After a few weeks of completing Phi’s puzzles and then wondering whether there was a hidden theme (and sometimes there was and sometimes there wasn’t), an openly themed puzzle this week. We don’t think there’s anything else going on, but you can never be sure with Phi!
The gateway clues at 27 and 28 across were readily solvable, and Phi’s usual good, smooth clueing made it possible to work out the more obscure thematic entries from the wordplay – we hadn’t come across 4ac, 13ac, 25ac and 21d before. These apart, this was a fairly straightforward, not-too-taxing, but very enjoyable end to the week’s exercise for the old grey matter.
We would however like some help with 23ac – there must be someone out there who can!
| Across | ||
| 1 | A church is 27 28 | |
| PERCH | PER (a – as in ‘for each’) + CH (church) | |
| 4 | Tense, odd bloke is 27 28 | |
| TRUMPETER | T (tense) + RUM (odd) + PETER (bloke) | |
| 9 | Theatre friend’s fine coming back for girl in 20s | |
| FLAPPER | REP (theatre) + PAL (friend) + F (fine) all reversed or ‘coming back’ | |
| 10 | Priest coming in to train wanting reduction of the belly | |
| COELIAC | ELI (priest) in COAC |
|
| 11 | Race expert losing to the organised | |
| ETHNOLOGIST | Anagram of LOSING TO THE (anagrind is ‘organised’) | |
| 12 | Repulsion of evil is 27 28 | |
| DAB | BAD (evil) reversed or ‘repelled’ | |
| 13 | River, in a short time, is 27 28 | |
| BRIT | R (river) in BIT (a short time) | |
| 14 | Serial favouritism surrounding new Eurovision contestants? | |
| SERBIANS | SER (serial) + BIAS (favouritism) ‘surrounding’ N (new) | |
| 18 | Speech-makers disconcerted with dodgy press coverage? | |
| SPOUTERS | OUT (disconcerted) in, or ‘covered by’ an anagram of PRESS (anagrind is ‘dodgy’) | |
| 19 | Spot (in ocean) one that’s 27 28, nothing less | |
| ISLE | I (one) + S |
|
| 22 | Tear drops lead to regret – stop | |
| END | ||
| 23 | A little wind blowing back during exercise of oar in watery domain | |
| ARCHIPELAGO | CHIP (a little?) + GALE (wind) reversed or ‘blowing back’ in or ‘during’ an anagram of OAR (anagrind is ‘exercise of’). We’re not sure about ‘chip’ = ‘a little’ – all definitions of ‘chip’ we can find relate to specific small things, but not a direct synonym for ‘a little’. Are we missing something? | |
| 25 | Trooped out for 27 28 | |
| TORPEDO | Anagram of TROOPED (anagrind is ‘out’) | |
| 26 | Old politician seizing money is 27 28 | |
| WHITING | WHIG (old politician) round or ‘seizing’ TIN (money) | |
| 27 | Satisfied with greeting in Carol’s embrace: an indefinable feeling | |
| SOMETHING | MET (satisfied) + HI (greeting) in, or ‘embraced by’ SONG (carol) | |
| 28 | Suspicious following attempt to secure ‘Independent’ | |
| FISHY | F (following) + SHY (attempt) round, or ‘securing’ I (Independent) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Train smoker is 27 28 | |
| PUFFER | Double definition | |
| 2 | To start to speak about neglecting book is 27 28 | |
| ROACH | ||
| 3 | It’s python dancing that defines stage entertainer | |
| HYPNOTIST | Anagram of ITS PYTHON (anagrind is ‘dancing’) | |
| 4 | Salesman holding bridge up is 27 28 | |
| TURBOT | TOUT (salesman) around, or ‘holding’ BR (bridge) all reversed or ‘up’ | |
| 5 | Relative not getting the French drunk straightened out? | |
| UNCOILED | UNC |
|
| 6 | Request time to work on skirt? | |
| PLEAT | PLEA (request) + T (time) | |
| 7 | That rider getting thrown is not very good | |
| THIRD-RATE | Anagram of THAT RIDER (anagrind is ‘getting thrown’) | |
| 8 | Popular music, deep in sound, is 27 28 | |
| ROCK BASS | ROCK (popular music) + BASS (deep in sound) | |
| 13 | Books about (say) motorway verge describing wide edge | |
| BROAD-BRIM | BB (books) round,or ‘about’ ROAD (motorway, for example) + RIM (verge) | |
| 15 | Sculpture, when right, captures religious stance? On the contrary | |
