As usual, we have a Phi crossword in the Independent on Friday.
I always look for themes when solving Phi’s crosswords, but I don’t always see any, even if they are present. Today, I detect a hint of the supernatural in the grid with GOTHICISM and OCCULTATION. Both Henrik IBSEN and David MAMET have used supernatural themes in their plays. The words PROWL, MURMURATION, RAW and MERPEOPLE convey undertones of the supernatural, but all the links between the grid and the supernatural world are fairly tenuous.
This was a typical Phi puzzle with a good mix of clue types and an eclectic mix of entries. None of the entries were new to me, but there were a few I don’t use in conversation very often.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Naval front line to keep moving about (5)
PROWL (keep moving restlessly, as if searching for something, or stealthily, as if hunting prey or plunder) PROW (bow [front] of a vessel; naval front) + L (line) PROW L |
| 4 | Baffled guy about Channel Islands’ architectural style (9)
GOTHICISM (conformity to the GOTHIC style in architecture; architectural style) GOT (baffled) + (HIM [a guy] containing [about] CIS‘ [Channel Islands’]) GOT HI (CIS) M |
| 9 | Piano runs are frustrating in Chopin piece? (7)
PRELUDE (a self-contained piece of music; Frédéric Chopin [1810 – 1849], Polish composer, wrote many PRELUDEs) P (piano) + R (runs) + ELUDE (are frustrating) P R ELUDE |
| 10 | Not a canine? Man with this could create Canis Minor! (7)
INCISOR (a tooth that is not a canine) Forming an anagram from MAN and INCISOR could form CANIS MINOR* INCISOR |
| 11 | Hot and cold water source returned for repair (5)
PATCH (repair) (H [hot]+ C [cold] + TAP [water source]) all reversed (returned) (PAT C H)< |
| 12 | Limitations of sound expert restricting new variety entertainment? (4,5)
SAND DANCE (a DANCE performed on a SANDed surface; a variety entertainment) S AND D (the outer letters [limitations] of SounD are S AND D) + (ACE [expert] containing [restricting] N (new) S AND D A (N) CE |
| 13 | Little sound from those delivering aerobatic display? (11)
MURMURATION (murmuring; a small sound) MURMURATION (a flock of starlings moving to create an aerobatic display) double definition MURMURATION |
| 15 | Suggestion King should abandon foreign visit? (3)
TIP (suggestion) TrIP (a foreign visit, for example) excluding (abandon) R (Rex; King) TIP |
| 16 | Crude strength when stripped? (3)
RAW (coarse,; vulgar; rude) bRAWn (physical strength) excluding the outer letters B and N (when stripped) RAW |
| 17 | Mystic helping to obscure start of regular astronomical event (1 1)
OCCULTATION (the temporary disappearance of one celestial body as it moves out of sight behind another body; astronomical event) OCCULT (secret; mystic) + rATION (a helping) excluding (to obscure) R (first letter of [start of] Regular) OCCULT ATION |
| 18 | Productive compound in effect must include iodine (9)
EFFICIENT (productive) Anagram of (compound) IN EFFECT containing (must include) I (chemical symbol for iodine) EFFIC (I) ENT* |
| 21 | Old woman satisfied US playwright (5)
MAMET (reference David MAMET [born 1947], American playwright) MA (mother; old woman) + MET (satisfied) MA MET |
| 23 | One-third of judges tucking into booze? It’s bad for the case (7)
PERJURY (giving false evidence while under oath in court, something will be bad for the case) JU (first two [one-third] of the six letters in JUdges) contained in (tucking into) PERRY (alcoholic drink made of pears; booze) PER (JU) RY |
| 24 | Think little of reckless speeds around island (7)
DESPISE (look down on; think little of) Anagram of (reckless) SPEEDS containing (around) I (island) DESP (I) SE* |
| 25 | Recent upset? Diminished, losing initial upright character (9)
ERECTNESS (the character of being upright) Anagram of (upset) RECENT + lESS (diminished) excluding the first letter (losing initial) L ERECTN* ESS |
| 26 | Felon taking piano and flute (5)
CRIMP (flute, one meaning of which is ‘to form grooves’) CRIM (CRIMinal; felon) + P (piano) CRIM P |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rather solemn youngster in online ad (3-2)
POP UP (an online advert is an example of a POP-UP on a computer screen) PO (PO-faced; humourless; rather solemn) + PUP (youngster) PO P UP |
| 2 | Clear dispute about Henry’s cricketing blunder (9)
OVERTHROW (runs scored as a consequence of a fielder missing a ball thrown to the wicket by another fielder, or just the consequence of a bad throw) (OVERT [clear] + ROW [dispute]) containing (about) H (henry, derived SI unit of inductance) OVERT (H) ROW |
| 3 | Refuse to consider some fun, having nowhere to play tennis? (5,3,2,5)
LAUGH OUT OF COURT (refuse to consider) LAUGH (something that is good fun) + OUT OF COURT (having nowhere to play tennis) LAUGH OUT OF COURT |
| 4 | Suppose visitors to be out of time (5)
GUESS (think; believe; suppose) GUEStS (visitors) excluding (be out of) T (time) GUESS |
