Phiday fun as usual. The original puzzle is at https://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independent/?puzzleDate=20260904.
A few slightly tricky elements in this one, but all fair enough. I was amused by the unpleasant soprano in 19d and the “bounders” in 13d, and 22a sounds like my sort of cooking. Clue of the day has to be the delightful anagram in 16a.
The top and bottom rows of unchecked letters spell out NOMINES FELARUM, which is Latin for “names of cats”. It’s possible that some of the entries in the grid are names of Phi’s pets; if so I hope 24a isn’t relevant – commiserations if it is. But I think Phi may be referring to the poem The Naming of Cats, from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T S Eliot. The poem explains that a cat must have three different names: a SENSIBLE everyday name, a more specific name PECULIAR to that particular cat, and an inscrutable SINGULAR name known only to the cat itself. Thanks Phi as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | LAIR |
Attitude after line in retreat (4)
|
| AIR (attitude, as in “an air of authority”) after L (abbreviation for line).
Retreat = lair = a private hideaway. |
||
| 9 | INNUENDOES |
Bar menu not initially ruined – works at possibly dodgy suggestions (10)
|
| INN (bar = drinking establishment) + anagram (ruined) of [m]ENU without its initial letter + DOES (works at). | ||
| 10 | FURNACES |
Challenges putting pot in ovens (8)
|
| FACES (challenges, as a verb = stands in defiance of), with URN (pot) put into it. | ||
| 11 | SHYEST |
Mum certainly tense – most likely to withdraw (6)
|
| SH (sh! = mum = a command to keep quiet) + YES (certainly) + T (abbreviation for tense). | ||
| 12 | PECULIAR |
Particular probe gutted by copper taking on unreliable source (8)
|
| P[rob]E (gutted = inner letters removed) + CU (Cu = chemical symbol for copper, from Latin cuprum) + LIAR (an unreliable source of information).
An older meaning of peculiar: specific to a person / group / region. |
||
| 14 | NASEBY |
Head back round South, ending in legendary battleground (6)
|
| BEAN (old-fashioned slang for head) reversed (back), around S (abbreviation for south), then the end letter of [legendar]Y.
Site of an English Civil War battle in 1645. |
||
| 16 | BEAUFORT SCALE |
Meteorological measure is absolute farce in a storm (8,5)
|
| Anagram (in a storm) of ABSOLUTE FARCE.
Scale representing wind speeds and their effects, from 0 = calm to 12 = hurricane. (An extended version up to 17 is used in some tropical regions subject to more extreme weather.) |
||
| 18 | USAGES |
Our group adds wrinkles to ways of working (6)
|
| US (our group) + AGES (adds wrinkles to? – perhaps in the sense of “too much sunbathing ages your skin”). | ||
| 20 | SANCERRE |
More reasonable about bringing in college’s white wine (8)
|
| SANER (more reasonable) + RE (about = on the subject of), bringing in C (abbreviation for college).
French wine region in the Loire Valley, best known for white wine although it also produces some red and rosé. |
||
| 22 | ECLAIR |
Cake – first answer provided by every cook at the outset (6)
|
| LAIR (the answer to the first clue in this crossword, at 9 across), next to the first letters (at the outset) of E[very] C[ook].
Famously described by Chambers Dictionary as “a cake long in shape but short in duration”. |
||
| 24 | MOURNING |
Regretting our name being appropriated by China (8)
|
| OUR + N (abbreviation for name), contained in MING (china = porcelain produced during the Ming dynasty in 14th-17th century China). | ||
| 25 | CEPHALONIA |
I will enter a chapel on rocky Greek island (10)
|
| I inserted into an anagram (rocky = unstable) of A CHAPEL ON. | ||
| 26 | OBOE |
Old tidal wave eliminating river reed (4)
|
| O (abbreviation for old) + BO[r]E (a tidal wave on a river) without the R (abbreviation for river).
Short name for a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one or two vibrating reeds made from cane. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NATURE |
Living things turning brown, certainly missing sun (6)
|
| TAN (light brown) reversed (turning), then [s]URE (sure! = certainly! = an expression of agreement) without the S (abbreviation for sun). | ||
| 2 | ORANG-UTANG |
Organisation receiving articles about stomach in the ape (5-5)
|
| ORG (abbreviation for organisation, especially in the Internet suffix .org), containing AN AN (two indefinite articles), around GUT (stomach).
