It is Friday today, so seeing Phi’s latest grid before me this morning came as no surprise.
There was obviously a theme to this puzzle, given the abundance of references to 28, which I solved fairly early on. Indeed, Phi has done a remarkable job of including so many expressions with “silver” in the one grid, some of which are more common than others.
I struggled to find all the thematic entries, especially the four 4-letter entries, all of which are amongst the less common of the expressions selected by Phi. While sound wordplay led me to the correct entries, without Chambers I would have had no idea what e.g. 6 and 25 actually meant. The seed-separator in 18 and the profit in 26 also placed the vocabulary at the hard end of the range for a daily puzzle.
Once I had solved and confirmed it, 11 was actually my clue of the day, for its clever separation of “f” from f-lowers.
*(…) indicates an anagram; all entries marked * can follow the entry at 28
| Across | ||||
| 8 | *SURFER | F (=female) in SURER (=less unsettled); a silver surfer is an older internet user | ||
| 9 | UNEDITED | EDIT (TIDE=time; “recalled” indicates reversal) in *(NUDE); “dancing” is anagram indicator | ||
| 10 | EUGENICIST | *(GENIUS ETC I); “manipulated” is anagram indicator | ||
| 11 | *LEAF | LEA (=meadow) + F<lowers> (“shaking off drops (=lowers, as a verb)” means letters “lowers” are dropped) | ||
| 12 | SHOWCASE | [HOW + C<orvette> (“first” means first letter only)] in *(SEAS); “stormy” is anagram indicator | ||
| 13 | RIDDLE | <g>RIDDLE (=cookware; “with front removed” means first letter is dropped) | ||
| 15 | *NITRATE | Cryptic definition: NIT (=idiot) + RATE (=how often), i.e. “how often idiots appear” | ||
| 17 | *SERVICE | SE<e>R (=prophet; “dismissing one English (=E)” means one of letter “e”s is dropped) + VICE (=sin) | ||
| 20 | CLASPS | P (=priest) in CLASS (=schoolchildren) | ||
| 22 | ENGINEER | [IN + <exchang>E (“latest in” means last letter only)] in <mess>ENGER (=courier; “to avoid mess” means letters “mess” are dropped) | ||
| 24 | *GILT | Homophone (“aired on radio”) of “guilt” (=responsibility) | ||
| 26 | RIDING BOOT | RIDING (=part of Yorkshire) + BOOT (=profit, as in to boot); the cryptic definition is “last item”, i.e. something made on the last | ||
| 27 | CETACEAN | CET A (A + TEC=sleuth; “backing” indicates reversal) + <o>CEAN (=sea; “nothing (=O) less” means letter “o” is dropped) | ||
| 28 | SILVER | S-L I-VER (=shard; “given partial twist” means some letters change places) | ||
| Down | ||||
| 1 | DULUTH | DUL<l> (=boring; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) + <r>UTH (=pity; “given lack of leadership” means first letter is dropped); Duluth is a (small!) city in Minnesota | ||
| 2 | AFTERWARDS | [FT (=newspaper) + ER (=little hesitation)] in AWARDS (=prizes) | ||
| 3 | IRRITANT | [R (=river) + IT] in [I + RANT (=go on, i.e. rave)] | ||
| 4 | *JUBILEE | [U (=university) + BILE (=bitterness)] in JE (=first person in France, i.e. the French word for I) | ||
| 5 | *BEATER | BEAT (=exhausted) + ER (=monarch) | ||
| 6 | *BILL | B (=book) + ILL (=amiss); a silverbill is a weaver-finch of the Lonchura genus) | ||
| 7 | METALLIC | MET (=satisfied) + ALL (=sum) + I + C (=see, i.e. in SMS speak); the definition is “like silver (=entry at 28)” | ||
| 14 | DIVING BELL | DIVING (=pretending to trip, i.e. in football) + BELL (=end of round, i.e. in boxing); a diving bell is a hollow vessel or chamber in which people can work under water, hence “it lowers one in the main” | ||
| 16 | ILL-TIMED | I’LL + [M (=millions) in TIED (=equal, i.e. level on points)] | ||
| 18 | EDGINESS | GIN (=seed-separator, i.e. cotton gin) in *(SEEDS); “scattered” is anagram indicator | ||
| 19 | *WEDDING | WE (=our group) + ‘D (=had, as in I’d left) + DING (=strike, i.e. dash, thump) | ||
| 21 | *SCREEN | SCREE (=rocks) + <canyo>N (“bottom of” means last letter) | ||
| 23 | ERODED | <h>E RODE D<own>; “worn down” means letters at front and back are taken away | ||
| 25 | *THAW | W-HA-T (=question; “swapping ends” means first and last letters change places); silver thaw is ice formed by rain freezing quickly as it hits the ground | ||
Thanks for the blog of this interesting crossword, RR.
