A fairly straightforward topical themed puzzle from Phi to start the year off in the manner we have come to expect.
All good fun, with only one unusual word (14D), no doubt resulting from the inclusion of no fewer than eleven thematic entries. Although we needed to check 14D in Chambers, it was pretty obvious from the wordplay and some basic knowledge of botany.
At a somewhat pedantic level, we had a bit of discussion over the inclusion of the apostrophe (or the ‘s’) in the clue to 13D – any thoughts as to whether Phi has got this right? There are arguments both ways.
Anyway – Happy New Year to all at 225 from both of us!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Seasonal activity potentially applicable to 9, 11, 12 (yes, really), 19, 21A, 24, 1D, 7, 20, 22 and 23? (5-7) | |
| FIRST-FOOTING | The gateway clue – FOOT can come FIRST with (‘is potentially applicable to’) the entries at 9, 11, 12, 19, 21A, 1D, 7, 20, 22 and 23 | |
| 9 | Unimportant fellow abandoning attempt at escape (5) | |
| LIGHT | ||
| 10 | Store finally regretted backsliding, after bringing in corrupt security (9) | |
| DEBENTURE | E (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘store’) RUED (regretted) reversed or ‘backsliding’ round or ‘bringing in’ BENT (corrupt) | |
| 11 | Military man convinced one group of engineers should retreat (7) | |
| SOLDIER | SOLD (convinced) I (one) RE (group of engineers) reversed or ‘retreating’ | |
| 12 | Debussy piece including bass and tenor (British musician) (7) | |
| LAMBERT | LA MER (Debussy piece) round or ‘including’ B (bass) + T (tenor) | |
| 13 | American chasing destiny and reason for indolence (5) | |
| LOTUS | US (American) after or ‘chasing’ LOT (destiny) | |
| 15 | Hole at work – it is storage for vegetables (6,3) | |
| POTATO PIT | POT (hole) AT OP (work) IT | |
| 17 | Fish brought to shore swathed in leaves (9) | |
| GARLANDED | GAR (fish) LANDED (brought to shore) | |
| 18 | Get rid of former PM, no longer half-heartedly (5) | |
| EXPEL | EX (former) PE |
|
| 19 | Money securing program with Government accessing source (7) | |
| TAPPING | TIN (money) round or ‘securing’ APP (program) + G (government) | |
| 21 | Elements? Millions invested in tungsten, argon, erbium and sulphur (7) | |
| WARMERS | M (millions) ‘invested’ in W (tungsten) AR (argon) ER (erbium) S (sulphur) | |
| 24 | One travelling envoy bringing secretary for me (9) | |
| PASSENGER | ||
| 25 | Male caught in second bog, not moving fast (3-2) | |
| SLO-MO | M (male) ‘caught’ in S (second) LOO (bog) | |
| 26 | Percussion instrument sadly blocking sleep (bed initially abandoned) (12) | |
| GLOCKENSPIEL | An anagram of |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Forces everyone to tuck into odd bits of fish (5) | |
| FALLS | ALL (everyone) ‘tucking into’ FiSh (odd letters or ‘bits’) | |
| 2 | Controller set up list with firearm (9) | |
| REGULATOR | ROTA (list) LUGER (firearm) all reversed or ‘set up’ | |
| 3 | Section for all musicians – sound of irritation upset it (5) | |
| TUTTI | TUT (sound of irritation) + IT reversed or ‘upset’ | |
| 4 | Religious group: chronicler overlooking nearly half (5) | |
| ORDER | ||
| 5 | Ban particular climbs, ruling one out in collection of figures (9) | |
| TABULATED | TABU (ban) + DETA |
|
| 6 | Fellow upset about refusal to be up the Eiffel Tower a short distance (9) | |
| NANOMETRE | MAN (fellow) reversed or ‘upset’ around NO (refusal) + ETRE (French for ‘to be’). We’re not quite sure about using the Eiffel Tower as an indicator that the French word is needed – there are probably more non-French-speakers up there most of the time!! | |
| 7 | Determination following escaping from disorder (4) | |
| RULE | RU |
|
| 8 | Dry assessment of golfing accessories? (8) | |
| TEETOTAL | If you needed to ‘assess’ how many tees (golfing accessories) you have, you would have a TEE TOTAL | |
| 13 | Diary and crude poetry not right for time-saving device at printer’s (8) | |
| LOGOTYPE | LOG (diary) + an anagram of POET |
|
| 14 | Male ant is mistaken regarding flower parts (9) | |
| STAMINEAL | An anagram of MALE ANT IS – anagrind is ‘mistaken’ | |
| 15 | Educational photo: educated and eager to appear in that (9) | |
| PEDAGOGIC | PIC (photo) with ED (educated) AGOG (eager) ‘appearing’ within | |
| 16 | Parliamentarian penning pages about one meat product (9) | |
| PEPPERONI | PEER (Parliamentarian) round or ‘penning’ PP (pages) + ON (about) I (one) | |
| 20 | Member to comment on website appointment (4) | |
| POST | Triple definition | |
| 21 | Line up, set to be cut down? That’s less good (5) | |
| WORSE | ROW (line) reversed or ‘up’ + SE |
|
| 22 | Audibly twists and relaxes (5) | |
| RESTS | Sounds like (‘audibly’) WRESTS (twists) | |
| 23 | Rifles overturned item of furniture here (5) | |
| STOOL | LOOTS (rifles) reversed or ‘overturned’ | |
Thanks B&J – A bit lonely in here! Perhaps some people aren’t up yet..
I have no problem with the apostrophe in “printer’s”: to me it’s short for “printer’s shop/office/works”, cf “I bought some food at the grocer’s”. I think a plain plural would be less justifiable.
As others have previously said on 15^2, the mark of a good themed puzzle is that it can be solved without knowing the theme. In this instance the wording of the clue suggested that it wasn’t necessary to solve the referenced clues in order to solve 1ac, and so it proved. In fact I guessed FIRSTFOOTING fairly early on from the definition and the F and T from 1dn and 3dn then solved the rest without reference to it. Only at the end did I look again at 9,11,12 etc and realise the theme. Brilliant!
Talking of ‘brilliant’, for the uninitiated a foot-lambert is a measure of luminance used in the USA and other non-metric countries.
RULE was my LOI as it didn’t come to mind as a synonym for ‘determine’. My CoD was NANOMETRE (a very short distance indeed, one thousand-millionth of a metre.)
Thanks, Phi and B&J. I’ll look forward to more of your puzzles/blogs in 2016.
Thanks Phi & B&J guessed 1a straight away from the definition and enumeration which helped a lot. Happy new year to all who visit here.
and other non-metric countries
Ah yes, both of them.
Nicely done Phi. And thanks Bertandjoyce.
This was quite entertaining and a little more difficult than the Philistine – like flashling I thought of 1a almost immediately and 1d was enough to confirm it. STAMINEAL was new to me and I missed one or two of the trickier parsings.
Thanks to Phi, B&J
Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce.
I liked the FIRST-FOOTING theme, our male cat came into the house first this morning, he is a hybrid, mother a domestic cat, father a wildcat (Felis sylvestris) who came down from the Jura Mountains in his old age to our village.
Quite a few devices use a FOOT REGULATOR, e.g. some extraction pumps.
All the best for the New Year to everyone.
I did hesitate over the ‘yes, really’ but FOOT-LAMBERT was so abstruse I thought it needed some reassurance. FOOT REGULATOR seems a likely addition to the roster – I didn’t put it in deliberately though I did a quick check to see if I’d slipped a thematic entry in by accident. I wasn’t really expecting a 9-letter ‘accident’!
Happy New Year, everyone.