Now generally spelled orang-utan: a rainforest ape. |
||
| 3 | MISCHIEF |
According to Fleming it’s M for misbehaviour? (8)
|
| I think Phi’s intention is MI’S CHIEF: MI = abbreviation for Military Intelligence, and according to the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming the organisation’s chief is called M. I wondered about “M IS CHIEF” but the grammar of the clue doesn’t quite work. | ||
| 4 | INNS |
Legal establishments showing limits to imagination nonetheless (4)
|
| Outer letters (limits) of I[maginatio]N N[onetheless]S.
Inns of Court: professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. |
||
| 5 | NELSON |
Important naval figure seen in hold? (6)
|
| Double definition. Admiral Horatio Nelson; or a wrestling hold. | ||
| 6 | EDGY |
Nervous European Democrat generally cleared out (4)
|
| E (abbreviation for European) + D (abbreviation for Democrat) + G[enerall]Y (cleared out = inner letters removed). | ||
| 7 | SENSIBLE |
Prudent to visit, taking in relative in Holland (8)
|
| SEE (to visit a person or place), containing SIB (a relative) inserted into NL (abbreviation for the Netherlands; strictly “Holland” is a region within the Netherlands, but the name is often used loosely to refer to the Netherlands as a whole). | ||
| 13 | RO-ROS |
Bounders impounding river ferries (2-3)
|
| ROOS (slang shortening of kangaroos: animals that bound = travel by jumping), containing R (abbreviation for river).
RO-RO = abbreviation for a roll-on, roll-off ferry (one designed to transport wheeled vehicles). |
||
| 15 | SHAME ON YOU |
Yahoo menu’s edited? I thought that was very bad (5,2,3)
|
| Anagram (edited) of YAHOO MENU’S.
Expression of strong disapproval. |
||
| 16 | BASS CLEF |
B_____ fool almost cut through item on score (4,4)
|
| B (from clue text) + ASS (fool) + CLEF[t] (cut through) without its last letter (almost).
Score = sheet music. |
||
| 17 | SINGULAR |
Odd crime newspaper picked up, involving university lecturer (8)
|
| SIN (crime), then RAG (slang for a newspaper) reversed (picked up = upwards in a down clue), containing U (abbreviation for university) + L (abbreviation for lecturer).
Odd = singular = strange; or as in “an odd sock” = one where there should be two. |
||
| 19 | SHRILL |
High-pitched soprano damaging after brief time (6)
|
| S (abbreviation for soprano), then ILL (damaging, as in “ill effects”) after HR (abbreviation for hour = brief time). | ||
| 21 | RANDOM |
Haphazard components of read-only memory (6)
|
| ROM = abbreviation for read-only memory, but Phi is inviting us to see it as “R and O, M”: R AND O M. | ||
| 23 | ACHE |
Hearts absorbed by cool desire (4)
|
| H (abbreviation for hearts, in card games) contained in ACE (cool = slang for excellent). | ||
| 24 | MYNA |
Lots of people, some upsetting bird (4)
|
| I think this is MANY (lots of people), with the ANY (some, as in “do you have any money?”) reversed (upsetting = upwards in a down clue).
Also spelled mynah: various birds in the starling family. |
I’m unfamiliar with the ape being spelled with a final G but there was no arguing with the crossers. BEAUFORT SCALE is a lovely anagram.
Thanks both
Putting the G on the back of UTAN is as bad as putting the H at the front of AITCH.
ORANG UTAN, “man of the forest”/ ORANG UTANG, “man in debt”.
CEPHALONIA…. whilst half of the world is insisting on their place-names being re-written/ re-pronounced, poor old Greece, of all the historic countries, gets the muddy end of the stick . ¨KEFA LONIA”, lots of possible origins, my Greek says it’s “head of Ionia”; but, careful…if you shout it at someone, it can be taken as “F-off”, ( or so the neighbours tell me.)
16(d), what’s the _______ doing? I must be a bit dumb on this one.
It’s again Phi on form, which is great, and paired with Ms Q, happy days.
A brace of thumbs up, P + Q
______
Chambers gives ORANG-OUTANG, rather than -UTANG, as an alternative spelling (maybe “man with zero debt” 🙂 ). The long underline in 16d is just to indicate the rest of the expletive.
ENB@2 I think you take the surface reading as bloody fool. I agree with PostMark about BEAUFORT SCALE. MISCHIEF was clever too. Congratulations to Quirister on spotting the theme. [I think it was Phi who dedicated a puzzle to a recently passed cat??]