When is a crossword by Phi anything other than quietly sound? All the clues here admit of quite simple explanations although of course they’re not always all that easy to solve in the first place.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
No, as usual. It all looks perfectly normal to me, although the first answer is SUNRISE and the last but one SUNSET and a few clues have meteorological connections (have you noticed how Paxman can’t pronounce that word? He says “meat-re-ological”). I await illumination.
| Across | ||
| 9 | SUNRISE | Dawn run unfortunately is limited by a lot of sex (7) |
| ((run)* is) in se{x} | ||
| 10 | UMPTEEN | Quite a few in group of nations accepting military police support (7) |
| U(MP tee)N | ||
| 11 | EUPHEMISM | Delicate choice of terminology, possibly making me use Phi, mark (9) |
| (me use Phi)* M | ||
| 12 | CLOUT | Demand to ban chlorine apparently will have impact (5) |
| “Cl out” might be the cry of those who want to ban chlorine | ||
| 13 | TOTAL | Wreck drink almost entirely (5) |
| tot al{l} | ||
| 15 | WATERFALL | Force collapsed after crashing into obstacle (9) |
| (after)* in wall — an unusual meaning of force [or not so unusual, as some people seem to be saying] | ||
| 16 | GLACIER | Icy formation finally becoming more intricate (7) |
| {becomin}g lacier | ||
| 18 | TALKIES | King I encountered in stories and films (7) |
| tal(K I)es | ||
| 19 | TROUSSEAU | Honeymooner’s clothes suitable for various USA routes (9) |
| (USA routes)* | ||
| 21 | PRESS | Journalists in the Weimar Republic? (5) |
| For a long time I couldn’t see why this was the answer, for it was surely press, with P_E_S and the clue saying ‘Journalists’. Was it somehow to do with the shotputter Tamara Press? But it seems that it’s pre-SS; the Weimar Republic preceded the Nazis. | ||
| 23 | EXTRA | Around half of tree, chopper rebounded further (5) |
| (axe)rev. round tr{ee} | ||
| 24 | BEDRIDDEN | Unable to move red rocks? Exhorted to go round (9) |
| (red)* in bidden | ||
| 26 | DANGERS | Winds up following Duke in perilous situations (7) |
| D. angers — danger is not I suppose a mass noun, as I initially thought: ‘there are dangers lurking in the sea near the rocks’ | ||
| 27 | RESERVE | Disinclination to engage additional forces? (7) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ASPECT | Seizure of power by a religious group in view (6) |
| a s(P)ect | ||
| 2 | SNAP | Unexpected observation at match? (4) |
| 2 defs I think, one of them referring to what you might say during a game of Snap. | ||
| 3 | PINEAL | Alpine cycling affecting gland (6) |
| ‘Alpine’ cycling in the sense that the Al cycles to the end [thanks Hovis — not an anagram as I originally said (I did realise this when I solved it then forgot when I came to doing the blog — honestly!)] | ||
| 4 | REVIEWER | Critic to deplore missing line we initially restored (8) |
| revi{l}e we r{estored} | ||
| 5 | SUMMIT | Top case involving Frenchmen (6) |
| su(M M)it | ||
| 6 | SPECTRAL | Small muscle, starved of oxygen, exhibiting range of colours (8) |
| s pect{o}ral | ||
| 7 | PEJORATIVE | Making derogatory comment: “Minimum of tension in conflation of opera and jive” (10) |
| t{ension} in (opera jive)* | ||
| 8 | INSTALLS | Sets up one new area in theatre (8) |
| 1 n stalls | ||
| 14 | TRAMONTANE | Perhaps crossing Alps excitedly on a matter involving Nationalist (10) |
| (on a matter)* round N — a word I had to look up to check | ||
| 16 | GET READY | Prepare, say, to climb and walk over yard (3,5) |
| (eg)rev. tread y | ||
| 17 | IN SPADES | Extravagantly popular tools (2,6) |
| in [= popular] spades [= tools] | ||
| 18 | THUNDERY | Not above interrupting your roaring (8) |
| th(under)y | ||
| 20 | EMBOSS | The writer turned up ahead of manager to get raise (6) |
| (me)rev. boss | ||
| 21 | PRIEST | Minister tries making reforms in pursuit of power (6) |
| P (tries)* | ||
| 22 | SUNSET | Fat will restrict team-mates at the end of the day (6) |
| su(N S)et — North and South are team-mates at Bridge | ||
| 25 | DARK | Night and day shelter (4) |
| d ark | ||
*anagram
In 27a I thought that “disinclination to engage” was a definition of “reserve” in the sense of shyness or taciturnity.
Thanks Andrew. Blog amended.
Found this tough for a Phi. Failed to parse PRESS. Didn’t know ‘force’ could mean ‘waterfall’ but it’s in my dictionary. TRAMONTANE was knew to me but easy to get. Liked the clue to THUNDERY. For 3d, I don’t take ‘cycling’ to refer to an anagram but to a cycling of the letters.
Force is quite common in names of waterfalls, particularly (I think) in the north of England. High Force on the Tees is a spectacular example. It’s a variant of the Norse Foss, which appears in the names of Icelandic waterfalls such as Gullfoss and Dettifoss.
John has spotted quite a bit of the theme, which is 14 in nature.
When I was a lad, we used to go up the dales and visit High Force, so it’s never occurred to me that force might not mean waterfall.
Are we all thinking of the wrong Alps…?
Quite a tough Phi but quite sound.Thank to him and John.
Just saying… sunrise in the high west, sunset in the low east. Doesn’t happen round here…
Quite a few of the answers correspond with the titles of the movements of Strauss’s marvellous Alpine Symphony. Probably a coincidence though… I’m hopeless at spotting Ninas.
cruciverbophile@9: No, not a coincidence, I think you’ve got it, knowing Phi’s interests.
Enjoyable puzzle that I, in contrast to others, found to be pretty easy for a Phi. I had almost everything in the grid in 30mins, but then was beaten by the new-to-me ‘tramontate’. Dunno what happened for me to do so well on this one – must’ve just been in the zone or someut. Many thanks to Phi for the puzz and to John for the blog.
I’m a great fan of the Alpine symphony, but I haven’t looked at the names of the sections for years, just let the music speak for itself.
I too remember school trips to High Force.
This followed the first concert in this year’s NZSO season which was indeed the Alpine Symphony with a lovely listing of 22 movement titles which immediately suggested source material. In this case the eight or so I selected appear (Across then Down) in the order they appear in the symphony. PINEAL and TRAMONTANE were the sort of serendipity that seems follow when things are going smoothly.
Of the 22 sections of the symphony, those referenced are: Night (clue to 25dn), Sunrise (9ac), At the Waterfall (13ac), On the Glacier (16ac), Dangerous Moments (26ac), On the Summit (5dn), Thunder and Tempest – Descent (18dn), Sunset (22dn).
I enjoyed the sunrise at the start and the sunset at the end, but any further aspects of the theme were lost on me.
I’m confused about the part of speech of pejorative, probably me. First time I’ve seen team-mates without a reference to bridge, but easily solvable.
I liked 11a
many thanks Phi and John
actually i think I’ve seen just ‘partners’, so i may have been thrown by ‘team-mates’
many thanks for a great puzzle