Independent 8458 / Phi

by

Phi has filled his regular Friday slot with a very enjoyable puzzle.

 

 

 

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten, English composer.  Phi has reflected that fact in the top and bottom rows of unchecked letters which show BRITTEN SEES 100

We also have the surname of Frank BRIDGE, one of Britten’s private tutors, at 22 down.

For some reason though, as this was a Phi puzzle, I felt that there must be more thematic material, so I looked a bit harder at the grid and the clues.  I have a sort of checklist when blogging; I sometimes even remember what it is which I didn’t do when I missed a pangram last week.  However today, one of the things on my list was to look at the first or last letters of entries or clues.  It is the clues that yield an instruction in today’s puzzle, where the first letters spell out FIND LAST NAMES IN FIVE OPERA TITLES

Given that the puzzle celebrates Benjamin Britten, it was a reasonable supposition that it would be his operas that needed finding.  Although generally a philistine when it comes to the Arts, even I had heard of Peter GRIMES and Billy BUDD.  These two gentlemen were discovered at the left and right ends of rows 2 and 14.  These locations suggested that some of the other rows would yield the other three names.  Albert HERRING in row 4 was somewhere in my memory. VENICE in row 12 looked to be a potential word, so symmetry suggested looking in the middle row, 8,  for the final one. WINE and WINGRAVE looked  possible and a bit of research confirmed that Britten wrote an opera entitled Owen WINGRAVE.  VENICE relates to Death in VENICE.

The final grid with most of the thematic material highlighted can be seen below.  I have not highlighted Frank BRIDGE

Independent 8458

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thematic puzzles tend to force the compiler down the route of short and obscure words to complete the grid, but this didn’t seem to be the case too badly here.  Perhaps TRISKELE (5 down), the American spelling of LICORICE (26 across) and VENIAL (24 across) were the most obscure entries.  I wonder if Phi tried to get some other Britten opera characters into the entries, but settled for Verdi’s [and Shakespeare’s] RODERIGO instead?

There were some good clues today.  My favourites included those for WAR GAMES (9 across, for its surface), HERITAGE (10 across, for it’s recognition that the National Trust has friends in high places), and EVENSONG (for the use of ‘still scheduled’)

Across
No. Clue Wordplay

Entry

8

 

Fire raging in Grammar School – sad events (6)

 

Anagram of (raging) FIRE contained in (in) GS (Grammar School)

G (RIEF*) S

GRIEFS (sad events)

 

9

 

Items for sale, including magazine backing military exercises (3,5)

 

WARES (items for sale) containing (including) (MAG [magazine] reversed [backing])

WAR (GAM<) ES

WAR GAMES (military exercises)

 

10

 

NT’s domain badly affected by time – Queen’s intervening (8)

 

ER (Elizabeth Regina; queen) contained in (intervening) (HIT [badly affected] + AGE [time])

H (ER) IT AGE

HERITAGE (One of the aims of The National Trust [NT] is to protect the nation’s HERITAGE)

 

11

 

Doing Dad’s job is ultimately exhausting, though not at first (6)

 

S (last letter of [ultimately]) + (TIRING [exhausting] excluding the first letter [not at first] T)

 

SIRING (one of  father’s roles is  [dad’s] to SIRE children)

 

12

 

Leader of professors kept in university loop, in position to avoid stink (6)

 

P (first letter of [leader of] PROFESSOR) contained in (kept in) (U [university] + WIND [loop])

U (P) WIND

UPWIND (smells will be blown away in the direction of the wind; staying UPWIND will keep one away from the stink)

 

14

 

Anglican service still scheduled after Sunday? Good (8)

 

EVEN (still) + S (Sunday) + ON (scheduled) + G (good)

 

EVENSONG (evening prayers, the Anglican form of service appointed to be said or sung at evening)

 

16

 

Success with channel involving new fixing device (4,3)

 

WIN (success) + (GUT [channel] containing [involving] N [new])

WIN G (N) UT

WING NUT (a nut with flattened projections for easy turning by finger and thumb; fixing device)

 

18

 

Talk angrily after Department becomes corrupt (7)

 

DEP (department) + RAVE (talk angrily)

 

DEPRAVE (corrupt)

 

21

 

Nasty baddy encompassing end of Kennedy for sure, with consistent impact (3,2,3)

 

(Anagram of [nasty] BADDY containing [encompassing] Y [last letter of {end of} KENNEDY]) + AY (yes; for sure)

DAY B (Y ) D* AY

DAY BY DAY (daily; with consistent impact)

 

23

 

Absurdly simple thing to draw, duplicating a different character (6)

 

DODDLE (DOODLE (draw)  with  the D duplicated rather than the O in the middle of the word – duplicating a different character)

 

DODDLE (something very easily accomplished)

 

24

 

Mercenary imprisons one offering excuse (6)

 

VENAL (corruptly mercenary) containing (imprisons) I (one)

VEN (I) AL

VENIAL (excusable; offering excuse)

 

26

 

E Coli spread, enveloping most of pudding and sweet in America (8)

 

Anagram of (spread) E COLI containing (enveloping) (RICE [reference RICE pudding] excluding the final letter [most of] E)

LICO (RIC) E*

LICORICE (American spelling of LIQUORICE [sweet root used in confectionery])

 

28

 

See occupying Cornish resort beginning to disappoint: assessed resources (8)

 

(GET [understand; see] contained in [occupying] BUDE [resort in Cornwall]) + D (first letter of [beginning to] DISAPPOINT)

 

BUDGETED (assessed resources)

 

29

 

Inflicted criticism on horse: ‘Good finisher, lacking heart’ (6)

 

NAG (horse) + G (good) + END (finisher, excluding the middle letter [lacking heart] N)

 

NAGGED (inflicted criticism on)

