The usual nice crossword from Phi, with plenty of the good clues you expect from him. Sorry this is a bit late, which it is for two reasons: although yesterday all was in train for today’s blog, when I got up I forgot for a while and went about my normal business, and also it was so far as I could see an unusually intractable Phi. I’m used to making a slow start on his crosswords and only getting going once several are filled in, but in this case I made a slow start and continued rather slowly, not helped by one or two answers that had to be looked up.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 In the past, clothing round a pub frightened person when out? (10)
AGORAPHOBE
ago r(a PH)obe — a PH is a public house, a pub
6 Crash, parking in motorway access road (4)
RAMP
ram p — the motorway access road usage was new to me, and Chambers says that it’s North American, so perhaps that’s why
9 Wife’s warning to ditch husband, doing things individually? (5,5)
DUTCH TREAT
dutch [= wife, there is an argument about whether or not this is rhyming slang, possibly, duchess of Fife] t{h}reat
10 President, not elected, shows disappointed face (4)
POUT
P out
12 Break window with people? Make excuse mostly with a street getting spoiled (12)
DEFENESTRATE
defen{d} (a street)* — defend = make excuse seemed a long shot: defend = make excuse for, perhaps, but I can’t think of two sentences where defend and make excuse are interchangeable — to defenestrate is to throw people out of windows (although the latest Chambers only gives defenestration)
15 Unreliable friend in affair around start of last month (3,2,4)
AMI DE COUR
am(1 Dec)our — an ami de cour is apparently a court friend, so an untrustworthy one, although Chambers doesn’t seem to give this in English
17 Line of Kings not initially describing how they want their subjects to be? (5)
LOYAL
l {r}oyal
18 Showing detached attitude? One’s upped the dope (5)
ALOOF
not quite sure about this: it seems to be a (fool)rev., although ‘upped’ for reversal in an across clue seems a bit odd
19 Missed tea badly – here’s coffee? (9)
DEMITASSE
(missed tea)*
20 Rover’s Return? Here’s a consequence or two! (4,2,3,3)
HAIR OF THE DOG
2 defs I think, Rover’s Return meaning the return (i.e. outcome, result) from Rover the dog, and the morning drink that is supposed to settle the hangover taken in the Coronation Street pub — but I’m not absolutely sure about this and I suspect the ‘or two!’ in the clue has a deeper meaning that I’ve missed
24 Vehicles heading off where wheel turns? (4)
AXIS
{t}axis
25 Silver: consequence of loss is distressing (10)
AGGRIEVING
Ag [the chemical symbol for silver] grieving
26 Award or prize Judge dismissed (4)
EMMY
{j}emmy — prize = prise, North American I thought but not apparently so
27 Butterfly frightened mountaineer who’s removed cap (10)
FRITILLARY
frit [= frightened, a dialect word] {H}illary — ref Sir Edmund Hillary
Down
1 Assistant‘s throwaway comment releasing little special (4)
AIDE
a{s}ide
2 Way to climb height, producing exasperated comment (4)
OATH
I think this is (Tao)rev. h — Tao is the way to be followed
3 Trouble of the last toe? (8,4)
ATHLETES FOOT
(of the last toe)* — &lit.
4 Rugby post arrangement curtailed crowd (5)
HORDE
h orde{r} — I’ve never before come across H = rugby post but it seems fine to me, even if it’s a slightly unconventional H
5 Part of car tilted going through Birmingham (5,4)
BRAKE DRUM
B(raked)rum
7 Shortened song penned by a US writer is the last item (10)
APOCALYPSE
a Po(calyps{o})e
8 Drug proved fake, after lecturer injected, like some sort of pig? (3-7)
POT-BELLIED
pot bel(l)ied
11 Pointed item wrecked the toilets and most of tree (8,4)
STILETTO HEEL
(the toilets)* el{m}
13 Father hears unhappily about crime, put in other words (10)
PARAPHRASE
Pa (hears)* around rap
14 Consequence of smoking after turning in in sitcom, possibly (10)
NICOTINISM
(in)rev. (in sitcom)*
16 Unopened file about male expert (3,6)
OLD STAGER
{f}old(stag)er
21 Bird cry at Loch Ness sees English pushing forward (5)
EGRET
greet (a Scottish version of weep or cry) with one of the e’s moved to the front
22 Narrow view overlooks front of this travel document (4)
VISA
vis{t{ravel}}a — overlooks in the sense drops —I hadn’t realised that a vista was a narrow view, but it’s a view, esp through an avenue of trees etc
23 Comfortably avoiding opening tin that’s not tasty? (4)
UGLY
{Sn}ugly — Sn is the chemical symbol for tin
You and me both struggling with this one, thought the grieving/aggrieving a bit to close for my liking.
Thanks John didn’t get the wordplay for oath.
I started this one slowly and I thought I was going to be chewing on it for quite a while, but once I was about halfway through the rest fell into place fairly quickly.
I don’t see a nina or a theme but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
NICOTINISM wasn’t a word I had come across before but it was obvious enough from the anagram fodder, although I needed the wordplay for AMI DE COUR. OATH was my LOI after I finally saw the Tao/way connection.
Thanks Phi and John. I liked 23d, 15a, 7d, 12a, 9a, 3d and my favourite was 1a AGORAPHOBE.
