I must admit to a bit of a double take on seeing Phi’s name crop up on a Saturday, and worried I’d got hold of the wrong puzzle. Or indeed had lost track of what day it is.
A quick look at Phi’s blog confirms that indeed the Friday puzzle has been displaced to the Saturday, for unspecified reasons.
Which all makes my life a little easier than drawing another Nimrod to cover, though I still found this quite tough in places, with a number of unfamiliar words and names cropping up. Still, many thanks to Phi.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AERODROMES | Staff going to city in the main recalled where planes landed (10) |
| (ROD + ROME) in SEA<. | ||
| 7 | RITZ | Hotelier who’d generate special quality in right zone (4) |
| IT in (R + Z). | ||
| 9 | BILLET | Retiring politician allowed to get job (6) |
| LIB< + LET. | ||
| 10 | NON-DAIRY | Agree about new insubstantial description of meat and vegetables, inter alia (3-5) |
| (N in NOD) + AIRY. | ||
| 11 | CATALYST | Reckoning to forget one line when amongst actors? This encourages change (8) |
| TAL[l]Y in CAST. | ||
| 12 | SUSSEX | Discover former partner in part of Southern England (6) |
| SUSS + EX. | ||
| 13 | DIRK | Daughter upset 24 (4) |
| D + IRK. A type of traditional Highland dagger, also known as a 24 across. | ||
| 15 | MURPHY’S LAW | Potato salad? There’s a sense of inevitability about it (7,3) |
| MURPHY + SLAW. | ||
| 18 | ENTRY-LEVEL | Basic telly never on the blink (5-5) |
| Anagram of (TELLY NEVER)*. | ||
| 20 | SLAV | East European son has somewhere to go (4) |
| S + LAV. | ||
| 21 | FLORID | Supporting documentation includes latitude regarding ornate language (6) |
| L in (FOR + ID). | ||
| 24 | SKEAN-DHU | 13 has nuked rocks (5-3) |
| Anagram of (HAS NUKED)*. | ||
| 27 | GOALPOST | Upright young lady getting letters about love (8) |
| 0 in (GAL + POST). | ||
| 28 | PLIANT | Factory keeping one adaptable? (6) |
| I in PLANT. | ||
| 29 | HERE | Woman’s heading for expensive present (4) |
| HER + E[xpensive]. | ||
| 30 | THROTTLERS | Most of the bad guys accepting league for thugs, say (10) |
| L in (TH[e] + ROTTERS). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EVITA | Energy of life not fully visible in South American political figure (5) |
| E + VITA[l]. | ||
| 3 | OIL-TANKER | Knight is aboard drifting Oriental vessel (3-6) |
| N in ORIENTAL*. | ||
| 4 | RATTY | Irascible and tense, repeatedly caught in beam (5) |
| (T + T) in RAY. | ||
| 5 | MONITOR | One assesses climbing in when boarding car (7) |
| IN< in MOTOR. | ||
| 6 | SENESCHAL | She cleans up for old steward (9) |
| Anagram of (SHE CLEANS)*. | ||
| 7 | READS | Studies logic, not working to secure degree (5) |
| D in REAS[on]. | ||
| 8 | THREE | Number about to be cited in article (5) |
| RE in THE. | ||
| 14 | INN | Pub’s new idea getting no enthusiastic response (3) |
| INN[ovation]. | ||
| 15 | MALADROIT | Road looking hazy with one tucking into whisky? That’s inept (9) |
| (ROAD* + I) in MALT. | ||
| 16 | SUSAN HILL | English author in America (New Hampshire) occupying ledge (5,4) |
| (USA + NH) in SILL. | ||
| 17 | AGA | Military commander equally likely to rise or fall? (3) |
| Reference to the fact that AGA is a palindrome. | ||
| 19 | VISITOR | Arrival at gate? Face guard, keeping hold of it (7) |
| IT in VISOR. | ||
| 22 | LOOSE | See attitude (going topless) as immoral (5) |
| LO + [p]OSE. | ||
| 23 | BILKE | Poet’s anger about King (5) |
| K in RILE, Rainer Maria Rilke wasn’t familiar to me, I must admit. | ||
| 25 | EXPAT | Unknown figure in record picked up: someone who’s moved overseas (5) |
| X in TAPE<. | ||
| 26 | HONOR | House with no Republican? Signal achievement in America (5) |
| HO + NO + R. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
Unusually I spotted what was going on down the sides, which helped a bit, and thought ‘pangram’ but no J or Q. I’m sure there’s more going on, as is Phi’s won’t, but a nice solve. I liked GOALPOST. Thanks to S and B.
I saw the pattern early on, which helped considerably. However, some clues took a fair amount of concentration and coming back to, especially the self-referential loop of 13 and 24.
MURPHYSLAW made me smile.
P.S. There’s a typo at 23d, where’ you’ve got a B instead of R.
Didn’t see the Nina of sorts until late in the piece, then it did help a bit. Excellent surfaces, notably 15A, 6D.
Typo in 3D, which is K in ORIENTAL*.
Thanks to Phi and Simon Harding.
I though this was very classy.thanks for blog and thanks Phi
As is usual with my solving, I slowed down with around 70% done – then I spotted the helpful nina sequence enabling me to slot in the rest apace.
Wondered if there might be a mini literary theme with ‘reads’ and ‘aga’ [saga], ‘Susan Hill’ and ‘Rilke’, ‘Ratty’ and ‘Dirk’ [Gently], but, rather like an explanation for my headache and the depletion of my beer supply, I couldn’t tie anything super-specific together.
Thanks to SH for the blog, and to Phi for the good stuff (COD: the amusing 15a).
The pangram is sort of there…you have A-H down one side, S-Z up the other. And I TO R twice in the middle.
Eimi told me of the move to accommodate a cinema-based puzzle on Friday the thirteenth, which didn’t really hint at what actually transpired. We saw La La Land over Christmas so the UK is quite late getting it. Amazing opening scene, but the rest is somewhat perfunctory by comparison. It is, however, crazily well-directed.