As we always have on Friday, a good offering from Phi. He has used as his theme the cringeworthy 13ac, which is a way of using an idea that is very simple but which I haven’t seen before.
I found this crossword on the easy side for Phi, because the words that are both French and English are all well-known I think, and also because he uses quite a lot of complete anagrams which are fairly easy to detect.
Please can someone explain why Phi starts, in 1ac and 7ac, by putting (13) at the start of the clue and then changes to having it at the end.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PAYS — 2 defs, one of them in French |
| 4 | MO(R)ON |
| 7 | CHAT — 2 defs, one of them in French |
| 9 | PATRON — 2 defs, one of them in French |
| 10 | G OVER NO R{emind} |
| 11 | BOGEYMAN — if one is a bogey man, one gets bogeys on each of the 18 holes and so is 18 over par — my initial thought was that Phi was being old-fashioned and equating par with bogey, something that more or less used to be the case this side of the Atlantic until the USA terminology became widespread |
| 12 | LIMP ID{ea} |
| 13 | PARDON MY FRENCH — (Danny perform)* CH |
| 16 | MERMAID THEATRE — (Drama time there)* — the Mermaid Theatre has a chequered history and nowadays is not used for dramatic productions |
| 18 | A S(Y)LUM |
| 20 | PITT A(N)CE |
| 22 | DIOCESAN — (on dais)* round CE — a diocesan bishop is, as you might expect, a bishop in charge of a diocese |
| 23 | CRAYON — 2 defs, one of them in French |
| 24 | DENT — 2 defs, one of them in French |
| 25 | NEEDS — (d in (seen)*)rev. |
| 26 | DIRE — 2 defs, one of them in French |
| Down | |
| 2 | ALAMO — I thought this was ‘a la mo{de}’, but that’s fashionable rather than methodological, so probably a better attempt is ‘a la’ [= following] M.O. [= modus operandi] |
| 3 | SUR(REND)ER |
| 4 | MONUMENTAL MASON — (Summon a non-metal)* |
| 5 | REGENCY — (ER)rev. gen c y |
| 6 | NAVAL ARCHITECTS — (Caravels can’t hit)* |
| 7 | CAROM — (OR)rev. in cam{p} — cannon as in billiards |
| 8 | ABOLISHER — (abhors lie)* — we have to interpret ‘banner’ as ‘someone who bans’ |
| 14 | ARMI(STIC{k})E{s} |
| 15 | NYASALAND — NY a sala(n)d — the old name for Malawi |
| 17 | DA PONTE — (no p)rev. in date — Da Ponte |
| 19 | L(1 C)IT. |
| 21 | CH(O)IR{p} |
Thanks for the blog, and to Phi for an amusing start to the day.
The “(13)” denotes which part of the definition, once translated into another language, gives the same answer as the rest of the definition, I think. That’s why it’s sometimes at the beginning and other times at the end.
My only quibble is the use of “talk” in 26A rather than “say” or “tell”; I don’t think it would have destroyed the sense of the clue to have been correct. Still, it was clear enough, my language skills might not be very good anyway so I could be wrong.
I liked 7a, 13a, 1a, 3d, 22a & 21d and my favourite was 8d ABOLISHER.
New words for me were Nyasaland, Da Ponte, Mermaid Theatre & CAROM.
I was unable to parse 14d, 15d, 20a, 11a.
Thanks for the blog, Andrew, I agree with your parsing of 2d.
I agree with PJ@1 regarding the placement of “(13)” in the clues. It was quite helpful actually, once I had caught on to what was required with those clues.
PJ@1 – In the online version of the puzzle, the clue for 26a is “Dreadful to speak (13)”. Maybe the print version used “talk” in the clue?
Michelle @ 2,
You’re quite right, and I was misremembering the clue, but I think there is one verb for “to speak” or “to talk”, and another for “to say” or “to tell”. The definition clues the former, but the answer is the latter.
PJ@3
If I understand you correctly, in French PARLER = “to speak, talk” and DIRE = “to say, tell”.
Yes, the clue could have been written as “Dreadful to tell (13)” or “Dreadful to say (13)”.
Anyway, I was fine with the clue, even though it is a little imprecise.
I just realised that I should have been thanking JOHN for the blog (not Andrew). Apologies!
I enjoyed this even though the gateway clue was easily solved and my schoolboy French was sufficient to get the themed clues almost immediately. This puzzle was a nice change of pace after the beast that was today’s Times puzzle.
NYASALAND appeared in another puzzle very recently so I didn’t have to think about that one for too long. My LOI was CAROM after I finally saw LIMPID.
I struggled a bit with the crossing 2d and 11a, but ignorance there as I didn’t know Alamo was a mission at the site of the battle – so I’ve gained a bit more knowledge in the process! I’ve always heard Carom Billiards referred to as French billiards, which may not be correct but I shall now have to go back through the puzzle and look for any more less obvious contributions to the French theme.
Many thanks for puzzle and blog.
Hmmn. Despite some clever cryptic cluing, too many answers were write-ins from the too obvious definitions and enumeration — 4d, 6, 14, 17, 25 and all the French words (if you know a bit of French — if not, the clues seem unfair). I usually look forward to a bit more of a challenge from Phi.
Thank you for the blog, though, John.
It took me a few moments to recall that the MERMAID THEATRE in London is no longer a theatre. I even googled to check it, and discovered that there is another one, very much alive, albeit in Nova Scotia.
Nice theme, thanks, Phi – and John.
Tres bon – merci Phi and John.
Many thanks John & Phi
Very enjoyable but, until now, I was not aware that the MERMAID THEATRE had ceased to function.
Merci John et Phi.
Well, if you speak French, then once you’d got the very obvious gateway clue then the four related answers were write-ins. But it was a bit of light-hearted fun after a Tyrus toughie yesterday.
But the clue for DIRE is indeed faulty as others have explained: it can’t translate ‘speak’. J’ai parlé à Phi et je lui ai dit que j’avais vu une petite erreur dans les mots croisés aujourd’hui. I talked/spoke to Phi and told him/said to him that I had seen a little mistake in the crossword today.
But I don’t think I’ll be starting an online petition to have him removed from the Friday slot because of that.
Bon weekend à tous.
A nice crossword, on the easy side especially if one’s French was up to scratch. More enjoyable for me than last week’s fishy Phi which I couldn’t seem to get to grips with.
I think 3dn is worth a mention for its misleading surface reading. 8dn might have had a question mark to tell you banner was cryptic.
Andy B at #6, I think I’d prefer if there wasn’t a reference to another current puzzle (today’s Times) that solvers might not have yet attempted and would have been keeping away from blogs, such as TFTT, for that reason but looking here for the Indy stuff!
nmsindy@14 – apologies if I gave away too much.
Hi Andy B
No need to apologise. nmsindy is, unfortunately, and unlike him, mistaken since the answer in question appeared in yesterday’s Times.
It took us a little while to get the gateway clue. We guessed at CRAYON without knowing why so the anglo french answers were not all write-ins as they appeared to be for others.
We failed on 17d and came here to check – it was getting too late to persevere.
Merci, un puzzle tres amusant pour le Friday! Merci to Phi et Jean!
Excusons nous pour le miserable franglais. C’est trop tarde!
Re #16, I was referring in #14 to the first para of #6 saying the puzzle was ‘a beast’. I think the comment at #16 may refer to the second para. Thanks, Andy B, for #15.