat definition.

    Thanks Phi and B&J

  5. COTD: BORSTAL (nice misdirection with up, about and in).
    Other faves: PURE and ITEM.

    THERMALLY
    I must be wrong, but I have to ask:
    Is the def (displaying heat) not adjectival but the solution adverbial?

    Thanks Phi and B&J.

  7. A flier becoming aerofoil has a nice resonance. The eg in Ely clue ditto, but chestnutier. Anything other than maidens that are modest/pure? Nice morning stroll, ta Phi and BandJ (the conductor a nho here too).

  8. Missed that one,HB, but there’s IMMANENT which is a common mis-spelling, SITERAL (for LITERAL) in column 4, TYPE (for TYPO) and didn’t we have BANDOLIER with a double E (albeit a valid alternative) a week or so back? I’m sure there’s more going on that I haven’t spotted.

  9. No you’re right re 19a, KVa, it’s a mismatch. Unless someone clever can convincingly substitute them.

  10. Good fun puzzle. I spotted the Nina but did wonder for a while if Maupassant might be the theme. One of his most famous stories is Boule de Suif, which literally translates as ‘ball of SUET’ (though it’s usually rendered in English as ‘The Dumpling’) but it’s a long while since I read any Maupassant so I couldn’t identify any other titles.

  11. Thanks both. I am rarely if ever a fan of answers such as MAUPASSANT and DORATI, yet they were very considerately clued. I too flirted with ‘puse’ before confirming PURE. I suspect there is nothing else thematic other than we were drawn to a potential Nina which ultimately did not include correctly spellt wirds

  12. Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce. I’m among those raising an eyebrow at the apparent PoS mismatch at 19. But I think the clue works if “displaying heat” is taken as a gerundial adverbial phrase: “In an infrared image objects can be viewed THERMALLY — they can be viewed displaying heat.”

  13. Bit late getting to reply as midweek schedule remains a bit different to picking things up on our Saturday morning.

    There are two more misprinted misprints to find.

    Coloradan’s view of THERMALLY was where I was coming from; there are lots of adverbial uses that can be used adjectivally in this way.

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