My favourites were NITRATE, METALLIC and THAW.
I was waiting for *fish and *beet (common here in NZ) to appear, as I battled with the last remaining 4 letter clues – but the actual answers were more obscure, as you indicate.
I was only able to complete this puzzle with copious use of the “check” button and a lot of help from dictionary and google etc.
My favourites were 20a, 12a, 25d & 15a.
I was unable to parse 14d, 11a, 17a & 6d.
Re 8a, I discovered that the SILVER SURFER is also a fictional character, a superhero appearing in comic books and other publications by Marvel Comics.
Thanks for the blog, RatkojaRiku.
In 7D, while ‘see’ = C is indeed SMS speak, its use that way in puzzles goes back much further, I think.
Well that was an odd solve spent ages not getting 28 followed by a virtual write-in once I had.
I’m more bemused by Phi’s comment about last week’s Tempest themed puzzle and that all would be revealed today, whateveer it is, it’s gone right over my head.
Thanks RR & Phi
Not the easiest of Phi’s offerings. I too struggled for ages with 28ac until discovering that 4dn couldn’t be anything else but JUBILEE; even then some of the themed entries weren’t too obvious. But all solvable in the end.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku
PS – in the blog, SERVICE at 17ac could be marked with an asterisk.
Tricky, I thought, even after solving 28A for the same reasons others have given. Too obscure for my word power; I only managed with a lot of trial an error on the 4 letter answers.
Thanks, allan_c – the missing * has now been added!
nmsindy – on C = see, I wonder what the earlier source of this than mobile telephony might have been. Any ideas?
Re “see”/C, I just looked and it’s certainly in the 1983 Chambers (third definition of “see” – “the third letter of the alphabet (C,c)”).
I too found the puzzle an interesting one, but struggled on the four-letter themed answers. I got SILVER early on (but only after solving JUBILEE and SURFER). Pretty inventive overall, though. But what it’s got to do with The Tempest, who knows? I can’t remember a puzzle from one day to the next, never mind one week to the next.
Thanks to RR and Phi.
re #7 and #8 and C = see, I’d say it was based on the same “sounds like” idea that then got used in the SMS era of today for the same reason.
Well, we are also bemused by Phi’s comment last week that the theme last week was a means to an end and that all would be revealed after this week’s puzzle.
Still enjoyed the puzzle though – we liked 15ac in particular!
Thanks Phi – we hope we don’t have to wait too long for a hint or an explanation.
Thanks for the blog RR.
With a vegetable garden that, at this time of year, is dominated by silverbeet, I really should have remembered to put in.
I think I suggested last week that these two puzzles were paired – not sure I suggested you’d spot it. Last week there was a notable omission of Miranda and this week you had Silver. And while we didn’t name our new kittens for their thematic potential, it seemed pointless to waste the names. To be fair, Miranda was named following a trip to see Thomas Ades’ The Tempest, while Silver…well, pictures will be up on the website over the weekend.
While Phi is nigh, the internet seems unaware of the lovely clue with which he was welcomed to the Independent’s crossword team by another puzzle-setter:
“Introducing Phi, extremely clever, The Independent’s newest setter.” (6 letters)