Is it just us or is Phi getting harder? It’s not that the clues are more complex we feel rather that some of the synonyms are a little more obscure. We’re not complaining Phi – it’s just an observation.
We’ve totally missed the last few themes and it looked like the same thing would happen again today. Joyce checked possible COWARD trilogies after previous week’s offerings (yes, we know COWHERD/COWARD was rather a long shot but we were clutching at straws!). Bert looked at the grid again. As Joyce was bemoaning their lack of literary and musical knowledge, Bert suddenly bridged the gap.
The middle two rows don’t quite fit the pattern of the other rows but they do have two examples.
9ac took a while to find and then parse for no apparent reason. 4D was our LOI – as we had T—O, we kept on being distracted by TESCO (despite not being a fan of the supermarket!). We were convinced it had to be a trade name. It was only when we had 9ac that things fell into place.
Thanks Phi – an original theme and some lovely surfaces as usual.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Splashing this would get a prat wet … (3,5) | |
| TAP WATER | Cryptic definition – An anagram of A PRAT WET (anagrind is ‘splashing’) | |
| 6 | … prat turns, with sigh of relief, for this bathroom item (6) | |
| LOOFAH | FOOL (prat) reversed or ‘turning’ AH (sigh of relief) | |
| 9 | British university backing study in complete concealment (6) | |
| BURIAL | B (British) U (university) + LAIR (study) reversed or ‘backing’ | |
| 10 | Darkness? Cheers with light appearing in game (8) | |
| TOTALITY | TA (cheers) + LIT (with light) inside TOY (game) | |
| 11 | Success retaining lines in support of castle (4-4) | |
| HILL-FORT | HIT (success) around or ‘retaining’ LL (lines) + FOR (in support of) | |
| 12 | Fellow’s keeping edge of path, mostly for walkers (6) | |
| HIKERS | HIS (fellow’s) around or ‘keeping’ KER |
|
| 13 | Teams in pool forming attractive proposition (4) | |
| DRAW | Double definition | |
| 15 | Ready, with crackers, to consume last of these? (6,4) | |
| CASHEW NUTS | Cryptic definition – CASH (ready) W (with) NUTS (crackers) around or ‘consuming’ E (last letter of thesE) | |
| 16 | Dark and cloudy, amidst fogs: steers badly (10) | |
| MISDIRECTS | DIRE (dark) C (cloudy) inside or ‘amidst’ MISTS (fogs) | |
| 19 | Support demo, possibly – millions turned out (4) | |
| ARCH | ||
| 20 | Insect in house or shed (4-2) | |
| LEAN-TO | ANT (insect) in LEO (house as in the Zodiac) | |
| 21 | Our group recalled the best horror movie participant (8) | |
| WEREWOLF | WE (our group) FLOWER (the best) reversed or ‘recalled’ | |
| 24 | Endless revulsion about one energy deception (8) | |
| DISGUISE | DISGUS |
|
| 25 | Youthful mercenary stabbed by King (6) | |
| VERNAL | VENAL (mercenary) around or ‘being stabbed by’ R (King) | |
| 26 | Betray two students over punching five times as many (4,2) | |
| TELL ON | LL (two students) O (over) inside or ‘punching’ TEN (five times as many as two – the number of students) | |
| 27 | Looking for love while keeping on giving (8) | |
| DONATING | DATING (looking for love) around or ‘keeping’ ON | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | A nobleman cut down one Oriental bean (5) | |
| ADUKI | A DUK |
|
| 3 | Skin problem with flaking on the bottom? (7) | |
| WHITLOW | An anagram of WITH (anagrind is ‘flaking’) LOW (on the bottom) | |
| 4 | Firm whose business is buzzing? (5) | |
| TELCO | TELCO is a firm involved with telecommunications – hence the buzzing or ‘ringing’ | |
| 5 | Turns to determine a hill to climb (7) | |
| ROTATES | SET (determine) A TOR (hill) all reversed or ‘climbing’ | |
| 6 | They open and they slack off (9) | |
| LATCHKEYS | An anagram of THEY SLACK (anagrind is ‘off’) | |
| 7 | Paint variety mostly doing for protective garment (7) | |
| OILSKIN | OILS (paint) KIN |
|
| 8 | Inflamed painting expert getting hot, not cold (9) | |
| ARTHRITIC | ART |
|
| 14 | Booze drunk when I dropped into the sea? Not primarily (5,4) | |
| RHINE WINE | An anagram of WHEN I (anagrind is ‘drunk) inside or ‘dropped into’ |
|
| 15 | Number one affliction, mostly about rising decay (9) | |
| CORROSION | NO I (one) SORRO |
|
| 17 | Date single female in part of Ireland (7) | |
| DONEGAL | D (date) ONE (single) GAL (female) | |
| 18 | Farm-worker to flinch about hard day (7) | |
| COWHERD | COWER (to flinch) about H (hard) + D (day) | |
| 19 | Variable star involving number of binary components, no less (2,5) | |
| AT WORST | An anagram of STAR (anagrind is ‘variable’) around or ‘involving’ TWO (number of binary components) | |
| 22 | Head removed from yellow bird (5) | |
| RAVEN | ||
| 23 | Left to get master (5) | |
| LEARN | L (left) EARN (to get) | |
Thanks, Phi and B&J. 15a was my favourite, both for the neat &lit and the devious use of “crackers”. The theme is very nifty, but without a heavy hint from our expert bloggers it would have flown straight over me.
