The usual utterly sound and satisfactory crossword from Phi. As always, while doing it I found some of the clues a bit tricky, yet afterwards the reason for this was not obvious.
Definitions in maroon, underlined.
No doubt there’s some Nina there. Usually there is with Phi, although sometimes we can be excused for not seeing it. But all I can find is that it’s a pangram.
| Across | ||
| 8 | VEDIST | Ex-serviceman embracing daughter is a learned Hindu (6) |
| ve(d is)t | ||
| 9 | GUAIACUM | Tropical tree: a copper is behind one in American Pacific island (8) |
| Gua(1 a cu)m — a tropical tree of which I’d never heard, although it was indicated clearly enough by the wordplay — rather like those necessary but unimaginable words you find in Azed’s crosswords | ||
| 10 | CATALPAS | Lions and tigers etc circling mountain area for flowering plants (8) |
| cat(alp a)s — another one where the wordplay led me in directions that I wasn’t initially comfortablw with | ||
| 11 | NOBODY | Unnoticed person turned on by lad bearing diamonds (6) |
| (on)rev. bo(D)y | ||
| 12 | PERIHELION | Man, hero, chasing Persian spirit in hottest place (10) |
| Peri [Persian spirit] he lion — the part of the orbit that is closest to the sun | ||
| 13 | KOHL | Keen on her lipstick, primarily, and eye makeup (4) |
| K{een} o{n} h{er} l{ipstick} | ||
| 15 | INTEND | Mean clue, missing start and finish (6) |
| {h}int end | ||
| 16 | UTMOST | A couple of times sumo wrestling, at the maximum (6) |
| (t t sumo)* | ||
| 18 | EGAD | Dead period recalled, by Jove! (4) |
| (d age)rev. | ||
| 20 | BOTTICELLI | Artist, extravagant in book pair presented about small group (10) |
| b (ott) i(cell)i — the book pair isn’t bb but b ii | ||
| 22 | MY LADY | Surprised comment about unknown guy having female’s address (2,4) |
| m(y lad)y! | ||
| 24 | XENOPHON | Element subsuming phosphorus, hydrogen and oxygen suggests Greek writer (8) |
| xeno(P H O)n | ||
| 25 | ZERO IN ON | Target Buddhism? Foreign King never engaged in that (4,2,2) |
| Ze(roi no)n — the foreign king is a French one | ||
| 26 | LEADEN | Dull start, and little energy before conclusion of competition (6) |
| lead e {competitio}n | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | REPAPERING | Working with home decor, salesman doing a dance, having offloaded first item (10) |
| rep {c}apering — I tried hard to find a dance like fainting or dainting | ||
| 2 | FINALIST | Fellow amongst celebrities is a potential winner (8) |
| f in A-list | ||
| 3 | STOP ME AND BUY ONE | Announcement from mobile seller offering cool stuff? (4,2,3,3,3) |
| CD — the mobile seller is the person in the van that drives around selling ice-creams | ||
| 4 | AGASSI | Is a big story upsetting tennis star? (6) |
| (is saga)rev. | ||
| 5 | WARNING TRIANGLE | What’s going down around rear of car, alerting after a crash? (7,8) |
| wa({ca}r)ning (alerting)* — &lit. or some variation thereof, since ‘What’s’ isn’t part of the wordplay | ||
| 6 | JAMBOK | Hide whip – side of door satisfactory? (6) |
| jamb OK | ||
| 7 | QUID | British currency – one old penny with Queen on (4) |
| Qu 1 d. | ||
| 14 | HOT-BLOODED | Passionate lot excited about Bishop coming in wearing a cowl (3-7) |
| h(otbl)ooded, the otbl being B in (lot)* | ||
| 17 | OPEN-PLAN | Work on network involves writer describing many an office (4-4) |
| o(pen)p. LAN | ||
| 19 | DRAGON | Fierce character in newspaper probing academic (6) |
| d(rag)on | ||
| 21 | TAXING | Demanding hint about soccer team (6) |
| ta(XI)ng | ||
| 23 | YVES | Frenchman certainly welcoming reduced volume (4) |
| y(v)es | ||
*anagram
Sorry, but I didn’t care much for this one. I like to learn a new word or two but there were too many unknown words for me personally. Didn’t know VERDIST, GUAIACUM, CATALPAS or JAMBOK. I did know XENOPHON and PERIHELION though. The clueing made most of these gettable I guess.
On the positive side, I thought 5d was a cracking clue.
One of the rare times spotting the theme helped me solve the puzzle, though I got it wrong the first time. There have been a few Independent puzzles lately where the pangram appears in the unchecked letters on the outside of the grid. Phi has given us a puzzle where each of the 26 answers begin with a different letter (and regular checking – there’s no double letters or entries where less than half of the letters are checked).
Phi has clearly outdone the Don on this one (today’s Bradman being very tame) but this was quite a mind xxxxer. With the help of the odd device i got most of it out-I had to do a guess on 6d but I was short of a J for the set.Alas I didnt suss 22 which seems quite fair. Then I did manage 23.
Pretty meaty puzzle worthy of a prize at least!
Bravely blogged.Thanks all.
A challenge but not too 21. Only GUAIACUM and CATALPAS were new to us and needed checking in Chambers. We realised it was heading for a pangram when we were only short of Q and W so that helped us finish, but we didn’t spot the different letter starting each answer. Incidentally that meant that the clues could have just been given in numerical order instead of separated into acrosses and downs.
As a chemist I liked XENOPHON; and there were other elements around, too – copper in the clue to 9 and lead in the answer to 26.
LOI was BOTTICELLI, spotted by the apprentice from crossing letters while we were still trying to find a suitable synonym for ‘extravagant’.
Favourite, though was 3.
Thanks, Phi and John
This came about because a fair way into the grid I realised that I had not repeated an initial letter, and wondered whether I could turn it into an alphabetical jigsaw sort of thing. I’d registered GUAIACUM from a list of ingredients somewhere (so – ahem – naturally I assume everyone has done the same…) and the one that concerned me most was JAMBOK which I have only ever encountered hiding behind an initial S.
Perhaps next time I adopt the alphabetical stance earlier in the proceedings?
Thanks Phi @ 5 for revealing your concern about JAMBOK. When I read the clue I thought it was an S short, but eChambers confirmed that you were OK. Cruciverbalise and learn, eh?
5d typifies the kind of clue that used to baffle and intrigue me when I was trying to get into cryptic crosswords. The solution clearly has something to do with the clue, but why does it have to be worded like that? What’s going on? The reality of course is ingenious and brilliant. It’s nice to think of the cryptic crossword enthusiasts-in-waiting for whom it’s all about to click thanks to clues like that.