A nicely-accessible Phi today. I had no major problems with it.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
After the first two answers I thought there would be a musical theme, but no; I suspect Phi had just done one of his BBC Music Magazine crosswords. Then I wondered about all the unchecked letters around the perimeter, but I can make nothing of them. Perhaps it’s one of Phi’s pet themes, the something novels of someone I’ve never heard of. Or perhaps he’s just having a day off from themes.
| Across | ||
| 7 | TENUTO | Sustained section of allegretto tune totally recalled (6) |
| Reverse hidden in allegrettO TUNE Totally | ||
| 8 | CHACONNE | Church expert holding on with note in musical form (8) |
| ch. ac(on n)e | ||
| 9 | SUNNITES | Names borne by followers – Muslims? (8) |
| su(n n)ites — I couldn’t really see why suite = follower but Chambers gives “a train of followers or attendants” | ||
| 10 | EVENTS | Stops suspending public relations stunts? (6) |
| {PR}events | ||
| 11 | WALL | Fool shortened property boundary (4) |
| wall{y} | ||
| 12 | LINER NOTES | Comments with DVD suggesting you avoid Titanic? (5,5) |
| 2 defs, one of them a possible interpretation of ‘liner notes’ — unfortunately not what they used to be able to be — record sleeves were a major part of my musical education, such as it was | ||
| 14 | CRAZED | Ridiculous description of street guide – little credibility about that (6) |
| cr(AZ)ed. | ||
| 15 | UNITER | The marrying kind, swishing endless train around (6) |
| (retinu{e})rev. — not a word in everyday use, but it exists | ||
| 18 | FALL IN LOVE | Appear on parade with nothing and lose heart? (4,2,4) |
| “Fall in” [the military command] love | ||
| 20 | MINE | Source of coal providing smallest amount of energy? (4) |
| min[imum] e | ||
| 22 | STAGED | Publicly showed stone of archaeological interest? (6) |
| st. aged | ||
| 24 | UPPERCUT | Evening meal: no starter and keep away from the punch (8) |
| {s}upper cut — presumably cut as in to cut or ignore someone | ||
| 25 | LEGALESE | The way lawyers define shelter being shot through by storms (8) |
| le(gales)e | ||
| 26 | SYNTAX | Wrong points announced in speech outlining grammatical structure (6) |
| “sin tacks” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HECUBA | Trojan Queen he found on island (6) |
| he Cuba | ||
| 2 | QUINELLA | Put down about one number over a bet in Australia (8) |
| qu(1 n)ell a — a quinella is a form of bet which according to Chambers is originally US, now especially Aus | ||
| 3 | PORTAL VEIN | Blood vessel – vital and prone to get damaged (6,4) |
| (vital prone)* — the portal vein is the vein carries the venous blood from the intestines, the spleen and the stomach to the liver — no I didn’t know that | ||
| 4 | JAPE | Judge copy to be a joke (4) |
| j ape — someone in John Buchan says, when planning an adventure, “Is he the merry kind of lad who likes a jape?” but I can’t now find the source; does anyone know? | ||
| 5 | BOLERO | Audience disapproval swamps the French conductor’s finale in Ravel piece (6) |
| bo(le {conducto}r)o | ||
| 6 | KNITWEAR | Cheers about our team in icy venue, turning up in warm clothes? (8) |
| t(we)a in (rink)rev. | ||
| 8 | CASINO | Working one’s account towards higher level in gambling centre (6) |
| (on 1’s ac.)rev. — the reversal indicator being ‘towards higher level’, which looks a bit odd to me: if something moves to a higher level it is translated, not reflected, surely: if it was reflected we’d be told | ||
| 13 | RINDERPEST | Cattle disease: skin preset to go flaky (10) |
| rind (preset)* | ||
| 14 | CHARTRES | Plans to accept scripture lessons in cathedral (8) |
| chart(RE)s | ||
| 16 | TAMARIND | Tropical tree little seen round harbour area? Not entirely (8) |
| ta(marin{a})d | ||
| 17 | NODULE | Number expected to seize large lump (6) |
| no. du(l)e | ||
| 19 | LOG JAM | Major upset after record congestion (3,3) |
| log (maj.)rev. | ||
| 21 | NEURAL | Newcastle area of the country? Not right at first to be nervy (6) |
| NE [= Newcastle area] {r}ural | ||
| 23 | DYER | Could modify the colour, ultimately? I could (4) |
| {Coul}d {modif}y {th}e {colou}r | ||
*anagram
Good fun from Phi. We’ve had this before but, listen carefully, ‘there is no ‘F’ in pangram.’
Thanks to him & John!
… but today there is an ‘F’ in pangram!
Nice one, a little tricky in places, but thanks, Phi and John.
Damnation! Checked it twice an’ all. Wilful blindness…
So the pangram DID distract you from the real theme, then.
John is closer than he realises with one of his ideas.
John, the actual quote is “Is he the merry class of lad that likes a jape?” and comes from The House of the Four Winds, the last of Buchan’s Dickson McCunn trilogy. The speaker is Archie Roylance, who also turns up in some of the Richard Hannay series and others.
If you’ve not got a copy you can find it here
Thank you Phi and John.
I enjoyed the puzzle, but as for a theme, only spotted BACH and ARNE in the grid, probably just chance…
Wait a minute, there is also Lalo…
and Vincent d’Indy…
and Jacopo Peri
and Nino Rota
I didn’t spot that, but now you’ve told me, there is also Luigi Nono, one of my favourites.
Now for the across clues, Ernst Toch
Well done, Dormouse, I thought that particular one was a no-no – I am too tired to go on, perhaps you can find the others?
Don’t think there are any more. Every down pair has a four-letter composer’s name split in the middle.
There is Hind across the middle, and Rolf Hind is both a pianist and a composer, but I think that may be a coincidence.
There’s actually a little more to this. I’ve been pondering how often the thematic material in a puzzle ends up more in the across entries than the down ones. That may just be me, of course, but I’d assume it to be because we tend to read horizontally. So I set off with the idea to split four-letter composers across gaps in across entries, then flipped the grid across the diagonal. And then added letters to make it a pangram, which produced a few words I thought were a little obscure, and possibly was over-egging things!
And you still got there. So maybe it is just me.
Phi, I think it is easier for me to spot things in down entries, my eyes tend to glide over across entries whereas I have to concentrate more when “reading” down entries.
Just realised, the proof of this is that I did not spot TOCH in the across answers at first, a composer whose name I know well.
Many thanks allan_c @5. I had a suspicion that it was in this book and after eventually finding the book and wading through it for ages I’ve found it. Greatly to be cherished.
Enjoyable puzzle, but I still don’t fully understand the parsing for 12. Can anyone elucidate please?
Four and a half years ago, John, so this is new to me now. But what’s happening I think is that LINER NOTES can refer to the notes in the liner to a DVD, the bit of paper that is in the box containing the DVD and which describes what is on the DVD (actually DVDs tend not to contain them, but CDs do); and to the Titanic, which was a liner. But not quite sure about the ‘suggesting you avoid’. I suppose because it sank, so you were better off avoiding it.
Hi John, thanks for your reply. Sorry, I realise you published this blogpost all the way back in 2016, it’s just that this crossword appeared in today’s i newspaper.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure how the ‘suggesting you avoid’ was relevant either. It was the one clue that even after much deliberation, I was still unable to fully parse. I was wondering if maybe the clue is a semi-&lit clue rather than a double definition, but I’m not sure.