New words for me were FRITILLARY, AMI DE COUR, BRUM = ‘Birmingham’, DEFENESTRATE, JEMMY.
I could not parse 20a, 4d.
I agree with John’s parsing and comment re 18a ALOOF. I also agree with John’s parsing of 2d.
NOt sure about the pub one. Hair of the dog is drinking alcohol to sooteh a hangover? Puzzled!!
We are glad that we arent the only ones puzzled by ‘hair of the dog’. There must be more to it we feel, given the setter! We didn’t understand the parsing for OATH so thanks to John for the blog – we didn’t check TAO. This was our last one in. Bert entered it on a whim as he couldn’t think of any other logical solution and we then had the ‘completed’ message! We then got hooked on HT for height.
We thought this was trickier than usual for Phi but no les enjoyable. Like John it was a slow start and a slow solve!
We did wonder whether there was a theme when we saw athlete’s foot and stiletto heel but can’t see any other reference to body parts apart from pot-bellied!
Thanks Phi and John!
Agree with most that this was tougher than usual for Phi. Ami de cour is a false/insincere friend, or a “court” friend, I think in the sense of one who is at a royal court (as in a courtier) and so may appear to be a friend so far as it suits his or her aspirations to maintain the royal favour. Perhaps K’s D should be consulted.
Thanks to Phi and John.
Actually seemed to me about the normal level of difficulty for the Friday puzzle (and certainly easier than several this week), but I too had trouble with 2dn. OATH seemed right for the definition but I couldn’t see the wordplay and I even did an e-search to see if there was some obvious word I was missing. So thanks to all for the explanation.
See I’m not the only one with questions about 18 and 20ac.
ALOOF is a disaster. Feels like a crossword has been ‘turned round’ to accomodate another clue (though I can’t work out which) and not fully checked afterwards. HAIR OF THE DOG is incomprehensible – somebody please explain! Otherwise good fun – I don’t see a them but who cares.
Indeed, a rather clunky puzzle from the usually ever-reliable Phi.
I can’t really make sense of HAIR OF THE DOG either, except that maybe it’s to do with that shaky thing that they do when they get back in from a walk and get hairs everywhere. Which is one of the many reasons I don’t have a dog.
J’aimerais bien vous aider avec AMI DE COUR, but I can’t. It just means ‘friend of the court’ and I’d never heard of it.
And ALOOF must surely be an unintentional transposition of a down clue into an across one?
RAMP I was familiar with, since my sat-nav lady barks out things like: CONTINUE ON RAMP! But I agree with John – to whom thanks for blogging – that it’s mainly an American English term.
It could be a re-used clue, ALOOF? He has forgotetn to change the direction!!
Surely I can’t be the only reader familiar with the expression ‘hair of the dog (that bit you)’, defined in Chambers as ‘a smaller dose of that which caused the trouble; a morning drink of the alcohol that caused the hangover as a cure for it, taken as a homeopathic dose’. Is there something I’m missing here?
I think everyone is familiar with the expression, Polly, it’s just that no-one seems to be able to make exact sense of how the clue works.
I think you’re parsing of 20ac is fine, John – the ‘or two’ is simply indicating the 2 different definitions as you described: Rover’s (a dog’s) return & Rover’s Return (pub) both can lead to the result of ‘hair of the dog’.
Yes indeedy, the fur but not the teeth is the second dose, but I can’t make head nor tail of it, I’m sorry about that pun, even so. Some crossword writers aren’t too good at that type of clue, and should back right off!
Phi is usually a good solve, this is just one maybe slightly uneven puzzle out of many good ones.
Thanks, K’s D – I’m with you now, and inclined to agree with what’s been proposed by you and others. Let’s hope Phi drops in soon to shed some light.
It can’t be to do with the pub as that is the Rovers Return sans apostrophe.
Yours confused
DB
Perhaps one could parse 12ac slightly differently – ‘Make “excuse mostly” with “a street getting spoiled”‘, with excuse as verb, = defend.
This may have been a little less polished than usual, but I thought it a fair contest (despite it taking me nearly an hour, having entered legal for loyal!).
I think John (to whom thanks) is right that there are two meanings (consequences…) for Rovers Return (apostrophe in question as has been said). 1) hair brought in by the Rover the dog and 2)going back to the pub (Rovers Return)for a tipple the day after overdoing it.
Haven’t really been ignoring you – just had to get out and take a photo of the other half holding a birthday greeting in front of the local artesian well for an American friend. (My other half is on social media too much, if you ask me…) This was to be part of a series of local attractions – we subsequently passed a 5m high inflatable sheep (only in NZ), so the friend’s got one of that as well. All in a lovely spring downpour.
Anyway, I seem to have riled a few of you. Rover’s Return: yes, pet hair (always likely to come to mind in this household…); never knew the pub lacked an apostrophe (seems a strange name for a pub if so but then I don’t watch Coro, as it’s called here). ALOOF: not a rotated grid – just the consequence of writing clues away from the grid, and not following the A or D in the margin, and not picking it up when typing up the submitted version. It happened a couple of months ago as well, and only nmsindy commented. (On which basis it should happen again before Christmas, dammit!)