Phi is rather on the hard side today, I think, but still up to the usual high standard. Every clue could easily be explained afterwards, which is as it should be.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
There is usually (but not always, I know) some Nina in Phi’s crosswords, but they tend to be so obscure that I don’t look very hard for them. In any case I can’t see anything here.
| Across | ||
| 1 | STEALTH | Bargain that displays 50% reduction – sneaky stuff (7) |
| steal th{at} | ||
| 5 | GODSEND | Proceed to stop after last of wild crashes – that’s a bit of luck (7) |
| go {wil}d {crashe}s end [= stop] | ||
| 9 | PUT-DOWN | Subject having to swallow riposte (3-4) |
| put [= subject, verb] down [= to swallow] | ||
| 10 | RECITAL | Concert not now recalled, involving contralto and I (7) |
| (C I) in (later)rev. — it was fairly clear that something was up since Phi was being so ungrammatical | ||
| 11 | READY-TO-WEAR | Off-the-peg article brought in cash – a pile? (5-2-4) |
| ready towe(a)r | ||
| 12 | ART | Hideaway flushed out by intense skill (3) |
| ar{den}t | ||
| 13 | OUTMODED | Excited but doomed to see book forgotten, no longer popular (8) |
| (but doomed – b)* | ||
| 15 | STATIC | Version of it’s missing from figure still (6) |
| stat{ist}ic — the ist being (it’s)* | ||
| 18 | ALECTO | Fury seeing a reader cut short (6) |
| a lecto{r} — Alecto was one of the Furies | ||
| 20 | WEARABLE | Like clothing with a bit of extension, suitable for growth (8) |
| w [= with] e{xtension} arable — some people don’t like ‘a bit of’ for the first letter in a word, but Phi is a regular participant in the clue-setting competitions of Azed, who allows this | ||
| 23 | WOW | Exclamation that makes American mother go topsy-turvy? (3) |
| MOM, the American version of mother, when turned upside-down looks like WOW (by reflection, but also by rotation — a related but irrelevant point: have you noticed how those silly tube maps on the London Underground where south is at the top and north at the bottom seem to reflect or rotate on a whim?) | ||
| 24 | UPHOLSTERER | Furniture worker helps out, working beside back (though not that of sofa) (11) |
| (helps out)* re{a}r, the a being {sof}a | ||
| 26 | RAREBIT | Runs with live section showing snack meal (7) |
| r are [= live] bit | ||
| 27 | DIGITAL | Regarding figures, understand everything? Not quite (7) |
| dig it [= understand] al{l} | ||
| 28 | DESTROY | Pull down wrecked store over middle of day (7) |
| day with its middle [= a] replaced by (store)* — not quite convinced by the use of ‘over’ to mean ‘replacing’ | ||
| 29 | DORMANT | Sleeping commissionaire overlooks one over entry to theatre (7) |
| do{o}rman t{heatre} — doorman is overlooking one o [i.e. one ‘over’] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SUPERNOVA | A sun, over, exploding, having suppressed power (9) |
| (a sun over)* round p, &lit. so far as I can see; I am slightly vague about supernovas, so am not sure about the place of ‘over’ in the definition, but I think it refers to the fact that the sun’s life is over, something that is the start of a supernova | ||
| 2 | EXTRACT | Addition to play missing one accepted quotation? (7) |
| extra {a}ct — or extr{a} act, take your pick — at any rate one ‘accepted’ is missing — a similar device to that used two clues ago | ||
| 3 | LOOPY | Unknown group of candidates backed – that’s stupid (5) |
| (y pool)rev. | ||
| 4 | HANGOVER | Something from previous times, old volume, used in support of fashion (8) |
| hang(o v)er — a hanger, a clothes hanger, is a support for fashion or clothes | ||
| 5 | GARTER | Crowd round King and Queen to get knighthood (6) |
| ga(R)te R — this took some while because I was sure that R was king and ER was queen, so I wasted time hunting for a suitable meaning of gat — then when I did it the definition of gate seemed wrong, since I thought it referred to the number of spectators, not the spectators themselves, so I looked it up to be put in my place by Chambers: ‘the people who pay to see a game, hence the number attending’ | ||
| 6 | DECORATOR | Painter, perhaps, one speaking in the last month (9) |
| a December orator is one who speaks in the last month of the year — but I should have thought a question mark was appropriate since a December orator is a fanciful idea, surely not in the dictionaries — and if the ‘perhaps’ applies to the later part and isn’t in the definition then we would have a definition by example, something you don’t see in Phi’s crosswords | ||
