Once every four weeks I go ten days without blogging a crossword, so it’s good to get back to the fray with a Phi puzzle.
There were a couple of obscure words and phrases for me today – HYMENEAN and MODERN LATIN – both down entries, which made me wonder if the acrosses had some theme. If there is a theme it escapes me, but that’s no surprise.
There are quite a few geographic references in the entries, including CASABLANCA, INDIA, NORTHAMPTON, ANTIPODES and TUNISIA, but again, I can’t find a link between them
I enjoyed this and didn’t get bogged down too much although I really struggled with the spelling of VINAIGRETTE
My favourite clue of the day was the one for CHINATOWN with it’s container and contents within another container and contents
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
View of White House from Mexican city (10)
|
CASA (house in Spanish) + BLANCA (white in Spanish) Spanish is the language spoken in Mexico and I think the adjective comes after the noun when describing a White House in that language. CASA BLANCA |
CASABLANCA (city [in Morocco])
|
|
6
|
Part of cricket match where fielder drops opener (4)
|
COVER (name of a fielding position in cricket) excluding the first letter (drops opener) C OVER |
OVER (a bowler delivers six balls to form an OVER in the game of cricket)
|
|
10
|
State: North American state, though not North American (5)
|
INDIANA (North American State) excluding (not) NA (North American) INDIA |
INDIA (country; state)
|
|
11
|
Recalled me being like a Romantic poet (with a twist) in the early stages (9)
|
ME reversed (recalled) + BYRONIC (like Lord BYRON [one of the Romantic poets]) with the letters YR swapped around (with a twist) to form BRYONIC EM< BRYONIC |
EMBRYONIC (in the early stages of development)
|
|
12
|
Bullets turned in when faced with a pungent chemical (7)
|
AMMO (ammunition; bullets) + IN reversed (turned) + A AMMO NI< A |
AMMONIA (a pungent chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen)
|
|
14
|
Again instruct one fellow probing piping (2-5)
|
(I [Roman numeral for one] + F [fellow]) contained in (probing) REEDY (sounding like a REED instrument such an music pipe or an organ-pipe; piping) RE ED (I F) Y |
RE-EDIFY (improve the mind again; instruct again)
|
|
15
|
Regularly sordid (though not these characters)
|
ODD (letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly] of SORDID) ODD |
ODD (not even; but we used the even letters of SORDID to from the entry, so not these characters)
|
|
16
|
They love courses – time to try participating (11)
|
(T [time] + HEAR [try, in court]) contained in (participating) SWEETS (descriptive of dessert courses SWEE (T HEAR) TS |
SWEETHEARTS (people who are in love)
|
|
18
|
Part-month wasted, working in English town (11)
|
Anagram of (wasted) PART MONTH + ON (working) NORTHAMPT* ON |
NORTHAMPTON (English town)
|
|
21
|
Drink most of a little salty water? (3)
|
TEAR (salty water) excluding the final letter (most of) R TEA |
TEA (drink)
|
|
22
|
Female soldier accepting line from escort? (7)
|
(GAL [girl; female] + ANT (reference soldier ANT]) containing (accepting) L (line) GAL (L) ANT |
GALLANT (both GALLANT and escort can be defined as BEAU)
|
|
23
|
Fail to observe, say, the Parisian appearing in Northern court (7)
|
(E.G. [for example; say] + LE [one of the French {Parisian} forms of ‘the’]) contained in (appearing in) (N [Northern] + CT [court]) N (EG LE) CT |
NEGLECT (pass by without notice; fail to observe)
|
|
25
|
Article to recommend poetry from remote areas (9)
|
AN (indefinite article) + TIP (recommend) + ODES (poetry) AN TIP ODES |
ANTIPODES (a point or place diametrically opposite to another on the surface of the earth; areas remote from you)
|
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26
|
Mesh, say, trimmed at both ends for upper room (5)
|
LATTICE (mesh) excluding the first and last letters (trimmed at both ends) L and E ATTIC |
ATTIC (upper room)
|
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28
|
Colour the twentieth can in a row? (4)
|
If the first can in a row is designated TIN A and the second TIN B, then the twentieth will be TIN T TIN T |
TINT (colour)
|
|
29
|
Displaying the result of running,devastating blasts here (10)
|
Anagram of (devastating) BLASTS HERE BREATHLESS* |
BREATHLESS (after running, many people are BREATHLESS)
|
| Down | |||
|
1
|
Angus possibly, adopting suggestion about a name for Oriental area (9)
|