| 5 | Internal manoeuvres swamping Italy every thousand days roughly (9)
TRIENNIAL (happening every third year [1095, roughly a thousand days]) Anagram of (manoeuvres) containing (swamping) I (international Vehicle Registration for Italy) TRIENN (I) AL* |
| 6 | Popular tune – claim disc misrepresented original theatrical version? (10,5)
INCIDENTAL MUSIC (original theatrical version of a play by Alan Ayckbourn [born 1939]) IN (popular) + an anagram of (misrepresented) TUNE CLAIM DISC IN CIDENTAL MUSIC* |
| 7 | Writer that is penning nonsense, note (5)
IBSEN (reference Henrik IBSEN [1828 – 1906], Norwegian playwright [writer]) (I.E.> [id est; that is] containing [penning] BS [bullshit; nonsense]) + N (note) I (BS) E N |
| 8 | Writer – uplifting stuff – anxious to include supposedly standard speech (6,3)
MARKER PEN (writer) RAM (cram; stuff) reversed (uplifting) + KEEN (anxious) containing (to include) RP (Received Pronunciation; supposedly standard speech) MAR< KE (R P) EN |
| 13 | Pope modified line when among simple marine folk (9)
MERPEOPLE (mythical marine creatures with the upper of a person and the tail of a fish) (Anagram of [modified] POPE + L [line]) contained in (among) MERE (simple) MER (PEOP* L) E |
| 14 | Cheap tyre burst for example (9)
ARCHETYPE (a perfect or typical example) Anagram of (burst) CHEAP TYRE ARCHETYPE* |
| 15 | Top figures university brought in to cut back a lot of green (9)
TRIUMVIRI (groups of three people sharing power; top people) (U [university] contained in [brought in] TRIM [cut back]) + VIRId (green) excluding the final letter (a lot of) D TRI (U) M VIRI |
| 19 | Features limiting Republican debacle (5)
FARCE (ludicrous situation or action; debacle) FACE (features) containing (limiting) R (Republican) FA (R) CE |
| 20 | Stirs black powder up around diamonds (2-3)
TO-DOS (quarrels; stirs) SOOT (black powder) reversed (up; down entry) containing (around) D (diamonds) TO (D) OS< |
| 22 | Weight lifting record broken by right fool (5)
TWERP (silly person; fool) WT (weight) reversed (lifting; down entry) + (EP [extended play record] containing [broken by] R [right]) TW< E (R) P |
Not an easy one, but satisfying to complete. I struggled with TRIUMVIRI, because I thought the “green” was VIRIDIAN, so “a lot of” seemed too inexact for a Phi clue.
Personal view on 4(ac), I would say that the architectural style is just GOTHIC, whilst adding the ISM, refers to a wider movement of things Gothic.
Never heard of the Ayckbourn play, but the solution presented itself once the crossers went in.
The SAND DANCE made me smile….memories of Wilson, Keppel & Betty, in some old movies on early TV. As a kid, it was fascinating and funny.
This one is Phi-on-form, and soon, I shall really miss saying so.
Lovely stuff, Phi & duncan
Had to reveal TRIUMVIRI and MURMURATION as I just could not see what fitted the crossers and the WP of the first and the def of the second were beyond me. SAND DANCE certainly one for the more mature solver. A solid puzzle albeit slightly trickier than usual.
Thanks both
The only one that stumped me today was TRIUMVIRI – I may have come across this word before a while ago in a puzzle but my memory is a bit sketchy so I can’t definitely say if I have or not
Favourite clues today were MURMURATION and INCISOR
Thanks Phi and Duncan – only 3 more Phi-days to go sadly 🙁
I knew “triumvirate” as a word, so not too big a stretch to get ‘triumviri’.
I missed CRIMP – didn’t know it (or “crim”), put in “chirp” as a guess. There are a few items I didn’t understand, such as TO-DOS as quarrels (I only knew “to-do list”) or FARCE as debacle. TRIUMVIRI was easy as I’ve just re-watched some parts of Rome. My favourites are LAUGH OUT OF COURT and ERECTNESS. Thanks Phi and Duncan!
Pretty gentle for a Phi-day… not that that speeded things up much, as I tend to self doubt… helped by vague memories of 3 blokes wearing Egyptian pharaoh fancy dress doing a weird dance, on sand, in B&W… resurrected for a moment by the Bangles (sans sand), in glorious colour! Occultation was fairly doable from the wordplay, as was Triumviri… the US playwright was a surprise… I’ve had a few TO-DOS in life, so that worked out well…
Thanks Phi n duncansheill
I needed a word finder for TRIUMVIRI, and I didn’t know the flock-of-swallows meaning of MURMURATION. Otherwise, all good fun.
I like IBSEN and dislike MAMET, so it’s a wash on playwrights for me today.
Incidentally (pun intended), I thought that INCIDENTAL MUSIC was meant to refer generally to music composed to accompany a stage play, with the most prominent example probably being Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream suite. The play that Duncan has found for us is probably more obscure than Phi intended.
I have seen a few of Ayckbourn’s plays, but not that one and I was indeed thinking more generally – say, Grieg’s music for IBSEN’s Peer Gynt.
Nothing hidden today.