Solving time : 35 minutes. As he does every week, Phi manages to produce a crossword that is full of clever stuff with which it’s apparently almost impossible to find fault.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MOP IS H[esitate]. |
| 4 | STOP PAR D[rama]. |
| 10 | (LATE)* I SURE, def. “Under pressure? By no means”. |
| 11 | 2 defs. |
| 12 | (MUM)* in SONS. |
| 13 | RE D(H)EAD, ref. “The Red-Headed League“, a Sherlock Holmes story. |
| 14 | FUN GI I think. Presumably “two internal portions” refers to two letters. The definition is “mushrooms?” |
| 15 | IN DUST(R)Y. Not sure about “much-used” for “in”. |
| 18 | O RIG IN A L. Why the exclam? Perfectly nice, but not especially remarkable, and marginally amusing perhaps, but … |
| 20 | NORMA[l]. One of the crossword setter’s favourite operas. |
| 25 | (SUN ALE)* H. |
| 27 | D in (WITH STAG)*. Def. “near people”. Good clue. |
| Down | |
| 1 | M(EATS)A FE. |
| 2 | PULL MAN[y]. |
| 3 | R in (JINKS I GO)*. I had to check what skijoring was, although I had vaguely heard of it. |
| 5 | (REFUGE TAILORED)*. |
| 7 | A MATE(U)R. Good def., referring to the basic meaning of “amateur”. |
| 8 | DI(RN)D L. I’ve never heard of a dirndl except in crosswords. |
| 9 | (ANTI MOST QUERIES)* minus I. Lovely &lit. |
| 16 | SING (blab), LET ON (tell tales). The def., cunningly disguised, is “One”. |
| 17 | MACH 1 S MO. |
| 21 | READ A PT. If one is to be very pedantic, “readapt” presumably means not “modify” but “modify again”. |
| 22 | D(ROWS)E[n]. |
| 24 | TOP IC[e]. |
3D – I’d never heard of this and was amazed to find it is actually a word. Really liked 16D.
As you say, faultless stuff as ever from Phi.
14 “Two internal portions” was a bit unusual in that normally it’s the centre that’s taken – these were the 3rd and 4th letters of a 5-letter word. It’s also one of two (or maybe even three) possibilities. None of this held up solving tho.
15 Thought ‘much-used’ v much OK for ‘in’
After recent Phi Indy puzzles, looked for a while to see if there was a Nina but can see nothing