The usual good product from Phi. Several enormous anagrams — he must have been out with his Scrabble tiles.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘S A MOA — I think, although ‘s for it’s I’m not quite sure about: Chambers only has this as the shortened form of has, is and us. SA MOA, where SA = sex appeal = it (thanks Ian N14) |
| 4 | DECEITFUL — (fuel cited)* |
| 9 | H(USB)AND |
| 10 | ENDEMIC — end (mice)rev. mice with its tail first (thanks Derrick) |
| 11 | RACING CERTAINTY — (try ancient cigar)* |
| 12 | CE LI(BAT)E |
| 14 | K(ID)NAP — Again I’m not quite sure here: ‘knap’ is defined in Chambers as ‘to snap or break …’ — hardly ‘to go off’, which is surely ‘nap’. But is ‘knap’ a variant spelling of ‘nap’? Otherwise where does the K come from? KI(DNA)P (thanks K’sD) |
| 17 | LOO KIN |
| 18 | {b}LANKNESS |
| 20 | SEE NAPLES AND DIE — (seaplanes indeed)* |
| 22 | CHI(G)N ON |
| 23 | R(E TIN)UE |
| 24 | ON STAND BY — working = on, display unit = stand, times = by |
| 25 | ES SEX |
| Down | |
| 1 | SPHERICAL — (car is help)* |
| 2 | MUSICAL COMEDIES — (melodic miscues)* around a |
| 3 | AG (A) IN |
| 4 | DEDICATE — ‘d (iced tea)* — in this case Chambers does give ‘d for had |
| 5 | C(HER)RY |
| 6 | INDIAN{a} IN K{inky} — this play |
| 7 | FEMININE ENDINGS — (men needing finis{h})* |
| 8 | {p}LUCKY |
| 13 | BR(IT)AN (NI) A — bran is the refuse (noun) |
| 15 | PAS DE DEUX — (ad sexed up)* |
| 16 | DAD(S)A RM Y |
| 19 | E(L UNE)D |
| 20 | SIC KO — is sicko also an adjective (apparently yes, thanks Ian N14), or is ‘That’s perverted’ an elliptical form of ‘That’s someone who is perverted’? |
| 21 | fertilisER TINs — hidden rev. & lit. — Phi is an Azed regular and there were two hidden rev. &lits among the VHCs last time |
Thanks, John. What a super puzzle, which I really enjoyed. Some good long anagrams, as you say.
For 14ac, I think it’s DNA (modern evidence) in KIP (go off, as in go to sleep).
Hello John,
1ac. I think uses “it” as that old crossword standard for SA (sex appeal).
20d. Yes, “sicko” can be an adjective.
I found this enjoyable and quite easy, maybe I was lucky in getting the long answers early on. Favourite, FEMININE ENDINGS.
Excellent puzzle despite me not knowing ELUNED and CHIGNON. I enjoyed the wordplay in 16dn, good to see the Dadaists putting in an appearance. 5dn had an interesting definition that mislead me for a little while.
Yes, 1ac is ‘it’ = SA and interestingly the across clues ended with ‘it’ = SEX.
NITRE was in the first and last puzzles of this (working) week with NITRITE showing up between the two.
I ,too, enjoyed this. PHI is always good value. In 10 across EMIC is MICE tail first, not reversed.