This Friday morning, as is customary, saw me pitting my wits against Phi’s latest offering.
I enjoyed completing this grid, with its four long entries; it is not one that I recall having seen all that often before. I spotted that the top and bottom rows might lend themselves to a Nina, but I didn’t identify one anywhere in this puzzle: did I miss anything, I wonder?
I worked through this puzzle steadily, faltering only at the last hurdle with the intersecting entries at 3 and 10, both of which were new words for me. Tight wordplay allowed me to solve both satisfactorily and then check them in the dictionary. It took me a while to crack the ingenious wordplay of 7D and 11, both of which raised a smile when I twigged how they worked. Incidentally, the word at 7D figured in a Phi puzzle back in May that I blogged, so it must be a word that he feels has a lot of clueing potential; having not known it the first time, I was pleased to remember it today.
My favourite clues today were 13, for its original homophone indicator, and 16, for its smooth surface and clever device for dropping initial letters.
*(…) indicates an anagram
| Across | ||||
| 7 | ARCHIMEDES’ SCREW | ARCH (=main, as in arch enemy) + *(I’D SEEM) + S (=second) + CREW (=gang); “upset” is anagram indicator; an Archimedes’ screw is a pump-like device used historically to raise water, hence “one shifts water” | ||
| 9 | I KNOW | I (=one) + K (=king, in chess and cards) + NOW (WON=triumphed; “after reversal” indicates reversal) | ||
| 10 | AVIFAUNAL | [FAUN (=minor god, i.e. rural deity)] in [A + VIAL (=bottle, i.e. for medicine)]; avifaunal describes the bird-life of a particular region, hence “of local birds” | ||
| 11 | ALLEGORICAL | ALL (=entirely) + <cat>EGORICAL (=definite; “removing animal (=CAT)” means the letters “cat” are dropped | ||
| 13 | PIC | Homophone (“using voice software”) of “pick” (=select) | ||
| 14 | VATICAN | VAT (=tax, i.e. Value Added Tax) + I CAN (=expression of capability) | ||
| 16 | REPRINT | [PR (=price) + I] in RENT (=regular payment) | ||
| 17 | RYE | RY<d>E; with or without the letter “d” (=daughter), the word is the name of a coastal town, Rye in East Sussex and Ryde on the Isle of Wight | ||
| 18 | MAGIC BULLET | MAG (=magazine) + [BULL (=spectator) in ICE (=reserve, i.e. frostiness)] + <inves>T (“last to” means last letter only) | ||
| 21 | I CLAUDIUS | {[C<ritical> + LAUD (=acclaim)] in II (=two, i.e. in Roman numerals)} + US (=American); the reference is to I, Claudius, the 1934 novel by English writer Robert Graves | ||
| 22 | FARSI | FAR (=remote) + S (=south) + I (=island) | ||
| 24 | NOUVELLE CUISINE | *(LUNC<h>EON ELUSIVE I); “hard (=H) to miss” means the letter “h” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “fancy” | ||
| Down | ||||
| 1 | SCAN | SCAN<t> (=inadequate); “not entirely” means last letter is dropped | ||
| 2 | BIGWIG | W (=Welsh) in [GIGI (=musical) + B (=book)]; “brought up” indicates vertical reversal | ||
| 3 | BETATRON | BET (=risk) + <m>ATRON (=senior nurse; “knocking top off” means first letter is dropped); | ||
| 4 | HELIAC | HE (=fellow) + L (=left) + I (=one) + AC (=account) | ||
| 5 | ESCALLOP | CALL (=name) in ESOP (POSE=position; “elevated” indicates vertical reversal) | ||
| 6 | PRENUPTIAL | *(NEAR PULPIT); “moving” is anagram indicator | ||
| 7 | ANIMADVERSION | *(DRIVES ON) replaces the last letter (“tail”) of ANIMA<l> (=creature); “cruelly” is anagram indicator | ||
| 8 | WILDCAT STRIKE | <ove>R (“end of” means last letter only) in *(I’D LAST WICKET); “tumbling” is anagram indicator | ||
| 12 | LITTER LOUT | LITTER (=young animals) + L (=left) + OUT (=uncovered) | ||
| 15 | COMPUTER | COM (=common) + PUT<t>ER (=club, i.e. in golf); “half-heartedly” means one of middle letters is dropped | ||
| 16 | RUCKSACK | <t>RUCKS (=haulage vehicles) + <b>ACK (=returned); “with fronts removed” means that initial letters of each are dropped | ||
| 19 | GRISLY | GRI<d> (=puzzle diagram; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) + SLY (=not straightforward, i.e. devious) | ||
| 20 | UNFAIR | <f>UNFAIR (=entertainment centre); “heading away” means first letter is dropped | ||
| 23 | RAIN | <b>RAIN (=intelligence); “without leadership” means first letter is dropped; the definition is “downfall”, i.e. a heavy fall of rain |
Thanks, RR, and Phi. I got two of the long entries very quickly (24A and 8D) but the other two took very much longer. Like you I esp liked RUCKSACK – also LITTER LOUT. Not too difficult a puzzle overall.
Thanks Phi for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle and RR for the blog. I too finished on 3dn/10ac.
Favourite clue 7dn: a nice device clearly indicated.
A couple of small points about the parsing:
10ac: This is just FAUN in [A + VIAL], or possibly A + [FAUN in VIAL]. The “a” in the middle of the clue is part of the indication for FAUN.
2dn: You have identified the reversal indicator but (as I write this) have not actually said “all reversed” in the parsing.
Nice blog, thanks.
Another fine Friday puzzle from Phi – no bells and whistles, but a very pleasing solve. No stand-out clues (although I did like the surface for PRENUPTIAL) but plenty to enjoy. For those who do the puzzle in Another Place, there is a really spooky coincidence with one of the unusual words clued here.
Thanks to Phi.
Yeah, not too difficult today. Finished most of it at lunchtime with only two clues left to do – 3dn and 16dn. Came back to it just now and they suddenly came to me. Didn’t know 10ac but guessed it must start “avi-” and end “-al” so I just opened Chambers and looked at the entry for “Aves”.
Couldn’t see how 5dn worked but it I now realise it was glaringly obvious.
We had a Gigi connection in the Saturday prize crossword just a couple of weeks ago.
I thought this rounded off the week nicely. The puzzles have been of a reasonable uniform standard this week, with Monday’s being probably the easiest and the other four being of a fairly similar level of difficulty. Thankfully, there were no Nimrods or Bannsiders, so I was able to get a nice clean sweep.
Ah, yes – ANIMADVERSION. I wondered if anyone would spot the recurrence. I came across it a while ago, put it on my list of words to kick off filling blank grids, used it in a grid, forgot to delete it from the list, used it again. If it had been published in the order the grids were filled, there’d have been only a couple of weeks between appearances, but I rejigged the order I sent them to Eimi, and I think the further reordering occasioned by the asymmetrical puzzle may have given a further week’s grace.
Thanks for the comments on the parsing, Pelham Barton: I have amended 10 accordingly, although I am not convinced of the need to add “all” in 2, since the “w” is not necessarily reversed, as I see it.