 
Down

1

 

North Sea’s rejected French produce (4)

 

BRINE (sea) excluding (rejected) N (North)

 

BRIE (French cheese; French produce)

 

2

 

Form erected in circle of unobtrusive aspect (8)

 

RITE (a ceremonial form or observance) reversed (erected; down clue) in RING (circle)

R (ETIR)< ING

RETIRING (of unobtrusive aspect)

 

3

 

I start to see Loch and Lewis and Harris, possibly (6)

 

I + S (first letter of [start to] SEE) + L (loch) + AND

 

ISLAND (Lewis and Harris is a single island in the Outer Hebrides; the north end of the island is Lewis, while the southern is Harris)

 

4

 

Very small chap, after brief time, used social media? (7)

 

T (time) + WEE (tiny; very small) + TED (man’s name; chap)

 

TWEETED (published a statement or a comment on Twitter; used social media)

 

5

 

Elk tries hobbling (it only has three legs) (8)

 

Anagram of (hobbling) ELK TRIES

 

TRISKELE (a figure consisting of three radiating curves or legs, as in the arms of the Isle of Man.)

 

6

 

One old King brought in to observe rising tidal waters (6)

 

(A [one] + GR [George Rex; old King]) contained in (brought in to) (SEE [observe] reversed [rising; down clue])

E (A GR) ES<

EAGRES (a bore or sudden rise of the tide in a river; tidal waters)

 

7

 

Power delivered from upsurge in new free gas (4)

 

(N [new] + [OPEN {free} excluding {delivered from} P {power}]) all reversed (upsurge; down clue])

(NEO N)<

NEON (a gas)

 

13

 

Extremely formal article in pole position (5)

 

PRIM (extremely formal) + A (indefinite article)

 

PRIMA (first; in pole position)

 

15

 

Run from lover upset by new book such as Brave New World (5)

 

N (new) + (anagram of [upset] LOVER excluding [from] R [run, in cricket scoring notation])

N OVEL*

NOVEL (book such as Brave New World)

 

17

 

Article seized by officer swamped by excessive wave (8)

 

(A [indefinited article] contained in [seized by] LT [lieutenant; officer]) all contained in (swamped by) UNDUE (excessive)

UNDU ( L (A) T) E

UNDULATE (to make or be wavy; to move like or in waves)

 

19

 

Tenor Verdi role Spanish composer’s taken around Spain (8)

 

RODRIGO (reference Joaquín RODRIGO, Spanish composer, probably best known for his Concierto de Aranjuez) containing (taken round) E (International Vehicle Registration for Spain)

ROD (E) RIGO

RODERIGO (tenor part in Verdi’s opera Otello)

 

20

 

Idly – see – shifting covers for lights? (7)

 

Anagram of (shifting) IDLY SEE

 

EYELIDS (covers for the eyes; an archaiic meaning of light is ‘eye’)

 

22

 

Term for singing adopted by newly-wed British composer (6)

 

G (last letter of [term {an end}] SINGING) contained in (adopted by) BRIDE (newly-wed)

BRID (G) E

BRIDGE (reference British composer Frank BRIDGE who was a private tutor of Benjamin Britten)

 

23

 

Located near churchman, daughter turned up in a church (6)

 

D (daughter) + ([IN + A + CE {Church (of England)}] all reversed [turned up; down clue])

D (EC A NI)<

DECANI (denoting the south side of a church choir where the dean sits; located near churchman)

 

25

 

European to ponder tailless and flightless birds (4)

 

E (European) + (MUSE [ponder] excluding the final letter [tailless] E)

 

EMUS (flightless fast-running Australian bird)

 

27

 

She ruled company, putting squeeze on the French (4)

 

CO (company) containing (putting squeeze on) LE (one form of the word ‘the’ in French)

C (LE) O

CLEO (Cleopatra, last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt; she ruled)

 

7 comments on “Independent 8458 / Phi”

  2. Fantastic blog, Duncan. I was pleased to finish the crossword itself, and had missed all those Britten-related subtleties.

  3. Great blog Duncan. Yours are normally very good anyway, but you have surpassed yourself today.

    I managed to finish this without aids with DECANI my LOI from the wordplay. Although I saw BRITTEN across the top row and SEES along the bottom row I didn’t think of IOO as one hundred. D’oh!

    I couldn’t parse BRIE or NEON and both went in from their definitions. TRISKELE and VENIAL both went in with fingers crossed.

    It is unlikely that I would have seen the hidden instruction in the clues even if I had been solving the paper version, but doing the puzzle online made it nigh-on impossible to see. It was extremely clever of Phi to get the opera names into the grid the way he did, and it goes without saying that I failed to see any of them. A very tough but enjoyable workout with a real sense of achievement at the end.

  4. Fine puzzle, fine blog. Thanks both.

    I did see the BRITTEN SEES 100 bit, but the operas were lost on me. Clever though, and not too many obscurities. Nice end to the week, and as Phi says, serendipitous that the anniversary falls on a Friday.

  5. Great crossword and great solve. Amazingly thorough to get that acrostic!

    Surely DECANI merits a mention in the list of possible obscurities though?! Was I alone in my ignorance there?

  6. Ben Smith @ 5

    Fair point about DECANI. Even Phi highlights DECANI as a bit obscure in his own blog referenced at comment 1

  7. We filled in the last few solutions this morning after resorting to electronic assistance for 23d.

    We sat and looked at the grid, convinced that we were missing something even though we had the top row nina. We puzzled over why Phi used DECANI but failed to connect IOO with 100. We were glad that we weren’t the only ones!

    Many, many thanks Duncan for spotting all the thematic connections. This was one day when we were really glad NOT to be blogging!

    Thanks Phi -a beautifully constructed puzzle which we really enjoyed despite failing at the last hurdle!

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