It’s Friday today, so it’s almost guaranteed to be a Phi-day!
I made pretty steady progress through this one, struggling with 17 and 18 in the SE quadrant and 7, 8 and 11 in the top half of the grid. The entry at 18 was new to me, as was the word for wet blanket in 12. I am not sure of my parsing of 6 – any ideas, fellow solvers? My favourites were 9 and 23, both for their smooth surfaces; I am not sure that I have encountered the acronym at 9 in a crossword before.
For once, I think that I have spotted a Nina in a Phi puzzle!! Once I saw that the grid was such as to allow a message to appear around the perimeter, I kept my eyes peeled and spotted WHERE’S WALLY Q along the top and bottom rows, the Q clearly replacing a question mark. The reference is to the Where’s Wally? -series of children’s books by British illustrator Martin Handford, where the reader is invited to spot Wally in detailed, people-filled pictures. As far as our grid is concerned, Wally is hiding in the middle, moving SE from the letter “w” in 12.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | COLANDER | Firm with planetary explorer, one unable to collect water
CO (=firm, i.e. company) + LANDER (=planetary explorer, i.e. spacecraft) |
| 09 | OFSTED | Inspectorate frequently probed by Sun editor
[S (=Sun) in OFT (=frequently)] + ED (=editor); Ofsted is the UK Office for Standards in Education |
| 10 | SMUG | Unduly confident detective returned, ignoring garden
GUMS<hoe> (=detective); “ignoring garden (=hoe)” means letters “hoe” are dropped; “returned” indicates reversal |
| 11 | INSULARITY | Elected members’ acclaim by public (dispensing champagne) is seen in isolation
INS (=elected members, as opposed to outs) + <pop>ULARITY (=acclaim by public; “dispensing champagne (=pop)” means letters “pop” are dropped) |
| 12 | DOWSER | Daughter with wet blanket not at first someone looking for water
D (=daughter) + <w>OWSER (=wet blanket, in Australian slang; “not at first” means first letter dropped) |
| 14 | LATITUDE | Freedom’s commonplace when power’s deposed
<p>LATITUDE (=commonplace, pointless remark); “when power (=P)’s deposed” means letter “p” is dropped |
| 15 | DOLLAR | Cash sum accepted by staff to be returned
ALL (=sum) in ROD (=staff); “to be returned” indicates reversal |
| 17 | LEGION | Soldiers run, escaping from confinement
LEG-I<r>ON (=confinement); “run (=R, in cricket) escaping” means letter “r” dropped |
| 20 | BROOKLYN | Tolerate US city line taking roundabout route for one of its boroughs
BROOK (=tolerate) + LYN (NY=US city + L (=line); “taking roundabout route” indicates reversal) |
| 22 | GREASE | About to participate in gossip before English musical
[RE (=about) in GAS (=gossip)] + E (=English); the reference is to the 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey |
| 23 | UPPER VOLTA | Country once rigged popular vote, one over seceding
*(POPULAR V<o>TE); “one over (=O, in cricket) seceding” means one letter “o” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “rigged” |
| 24 | PLAN | Intend prisoner mostly to remain within confines of prison
LA<g> (=prisoner; “mostly” means last letter dropped) in P<riso>N (“confines of” means first and last letters only) |
| 25 | DAHLIA | Trouble experienced when turning over item in flowerbed
AIL (=trouble) + HAD (=experienced); “when turning over” indicates reversal |
| 26 | DIETETIC | End tense, having recalled quote about regime
DIE (=end) + T (=tense, in grammar) + ETIC (CITE=quote; “having recalled” indicates reversal) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | WORMWOOD | Argument raised temper, bringing in women’s bitter stuff
WOR (ROW=argument; “raised” indicates reversal) + [W (=women) in MOOD (=temper)]; wormwood is a bitter plant, used to flavour absinthe |
| 02 | HANG | Understanding offering to cut out noise
HAN<din>G (=offering, giving); “to cut noise (=din)” means letters “din” are dropped; to get the hang of is to understand, grasp the meaning of |
| 03 | EDGIER | More nervous broadcasting boss – that is, with Queen coming round
DG (=broadcasting boss, i.e. Director-General, e.g. of BBC) + [I.E. (=that is) in ER (=Queen)] |
| 04 | ROULETTE | Playboy’s granted time inside for some gambling?
