There’s been a certain amount of movement between the setters just recently but we were pleased to see Phi back in his normal slot for our blog this week.
We weren’t sure about Ritz being a hotelier in 17d but a search afterwards revealed that César Ritz was a Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels including the Hotel Ritz in Paris and The Ritz Hotel in London. His nickname was ‘king of hoteliers and hotelier to the kings’. Ritzy is derived from his name. It’s amazing what you can learn from crosswords although maybe all of you knew about him already!
We also weren’t sure about the use of ‘salty and rich’ in 8d. Again, a search in Chambers this time revealed that salty could also mean ‘witty’ and rich could also be used to describe something that provided ‘good opportunities for laughter, full of comical potential’. Maybe everyone else was aware of that too!
We were on the look-out for a pangram when we had some of the more unusual letters but it is short of a J and an X.
| Across | ||
| 9 | Where the hammer falls right now? | |
| ON THE NAIL | Double definition | |
| 10 | Fictional heroine dismissing book’s gynaecological feature | |
| OVARY | ||
| 11 | Most of rest-day needed to secure one large garden feature? | |
| SUNDIAL | SUNDA |
|
| 12 | Keep on? Nuisance about consequence of keeping on | |
| PERSIST | PEST (nuisance) around RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury – a possible consequence of ‘keeping on’ using the same muscles | |
| 13 | Bird – a feature of jailhouse life | |
| OUSEL | Hidden in (‘a feature of’) jailhOUSE Life | |
| 14 | Some Londoner, mostly calm and gentle | |
| EASTENDER | EAS |
|
| 16 | Ale not brewed with hard alcohol | |
| ETHANOL | An anagram of ALE NOT and H (hard) – anagrind is ‘brewed’ | |
| 18 | Increasingly suspended with total failure of energy? That’s stupid | |
| MORONIC | MOR |
|
| 20 | Fracas erupting with two attacks? | |
| ACTS OF WAR | An anagram of FRACAS and TWO – anagrind is ‘erupting’ | |
| 22 | English property almost half destroyed in fit | |
| EQUAL | E (English) + QUAL |
|
| 24 | I will broach historic liquor barrel | |
| OIL DRUM | I in or ‘broaching’ OLD (historic) RUM (liquor) | |
| 26 | See 4d | |
| 28 | I say end of warfare’s needed after second city attack – thanks Wordplodder for the correction | |
| SIEGE | I + EG (‘say’) + E (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘warfare’) after S (second) | |
| 29 | Slinky outfit: Chinese man goes wild | |
| CHEONGSAM | CH (Chinese) + an anagram of MAN GOES – anagrind is ‘wild’. A new word for us although we were very familiar with the Chinese outfit for women. | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Bog’s central portion removed – what still remains? | |
| MOSS | MO |
|
| 2 | Pits producing ores? | |
| STONES | Double definition | |
| 3 | Fruit coming up prior to reduction of single grape variety | |
| SEMILLON | LIMES (fruit) reversed or ‘coming up’ + LON |
|
| 4/26 | 2 22 6 13D could be over-familiar | |
| HAIL FELLOW WELL MET | HAIL (often referred to as Hail Stones – 2d) + FELLOW (Equal – 22ac) + WELL (Source) + MET (Opera House – 13d – the New York Metropolitan) | |
| 5 | Turkey wings in fennel needing a little work | |
| FLOP | FenneL (first and last letters or ‘wings’) +OP (‘little’ work) | |
| 6 | Authority turned on church | |
| SOURCE | SOUR (turned) + CE (church) | |
| 7 | Security put on around Southern English town | |
| BASILDON | BAIL (security) DON (put on) around S (Southern) | |
| 8 | Salty and rich, possibly including ultimate in farce? | |
| HYSTERICAL | Cryptic definition – an anagram of SALTY, RICH and E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘farce’) | |
| 13 | US celebrity taking in English river and theatre | |
| OPERA HOUSE | OPRAH (Winfrey – US celebrity) round or ‘taking in’ E (English) + OUSE (river) | |
| 15 | Women strangely taken with brass belts – thanks gwep for the correction | |
| SAM BROWNES | An anagram of WOMEN and BRASS (anagrind is ‘strangely’) | |
| 17 | Position adopted by other crackers – Ritz? | |
| HOTELIER | LIE (position) in or ‘adopted by’ an anagram of OTHER (anagrind is ‘crackers’) | |
| 19 | Wine common, though not following drink with spirits | |
| RIESLING | RI |
|
| 21 | Irish writer describing eating cheese | |
| O’BRIEN | ON (describing) round or ‘eating’ BRIE (cheese) | |
| 23 | Reveal some hesitation about new request | |
| UNMASK | UM (some hesitation) about N (new) + ASK (request) | |
| 25 | Fool abandoning school in mess | |
| MUCK | ||
| 27 | Closed book about Malta as the last place you’d find yourself | |
| TOMB | TO (closed) + B (book) around M (Malta) | |
Morning B&J – nice to see Phi back in his ‘proper’ spot. I did indeed know the things you didn’t know so this didn’t take me long to solve.
Thanks to the deadly duo for the explanations and Phi for the crossword.
Thanks Phi and B&J
8dn: There is wordplay as well as the definition. I would give this as “Anagram of SALTY + RICH including E & lit.”
Apologies re 2: I failed to read your blog properly.
Another enjoyable Phi puzzle IMHO. I got 4/26 from its definition once a few checkers were in place and wondered how MET was going to be clued in 13dn, so when I got OPERA HOUSE I smiled. I was held up a little at the end by SIEGE and MOSS.
A very satisfying solve, with 4/26 being neatly clued. CHEONGSAM and SAM BROWNES were managed from the wordplay and went in but weren’t familiar to me so I’ve learned a thing or two myself. Thanks, all.
Found this tough for a Phi. Also got 4/26 from the enumeration, which allowed most of the rest to open up.
In 15D, I don’t think brass should be underlined as it would be doing a sort of double duty. It’s an anagram of WOMEN and BRASS and the definition is “belts” – and Sam Brownes are, like most belts, leathern.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Thank you to Phi and bloggers,
Sorry, I’m being unreasonably pedantic here but I think the def for 28 is ‘city attack’, rather than just ‘attack’. The word play then works a bit better.
A nice solve to end the working week. Thanks for the parsing of 19 which eluded me and for the information about M. Ritz who was new to me as well.
Thanks again
@5 Whoops! I mean Bertandjoyce; double apology.
@8 Whoops! I mean @6. I’ll go to bed now. It’s late in Adelaide.
Many thanks to gwep @6 and WordPlodder @7 – you are of course quite right – blog corrected accordingly!
I wrong-footed myself by confidently entering MASH for 1dn – MA(R)SH and it’s what remains in a still. Took me ages to realise my mistake when I just couldn’t see anything for 11ac. And even then I couldn’t see 4/26 and ended up doing a word search for the phrase. Definitely on the tougher side.
Got totally stuck in the SW corner, not least because I was unfamiliar with the term ‘cheongsam’ 🙂
But I was still baffled by the answer to 27D & so have decided to display my Ignorance on here:
please will somebody explain how ‘to’ is a synonym of ‘closed’?
My thanks in advance for any help 🙂
Cass
As in ‘pull the door to’. I’m sure there are probably other examples.
G.
Knowing Phi’s interests and the Brahms anniversary I expected there to be something Brahmsian in the grid. But no evidence of this, to me at any rate. Perhaps he has the same low opinion of him as people like Britten; although I know who I prefer.