Another week goes by – we cannot believe how quickly it’s Friday again and we have another Phi puzzle to solve.
We made steady progress with this one until we were left with the four linked answers in the NW and SE corners. We’d already looked up something beginning with RARE for 15d despite thinking that it could be RARA AVIS. After a short break we eventually used a word search for 2d and 20d and promptly kicked ourselves for not solving it earlier. Once this was in, Bert spotted COAT TAIL to complete the grid.
As usual, some lovely surfaces and clear clueing from Phi and as usual again, we cannot spot a theme if there is one. We did a quick google using some random words but we cannot see any link to get us started.
| ACROSS | ||
| 6/22 | Cat and dog keeping round rear flap (4,4) | |
| COAT TAIL | CAT TAIL (dog) around or ‘keeping’ O (round) | |
| 7 | Poisonous plant everyone rejected in section of garden close to Northern area (10) | |
| BELLADONNA | A reversal or ‘rejection’ of ALL (everyone) in BED (section of garden) ON (close to) N (Northern) A (area) | |
| 9 | Court document not up to US writer’s style, article recalled (8) | |
| SUBPOENA | The US writer is Edgar Allan POE – Something that could be said to be ‘not up to Poe’s style’ might be described as ‘SUB-POE’ + AN (article) reversed or ‘recalled’ | |
| 10 | Crack military men behind Knight taking on an American state (6) | |
| KANSAS | SAS (crack military men) behind K (knight) and AN | |
| 11 | Disputed deer ban is here in part of Scotland (13) | |
| ABERDEENSHIRE | An anagram of DEER BAN IS HERE – anagrind is ‘disputed’ | |
| 14 | Retry media, more worried about weak data storage (4-5,6) | |
| READ-WRITE MEMORY | An anagram of RETRY MEDIA MORE around W (weak) – anagrind is ‘worried’ | |
| 16 | Arachnid shreds a privet badly (7,6) | |
| HARVEST SPIDER | An anagram of SHREDS A PRIVET – anagrind is ‘badly’ | |
| 17 | Crimson Indian plant all over climbing frame (6) | |
| LADDER | RED (crimson) DAL (Indian plant) reversed or ‘all over’ | |
| 19 | Tough greedy sort, one limiting flowing oil (8) | |
| HOOLIGAN | HOG (greedy sort) AN (one) around or ‘limiting’ an anagram of OIL – anagrind is ‘flowing’ | |
| 21 | Regular payment secures story rebutted in court identifying cheese (10) | |
| DOLCELATTE | DOLE (regular payment) around or ‘securing’ TALE (story) reversed or ‘rebutted’ in CT (court) | |
| 22 | See 6 | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | Doctor expected to limit muscle change (8) | |
| MODULATE | MO (doctor) DUE (expected) around or ‘limiting’ LAT (muscle) | |
| 2/20 | Easily enter place after escape of one horse (4,4) | |
| STEP INTO | S |
|
| 3/18 | New King and Queen love to be involved in dance finance (8) | |
| BANK ROLL | N (new) K (king) R (Queen) O (love) ‘involved’ in BALL (dance) | |
| 4 | Hooter shortened, though not at first covering certain things on hooter? (4-6) | |
| HORN-RIMMED | HORN (hooter) |
|
| 5 | At the crease, one in second eleven initially bats (6) | |
| INSANE | IN (at the crease) AN (one) in S (second) E (first or ‘initial’ letter of eleven) | |
| 7 | Busy character about to study first pair of transactions for food source (5,4) | |
| BREAD TREE | BEE (busy creature) around READ (study) and TR (first two letters or ‘pair’ of transactions) | |
| 8 | On holiday, one may have rubbish headgear – don’t ask further questions (5,2,2,4) | |
| LEAVE IT AT THAT | LEAVE (holiday) I (one) TATT (rubbish) HAT (headgear) – we’ve not seen ‘tatt’ with two ‘t’s before but it is in Chambers | |
| 12 | Prick occupying space on Tube as a result (3-7) | |
| END PRODUCT | PROD (prick) inside or ‘occupying’ EN (space) DUCT (tube) | |
| 13 | What about plan received by sensitive signalling system? (9) | |
| SEMAPHORE | EH (what) about MAP (plan) inside or ‘received by’ SORE (sensitive) | |
| 15 | A volume is overseen by artists repeatedly? It’s not something you see often (4,4) | |
| RARA AVIS | A V (volume) IS underneath or ‘overseen by’ RA RA (artists repeatedly) | |
| 16 | Ambassador encountering a University lecturer directly (4-2) | |
| HEAD-ON | HE (ambassador) A DON (University lecturer) | |
| 18 | See 3 | |
| 20 | See 2 | |
Really enjoyable. Good blog.I’m happy.
Guessed, somehow correctly rara avis, a new one on me certainly but this was phi at his tamest. Thanks b&j too.
I liked this, particularly the 4,4 split ones.
Otherwise, LEAVE IT AT THAT was favourite (I have bad hats), and for reasons that are no longer quite clear, FOI was ‘grey-white matter’ for 14a. I think I’d done about 2/3 of the puzzle before it turned out to be wrong.
Thanks Phi, Bertandjoyce
Didn’t quite finish as is my wont, but enjoyed what I did. No particular fave today just steady solid stuff so thanks to His Phiness for the puzzle and to B&J for the blog (yup, time flies alright!).
Not seen ‘w’ as an abbreviation for weak before – I would guess it is in a medical context but grateful for any enlightenment
The Fourth Official @5
From Chambers under W:
“1. Weak (physics; in particle physics a W particle or W boson is a hypothetical positively or negatively charged subatomic particle of large mass, responsible in theory for weak interaction between particles)”.
I didn’t manage to comment yesterday but did find time for the crossword. Enjoyed it, but found the last few very tough to get. Immensely pleased to finally untangle it all.
I had to construct the cheese from the recipe given, but it had to be — sweetmilk cheese sounds completely like a thing. Ditto with BREAD TREE, but that sounded less plausible. As for RARA AVIS, well, my Latin is not very extensive. Like our reviewers I’d convinced myself I was looking for RARE something, but in the end put in what the wordplay seemed to want and it flashed up correct. Very satisfying!
My favourite is the END PRODUCT. Thanks to Phi and to Bertandjoyce.