i Cryptic Crossword 3376 Phi
December 2, 2021
Difficulty rating (out of 5): 🌟🌟🌟
Phi takes the Thursday spot this week with a medium level difficulty puzzle of the expected top-notch quality, and, as far as I can tell, not a gimmick / Nina / ghost theme in sight. We have the one very odd word up in the NE corner that was guessable from the first L and a few checking letters, but elsewhere the vocabulary was all common place (if not always easy to spell, as I found out when getting stuck on 10ac at the close only to find I’d put the L and D in 1d in the wrong order). One or two I couldn’t parse on solving, notably 12ac, but at no stage was I in doubt as to the correct answer, and thoroughly enjoyed the solve throughout, as always with Phi.
COD? Much to like, including here 23d, with the stand-out clue (perhaps of the week) 15ac – “What indicates event from evident modern crime? (8,5)”.
All the answers and parsing of the clues can be found in the Fifteensquared blog from September 2017:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/09/01/independent-9637-phi/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
I struggled to get into this Phi, finding it quite a bit harder than usual from him. With no purchase to speak of in any of the corners, it was the excellent CoD which yielded and got me going. Also enjoyed ‘character most often seen in Hollywood’ in 1d.
With a grid fill like that, and from this setter, surely there HAS to be something going on?
Same here as I also found this to be of at least **** difficulty.
The clues I enjoyed most were for bowdlerise and thriller; just one little moan – guy for tim in 14 – a device which always seems unfair, even a bit lazy, to me.
I’d agree with those finding this harder than ***. Still, today I finished around lunchtime, which is a definite improvement!
Last ones in, with unparsed bafflement, were 8ac (though, agreed, it was clear from earlier on what it *had* to be) and 24ac. So=very good, does it? O.o
The use of ‘go’ in 5d is something that never fails to make me roll my eyes and sigh.
Also, I wonder who’s right about the nature of Antimatter – Andrew in the comments at 15^2 with his link to Wikipedia, or Phi who we know to be an astronomer?
Put me down as another who thought this one tough. Four-star, for me.
I couldn’t parse LILIACEOUS. Early on, on the basis of the crossing L, A and U, I thought “polyanthus”, and couldn’t “unthink” it, if you know what I mean. I couldn’t parse METRIC or IDENTITY THEFT either, though the last clue was brilliant when I saw how it worked.
I’m inclined to agree with Cornick that there must be something going on. Very surprised when I went to 225 and found there was nothing.
I’d agree with the three star rating. I very much enjoyed nearly all aspects of this puzzle – thank you – although I did think surface readings in a handful of clues were a bit stodgy – and sorry to say I included the COD in that. I liked the clue for ALLEY CAT best.
Not the easiest of Phi’s puzzles but I didn’t find it too difficult – perhaps I had a vague memory of doing it the first time around. I liked the link between 3 and 21 – in fact it was 21 that led me to the answer for 3.