Independent 8,906 by Phi

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As usual an enjoyable and sound crossword from Dac Phi (my apologies for calling Phi Dac — I have a suspicion that this isn’t the first time I’ve done this.  Well they do both have three letters in their name. I must cure my Dac-obsession.). I found it a bit tricky in places, but once a clue had been solved, there seemed to be no reason for the difficulty. Many of these answers are so neat that they can be explained in a single short expression.

No doubt there is a Nina: there usually (but not always) is with Phi, but I’m afraid that with Phi’s Ninas I have only a cursory hunt because more often than not when there is something I wouldn’t have got it anyway. So on that front I have nothing to offer, I’m afraid.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 TOTE BAG
Carrier – that’s air company in sum, say (4,3)

tot e(BA)g
5 PIVOTAL
Crucial one element of democracy’s curtailed in China (7)

p(1 vot{e})al — China is rhyming slang for pal (China plate – mate)
9 GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
University twice imaged guitars representing music there? (9,6)

(u u imaged guitars)* — a reference to Brahms’s Academical Festival Overture, which uses the tune of this student drinking-song — or is it just that Gaudeamus Igitur is a student drinking song?
10 FRIDGE
Fine trip to secure good item for kitchen (6)

f rid(g)e
11 GIGABYTE
Soldier in front of people watching, entertaining via prodigious memory? (8)

GI ga(by)te
13 ATTENUATE
Ready for first shot when interrupted by idiot grabbing one? That’ll make you weaken (9)

at tee [ready for first shot, as in golf: you have arrived punctually on the tee] round nu(a)t
14 TUCK
Outlaw food (4)

2 defs — one of them of Friar Tuck the outlaw
17 ACTS
Data capped? Does something (4)

{f}acts
19 KICK-START
Initiate thrills with prostitute (4-5)

kicks tart — I didn’t help myself by initially putting in ‘jump-start’ here. for no good reason as jumps is not really the same as thrills
22 FIFTEENS
Rugby players provided half of team in marshy areas (8)

f(if te{am})ens
24 NEWTON
Scientist never before seen to start in neuroscience (6)

new to n{euroscience}
26 ESCAPE MECHANISM
Henry, in a specimen case, misapplied male psychological process (6,9)

(a specimen case)* round H, then m
27 SQUARED
Military group drawing in soldiers by itself (7)

squa(RE)d — when a number is multipied by itself it is squared
28 DUDGEON
Dead fish not good, causing resentment (7)

d {g}udgeon — this doesn’t seem to be a very well-known fish since it isn’t in Chambers’ list of fish
Down
1 TUG-OF-WAR
A weak mist in depression held up sporting contest (3-2-3)

(r(a w fog)ut)rev.
2 TOURISTIC
Court is upset about it, upset about holidaymakers (9)

(Court is)* round (it)rev.
3 BREN GUN
Reduced stress about English weapon (4,3)

br(Eng)un{t} — brunt = stresss seemed a bit odd but Chambers gives it
4 GAME
Section of online magazine to go up – ready? (4)

Hidden reversed in onlinE MAGazine
5 PESTILENCE
A fatal epidemic? Change will involve certain steps (10)

pe(stile)nce
6 VAGRANT
Tax keeping old lady on the move (7)

VA(gran)T
7 TATTY
Tense US lawyer, not well-dressed (5)

t atty — atty is an abbreviation for attorney
8 LARDER
Cyclist in US city avoiding one store (6)

LA r{i}der — a cyclist in LA might be called an LA rider
12 BARKING MAD
Nuts not entirely produced in East London? (7,3)

Barking mad{e} — ‘produced in East London’ is ‘Barking made’
15 COASTLINE
Shore possibly viewed as sectional (9)

(sectional)*
16 STUNTMAN
Male brought in to KO and thrash film specialist? (8)

stun t(m)an
18 SWEEPER
Footballer in our team getting record in series (7)

s(we EP)er. — our team = we, the sign of a real football supporter — people who have no apparent connection with a club will often refer to it as ‘we’ or ‘us’
20 STEWARD
Flight attendant in tricky situation, very tricky after taking off initially (7)

stew {h}ard
21 AFTERS
Beams, not providing first course (6)

{r}afters
23 FICHU
Terrific hunt circling Cape (5)

Hidden in TerriFIC HUnt — this is a fichu
25 SCUD
Move like yacht caught in odd parts of sound (4)

c in s{o}u{n}d
*anagram

15 comments on “Independent 8,906 by Phi”

  1. I’ll agree with “tricky in places” – Thanks to Phi and John.

    You need to alter your first paragraph where you refer to Phi as Dac!

  2. 28ac Yet another fish you didn ‘t want to catch!

    Thanks Phi, and John (he will forgive you). I especially liked gaudeamus igitur

  3. Thanks Phi and John, this took me ages to solve and I also don’t know quite why.
    Is it coincidence that FIFTEEN(s) SQUARED gets a mention?

  4. Thanks Phi and John. I found this hard going, but enjoyable – needed help with some parsing.

    BARKING MAD and SQUARED were good, and I also liked PESTILENCE, VAGRANT and STEWARD.
    28a, gudgeon is in the OCED, better get a proper dictionary, John.
    3d, is the term “bear the brunt of” no longer used?

    5a, should crucial be underlined?

  5. I also found this tricky in places, but I thought it was up to Phi’s usual high standard. GAUDEAMUS IGITUR was my LOI after I dragged it from deep in the proverbial memory bank. I missed the possible significance of FIFTEEN(S) SQUARED at 22ac/27ac.

  6. Contrary to popular experience, I found this easier than the average Phi. I especially liked Gaudeamus Igitur, which was sung with great gusto at my school in the 1960s. I had _G_T_R as crossing letters and the answer popped into my head without looking at the clue.

    I didn’t really understand 3D Bren Gun but guessed OK anyway.

  7. Usual enjoyable solve from Phi. Not much to add (which is a compliment) except to say that GAUDEAMUS IGITUR I only know through crosswords, since I am the product of the local comprehensive where there wasn’t much call for that kind of thing. I liked BARKING MAD particularly, and didn’t spot the nod to FIFTEENSQUARED.

    Thanks, both.

  11. If you read a few starting letters from each across entry at the left-hand edge of the completed grid, they form a dedication message. Well, all except for ESCAPE MECHANISM. Unless it’s a really cryptic message.

    I’ll go and ping the gentleman via the site feedback thread, since he doesn’t seem to have dropped in today…

  12. Bravo, Cyborg. I wangled the message in but they wouldn’t all fit without an additional row. I’d already given myself one escape route by blocking off one row, and ESCAPE MECHANISM seemed a useful form of Get-out-of-jail free card.

    The reason behind this goes back to the bertandjoyce puzzle I did a while back, which required Gaufrid to rejig the schedule at short notice, When I did a subsequent blogger-specific puzzle I not only gave him more notice but thought I should do him a puzzle as well. All he asked was to swap the published order around a bit, so that there was no need to rejig the blogging schedule.

    So, bloggers, there’s a Phi puzzle coming up with one of your names on it…

  14. Thanks Phi for another enjoyable puzzle. We saw FIFTEEN SQUARED in the puzzle but missed the reference to Gaufrid.

    Thanks John for the blog and while we are thanking people, thanks to Gaufrid as well.6

  15. I thought ESCAPE MECHANISM might refer to the crossword being a psychological escape mechanism, and to the blog being an escape mechanism when stuck on a clue…especially as the cog usually has fifteen teeth…I think Gaufrid is the cog that keeps FIFTEENSQUARED running, but only hope he has more than fifteen teeth (30 teeth are also common).

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