| 7 | ENTRANT | Candidate‘s angry comments following fellow heading off (7) |
| {g}ent rant | ||
| 8 | DELFT | Daughter felt unsettled in Dutch city (5) |
| (d felt)* | ||
| 14 | OUTNUMBER | Feeling nothing during extreme eclipse (9) |
| out(numb)er | ||
| 16 | CHEVROLET | Wildly love the car that’s not a US make (9) |
| (love the car – a)* | ||
| 17 | SECLUDED | Quiet son banned from school, having denied Cross (8) |
| s e{x}cluded | ||
| 19 | EX-WORKS | 1,000 line up to participate in kinky sex, fresh from the factory (2-5) |
| (K row)rev. in (sex)* | ||
| 21 | BIRETTA | Bishop’s attire, possibly (7) |
| b (attire)*, &lit. | ||
| 22 | WHITBY | Church celebration near to fishing port (6) |
| Whit [= church celebration, as in Whit Sunday etc] by | ||
| 23 | WORLD | Promise to orbit large planet (5) |
| wor(l)d | ||
| 25 | TIGER | Section of spectators accepting good competitor (5) |
| ti(g)er — actually it looks as if the definition ought to be ‘good competitor’, since that’s what a tiger is, but the wordplay doesn’t allow this, and anyway a tiger is a competitor | ||
*anagram
Thanks Phi and John
I caused myself a DNF on this by having HOLD(O V)ER as my solution for 4. To my mind it parses just as well, but did make 9 impossible!
Held up by some of the apparently simpler clues such as GARTER and the unparsed ART. Good to have not too many obscure words, the only one I had to guess being ALECTO, but some tricky clues, including WEARABLE. I liked the device in WOW and the ‘support of fashion’ in HANGOVER. As usual with Phi, I remain blissfully ignorant of the theme.
Thank you to Phi and John
Enjoyable challenge which ended my purple patch of easier solving this week. Lots of clues put up a struggle, but all finally fell except for 18a which had me at a disadvantage as I didn’t know the answer or the WP synonym. My COD goes to 19d (obvs.), and though look I did, my peepers did not spy a nina – though I did wonder if clothing/fashion or even Dracula (at one point) might be a theme.
Many thanks to John for the blog and parse of 28a (I biffed that one at the time, but now I see it I think ‘over’ works as a ‘replacement by covering ind.’) and cheers to Phi for the work-out.
I tried for too long to use the middle of day, A. Getting 23d sorted that out.
I really struggled with 1a and couldn’t get Handover out of my head.
Some lovely clues, I like 1d and especially 16d, 20a as well, and 21d is very neat, hadn’t seen that before.
I like the device in 23a but found myself wondering if “flip” would be interesting, as in go mad.
Many thanks Phi and John
Well, this was one I never expected anyone to get, though the BBC have occasionally picked up on it. There is an annual fashion show in Wellington called the World of Wearable Art, and the other half has taken me along to it for the last couple of years. It’s rather spectacular with a lot of theatrical presentation and input from Peter Jackson’s studios. And all the costumes are named, giving me a nice list of words to use to seed a grid. As it happened a few other sartorial references crept in.
Images etc. can be found here: https://www.worldofwearableart.com/
I found this relatively easy after struggling with a real beast from Monk in yesterday’s i. Some entries had to be tentative until I saw how to parse them, but it all came together; fortunately I remembered my classical mythology for 18ac.
Like Hoskins I thought there might be a theme of clothing – READY TO WEAR, OUTMODED, WEARABLE, GARTER and BIRETTA, plus the fashion reference in the clue to 4dn.
Plenty of good clues, no real CoD but I liked WHITBY.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Pipped at the post again! Phi got in while I was typing – but at least Hoskins and I were vaguely in the right ballpark.
@6&7 great minds sink (and fail to totally explain a Phi-day theme) alike, Mr C. However, I’m feeling confident so I’ll wager a drink at the Nottingham S&B that one of us will nail a Phi theme before the month is out – any takers?
Oh dear! Now that’s a challenge Hoskins…….
We thought there may be a clothing theme here too but thanks for the explanation Phi and for the puzzle.
Thanks John.
Hardest Phi I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t finish it. Not blaming setter.
12A I thought at the time was e(ART)h, hideaway for an animal, though couldn’t see what intense was doing. Intense refers to ardent, so should not be underlined in the blog, def is just “skill”.
Thanks to Phi and John.
Thanks gwep, of course. Silly mistake. Blog amended.