It’s very rare that we don’t enjoy a Phi-day puzzle at the end of the week and this was no exception.
We are convinced that there must be a theme as there are some odd words – OCCAM, ILLUMED for example. We’ve tried a few random searches in Google but haven’t found anything. Can anyone else help us please? Or, can you give us a hint please Phi?
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | French are to get better of English in breakout (6) | |
| ESCAPE | ES (French for ‘are’) CAP (to get better of) E (English) | |
| 5 | Unhappy season in America leading to collapse (8) | |
| DOWNFALL | DOWN (unhappy) FALL (season in America) | |
| 9 | Trivial romantic adventure devout female has put behind her? (8) | |
| PIFFLING | FLING (romantic adventure) behind PI (devout) F (female) | |
| 10 | Pub, one generated by the writer for fictional purposes (2,4) | |
| IN NAME | INN (pub) A (one) ME (writer) | |
| 11 | Runner runs miles – I peel off, mildly conflicted? (10) | |
| SKIRMISHED | SKI (runner) R (runs) M (miles) I SHED (peel off) | |
| 13 | Worker cheated, acquiring note (4) | |
| HAND | HAD (cheated) around or ‘acquiring’ N (note) | |
| 14 | More settled, rising star takes motor-racing on board (7) | |
| COMFIER | COMER (rising star) around or ‘taking on board’ FI (motor racing) | |
| 15 | Very threatening look limits a display of bravery (6) | |
| VALOUR | V (very) LOUR (threatening look) around or ‘limiting’ A | |
| 17 | One revisiting school, perhaps, getting ache in quad? (6) | |
| OBLONG | OB (old boy – ‘one revisiting school perhaps’) LONG (ache). We think that quad is a shortened for of quadrangle which is usually rectangular or oblong. We first thought it was a shortened form of quadrilateral but this does not appear in Chambers. | |
| 18 | Unwell, was annoyed to miss start of festival getting lit up (7) | |
| ILLUMED | ILL (unwell) |
|
| 19 | Product of acid reaction settled around lake (4) | |
| SALT | SAT (settled) around L (lake) | |
| 21 | Translation of lingo’s held to be historic language (3,7) | |
| OLD ENGLISH | An anagram or ‘translation’ of LINGO’S HELD | |
| 23 | Money collected by fellow I left in charge of cinema (6) | |
| FILMIC | M (money) inside or ‘collected by’ F (fellow) I L (left) IC (in charge) | |
| 24 | Fish ultimately outstanding in nutriment, making you happier (4-4) | |
| FEEL-GOOD | EEL (fish) G (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of outstanding) in FOOD (nutriment) | |
| 25 | Be angry about curtailed attempt to get garden tool (8) | |
| STRIMMER | SIMMER (be angry) about TR |
|
| 26 | Yorkshire river, river that’s different (6) | |
| ROTHER | R (river) OTHER (different) | |
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | Not good to accept line showing too much pizazz? (5) | |
| SLICK | SICK (not good) around or ‘accepting’ L (line) | |
| 3 | A new driver ruined more of a car (4,5) | |
| ALFA ROMEO | A L (new driver) plus an anagram of MORE OF A – anagrind is ‘ruined’ | |
| 4 | Drawing out end of debate’s allowed in Government (9) | |
| ELICITING | E (last letter or ‘end’ of debate) LICIT (allowed) IN G (Government) | |
| 5 | Regularly doing work on historic site? (3) | |
| DIG | Alternate or ‘regular’ letters in DoInG | |
| 6 | Married, embracing endless passion? That’s odd (5) | |
| WEIRD | WED (married) around or ’embracing’ IR |
|
| 7 | Foot? Shorter measure will do for small bird (5) | |
| FINCH | F (foot) INCH (shorter dimension) | |
| 8 | Red column destroyed in spread of yellow? (5,4) | |
| LEMON CURD | An anagram of RED COLUMN – anagrind is ‘destroyed’ | |
| 12 | Under pressure, hastened to get round a classic car (7) | |
| HARRIED | HIED (hastened) around A RR (classic car as in Rolls Royce) | |
| 14 | Mystic British island cracking mould (9) | |
| CABBALIST | B (British) BALI (island) inside or ‘cracking’ CAST (mould) | |
| 15 | Rule on vet upset reservist? (9) | |
| VOLUNTEER | An anagram of RULE ON VET – anagrind is ‘upset’ | |
| 16 | Story about millions coming to land gets attention (9) | |
| LIMELIGHT | LIE (story) around M (millions) LIGHT (coming to land) | |
| 20 | Speeds I encountered going uphill round top of Pyrenees (5) | |
| TEMPI | I MET (encountered) reversed or ‘going uphill’ around P (‘top’ or first letter of Pyrenees) | |
| 21 | Razor specialist set up company: arrived for a trim (5) | |
| OCCAM | CO (company) reversed or ‘set up’ CAM |
|
| 22 | Pip found in apple, not spinach, on reflection (5) | |
| STONE | Hidden or ‘found’ and reversed or ‘reflected’ in the clue applE NOT Spinach | |
| 24 | Target of PETA‘s endless anger? (3) | |
| FUR | FUR |
|
Question from someone relatively new to solving – in 10ac, I looked for there to be some reason for “generated by” – it seems superfluous (though necessary for the surface). It seemed unusual. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Welcome to fifteensquared Oren.
We don’t think you are missing anything – we would agree that ‘generated by’ seems superfluous. We almost made a comment about it ourselves.
Enjoyed this and initially thought I was on for a Phi-solve record, but go held up in the LHS before completing. Honours today go to the def of 8d, which had a nice PDM. Many thanks to Fi-Phi-Fo-Fum for the fun and to B&J for the blog (can’t help with the theme, though did spot a lotta references to cars).
Quite enjoyed this though we nearly messed it all up from the start wanting to enter ‘sommes’ (as in ‘nous sommes’) for 1ac thinking there was some fiendish wordplay rekating to the battle of the Somme. Fortunately we desisted, but the NW corner held us up and was the last to be completed. We’d agree too that ‘generated by’ in 10ac is only there for the surface.
Theme-wise we noticed several references to anger in the clues – ‘annoyed’ in 18ac, ‘angry’ in 25ac, ‘anger’ in 24dn and possibly ‘threatening’ in 15ac. But we wouldn’t want to bet on it.
Favourites were OLD ENGLISH and OCCAM.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
A book I enjoyed earlier this year was Andrew Caldecott’s Rotherweird, which has a commendably Dickensian attitude towards character names, including Slickstone, Valourhand and even Oblong.
I do have a distinctly x + y = z attitude towards clue construction – while the x, y and z are the working materials, occasionally the operators take a greater role in things.
Thanks so much, Bertandjoyce! (And Phi as well)
I really enjoyed this one. Biggest smile was probably caused by 21d.
Thanks to Phi and Bertandjoyce.