[LET (=granted, allowed) + T (=time)] in ROU? (=playboy) |
| 05 | ESCRITOIRE | Item of furniture I found in crumbling rectories
I in *(RECTORIES); “crumbling” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | SEATED | Put out? Daughter’s put out, occupying chair
SE-D-ATE (=put out); “daughter (=D)’s put out” means letter “d” is pushed out, i.e. moved to end of word |
| 08 | RUSTLE | Stone blocking line, creating minor commotion
ST (=stone) in RULE (=line, in drawing) |
| 13 | SALMONELLA | Bacteria sprinkled on all meals
*(ON ALL MEALS); “sprinkled” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | ALLUVIAL | A couple of lines on university’s small bottle of watery deposits
A + LL (=couple of lines, i.e. 2 x L) + U (=university) + VIAL (=small bottle) |
| 18 | NASTALIQ | Mostly unpleasant question about Ali’s flowing script
ALI in [NAST<y> (=unpleasant; “mostly” means last letter dropped) + Q (=question)]; nasta’liq is Persian cursive script |
| 19 | UNCLAD | Caught the Parisienne being embraced by German and naked
[C (=caught, in cricket) + LA (=the Parisienne, i.e. the in French; feminine form, hence –ienne) in UND (=German and, i.e. the German for and) |
| 21 | RIPSAW | Cutting device with a cut-down spike, face upwards
W (=with) + A + SPIR<e> (=spike; “cut-down” means last letter dropped); “face upwards” indicates vertical reversal |
| 22 | GRAVEL | Small stones start to rattle, pounded by hammer
R<attle> (“start to” means first letter only) in GAVEL (=hammer) |
| 24 | PREY | Lawyer’s last to enter agreement about victim
<lawyer>R (“last” means last letter only) in PEY (YEP=agreement; “about” indicates reversal) |
Thanks Phi and RatkojaRiku
6dn: I took this as SEDATED losing a D.
Another very enjoyable puzzle from Phi, IMHO. I looked for the nina very early on and it helped me get HANG and SEATED at the top. I then got most of the answers relatively quickly before taking a while longer to get the RUSTLE/INSULARITY and LEGION/NASTALIQ crossers, the last of which went in when I decided to trust the wordplay. Although I saw the nina I didn’t look for “Wally” inside the puzzle so thanks for pointing that out RR.
I had parsed SEATED the same way as RR with a scratch of the head, and PB@1’s parsing is obviously the correct one.
I think you could consider this a bit of fun, or a slightly contrived puzzle which involved shoehorning some less usual words in (although to be fair, NASTALIQ is the only real obscurity). I can’t quite decide.
Did know the WHERE’S WALLY? series, so even I went looking for him once I’d finished.
Thanks to S&B and good weekend to all.
I found this a bit of a struggle. Nastaliq occurred to me but seemed so unlikely a word that I dismissed it until I had all the crossing letters. Also found hang fairly tricky – not a word that would leap to mind for understanding except in the specialised context of “getting the hang of”. I couldn’t parse 11, as pop to me generally refers to soda-style drinks rather than champagne.
As K’s D says, some of the answers did come across as being a bit contrived to fit the NINA (which unfortunately I didn’t spot).
We remember the “Where’s Wally?” books – our son was very fond of them although we couldn’t understand the appeal.
At one point we thought it may be a pangram but didn’t spot the nina until the end.
Thanks to Phi and RR.
Ah well, if I’d spotted the Nina I might have got 2dn. As it was, I guessed BANG, as it is a noise, but beyond that couldn’t see why. (I thing I considered HANG and dismissed it as obviously wrong.)
There were several I couldn’t parse, much thanks, and I couple I needed to do searches for.
Just an obvious thought others must have had but not commented on…..that a Nina, particularly given its origin, is nothing other than a precursor to ‘Where’s Wally?’. I feel sure this was Phi’s thinking.