| BAS-RELIEF | As written, the clue suggests that AS (when) + R (right) goes round, or ‘captures’ BELIEF (religious stance) – ‘on the contrary’ indicates that BELIEF ‘captures’ ASR | |
| 16 | Dangerous material in Paris is restricted by court orders | |
| ASBESTOS | EST (‘is’ in Paris) in, or ‘restricted by’ ASBOS (court orders) | |
| 17 | Relative with colic upset – vegetable? | |
| BROCCOLI | BRO (relative) + anagram of COLIC (anagrind is ‘upset’) | |
| 20 | VIP British women in current concert | |
| BIGWIG | B (British) + W (women) in I (current) GIG (concert) | |
| 21 | Approximate variable in calculation is 27 28 | |
| ROUGHY | ROUGH (approximate) + Y (variable in calculation). This one was the slipperiest customer – only in Chambers under ‘Orange Roughy’ | |
| 23 | A poor service receiving regulator’s first warning | |
| ALERT | A LET (poor service in tennis etc) around or ‘receiving’ R (first letter of Regulator) | |
| 24 | I’m held up by fool wrongly | |
| AMISS | IM reversed or ‘held up’ in ASS (fool) | |
This wasn’t my favourite ever Phi. Unlike you, I couldn’t get the gateway clues straightaway, so was then left floundering (sorry) because wherever I turned on the grid there were themed clues (a dozen is plenty, thank you). So it took me ages to get going and then by the time I finished I had a grump on.
But hey, it’s only a crossword. Thanks to S&B.
I thought this was fun, as was your blog – thanks!
I parsed ARCHIPELAGO as you did, but there may be more to it.
I was a bit anxious about BRIT, but should have known that a small herring would appear somewhere.
I have eaten some of the other kinds of fish, but not ROACH, TORPEDO nor – as I value my sodium channels – PUFFER.
BRIT and ROUGHY were my last two in with my fingers crossed. It took me a while to solve the gateway clues so this one took me longer than some Phi puzzles, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I also parsed ARCHIPELAGO the same way.
Very enjoyable thank you Phi and B&J too – I agree with your parsing of ARCHIPELAGO.
I wondered about 21d too. I had to get it by trial and error from a word finder, then all I could find in Chambers was ‘roughie’, also spelt ‘roughy’, with one meaning being ‘an unfair trick, twist or incident’. Maybe one could just about equate to something fishy in a figurative sense. I suppose if I’d googled it I’d have found it.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
K’s D @1 sums it up for me, except I got grumpy sooner and went for the reveal button to finish as I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
I reverse solved FISHY from 12a DAB, which gave me the key part of the gateway; just as well as 27a was too convoluted to be an easy solve if it was needed. I thought I had a fairly wide fish vocabulary, but obviously not wide enough. I did wonder if Wanda would make an appearance……….. or maybe an obscure reference to Monty Python’s Fish Slapping Dance.
I’m over my grump now, but nice to be able to welcome Cumbrian to the Grumpy Old Men’s Club (I take it, Cumbrian, that since you know the Monty Python Fish Slapping Dance then I can count you in as ‘old’ …)
I do like Phi’s puzzles, but I guess that this was one of those ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time’ offerings.
A good and grump-free weekend to all.
ROUGHY does seem a bit naughty in retrospect. We get lots of warnings here in NZ about its being overfished, and we’re enjoined not to buy it at fishmongers. There is a slightly less endangered roughy of a different hue further down the lists, so it went in as a breed. Chambers seems only to have the one example. I should have worked TERAKIHI in instead…
Count me among the grumpy, or getting towards it. I just couldn’t get 27 and 28 but that getting a couple of the fishes at least gave a hook into 28. 27 took much longer, after going out for the evening. But even then, I was only able to do about half this.