Sorry, are you saying there is a theme, and that it has something to do with the middle two rows? It’s still too well-hidden for me.
And I take it a whitlow is some kind of skin condition?
Thanks Phi and Bert and Joyce
Ian@2: The middle two rows are the exception. Look at the other six rows of answers and find something hidden across the gap between them.
Gotcha. Thanks.
Thanks B&J., and Phi. I knew there must be a theme when I saw Waterloo, but missed it completely with the split. Draw and Arch complete a brilliant device
Thanks both.
I didn’t enjoy this much, getting completely stuck in the NW corner. Solutions like ADUKI, TELCO and WHITLOW are always going to defeat this solver.
And despite hints from B&J and a clear explanation from Pelham, I still have no idea what the theme is and don’t really see the point of it anyway. It doesn’t give any pleasure to the average solver, in my opinion.
There we go, more ammunition for those that accuse me of being the resident grump*.
Thanks to Phi and good weekend to all.
*Guilty as charged.
Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce.
Great fun, a most enjoyable crossword. Well spotted Bertandjoyce, and thanks for just hinting so that we could all have fun finding the theme, I would have missed it.
The fifth row down does fit the theme, check out Montenegro, but cannot find anything for the fourth row…
Perhaps Phi just meant the two type examples for the fourth and fifth rows, just in case
http://www.360cities.net/it/image/carev-most-tsars-bridge-montenegro
Of course, the DRAW type, fourth row, would not be attached to the other side…
When I started blogging I didn’t always give the answers, but sometimes gave so much information that the answer was in my opinion obvious. Someone rather testily complained about this, quite rightly.
Yet it seems that where Ninas are concerned there is often just the same sort of reluctance to come clean and say what is happening. I have read all the comments and looked at the grid and yet I still don’t know what’s going on. Ah, now, after much looking the penny has at last dropped. But why couldn’t someone have just said what is happening and saved me all that trouble? ‘…have fun finding the theme’. Nobody ever says ‘we won’t give you the answers so that you can have fun working them out’.
I’m with Kathryn’s Dad…… Stand in grump and ignoramous… A bridge too far ?
Not sure why people are getting so grumpy. Many Ninas pass straight over the head of the majority of solvers. Setters put them in often to kick-start a gridfill, and there’s no real expectation that solvers will spot them. And if you didn’t know this happened occasionally, you wouldn’t worry about finding them or missing them or being fed teasers about them, and would simply treat the puzzle as a plain one (NB vanilla is a flavouring). By virtue of joining a blogging community you become a different type of solver, and your Nina-sensitivity is clearly presumed to be elevated. Except some weeks it may be switched off…
See? I’m grumpy now as well. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to note that sometimes I put in things you aren’t meant to spot.
Wil Ransome @10, what is a ‘crossword’ then? You might just as well get cross about that.
All the comments seem to confirm the fact that you cannot please all the people all the time.
Well said Phi @ 12! (And I am particularly gratified that you are among the dwindling band who see ‘plain’ and ‘vanilla’ as distinct and get – yes – grumpy, when the flavouring is used as a synonym for plain. I always assume it is based on the fact that vanilla ice cream is white – although the pods are black.)
Sage words, B&J @ 14, but as K’s D sometimes says, how uninteresting it would be if we were all the same.
Off for a Glenmorangie, now. Cheers.
A sincerely warm, and personal, thank you to the Nina master (and yes, folks, this is more Nina than hidden theme – perhaps a themed Nina might best describe it). I’m possibly being too self-centred, but I have been making the occasional plea for a Phina rather than a Pheme so thanks for listening (if you have been, which I doubt!)
This was a coffeesy like a Sunday morning solve and an enjoyable plain puzzle made flavoursome by the word bridges….
The puzzle itself – I thought CASHEW NUTS and ARTHRITIC were particularly good but not enamoured of TELCO I’m afraid.
So thanks again, Phi and also to J & B (I trust that’s the ‘right’ way round).
Wx