i Cryptic Crossword 4165 by Phi
June 12, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳
Phi will think that I’m stalking him – I’ve blogged the last couple of puzzles he has had in the i, as well as his latest Inquisitor. This may be a burden for him, but not for me, as I invariably enjoy his offerings. In fact, it was one of his which made me jump ship to the i. Anyway, a little tougher than usual for him today I thought, with quite a few clues that needed some mulling over. I was on the point of becoming badly unstuck at one point, but then noticed the symmetry in the left and right hand columns, which needless to say was a big help. A few I struggled to parse, notably 11ac, 18ac and 6d, but the answers were forthcoming enough. A satisfying solve, I thought.
CoD? I’ll go with 23ac – “American taxmen backtracking, with criminal groups about – they put the heat on (3,5)”.
All the answers and parsing of the clues can be found in Fifteensquared’s blog from June 2024:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/07/24/independent-10540-phi/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Enjoyable, in that Phi way.
I found it a little tougher than Phi typically is, perhaps because of the eight (eight!) four-letter entries, which are so often my undoing…
I did go online to check on GANTT CHART, as it seemed a little unlikely, although the word-play made it clear.
Spotted the nina, which helped with SPEC, my last one in.
Other Nana saw the grid type as begging for something in the unches. She had LHS A-G sorted PDQ, which helped enormously. We were painfully slow on 13a- trying dog,cur and all sorts before getting PDM. 18a fell late but once we saw it, parsing was straightforward. We made up Gantt chart then looked it up! 15a was laborious- eventually we managed to see the light.
a very fine puzzle from Phi, and he sets the bar high to begin with. We thought there might be a pangram but alas no Z. We do so agree on the 4 letter problem. Worst of all is the blank vowel blank “e”4 letter clues where you have little help of any kind!
I found this harder than Phi’s puzzle two days ago but much easier than that of six days ago. Missed the nina, even on completion, as I was going out. SEX features quit often in clues but today was the flrst time I recall it used lo clue GENDER. IRS also original,I thlnk. Liked VOID and JINX.
DNF. Lost interest. Gantt Chart obviously shoehorned in. Despite an interest in oenology 15ac failed to inspire. Obviously having an off day. If only my parents had bought me a sky subscription when I was little I might have ended up cleverer.