(COW [reference Aberdeen ANGUS cattle] containing [adopting] [HINT {suggestion} containing {about} A]) + N (name) C (HIN (A) T) OW N |
CHINATOWN (oriental area in a city or big town)
|
|
2
|
Unhappy almost everything’s gone from healthy food option? (3)
|
SALAD (healthy food option) excluding (gone) ALL (everything) itself excluding the final letter (almost) L SAD |
SAD (unhappy)
|
|
3
|
Text confirming order from lingerie shop shows intelligence (5)
|
BRA (lingerie item) + IN (in stock) taken together could be a text message confirming that a lingerie order is now in stock BRA IN |
BRAIN ((intelligence)
|
|
4
|
State regularly-collected statistic – here’s one (7)
|
AVER (state) + AGE (the AGE of a person is a a data item or statistic that is collected regularly) AVER AGE |
AVERAGE (example of a statistic)
|
|
5
|
Dancing etc. incorporating a place to get booze – here? (7)
|
Anagram of (dancing) ETC containing (incorporating) (A + BAR [place to obtain booze]) C (A BAR) ET* |
CABARET (the whole clue describes a CABARET)
|
|
7
|
Dressing in elaborate vintage attire (lacking a hint of taste) (11)
|
Anagram of (elaborate) VINTAGE ATTIRE excluding (lacking) (one of the As + one of the Ts [first letter of [hint of] TASTE) VINAIGRETTE* |
VINAIGRETTE (salad dressing)
|
|
8
|
Popular music unknown not on sure ground (5)
|
ROCK (form of popular music) + Y (letter frequently used to denote an unknown value in mathematics) ROCK Y |
ROCKY (difficult; not on sure ground)
|
|
9
|
Church music enthralling European almost in range of a wedding (8)
|
HYMN (example of church music) containing (enthralling) (E [European] + NEAR [within range] excluding the final letter [almost] R) HYM (E NEA) N |
HYMENEAN (descriptive of a marriage; of a wedding)
|
|
13
|
Catholic dignitary elevated internal wrangling with science’s appropriation of their language (6,5)
|
DOM (title given to certain Catholic dignitaries) reversed (elevated; down clue) + an anagram of (wrangling) INTERNAL MOD< ERN LATIN* |
MODERN LATIN (Latin as written between 1500 and the present time, mostly used as a scientific medium)
|
|
16
|
School is out, we hear? That’s the spirit (8)
|
SCH (school) + NAPPS (sounds like [we hear] NAPS [is asleep; is out]) SCH NAPPS |
SCHNAPPS (any of various strong alcoholic drinks, esp Holland gin; spirit)
|
|
17
|
Rebel slave in fight? Roman historian will overlook it (9)
|
SPAR (fight) + TACITUS (Roman historian) excluding (will overlook) IT SPAR TACUS |
SPARTACUS (rebel Thracian slave portrayed in the films and television programmes of the same name)
|
|
19
|
Additional cut restricting a little bullfighter (7)
|
MORE (additional) excluding the final letter (cut) containing (restricting) (A + TAD [small amount; little]) M (A TAD) OR |
MATADOR (bullfighter)
|
|
20
|
Country consisting of two islands surrounded by fish (7)
|
(IS [island] + I [island] giving two islands) contained in (surrounded by) TUNA (fish) TUN (IS I) A |
TUNISIA (country)
|
|
22
|
Big article carried by awkward bloke (5)
|
AN (indefinite article) contained in (carried by) GIT (obnoxious or despicable person; awkward bloke) GI (AN) T |
GIANT (big)
|
|
24
|
Son to abandon understanding hard chart (5)
|
GRASP (understanding) excluding (to abandon) S (son) + H (hard, as in description of a pencil lead) GRAP H |
GRAPH (chart)
|
|
27
|
Moor that is below top of tor (3)
|
T (first letter of [top of] TOR) + I.E. (id est; that is) As this is a down entry, IE is position below the letter T T IE |
TIE (moor as in moor a boat; tie a boat to the pier)
|
Not being a film buff, I can’t see a connection between the seven I can count here, but there must be one…
Good puzzle anyway, thanks to Phi for the usual excellent Friday fun and Duncan for his usual thorough blogging.
They are all one word?
Yep, I’m going with one-word film titles.
Great puzzle as always. Many thanks to S&B
Ah! films – if there’s one theme that’s going top p;ass me by, it will be films.
Thanks to all who spotted the theme.
Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing and a bit of research on the IMDb website will take you to all possible films referenced in the grid.
After Vlad this seemed quite gentle and for once I could see the theme-I’ve seen 6 if not all of the 7 I counted but doubtless there’ll be more. “Sweethearts”?Matador?
Very enjoyable.Thanks all.
Well, I put in eight deliberately. There may be others (I didn’t check).
I think the symmetrical positioning of the one-word film titles suggests Matador is the eighth intended thematic solution.